Clearing Up Some Lies & Mistruths in Cornwall Ontario Regarding CFN & Myself by Jamie Gilcig – March 28, 2014

MilkCartonHoodKilger2CORNWALL Ontario – There’s a lot of misinformation about myself and CFN out in the community and I thought I’d take this opportunity to clear some of it up.

When I first moved here my first job was with our local Habitat for Humanity outlet as their marketing manager.  It was a total blast and I loved the Organization, and enjoyed the people I worked with at our affiliate.  It was a great fit; but unfortunately they violated their own codes by allowing a politician to be involved; chiefly sitting MP Guy Lauzon.

At a crisis meeting I suggested that we sell the building in Bonville, clean up a lot of messes that occurred  way before I started, and move into Cornwall.

I was suspended for suggesting that and terminated.  Shortly thereafter it was agreed without cause.   And during my suspension Mr. Lauzon, his friends and family, took over the board that was sitting while I was there.  It turned out that he had sold the building to the charity after someone defaulted on their mortgage which either he or a family member was holding.  He also owned the adjoining highway frontage lot.

It was stunning and what’s more two months before I was to be married.    Welcome to the community!  It got even weirder as I soon heard rumors that the reason I was fired because there was “stealing” going on at the affiliate, and there was.  I uncovered it and in fact the secretary at the time sent an email to myself and the board stating that she would continue to take goods and cash for the time that she spent in the store on weekends.

The rumor was categorically cleared up after appearing in the Standard Freeholder under the comments section while I was a Green Party candidate ( I no longer belong to any party and have embraced the concept of hyper-non partisanship) when the former chair printed a very clear statement that I had not done any such thing.

I confronted the MP at an event once CFN started up.  It was a critical factor in my decision to start this amazing online newspaper.   Mr. Lauzon threatened me with the Minister of Justice for a non-governmental issue.  On video.

And who was in that video with him but Councilor Syd Gardiner.  Syd spread his own lie about CFN.  He publicly stated at a council meeting and just about anywhere else he could at that time that I only endorsed those that bought advertising in the last election.   Of course this is easily provable.   Our endorsement story is still live.   We clearly endorsed candidates that didn’t advertise with us during the election, and clearly did not endorse most that did advertise with us.

Again, another Porkie.    Mr. Gardiner also was not charged by police for trying to destroy protest signs at a council meeting.  Those signs went poof for a week and turned out to have been in the Mayor’s office all that time.    Again, more lies and mistruth with the public.

Also in the Lauzon video was Councilor MacDonald, and frankly we’ve beat that dead horse to death.   Ms MacDonald has to live with her words and petty actions; but she does get the vote of many for the most conflicted and corrupt on our city council after Mayor Kilger.    Her antics of lobbying in council for agencies that she sits on the board of is epic, and that she defends her actions boggling…

Imagine trying to build a business in a community when one lie after another is spread about you?

Another whopper is that we write horrible things about people when they refuse to advertise with us?   Can you imagine how much time and energy that would take?   We have never done such a thing and of course the evidence is clear as you can search CFN easy enough.   The running gag here at CFN is that we can’t get a sales rep.   They actually get bullied by some in the community and good sales reps are a challenge at all the local media outlets.  It’s a tough market and a tough economy.   We have had clients actually stiff us on invoices and still not written about them.  If we didn’t write about them why on earth would we write about clients that one day will?

traciFMARMUPThe Traci Trottier Seaway Radio mess.   One of the biggest indictments to the power of lies in this community.  We reached out to Ms Trottier after she was dumped at about the same time as poobah Scott Armstrong who was also head of the Chamber of Commerce.   There were allegations that they two of them were breaking some policies together, and Ms Trottier had been with the station a long time.  We reached out to her and after several weeks signed a contract at the Farmer’s Market where we shot a video promo.   Ms Trottier had two clauses which are standard in most media contracts; a non disclosure agreement, and a 90 day “no compete” clause.

She violated this the first week as news spread of her signing on with Seaway Radio she decided to grab a deal with Mix96 at the time to voice track a show in the same time slot as her gig with us.  We pleaded, we cajoled; we’d already sold ads, but Ms Trottier refused to honour her contract and left us no option but to do what any company would do and legally try and protect our rights.

Also – if you want to get down to it…you won’t look very good sueing a single mother of two who’s ex-husband has mere months to live with ALS. Former OPP – lots of connections – not sure who would even want to work for you. Also keep in mind that I am extremely good friends with the Savards, the Pommiers, the Kilgers, boat with the Sabourins…shall I continue?? Come after me if you wish but at the end of the day – no one will win.

Traci was right in a sense as she spread lies about what happened.   We were totally torched including in the end she telling people that she had beat us in court.   The radio station was a no show and she faced the music alone.    In the end, after literally a shower of tears we let her off the hook with a minor settlement.  She   bragged about how low it was on Facebook where someone pointed out that when you win a case in court you don’t pay money, you receive it.   Again, more lies.   With Traci though it got weirder in that she actually phoned police not once, but twice claiming I was in front of her home threatening her.

Luckily on both occasions I was in a public place and was not warned or charged.   The police refused to file harassment charges on her both times even though if I hadn’t had a clear alibi I most likely would have been charged and left with huge legal bills.

Again, the culture of lies and bullying in this community raised its ugly head at city hall not long after.

CFN had to fight for every ad dollar we got for the city and in some cases took deals that paid 10% what the other media were getting even though we clearly were gleaning better results.

The city decided in 2011 to create a new bylaw that they have used to boycott us.

That resulted in this statement written by Bob Peters.

A review of local news websites show that only two allow anonymous posts: the Standard-Freeholderand the Cornwall Free News. Both sites have some moderation of comments, but a review of activity over the past several months have led staff to concur with the generalized assessment of the practice by the American Journalism Review: “Comment sections are often packed with profanity, and vicious personal attacks.”

The city to this day has refused us our ten minutes in council to provide information that clearly would show that this statement is in fact grossly false.  Actually reading the Freeholder’s comments section you can clearly see abusive and false statements.  The Free holder post moderates and is constantly removing comments that have been made.

The problem the city was having was the we were showing such strong results that they clearly couldn’t justify the financial inequalities being done with tax dollars.  In fact in 2012, the city admitted that CFN was still providing more web traffic from old archived stories and banners than from the advertisers that they had been paying.  They also spent more in legal dollars “monitoring” us in 2012 than they paid us in advertising in 2011.

Again, you can’t make crazy stuff like this up.

They mayor trashed us at a Lion’s club meeting.  Councilor Gardiner squished advertising with Seaway Tourism.  It was and has been a full court press that has only been amplified as we’ve exposed one scandal after another.

The T Shirt Incident.   Living in a free and you would think Democratic country I choose to make occasional statements via t shirt.

MilkCartonHoodKilger2

I wore a t shirt with that image on it.   Political satire is not something new, but Mayor Kilger was offended and demanded that I remove the shirt or cover it.   I refused and responded to him that he was corrupt and suggested he admit his conflict of interest.

He hit the actual panic button in council which is there for dangerous emergencies.   Again, I was seated in front of my camera preparing for a council meeting and he addressed me directly by name.  I had not caused any disturbance.  I had not spoken out or addressed him.

Seven police officers including a CERT member jumped into council and pulled me out.  There was an eight year old boy present and another trauma victim in the room.  Imagine in a small space seeing that happen?  It was frightening for many, but mostly it was an immoral and indecent act against a free society and our Charter of rights.

And it was all on camera.

The lies spread from there.  I of course was never charged.  The police removed and kept me from returning to council that night without charges as I’d done nothing wrong.  In fact they acted on the mayor’s behalf wrongly.   They refused to view the video.    I contacted the Press Council of Ontario with the  video, but they refused to respond.   I subsequently issued suit against the mayor and City.    So far in our one court meeting, a settlement hearing, they spent thousands of dollars preparing a document and sent two litigators who acted like they were in a bad tv show.   The JP at one point stated that he hadn’t read their document and did they have an offer to make?

That trial will be coming up soon, and it should be interesting to see Mayor Kilger answer some questions on the stand including whether he could even actually see the t shirt in question and how police could get into the chamber in 46 seconds on a panic button call with most not wearing over clothes (it was in February with heavy snow showers outside.) or being wet?

Subsequently the rumors were that I had been charged that night and even today have been spread.

The boycott has devastated us financially as any conspiratorial event of this nature would ultimately do.   Some of our clients have actually been bullied into pulling their ads, and some are so fearful and dependent on city contracts they don’t even want us to write stories about them.

Living in lies is not a way to build a community.   Frankly some of my consultants have asked why I stick it out and how this community and market is clearly not worth the energy.   Looking around over the last five years of CFN’s existence we’ve seen Corus radio shut down one station; the Seaway News shrink in page count and we’ve heard they about to shrink their office space down to less than 1,000 square feet when their lease is up.    The Freeholder has cut staff dramatically as they struggle with the realities of print and le Journal after letting go of their writer that was exposing some of the scandal at City Hall has been as low as 8 pages.  All during this time we’ve kept growing audience going from 14.2 million to 29.5 million page views from 2012 to 2013.

I recently interviewed Shannon Trudeau whose family fell in love with Cornwall and invested nearly $100,000 in the business they opened on 2nd Street near Pitt.  That business is closing today, and her family are moving away.  In the video below she talks about the lack of support from the DBIA and Chamber and how the City not clearing snow banks and garbage aggravated the struggles she was having trying to build her business.

There are far too many other instances of lying and deception ruling the day in our business community.     This is a core factor in why so we have so many empty storefronts, and why so many of our local businesses struggle to survive.

I may get fed up one day and say enough.  I’ve had several offers this year to work on other newspapers.  I’ve had a few offers for CFN.  Nobody should ever go through what we have or what some other businesses in this community have, from waiting 12-18 months for permits to being told to pull ads down or they wouldn’t get a permit.

The problem isn’t so much the liar or corrupt person, but people not having the testicular fortitude to stand up to them.  Business people are afraid or simply don’t have the skills or confidence to stand up for themselves.  There have been instances that if one of our clients had simply outed those who were bullying them that the House of Cards would fall; but fear ruled the day which is probably why they were targeted.

What they don’t realize is that each time the bad guys seem to get away with one of their hollow victories we all lose.

I just started a brand new newspaper; The South Stormont News.    It’s been an interesting lesson in how people think.     CFN as many know is a Gonzo style newspaper and one of the reason I think it’s pulled in so much traffic, 29.5 million page views in 2013, is because it’s frank, it’s not pretty sometimes, but it’s always honest.   We stick to facts which is why in over 5 years and 8,000 stories we’ve never been sued.  By contrast the Free Holder over Claude McIntosh alone was sued at least three times in the last five years.

One of the attitudes we’re encountering, even though we’ve clearly told people that SSN will be traditional journalism and not Gonzo; that it will have much less opinion and has the most stringent opinion section short of not having one; is some of the comments that some businesses have communicated to us.  It’s also not owned by the same company as CFN and is a local South Stormont Company.

Advertising after all is about gaining clients and exposure.    To do that you need the widest audience possible generally or one focused on your demographics.  For example if you want to sell ballet slippers a hockey magazine might not be the best choice even if they have a lot of viewers.

What we’re hearing is one, a lot of the lies that were spread have saturated into the community sadly; but clearly many older business people would rather have an ad in media that clearly have less market share and cost more than media that have larger market share and cost less, but might have content that upsets them or their neighbors.

That’s an interesting and scary dynamic.   It puts a financial stick over the head of any truly independent media.  Should we be afraid to report a truthful story because it might upset a sponsor?   Real media can’t play into that.    We know after all these years what people click on and what they don’t.  It’s the magic of internet media.  We don’t extrapolate numbers like radio ratings. We don’t give away 36,000 papers in a week without knowing how many are read or which parts are.  We get a count on every single page.

So what we know is people click on the very types of stories that they as business people don’t want to support.   Frankly I’m not sure what to do with that conundrum?

What I do know and honestly believe is that we need to be much more honest in Cornwall; especially in business.   This culture of dishonesty and accepting lies is something that is holding our community back.  It touches every issue from youth retention to business growth.   It scares a lot of people.

And this “don’t talk about something and hope it goes away” thing also doesn’t help.   Sometimes you have to face an issue and do the best you can to make it better.  It’s not fun and sometimes the results aren’t great either way.

We all should be judged fairly and held accountable based on our words and actions; not by lies, rumor, and gossip.

I’ve lived in this city for ten years now.  There’s good and bad as there is in any place.   The good is actually really good, but sadly the bad is really bad.   We have the ingredients to be an amazing community.  We really do; but only if we do so together and stop excluding those who have so much to contribute.

Cornwall can do better and needs to do better.  We need to stand up for each other and build a great community that will attract people rather than watch people move away as I’m doing this Spring with no less than nearly a dozen friends leaving.   It’s sad.

While some are hoping the next election will change things I think the issue is deeper than that. Changing a bobble head will not fix these type of ills and they will not change quickly either.   But every great journey takes a first step and that’s something that nearly 46,000 people in this fair city need to decide to do.

Jamie Gilcig – Editor –   The Cornwall Free News

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17 Comments

  1. We had our good years … and now we’re having the bad .since no one was really watching what all councils were doing over the last 80 years … We’re going to find out what its been actually costing us to be citizens of Cornwall.Did some polititian 60 years ago – sell us out ?The more the onion is pealed .. the more corruption will be revealed … and MPs can drop names of Lawyars ( lol ) a spade is a spade .. a crook is a crook .There is no Justice here , unless your very rich , own a biz … or related to someone big … other wise your open game for ruin in this towne .It scares me because .. I have changed as a result of how cornwall has changed . I know longer believe in god .. and I once studied to be a minister … I am afraid of most of the people in general … I find it hard to trust anyone , and after things I’ve witnessed in this towne over the last 20 years – you unfortunately cant trust the police . Now I don’t want to say there is STILL corruption there , but unfortunately if they have not pressed any charges against any local polititians in the last 20 years … I think it’s safe to assume they are not here for our benefit .Its a crime towne plain and simple .. the Mayor is The Don … MP’s are more powerful Don;s … and council is The family …. Its been this way since Rum was run from here in the 30’s …. You are owned my friends .. Do you Really think the Kanebs made all their money in Oil , or selling veggies {MODERATED} Yet we praise the name of kabeb … Wake up !!!! you know I just would like everyone to stop fighting .. I think folks have finally woken up from a big sleep and have realized that they’re whole way of life has been under attack for at least the last 20 years , but you don’t know whose to blame .I’m no body … I don’t have a big circle of friends … I don’t have any political alies .. I’m just a simple middle aged small towne guy.but I have seen what has been happening … I guess I should have said something when I first realized .. Hey , That cant do that .but they did , and got away with it … An election is coming … I urge you to vote for anyone but who is in council now – of course make a good choice .. know the Candidate … because really .. change is as simple as not voting for any more of the old boys club and having totally new blood in there.

  2. Jamie, you have only showed the public a small dip of the corruption that goes on in Cornwall in your 5 years living here.The people in power even no your right, and are just laughting at you, but at the same time are trying there darness to distroy you.Do you really think the people(who could) of Cornwall are going to stick there necks out to really help you or our city.Look what the hells going on in Cornwall with taxes payers monies.The people should be protesting by the thousands over all this corruption.Oh yea, theres an election coming (god save the queen)It will be the same old same.Just to many people benifit from the corruption in this town.

  3. marc … I agree but I don’t see what Jamie has to do with this .. as far as I’m concerned he’s only been the messenger … He is not from here … but like anyone who wants a good home , he’s concerned like you , like me ..what he did was ask the right questions .. and investigate …. Do you think Seaway News would have reported any foul business with the tanks .. how bout the freeholder? that media is controlled, plain and simple … He wants to run for mayor …… how would Cornwall be sticking it’s neck out to help Jamie , If he himself has already stuck his neck out time and again to expose the lies and corruption in our City – and risking his reputation and financial livelihood .. and whats worse .. many of us knew what was going on but didn’t do anything to stop it … I don’t know who I’m going to vote for .. It’s too early to decide .. but anyone has to be better than what we have now .. No one has ever asked me what I wanted EVER ! If he has ever been wrong he has apoligized and taken the blame which is something I have never seen in this area … One man isn’t going to ride into town and suddenly change things here .. We all are going to have to get together on this one. oh ya .. Right now .. this is Jamies Job .. I think he does a lot to get your brain going , and wether you agree or don’t … you can voice your opinion .. Cant say the same for some other media outlets … If and When he becomes Mayor .. then you can dump on him lol .. but hey , right now NEWS is what he does .you don’t like the news , don’t read it.

  4. Jamie
    “Claude McIntosh alone was sued at least three times in the last five years.”

    I am not a fan of the former Standard Freeholder scribbler but could I ask politely
    how many of the these lawsuits were started by you?????

  5. Being the type of journalist Jamie is `it shouldn’t be surprising that these things have happened and will continue to happen. All he can do is keep up his work and not let what happens get to him or affect how he does his job.

  6. Jamie:
    Thank you for your reply
    Its hard to keep the facts straight with all the crazy rants around this area
    Note to self
    If you choose some one to present a petition make sure they can keep their emotions in check

  7. Author

    And not make a petition based on utter falsehoods. And not portray anonymous signatures or present “local” signatures from people who clearly signed that they were in other communities….

  8. Mr Gilcig:
    It would seem that no matter who upset Mp Guy Lauzon was with your question
    suggesting that Canada’s Justice Minister was his lawyer doesn’t add to his credibility

    With his recent track record in court I am not sure having MP Peter MacKay as your lawyer would be helpful
    The purpose of the Department of Justice (French: Ministère de la Justice du Canada) is to ensure that the Canadian justice system is fair, accessible and efficient. The Department also represents the Canadian government in legal matters.

  9. I am sorry if you think i was putting Jamie down over what i have tried to explain.I for one believie in everything Jamie is saying.I two as Jamie and others want change for our city.We the residents of Cornwall all no that there is so much corruption in our city.My votes this coming election will go to Jamie and those who i believe will try and stop the corruption and back door deals.And when i say votes thats what i mean ive all ready got jamie 10 new supporters for the up coming election other wise he might never have gotten.I a,m trying my best to drum up support for hopefully our new Mayor.Hoping all of you who support Jamie for Mayor talk to people you no and explain to them how are city will be much better off if Jamie becomes our next mayor.
    Again in no way a.m i trying to kill the messanger.People of Cornwall please wakeup!

  10. I agree wholeheartedly with Mike and Marc on every word that they said. It is going to take Jamie time to find out what Cornwall is really about. Jamie is new to everything and he gradually find out more skeletons hanging around. He sure is a good journalist and the “toilet papers of record” are mighty jealous of his accomplishments and the toilet papers of record are on their way out with the dinasaurs and they know it and their jobs are at stake. One day they may be on their knees embrassing Jamies feet to be employed by him. Gee I can’t wait to be a fly on the wall and to see that happen. One thing is that would surely make my day. Another thing is that most people who are rich (the very vast majority of them) do not get rich by being honest – there is always very bad wrong doings done to get to that place. I know plenty what goes on and what has gone on and it is all corruption to the core.

  11. I may not agree with all of your antics, but overall, I’m happy with what the CFN has done for this community. Without the presence of independent news like yours, City Council would face less scrutiny, and in turn, be more likely to continue on their corruption spree(s). The fact of the matter is that this town is not run in a truly formal, transparent manner. The brotherhood system is very much still alive in Cornwall and all sorts of backdoor deals continue to happen with those who are privy to it.

    I give you credit for putting up with the sh*t that you do. I think a lot of people here also share this sentiment but will be reluctant to agree out of fear of being singled-out. You would never see this type of regime in a modernized city, which goes to show how ass-backwards this place still is. This city still has the arrogance and audacity to think it can get away with anything because quite frankly not enough citizens watch them closely enough under the radar.

    Some time ago, I came back to Cornwall with higher expectations and greater hopes for this city. I’ve been nothing short of disappointed in that decision. This town has no sophistication and is riddled with social issues that continue to be brushed under the rug. People with an advanced education here are actually ostracized, because – god forbid – they don’t fit in with the prevailing blue-collar mentality.

    There are those who think City Council have done us a favour by attracting the supply chain industry into this town. However, these are routine monotonous jobs that do little to advance the skills and abilities of our labour pool. The quality and value of our local talent is not climbing. We need better quality education and more sophisticated opportunities that breed innovation. A University would be a crucial investment.

    There is brain drain in this town. The corporate executives from the supply-chain and call-centre industries look to Cornwall as a labour pool for grunt work. These executives know damn well that this workforce is ripe for exploitation.

    If a Facebook group can amass over 5000 users to ridicule this city, then our work is far from done. Council’s strategy to take down the group and charge its founder is not a head-on way of dealing with this issue. They should be questioning why this movement gained so much traction and what they should be doing to challenge it. How about some research and focus groups to centre in on that segment of the population. Do their voices and opinions not matter?

    All of this is to say that I commend you for seeing it through. Personally, I think it’s only a matter of time before I leave this place to reclaim my sanity.

  12. I may not agree with everything Jamie does, but he does do a good job at what he does. But I don’t agree with the way a lot of journalists do their jobs, so it’s not surprising that I don’t always like what / how Jamie does what he does.

  13. I agree with Jack Sparrow about leaving to get some sanity. I cannot live in a town that has a very backward mentality. If I wanted to live in a place like Boss Hogg and such mentalities then Cornwall would be the ideal place and it is a great deal worse than Boss Hogg mentality. The people are afraid of their own shadow down there and are so afraid of Bare Ass and company and it is that what kept them down. The people are tramped on and yes doing grunt work and have no education. The only time a person from Cornwall gets an education is when they leave town. No university is the answer for Cornwall – the people have to leave to get educated and modernized about life elsewhere and if some want to go back to Cornwall (heaven forbid) they can bring civilization to the town. People who have experienced civilization elsewhere cannot live in Cornwall at all. When the people are afraid to speak up and say what they mean in order to change things for the better instead of being tramped on just like what those tanks along the river have shown extreme arrogance of not consulting the people even if the land belongs to the feds. Bare Ass showed his colors when he didn’t even report in the toilet paper of record – SF about those tanks. The whole thing is a scam.

  14. Cornwall does NOT have a backward mentality that is just how some people see it. We are not afraid of our shadows and we are not, I repeat not afraid of the mayor. We are not trampled on. And what is wrong with grunt work? Someone has to do it and it does pay well in some cases. Like someone said in an earlier post it’s nice to sit in other cities and criticize the city you used to live in. Perhaps offering constructive criticism instead of constantly running Cornwall into the ground might help. Some people like Cornwall, if we didn’t why would we stay? We are not afraid to speak up. The tanks issue is not one that will be solved easily. They sit on federal gov’t land. That means in legal terms that the province and city have no legal rights to tell the federal gov’t or the company building the tanks what to do. If the tanks sat on private or city land this would be a lot simpler to solve. But they don’t, they sit on federal gov’t land. So it’ll be a while before this colossal SNAFU is figured out.

  15. Author

    Hugger so far the only people to have told us anything about the land are the people that allegedly are lying to us. To date no group or party I know have consulted a lawyer to get a legal opinion on this situation.

  16. Then I guess we’ll find out when Trillium is before the courts for ignoring the by-law and the stop work order. As I see it the province and city have no legal right to tell the federal gov’t or the company building the tanks what to do. Senior gov’t trumps lowert levels of gov’t, as in provincial and municipal.

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