Cornwall ON – So we’ve received some information regarding the charge brought forth by Cornwall Ontario City Councilor today in The Cornwall Free News regarding the advert in this week’s issue of Le Journal.
I am disappointed that the City of Cornwall is running a full page and a half political ad in this week’s The Journal of Cornwall outlining the building activity that took place in Cornwall during the past four years, most of which were non municipal projects, and having the ad run beside Mayor Kilger’s full page political ad. This City of Cornwall ad under the heading of 4 years of success and advancement in Cornwall is wasteful spending of taxpayers’ dollars and is designed to boost the Mayor’s campaign. The City of Cornwall should not be running partisan, political ads. This sleazy practice should be banned. The Mayor should pay for his own political ads.
Mark A. MacDonald
This arrived via Mr. Bob Peters Senior Development Officer for the City of Cornwall:
In a Cornwall Free News feature entitled “The Home Stretch for the Mayor’s Race – City Councilor Mark A MacDonald“, Councillor MacDonald states that “the City of Cornwall is running a full page and a half political ad in this week’s The Journal of Cornwall”.
Unfortunately, these comments are not accurate.
The City of Cornwall did not place the advertisements in question, nor were the pages paid for by the City. The pages are an editorial feature created by Le Journal. While we can certainly understand that it might appear that the City created the pages due to the use of the City logo, this was not the case. The City logo was used without permission, and Le Journal has been asked to issue a statement to this effect.
The City did have two small black and white ads in this week’sLe Journal newspaper: Page 20, an ad which is part of a series of ads dealing with the electoral process, and Page 22, an ad dealing with Glen Stor Dun Lodge.
We also received another notification sent out to candidates from the city regarding the use of city Logos and Trademarks.
To all Municipal Candidates:
I must draw your attention to the following Copyright Notice regarding the use of the City of Cornwall’s Logo and this notice is on the City’s web site:
“The City of Cornwall logo is a trademark and official mark owned by the City of Cornwall. The logo should only be used for official City business and the City of Cornwall reserves all legal rights to control and limit the public use of the brand.”
At no time during a municipal election would the City permit the use of this logo by any candidate. This policy would apply to the official City logo, the City crest and the ChooseCornwall.ca logo.
Accordingly, please govern your activities to respect the City’s copyright of its logo(s) and trademarks.
Denise Labelle-Gélinas
City Clerk
We’re awaiting official confirmation from Le Journal that the article in question was not an ad at all, but editorial from Le Journal staff who simply may have not used city images correctly.
We have sent out an email to Mr. Roger Duplantie from Le Journal and await a reply. With the election Monday and Le Journal a weekly, a retraction in this situation in their own paper might not have full impact.
We were flooded with emails, calls, and we drew over 3,000 page views before noon today.
What do you think Cornwall? You can post your comments below.
It’s a tempest in a teacup.
I’m glad the City officials have dealt with this is clearly and expediently. It is obvious, as I posted on the original article, that Mark MacDonald’s finger pointing and name calling was based on dubious information and the result of haste, and not disciplined thinking. Is that really the kind of man you’d want to run the city? End the gong show!
Hey, Skeptic, what if this was all a dubious load of crap and now that it’s been caught, now all of a sudden everyone is retracting everything, saying that such and such had no rights to use the logo, etc.. Why didn’t Kilger for example go and hammer down on Le Journal as soon as he saw the ad, rather than wait for everyone else to point fingers and ask questions? And you talk about dubious? What was dubious? Mark saw an ad, and pointed out to it, nothing dubious about that, its just too bad that after its been caught, now everyone is “doing” something about it, and all to make Kilger look good I might add.. I’d question what is really dubious in all of this, along with your comment slamming Mr. McDonald for pointing out something that should have been pointed out..
So MacDonald has put it out about the logo, but yet had on his website for many weeks the City’s “Choose Cornwall” branding on the top right corner. Pot, meet Kettle. Kettle, meet Pot.
With Mark MacDonald the gong show has returned before the election is over. Do we really want to go back to the days of Phil Poirier and Brian Lynch. Both these mayors could not control their council and it was an embarassment to our City. On Monday we have an option to continue under a leadership that has lead to progress in our City or return to the days of lost opportunities, endless arguments and shallow debates…..Please Cornwall we are smarter than that.
Here Here Cornwall Voter…. You hit the nail on the head! Be careful what you vote for. You will be stuck with it for four long years. It is clear that Mr. MacDonald is not a team player, how do you expect him to be a team leader?
Im just glad his true colours came out before I voted……. I would have never lived that one down….. and to think that three weeks ago he had my vote!!!
Mark MacDonald says what he thinks. Good. I like regular guys with experience. Not afraid to speak or listen. Sounds brave and bold to me and you know, he called it right too. Logo use…everyone knows that.