CFN – The phone rings. It’s Darlene Walsh, a nurse at CCH who’s extremely upset as she’s been called in for a hearing about an interview she gave CFN a few weeks ago. LINK
She’s afraid that she’s going to be fired and asks that I come into the meeting as she’s having trouble finding some friends and family for support.
I get to the hospital and we chat outside the meeting room when VP Alan Greig shows up. He’s belligerent and aggressive demanding why I’m here and with a camera. I explain politely that I don’t like to leave my camera in the car and have not shot anything.
He asks how he knows this and I offer to hit display and allow him to look at its contents.
He demands I leave this publicly funded place that my tax dollars support that I was invited in for a specific purpose for.
Next thing I know two security guards show up. We politely go through the same story and I offer to let the security people take my camera away and hold it until the meeting is over.
Then one, two, three Cornwall police officers and one OPP officer show up followed by Mr. Greig who uses the exact same belligerent and aggressive tone in front of everyone as though he’s trying to bully me and make up rules on the fly. He says I’m trespassing on the hospital so now it’s not about the camera; but about my person.
Not having any criminal record nor wanting one I decide to acquiesce and leave. I’m escorted, or surrounded by the police as they walk me to my car. I’m sure some people would be nervous about being in an elevator with three armed people when you’re not packing.
This is a huge problem. This is why I won’t set foot in this hospital other than to visit a patient again ever.
For someone like Alan Greig to be sucking public dollars for behaving in this manner is utter insanity. He had very peaceful options and instead he chose to spend tax payers dollars on the use of police. What was it that the hospital feared by me sitting in and supporting in this meeting?
I personally will be boycotting any CCH funding until this is addressed. We do not live in China, Russia or even the US of A.
This is Canada dammit – escorting polite citizens without criminal records who are showing no disturbance or belligerence by four armed police officers is not fair dinkum. It’s not civilized. I felt bad for the police because they were forced into this and they didn’t look to happy about it either.
We’ll be updating Darlene’s situation as news becomes available. Hopefully a good nurse has not lost her job in Canada for speaking her mind.
Because it’s a dark blotch on our city, province, and country if that’s what happens and good people sit quietly by.
You can post your comments below.
We will update the story as soon as information is available.
Jamie Finally I have the answer to the question
What was Geigy Thinking when he threw you out
Well from a freeholder article we see the man is a basketball referee
So he always thinks he’s in charge of the court…(least ways when Miss X ain;t around) and felt he could order you around like a high school kid on the court.
Second thought…he had run his BUTT off at the tourney and was all worn out and cranky when u showed up…
Food for thought…maybe
News story about his good judgement..laugh out loud
His keys to success? Staying composed, managing the players, coaches and table crews, and, of course, displaying good judgement. I had to run my butt off,” Greig said. “
Dear Jamie:
Sorry to hear about your camera causing so much concern
Two off duty policeman were doing some moonlighting when a fight broke out in our hotel lobby in Canadian city
When they saw me taking photos they demanded my camera and risking arrest I refused saying all it was to protect my friends that ran the place. It wasn’t an easy situation and don’t know what the law states…but..nobody takes my camera
The joke to me…the whole thing was being watched on video tape at the company headquarters outside of Canada..anyway
What GRIEG doesn’t get…is that now papers from cornwall to Moncton are carrying your story…making the hospital name mud all over Canada
This guy needs a PR lesson…and if he is really a referee….he needs help along with his friend missyxxx
“Unbelievable how a group can degrade their own hospital……unheard of in the real world” Stella bye SungyoungMOON
The reasons why we need Journalists to investigate the way Jamie Gilcig has
Stella you blind cornwall boosters will be the death of me
1) Outstanding journalists Dana Priest and Anne Hull of Washington Post let the world know Walter Reed Hospital was a disgrace..full of mould etc etc…putting brave soldiers returning from War in danger
Closer to home(Ottawa) one lady had to hire a 24hr a day nurse to “GUARD” her WWII vet father, as understaffed hospital was forced to take in patients with mental health issues..and her dad got beaten really badly and hospital couldn’t protect him
Even closer to home..a surgeon(now retired) would come to the hospital under the influence, even my doc in Ottawa knew bout this…a speech therapist was charged with abuse, two phychiatrist lost their licence for sex with patients…i could go on and on and on stellie
This is the REAL World…that u don’t seem to know about!!!!
Dana Priest and Anne Hull reported that Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C., the venerable hospital famed for treating U.S. presidents, had turned into a “messy bureaucratic battlefield” for hundreds of outpatient troops wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq“Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses” was the wrenching description.
Timmy……the subject was about the Cornwall hospital….ca-vas? Not The Walter Reed Hospital nor Ottawa Hospitals.
That being said, the stories you mentioned above are not conducive to the situation that took place at the CCH. If you read the article you would have to agree it is a totally different scenario.
Until it gets to the point that a patient’s life is in jeopardy and cleanliness etc etc becomes a threat to life…..there is no valid reasons for the put downs and encouraging the public not to donate.
The article pertains to an employee who was seeking support, which is her legal right and not the hospital’s integrity.
Forced Bilingualism negatively effects patient care because the most skilled & educated nurses are being turned away.
If this concerns you,please join LFA tomorrow evening & see what you can do to help!!!!
Language Fairness for ALL:
Information Session
Are you concerned about?
– Forced bilingualism
– Language Laws
– Loss of rights
If you answered “YES” to any of the above, please join us:
Wednesday October 17, 2012 7pm
South Stormont Township Hall
2 Mille Roches Rd.
Long Sault, On
Special guest speakers:
Howard Galganov
&
Jurgen Vollrath
Language Fairness for ALL
108 Second St. W
PO Box #194
Cornwall, ON K6J 1G0
613-363-7555
http://www.languagefairnessforall.org
I quote “The most skilled and educated nurses are being turned away”. Just wondering here…does that mean that english nurses are more qualified? Also wondering if a french person and an english one took the same course at the same time by the same teacher at the same school how can one decide who is the most skilled and most educated? Certainly not the average person on the street.
Ms Smoonlight
Your statement was..in the real world…nobody knocks their own hospital…
again..if u can’t remember “Unbelievable how a group can degrade their own hospital……unheard of in the real world”
So stick your cute little saying ca-vas? in the Domtar smokestack your ego should get u up at least half way
So the real world..doesn’t include Washington/Ottawa
The story started with yet another Cornwall exec trying to hide coverup/hide from a journalist.
Well in the “real world” having journalist shine a light on local institutions being run by “the we can do No wrong club” ..is a good thing.
The video that ran with this story..was about bad practices at YOUR local hospital…We need to know
Like so many in YOUR town you try to narrow the focus down to whatever fits your theory of the day.
If almost criminal behavior can go on at the home hospital of the President of the United States…u think Hotel Dieu should be off limits???
Read the report on air Orange …it was journalist like Jamie that brought this scandal to light and gave the boot to Orangepeel CEO DOCTOR chris mazda
who hired his girlfriend and made her a top official on the taxpayer dime..
If you insist in bringing everything home to YOUR town…guess we can be grateful the exec that threw Jamie out..didn’t hire his radio announcer pal to run EMERG at cornwall hospital..
Kelly Long, the water-ski-instructor-turned girlfriend of ORNGE founder Chris Mazza, defended her quick ascent up the air service’s corporate ladder.
Tim Heatherington RIP I haven’t read all the comments just now and will do so when I finish typing this. I listen to so much every day and yes the police can make you stop photographing them and can even send you to jail for doing just that. I listen and read what is going on in the US and the same thing here in Canada. We no longer have a country only in name only. I will not say on Jaimie’s site what is going on and I want everyone to search everything out for themselves. It is mighty scary and no longer the same anymore.
Jamie..i coulda been worse..BC teen arrested to taking picture of security guard takedown….
WARNING WARNING..CAMERAS ARE DANGEROUS WEAPONS
Burnaby RCMP say Markiewicz was arrested for causing a disturbance, but was not charged. He has, however, been banned from Metrotown mall for six months.
The teen’s father, Zbigniew Markiewicz, said mall security and police completely over-reacted.
“There’s no real threat to anyone by having a camera and snapping a picture,” he said.
Lawyer Douglas King, of Pivot Legal in Vancouver, agrees, saying that private mall security guards and police have no right to try to seize someone’s camera or demand that photos be deleted — even on private property.
No questions asked
King said that too often, police take the side of guards, with no questions asked.
“They need to be able to look at this with a cool head, separate the parties, and really give a fair analysis to both sides, not put a kid in handcuffs and take him to a police cruiser,” King said.
– CBC News Investigates: Send us your tips
Metrotown mall backs the actions of its security guards.
“He didn’t comply with the request of the security nor the RCMP, so they took appropriate action they deemed necessary to defuse the situation,” said Doug MacDougall, of Metrotown Properties. MacDougall said that Markiewicz was told that he couldn’t take pictures inside the mall.
King said the province needs better oversight of security guards.
Dear stealbymoonlight…
This story shows why, we need guys like JAMES GILCIG , poking around city hall/cornwall hospital and all the dark shadows here in the……….
Dirty Town Under a Crooked Bridge
SF report oct 27th
ALEXANDRIA – A dispute between Glengarry Memorial Hospital and its fundraising foundation that boiled over with a full-page ad in a community newspaper here earlier this month shows no sign of healing any time soon.
The hospital board of directors used the tactic to describe in English and French “increasing tension and disagreement” between itself and the foundation.
The board announced the relationship had “broken down completely,” leading the hospital to “assume responsibility for fundraising on its own behalf.”
“We have asked the foundation to stop using the hospital’s name in order to avoid confusion among donors,” the open letter stated, adding that the board has also asked the foundation to return “hundreds of thousands of dollars” raised for hospital expansion, equipment, and enhanced care.
For those who can’t read or who read but can’t understand…..
Nobody said Jamie was wrong in supporting this nurse…..ca-vas?
What was said is THE NURSE WAS ENTITLED TO HAVE SUPPORT. However, by Jamie not being an employee of the CCH, legally had no right to attend said meeting.
Stella what you’re missing or refusing to acknowledge is that Mr. Greig totally abused his position and was totally aggressive, rude, and ignorant regarding this situation and simply invoked trespass in a wrongful manner. I can’t say much more on this as there is something happening shortly especially as the Hospital has not mitigated the situation.
Jamie……in one of my first post on this article, I did say Mr. Grieg’s actions were inappropriate….just wanted to share that with you.
I also said he could have handled the situation better than what he did. I am happy it is being looked into and hoping it turns out for the best for both of you **s**
Whether Jamie had a right to be there or not the fact remains the hospital is not in touch with people………………..period. Ignorance will continue until people are terminated and new people and ideas are in place. The fact the hospital did no type of damage control on this issue again proves something is wrong here.
When has the useless French language in an English speaking hospital become more important than the qualification and ability of doing the job?
Dot Davies
Oh, Dot. The French language is probably useless in your little world in Kelowna BC, but in Quebec and in Ontario towns that are in close proximity to Quebec, it’s a big part of our culture. Do you really feel that threatened by Francophones or the French language out there where you never even have to hear the language spoken? Life must be good if that’s all you have to obsess about.