CFN – That mean looking hombre on the right is power lawyer Will McDowell, partner at the law firm that represented Toronto Mayor Rob Ford over his Conflict of Interest charges. From his firm’s website:
In his wide-ranging practice, Will has appeared as counsel in many important cases focusing on issues of public law and commercial litigation. He is also a leading practitioner of libel and media law, having acted for both plaintiffs and defendants in numerous noteworthy cases. In addition, he has acted as counsel to several Ontario universities.
From 2005 to 2008, Will was Canada’s Associate Deputy Minister of Justice, with responsibility for civil litigation, national security and issues involving federal central agencies. He led a Department of Justice team that addressed a complex series of issues surrounding the Aboriginal Days of Protest in 2006–2007.
Council’s bizarre in camera meeting, one switched from Saturday to Tuesday, still is fuzzy. The public is being kept in the dark while the city clicks up tabs from the group eating together, which if I’m correct actually counts as a meeting as they closed the door where they were eating at 4 PM, to all these legal people and of course Mayor Kilger, who was scheduled to chair the meeting, disappearing?
City Clerk Helen Finn has refused to answer all questions at this point sending CFN this strange missive:
Hello,
In response to all your questions with regards to the in-camera meeting of February 19, and in accordance with the best practices regarding open municipal meetings in Ontario, the minutes of this meeting that will be deposited on February 25, 2013 will reflect such information as required by the best practices.
Regards,
Helen Finn, LLB in law, Quebec,
City Clerk / Greffière
Clerk’s Department / Département du Greffe
The Corporation of the City of Cornwall
360, rue Pitt Street, Cornwall, ON, K6J 3P9
(613) 930-2787 ext 2537 Phone
(613) 932-8145 Fax
hfinn@cornwall.ca
WTH? The question next up is this powerful Toronto lawyer on the City’s tab or Mayor Kilger or one of Council’s? Or some mix and match mess? All parties emailed have refused or not responded to our very simple question.
Contacted today Ms. Bernadette Clement informed CFN that she took the day off from this most important meeting to attend the Kathleen Wynne Queen’s Park event. Does it sound like Ms Clement wants out of this sinking ship as fast as she can distance herself in this hot new boots she bought?
Ms Clement, a lawyer herself, did not correct or confirm our query when we asked her about missing the Conflict of Interest meeting.
Lawyer Fay Brunning’s two Whistle Blowing cases against the city of Cornwall are most likely the trigger for this odd and yet freaky to watch chain of events.
It’s boggling how many tax dollars are being spent on this as Lawyers such as Mr. McDowell, the gentlemen with him, along with City Legal Beagle David Sherriff-Scott do not come cheaply.
Having these meetings behind closed door with no accountability to the public seems quite wrong and sadly it looks like the Ontario Ombudsman, unlike in Alberta, has no teeth in Ontario over MUSH facilities; IE Municipalities, Universities, whatever S stands for, and Hospitals….
The public really has very little it can do short of a member of the electorate or group of electorate hiring a lawyer similar to what happened with Mr. Ford in Toronto; which maybe, just maybe is why such an esteemed and ferocious lawyer like Will McDowell visited our fair city Tuesday.
Mayor Kilger has not returned phone calls or emails as of press time. We can confirm that he attended a Counties meeting Tuesday morning, but skipped out on the PAC meeting Tuesday night.
You can check out video of the session before it went in camera and the exchange between Reporter Greg Kielec & Chair Glen G Grant by clicking HERE.
What do you think Cornwall? You can post your comments below.
This is just UNBELIEVABLE!!!!! Once thing is for sure is that McDowell lawyer isn’t here out of the goodness of his heart! Look he even leans to one side when he sits! You know why? It’s because his pockets are full of the citizen’s of Cornwall’s taxpaying dollars!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!
It is way past time to fight back people! We need to band together and protest in front of city hall. Kilger needs to be FORCED out of office and now. Anyone out there want to get the party started?!?!?
Enough corruption.
friggin corrupt bare ass bob…now has to pay the piper
It’d be nice if at least ten people attended the next council meeting, and then more after that. I can’t imagine in a city of 46,000 people that there aren’t a few that are upset with council and the mayor at this point as they flirt with a 4% tax increase in these times so they can keep the lawyers busy…
You watch you will be hearing that he is stepping down to poor health…coward
Burn the lawyers. Burn them with fire.
Jaime I’m in for the next meeting. I’m even up for protesting before the meeting.
I think we all need to email councillors@cornwall.ca and let the councilors know how people feel about this. Maybe some protesting before council would communicate that this sneaking in the shadows isn’t acceptable. This shouldn’t be Project Truth all over again. We don’t need to spend $55M to get to the bottom of this. Mayor Kilger and Council need to come clean, but it will take the public’s voice to pressure them into doing so.
Who governs best practices, can we ee a copy of them in writing?
Sorry i have to ask again, what i the conflict of interest pertain to?
Question:
Why is it the citizens of Cornwall will get tagged with ANY legal fees?
Wasn’t it councils decision that our local ‘Whistle-blowers’ had to pay for their own defense.
Hypocritical, continues to raise it’s ugly head here.
I seem to recall we had to pay for a phony scammed Project Truth for Mega-Million $’s too.
Gee, whatever did happen to that box of video’s aye…K.J. ? Too bad Perry D. never got a hold on those, it would have changed a lot here in Cornwall. People would actually have believed him after all.
Duckers1, Are you referring to the video,s found in desk drawer of a certain defense attorney that the powers that be destroyed.Perry was a hero & still is……
Jamie whats with all the out of town Lawyers are local Lawyers all
to busy or is it that none of them want anything to do with this
mess ?
It will be most interesting watching how this will all play out & just
how much it will cost the City (taxpayers ) if we will ever know and
that is most questionable.
Jamie you & Greg Kielec from Le Journal are doing a great job attempting to get information on behalf of the taxpayers that they
want to know . Keep up the good work you both have been doing.
Freedom of the press allows that to happen & both of you have the guts to see it through .
Mr. Beattie what does it say about our society when that very Freedom of the Press costs us business and that our community leaders do not support our voices? There’s even reticence against our 100 Letter Campaign to promote Cornwall!
Lawyer fees needs to be paid by bare ass bob not the city taxpayers
Well have you not figured it out yet? Bare ass Bob will screw anybody, married or not. You taxpayers pay for it.
Ok people, I am still out of touch here, nobody is explaining what the conflict of interest is.
Makes us and the CFN seem a little un informed
Hailey I suggest you google the definition of conflict of interest or read up on other Conflict of interest stories.
admin =
Those community leaders that you refer to may yet see the light
it’s not near over yet .
Corn. taxpayers hopefully will get a much clearer view of the situation also .
It almost seems the reporters from the standard freeholder have
been instructed to refrain from reporting the news re anything
to do about the goings on at City Hall .
If you Jamie @ CFN & Greg Kielec @ Le Journal were not there
doing your job the Taxpayers would be left in the dark .
Thank you Both
I have to agree with Hailey Brown.
I do not understand why the Cornwall Free News’ allegations against Mayor Kilger for Conflict of Interest are so cryptic. Where is the violation of the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act? Do you have facts that you are not informing the public of?
Speculating that the meeting most likely is concerning Fay Brunning’s cases against the City of Cornwall is nothing more than speculation. A lot of the five Ws are missing from this story.
Please continue to inform us citizens, if there is something that you are not telling, please do share!
We always will continue to inform the public of many issues.
Admin I am familiar with the meaning of “Conflict of Interest”.
I am also aware of how it applies to the actions of Rob Ford, he used his position to earn revenue from lobbyists to fund his foundations and something with the city letterhead for similar reasons.
What I do not see in any of your articles is how exactly Bob has a conflict of interest
I don’t know why that every time I come on this paper that I have a great deal of laughs. I have been away and have arthritis to deal with. I came back a couple of days ago to read and laughing all the way. Jamie congrats on having four years under your belt living in Cornwall “the legend of sleepy hollow” that is revived with corruption and laughter to the hilt. LOL LOL. ROLF! What happened to the other CEO the lawyer and judge’s son who kept on taking leave of absence and now has another one of Cornwall’s corruption Norm Levac – the smell never ceases it just keeps on stinking. Cornwall will never change a bit as long as it has those same “corrupted bunch” in the lead. You would all be busier than bees around a beehive to get rid of all that “crud” and who else is there to replace when all the good people have left town. LOL LOL. All of this is so very funny indeed. You have yourself “crooks” on council who have been put there without an election “Samson” what a joke. A town that can change the bi-laws to suit themselves that is corruption to the hilt. Be careful of that strange lawyer on the end. Keep the windows closed because if there is a wind he will topple overboard and sue the city. LOL LOL. Gee I missed all the laughter – one thing about Cornwall is that it is Canada’s hidden secret of corruption and laughter to the hilt.
Welcome back Jules!
Thank you Jamie. It is a good thing that my daughter is home to help me. She was offered to stay at the job where she was doing a different line of work in shift work but way too far to go and I told her no. She is looking for work and nothing yet like so many people here in Ottawa. One thing good is that she could help me around here.
Jamie I never laughed like this in a while and everything is so funny. I love how you and your staff have everything written and the photos as well are a prize to beheld. LOL LOL. I haven’t laughed like this in a long time.
There is a great deal of sweeping to be done for sure in Cornwall and that is from the very top positions downward and I said that before many times.
Keep up the great work Jamie. It is very true that people are not buying newspapers like they used to. Many won’t even buy Cornwall’s “toilet paper of record” the Freeholder and it is only good to line the bird cage and train one’s puppy. LOL LOL.