CFN just celebrated our 60,000th viewer comment. With the Standard Freeholder and other media not allowing viewer comments it’s something we’re very proud of.
One of our most voluminous commentator is Jules, who is a former Cornwallite who lives in Ottawa, but still is quite passionate about her former home town even if her comments are many times critical.
She’s become popular, and while camera and phone shy agreed to answer questions via email. To see the first part of her interview CLICK HERE.
And now for part two!
1) What would it take for you and your family to move back to Cornwall?
JULES
Jamie that is a funny question but of course most are for me. It would take a literal miracle from God or maybe Satan to move back to Cornwall. Honestly Jamie there are no jobs, nor opportunities in Cornwall. My daughter just finished Medical Administrative Secretary a week ago and very few jobs available in Ottawa so can you imagine the position that Cornwall is into. My daughter’s overall average was 96% and is waiting for her diploma and took it at a private college in downtown Ottawa.
People are coming out of universities with degrees and flipping burgers at MacDonald’s and such places because of no work. My daughter goes back to being cashier on Sunday and will work 16 hours for the week and that differs. One of the managers was happy to see her back along with the rest of her co-workers.
2) If you’re so unhappy about what’s happened in Cornwall why complain so much about it? Do you hate or love Cornwall?
JULES
Jamie I am trying to wake up the people of Cornwall and show them where things are wrong in Cornwall. It isn’t a hate but in a lot of ways a shame. You are from Montréal the city that my husband would have loved to live in more than Ottawa but fate made him choose Ottawa.
3) What do you hear from people in Ottawa when you say you’re from Cornwall?
JULES
I remember when I first started in the Federal Government in the Revenue Dept. and I was at Billings Bridge in the tower and there was this girl who was working as a term and she and her boyfriend would literally laugh at everything about Cornwall and make fun of it. This girl was from a good enough family from Sandy Hill.
There is a former teacher who sometimes goes to the park where we walk and he laughs and pokes fun at Cornwall and says who wants to go to that polluted place and there is nothing there and he is from Timmins Ontario originally.
There was also this woman Lise who lives in Alfred Ontario and she would poke fun at Cornwall about the same things that the other people would do but she went overboard and was hell to work with her.
4) Who was your favorite mayor of Cornwall?
JULES
Jamie my very favorite mayor of Cornwall was your relative Mayor Horowitz and he used to make picnics during the summer for the people of Cornwall. Cornwall was a lot smaller then and my parents and much older sisters remember him very well and spoke very favorably of him.
As I grew older I saw the corruption of the mayors of Cornwall and they were all there for their own pockets and interests unlike Mayor Horowitz. Cornwall was a much better and prosperous town under Mayor Horowitz. Mayor Horowitz was a man that people liked very much.
Today it is a revolving door of mayors and council and nothing gets done. Today’s mayor and council is laughable – they don’t know anything at all. LEZ plastered problems of the skating rink fiasco and about kids selling lemonade and worms all over the media throughout Canada and that made Cornwall more of a laughing stock than ever before.
5) What’s your best memory of Cornwall?
JULES
My best memory of Cornwall – gee I am stuck on that one. Oh I do remember that in Cornwall Christmas time was great and we could hear the songs of Bing Crosby and others over the loud speaker signing Christmas songs when I was outside with the neighbor kids building forts and an ice rink in the back yard as well as the front yard.
I had a life that my children did not have here in Ottawa growing up. My kids were stuck in these towers high in the sky and I would take them out to the library for reading and crafts to get them out of the apartment and to go and play in the parks. Cornwall had a lot more to offer back in the 50’s and 60’s era and that is the entire truth Jamie.
6) When you lived here in Cornwall what were your favorite places to shop or eat out at?
JULES
My husband and I liked to eat at the King George Hotel where Nick Kaneb had a restaurant at the front and that has been torn down since it all burned some years ago. We never spent much eating out but every Sunday after church we would go to the King George for a meal. Nick was a very good manager and his parents were from Lebanon and Nick would speak Arabic with a heavy accent like an English person who would speak French. Nick was a great man and my husband and I as well as my parents had great respect for Nick Kaneb.
My husband would have his shoes repaired at Mr. Esper’s shoe repair which was on Pitt Street attached to the book store and I would shop for books at that store way back when. It was Mr. Kyte who had that book store. I knew Morna Kyte and Morna also worked at the pool store run by the Bedard’s. I worked with Morna at Westburne Hussey in Cornwall. I shopped for clothes at Viau store and some others around. I remember buying from the Abagov family on Montreal Road and they were great people Jamie and they lived in Riverdale.
Trying to remember way back sure brings back some good memories.
I have lived in Cornwall my whole life this city is amazing. I can walk the streets at any hour. Let a disaster happen and watch how people flock to help. My dad lived here his whole 88 years and we never wanted for anything. Is the city perfect no but which one is. It’s very disrespectful to keep slamming this city.
It is funny how I get teased about Cornwall here at home by my husband who wishes to set up a teepee on the shores of the St. Lawrence at Lamoureux Park and I told him that I would up root the sticks that hold the teepee together and bury him in the tent. LOL LOL. Oh speaking there is a native concert and story telling going on at Vincent Massey Park here in Ottawa and we walked through there.
Ken you haven’t left Cornwall to live elsewhere so you can’t make comparisons. The east end of the town is not safe at all to walk at night and sometimes even the day. Here in Ottawa it isn’t safe at any time in any area even the burbs like Kanata and Orleans, etc. have their problems. Where I live is one of the most volatile areas of Ottawa but in past years Ottawa was quiet but no more.
I remember one time Hugger mentioned that Ottawa was a mixed type of neighborhoods and that is so true. You don’t get just one kind of people but a real mix in all neighboods. Nepean used to be a very nice area before amalgamation and had its own mayor who ruled for 20 years before he died and he is one of the most respected people in Ottawa.
Ken if you haven’t lived elsewhere then you cannot make comparisons. I have visited Toronto back in the mid 80’s and I can tell you that I was never happy enough to get out of there and come back to Ottawa. That is a city that I would never want to live in and the same with Vancouver and such places. Ottawa is still one of the better places to live and that is the truth.
I will say one good thing about Cornwall and that is that it is easy to get around from point a to point b but other than that nothing. The people that I went to the schools with in my day are all gone except for a tiny few that you can count on one hand. Cornwall lost everything and I mean everything and it is so mighty deserted when we go down there and depressing.
Jules I just visited Toronto and if it wasn’t for cost I’d live there in a New York Minute! I love Street Cars! And people there are actually friendly.
Jamie the people are friendlier in Toronto than Ottawa and that is the truth but I found the atmosphere of Toronto very cold like and I am not talking about temperature. Some people were nice. Ottawa has a snobbish way of life and I guess it always has from what I can remember and when people say hi to us on the path walking we say that they are not from Ottawa.
I like going to visit Montreal and it has been quite some time since we went there. One young Lebanese used to tell us that we were lucky to live in Cornwall and I almost fell through the floor of his store. That young man said that because of the hustle and bustle of Montréal and of course the crime rates. Gee it is a miracle I hear no emergency vehicles this evening – touch wood. LOL LOL.
Jamie do you know that Vancouver B.C. is more expensive than New York and Los Angeles and such places and the most expensive in North America. Toronto is second in them most expensive. This is so mighty rediculous and in Vancouver the only ones purchasing a home are the Chinese from mainland China and it is they who are driving the prices up beyond imagination. All will come tumbling down soon.
The problem with cities now is that the planners don’t think when they plan cities. They put expensive homes right across from rent-to-income homes. This has been going on since the 1970’s. Proper planning must be done for cities to succeed.
As for Toronto being “friendly” not in my opinion. I find Toronto one of the ugliest and least friendly cities I’ve ever been in. I’d rather live in Montreal or Ottawa if I had to choose one. Toronto and its residents still have the “centre of the universe” mentality. Until they realize they aren’t all that the city will continue to be butt ugly and unfriendly.
Um, what part of TO were you hanging out in?
Admin….A few neighbourhoods I can’t recall the names of. As I said I find Toronto very unfriendly and dirty. I’m hoping we don’t have to go this year.
I just came back from the library with my daughter and we are totally bushed. Hugger is right on when he said about poor planning. Here in Ottawa we have middle income people mixed with the lower end of the spectrum and it is a literal nightmare. Toronto has a cold type of atmosphere one that I cannot describe but Hugger put his finger on it where they think that they are the center of the univ
Jamie it doesn’t matter what part of TO it is all the same and I was down there with my family along with my husband’s nephew and I swear to God that I couldn’t wait to come home. The only place I liked out of that area was Niagara Falls. London Ontario became a very bad place and I would not live there at all. I like Montréal and I like Ottawa even with the snobs.
I used to work as a security guard p/t in the 70’s & 80’s. I worked at times at a construction site on Ramsey Cr in Ottawa. They were building high end homes right across the street from rent -to-income homes at Foster Farm. I thought this is a disaster waiting to happen. My point was hammered home when I did my rounds one day and my portable TV was stolen. Lack of planning kills cities.
Yes I have left cornwall several time. I have lived in Kingston,Trenton and Belleville . And I always long for my hometown. The people here are amazing
Hugger you’ve got that one right. Where you worked in the past is one of the worst areas of Ottawa. The entire city has gone to hell in a handbasket. I just came off the toilet papers of record of Ottawa and a stabbing at South Keys bus station happened this morning after 11 a.m. Ottawa has gone down hill and yes a real mix up in housing. Even where we live a real mix up and I wouldn’t buy.
You obviously have never walked the east end. I have walked it several times never an issue. See I chose to come back to my city and fight for it. It’s like voting if u didn’t do it then u really shouldn’t be complaining about the government. You left and never try to change anything so why would the people listen to you now?? If something is worth having its worth fighting for.
Ken you have to post a first and last name unless you were registered before the policy change which you were not.
Cheers and welcome to CFN.
Ken I did go back to Cornwall back in 89 and then everything fell through the cracks to hell and nothing left. There was nothing even back in the 70’s era because the industries knew from way back that they were going to pull up stakes and leave town. Cornwall is doomed and you cannot fight the big corporations when they want to make extra dollars bringing their businesses elswhere.
Ken I want you to take a good hard look at Jamie and Jamie is a good person and look at what the dirty Cornwall clique did to him. Take a good hard look Ken and this can happen to anyone being charged for things that they didn’t do. How can you fight a clique unless you literally railroad them out of town with a gun in your hand. Ken this clique buys the cops and lawyers – there is no law.
One man from Rockland said “Cornwall Trash” and do you know how many times I have heard that said here in Ottawa back in the 70’s and 80’s era even from a woman from a very tiny town outside of Ottawa. The laughter that I have witnessed and the name calling of Cornwall and its people were something else. This went on on a daily basis. You haven’t heard or seen anything.
Ken if someone like myself does not point out what is wrong with Cornwall then the sheeple will remain asleep and being kicked around all the time like what has been going on for many long years. People left Cornwall for good and I am telling you the truth. Very very few came back that it is the number of my five finger on one hand and nothing above that figure. Cornwall is a grave yard.
Ken I have walked many many times in the east end because I had friends who iived in that area of town. I also went for a short while at St. Lawrence College and so has my daughter. Montreal Rd as well as that stretch from the college to Montreal Rd to catch a bus is very frightening. Yes it is bad. Where I live is even worse l as well as the entire city of Ottawa (all neighborhoods).
There isn’t a day that I don’t think about what Jamie is going through in Cornwall. I have pictures of Jamie’s dogs as my computer loads and it reminds me of the hell that this good man is facing on charges that he never deserved. You say I don’t fight for Cornwall well the sheeple of Cornwall don’t fight for themselves and accept dirty government and be kicked around on a daily basis.
Contrary to other beliefs the east end of Cornwall is not all that bad. Yes, there are certain areas you’d want to avoid But at the same time there are nice spots in the east end. Don’t believe everything from someone who obviously has been to the east end in a very long time.
Hugger of course there are good people in the east end. My mother’s family is from the east end and I used to go there as a child including to St. Lawrence Park back in the 50’s era. The bad people put it down for the good just like everywhere. I can tell you that the rich in Cornwall are no better than the poor people and they all put on an act and think that they are better when they are not.
Hugger I live in the Alta Vista area (not Alta Vista Drive) but the area and it used to be pretty good in general except for the low income areas. Today the entire area is bad because of so many different types of people who came here. We have a good building and I came up in the elevator with the owner a while ago. The tenants here are good people and we have a family from Alberta.
Just this morning while sitting down on a bench in the park talking about Cornwall and its weirdness my husband brought up about a case here in Ottawa where a neighbor wanted privacy and put up a fence and next door a man with connections (a snob) had the fence taken down. The thing is Ottawa is so big that you don’t see it like Cornwall. I don’t know my neighbors except for a small few.
This site should be renamed JFN… Jules Free News.
In regard to the fence most municipalities require you obtain a permit ($$) and /or at least get a land survey to make sure the fence goes in the right place. If the permit wasn’t obtained the municipality can tell you to take down the fence at your cost.
Hugger you are right about the permits for fence, etc. One neighbor below in a townhouse put up a six foot fence at the front yard and the neighbors of the units got in contact with the city and the people had to take down the fence and had to make it only 3 feet. Those people have been inside hiding from their neighbors ever since.
Furtz I don’t have Jamie’s great talents to have a paper in my name. I leave the expertese up to Jamie and he does an excellent job. I am way too busy laughing at all the hot and cold running fraudsters running out of the woodwork. I am almost off my chair on the floor. This is so funny. I can’t get over it. This is too funny. LOL LOL. ROLF!
Hugger about permits there is an article on yahoo.ca about a man who built a big tree house in Toronto and has to take it down.
Jamie you should have told me about a nut from Cornwall gone completely bananas with an orange colored truck headed to my area. I would have pulled a Phillis Diller in hot pursuit – remember that movie with Bob Hope and Elke Sommer. I loved that movie very much. Ottawa’s cops always get their man or woman. It isn’t Cornwall that’s for sure. LOL LOL. ROLF!