Cornwall Ontario – It would be interesting to have a review done of Judge Rick Leroy’s transcripts for the Diane Shay case as well as the conflict of interest case brought against Mayor Leslie O’Shaughnessy and councilors Elaine Macdonald and Carilyne Hebert who sat on the board of a group asking council for cash for their vanity university project, that all three sat on the steering committee of, and refused to recuse themselves.
Cornwall has seen tax dollars spent en masse to defend hinky behavior against whistleblowers.
Ironically enough, our current mayor ran on a platform using the Shay case as pretty much the main cornerstone of his weak performance to unseat former Mayor Bob Kilger. O’Shaughnessy, surely deserving the Cornwall Hypocrite of the Century Award. in the video above clearly stated that Shay should not have to pay her legal bills and the truth should come out in court.
He has been all but silent since being elected mayor on the issue. Mayor O’Shaughnessy should be forced to listen to his own words in the video above because his words have turned out to be false and frankly despicable.
Ms Shay sent out the following to media this afternoon:
After identifying that the ongoing legal cost for the case to go to trial would be another $60,000.00 I made the difficult decision to file for a discontinuous. I simple could not afford to go any further. Immediately after that the City offered a settlement which I accepted.I now leave this issue in the hands of the court of public opinion.Take Care,Diane Shay
The city refused to pay for any of the whistleblowers that came forward’s legal bills, yet people like former CAO Paul Fitzpatrick were allowed to “retire” with golden parachutes, again on the tax payers dime.
While the out of town lawyers did their jobs, to which they are extremely well paid, the bottom line is the message that’s sent to all city workers as well as the outside world that has seen the coverage of the Whistle blowers, that Cornwall’s corruption is live and well, and that if you confront it, the powers at City Hall will use the tax payer to beat them down.
Not a single whistle blower has been proven to be false in their accusations. It’s been about legal hijinks and fiscal attrition.
All three whistle blowers are now either on disability or have been allowed to take early retirement.
Again, a dark stain on a community that already has a foul reputation.
What do you think dear CFN viewers? You can post your comments below.
Diane Shay I am so sorry to hear about all what you have gone through and going through. Many people know what is going on and are afraid to come forward. Jamie asked me a crazy question when am I returning to Cornhole and the answer is never – when hell freezes over and then some. Diane I cannot say enough and you read my posts.
Many university grads here in Ottawa and elsewhere are flipping burgers at MacDonald’s and such places. My daughter is working in a supermarket and has college and the top mark of 96% and I have her transcripts here as well as her diploma. There is going to be an economic depression (we are on the start) including WWIII – hunker down.
Lez proved himself to be just what he is a liar and a cheat. Mark MacDonald or Jamie Gilcig should have been mayor but not Lez. To lie your way through Lez showed just what kind of a person you are and it may be your last as mayor of Cornhole. You Lez are a joke.
Sadly, now, the truth will probably never be known.
Mark MacDonald as mayor?? Heaven help us!!
Hugger most of the truth is known. What’s not happened is the bad guys or girls held accountable fully.
I agree to a certain point. In any argument there are three sides. In this case one side is Diane Shay’s, another is the city’s. The third side is what truly happened, something we will never find out.
I respect your decision Diane. For a time you shed a spotlight on reality and how our heavily liberal society meters out minimal repercussions for some of its members as well as the repercussions felt by those who attempt to seek justice. You stood up and I thank you for doing what I believe to have been right despite the personal sacrifices that you obviously made along the journey. All my best.
Jamie after all the years that you have been living in Cornhole you should know very well that the rich and the well connected get away with everything. I would much rather be dead than to live in Cornhole and that is the truth. Hugger turns a blind eye to the whole fiasco but not yours truly because she is awake and shaking her head.
{MODERATED} You all have to get rid of the clique and I mean that. Throw all those dirt bags out on their keesters. Nobody anywhere would look at them a second time. That is Cornhole for you. Yes you bury abuse and intimidation behind closed doors. Lez you are a liar and a hypocrite. Be a man and not a mouse.
I do not turn a blind eye to the whole fiasco Jules. It’s just that I know how things work. Yes, the clique has to be shown the door. But at the same time if you understand how things work in local government then it makes working to get rid of any clique easier.
Hugger whether it is the federal government, provincial government right down to the municipal government when an outside system whether it be another country or a group who puts their noses into another’s affairs then all hell breaks loose. Take a good look at the Middle East and there are many hands in the soup so to say and the say thing in Cornhole those dirty clique are involved.
There are patients who have alzheimers and other mental disorders and they have to have constant supervision and these people have a terrible temper and are sometimes very strong. A nurse and a health care practitioner has to know how to handle such patients. These patients are no longer themselves and you don’t resort to abuse. Mrs. Shay put herself on the line and this is what happened.
There are a lot of things that go on that are not right at all in a work place. When thngs go wrong there are people who will come forward and they take their chances of getting fired. Not only nursing but in the federal and provincial governments as well as municipal, etc. What goes on inside the work place is supposed to stay there but not when it affects someone’s health and well being.
Years ago I was working in a govt. dept. term job and a lab explosion happened by the military and this was not a military bldg. I used to go through that area and it was top secret. A letter came across my desk to give to the director and he got mad because he has cancer and said that I should have told him. I told him that I didn’t have the clearance necessary to even look at it but knew
I knew about that explosion from the commissionaires and he wondered what to do with the staff and I told him that it was his responsibility to tell the staff since I had no right at all to say anything. When I was gone the news got hold of it from an employee and made the papers and TV here in Ottawa.
I do know the hell of a responsibility that Mrs. Shay has as a nurse and my much elder sister was a nurse and administrative supervisor. My heart goes out to Mrs. Shay for all the hell that she went through along with some other person. This is huge and the top people are to blame for what went on and not Mrs. Shay. This lady came forward to protect her patients. This lady deserves a medal.
Governments are good and bad. Can you imagine how the world would run with no governments or laws? Cornwall has a history of bad government and influences from outside forces (clique). Hard to get rid of when a lot of people are happy with the status quo.
It’s good that Diane Shay came forward. But she suffered what all whistleblowers have happen to them. Just look at the Phoenix issue in the federal gov’t. The gov’t says there will be no retaliation for those who speak out. But those who speak out will have their careers stalled, be fired or penalized somehow. They can speak about no retaliation but it does and will happen.
I am so sorry all that was done onto you Diane.Cornwall has always relied on taxpayers money . You have lost so much,your job,your health,your time,the loss of your beloved daughter who also was a nurse,The College of nurses should have come forward to praise you for doing the right thing asked of them,to protect your patient & be their advocate, for that as a nurse myself,am ashamed of them.
Diane,,, I am so very proud of you ! You fought the good fight, but the City & “Lyin Les” wore you down into the dust ! As a baby boomer, I would have felt so secure, knowing you would be involved in my aging parents day to day care ! As Jules would say, what a “Cornhole” of an Administration we have running our lovely City ! God Bless you Diane !
Diane my heart goes out to you and you have gone through enough and you are a very caring person and a nurse’s job is mighty hard and trying. The good people are sitting on their keesters not standing up and you all wonder why I am not going back and we are putting up with gangs and bullets flying around and not safe here at all and Ottawa is no longer what it used to be.
Hugger in my household we feel that there is a lot more than this computer insanity called Phoenix going on. The public will not know the truth. One lady told my daughter some years ago that the federal government was a mess to work in and she never wanted to apply at all. I read some things today that backed the story of that person who told my daughter about what was going on nowadays.
Jules…as I say government is government is government. Government by default is flawed at its best. I worked there almost 37 years. Phoenix is / will be a failure, as are most projects they try. Just look at Shared Services Canada. What a joke that entity is.
Hugger I agree with you about government at all levels being corrupt. What my biggest peeve is when the clique or any outsider comes in and puts their noses where it doesn’t belong which makes things a great deal worse.
Hugger for the government to go and put in a software that they don’t know that it will function properly shows no brains at all. This is costing the taxpayers millions of dollars per day. Many people cannot even afford their hydro bill and now they want to throw on carbon taxes. What a joke.
Hugger I looked at that Shared Services Canada and it is the second time that I saw that and the first time I said what in the hell is that – more confusion. Phoenix was supposed to be fixed by Halloween and now sometime in December but I can’t see them fix that mess for a mighty long time if ever. This is going to be a disaster in the making.
On the municipal side Lez should never be elected ever again and he showed just what kind of a person and a leader that he is. A failed hypocrite who could not even manage the most simplest tast of the lemonade and worm stand and the good people the Vincents. Some other people have to come forward for the next election in Cornhole. Vision is greatly needed.
The couple that we met yesterday from Kitchener Waterloo have a bungalow that they had assessed lately at $800K because of the high tech down there. That pushed up the housing here in Ottawa some years ago and insane. The taxes are astronomical as well as utility bills and a lot of people cannot afford that anymore.
In the end it was the government’s responsibility to make sure Phoenix worked before it was implemented. It was also IBM’s job to make sure the software they delivered worked. The software provided was basically an off-the-shelf version of PeopleSoft modified to the government’s requirements. I worked with enough software to know that most modified off-the shelf software fails to deliver.
Hugger you are right about software. My previous computer was literally destroyed when Microsoft sent Windows 10 to my computer and it died but nothing happened to my husband’s computer that I inherited and he purchased another. The government has gone downhill and no brains at all to put out a software that doesn’t work.