CORNWALL ONTARIO – I left Team Cornwall after a sampling of its former President Gilles Latour, who’s now waiting his court dates from charges of fraud, including of his mother.
I also am no longer a member of the Cornwall & Area Chamber of Commerce. When I first ran for a seat on its board I was informed I didn’t win. When asked for vote totals they stated they don’t release those.
Ironically enough of the eight people than ran for six seats, two of those elected actually died in the term and I was begrudgingly put on the board.
After a bit it was clear that it’s director was a big factor for the failures of the chamber, but as one clique member and long time Cornwall business person shared when referring to Lezlie Strasser.
It’s too expensive to fire her.
Other board members at the time echoed that sentiment, especially as the building the chamber owns needed repairs, and essentially the chamber was losing money and being kept afloat by the Driver’s permit office which the late Joe Gunn was chief in bringing to the chamber. An example is the gross lobby carpet that the chamber solution was to put rugs over the stains in front of the clerks instead of simply replacing the carpet.
There’s also a great tale about the chamber feeding private driver info to a certain local political riding association mailing list, which in my opinion believe. When I first moved here I’d get mail addressed to me in the exact spelling of my driver’s license from our MP.
That practice stopped after the province brought in a new system that logs when users sign in and tracks what they do.
The next chamber election the clique flooded the amount of people running, and I and many others left.
When the South Stormont Chamber was to close, Reg Coffey and myself essentially saved it. Sadly some of the wannebee cliquesters from the townships jumped to the fray and essentially illegally did some very odd things.
People like Donna Primeau, who is now on a township council that ran essentially to shut down a locally owned and developed print and online newspaper (also owned by myself and Reg Coffey) and resulted in the township stiffing us for the balance of our contracts to the point of spending as much as 3 times the value of the contract on legal bills to make their point.
Taxes have jumped in South Stormont since Ms Primeau and her council started, with less services, a failed Marina project, and other negatives for a community that can’t afford negatives.
The message of course is that you really can’t do business in the Cornwall region unless you’ve gone to the right Catholic school and hung out with the same cliques and essentially conformed to the powers that be. That might work in small villages, but in 2016 the result is that schools are now being closed and karmically, those in the townships will endure more suffering than those in the city of Cornwall.
When I started CFN in 2009 I was warned to not do it in Cornwall because of the low literacy rate and ugly clique politics.
When CFN started that was a hunger for local news. There was a lot of stuff covered up. There still is, but not as much. The three main local media essentially didn’t do real journalism, but were more PR shills. Say nice things about the same nice people, and then cash the cheques. Even more ironic is that the media with the most actual ads pretty much has the least eyeballs.
CFN, an upstart, local, near one man shop, was first in market share in less than two years of its existence which upset a lot of the cliquesters.
So Bob Peters at City Hall started his mission to derail our growth and with some of the politicos the process to attack the paper and run me out of town started. That was 2011. Since then CFN has had over 100,000,000 human page views. The City actually spent more cash paying its Ottawa lawyers to monitor CFN than it had paid us in advertising before the boycott. The city never made an actual complaint to us for any issue related to our service.
The loss to the local economy has been in the millions of dollars, and continues to grow. Lost revenue for our advertisers who essentially were bullied by the City Hall led boycott, which saw CFN send more traffic to the city website in the first year of the boycott when they weren’t advertising with us (traffic just was delivered from archived material) than those that they spent thousands and thousands of tax dollars on, amounts to even more of a loss.
A review of local news websites show that only two allow anonymous posts: the Standard-Freeholder and the Cornwall Free News. Both sites have some moderation of comments, but a review of activity over the past several months have led staff to concur with the generalized assessment of the practice by the American Journalism Review: “Comment sections are often packed with profanity, and vicious personal attacks.”
That quote was never verified or confirmed. The statement of both CFN and the Freeholder was false as neither was packed with profanity or vicious personal attacks. Three CAO’s refused to give me my ten minutes in council to present information which is a right of any resident of Cornwall to do. The Freeholder buckled and simply does not allow viewer comments any longer thus getting to keep their ad $$.
I have had clients who have been told straight out that if they didn’t pull their ads they’d lose support of City Hall or not get permits. I’ve had a at least three board members of our now defunct public art gallery see their day jobs threatened and one lost a contract that was connected to City Hall.
I’ve watched multiple cliquesters leave town because of exposing of their shizzle. We’ve reported on it. We documented it.
But we still have a disturbing culture with an even scarier police and justice system. In a city where people are charged for throwing grass clippings and shaking fists, and even of seniors waiting for open heart surgery being wrongfully incarcerated none of the near dozen factually documented complaints I’ve made have seen anyone be charged.
Of course when you have a police chief that was in need of a new contract, and a police board with a corrupt mayor on it and his campaign manager its chair, would those results be surprising?
In my own case, even after it was categorically proven that I never made a single call that I was arrested for, threatening or otherwise, I was kept under conditions by corrupt crown attorneys through the election and for nearly another year.
When my charges were dropped the police refused to charge Mike Bedard for mischief or spreading false news.
When Kevin Dockery, leader of a facebook hate group against myself and CFN stole one of our videos and had it taken down by You Tube for copyright infringement, he basically lost any possible defense by loading the same video to Facebook. After it too was taken down, copyright infringement being a Federal crime, a call was put into the RCMP where an officer told me the crown refused to pursue a charge.
Traci Trottier not once, but twice, made utterly false statement to police saying I was at her house threatening her.
Luckily on both occasions I was in public places or I would have been charged. The police on both occasions refused to charge her with mischief.
There are more cases and examples, but if you’re still reading we should get to the grist of what’s going on now in Cornwall and the area.
School Closings. This is scary and will be devastating for the counties. (The SD&G County government also boycotts CFN) Communities like South Glengarry will feel it the hardest as their kids will have to travel further and deal with bigger schools in Cornwall. That is going to have a dramatic effect.
If a community doesn’t truly embrace and welcome growth it’s doomed in Ontario in 2016. The province is already suffering under the brutal economic result of its Hydro policies where essentially delivery charges are leaving people homeless and destroying the fabric of rural life.
Only in this messed up province could any government behind such an energy program get a majority mandate as happened in the last election.
Only in this messed up province will the same crooked government essentially get elected again.
In this part of Eastern Ontario we simply are seeing too many mobile younger people heading out of our region and being replaced by Seniors. There simply is no way to fund the infrastructure costs.
Teachers in Ontario are some of the highest paid in Ontario. (Those teachers are chiefly responsible for keeping the Wynne government in office) That cost of living increase to a top heavy salary really ads up, and now we are in an age where we simply, because of our corrupt economics, are over paying our teachers who seem to do less work and get less results, being a priority over actual schools and quality of education.
That’s scary.
In Cornwall we’ve lost festivals which attract people. We seen our local public art gallery close after thirty six years for no other reason that the dirty politics of people like Bernadette Clement and illegal activities of Councilor Elaine MacDonald and Carilyne Hebert while they were on the board of the Art Gallery. (They were paying Bingo workers above the legal honorariums they could pay.)
We’ve seen businesses leave who followed the clique lines. The latest is Bryan Merkely who like many of the clique live outside of Cornwall to pay less taxes, but love the benefits gained from the city.
He abruptly and with very little warning sold his building (congrats to new buyers Stephen and Traci Lynn Davies) and is shutting down the Cornwall Career College leaving over a dozen students scrambling. Bryan is in the thick of the Clique and good buds with Councilor Denis Carr (one of the cliques chieftains) who get this, gets a full salary running Heart of the City, which essentially an arms length office for the city. Bryan’s school also suffered from boycotting this newspaper. It’s boggling. It truly is.
So the woman that does a great job of mopping City Hall can’t run for council, but Denis can and votes on issues that some have suggested are an utter conflict of interest.
Bryan will probably get some plumb from the clique to soothe his failure. Most in Cornwall of course, do not get such a cushion.
Is it any wonder why Cornwall finishes consistently near the bottom of the Moneysense or CFIB polls on communities across Canada?
The only bright sliver is that CFN still has a growing audience that is the largest in our market even under these brutal conditions.
The good news is that the very tendencies that brought Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump to power are starting to trickle into local politics. IE Social media and outlets like CFN do have an impact and more younger people and those that haven’t voted are doing so.
The next municipal election is in less than two years. It should be interesting to see if the hunger to clean house at City Hall including certain managers is enough to cause change?
What do you think dear CFN viewers? You can post your comments below.
Jamie you have the very best paper in town and the rest is all fake news and they are mighty jeolous and can’t keep up with you. Cornhole has been going down hill for a great many years and losing population as well as infrastructure and anything you can name because of the clique. You are way too good a person and that is the truth. Cornhole wants to hide everything.
There are people that we used to know who retired but didn’t stay in Cornhole but went to Brockville and other towns. If Cornhole had an educated and intelligent population they would never have allowed it to die the way it happened nor to allow a clique to take over and taxes through the roof for no reason. Cornhole is finished and I have said it for many years.
Jamie you were charged for things that you never did. My husband and I have experienced racism and we complained to Cornhole’s cops and they said that they didn’t have laws against racism. Take a good look at what happened here in Ottawa and believe me Jamie there are plenty of laws and one cannot go and call a person a racist name or anything without being charged.
Jamie without you and your CFN I can tell you that town would have its last nail in its coffin. I mean every word when I say that you are the very best. People are giving up on mainstream/lamestream news papers and TV and radio it all comes sanitized from the main source AP. The world’s best newspapers are going downhill including those of Lebanon.
Read this about Ottawa tackling racism:
‘Real Ottawa’ shows its face at rally against racism
http://www.ottawa-sun.com/2016/11/19/real-ottawa-shows-its-face-at-rally-against-racism
That synagogue is just behind where we live and there used to be a French Catholic school next door but was taken down many years ago where our former super’s daughter went to school. Our friend Robert’s house is right nea
There was an Islamic mosque that was hit with racist slurs as well as the swastikas and Jamie the mosque had a camera at the top and caught the youth that did it. A person can go to jail for 10 years doing such things. This isn’t Cornhole and I knew about this for many long years when we lived here in Ottawa – no nonsense unlike Cornhole.
Jamie that Academy of Learning looks like as if it is attached to the old jail on Pitt Street. LOL LOL. ROLF! They say that it is haunted well the evil spirits sure closed it down. My daughter did Medical Administrative Assistant course and was the first in her class 96% and is working in a super market. She is not pushing herself for better just now because she has some debts to pay first.
I like the points of the article. But I find it too busy, bouncing everywhere. Too many points for one article. Perhaps it could have been broken up. But it’s Jamie’s playground, so….
Hugger any time you want to write an opinion piece are pages are yours. 🙂
I much prefer commenting or LTE’s. I don’t have the skills to do an oped.
Jamie there was a private college here in Ottawa that was situated in the lower level (basement level) at St. Laurent Shopping Centre and they taught Dental Assistant and they closed some years ago and students were transferred elsewhere to complete the course.
Jamie your columns are superbly written and in no way could I write as well as yourself. My grammar and sentence structure is atrocious and this is nothing compared to some things that I post elsewhere. I see nothing wrong at all and excellent as always.
I was just thinking of all the teacher layoffs that there will be with so many homes that will be up for sale and no sales or very few because of no jobs to pay for them. You all should go on youtube.com and listen to economist Harry Dent in the US talks about the greatest crash of the economy coming in 2017 it will open your eyes.
soothsayer
sooth·say·er (so͞oth′sā′ər)
n.
One who claims to be able to foretell events or predict the future; a seer.
I am no southsayer nor is Harry Dent and Mr. Dent has always been right most of the time and the US economy as well as our Canadian economy and the entire world is in a real mess of trouble and you will only know it Hugger when it hits you in the face. There will be no sales – people in Cornhole are unemployed and you need very good jobs to pay for that.
Wynne has apologized and accepted responsibility for wasting tens of billions of taxpayer dollars. Which means exactly what? Right! absolutely nothing! All will be good now in this have not province and Premier Wynne will win another massive majority. People will suffer but be happy because Wynne says she cares and has said she is sorry. Besides it would be homophobic to criticize her its 2016.
Didn’t say you were a soothsayer. What I find comical is all these people who “predict” what is going to happen in the world. A perfect example is the people who have predicted the end of the world based on the bible. I’ve lost count of how many there have been. And they’ve all been wrong. Easiest way to live is day to day and not believe in these conspiracy theorists.
You say Harry dent has been right “most of the time.” Well, then that must mean he is wrong some of the time. That puts him in the conspiracy theorist or soothsayer category IMHO. I find these people comical and people who follow them just plain gullible.
Hugger all you want to do is be a pig headed narrow minded person. There is even more than Harry Dent and one is Peter Schiff among many others and they are not conspiracy theorists as you call them. Trump is mighty worried and he knows that he cannot provide all that he promised. Trump’s life is in danger. Today is the annniversary of JFK’s assassination and he too wanted to change things.
People who come from other countries do not go to places like Cornhole. People go where they have their language and customs and food as well as work and places where they can make businesses without being harrassed like in Cornhole by the clique. Everyone that I knew from schools have all left Cornhole except for a few that you can count on one hand.
Just because I disagree with you I’m a pig headed narrow minded person? I don’t think so. I prefer to follow what I believe, not what other people say on some websites or newscasts. I prefer to do my own thinking, not follow what others think how I should think or act. It’s actually quite simple.
Cornwall has its issues, as does any city, town, etc around the globe. People come, people go. And no I don’t want to get into a discussion about a clique or what they have / haven’t done.
Tronald Dump is turning out to be just like all other politicians. He hasn’t even been sworn in and he’s breaking campaign promises. Am I surprised? Not one bit.
It’s may be a bit cliche to compare Donald Drumpf to Adolf Hitler but… https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/adolf_hitler.html
Lassie for your assumption to have any validity you would have to include most of mankind. Hitler was a monster in the cruelest and vilest sense possible, however stupid he was not. His observations and conclusions on people and governments were arguably correct. The fact that many intelligent individuals utilize certain concepts attributed to Hitler does not make them comparable to Hitler.
Lassie you don’t know what Hitler was and you have to ask the Jewish people as well as others who have lived under this terrible tyrant. Trump is a very good man to his employees and to others and don’t judge by what he looks like because he is totally different in character and I wish that we had a similar person here in Canada and not Justine for God sake not Justine.
Lassie…what about MacDonalds? Prior to MacDonalds employing the concept of getting to the parents through their children who very successfully employed the same concept on a large scale? Right, it was Hitler’s Deutsches Jungvolk (Hitler Youth). You don’t support Trump but have you ever bought food at MacDonald’s and thus supported them? Not cliche, just silly.
Whether it be Obama, Hillary or Donald Trump you may see Civil War happen in the US besides a Great Depression and we are already into it as we stand (the beginning) and I see it in Europe as well. Trump is right and it is like I have to spoon feed it to you to make you understand the reason why he is making a wall and doesn’t want Islam.
Lassie there are Jews and others around today who have gone through Hitler’s horror and I can tell you that Donald Trump is no Hitler. Trump has reasons for not wanting Islam and you don’t know about Islam and thank Donald Trump for not wanting them. My husband’s country is torn apart because of Islam. God help us all because Justine is a leftist and leftists bring in Islam.
I know because I know and others don’t. Arrggghhhh!!!!!
We could do without the condescending remarks.
Jules I hope that the potential for civil war in the US (& Europe) remains low. However to be realistic a possibility exists. Financial hardship is a likely reality in Canada not as likely in the US. Watch for the Canadian dollar to decline in 2017 as we edge closer to the implementation of a carbon tax system Canadians cannot afford to pay. Rolling seas in a leaky boat is a bad combination.
Mr. Oldham I saw about a week ago maybe less the Cnd dollar down to 70 cents US. The US dollar is going to tumble as well and there may be another currency and all the talk about WW3 is not for nothing – it is all about money.
Mr. Oldham you are right Canadians cannot afford the carbon taxes and it is going to take away more jobs. Here in Ottawa there is a 3% vacancy in apartment buildings not counting townhouses or private homes. There are no jobs and anything around is hard to get. Many will lose their homes and jobs and I assure you a big depression is on the way and part of it is already here – way too expensive.
Mr. Oldham carbon taxes are coming along with a lower Cnd dollar and the lower dollar is implemented so as to be better for trade but with the carbon taxes that will hang us up to dry in many ways. Many Canadians cannot keep this insanity up anymore and you will see things getting a great deal worse soon.
Forty two years ago a cousin of my girlfriend said to my husband and I “don’t burry yourself in this dreadful town” and he left for Toronto and we left for Ottawa. I will never ever forget his words and he was absolutely right. People will see Cornhole slip into death more than what you see now and nothing will ever revive that old dead carcass.
I’m surprised with all the crap going on in Ottawa that you’ve stayed there that long.
Hugger a great deal is going on here in Ottawa and I haven’t figured out where to go yet but one day something will bring me away from here. My daughter hasn’t found a good job yet and made 96% in her course and working as a slave where she is and more hours on her this week because of he insanity of two of her co-workers and some others go fired for other things. We are in shock over what happe
Jules I still think you’ll move back to Cornwall 🙂
With Ottawa’s problems (sink holes, control freak mayor and some councillors, thinking the LRT will come in on budget and on time,etc) I’m surprised anyone wants to live in that cesspool. Working in finance and admin for the federal government I saw some very creative ways to balance budgets and hide expenses/revenue. I suspect Ottawa is using some creative bookkeeping for the LRT.
What a sweet relief it is to live out in the boonies surrounded by rocks and trees and creeks. Lots of distance between neighbors and we all get along really well that way.
Oh no Jamie not you too about me to return back to Cornhole. My husband keeps after me every day about going back down there and I say “over my dead body”. Things are bad enough here in Ottawa like you wouldn’t believe . I would string up Holy Cow Gilles Latour and all the clique because I wouldn’t stomach any of them not one. Jamie I mean it when I said that you are the best.
The two women that got caught with $5.00 theft (bus tickets) and they both made $20.00/hour doing the very same work as my daughter and were hired with a previous company before and they were farmed in. One woman bought a house with her husband in Barrhaven just recently and now this. Well I spilled the beans. If you take one piece of paper that doesn’t belong to you it is theft.
I do not have anything good to say about Holy Cow Gilles Latour and he is (or should I say was) in a professional level where he was supposed to know better. The reputation that he was supposed to carry as a professional is now finished for life. I am literally shocked at the other two women – I cannot get over it at all. One relative lives in the town homes below me and she is in shock as well
I agree with Admin I think Jules will move back to Cornwall. How else do you explain her constant yapping about Cornwall? Admit it Jules you like Cornwall and are counting the days until you’re back here. I agree Jamie si good at what he does. But even he may get tired of the ass kissing.
I think we should run a pool to see when Jules moves back to Cornwall. Her unhealthy obsession with Cornwall, IMHO, only means one thing. She misses Cornwall. How soon Jules, how soon?
Hugger Jules is actually an example of the culture of Cornwall. She’s from an earlier generation. While she may articulate some things in a very strong manner it’s not hard to translate some of the clear meanings.
I don’t think she’s a mean person. She just has her views and beliefs and while some may be more reticent to share them, she’s clearly not.
And while I have to moderate or simply delete the majority of her comments, I think she has a role in the conversation of our city, because if someone like Jules doesn’t want to live here I think we should pause for a moment and really consider what’s going on what’s been covered up in this area.
But she does want to move back to Cornwall. She just won’t admit it.
Admin:While I agree with your comments up to a certain point. I have issues with how and how often she continues with her degradation of Cornwall. Yes, she has the right to do that. But I also have the right to have an opposing view. Cornwall has its issues, as does any city, town, etc. But to be constantly bombarded with her insults is disgusting and counter-productive to Cornwall.
But as I’ve said to myself many times after reading many of Jules’ tirades “whatever.” If she wants to make a difference she should stop complaining, admit she likes Cornwall, move back here and help make the needed changes.