Cornwall_2013_03_27

NEWS

editionap.ca

Mayor pleads ignorance on sign issue

CRIME SCENE

Arrested for threats A Cornwall teen has been charged with uttering threats after he was accused of threatening a 42-year-old man at a Wa- ter Street residence. The 17-year-old was arrested last Wednesday under the strength of an out- standing warrant. The teen was held in custody until court the following day. His name was not re- leased as per provision under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Suspicious person A report of a suspicious person near Roxmore Public School in Avonmore last Wednesday afternoon turned out to be unfounded. Members of the Ontario Provincial Po- lice SD&G detachment were dispatched to the school after students reported they had observed a man dressed in black and possibly carrying a weapon near the school around 1:15 p.m. today. Two Arrested in b & e Two people are facing break and enter charges after a vehicle witnessed at the scene of the crime was spotted by SD&G OPP on Highway 401. The vehicle and occupants were ob- served on Highway 401 where a traffic stop was conducted. The 39-year-old driver, Brandy Rogerson and her 40-year- old passenger, Luc Maurice Serre, both of South Dundas, were arrested. The face charges of breaking into and enter a place with intent to commit in- dictable offence, possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000, and pos- session of break in instruments. Rogerson is scheduled to appear May 14 in Cornwall court. Serre was held in custody pending an appearance in Corn- wall court. SD&G OPP have recovered various items of property that are unclaimed. Robbery with firearm A gun-wielding 21-year-old Cornwall man faces charges after a violent rob- bery on March 16. Olivier Delatour is accused of breaking into a Duncan Street residence and de- manding property from a 17-year-old girl and a 19-year-old man when he assaulted them. A firearm was also involved in the incident, although Cornwall police did not specify how it was used. The victims suffered minor injuries, ac- cording to police Delatour is charged with two counts of assault, disguise with intent, failing to comply with a recognizance, break and enter, using a firearm while committing offence and robbery with violence.

GREG KIELEC greg.kielec@eap.on.ca

Cornwall Mayor Bob Kilger says he has no idea how protesters’ signs -- missing for five days after a Feb. 25 council meeting -- ended up in his office. He also says he has no idea how the signs, which were handed over to police by the city March 1, disappeared from his office. “I didn’t bring them into my office and I didn’t take them out of my office,” Kilger told The Journal in an interview last week. “I don’t know when they came in and when they left,” he said. Asked how he could not notice protest signs in his office for five days, the mayor said that “ignorance is bliss” and that he didn’t take any particular interest in the signs while they were in his office. Protesters were left wondering for five days where there signs were when they disappeared at a protest at city hall prior to council’s Feb. 25 meeting. Norm Levac, the city’s chief administra- tive officer, told The Journal in an email last Tuesday that they had been in the mayor’s office all that time. “I believe the signs were in the mayor’s office from the beginning,” said Levac in re- sponse to an email from The Journal . “(I’m) not sure who put them there but there were sent to Chief (Dan) Parkinson that Thursday or Friday.” Parkinson did not return a call for com- Not only does Cornwall city councillor Andre Rivette want two year-old whis- tle-blower cases settled immediately, he wants Mayor Bob Kilger to take the lead at the council table to bring them to a suc- cessful conclusion. “The bottom line is, it doesn’t take a year … to settle something like this,” Rivette to The Journal . “There are so many God d—n reports from lawyers, it’s sickening.” “It has to come to a hed to get everything out there and get it dealt with,”he insisted. The mayor recently issued a statement claiming that while he is not in conflict of interest on one of the whistle-blower cases filed with the city early last year, he will not participate in any further discussion on the issue which, thus far, has been debated ex- clusively behind closed doors. But Rivette – who now estimates legal costs and settlements since early 2011 have cost taxpayers at least $2 million and as much as $2.5 million – says if the mayor has no conflict one the whistle-blower case at is- sue, he should be leading council to resolve the case.

File photo

A bent sign is shown in this photo taken by protester Chris Cameron after it was re- trieved from Cornwall police.

ment from The Journal early lastWednesday morning. The signs, which were left in a hallway prior to the Feb. 25 council meeeting, in compliance with the city’s policy forbid- ding signs in the council chambers, went missing after a number of protesters wit- nessed them being damaged by Councillor Syd Gardiner. Five days later, the signs were handed over by the city to Cornwall police, which ruled the following Monday that no charg- es would be laid in the incident. But no one knew where the signs were those five days that they disappeared into thin air. The mystery was solved when Norm Le- vac, the city’s chief administrative officer, wrote The Journal in an email that the signs were in Kilger’s office – a few hundred me- tres from city police headquarters -- the Kilgers’statement came after a press release released by whistle-blower lawyer Fay Brun- ning urging him to publicly declare a conflict of interest on the matter. According to the Ontario Municipal Act, if a council member concludes they are in conflict during an issue discussed in camera, they must disclose the conflict at the next open council meeting. Kilger has instead added a statement to at the end of the Feb. 25 minutes describ- ing matters discussed during the in camera session prior to the open session of council almost identical to a statement released by the mayor March 5 denying he is in conflict of interest, but qualifying he will not partici- pate in any further discussions on thematter. According to city council’s own procedural bylaw, council members are forbidden from revealing discussions which occur during an in camera session. The only way a council member can reveal information discussed at an in camera session is through a majority vote of council, which in Kilger’s case, has not happened.

whole time police were investigating the incident and protesters were seeking their location. Councillor Andre Rivette said he feels badly for Levac and for members of the city police, who got caught in the middle of a situation not that should have never oc- curred. “First of all, it should of have never hap- pened. There was no reason for the council- lor to go and do that,” Rivette said. “It’s mak- ing the (police) force look bad, and I’m not sure that is right.” He also believes that Gardiner should have apologized for his actions. Gardiner has maintained he did not dam- age the signs, but simply bent them to fit into a lunch room adjacent to the city coun- cil chambers. Police also ruled in their inves- tigation that the signs were not damaged. Closed meetings not meant to skirt public scrutiny, says Mayor Kilger Cornwall Mayor Bob Kilger concedes that city council has held a “disproportionate” number of closed meetings, but insists they were necessary given the issues with which council has been dealing. But he added, “there’s nothing secret about a closed-door meeting,” in response to criticism council has met in the past with- out notify the public or media. The mayor made the comments during an interview with The Journal in response to a highly critical statement issued by for- mer councillor Leslie O’Shaughnessy during which criticized the amount of time council spent behind closed doors prior to his resig- nation in April 2012. “October, November, and December (2011) was probably the most disap- pointing period in my political career,” O’Shaughnessay wrote. Please see “MAYOR”: Page 6 By Greg Kielec jcornwall@eap.on.ca

Rivette’s comments come during a frenetic couple of weeks during which the mayor is- sued a statement declaring that he is not in conflict on one of the whistleblower issues, based on advice from his lawyer. Rivette wants cases settled ASAP GREG KIELEC GREG.KIELEC@EAP.ON.CA

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