OPINIONS
editionap.ca
Raymond Serrurier challenges plaintiff’s motives
When I resigned from council last November, my intention was to keep a low profile and stay out of the municipal political arena. I cannot remain silent in the face of recent actions from the Guibord clan on council and comments made about me in the propaganda pam- phlet that the Clarence-Rockland taxpayers are paying for. First, as I have said often before, the mayor and his allies on council are constantly disre- specting the residents that they were elected to represent. The latest lack of respect comes from their naming a unilingual French person, Jacques Archambault, to replace me as councillor for ward 4. Due to the demographics of Clarence-Rockland, all of its elected of- ficials need to be bilingual in order to properly represent their constituents. Approximately 40%of the residents in ward 4 will now have to get a translator if they want to speak to their councillor. Therefore, even though I am no longer in office, I invite any English speaking resident of ward 4 to contact me if they need assistance in dealing with municipal council. Secondly, a lot has been written about the dismissal of the complaint for conflict of inter- est that had been brought against me by Jacques Archambault and Jean-Claude Marinier. You may remember that this complaint was filed despite my having received legal advice in writing in 2006 that showed that I would not be in conflict of interest on Levac, Robi- chaud, Leclerc (“LRL “) files even though my son was employed by them. They claim that the complaint was automatically dropped when I resigned on Novem- ber 18th. This is completely false. The plaintiffs' legal representative contacted my legal team shortly after I resigned to set conditions for their dropping the complaint. These conditions were that I admit that I had acted wrongly; that I not run in the 2014 municipal election and that I provide them with a sum of money for their legal fees. We categorically refused these conditions. We also informed them that we would be ready to proceed with the December hearing and that we would be submitting new evidence in my defence. If the complaint was to be automatically dismissed, why this offer ? A few days later, Archambault and Marinier, through their lawyer, came back with an of- fer to dismiss the complaint without any conditions. My legal team suggested that I accept this offer and I did. Personally, I would have gladly gone ahead with the hearing in order to clear my name. Please note that the plaintiffs were the only ones who could withdraw the complaint. I needed to go to court and prove that I was not in conflict of interest in order to have the complaint dismissed. It is strange that statements, written in the pamphlet, with all kinds of legal jargon, could contain so many errors. In his complaint against me in 2012, Jacques Archambault said that he had learned of my alleged conflicts of interest simply by calling City Hall on June 8 and received all the information concerning LRL payments and contracts over the telephone. However, a short time before I resigned, I had obtained a copy of an email (new evidence) dated June 10, 2012, from councillor Diane Choinière to Chantal McLean-Leroux, who was
then City Treasurer. In this email, councillor Choinière was asking for all copies of invoices and payments for LRL since 2006. I have checked with a number of people at City Hall, and there had been no request for the LRL documentation from Jacques Archambault at that time. Furthermore, because he was not a councillor, M. Archambault could not have obtained such information except through an access to information request. He would definitely not have obtained such information from a civil servant in a telephone conver- sation as he has testified. Jacques Archambault, then also testified that he had read a let- ter drafted by Stéphane Lalonde, on June 11 2012, asking that I resign. This shows that Archambault got his information from elected councillors and other outside sources, and not as he claims. I challenge him, after someone has translated this letter to him, to make his cross-exam- ination for the complaint against me public. I also challenge him to show how my conclu- sion that he got his information from elected councillors is wrong. I have always maintained that this complaint was politically motivated. So with Diane Choinère's request for information, their only witness being Guy Felio (the only person oth- er than Archambault and Marinier to sign an affidavit against me) and finally with Jacques Archambault being appointed to council, I would like somebody to provide me with evi- dence that this action against me was not politically motivated. In closing, I invite Jacques Archambault to join me at TVC22 for a one on one video de- bate with a moderator present (we'll do it in French). We could then let the public decide who has been lying.
Raymond Serrurier Ex-municipal councillor Rockland
EOHU advice for extreme cold sue extreme cold warnings when the wind chill factor pushes the outside temperature conditions for the region to minus 25 de- grees. That has proven the case for most of January and part of February this year.
The weather forecast for the Ottawa re- gion and surrounding areas calls for at least one more week of extreme cold before tem- peratures start warming up for the March break. The Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) has had a regular posting of an extreme cold warning on its website and that will continue until the winter weather decides to break. “We seem to be always giving cold weath- er warnings,” said Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, EOHU chief medical health officer. He noted that the EOHU practice is to is- www. editionap .ca Everything at your fingertips Tout au bout des doigts
Along with the extreme cold warning, the EOHU provides advice about both preven- tion and treatment of frostbite, which be- comes a greater risk for those who either have to work outside or are diehard snow- mobiling enthusiasts. Dr. Roumeliotis noted that there is a greater risk of frostbite when there are temperature fluctuations with warming temperatures followed soon after by wind chill conditions. “The combination of cold and then wet or damp conditions makes the freezing pro- cess work faster,” he said. Dr. Roumeliotis also urged people who have to be outside during the cold tem- peratures to be aware of proper treatment of even mild frostbite. Gradual warming of the extremities or other affected areas is the correct procedure, not immersing in very hot water or rubbing the affected parts with snow or ice.
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