Dear Editor,
Ever step into the kind of muck that takes hold of your foot — twist and turn, and you’re more stuck, and deeper in? And when you get loose, you’re minus a shoe, or there’s a clod of mud that won’t come off without a mess on your hands.
Stepping in city hall culture is a bit like that, as seen by the swamp that was Cornwall Mayor Kilger’s council and administration – it’s a mess left on our hands that we still suffer and pay for.
One mess especially worth noting, followed the deliberate failure to report elder abuse at the Glen Stor Dun lodge, and the reprisals, harassment, and dismissal of the whistleblower that protested it.
The acts and fails of the Glen-Stor-Dun manager, the city’s CAO, the Human Resources manager, the Mayor and Council were uncovered by the judicial process that brought down a verdict of “GUILTY” on the City of Cornwall.
And it was painfully clear how city council sat on its wee hands during the scandal, and through the disgraceful city hall denials after the verdict… This, with a supposed lawyer sitting on council to boot!!!
Does anyone recall this “lawyer” calling out Kilger, Fitzpatrick, Menagh, Durochie or anyone else for the Glen Stor Dun Lodge fiasco, or confronting the city hall dolts who scandalized the justice system by denying fault (despite the plea and verdict), and suggesting court justice is about money.
And now we have “lawyer” Bernadette Clement being touted as a candidate for the Canadian Senate or, God save us, an appointment to the bench! …Is that what we need?
Do we need someone intent on making friends rather than making a stand?
Do we need someone to talk uninvited about nothing at any opportunity for face-time?
Do we need someone with no qualms about using us as a career stepping stone?
Do we need someone that is driven by politics not conviction?
Prime Minister Trudeau has distinguished himself by advancing honourable causes but, is his current attempt to correct a political and judicial landscape created by the previous fascist-lite government, a “fix” in the very style of his disgraced predecessor?
Here’s trusting that the criteria for the government’s quota formula doesn’t trump merit with; a fashionable orientation; a token tint; vanilla opinions; or a proven fealty to …My Leader Right or Wrong.
(Editor’s Note) We have allowed the writer of this letter to with hold their name because of the lack of protection for Whistle Blowers by the council of which Ms Clement has now sat for three terms.