CORNWALL Ontario – Brian Vincent is feeling discouraged. The family was happy when a new group came together to help rebuild their family rink.
A meeting was requested by the group for Thursday morning with Bill De Wit, the city manager who attended the initial break down of the boards as ordered directly by Cornwall CAO Norm Levac in spite of the family’s request for a variation and attempts by at least two councilors to further investigate options.
The city had given the family ten days to take down the boards after a former Councilor, Glen Grant, helped expedite the complaint, but most of those ten days were holidays and most of their phone calls and emails were not returned. It almost felt that it was rigged that way?
While expecting an exchange or at least some answers the family instead saw policy and heavy equipment in front of their home on the 5th.
Mrs. Vincent and Councilor Justin Towndale were interviewed by Sun News TV guy Brian Lilley at the Vincent home recently and talk about some of the issue.
Sun video
As you can see there are more questions than answers at this point. We (I am a member of the group to rebuild the rink) after not getting a reply in the morning from Mr. De Wit received an email from him stating that this now has to go through CAO Norm Levac.
It was boggling as the questions were very basic and simple. My questions are outlined below in blue.
Hi Mr. De Wit,
It’s very saddening when a city manager cannot return communication in a timely fashion. We’re all busy. We all have schedules. I sent you a message through the city website last night.
I have left you two voice mails this morning. I have tried calling Stephen Alexander, Norm Levac, and Mayor O’Shaughnessy.
Nobody seems to be answering their phones?
If you are too busy for a meeting perhaps you can answer clearly a few basic questions, today, as the timing of the weather is crucial for a successful result. The questions are below in blue.
Your heavy machinery went out of its way to not touch the boards or ice pad. The boards as they were, were removed. The ice pad is still in place although fractured. Is the ice pad a violation?
Will the City of Cornwall take any issues with the securing of the ice pad on the Vincent’s property via snow or hay as mentioned by Mayor O’Shaughnessy even if some of that surface is on property owned by the city? To note the Vincent’s paved driveway where they park is also city property.
Do you have any issue with a snow/hay wall that supports a piece of wood that is not affixed to any surface?
Are there any special requirements that the Vincent family rink needs to meet to enjoy their rink without further grief from the City?
Is there anything that you can think of in your capacity to prevent us from saving the ice surface?
We need an answer before the end of business today please as our team needs the cold weather.
Thank you for your time, and timely assistance.
Jamie
Mr. Levac did not answer those questions yesterday. He has not answered those questions as of press time. The Vincent’s and the group have lost out a night of rink building and there are only six weeks or so left of the season.
Roland Besner, who ran for council, put it best on Facebook.
There should have been some compassion somewhere that would have allowed this situation into Spring.
Listen carefully to Laura Vincent when she speaks of the due diligence done last year ahead of time and also of the 2×2 spikes that were only 4 inches into the ground and apparently in contravention of the by law !
I know I helped take some of them out.
Those questions were also sent to the mayor and council. Instead of council realizing that this was an opportunity to put some make up on a shiner they have simply turtled while talking about a tax increase of over 5% in the upcoming budget wrangling!
Mrs. Vincent responded to the delay.
Definitely discouraged and beyond disappointed. They were voted into council to listen to and represent Cornwall residents. With the exception of two distinguished and dedicated Councillors, all other members have ignored our simple questions.
Council was handed an opportunity to to regain some positive attention for Cornwall and ‘right’ a ‘wrong ‘; however, they are choosing to ignore our questions.
Our ultimate goal is to provide our children with a rink on our property while respecting bylaws and ensuring all parties are satisfied.
While the vast majority of the city, if not of Canada are in support of the Vincent family there are some that are following the line of City Hall and taking to social media.
Graham Greer of Barstool prophet fame took to facebook. Of course Mr. Greer and his wife have really good jobs that many have claimed they got more because of patronage than merit or experience.
The Vincent family have done nothing wrong. Nothing. They checked with utilities. The spikes entered the ground no more than Mayor O’Shaughnessy’s election or real estate signs. What should be investigated though has been this entire process including who signed off on the complaint. As for the use of the land; well frankly if you mow the grass and maintain the property then you should have some use of it. A temporary ice pad in Winter is not against the by laws as they are written.
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When confronted with the work order, and told by by law officer that it was political with names mentioned they appealed to a councilor whose own child skated on their rink; David Murphy.
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The ten days they had were mostly holidays. The Mayor told them they could have extra time yet the trucks were there on January 5th as per the order.
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The mayor went on CFRA radio and accused Mrs. Vincent of mounting a facebook campaign. She did nothing of the sort. She appealed to Councilor Murphy on facebook (who’s since stopped trying to help the family) and the media, including this outlet and others have run with what has become a National story.
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It’s as though the Vincent’s are being re-victimized. First they lose their beautiful rink. Then they get vilified as City Hall and their supporters like Mr. Greer try to spin the story to curry favour.
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I think Councilor Towndale hinted at it in the Lilley interview. Cornwall is being painted across Canada, not so much by what we the people want, but by what a narrow group wish.
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Hopefully Mr. Levac will answer those four simple basic questions as our group is planning a ice block building party for Saturday January 10th at 1 PM. We have to build up snow walls and freeze some ice blocks so that the rink can be balanced.
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The next week’s weather is critical if the rink is to be rebuilt. One strange argument put forth is that an ice sheet can’t be on some of the land that belongs to the city, which is silly because in Winter snow and ice are on most of our properties. The Vincent’s actual driveway is on city land.
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If Mayor O’Shaughnessy has slipped and hurt himself when he visited the ice rink before Christmas on the City land what would the issue had been?
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You can’t legislate common sense. And the biggest irony is that they neighbors across the street, the Houle family that own the local Petro Canada and National Rental office on Vincent Massey, headed off to Florida for their winter break. Imagine being part of a group to kill a kids rink and then enjoy the sun?
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For those that want to be a part of the group to rebuild the rink you can email jamie@cornwallfreenews.com. Because the city removed all the snow around the rink we might need some extra. Oddly enough the Freeholder, Seaway News,and smaller media locally have not covered the rebuild story. Is that simply because this writer is part of the group? Is it for fear of losing city ad dollars?
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See what happens when common sense isn’t used? Because at the end of the day none of this should ever have happened. If there hadn’t been a political abuse of power then there would have been no media stories.
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What are your thoughts Canada and please sign our petition and vote in our poll. Your voice does matter.
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We the Undersigned Ask the City of Cornwall to Leave the Vincent's Home Ice Rink in Place
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