Author: CLARION

TOO MANY QUESTIONS

Too many questions.

That was the main reason cited by Renfrew’s mayor to explain his decision to “postpone” the regular meeting of Renfrew Town Council scheduled for this past September 9, 2025.  A decision made a couple of hours before puck drop.

Too many questions?

One has to wonder from whom, as in who has all these questions that brings the town to an abrupt halt, not so much in a functional day-to-day manner, but in the way things like democratic responsibility, democratic process, transparency, and accountability are handled, and by extension, respected.

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“FOR CAUSE” DISMISSAL A POSSIBLE TOOL TO ENFORCE ACCOUNTABILITY?

“Get the hell out of my office.”

When you say something like this to another person, you had better be confident in your own security, in your own authority, and have a pretty healthy and robust understanding of where you fit in the grand scheme of things.  

Otherwise, you’re just asking for it.

Those words up top, I’m sure, have been used innumerable times by innumerable people all across this great land of ours, but I want to hone in on them because they were said right here in Renfrew, by a Renfrew treasurer, to an elected Renfrew councillor.

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SPEED DATING PROPOSED AS A MEANS TO COMMUNICATE WITH SENIOR STAFF

Perusing the agenda document released in advance of Tuesday’s double meeting of Renfrew Town Council, I came upon what could only be characterized as an attempt by senior administration to try something bold, something new.

It appears, if you squint, that they’re going to make an effort to — gasp — communicate.  Well how about that?

Perhaps the brainchild of our own senior staff, or perhaps something picked up in fruitful discussions with other municipal CAOs and clerk types at the recent AMO conference, it represents a high-water mark in terms of providing insight into the dark mysteries that swirl in the closely-guarded backrooms of Fort Renfrew.

The plan is brilliant.

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ALGONQUINS HOST 36TH ANNUAL POW WOW

PHOTO GALLERY BELOW

They had me at the opening prayer.

I first came across it maybe thirty-five years ago, back in North Bay, where an Ojibway reserve was right next to the city, its residents an integrated part of the place.  As well, many Indigenous children from northern reserves attended the same high school as I did, so there was a Native presence in my school that exposed the rest of us to aspects of First Nations culture.

It was Chief Dan George who introduced me to the Creator Prayer, not in person mind you, but through a VHS video tape I was viewing while studying English as a Second Language at Nipissing University.

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