Editor’s note: Below is the text of our latest e-newsletter to all subscribers in which we express The Current’s tribute to the late Mark Willmer. To provide context and avoid accusations of being hypocritical, we felt it important to remind readers of the circumstances which resulted in our becoming unwillingly estranged from Mark.
Danielle and I first met Mark in 2013 and became increasingly friendly over the following years, including when I was President of the Lakeshore Tennis Club as well as a Director of St. Francis Memorial Hospital. We supported his efforts to contribute to the community as the voluntary Age Friendly Community Planning Coordinator. After we commenced publishing The Current in early 2018, our admiration for his qualities as a community-minded individual increased such that The Current supported his candidacy for municipal councillorship in the 2018 election. He, in turn, acknowledged and respected the need in Madawaska Valley for a community newspaper which reported fearlessly no matter whose “feathers were ruffled.” Above: Mark Willmer in his home office. (Photo Current archives)
To our everlasting regret, because of his scrupulous observance of the requirement that Council speaks with one voice, he joined in the attack on The Current orchestrated by former Mayor Kim Love and Councillor Peplinski in August 2019. We well remember the obvious discomfort he showed as Love smugly launched her attack, believing that false information the Township lawyer had provided her with would contribute to the end of The Current. Mark’s dismay at what was happening became more obvious when Peplinski abandoned the rehearsed script in his haste to gloat, sneer, and make accusatory comments to us across the Council chambers.
Former Councillor Carl Bromwich subsequently admitted to me that Love had issued a “three-line whip” to her Councillors so as to ensure that they would all vote for the spiteful resolution targeting me. What happened next in the lawsuit has been reported extensively in the pages of The Current, and can be found in our archives, but not in any of the pages of our other local “newspaper.” Suffice to say, we did everything in our power to bring an early resolution to the legal action, including repeatedly suggesting mediation. This was ignored, following the trend set by Peplinski and the Township in Danielle’s preceding Human Rights Tribunal claim. Sadly, among other unnecessary consequences, we were denied the opportunity of reestablishing our friendship with Mark.
All of this never affected our own personal high regard for Mark, for his quiet competence and enthusiastic efforts to keep this community moving forward – all of which have been well documented in the local media and elsewhere. We offer sincere condolences to Janet, family and friends on his passing.