Note: The Current’s owners share their final newsletter here for the benefit of all readers. Allegations against individuals named below were initially provided to each giving them the opportunity to deny. No responses were received.
Firstly, apologies for the length of this, our final newsletter but we thought it was in the public interest to be clear and unambiguous about our reasons for discontinuing publication. Much of what you will read below will be familiar to our regular readers; however, the minimal response to our public interest Petition aimed at recovering some of the financial penalties taxpayers have incurred as a result of Council’s abuse of power suggests that either many residents may have been unfamiliar with the nature and consequences of their elected representatives’ misconduct or alternatively for reasons we suggest below, they have studiously avoided taking issue with it.
To cut to the chase, the brutal truth is that we conclusively proved – and in the Superior Court of Ontario no less – that for many years you have been governed by elected representatives and their accomplices who have inflicted abuse of power in its most harmful forms on their constituents. And we are not just referring to their malicious vendetta against this newspaper. The extent of the sense of entitlement on the part of the primary instigators, fuelled by their breath-taking arrogance and disregard for the obligations imposed on them by law, beggars belief. Except that many, if not most, of their constituents who bother to vote appear not to care one iota about such unlawful conduct. Hence, for example, the recent re-election of one of the perpetrators who, tellingly, seems to prefer to be known by the alias of “Johnny Kashub.”
The ethnic cult factor
Before we moved to the Valley where we built our retirement home, we lived in Toronto. One of our closest friends there, who was of Polish descent and who had connections to this area, had previously advised us to seriously consider changing our name to “Paulski” if we wanted to improve our chances of being accepted in the community. We scoffed at that but, given the events of the last ten years, we now completely understand what prompted his suggestion. In short, there appears to exist what has been referred to as an “ethnic cult” in the Valley such that it has given rise to a culture of unbelievable tolerance of what would in any other community be regarded as completely unacceptable civic behaviour.
This, we have been told by some correspondents, explains the bizarrely lukewarm, to say the least, response to our public interest Petition launched at the beginning of last month. That Petition was suggested and drafted by an independent expert source we consulted who was familiarized with all the relevant facts and evidence that resulted in our winning our lawsuit. This included our proving that Madawaska Valley residents had been subject to increased taxes as a result of the conduct of an unscrupulous insurer who went out of its way to facilitate the defendants’ attempt to escape the consequences of their misconduct. It did this by ignoring the exclusions in its own insurance policy that barred coverage and indemnity for intentional misconduct, hence the title of our Petition “Taxpayers should not bear any costs of intentional misconduct by their elected representatives.”
In support of the Petition’s grounds, we aired a video podcast on our YouTube channel in which we went to great lengths to explain to residents how it was impossible to dispute that Council’s conduct was intentional and malicious. We also explained the reason for each of the clauses in the Petition. Here is a link to it. https://youtu.be/rgM9sueexok?si=6Gl9Tsr96sr8-Vl4
CAO Klatt’s role
We have reported extensively over the years on the egregious conduct of CAO Klatt who resorted to fabricating accusations about the publisher’s previous conduct, allegedly based on municipal records. Our initial request that she produce those records was rejected, and that was just the start of her blatant disregard of the rules of the Superior Court, including giving false evidence under oath.
What she indisputably did was to subordinate her legal obligations to the residents she is paid to serve by agreeing to be the only defence witness in our lawsuit. This despite the fact that our allegations of malicious abuse of power etc. were directed only to the members of that Council. Yet not one of those defendants dared to give evidence on their own behalves to answer the most serious allegations made against them. This is because Klatt, in clear breach of her statutory obligations as a municipal CAO, shielded them by stepping into their shoes so that they would not have to give evidence personally and therefore be subject to cross-examination. Roger admits that this was extremely disappointing to him as he was salivating at the prospect of being able to cross-examine both defendants Love and Peplinski. However, in the end it contributed to our victory because Klatt’s defence was always doomed to fail because of the defendants’ stupidity and arrogance.
Two days ago we received the Agenda for the Special Council meetings scheduled for next Tuesday and Wednesday. These revealed that, ironically, Klatt has been tasked with teaching the new Council how to comply with their obligations under the Municipal Act. This will require her to educate the members, including Johnny Kashub, about their obligations to comply with the Municipal Act requirements of behaving with “Integrity, Accountability and Transparency” while performing their offices …
Tip of the iceberg
The three-quarters of a million dollars illegally plundered from the municipal insurance policy at taxpayers’ expense is only the tip of the iceberg. In recent years there have been other successful legal claims made against the Township, and not just the one arising from Love’s corrupt firing of Integrity Commissioner Rosien to stop him upholding a complaint against Shelley Maika. There have, for example, been legal claims arising from firings of CAOs and other staff, including Paul Nopper, former Recreation & Community Development Officer. He was targeted by Peplinski, as was Danielle (who succeeded in a Human Rights claim against him), because they were “not from here,” and because of the award-winning successful promotion of tourism by using arts and culture at the Barry’s Bay Railway Station visitors centre. As we reported at the time, a resident responded by saying Peplinski would likely have kept his mouth shut had the visitors centre been located in Combermere.
This brought to public attention the additional phenomenon of “inter-village friction” which was the subject of a widely read “Porch Views” article by Mark Woermke in The Current. The friction apparently began 25 years ago with amalgamation and was fomented by, among others, Peplinski and Maika who abused their positions as Councillors by doing so.
In any event our estimate of the total amount of completely unnecessary legal costs arising from this mendacious conduct is in the range of approximately $1.5 to $2 million. All of this has been kept out of the public eye because the Township always makes it a condition of any settlement that secrecy must prevail – so much for the statutory obligation of being “transparent.” Also, to repeat a familiar refrain, they can always rely on the Valley Gazette to keep Valley residents completely in the dark.
In conclusion, although we have been completely vindicated by our accurate truth-to-power reporting and through our successful legal claim, this has come at great personal cost both in terms of stress and financial pressure – not to mention Peplinski’s death threats. As well we recently received evidence (which we have reported on) that the vendetta against us remains alive and well, with the prospect for the above reasons that some members of the new Council may continue acting on the hostility against us. Also the miniscule response to our “public interest” Petition was the final straw that broke our backs.
Needless to say we are grateful for the support we have received and express the hope that our departure will encourage some residents to continue to use all available means to hold members of Council and the CAO to account. This of course will be necessary so long as the ridiculously named “paper of record,” the Valley Gazette, fails to even acknowledge corruption despite Court records and other unimpeachable sources that confirm it.
Public interest Petition
This is available for signature via OpenPetition.org and here in The Current, until 27th March 2027 and hopefully in time it will receive a much more appropriate response such as to give the targets some cause to review their positions.
Acknowledgements
Thank you firstly to our many readers. Publishing news online meant we could see that our readership was international from the very beginning – holidayers, snowbirds, and anyone with a connection to the Valley could read The Current wherever they lived, worked or studied around the globe.
Thank you also to our contributors – our records detail more than 85 writers, who have helped The Current publish more than 2900 online stories which, in turn, inspired our readers to submit more than 2500 online comments. Feel free to check our Archives which remain available online for the foreseeable future.
Special acknowledgement and thanks go to the many supporters who provided vital “in-kind” support including design, journalism training, photography, promotion, technical assistance and much, much more.
Heartfelt thanks also for financial support from more than 100 advertisers – individuals, businesses, other not-for-profit organizations, service clubs, and healthcare providers. These advertisers were not only located in the Madawaska Valley, although the Township itself never placed advertising with us. The Current has carried ads from various departments of Renfrew County, province-wide organizations, school boards, educational institutions, and even a neighbouring municipality (BLR) that had come under fire from our opinion writing.
To our many readers, contributors and supporters – goodbye and good luck.Roger Paul and Danielle Paul