CALEB NICKERSON
L’ÎLE DU GRAND CALUMET July 13, 2020
The Municipality of L’Île du Grand Calumet held their first in-person council meeting in several months on July 13, and several citizens turned out to voice their displeasure with . . .
Mayor Serge Newberry.
Former councillor Mario Tremblay brought forward a petition with more than 300 signatures calling for Newberry to resign. According to Tremblay, he and four other residents had gathered the names after taking part in a protest in May, which was in response to allegations by councillor Réjean Meilleur that Newberry had pushed him to the ground during an argument. Another councillor, Alice Meilleur-Pieschke, also accused Newberry of intimidation following a separate incident the same day. No charges have been laid in either case.
“We had the small demonstration there, we had four of us and we decided to go around and [collect] people’s names,” Tremblay said.
On top of the allegations from the two councillors, Tremblay said that he had issues with how council was spending money and was also concerned with the turnover rate of staff in the municipal office. Since 2017, there have been at least four directors general that have come and gone.
Newberry declined to comment on the subject when contacted by THE EQUITY.
During the meeting on July 13, CHIP FM reported that he responded to the petition by suggesting that not everyone that signed it knew they were requesting his resignation. Tremblay denied this allegation.
After serving 30 years as a councillor on the island, Tremblay ran for mayor in 2017 and placed third in a field of four candidates with 105 votes or 24.71 per cent, behind former mayor Paul-Émile Maleau (125 votes, 29.41 per cent) and Newberry, who won with 144 votes or 33.88 per cent.
Back in 2018, there was another attempt to get Newberry to resign, after an anonymous letter was circulated throughout the community which criticized his leadership and also the qualifications of the director general at the time. At the council meeting that followed the letter on March 5, roughly 50 people showed up and voiced their displeasure with council.
At the time, Newberry told THE EQUITY he suspected some councillors, current and former, were working trying to undermine him and the rest of council and called the meeting a “rough patch”.
