STEPHEN RICCIO
LUSKVILLE Oct. 13, 2020
A group of Municipality of Pontiac (MoP) residents gathered outside of the Luskville Town Hall on the evening of Oct. 13 to demand the resignation of Mayor Joanne Labadie, as well as other councillors.
A group of roughly a dozen cars organized by driving in circles around the town hall as they honked their horns to voice their displeasure.
Diane Lacasse, one of the organizers, said that the protesting residents were there to express a lack of . . .
confidence in the mayor and several councillors, although she did not specify which ones.
“There’s a breach of confidence, there’s no communication,” she said. “[Labadie’s] been saying that, you know, we’re just a bunch of lies, but all the information that comes from [the Facebook account] comes from the minutes of the meetings.”
The Facebook account that Lacasse was referring to is one that operates under a pseudonym and was recently the subject of a ban from the MoP page after the municipality deemed some of their conduct as harassment. The account has been active over the past several months sharing information such as budgetary expenses and council meeting resolutions, as well as making several accusations without providing evidence. One of those accusations is that Labadie has made a conscious effort to prevent certain citizens from gaining access to the Zoom council meetings.
THE EQUITY contacted the Facebook account in question to see if they would disclose the person or people behind the posts, but received a message back declining to do so.
Labadie denied any lack of transparency or favouritism on her part. She said that she is more than willing to sit down and talk with people regarding their issues.
“We’ve reached out to her,” Lacasse said while laughing. “I’ve had a couple of meetings with Joanne, I’ve stopped trying, you don’t have a dialogue with her, it’s just her way.”
Lacasse also said she had been told by a public works employee that municipal authorities were aware that the culvert that gave way to a road washout resulting in a Quyon woman’s death in April 2019 needed repairs.
She said that the employee isn’t comfortable coming forward officially with this information.
Lacasse did not specify how the employee knew that authorities had knowledge of that specific culvert.
Labadie was disturbed to hear such accusations.
“It’s very alarming,” she said. “All of the allegations laid against me are false, all of them.”
“I was elected to represent the residents of the Municipality of Pontiac. I was elected by a majority of voters. I also swore an oath to uphold the laws be it municipal, provincial, federal, and I also swore an oath to tell the truth and I take each and everyone of those oaths very seriously and to be the best of my knowledge I have upheld them. What this small group of people is trying to do is trying to usurp democracy, there was a democratic process and there are democratic institutions to deal with corruption.”
She said that she encourages any residents who believe there is a need for transparency to file a complaint with the Quebec Municipal Commission. Part of the complaint on behalf of Lacasse and the Facebook account is that this has been attempted but blocked by Labadie, although evidence of this is unclear.
Lacasse acknowledged that she is planning on running for a councillor position during next year’s municipal election, and she was critical of how Labadie ran for mayor without being a councillor beforehand.
“I am planning on running as a councillor,” she said. “[Labadie] never attended a meeting of the council before she ran for mayor, I’ve attended most of the meetings and I’m not gonna run for mayor, I don’t have that knowledge yet.
“I have nothing personal against Joanne Labadie, she is a nice person,” Lacasse added. “But being a mayor, no.”
Councillor Scott McDonald noticed the protest on his way back from a hike at the Luskville Falls.
“From what I understand it was a bit of protest against the mayor as far as not [providing] full disclosure and openness, and a couple of things,” he said.
McDonald said that an organized protest against council members was out of the ordinary in the Pontiac.
“Our municipality has never seen anything like that, but we’ve never seen COVID either.”
