Video – Cobourg Mayor Opens Up About Emergency Council Meeting…And More
Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland has explained a bit more about a Emergency Meeting of Council called for Friday at 4 p.m.
The meeting is being held to consider a motion from Cleveland asking for full support of allowing people to sleep in the warming room at the County Building.
“I think there is a lot of nonsensical arguments going around, a lot of misinformation and a lot of spin.”
Cleveland hinted that a “joint-release” will be coming out regarding the meeting.
The Mayor believes the entire Cobourg Council are all “pro-sleep” at the Warming Room that has been opened since November 27, 2025 from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.
“We have no concerns with the County running an Emergency Care Establishment (ECE) shelter.”
“If the County wants people to sleep – we want to make sure Cobourg Council comes out and says, “we are pro-sleep.”
Cleveland said there are rumours around the community stating that Cobourg does not agree with sleeping at the Warming Room.
One of the reasons people aren’t allowed to sleep at that location is zoning.
Cleveland said it was approximately six months of discussion and no other members of County Council came forward to allow a Warming Room in their community.
“Three weeks before the cold snap – no one steps forward – so who steps forward? Cobourg.”
When it was decided that Warming Room would be in Cobourg, Cleveland suggested for it to be at the Golden Plough Lodge.
“The building that is zoned appropriately. The building that is zoned as occupancy.”
When Cleveland’s suggestion brought the idea to the County and Social Services staff they said his idea was “fool-hearted.”
“Instead they recommended the (County) Council chambers.”
“I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t be in this predicament if we were in the building that is already zoned for occupancy.”
At the November 5, 2025 County Social Services meeting, Cleveland stated that, “I think it’s important to remember that any issues that the County or individuals have regarding what is and isn’t designated and appropriate sleeping conditions is not relevant to the ECE by-law, but to the Ontario governments building codes. Any difficulties we are dealing with in terms of what is considered an appropriate room to sleep in, or live or what is and isn’t allowed under the Ontario Building Code regulations is actually the issue here. It’s not the ECE. The ECE is simply the mode by which Cobourg ensures all of those operating in the Town of Cobourg are meeting provincial guidelines. I just don’t want to lose sight of the fact that what determines what rooms are and are not allowed to be slept in is the Ontario Codes, not the ECE bylaw.”
Today’s Northumberland asked if the County could change the zoning to make the Committee Room at the County building.
“The County can do whatever the County wants. There is nothing in the ECE bylaw that prevents anything from happening.”
“The ECE bylaw says that when things happen that they follow provincial fire, building and safety. We’re not here to tell the County how to run operations – we never have been. We are here to make sure any operations in Cobourg meet the bare minimum in fire and health standards.”
When the County did apply for the Warming Room, Cleveland said it was “all hands on deck approach to make sure the Warming Room could be open before the cold snap.”
Cleveland said he’s getting tired of the “spin” certain people and groups are putting on the issue.
“Let me be very clear – we want the County to be able to run the social services they want to run.”
“If you were allowing and charging people rent to sleep in your house – the bylaw would be there too.
You’re not allowed to put 25-people in your living room and charge them rent.”
Cleveland clarifies a statement made by Northumberland County Acting CAO Glenn Dees at the November 5 meeting when he called it the “ECE regime.”
“We’re working in a amendment with our Fire Safety Plan that would allow for the overnight Warming Centre – it’s indicative of what we saw at 310 Division with having to remove lounge chairs that we had in the facility to align with the rules of the ECE bylaw,” said Dees.
But Cleveland stated adamanetly that the ECE bylaw didn’t force the County to remove lounge chairs from 310 Division.
“That was the decision of Operations (County) to remove the chairs. Nothing in the ECE bylaw says you can’t have comfortable chairs.”
Cleveland stated that he’s received numerous e-mails from people blaming him/Cobourg for not letting people sleep.
“This misinformation is coming from a few loud advocates I think is a real problem. They are trying to sow division when there isn’t any.”
“We always want people to be warm and safe.”
On Friday, December 5, 2025, Brighton Councillor Jeff Wheeldon sent a letter to Northumberland County Warden and Councillors regarding the issue.
Wheeldon was also on a CBC podcast with Ramraajh Sharvendiran on Wednesday.
During the interview Wheeldon said, “for fear of losing their (County ECE) license to operate a warming room, they just had to maintain this stance of not letting people fall asleep, lest Cobourg revoking their license.”
Wheeldon went on to say that “two security guards who are tasked with just nudging people awake.
Sometimes that means they’ll kick them out of their chair, or they’ll just give them a little nudge.”
“Enforcing these rules are leaving these people worse off, not better off,”
The goal of the letter Wheeldon wrote to County Council is to have an emergency meeting called to ensure people can sleep.
“It is better to break a bylaw than it is to violate people’s human rights.”
“Sleep depravation is a means of torture.”
Since the letter, he stated on the podcast that, “they had immediately stopped enforcing the no sleeping rule.”
Asking for comment on the letter and podcast, Cleveland said at first he’d reserve his thoughts, but then added, “I don’t lower myself to argue against opinions, poisonous facts and misinformation.”
“We’re all free to do what we want – I would just never go on CBC and say things that aren’t true.”
CBC did contact Cleveland and ask for interview, but he turned them down.
“My criticism to the CBC and I’ll put it very clearly – why did they not do any fact checks?”
“Why didn’t they reach out to the County? Why are they calling a councillor in Brighton? If they have questions about the ECE bylaw, the County would have been a great place to start or the Town of Cobourg. So, I’m not following a CBC interview that is really out of place.”
Brighton Councillor Jeff Wheeldon’s letter to Northumberland County Council
Dear Council,
Thank you again for allowing me to speak at the Social Services Committee. I was struck by Chance Brown’s delegation immediately after mine, in two ways: first, I know Chance just well enough to be able to say that he did not look well at all; and second, that his request was very simple, “just let me sleep.”
I’ve begun to do some research into that request. Our warming room has a policy of not allowing users to sleep, and so far as I’ve been able to find, it is the only warming room anywhere with such a policy. Councillor Cleveland became quite passionate when it was suggested that it was Cobourg’s Emergency Care Establishment by-law that prompted this policy; he insists that it is the provincial Fire Code, and that any claim otherwise is misinformation. But while the ECE violation that was issued against the warming hub at 310 Division Street earlier this year (April 10th) referenced a Fire Code violation due to people sleeping in a room not designated for sleep, no Fire Marshal weighed in on that alleged violation; the County requested that Cobourg’s Fire Marshal do so, and they declined, as they had not issued the ticket. By-Law declined the County’s request for a review, so the County sought a judicial review. Ultimately, the judicial review was withdrawn, and the subsequent press release indicated that “County Council has no interest in prolonged and expensive public disputes, and will therefore pursue no further legal action pertaining to this order. As from the beginning, the County remains fully committed to working with the Town of Cobourg to ensure 310 Division Street continues to operate in a manner that meets the highest standards of safety and care. While we may not always agree on interpretation of the ECE By-law for this purpose, we share a commitment to the health, safety, and well-being of all residents, and strengthening our community.”
The magnanimous and constructive approach the County chose to pursue was and is morally laudable, but the outcomes we’ve seen since are not. In deciding not to pursue legal conflict with the Town of Cobourg, County Council has subsequently changed the model of the shelter to one that is “higher barrier”, requiring sobriety for admission and removing the warming hub altogether. The Town of Cobourg refused to issue another ECE license for any other warming hub located in Cobourg unless it was on County property, and even once it was established in Committee Room A at 555 Courthouse Road, it was with the rule that nobody using the warming hub would be allowed to sleep. The comfortable committee chairs that I enjoy when I attend meetings in Committee Room A are wheeled out each evening and replaced with hard plastic chairs; and when people succumb to exhaustion anyway, the on-duty security guards are required to prod them awake again or remove them from the premises. This is done to avoid another ECE by-law complaint, and the possibility of losing yet another warming room.
I’ve been trying to determine if this is a matter of interpretation of the Fire Code, or a matter of selective enforcement of the Fire Code, because I cannot find any other jurisdiction that enforces the Fire Code on warming rooms or shelter operations in this way. Logically, I lean toward it being a matter of interpretation: though Councillor Cleveland maintains that allowing people to sleep in a staffed and monitored facility that was not built for sleeping would be unsafe, I find it hard to believe that every other warming room in the country is simply looking the other way. While residents of Cobourg in favour of the ECE by-law often refer to Durham for their model of shelter services, it is worth noting that the new warming hub in Ajax is being called a “sleep space.” I have asked around, and fire professionals from other jurisdictions refuse to comment on matters outside their own jurisdiction; fair enough. But Cobourg’s Fire Marshal has also not commented, as they did not issue the April ticket, so I cannot find any Fire Marshal willing to agree with Councillor Cleveland’s claim that the ECE by-law is merely enforcing the Fire Code. Perhaps it is, but we’re being asked to take his word for it without the support of any actual Fire Code experts or professionals. With the withdrawal of the judicial review, no legal experts have settled the matter either. But it is a very serious matter, and I have heard that Human Rights complaints have been filed on the basis of the warming room’s policy being, in effect, enforced sleep deprivation.
If you google “sleep deprivation in international law,” the first few hits are for a paper aptly titled “Sleep Is a Human Right, and Its Deprivation Is Torture.” The paper explores case law from various jurisdictions around the world in which sleep deprivation has been ruled as torture or cruel and unusual punishment. While the authors note that the effects of sleep deprivation can vary greatly from one person to another, “poor sleep hygiene is associated with cardiovascular disease, inattention, learning difficulties, mental health disorders, and numerous other medical problems in adults and children.” Notably, sleep deprivation was one of the methods of torture used at Guantanamo Bay against Omar Khadr.
I searched for the effects of sleep deprivation, and while the flood of hits made finding good sources challenging, Wikipedia has a well-referenced page that points out, among many other things, that:
just 21 hours of sleeplessness creates effects in the body comparable to a .08% blood alcohol level;
sleep deprivation can cause mental health disorders such as depression, and depression can in turn cause chronic insomnia;
sleep deprivation can reduce someone’s ability to fall asleep – which is to say, depriving someone of sleep now will deprive them of more sleep later;
sleep quality is directly related to immunity levels, and sleep deprivation reduces the body’s ability to heal;
sleep deprivation is related to massively increased risk of cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes;
in extreme cases, sleep deprivation can lead to hallucinations, memory loss and confusion, seizures, mania, psychosis, and violent behaviour.
I respect Councillor Cleveland’s dedication to upholding the safety of the users of the warming hub, and of the community more broadly. But the current policy of the warming room, which is in place specifically to avoid having its ECE license revoked, is putting the most vulnerable residents in our community not just at risk of harm, but in direct harm. Its effects on their bodies and minds are in some ways equivalent to the drugs these residents are required to abstain from if they are to have access to a bed at the emergency shelter. In the name of doing good, we are doing lasting harm.
On that basis, I urge County Council to call an emergency meeting and use whatever powers it has to change this policy. If it is possible to comply with the ECE by-law through a zoning change or declaration of emergency that removes the question of Fire Code compliance, I urge you to do so immediately. But please do not wait for Cobourg’s go-ahead to stop this harm. The desire to prevent discord between the County and Cobourg must not trump the rights and health of our residents, and it is preferable to violate a by-law than to violate human rights. We are well over the line of actively perpetrating harm against our own residents because of this policy. Please act immediately.
Sincerely,
Jeff Wheeldon
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love