Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland has issued a lengthy public response to comments made by Cobourg Police Services Board Chair and Deputy Mayor candidate Adam Bureau during a recent police board meeting.
Cleveland strongly rejects Bureau’s suggestion that he has blamed police officers for crime, drug, or bail-related issues in the community, calling the remarks false, and possibly politically motivated. He challenges Bureau to provide evidence that he has ever criticized front-line police officers, stating his concerns have always been directed at decisions made by the police board and certain board members rather than members of the force.
The mayor argues the comments are part of a broader effort to undermine his electoral prospects and ties the dispute to ongoing disagreements over issues including public drug use, homelessness policies, park regulations, and a significant increase to the police budget.
Cleveland also criticizes a recent letter signed by several advocacy organizations opposing some of his positions, and expresses support for provincial legislation aimed at strengthening oversight and accountability of police boards across Ontario.
In closing, Cleveland notes his personal connection to policing as the son of a respected retired police officer, reiterates his support for police officers, and references a call by board member Dr. Ron Kerr for Bureau’s resignation from the police board.
I am once again forced to defend myself against libelous statements. Statements that have no basis in fact at all. Statements that are outright lies designed to affect a specific election result.
Cobourg Police Board Chair and current Cobourg Council member and Deputy Mayoral Candidate Adam Bureau slandered my name at the most recent CPS board meeting yesterday by saying: “Still people are released again and again. We see individuals arrested dozens of times in a matter of months. Yet some, including our mayor, would have you believe this is solely a police failure.” Said Bureau
Mr. Bureau’s personal antipathies against me aside; the policing position he is attributing to me is unbecoming of both a Police Board Chair and most certainly a supposed Council colleague.
I have never referenced anything close to this absurd statement. To my knowledge I have always praised the rank-and-file members of our Towns force from the day I was elected to today.
Mr. Bureau please show where I have ever said that the drug issues or more laughably bail issues are the “failings” of the men and women who so honorably serve our community every day. Please provide one scintilla of proof of that statement.
So, for Mr. Bureau to make such a preposterous and uncalled for statement fewer than 6 months from an election I find the timing questionable at the very least. Mr. Bureau has chaired dozens of meetings of the Cobourg Police Board without maligning my name.
I simply am not Mr. Bureau’s choice to be Mayor. These feeble attacks are designed to give his chosen Candidate and perceived running mate an advantage by trying to make the Members of the Force and their extended families and greater Cobourg community at large think I don’t support them. Patently false.
This is about petty personal vengeance – this is about trying to punish me and hurt my election chances pure and simple. Mr. Bureau can try and cloak himself in heroic sanctimony all he wants but facts are facts. These personal attacks are directly, as always, for my stance against the normalization of criminal drug activity particularly in our town parks and public spaces. Pure and simple.
Any issues I have had; have always centered very squarely around the Board of the Cobourg Police, certain members in particular. Not any members of the Force themselves.
I won’t ask for an apology or even a retraction as I do not believe Mr. Bureau is capable of that kind of magnanimity. However, I will say to the general public, I am calling on Mr. Bureau to provide any evidence where I have ever directly denigrated our men and women who serve our Town.
I can and do have significantly serious concerns about specific decisions taken by certain memembers of this board specifically around, as example, both Beatty and Bureau’s aligned efforts as joint Cobourg Councilors and Cobourg Police Board Members to foist a shocking 20.5%Police Budget increase on the backs of Cobourg citizens. Their action in this regard is not supposition on my part but it is fully a matter of the public record.
I recently sent an email that included Mr. Bureau that was in praise of Prime Minister Carney and his government’s changes around bail reform legislation. It is my sincere hope that these legislative changes around bail will begin to put an end to Mr. Bureau’s referenced concern around multi-arrest releases.
I would ask Mr. Bureau to not make public pronouncements attributed to me that he cannot verify as truth.
I was also recently misguidedly attacked in the form of a letter signed by 5 advocate agencies. These signatories included and of particular note both Greenwood Coalition and Transition House. This letter; rife with Advocates typical arrogant condescension’s; attempts to conflate the terms housing and human rights and public parks as somehow having anything to do with one another. There are no enshrinements that are codified regarding housing as a human right as it connects to specifically public parks. The opposite is true.
This also has far more to do with my motions to have all criminal drug positive park language every word removed from our proposed Parks Master Plan. Mr. Bureau knows full well the public’s feelings on this issue, but he also knows he has the current safety of running unopposed for Deputy Mayor in the next term of Council.
I very much look forward to the passing of newly announced Provincial legislation by Ontario’s Solicitor General Michael Kerzner designed specifically for all Police Boards in Ontario; Cobourg’s included that will compel and direct potential rogue Boards and their Board Members to follow not their own ideological positions but Provincial laws (particularly such as Bill 6) will be coming into law in the near future. I will have far, far more to say about the actual motives behind these unprecedented and coordinated personal attacks at the appropriate time over the course of the election
On a very personal note, what frankly upsets me about Mr. Bureau’s public insinuations is that I am actually the immensely proud son of one of the most respected retired police officers in this Province. I know what it means to be a proud officer’s son, what it means Mr. Bureau, to actually know what personal sacrifices officers make every day on behalf of a calling far greater than themselves and far more noble than most can ever conceive.
I now fully understand why at this very same meeting in question yesterday long-time Cobourg Police Board Provincial Appointee and community pillar Dr. Ron Kerr called for Mr. Bureau’s resignation from the Board.
Lucas Cleveland
Mayor of Cobourg
Author: Pete Fisher
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