COMMENTARY: Can the media and the public trust his word?

Cornwall Coun. Brock Frost. (Cornwall Newswatch/File)

I’m Bill Kingston with today’s commentary. There has been no shortage of drama with the roller-coaster ride that is Coun. Brock Frost. The latest happened yesterday when he was interviewed by TV Cogeco. Two points came out of that interview – that he is not resigning and that the charges in Levis, Que. are real and plans to defending himself. Maybe it’s the young, rookie councillor that wants to be right by everybody. But we are all human and we have faults and make mistakes. Why not just tell it like it is and move on? It almost feels like the media got played on this.

One point that struck me as odd from Todd Lalonde’s interview was Frost dismissing the suggestion that by sending an email to local media that he never formally resigned and that if an elected official ever resigned there would be an official press release at city hall. In 2012, then-councillor Leslie O’Shaughnessy resigned over his frustration with the handling of in-camera issues. At that time he told the media days before about his intentions, long before there was ever an “official press release from city hall.” O’Shaughnessy told the Standard-Freeholder’s Cheryl Hazelton that he would be resigning at the next council meeting and an email had gone to staff and members of council before a formal letter was ever submitted. O’Shaughnessy, a man of his word, did resign.

And that brings me back to Brock Frost. After sending the email, if you had changed your mind, why not tell the people and the media instead of letting it fester for almost a month? Again, people make mistakes – we’re human. Where does that leave Frost with the conduit between the general public and the elected body? Can we trust what Brock Frost is going to tell us the next time we get an email or the next time he takes a position on something? I’ll leave that for you to answer.

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