‘Trumpian world’: Police stop board members, councillors from North Bay Castle Arms town hall meeting

Police blocked North Bay city councillors and Castle Arms board members from a town hall meeting on the seniors' facility's future. Eric Taschner has more.

The ongoing saga for control of a senior’s independent living facility in North Bay took a dramatic turn Thursday night.

During a town hall meeting about the future of the Castle Arms housing complex, police officers stood at the door blocking entry to some city councillors and board members.

Larry Fuld, chair of the Castle Arms board, and city councillor Jamie Lowery, who is executive director of Castle Arms, said they couldn’t believe officers from the Ontario Provincial Police refused to let them enter.

“These are the tactics that have been going on now for various things at various boards in North Bay,” Fuld said.

“It’s kind of the Trumpian world now.”

In addition to Lowery and Fuld, others blocked from the meeting include city councillors and Cassellholme board members Chris Mayne and Mark King.

“It was a bit shocking. Like, I’ve never experienced not being allowed to attend what they would call a town meeting,” Lowery said.

“The residents that were here asked if I would be there to help. So, I went there.”

Listened from the foyer

They were forced to stand in the hall and listen in from the foyer.

Castle Arms is the charity that provides market rent and geared-to-income housing for more than 250 seniors. It’s part of an ongoing battle for its governance and oversight.

The three buildings that make up Castle Arms are located beside the Cassellholme long-term care home.

The board of that facility would like to take over the housing complex. But Castle Arms wants to remain independent and chart its own course.

The meeting was conducted by the mayors of the member municipalities of Cassellholme. They made their pitch to less than a dozen residents of Castle Arms about needing stronger municipal oversight and supervision.

“What we’re trying to do is to protect Castle Arms and to protect the residents,” said East Ferris Mayor Rick Champagne.

Police say they were asked to attend beforehand by the mayors’ group.

Chisholm Mayor Gail Degagne admitted that the number of police officers in attendance was overkill.

Degagne said they asked for one officer to maintain order and keep the peace, wanting to avoid any conflict and ensure their voices were heard without interference from board members.

“Because of past history and concerns of what has happened at previous council meetings, that was the rationale for the police presence,” she told CTV News.

“Was there any intent that there would be four officers? Absolutely not.”

Battle for control

The battle for control of the senior’s housing complex has escalated in recent months following a presentation in September to city council.

At that meeting, Cassellholme board members argued that both Castle Arms and Cassellholme should be under one governing umbrella, which would include representation from member municipalities.

That’s how it used to work in the mid-1980s. But that changed in 2021 when Castle Arms split from municipal representation to create its own governing board.

The shift was prompted by legal advice relating to the Ontario Not-For-Profit Corporations Act. However, a new legal opinion has since clarified that the Act does not require Castle Arms and Cassellholme to have separate boards.

“When you look at Castle Arms, money from each of the municipalities is contributed to Castle Arms through the DNSSAB,” Degagne said.

“So those are taxpayers’ dollars. We wouldn’t be doing our jobs as elected officials if we weren’t ensuring that those resources and access to various programs were being taken care of and have that oversight.”

Fuld saidCastle Arms has since “Day 1”, been a separate entity with a separate board and “not one thing has changed”, adding that he has the documents from 1986 to back that up.

“We have operating agreements with DNSSAB. DNSSAB subsidizes rent in return for us to provide housing as they do for 22 other similar entities. The mayors’ committee and Cassellholme seems to have no interest in any of the others,” Fuld added.

Castle Arms executives continue to question the motives of an acquisition.

Deny they want to sell

“It may not be to sell. It could be for remortgaging,” Lowery said.

“It could be to harvest some or any kind of profit.”

But the mayors have denied they want to put the buildings up for sale if they come back under municipal oversight.

“We’re never going to sell it. There was never intention of selling it. That’s the point,” Champagne said.

“All the mayors … all eight of them were there last night standing up and saying, ‘We agree with what we’re trying to do to protect Castle Arms.’”

In a statement Friday afternoon, Ontario Provincial Police clarified that two officers were assigned to the meeting.

A police supervisor and an additional officer briefly attended to check in and they were helped by members of the North Bay Police Service.

“The role of the OPP and NBPS was solely to maintain order and support the organizers’ request for a peaceful environment,” Const. Kyler Brouwer wrote in an email.

While no enforcement was required, those who were stopped from attending questioned the motive behind having police present.

“I can’t understand why somebody who doesn’t want the money would fight so strenuously to take over something that’s not really exciting,” Fuld said.