Dear Editor,
CJ97 Radio news about Neepawa Town Council is B— S—! Sorry about the use of slang terms, for those of you more sensitive to colourful language, but there is no other way to describe the crap being reported on CJ 97 radio.
Republished with permission from The Neepawa Press
Original print date May 9, 2012
I don’t know how many of you have listened to or heard of some of the reporting on Neepawa Council business that Bill Gade seems to think is legitimate news. If there are some of you out there, take heed.
There is no easy way to start debunking all of Gade’s BS. There is just so much of it. One thing is for certain though…every last bit of it, the so called Council News he purveys, has been orchestrated, embellished or contextually twisted by none other than…wait for it….that’s right, the one-and-only Mr. Bill Gade himself!
How so you ask? Here’s how:
• Gade is THE ONLY party to have applied for no fewer than 241 FIPPA (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act) requests since mid-2011. That’s more requests from this ONE GUY than the Provincial government department with the highest number of requests receives in a full year!
• Gade didn’t get what he wanted, so HE complained to the Provincial Ombudsman, OVER A DOZEN TIMES! Has he ever stated this on air? Have any of you ever heard on CJ 97 that it was Bill Gade who was demanding the Ombudsman investigate every bloody thing Neepawa Council did, was doing, or was going to do?….I didn’t think so.
• It also seems Gade likes to defame people in any way he can come up with if the news appears to be getting dull. If he doesn’t get information he wants or thinks he is entitled to, he will simply make things up, regardless of whether there is any truth to it and regardless of whether it’s damaging to someone. He’s done it to this Council, he’s done it to me, he’s done it to Town staff and he’s done it to our former Mayor. He does it everywhere he goes.
• Speaking to how he has defamed me personally, Gade publicly levies the accusation that I was in a conflict of interest when I PRESENTED a personal subdivision query to Council, in a regular open meeting so that questions I had asked of Council could be clarified. There were no decisions being made. Gade has even demanded the Provincial Ombudsman investigate THIS concern of his. Meanwhile our name (my wife and I) gets regularly trashed on CJ 97 as Gade and his on air staff repeatedly report HIS issue! Completely unfounded. Completely wrong.
• Gade is a bully, simple as that. I wonder if he was bullied as a kid? Now he has a radio station(s) and thinks that gives HIM the power to stick it to the man, whoever HE decides that man to be. Consider how he handled the Neepawa Natives hazing story. Using HIS radio station to literally POUND a local organization supported by many of the same businesses he seeks advertising revenue from.
Let’s be clear. This is no trivial matter. Gade’s conduct has cost Neepawa and its taxpayers in many ways. Financially, there has been significant legal costs but the morale costs, though not monetary are equally significant. Town staff are stressed as are many community members. His antics continue to cost in ways that pertain to potential development as well, since some developers now look upon the situation Council has with Gade as an issue they will just as soon avoid as take the chance of becoming an inadvertent victim of. Four developers walked from EVL because of third party notices indicating Gade wanted their proprietary business info.
You know, I was one of the most excited to hear someone wanted to start up a private radio station in Neepawa, so much so that I personally sent a written letter of support to Gade during his licensing stage. Years ago I worked with Ivan Traill to investigate the possibility of NACTV getting a station going, learning it is certainly no easy task. I was equally excited to hear the quality of Gade’s station when it started up. His people did a great job with my ads during the 2010 election. You can’t go too far wrong with music. Local weather reporting is nice to have. Having a local station where area businesses can advertise is a good thing too. So why in the hell does Bill Gade have to screw up such a good thing by broadcasting BS?
Get off it for Pete’s sake Bill. It isn’t doing anyone any good at all.
Yours truly,
Coun. Monty Simon
This article posted on ValleyBiz.ca on September 29, 2016. The article has been published in our timeline according to the date of the original incident as part of a historical record of events.