Belleville, Quinte West mayors want to maintain good relations

Posted By BRICE MCVICAR, ERNST KUGLIN THE INTELLIGENCER, QMI AGENCY
Posted February 10th, 2010


The commanding officer of CFB Trenton was supposed to be at the official opening Wednesday afternoon of a new restaurant in downtown Trenton.

Instead Col. Russ Williams is behind bars, facing two first-degree murder charges in the deaths of Belleville's Jessica Lloyd and CFB Trenton flight attendant Cpl. Marie-France Comeau.

Williams' name appeared on the invitation.

Quinte West Mayor John Williams was on the invitation as a dignitary as well.

It was just one example where both leaders would be called upon, through the course of an average week, to attend the same community function.

In the previous months, both men attended civic functions such as a gala fundraising dinner for the local hospital foundation and the Olympic torch run to name a few.

Last fall they were on the tarmac at CFB Trenton when Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced the federal government was pumping another $300 million into redeveloping base infrastructure.

They met last week for about an hour to discuss a proposed memorial wall, recognizing the sacrifices of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

Until Monday morning, it was business as usual. Col. Russ Williams was the commanding officer of Canada's largest Air Force base, John Williams, the mayor of the host community.

By Tuesday morning, Mayor Williams had another meeting at the base. Only this time it was to discuss how to maintain the close relationship between civilian and military communities given the startling developments of the previous 24 hours.

Municipal leaders from around the Quinte region met with Gen. Yvan Blondin, Commander of 1 Air Division.

"What I want out in the community is that we are here to support the men and women at CFB Trenton who continue to work hard on three difficult operations -- Haiti, Afghanistan and the Olympics. That's important,'' said Williams.

The arrest of Col. Williams, said the mayor, should not change that "special relationship.''

"We rely on each other. We work closely together. These people are our neighbours, friends and family,'' said the mayor. "This is just one individual who has been charged. It should not be a reflection of how the community perceives the base.''

Mayor Neil Ellis said Tuesday's meeting was nothing more than the military underscoring its relationship with the City of Belleville and emphasizing that the lines of communication between the two would remain open. He said the military community is "obviously hurting" and the meeting allowed all the local community leaders to share their thoughts on the situation.

"They were asking if there was anything they could do and wanting to keep those lines of communication open," he said.

Ellis noted he had only met Williams twice since he was named base commander in July. Those two meetings, the mayor said, only lasted for approximately six minutes, combined.

"I met him for the first time at (deputy police Chief) Paul VandeGraaf's swearing in and I introduced myself and then, two weeks later, he dropped the puck at the Bearcat (hockey) tournament. He was on the ice, I said 'hello' and that was it," he said.