I am going to be in trouble opening up old threads but this one concerns me personally and there is a lot of spouting off in defense of personal friends without any real knowledge of what happened. I know what happened as I was on that council at that time.
First, yes, Plourde said "as an officer" and he apologized for it. That should have been the end of the problem but the PAffO at the time ordered Plourde to clear everything he was going to say in public as a town counselor thru the PAffO. Interestingly as this situation was escalating, I went to the Mayor and told her that she bore some responsibility and that this was not good for Plourde, Army or town and that if she explained to the base commander that Plourde was acting on her behalf (something she continued to do in chambers during this time) it would propably all die down. She did not, she did use the distraction to political advantage by splitting up a council that opposed many of the things that she and the administration was doing.
Mr Vance (he is retired now) did not represent a ward with run down military properties in it so there was no effect on him and he had nothing to say on the issue. I will say that he is a very good politician (that comment is not intended to be complementary and is solicitor approved). You know what, I can say that and I can say stuff about the mayor and her policies because they are public people, not gods, and their decisions are open to debate and even libel. Why, because no politicain in their right mind sues their critics as that only opens an issue up to more scrutiny.
For those of you who state that the base comdr has authority in the PMQs you are right and wrong, he has turned that authority over to CFHA and I will let their record speak for itself. At CFB Gagetown all PMQs sit outside of the base as defined by law, thus you have a cross ownership situation, the town owns the sidewalks, playgrounds, roadways and underground infrastructure; DND owns the land which the PMQs sit and the yards around the PMQs. The MPs have no rights outside of the main gate in NB and are not considered police under the NB Police Services Act. They can act as civilians if they see a crime but are considered security guards off base and may not use their weapons unless in hot pursuit of a criminal from on base.
To be honest, no one in this situation kept anything professional and all most every military person touched by this case is no longer serving.
The final question should be is why did nothing happened to the civilian councilors who told the base comdr to clean up his act in the PMQs. Their comments were far harsher and they never made the papers and DND never gave them a response? Only Plourde who the mayor designated as the spokesman for the garbage issue was taken to task.
I still maintain that if the mayor had phoned the base comdr (she had a direct link) and stated that she supported Plourde and that she had appointed him the whole issue would have blown over in a few weeks.
Another issue is the military being effective councilors; this incident has embolden some of the local civilian hacks. I made speech about the drug pushers hanging out at the high school and the next day found myself before the COS for embarrassing the Army, I was in civvies and off base as a town councilor but the principal at the high school knew what my job was and tried to use that to shut me up so she sent a letter to the base comdr claiming I was embarrassing the military.
There was much more going on than even those of us close to the fire could feel the heat of....