On April 27, 2022, Cochrane mayor Jeff Genung accepted a framed copy of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as a gift to the Town of Cochrane with his broad seemingly appreciative smile.

Presentations received by mayor Jeff Genung on April 27th, 2022. (Photo by Barry Blick.)
In September 2022, after five months of stonewalling by Mayor Genung and Council, when queried as to what they plan to do with the gifted, framed Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it appeared that this drawn-out saga had finally been brought to a happy conclusion when 5 out 7 members of Town Council, namely, Councillors Wilson, McFadden, Reed, Fedeyko and Nagel, indicated that they were okay with having the Charter posted in the Council Chambers.
However, disappointingly, a month later by October 28, 2022, six months after the framed Charter had been gifted to the Town, there was an abrupt change of course, whereby the previous majority in favour of posting the Charter in the Council Chambers had evaporated and become a substantial majority opposed to hanging the Charter in the Council Chambers with only Councillor Patrick Wilson remaining in favour. A 6 to 1 majority of the Council, including Mayor Genung and Councillors McFadden, Reed, Fedeyko, Flowers and Nagel, now indicated that they would not support posting the gifted framed Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the supreme law of the land, in the Council Chambers.
Shortly after our presentation on April 27, 2022, Mayor Genung told Cochrane Now, that he hadn’t “decided where the framed charter of rights will be displayed”. Given that the Mayor along with Councillors Flowers, McFadden, Reed, Fedeyko and Nagel, had finally declared that they were unwilling to “display” the gifted framed copy of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Council Chambers, it made no sense to have it hidden away in storage or who knows where else it might end up. Accordingly, that prompted Deborah Murphy to send an email to Mayor Genung on October 30 requesting an appointment with him to retrieve the rejected framed Charter:
After 6 months of twists and turns and disrespectful stonewalling by Town Council, the response to Ron’s query of October 21st has provided a final answer that 6 out 7 Council members, including yourself and Councillors Fedeyko, Flowers, Reed, McFadden, and Nagel, disappointingly do not support putting the gifted framed Charter of Rights and Freedoms up on the wall in the Council Chambers.
A framed copy of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was presented to you on April 27th, 2022, as a gift to the Town at a time when our freedoms were being ignored and in jeopardy of being totally eroded. The honourable Brian Peckford, the last living signatory to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and former Premier of Newfoundland, was delighted to write a letter of encouragement to you and Town Council, when he heard that we decided to gift the town a copy of the Charter with the request that it be hung in the chambers where you make all the policies and laws for our community.
Mr. Peckford mentioned in that letter – “This Charter is now being violated by Governments across Canada with mandates that violate a citizen’s freedom to assemble and associate, to earn a livelihood, and to have the right to security of the person. These and others can be found in Sections 2, 6, 7, and 15 of the charter. Having been a part of this process in 1981 I have been very vocal at highlighting the violation of the charter by Governments across Canada, including Municipal Governments.” In subsequent meetings of Town Council, you chose to ignore mentioning receipt of Mr. Peckford’s letter in your Mayor’s Report, which speaks volumes.
When Ron Voss and I presented the gift to you on April 27, 2022, you received the gift with gratitude and a big smile. When you showed me a copy of the Charter hanging in the hallway outside your office, I said “That is a lovely colourful copy, but the one we gave you is for the chambers”. You replied, “I know”.
I had hoped that in a time when the residents of Cochrane needed encouragement that it would show that this is one municipality that is keeping its oath going forward and by having the framed Charter in the Chambers symbolizing the intent.
The last six months of the back and forth regarding the copy of the Charter, the supreme law of Canada, has just been bewildering. First you have a private meeting to decide whether or not to honour our request to hang it in the chambers, with no correspondence with us regarding your decision.
Not having heard from Council, we reached out to you individually, asking what had become of the gift. Only Patrick responded informing us that he was asked not to bring this as a notice of motion and you said that you would to write a letter to Ron, which you never did. Shortly after we presented the Charter, we learned from a Cochrane Now report that you didn’t know where you were going to “display” the Charter. Finally, a month ago we heard that 5 out of 7 of members of Town Council were Okay with hanging it in the Chambers to be followed by a flip-flop at the end of the 6 months where we heard that a majority, 6 out of 7, are against having a copy of the Charter on the wall of the Chambers.
It seems that this gift that was intended for good, has inexplicably been quite the obstacle and a burden for you all.
If the gifted framed Charter, the supreme law of the land, which we presumed would be highly valued by our Town Council, will not be displayed in the Council Chambers, please give me a day and time that I can come in to collect the unwanted gift and deliver you all from this burden. We will retain it to present to the newly elected Town Council.
Feeling that two business days was an adequate time to expect a response or at least to receive an acknowledgement of receipt of the communication, Deborah phoned his office on the 2nd of November, leaving a message. The afternoon of November 3rd, having reached the number for his Executive Assistant and leaving a message, saying something along the lines of ‘the very least you can do is acknowledge that you have received my message’, almost as soon as Deborah hung up the phone, she received the email below from his Executive Assistant:
I understand that you have requested a date and time to come and collect the framed copy of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Rather than setting a time, can you kindly provide an address so that we may mail it to you?
Deborah responded immediately to that shocking response,
Good evening, Mayor Genung. Save the tax dollar, I handed you the gift I would like you to hand it back to me. It will take five minutes of your time. Please provide a convenient time.
Nearly two weeks have since elapsed and, to no surprise, nothing but crickets from the mayor, the kind of disrespectful, stonewalling that one has come to expect from our mayor, tantamount to passive aggressive behavior. We are still waiting for a date and time to pick up the gifted framed Charter from where we delivered it.
As mentioned in our October 31 letter to the mayor, our intent is to keep it in safekeeping to present to the newly elected Town Council in 2025, who hopefully will have a higher regard for our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the supreme law of the land.