PHOTO CREDIT:  CJ STORM VIA FLICKR / CC 2.0

The St. Catharines Standard featured a recent two-part series entitled “Becoming Citizen Bill” regarding Bill Hodgson, a former Lincoln Mayor, former Regional Councillor and now a former member of the embattled NPCA.

The two articles are a definite must-read with great insight into the inner workings of the NPCA and some of it’s members.   The lack of transparency and unusual defensive posture of the NPCA has been an eye-opener for many but these articles give a real “insider’s view” of what is really transpiring at the agency.

But what really caught our eye is the accounts of an altercation between Tony Quirk, Regional Councillor for Grimsby and Mr. Hodgson, who is quoted as being a “cry-bully” by Quirk.  There was an apparent “difference of opinion” between the two in August 2017 when both were in Ottawa for a civic conference.

From The Standard:

Quirk says while he and Hodgson did argue about NPCA and he did say he wasn’t suing him yet, he never touched Hodgson.

“There was no physical contact. It absolutely, 100 per cent, didn’t happen. He had been drinking. If I had hit him, he wouldn’t have gotten up,” Quirk says.

His account of the encounter is supported by Peel Region Coun. Jennifer Innis, who told The Standard that “I don’t remember anything like that happening. It’s not Tony’s character — so if something like that had happened, I’m sure I would remember it.”

Mr. Hodgson’s recollection of the events differs:

In Hodgson’s account, he was at the Lord Elgin bar when he was confronted by a “tipsy” Quirk, who was angry because he was told that Hodgson was claiming he was being sued by Quirk.

“‘Why would I have told this guy that you’re suing me if you’re not suing me?’” Hodgson says he told Quirk. “He just comes over, shoves me and says, ‘I’m not suing you yet.’”

Hodgson’s account is supported by Lincoln town Coun. Tony Brunet, who said Quirk’s face was “bright red and he was irate.”

“We turned to each other and said, ‘Did that actually just happen?’

“We were both taken back at not only Tony Quirk’s action, but his comments as well,” Brunet said in an interview. “I remember thinking, ‘Really, is this what it has come to?’”

With both parties backing their stories with a witness, the only people who know what really happened that night are Mr. Quirk and Mr. Hodgson.   If anything this altercation only highlights the contentious environment that the NPCA seems to be submerged in.

You can read The Standard’s two-part series at the following links:

https://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/news-story/8723219-becoming-citizen-bill-the-end-of-a-niagara-political-career/
https://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/news-story/8725990-becoming-citizen-bill-part-two/