Mayor Frasier Tolmie and two former members of city administration met with the Moose Jaw Times-Herald in November 2016 to discuss civil and criminal allegations in Germany against the director of a now defunct plan to build a pea protein fractioning plant in Moose Jaw. After the meeting, the story was killed and a reporter investigating the allegations was told that the city would not respond to questions from him.
Those are the revelations revealed in a series of internal City of Moose Jaw documents obtained through a series of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, leaked documents and interviews with individuals directly familiar with what happened at the Moose Jaw Times-Herald in November 2016.
Canadian Protein Innovation or CPI was a German firm that planned to build a $100 million pea protein fractioning plant on lands adjacent to the sewage treatment plant. The City annexed lands from the RM of Moose Jaw, applied for funding from the federal government to install the required infrastructure, spent time assisting in the development of the project and was to provide CPI with incentives by holding the water rates at 2015 levels for five years after the plant opened and waving property taxes for five years under a job creation program.
The plant was touted as being the anchor tenant at the new Southeast Industrial Park creating 65 highly skilled jobs.
The Times-Herald was at the time working on an investigative story into Michael Schoenert, a director of CPI. The Times-Herald probe was based upon published news reports from Germany - they had discovered through a simple Google search - which laid out allegations of criminal wrongdoing against Schoenert at his former employer, Emsland-Starke. The probe at one time had no less than three staff reporters working on the story in one capacity or another. Emsland-Starke additionally had issued a news release dealing with the allegations surrounding Schoenert.
A Times-Herald reporter, Will Stodalka, attended an open house for CPI on November 9, 2016, held at city council chambers, and posed questions about the allegations involving Schoenert. After that event, the City of Moose Jaw said it would not answer questions posed by Stodalka.
“After your abrupt and inappropriate behaviour at the CPI public event in Council Chambers last week/ we have decided to refrain from providing comment to you completely. Your behaviour has been discussed with Roger Holmes, Matt Noble and Mayor Tolmie. If a Times Herald colleague of yours would like to take over such stories/ we will consider working with them,” former City of Moose Jaw communications manager Carol Reynolds-Wittman wrote in an email to Stodalka. See Email below.
In a response to a recent series of questions posed, Mayor Tolmie reiterated the city’s comments that Stodalka acted inappropriately.
“You are asking about incidents from three years ago, so while it would be difficult to recall every detail, I can confirm that: I was in attendance at a meeting with Mr. Holmes and the then-City Manager and Communications Manager to discuss Mr. Stodalka’s erratic and aggressive physical behaviour at the public meeting. During that meeting there was no discussion about Mr. Stodalka’s job status, only his behaviour. The City has a Policy related to decorum in the Public Gallery and a Policy on a Respectful Workplace,” the Mayor said in a statement.
Roger Holmes, the former publisher at the now defunct Moose Jaw Times-Herald, indicates that he attended a meeting with Mayor Tolmie, former city manager Matt Noble and former communications manager Carol Reynolds-Wittman where the subject matter of Stodalka’s alleged actions at the CPI open house on November 9, 2016, was discussed.
Holmes told MJ Independent “I can remember it quite clearly” - the meeting with the Mayor and two former members of Administration. He said that although the
reporter in question may have asked questions which were aggressive that there was no discussion at the meeting regarding physical aggression by the reporter in question.
Holmes said the subject matter of the meeting were concerns about his reporter asking “too many questions” about the published German reports and “he asked inappropriate questions and was basically embarrassing this guy (Schoenert).”
“They didn’t like the questions he asked; they were not inappropriate questions but questions that were uncomfortable,” he said, adding “I think Will asked the right questions.”
Asked for comment, Stodalka said that he did not act inappropriately. “I feel that my actions pursuing that particular story were appropriate,” Stodalka said in a statement.
Following the meeting between Holmes and the City the editorial staff were summoned to a meeting where they were told the story had been put on hold because publishing it was “embarrassing to the City.”
The MJ Independent asked questions of Mayor Tolmie as to what was known about the allegations surrounding Schoenert in 2016, what efforts were made to investigate those issues and whether the allegations regarding Schoenert were relayed to the rest of Council. Those questions were not answered in Mayor Tolmie’s reply.
The Moose Jaw Express asked the councillors the following question:
"Good Afternoon,
I have read the story posted about CPI on MJ Independent.
We have asked to re-publish the story in part, and have had its content updated, edited and vetted by our legal. However, we are still waiting on 2 FOI's from the provincial government, but we have one question we would like answered by you prior to publication.When were you made aware of the issues surrounding Mr. Michael Schoenert of CPI? There were three extensions given to CPI ,were any of these concerns or issues, that the mayor seemed to have knowledge of in November of 2016, relayed to you and if so, at what time or meeting? I would appreciate you comments by end of day Thursday.
Thanks so much,
Robert Ritchie
Publisher - moosejawexpress.com, moosejawtoday.com "
We received one reply:
"Good evening
Thank you for the e-mail.
I have not had any communication or information from the mayor or City administration detailing issues of a civil or legal matter concerning Mr. Schoenert.
Brian Swanson"
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
