Gordon Prentice at Large - Politics in Newmarket
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison in a tiny claustrophobic cell on Robben Island, a forlorn windswept place, just 45 minutes by ferry but a world away from bustling Cape Town.
His young Afrikaner warder, Christo Brand, describes the prison routine in his book “Doing Life with Mandela. My prisoner my friend.”
“An ear-splitting clanging would start up all over the prison at 5am. We used metal pipes with a chain inside to make the maximum noise, a horrible grinding sound, to wake up all the prisoners in their icy cells.”
“The cells were as cold as fridges, all year round. They were made of cement and unpainted. Overnight they would freeze…. I would see Mandela doing exercises in his cell at 5am, usually for an hour. He would have been cold all night, so he would be doing sit-ups to warm himself up. He was a tall man and the two mats issued to him were too short. When he lay back, his head would be touching one wall, his feet the opposite wall.”
I stood in Mandela's cell and tried to imagine the horrors of such a brutal existence, year in, year out. (Photo right)
Close friends
Brand was nineteen and Mandela sixty when they first met and they grew to be close friends, a relationship which had to be concealed from everyone, not just the prison authorities.
Inevitably, if people had known about it they would have talked.
Astonishingly, I met Christo Brand, now 63, who was on Robben Island on the day we were there.
He described a visit from Winnie Mandela who had smuggled her four-month old granddaughter into the prison under a heavy wool blanket. It had been a rough crossing on the ferry and black visitors had to sit on the top deck, exposed to the wind and lashing rain.
She pleaded with Brand to let her husband see the baby but he sternly told her this was out of the question. It was expressly forbidden. He told her to leave the baby in the waiting room with other visitors while she saw her husband.
When the time was up Winnie was escorted out of the booth with no idea that Brand had given the child to a tearful Mandela and let him hold her for 30 seconds.
“On the way back to the cells Mandela walked close enough to tell me: “Thank you, Mr Brand. I know you can lose your job for that. Now it’s a secret between us, just you and me.”
It was a secret kept for decades.
Christo Brand earlier this month talking to visitors in the former prison on Robben Island, now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
First things first. Watch Dawn Gallagher Murphy MPP talk about bullying and harassment and read on...
Dawn Gallagher Murphy MPP does not run a happy ship. Her constituency office is a toxic workplace according to her former Constituency Office Manager, Teena Bogner, who was sacked on 10 June last year.
I have now heard from a raft of people who accuse Gallagher Murphy of behaviour that affected their mental health while employed by her.
In one case I was taken to task for using the word “spat” to describe the conflict between Bogner and Gallagher Murphy. 
“Harassment is not a spat. It is a serious challenge in workplaces. I am sorry you feel the need to trivialise it… Shame on you for marginalising the effect that harassment has on the well being of employees, students and people in general. It is truly awful and should not be joked about.”
Damning
There’s more to the emails but I don’t want Gallagher Murphy to identify the sender so I have held back damning details.
And last year I received a series of emails from an employee at the Legislative Assembly accusing Gallagher Murphy of bullying and harassing her staff.
So it takes some chutzpah for Gallagher Murphy to put in this Oscar winning performance on 22 November 2024 denouncing the very behaviours she exhibits in her own office.
Hand-picked
Before she was hand-picked by Doug Ford to run as Progressive Conservative candidate in Newmarket-Aurora she was Christine Elliott’s constituency office manager. She may have ruled with a rod of iron but she didn’t run a smooth, well-functioning office.
I remember trying to get an appointment with my then MPP Christine Elliott to discuss Ford’s plans to allow convenience stores to sell beer.
“It was early June 2019 and her office told me to come back in the Fall. After a lot of huffing and puffing I managed to get 15 minutes with my MPP two months later, on 12 August 2019, with Dawn sitting in, taking notes.”
Even then, the office was totally dysfunctional.
Reprisal
One of the people who contacted me spoke about the powers of the Ontario Labour Relations Board:
“The OLRB only deals with reprisal, not allegations of harassment… If the hearing favours Teena Bogner it means she was terminated for reporting harassment, nothing more.”
If Bogner was sacked for reporting harassment – and given the message in the video - I think we can safely describe Dawn Gallagher Murphy as a hypocrite as well as a bully and office tyrant.
Update on 28 January 2025: From Newmarket Today: More former employees accuse Newmarket-Aurora MPP of workplace bullying
Read more: Dawn Gallagher Murphy is a bully and office tyrant but is she a hypocrite as well?
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
The spat between Newmarket-Aurora’s Progressive Conservative MPP, Dawn Gallagher Murphy, and her former Constituency Office Manager, Teena Bogner, is gripping stuff.
Earlier this month I took myself down to the Ontario Labour Relations Board in Toronto’s University Avenue and asked to see the file. I was shown Bogner’s complaint and Gallagher Murphy’s response but the supporting documentation was withheld for legal reasons. But all will be revealed at the Hearing which is expected in February 2025. (Photo: Bogner right)
Their separate accounts of what happened between 9 April 2024 and 10 June 2024 – when Bogner was sacked - could not be more different. Gallagher Murphy accuses Bogner of creating an “untenable work environment”.
Imperious
For her part, Bogner brands Gallagher Murphy, an imperious bully:
“The Member’s erratic and hostile behaviour continued, including unnecessary interruptions during the Applicant’s (Bogner’s) personal time, derogatory comments about colleagues, hanging up on the Applicant, and an overall toxic work environment that affected the Applicant’s health.”
Gallagher Murphy insists it was Bogner who pestered her for the job and it was she (Bogner) who was the disrupter in the office. She was the one who allegedly harassed other staff!
It seems to be a classic case of “she said, she said”.
Deceit
So (not to put too fine a point on it) who is being deceitful?
Being the kind of person Bogner is - a stickler for process and follower of rules and protocols - she may well have rubbed people up the wrong way as she tried to create order out of chaos in Gallagher Murphy’s office. I can well believe there was a titanic clash of personalities.
In her Linked-In profile, Bogner describes herself this way:
"I am an inspiring, motivated, and collaborative leader committed to achieving, and exceeding, strategic goals. I lead diverse teams in a fast paced and demanding environment to facilitate and deliver leading edge governance policies and procedures, change management, and elections. I have significant government relations practice, from my work within the legislative assembly and non-for-profits."
Taxpayers' Advocacy
Years ago, when Bogner was President of the Newmarket Taxpayers’ Advocacy Group (NTAG) - and without asking her first - I put her on my mailing list as I was regularly blogging on Town issues and I wanted her to be aware of my thinking.
When she got the (temporary) job of returning officer for Newmarket-Aurora in the 2019 Federal Election – an important role carrying with it a great deal of responsibility - she bluntly told me to take her name off my mailing list as she had to be scrupulously impartial. No problem. I did so immediately. So would a person like this invent these interactions with Gallagher Murphy?
Economical with the actualité
I can think of many occasions when Gallagher Murphy was economical with the actualité. Inflating the numbers at her second Annual “Free” BBQ immediately springs to mind. The venue - Newmarket Commons – was largely deserted.
At the time she was offered the Office Manager job Bogner says she told Gallagher Murphy that she was actively seeking a job with another organisation and was in the interview stage. But the MPP is adamant that Bogner did not discuss any other job offer with her.
On balance I prefer to believe Bogner’s version of events.
Harassment
Gallagher Murphy says
“At no time did Bogner make any complaint of harassment in convention (sic) of the Caucus Harassment Policy or take any acts as contemplated by the OHSA.”
That sounds pretty definitive. But some of the material Bogner relies on may be in the video or phone recordings or in the other supporting documentation which, as I say, we cannot yet see.
The stakes are high for Bogner and Gallagher Murphy.
They can’t both be telling the truth.
To read Bogner's complaint and Gallagher Murphy's response click "read more" below.
Read more: Bogner vs Gallagher Murphy: Who is telling the truth?