I denounce the drift of the outgoing administration, which has gradually replaced independent municipal information with partisan communication, financed with taxpayers’ money.
Together with my team, Avenir Cité-Jardin – Team Maryam, I am committed to restoring transparency, fairness, and media pluralism in Town of Mount Royal.
Chronology of Facts (Official Decisions)
February 2022 – End of Pluralism: The Shutdown of La Poste
On February 22, 2022, Town Council adopted By-law No. 1465 concerning the rules for publishing public notices.
The measure was adopted by majority vote – I voted against – and it put an end to the publication of municipal notices in La Poste, an independent local newspaper.
At that time, La Poste held the exclusive mandate for this task. It was the only local media outlet publishing both official public notices and citizens’ open letters.
On August 11, 2022, the editor-in-chief of La Poste was summoned to Town Hall and was asked to forward citizens’ letters to the Mayor’s office for approval before publication.
The editor categorically refused this attempt at interference. Only one letter was ever forwarded to the Mayor – who, on that occasion, chose not to censor it – and La Poste subsequently continued to publish citizens’ letters freely.
From that point on, the number of municipal advertisements placed in La Poste steadily declined, undermining its revenues.
Despite several appeals for assistance made to the Town, no solution was offered, and La Poste eventually declared bankruptcy at the end of 2023 – marking the disappearance of an independent local media outlet, active for 25 years, in favour of a now tightly controlled municipal communications apparatus.
June 2022 – The Beginning of Massive Transfers to Mr. Leonardo’s Newspaper
On June 14, 2022, a resolution (No. 22-06-13) authorized an expenditure of $70,500 for the purchase of media space, adopted by majority vote – I voted against.
Behind this administrative wording lies the transfer of municipal funds to the Journal de Mont-Royal (Leonardo).
This amount was in addition to the payments for public notices that the Town had already decided to redirect to the same newspaper, thus marking the return of politically controlled municipal communication.
2023–2024 – Soaring Amounts
According to documents obtained through access-to-information requests, annual payments to the Journal de Mont-Royal / Leonardo rose from approximately $40,000 in 2022 to $60,879 in 2023, then to $111,008 in 2024, and continue in 2025.
Beginning in January 2024, the paper’s print run doubled — from about 3,500 to 7,000 copies per week — thanks to public funds decided between the outgoing Mayor and the Journal de Mont-Royal (Leonardo), and then approved by the majority of Council — I voted against.
In other words, the size and reach of this media outlet have doubled thanks to taxpayers’ money.
For 2025, a total of $95,447.75 has been approved and allocated for Media Space Procurement – Le Phare / Journal de Mont-Royal – 2025, and $48,462.04 has already been paid as of the end of July.
Meanwhile, local media pluralism has collapsed: La Poste has ceased operations, replaced by a subsidized, compliant media outlet aligned with the outgoing administration.
A City-Funded and Partisan Newspaper
The outgoing Mayor’s tolerance toward the Journal de Mont-Royal’s publications demonstrates the tacit support this newspaper enjoys.
It routinely publishes content favourable to the current administration and hostile to engaged citizens’ voices – particularly my team and myself – by spreading incomplete, biased, and sometimes inaccurate information.
I deplore the fact that a newspaper financed by our taxes is being used to attack the only alternative to the outgoing Mayor and to influence the municipal election campaign.
This is not municipal information – it is an abuse of public funds.
Call for Transparency and Media Fairness
With my team, I pledge to implement immediate and concrete measures:
1️⃣ End public funding of partisan media.
No public money should ever serve to benefit a political faction.
2️⃣ Restore pluralism in public notices.
Publish all official notices both on the Town’s website and in at least one independent newspaper, ensuring accessibility and accountability.
3️⃣ Encourage the creation and growth of other local weeklies.
• Establish fair municipal advertising purchases, distributed among eligible local media;
• Create non-partisan micro-grants (transparent seed funding) to encourage competition and the emergence of new independent weeklies;
• Include in all communication contracts editorial-independence clauses and citizen-impact indicators (distribution, diversity of viewpoints, transparency of sources).
4️⃣ Ensure full transparency in all communication contracts.
Proactively publish all contracts, amounts, recipients, and selection criteria in a publicly accessible online register.
“Town of Mount Royal deserves better than a complacent newspaper.
Citizens have the right to honest, independent information, funded in the public interest — not to serve those in power.
With my team, I will restore credibility, plurality, and public purpose to municipal information.”
Maryam Kamali Nezhad, Eng., Ph.D
Candidate for Mayor – Avenir Cité-Jardin – Équipe Maryam
📧 info@avenircitejardin.com
514-222-9281
#MountRoyal #GardenCity #Transparency #CitizenParticipation #MunicipalElection2025 #MaryamKamaliNezhad #AvenirCitéJardin