Mayor Bentley focus of initial investigation into leaked confidential messages
HALDIMAND—Following leaked confidential correspondence being posted on Facebook, Haldimand Council is launching a Code of Conduct investigation through the County’s Integrity Commissioner (IC), David Boghosian.
Haldimand CAO Cathy Case discovered the post on February 28, 2025, in which the anonymous poster claimed to have received the information from a Norfolk staffer and that it would prove “Amy Martin’s disdain for Haldimand County.” Case immediately contacted Norfolk County CAO Al Meneses, and they launched a joint investigation using Glacis Security and Investigations.
Following closed discussions by Haldimand and Norfolk Councils on May 20, a redacted version of Glacis’ report was released for public discussion.
The leaked documents related to the merger of the Haldimand Norfolk and Brant health units, now known as Grand Erie Public Health. It included a three-page letter written by Norfolk Mayor Amy Martin on November 6, 2024, as Chair of Haldimand Norfolk Health Unit, removing Bentley from the merger committee. This was followed by emails dated November 12 and 13, and a four-page letter written by Haldimand’s legal counsel Woody McKaig on November 13.
The merger was completed without Bentley on December 2. The current Board of Health includes Martin as Chair and Bentley as a member.
Kendle Columbus, assistant to Bentley, reached out to Glacis upon hearing of the investigation. Columbus said Bentley prefers printed documents, and that she requested all correspondence about her removal from the merger to be printed in mid-February.
Bentley declined to participate in the Glacis investigation. During the investigation, Bentley’s legal counsel requested access to all information gathered to date by Glacis; this request was denied.
“I did go to a lawyer, because a private eye following you or inquiring about you is not very nice. I’ve said this before. Two and a half years of it, you kind of get sick of it, but I didn’t know what the documents were,” said Bentley following the report’s release. “I’m not going to participate with a private eye; I’d rather participate with the Integrity Commissioner, and he can make his findings.”
Due to Bentley’s refusal to participate, several unanswered questions were detailed in the report, including why she asked for the documents to be printed, who she may have shared them with, who took the photographs of the documents, and whether they were intentionally or accidentally leaked.
Investigators did confirm at least some of the documents were printed on February 18 due to auto-generated dates visible on two of the printed pages.
They also determined two emails sent November 13 were printed from a Haldimand account, as they include an automatic caution that “this email is NOT from a Haldimand employee.” The first email was sent by Meneses to Martin, Case, and Bentley, and the second email from Martin to Case and Bentley.
The report asserts the purpose of the post was to share “clearly negative information about candidate Amy Martin,” who ran in Haldimand-Norfolk in the 2025 provincial election.
Glacis noted that while the post appeared the day after the provincial election, it is unknown when the post was submitted for approval to the Facebook page, which could take several days.
This led investigators to “learn about the political associations of those who may have been motivated to discredit Amy Martin.”
The report details instances of Bentley publicly supporting MPP Bobbi Ann Brady, Martin’s political rival in the 2025 provincial election. This includes a social media post by former MPP Toby Barrett that features Bentley, Brady, newly elected councillors Brad Adams and Debera McKeen, and other supporters (shown above).
Case’s interview with Glacis also noted “some negative history” between Bentley and Martin.
Investigators were able to get the anonymous poster’s name, redacted in the report, from the Facebook group’s administrator. The poster refused to answer the investigator’s questions on how they attained the photographs “on the advice of counsel.”
Following a summary of the report by McKaig, Haldimand’s councillors discussed the allegations.
“This definitely came from Haldimand. If it wasn’t the CAO, if I’m playing the game Clue, there’s only one answer,” said Councillor Rob Shirton. “Was it to discredit Amy Martin when she was in the election? That’s where my mind goes, knowing the timelines.”
Councillor Brad Adams asked if McKaig felt the report was slanted, “where an investigator may have gone down a path seeing what he wanted to be an outcome and tailored an investigation towards that end.”
“I don’t necessarily agree that there’s no evidence,” replied McKaig. “He interviewed all the potential suspects, so to speak, and he was able to close off that it wasn’t copied in Norfolk, it wasn’t copied at my office, and the only place it was copied was here. That doesn’t mean it was posted from here, it doesn’t mean the mayor was involved in it…. I’m not trying to defend the report, I’m just saying I think it speaks for itself…. I didn’t find it slanted when I read it.”
Adams and McKeen questioned the purpose of certain photographs in the report in which they were included.
“It’s trying to show a relationship between the person who posted it and the mayor, isn’t it?” McKaig said, indicating that the poster may be present in a photo.
Adams also questioned whether the documents were even confidential, as there was no such declaration visible on the pages. McKaig responded that documents do not require a confidential disclaimer to be withheld from the public, and asserted the content of the communications make the confidentiality clear.
Adams said he expected there “would be a lot more outrage about the actual letter that came from Norfolk, being dismissive of Haldimand, in our values, in our decision-making, in our participation with the committee.”
The leaked information was all redacted from the public report. Councillor Patrick O’Neill responded that behind closed doors “there was some outrage around the table at that time…. The point of the matter is … that the information got out there when it shouldn’t have.”
Councillor Dan Lawrence spoke next, stating, “We have to have an investigation to find out how the breach happened, and to ensure it does not happen again. That’s the way I look at it, plain and simple. Motivation or why, we’ve got to stop a leak.”
McKeen then questioned the investigation, asking, “Is it a matter of a witch hunt that we’re looking for someone to blame in our office? Or is a matter of we want to find out where the problem was? … I see a slant to this one.”
Shirton put forward the motion to launch a code of conduct complaint, which was approved by Council.
At the Norfolk County meeting shortly after Haldimand’s concluded, Martin stated, “It’s a bit dangerous to spread unfounded accusations, especially during an election, to manipulate public perception, especially when you are manipulating your neighbours, your friends, your colleagues…. That manipulation is extremely distasteful when it’s built on lies and claims that slander the hard-working folks of Norfolk County. I want to be very clear. This was not just an inappropriate act; this was a deceptive and unethical misuse of confidential information.”
The Press will provide updates on this investigation as available.
