On January 17, at around 5:15 pm, Peterborough police were called to Hayes Line in Cavan Monaghan Township, where several motorists had encountered a vehicle stopped in the middle of the road. Police reported that the driver was unresponsive and the vehicle was still running. 

Peterborough Police Service (PPS) arrested the driver, 49-year-old John Desbiens, for ‘operation while impaired by alcohol or drugs’ and ‘operation while impaired with a blood-alcohol concentration over 80.’ Desbiens was issued a 90-day drivers licence suspension, and his vehicle was impounded for seven days. 

On January 18, John Desbiens, CEO of Cambium Inc., resigned from Trent University’s Board of Governors for what the University says were ‘personal reasons.’ This was just one of Desbiens’ several volunteer commitments in the Peterborough community; he was on the Board of Directors for Noblegen Inc. (Cleantech Commons’ inaugural tenant); he was Chair of the Board for the Kawartha Land Trust, the Peterborough Innovation Cluster, and the Peterborough and the Kawarthas Economic Development. 

John Desbiens’ information is no longer listed on the websites for any of the above organizations. The University had a similar approach, responding to Desbiens’ resignation by deleting his information from the Board of Governors page of their website. The University did not make a public statement about his arrest or his departure from the Board of Governors. 

In his capacity as a member of the Trent Board of Governors, Desbiens played a prominent role in marketing the Trent Lands and Nature Areas Plan to the public, penning a promotional guest column in the Examiner back in October 2020.  

It appears that this was not the first time Desbiens had been charged with impaired driving. In December 2015, John Desbiens was involved in a head-on collision on Highway 7, and was charged with impaired driving at the time of the incident. Arthur was not able to obtain any further information around the legal proceedings that followed the charges in 2015, or in 2021. 

A May 2021 interview with Desbiens published in the Examiner details the success and expansion of his company as they move into a new office and take on new employees. In 2019, Cambium Inc. was named one of Canada’s top growing companies by the Globe and Mail, with their 2018 revenue estimated to be around $10- $25 million. According to the company website, as well as his LinkedIn page, Desbiens remains the President and CEO of Cambium Inc., but has stepped down from the numerous governance positions he held at various companies, not-for-profits, and public institutions.