Monday, March 18, 2024

CPAC BETRAYAL, PERSONAL CHARACTER WEAKNESS, NAIVETE OR SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY?

 How things can change in a day or two. Tomorrow Woolwich Township are somewhat doing 2015 all over again. Back then they took the best citizens public consultation body that Woolwich had ever had and threw it out. Tomorrow they are throwing out two of the worst committees (RAC/TAG) and replacing it with a merger of members from RAC & TAG and calling it TRAC (Technical Remediation Advisory Committee). Talk about putting lipstick on a pig. Meanwhile in fact that is exactly what mayor Sandy Shantz and CAO Dave Brenneman are doing by poaching two CPAC members to sit on TRAC.  TRAC are the pig and the two CPAC members are the lipstick.

Full credit to Sandy and David in the sneaky and scheming department. When it comes to  transparency, accountability and honesty they are number one at the bottom of the list. However when it comes to manipulation, back room deals, offering niceties in exchange for support and or using the resources including taxpayers money of the Township, in less than totally appropriate ways, I rate them as number one. Meanwhile my reference to "poaching" two CPAC members is admittedly a little strong. It is quite possible that the two members actually approached Woolwich Council first.  The reference however to the two CPAC members being the "lipstick" on the pig is dead on. Shame on the pack of them.

Saturday, March 16, 2024

TRAC MEMBERS TO BE APPOINTED IN CAMERA THIS TUESDAY (?)

 I mean it certainly refers to that on Agenda Item 1.a. on the Woolwich Council Agenda already out for this coming Tuesday. But does it explicitly say so? Maybe. Regardless I would be surprised if any CPAC members were appointed to TRAC by Woolwich Township (i.e. David B. & Sandy). That said stranger things have happened. I will say that to my knowledge no CPAC members have been invited to be on TRAC to date. The only reason for any CPAC member to sit on either the former TAG or the new (still unratified) TRAC is to get inside information that actually should be distributed to the public. Insights could be helpful although again are the Township stupid enough to have a less than 100% loyal to the mayor and CAO, versus to the public, individual(s) present? Well yes they are as evidenced by Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach's presence on TAG for the last 8  1/2 years.

Friday, March 15, 2024

WOOLWICH OBSERVER HAMMERS MAYOR SHANTZ & WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP

 The title of the article in yesterday's Woolwich Observer on page 5 is "Woolwich shifts gears again on committee monitoring Elmira chemical plant". I would characterize it as one of the strongest articles criticizing Woolwich Township's behaviour surrounding public consultation and their history of public advisory committees, in many years. By implication if not by name the strong criticism would include CAO David Brenneman and somewhat to a lesser extent former councillor Mark Bauman. 

Quoting the Observer's article written by Steve Kannon "...the 2015 split, which essentially removed both the citizen and the watchdog  function of what was a public advisory group reaching back to the early days 35 years ago...". This references the immoral and unethical behaviour of Sandy Shantz, Mark Bauman, David Brenneman, Pat McLean and Susan Bryant with their sham April 9/15 "stakeholders" meeting in which only one CPAC member was invited while other totally uninvolved with groundwater remediation citizens were invited (eg. Inge Rinne). 

Further quotes include "The goal in splitting up the committee was to entice both the company, then Chemtura, and the Ministry of Environment back to the table by eliminating some of the most vocal critics from the process. The idea was for meetings to be less adversarial." Imagine that, both Chemtura and the Min. of Environment were obfuscating as well as using junk science to back up their do as little as possible cleanup and citizens appointed to hold them accountable became adversarial. Shocking (not). A further point in 2015 is that dissenting councillor Pat Merlihan referred to the alleged "citizen" makeup of RAC & TAG as "cringeworthy".

As I was a Delegate to last week's council meeting, the Observer also quoted some of my comments to councillors such as "This new plan is just the same old don't rock the boat, let Lanxess and the [ministry] do their thing and allow another 35 years of slow leakage into both our aquifers and our creek,".  Furthermore I also stated "I'd rather see Woolwich abandon the field rather than continue to tarnish themselves by being cheerleaders for the two biggest polluters in the province.".  The two biggest polluters being Uniroyal/Lanxess and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. 

It is being gentle suggesting that Woolwich Township has improperly been in bed with Uniroyal/Lanxess for the last 35 years. Apparently they like and wish to continue that arrangement for the next 35 years. 


Thursday, March 14, 2024

THE ONTARIO MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT LIED TO THE DOWNSTREAM ("GIG") OLD ORDER MENNONITE RESIDENTS

 How blatantly did they lie. Well that of course varies with whom you ask. Dr. Richard Jackson and TAG were very unimpressed. Mayor Sandy Shantz to my surprise also appeared to be upset with them. I found the MOE/MECP behaviour to surpass what I feel is a level of corruption. Essentially the MOE sent a letter to all the Old Order families living along the Creek between Uniroyal/Chemtura and the Grand River at least five miles downstream. The letter was to reassure them regarding the health and safety of the Canagagigue Creek,  creek sediments, creekbank soils and even floodplain soils. In order to do so they lied, gilded the lily and stretched the truth. The letter from the province of Ontario (MOE) advised these residents living along the Creek that levels of bio-accumulative and persistent toxic compounds such as DDT, dioxins and furans and more had decreased over time when in fact the data said otherwise.

To my pleasant surprise Mayor Shantz and Woolwich Township ignored the MOE's objections and went ahead and posted warning signs by the Creek at New Jerusalem Rd., Northfield Dr. and Jigs Hollow Rd. (#46) several years ago. They are still present . These signs advised fishermen not to eat anything they caught due to contamination. This is one of the very few instances when the Township did the right thing however the behaviour of the Ontario Ministry of Environment was dishonest, corrupt and true to their character. 

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION?

O.K. this is a little tricky.  I'm a great believer in "say what you mean and mean what you say". In other words "call a spade a spade" and in fact sometimes I can be a tad pedantic (great word) and will nitpick others vague or ambiguous verbal and written utterances .  So what's my problem here?

CPAC (Citizens Public Advisory Committee) are a great source of both strength and inspiration. This is because of the variety of  experiences and  knowledge of the various members. One in particular has an outstanding record and history of accurate, early reads on people whether new to them or not. Personally I'm at the other end of the spectrum and do not trust my own early "reads" on people because I've found that over time as I learn more about them I have often totally misjudged them early on both positively and negatively.

Let's take councillor Nathan Cadeau for an example. I found him difficult to like right from the getgo. He has presumably trained himself to present all information from his mouth as first hand knowledge and as coming from an extremely informed individual.  The problem for him is when the subject matter is groundwater contamination, remediation, local toxic waste disposal, Uniroyal Control Orders etc. all subjects that I have seriously studied for the last 35 years. He on the other hand has not so studied and as expected doesn't  know shi* from shinola yet he babbles on as if he's an expert. That bugs me but over the last fifteen months I can say that my dislike and disrespect for him has only grown. But let's give him another year or two and see how I feel then. 

Conversely early on and for at least several years I thought that Sandy Shantz was the real deal as in honest and straightforward. To my embarrassment now I voted for her against Todd Cowan back in October 2014. What a gross miscalculation regarding her character.

Anyhow the CPAC member with a much better early on track record than mine has noticed something and that is the non-verbal cues such as body language and facial expressions of Woolwich councillors.  Without being specific I can tell you that she has watched the on-line (Woolwich Township Website) video of Tuesday, March 5/24 Committee of the Whole and has carefully watched the non-verbal cues of three of the councillors in particular. Sandy she felt was angry and upset during my Delegation whereas Nathan was difficult to determine. The other three visually present were totally different and if you are so inclined I leave it to you to go on the Woolwich Township Website and via "Mayor and Council", followed by "Council Calendar" click on the VIDEO for Tuesday, March 5, 2024 Committee of the Whole.  My Delegation starts perhaps fifteen minutes into the start of the video.     

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

ONTARIO'S FORMER (?) RACIST, SEXIST, HOMOPHOBIC & BIASED JUDICIAL SYSTEM

 Today's Waterloo Region Record has an article by Michelle Landsberg, a former Toronto Star columnist. Back in the 1980s and likely much earlier she and the Star had been publishing articles openly and harshly critical of what passed for impartial, unbiased adjudication by racist, homophobic, sexist and clearly biased male judges or as she put it (always men). Now speaking from experience I believe that idiot, biased judges don't have to have all the detriments just described. For example I was oppressed with an idiot, biased judge in 1996 who was sexist in that he was apparently biased in favour of females not against them. This occurred both in my case and in others in which I was advised that he was ordered to apologize to the husband in a marital dispute for how he the judge treated him in court. This particular judge I refer to as the Dishonourable Justice Robert Reilly.

Getting back to the article at hand titled "Ontario's system of naming judges is well-respected" tends to throw one off at first glance. Further reading however clarifies that the author (Ms. Landsberg) is describing the improved system of naming judges since approximately the early 1990s, not in time to help me as I was inflicted with an entrenched judge. Ms. Landsberg is warning citizens not to be complacent as Doug Ford is attempting to turn back the clock even as his Conservative predecessor Mike Harris attempted in 1999. Our former inglorious leader didn't appreciate his crony and Conservative buddy not receiving a judgeship in Mr. Harris's home riding of North Bay and refused to appoint one of the three short listed applicant for the position. Eventually he caved.

Lastly as a warning of what our judicial system used to be I quote Ms. Landsberg's comments in support of the then new JAAC (Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee) when she stated "As we discovered the depth of cronyism and patronage in the Ontario court system, we felt strongly affirmed in our work...".  Isn't it disturbing to realize that without open, transparent and honest decision making how all our man made systems, including judicial systems, descend into anarchy and chaos?    

Monday, March 11, 2024

TRAC - DOES THE WATCHDOG NEED TO BE INSIDE THE HOUSE OR OUTSIDE THE HOUSE?

 That is an age old question and I suspect, depending on the circumstances, to have at least two different answers. A watchdog with full access to both audible and visual stimuli may quite likely be able to pick up potential trouble far sooner outside the house than inside. Slight noises in the night possibly combined with olfactory (smell) stimuli may very well not be noticeable inside the house until it is under attack. Or a contrary opinion might suggest that an outside dog is far too exposed and vulnerable outside to be a reliable warning system. It's a lot easier to silence an outside dog than an inside dog. 

CPAC agreed 8 1/2 years ago that while none of them could further stomach Sandy and Mark's contemptible behaviour and lying nevertheless if Sebastian wanted to REAPPLY as a member of TAG after we had all played by the rules and formally APPLIED prior to the Woolwich imposed deadline, then so be it. The arrogance, hypocrisy and contempt for their own process by Sandy and Mark went way beyond what I could tolerate. I would not sit with such an abomination based upon blatant lying, deceit and political manipulation. The lack of respect for democracy has proven to be a hallmark of our municipal governance for decades.

CPAC are discussing the current situation. My opinion is that this is yet another charade in support of the two biggest polluters in Ontario namely the Ministry of Environment and Lanxess Canada. Both the Stroh Drain and the stinking, putrid Draft Risk Assessment of the Canagagigue Creek speak loudly to Lanxess's dishonesty and lack of credibility.