AN ELMIRA CITIZEN'S OPINION OF THE ELECTION ACT PROCESS IN WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP

A couple of weeks back I gave my version of a Delegation that was given to MECAC (Compliance Audit Committee) on October 26/15 by retired EDSS school teacher and citizen Richard Clausi. In hindsight I believe that his exact words are necessary for everyone to know exactly how corrupt and perverted both the MECAC and the Superior Court process has been regarding Councillors Hahn, Bauman and mayor Shantz. As the hearing was held during working hours it necessarily and intentionally excluded most of the public. His words are as follows:

"Thank You for the opportunity to offer philosophic comment relevant to the mechanics of enforcing the Municipal Elections Act. In his most recent article, Gwyne Dyer states that the "Rule of law is a key part of fostering real democracy". This, in part, answers a question asked by one of your panel members of me- that is, why such a concern with the election financials here in Woolwich. Is it really a big deal? The answer also resonates in the results of the recent federal election-- Specifically, Citizens today expect honesty, transparency and integrity within the electoral system.

A panel member also took issue with my inclusion of the Dean Del Maestro case in my earlier comments. It is not the same, he suggested. But the fact is, you cannot be a little bit pregnant. It certainly is obvious at 9 months, but it is still a fact at 4 months pr earlier. The excesses in Guelph and the Del Maestro case are just that- excesses ; yet, they are part of a corrupted mindset that overlooks, ignores and trivializes rules that form the framework our electoral system works within.

I am sure that you would agree that trickery and sleights of hand are inappropriate within a transparent electoral system.
Yet, trickery is council instructing its lawyers to neither offer counterpoint nor argument nor even testimony from the complainant when Superior Court is considering the reinstatement of a dismissed councillor.
Trickery is ambushing a hearing with documents, minutes before it is to begin so that neither the complainant nor the chair who arrives late nor the members can examine the documents, that indeed are rife with contradictions and shortcomings.
Trickery is providing flimsy excuses for not referring a forensic audit on to a prosecutor despite admission that the original, official financial return is incorrect, that the subsequent invoices are faulty, that there have been overcontributions by companies, and that there are false invoices with false receipts for amounts that were never paid, for items that were never paid for.
Trickery is accepting and commisioning late and different election financial returns when the act does not provide for this after submission deadlines.
Trickery is prejudging what the judicial system will do, and so, just not following though.
Trickery is a councillor admitting to perjuring herself in a sworn statement to Superior Court, with no apparent consequence or concern.
I could go on.
I am uncomfortable lecturing a panel that should be defending the integrity of the electoral process with the necessity to enforce the law as written, rather than as an exercise in wishful thinking.
I will close with a few words from this week's Observer, page 7, as I quote Steve Kannon:

"Beyond the Senate and some form of proportional representation, real accountable government would involve tough rules with real penalties--firings, seizure of assets and jail time--for politicians and bureaucrats who break the public trust, from lack of transparency to the kind of outright theft and corruption we've come to see as standard operating procedure. Politicians have exempted themselves from rules that apply to others."

If you (MECAC), individually and collectively, have betrayed the trust implicit in your appointment to oversee the process, you need to resign, forthwith. It is the honourable thing to do."


These words above are Richard's Delegation to MECAC. MECAC offerred zero comment on either the Township's trickery, the mayor's trickery or their own trickery. They ignored the comments by four independent citizens only to engage in a personal attack upon myself . Any hope for them to do the honourable thing was quickly dashed. Our only remaining local newspaper chose to ignore all those citizens comments in their account. This is one reason I started this BLOG nearly six years ago ie. to make up for our local non coverage of things like CPAC, TAG & RAC meetings.