NAMES TO REMEMBER FOR FUTURE REFERENCE

These are names to remember the next time you are facing any kind of panel, board, tribunal etc.. These are allegedly "citizens" who have a leg up in getting appointed to these quasi judicial, quasi political bodies. All of them are on the current MECAC or Municipal Election Compliance Audit Committee. I have expressed my opinion here in the Advocate that they are dishonest and corrupt and in bed with local politicians. They were actually appointed via all the Municipal Clerks in the various Townships and cities of Waterloo Region. It is my belief that they appointed exactly who they felt would protect elected (especially) politicians from the accountability demanded in the Municipal Elections Act 1996.

A number of these names you should recognize such as Carl Zehr, former Mayor of Kitchener and a former Regional Councillor. Grace Sudden was a Woolwich Township Councillor years ago and then a Regional Councillor. Robert Williams is a political science prof at one of our local universities. Murray Stoddart is simply a yes man. Larry Aberle trys not to be a jerk but still goes along with the crowd. Thomas Jutzi is a lawyer who I will give credit to in that knowing he was in a conflict of interest position with mayor Shantz, begged off of the last meeting. He was however front and centre at the first hearing into her election expenses. Kevin Bambrick is the last of this pack.

Three of these members that I know of had conflicts of interest at the very least serious enough to give the appearance that they might not be unbiased. The other two are Carl Zehr and Grace Sudden, former Regional Councillors. Zehr is also on the Board of Governers of Metrolinx, a company with a multi million dollar ongoing contract with the Region of Waterloo. Oh did I mention that mayor Shantz is currently a Regional Councillor? Shamefully there were exactly zero "conflicts of pecuniary interest" declared over a total of four meetings. Is this use of the word "pecuniary" simply an out to hide bias in favour of the elected politician under scrutiny?

This pack made three asinine and contrary to both the Municipal Elections Act (MEA) and case law, decisions. Two of them were in denying a forensic/compliance audit of Mayor Shantz's four Financial Statements, multiple contraventions of the MEA (some admitted) and her constantly evolving election expenses and contributions AFTER I publicly revealed her contraventions all AFTER the March 27/15 MEA deadline. The third asinine decision involved Woolwich Councillor Scot Hahn. His ordered forensic audit was the only appropriate and correct decision MECAC made. Then inexplicably and contrary to reason, law (MEA), commonsense and case law they refused to send his case on to the courts despite strong evidence that receipts/invoices were manufactured after the fact for signs and or brochures that were never paid for or invoiced in the first place. The best line I heard was that the one invoice produced as the real thing was later referred to as a "sample" invoice. Such utter bullshit!

MECAC were in full possession of all the facts. These included case law examples and a report by the Ontario Bar Association (July 2013) clarifying the very low threshold required to order a forensic audit. Instead they relied upon biased legal advice given to them both in camera and in public by the law firm working for Woolwich Township. This law firm took their instructions from and were paid by Woolwich Council, whose bias in favour of protecting their elected councillor and mayor was evident from the beginning. Plus of course two of these Woolwich Council members (Hahn & Shantz) were voting members of Council while allegedly being scrutinized by MECAC. What a corrupt farce.