POLITICS: THE ART OF CONTROLLING THE POPULACE

From the local level to the national, professional liars aka politicians control the message. It does get nasty at election time as we recently saw our federal politicians turning on each other. The rest of the time it is primarily propaganda and obfuscations trying to push people in the direction the government of the day wants. Make no mistake, if that direction is good for the majority versus the minority, it is unusual. Governments essentially exist for the very few days every decade when a real crisis does require some central control and authority. The rest of the time they exist to maintain the status quo. That status quo rewards those friendly to the government of the day. It rewards those who have donated to the party. It rewards those who have expressed their support of the government. It rewards those who already have status, power and money. So it has always been and always will be.

A week ago today MECAC reversed the onus on themselves to answer criticism regarding their failure to order a Compliance Audit (forensic audit) of mayor Shantz's election expenses. They kept asking me questions as to what new problems or evidence of non compliance with the Elections Act I had. Specifically they wanted to know how mayor Shantz's last two Financial Statements dated August 6/15 were erroneous. They not only did not want to discuss all the errors and contraventions in her first two Financial Statements; they in conjunction with Woolwich Township had the township's lawyer, under instructions from mayor Shantz and her Council, pretended that legally they weren't allowed to. Such utter rubbish.

I repeatedly stated that all my concerns and criticisms were clearly spelled out in my September 15/15 Application for A Compliance Audit, that had been submitted to them. They kept trying to get me to state that only those items that I could list from memory included everything. They did not.

From memory I mentioned the inadequate Invoice from Councillor Larry Shantz regarding mayor Shantz's campaign website which verbally he stated included her twelve You Tube videos. I also mentioned her constatntly rising Contributions and Expenses throughout her February 2/15, July 23 & June 16/15 Statements and finally her last two August 6/15 Statements. What I did not recall from memory was concerns regarding Fundraising expenses. Again the evidence that mayor Shantz had fund raising expenses was clearly spelled out in my six page submission to MECAC as well as in the copies the media received. Of course MECAC and the mayor both avoided that issue by not raising it. Of course they did not raise the March 23/15 date on her second Financial Statement. Neither of us raised the possibility that a forensic audit of her election expenses might raise some questions regarding her anonymous donations of over $1,700. These allegedly are all $100 donations or less thus allowing them to be anonymous. It would certainly be possible to slide a couple of larger donations into this group that either the mayor or the donors preferred to keep quiet. That is a major problem with these Financial Statements. Without a Compliance Audit as is required after contraventions have been identified by a citizen, there is way too much room to hide and fudge both Expenses and Contributions.

For the second time MECAC improperly used the excuse that a Compliance Audit wasn't necessary because she had provided additional information and explanations of concerns raised. Those are not the criteria determining whether or not a Compliance Audit should be ordered. MECAC know this full well but obviously along with the mayor do not want a professional, serious, thorough and unbiased examination of her four Financial Statements. As I said in my Delegation last Monday to MECAC, a Compliance Audit is not punitive. It is investigative and is necessary.