HOLDING WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP ACCOUNTABLE

This last year has been memorable. Woolwich Township Staff and Councillors have been held accountable like never before. Numerous citizens representing either themselves or various interests have stepped up, stuck their necks out and said enough. Whether OMB hearings, Ombudsman complaints, Municipal Election Act challenges, MECAC hearings, Council Delegations, hiring of lawyers, Freedom of Information requests, Letters to the Editors, public meetings or via Blogs; Woolwich citizens have taken it directly to local politicians who are not governing in citizens' best interests.

My personal efforts this past year may have been initially instigated by Woolwich Council's cowardly and disgraceful action towards CPAC & SWAT but those efforts while seriously due to the environmental fallout of bad governance are not solely because of the incestuous Chemtura/M.O.E./Woolwich relationship. Bad governance, not in the public interest, is going to impact our children and grandchildren even more than us. Whether these impacts are financial, social, environmental, physical or mental; citizens must stop these assaults upon society before a tipping point is reached. That tipping point may well be expected as police forces continue to expand both budgetarily and militarily as has been described by Steve Kannon of the Woolwich Observer. Every appropriate and legal pushback today may save future generations from civil/class war.

Currently I have two formal complaints against Woolwich Township and Council into the Ontario Ombudsman. Note carefully into the provincial Ombudsman not the hoped for and paid for by the Township (& Region) probably tame Regional Ombudsman in the process of being appointed. There are two others of a serious nature which I am considering carefully. Meanwhile yesterday, under the suggestion of the Ontario Ombudsman I filed a written complaint under Woolwich Township's Complaint Process regarding the April 9, 2015 "Environmental Planning Discussion" meeting aka "bitch session" or "pretend stakeholders' meeting".

This meeting which intentionally excluded seven of the eight CPAC and SWAT members who had carried the ball sucessfully for the previous four plus years and who (CPAC) had been appointed by the previous Council, was solely for the purpose of slandering and smearing the reputations of CPAC and SWAT. Four or five attendees of the seventeen present lied through their teeth about CPAC and SWAT. Only one of them had been consistently present at CPAC meetings for the previous four years although he was a longterm Chemtura employee. The purpose of this assault upon Woolwich volunteers who had done more environmentally by far than any other prior CPAC group, was to break their resolve and will. It did not succeed Sandy and Mark.

Lies about respected professionals in the environmental field, respected academics, senior citizens and other citizen volunteers perpetrated by this Council or by any senior staff stupid enough to jump on the bandwagon will not be tolerated. I explored legal options a year ago and determined that while we had a case, a minimum $100,000 up front would have been required to sue Woolwich. We have the best judicial system in the world that money can buy.

These lies even went so far as to claim that these above citizens including yours truly had been physically aggressive and hostile and had caused an unsafe workplace for the likes of M.O.E. bureaucrats and more. Keep in mind I'm currently 66 years old and the last couple of years of CPAC meetings had been recovering from a hip replacement. Also keep in mind these senior professionals, senior citizens, female retired nurse, Phd academics etc. have zero history of any kind of aggressive physical actions.

Woolwich you can continue on your course or you can make amends. The future is in your hands.