BEARING WITNESS

Corruption I've often said is more than brown paper bags full of cash as per our former Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney. Corruption is using your position of authority not for the benefit of the public and not in the interests of the public but either for your own interest (short term) or your own interest (long term) by way of benefiting private persons or companies who will at a later date express their appreciation. Canadian politics as well as most others is rife with examples of this behaviour. To a certain extent our political parties both here and in the U.S. reflect powerful interest groups backing either the right or left wing viewed parties. Corporate interests can be represented by either the Democrats or Republican party. The same thing goes with the Liberals and the Conservatives here. Labour interests and unions are generally although not exclusively the purview of the NDP here and the Democrats south of the border. There are of course crossovers either formally or simply individual members of one group voting for a disparate party.

For thirty years and more we have seen corruption of this type here in Elmira, Ontario. Make no mistake Sandy, corruption is endemic amongst all Canadian jurisdictions and at all levels. It is fundamentally human nature in that politicians like pedophiles will gravitate to the venue that will most satisfy them. Pedophiles like schools, Boy Scouts, sports and coaching of young athletes whereas politicians start usually with School Board Trustees positions and work their way through municipal governments, provincial governments etc.. Politicians go where they can manipulate others in order to get ahead. Ahead for them means being in positions of authority so that they can feel important and be the boss. That is their adrenaline, that is their fix. It's also proving they are smarter than everybody else by lying and manipulating and fooling people. It's a psychologists field day when you look at the numbers of short, poorly educated men who have achieved success politically. For them it's all about proving themselves and if they are good liars then they are at least 2/3 of the way there. Often our politicians frankly are dumb. They may have street smarts and indeed likely they are very good observers of human behaviour. They know how to suck up to more powerful people when it's in their best interests and they need a mentor. This is a generalization and there are always a few who are in public service for exactly that: public service. They are unfortunately few and far between and certainly considered unreliable to be no questions asked party stalwarts. Some are at the municipal level as well as on the backbenches in our legislature and parliament.

I've been asked why I've spent thirty years (as of next year) fighting the corruption here in Elmira and Woolwich Township. Especially as it seems that corruption, power and money wins the vast majority of the battles. The answer is simple. It is to bear witness and then to report upon it. I've been doing that for the last eight years through this Blog. I knew back in 1991 that something was horribly wrong with our so called authorities and their handling of Varnicolor Chemical and Uniroyal Chemical. I made the conscious decision to observe, study and participate. I decided to assist in presenting the public's views and opinions to municipal, regional, provincial and even federal governments so as to ensure that ultimately they could not say: "Oh we did not know." They know exactly what has gone on here as do many. I will continue to observe, study and participate and most importantly share with the public via whatever means are at my disposal.