THE OBSERVER'S POSITION ON PUBLIC CONSULTATION

First off, as of right now, this week's edition of the Woolwich Observer is not on-line, hence I can't give you the readers the link to their Editorial titled "Ford uses Charter clause at his peril...and ours too".(It's on-line now!) My overall position on this Editorial is that I support it. I might add in general that despite occasional specific criticisms of specific matters I have posted here; overall I agree with far more of their Editorials, comments and opinions that otherwise. Unlike me (this is a joke coming) they aren't yet perfect but I continue to hope.

Quoting from today's Editorial in regards to Premier Doug Ford and his use of the Notwithstanding clause; "If the changes could be justified as more than spite, then there would be no harm in announcing his intention for the legislation to take effect at the next election, with or without the pretense of public consultations - a usually perfunctory facade perpetrated by many governments to legitimize their (often poor) already-made decisions."

O.K. now first off I admit that I'm going to extrapolate the Observer's generalized view on public consultation by governments to a specific, local public participation matter, namely the former UPAC and CPAC as well as RAC and TAG. I have formerly admitted to being naive politically when I first got involved with Varnicolor Chemical and then followed up with the Uniroyal Public Advisory Committee (UPAC). Relatively quickly I did realize that UPAC was a fraud loaded with Uniroyal sympathizers whether former employees or local politicians on Woolwich Council. I didn't realize that even after the bulk of them departed UPAC that the committee was still viewed by Uniroyal, Township Council, and the province through the Ministry of Environment (MOE) as being primarily for appearances sake. Or as the Observer's Editorial states "...a usually perfunctory facade perpetrated by many governments to legitimize their (often poor) already-made decisions."

All these governments had already decided privately that it was in their and Uniroyal's best interests to let nature and dilution expend the time and energy to slowly clean up the site and area rather than Uniroyal to do it. Afterall these government bodies and agencies had all been part of the problem for decades prior to the 1989 Elmira Water Crisis and the longer public focus stayed on it, the worse it would be for everyone's credibility. Hence the official attitudes and behaviours favouring those who go along to get along and attempting to discourage those seeking the truth without favour or prejudice.