THE COWARDS HAVE IGNORED/REFUSED A PUBLIC DEBATE FOR THE LAST FIFTEEN TO TWENTY YEARS

For years it was about too many honest and informed citizens ready and willing to confront the company publicly. Just as delay has benefited the guilty parties to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in unspent remediation costs including off-site and downstream flow of contamination; it too has thinned the ranks of strong citizen voices. APTE members (perhaps less Shannon) have been invisible for at least a decade and a half. Esthur Thur has passed on and her opinion gave some of the credit to Uniroyal Chemical for that. Dr. Henry Regier has incredibly defeated the normal ravages of time with the exception of hearing difficulties. Rich Clausi is still healthy and vigorous although along with the last and best CPAC (2011 - Aug. 2015) under the Chairmanship of Dr. Dan Holt has been politically backstabbed and executed by Sandy Shantz and Woolwich Council to their everlasting shame (if they have any). ......................................................................................................... Oh and let's not forget yours truly as well. Back in 2015 when Sandy/Chemtura/MOE were manufacturing their "crisis", CPAC and myself were called bullies among other things. Dr. Henry Regier put the lie to that false allegation when he indicated how many CPAC members, including myself, were senior citizens, hurling both facts and accusations at "big, burly" MOE staff and employees who were mostly in their 40s. Hell this senior citizen was just barely off of his hip replacement (2013) and a shadow of his former physical self. I'm now in my 73rd year and overdue for the other hip replacement. .................................................................................................................... So in a nutshell the cowards and prevaricators, long in control of the cleanup, will never actually engage in a fight until or unless they have absolutely everything in their control. This especially goes for public discussion, consultation, debate etc. Seven years ago they had a new Woolwich Council firmly under their influence and then after twenty-five years of giving lip service to public consultation, they totally sacked it. TAG and RAC are the result and they were all carefully handpicked although they sure screwed up with the first Chair of TAG, namely Dr. Richard Jackson. What a combination of knowledge, experience and backbone he was until his resignation effective December 31, 2016. My opinion is he knew that it was hopeless as all the parties were corrupted. ............................................................................................................................. Here's my prediction. NOW they want a public debate. They'll even try to stack the deck with at least one co-opted citizen in the mix. They might even include a diminished citizen activist who's been hammering them for years although he, CPAC and the general public have been denied the right to either ask questions or offer comment at RAC and TAG meetings since September 2015. Now is the time for the cowards to strike again as they hold all the cards. Filth usually do or as my long departed father used to say "they are either at your heels (in fear) or at your throats (in strength) unlike normal, decent human beings who behave reasonably all the time.