TIMELY SUPPORT & INTERVENTION BY CPAC MEMBERS

 CPAC used to stand for the Chemtura Public Advisory Committee which was shut down corruptly, dishonestly and maliciously by Chemtura, Min. of Environment, Sandy Shantz and Mark Bauman in September 2015. They invented a "crisis" to use as an excuse to remove the volunteers who accepted appointment to CPAC by the previous Woolwich Council. 

CPAC now stands for Citizens Public Advisory Committee and consists of nine local citizens who continue to stay informed despite, along with all the rest of the public, being both muzzled and refused the right to participate fully in a huge public interest issue affecting Woolwich, Elmira and downstream communities including Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge.  

CPAC members have recently communicated with some Woolwich political candidates in the upcoming municipal election on October 24/22.  These communications have included a request to restore proper, honest and representative public consultation. Currently all TAG members are vetted and approved on the basis of their professional credentials as much as their unwillingness to rock the boat by disagreeing with GHD, Lanxess and the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MECP). Professionally these credentialed volunteers work for companies in the environmental field who would appear to require the good will of the MECP in order to advance their clients' interests. In any other municipality this would raise Conflict-Of-Interest concerns but not in Woolwich.

Some CPAC members have also communicated with both myself and the Woolwich Observer regarding their story in Thursday's edition comparing Indigenous Risk Assessment issues with those of the Old Order Mennonites living and working immediately downstream of Lanxess Canada (formerly Uniroyal Chemical). As both are minority groups I suppose that I can see similarities in how they are treated by our authorities. Among many differences however is that Indigenous groups have become active and politicized to redress their grievances whereas Old Order Mennonites have not. As a result the health of Old Order Mennonites downstream (Canagagigue Creek) have been both ignored and abused by Uniroyal/Lanxess, MECP and the government of Ontario for decades. These parties are masters of lip service, manipulation, puffery and obfuscation. Local and provincial politicians have clearly decided their course of action and inaction years ago and it does NOT include intelligent and informed citizen input. All input has been relegated to appearances and tokenism for those deemed acceptable by the polluter and his fellow travellors with serious critics of the cleanup being muzzled and given the mushroom treatment.