DEFINE CORRUPTION, SELLING OUT, BEING CO-OPTED

First off I do understand that there are lies and there are white lies. A white lie could possibly be Mayor Cowan advising the public in a newspaper quote that he is disappointed the old CPAC members withdrew their Applications because he had hoped to have a mix of old and new. It is more than conceivable that he was attemting to avoid hurting their feelings by not being scrupulously honest and advising them and the public that the last thing in the world he wanted was them back on CPAC.

Mark Bauman at Tuesday nite's Council meeting may very well not have lied when he bragged about kicking me off CPAC three years ago. In reality I was at the Council meeting three years ago and Councillor Bauman was absent. This could be an honest mistake on his part although his intent was pretty clear to me,

Mayor Cowan has advised that the old CPAC were not keeping Council advised. I have recently come across Minutes of a Committee of the Whole (2009) meeting. It refers to QUARTERLY Updates to Council from CPAC and indeed was an update by then Chair Pat McLean. Very interesting.

Todd Cowan has repeatedly and unnecessarily reminded me and OTHERS that I was not wanted on this new CPAC by Chemtura, M.O.E., Region of Waterloo and the old gang at CPAC. According to him nobody wanted me on and indeed just like three years ago, there were ultimatums put out by a few old CPAC members. Well!!!

Finally is "selling out" illegal? I used to think that to be illegal it required the exchange of money. Then lo and behold our former Prime Minister is caught accepting $300,000 in a brown paper bag from Karl Heinz Schreiber and he's not prosecuted. Now I'm really confused. Let me give you a hypothetical scenario. What if Chemtura advised the Mayor that as we all know, our new Recreational Facility is having financial problems. What if they said to him that we Chemtura will donate $100,000 to the Facility anonymously. The thing is this cash/cheque will be given to the Township the day AFTER Chemtura's "Responsible Care" reverification is finished. What if they hinted that gee golly wouldn't it be nice to leave the current reverification team in place rather than put new appointees from the new CPAC on the team. Oh and did we mention $100,000 for the benefit of the taxpayers of Woolwich. Now this is a hypothetical scenario but you the readers tell me: Is this "selling out"? It's a tough one isn't it? Therefore the terms co-opted and selling out are particularily subjective. I believe that there has been a behind closed doors gentlemens' agreement of some kind. That is my opinion and it is based solely on my interpretation of a very bad decision to date by the Mayor and one Councillor. If as in my earlier posted article today this decision is motivated for some other reason, then so be it. If it's motivated for some hidden benefit to Woolwich citizens then I say the Mayor is not remotely knowledgable enough on Chemtura matters to be making these decisions privately on his own. It is theoretically possible therefore to "sell out" one set of interests in favour of another and actually to have made a good deal and to have done good. It just usually doesn't happen that way behind closed doors.