IS M.O.E. CORRUPTION A SUBSET OF PROVINCIAL POLITICAL CORRUPTION?

The buck stops at the top. The Ministry of the Environment are simply one Ministry around the Cabinet table of the provincial government whether Conservative, Liberal or NDP. While one's gut, visceral reaction to the word "corruption" may be an image of cash in a brown paper bag being handed over (eg. Brian Mulroney & Karl Heinz Schreiber), in fact the dictionary also defines it as "riddled with errors". Hence if something is corrupt it could simply be extremely incompetent or inaccurate to the extreme. I also believe corrupt can be used to describe rotting flesh.

Corruption in the usual political sense also may have little or no immediate cash value. Hence the corruption around the Watergate scandal was all about political advantage and political survival. I do not believe that Richard Nixon had an immediate cash incentive to commit burglary at the Democratic headquarters.

Is blatant, bald faced lying a form of corruption? I believe that it is. It is an abuse of power to withold or falsify relevant and pertinent data from citizens who have put their faith in an institution (M.O.E.) which is supposed to represent their interests. It is corruption for a democratically elected government to intentionally, either directly or indirectly, mislead and deceive its' citizens for its' own interests.

By these definitions there is no doubt that the Ontario M.O.E. are corrupt. They have long believed that their interests including their public perception are more important than both protecting the public and honestly informing the public. In the case of Elmira, Ontario they have misled citizen stakeholders for over 25 years regarding their health and environmental security. The M.O.E. have blatantly lied regarding both Varnicolor Chemical and Uniroyal Chemical (Chemtura). These lies deal with both the severity of pollution, the environmental consequences thereof and the efficacy of remediation methods. Again these lies have been to the media, the general public, the Chemtura Public Advisory Committee (CPAC) and to Woolwich Council over the years.

The "cleanups" of both sites have been inadequate. They have lied from the beginning, assisted the companies in covering up and minimized the full extent of the environmental damage whether to the air, soil, groundwater (shallow or deep), surface water, wildlife or human life. They have counted on medical uncertainity as to the most likely causes of diseases such as cancer which can be triggered by industrial contamination of the air, water or soil. This has all been done in order to protect the M.O.E. from appropriate criticism concerning their behavior and incompetence and which would damage their reputation and credibility as protectors of the environment.