THE IRONY & HYPOCRISY OF WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP

The Family Compact aka Woolwich "tradition" is alive and well. We seem to have a very conservative, pro business, pro establishment, anti activist sentiment normally with our repeat term Woolwich councillors and mayor. Suddenly when one of their own is under the microscope all radicalism breaks out. Woolwich are setting a very bad precedent in ignoring the (Ontario) Municipal Elections Act 1996 requirement for immediate removal of a candidate who has failed, it turns out in hindsight, to file Financial Expense Reports in four of his last five elections. I would go so far as to accuse Woolwich of having gone rogue on us.

That said Councillor Bauman is in some difficulty of his own making. While there are reasonable arguments to be made regarding a Judge to go easy on him; my question is will any judges be so inclined after Mark and the Township Clerk seem hellbent on thumbing their noses at the provincial legislation?

This is not by any stretch the first time that Woolwich Councils have made light of the jurisdiction of higher tiers of government. Lord knows I'm certainly not the biggest proponent of mindlessly following the rules but all parties are in agreement that the Elections Act has been violated (repeatedly) here in Woolwich. What exactly would the advantage be to "suspending" Councillor Bauman from all committee and council meetings versus removing him now as the province and the legislation insists and then reinstating him after a judge determines it to be so?

Recently we have been informed by Mayor Shantz that the Council are already seeking legal advice as to how to get around their own Township Procedural By-Laws, CPAC's Terms of Reference as a committee of Council and very disturbingly, reopening months after the deadline, last November's CPAC Application process because they the new Council don't like the eight Applications they received for a minimum of six positions.

Turns out this Council really are quite radical and not necessarily in a good way. Today's K-W Record story is titled "Woolwich won't remove Bauman". The Record Editorial is titled "Councillor Bauman must go" and the Woolwich Observer carry this story titled "Expense filing sees councillor on hold in court challenge".