WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP CORRUPTION & HYPOCRISY COMBINED WITH BELL'S PALSY

What on earth does the malady of "Bell's Palsy" have to do with Woolwich Township? Several years back a federal politician made a crack about then Prime Minister Jean Chretien speaking out of both sides of his mouth. As you may recall Mr. Chretien had a minor facial abnormality in which one side of his mouth almost appeared immobolized. That is Bell's Palsy. Getting back to the title of today's posting I am referring to the three page letter purporting to be a legal opinion written by Mr. Thompson of Smith Valeriote. It is a classic legal opinion which says an awful lot on both sides of an irrelevant issue. After categorically telling MECAC exactly what they can't do during Monday's hearing he then in his very last paragraph reverses himself and says that he "cannot offer any opinion with regard to the merits of the Application in that regard (the Legal Test), and that question is solely for MECAC to determine ...".

Three pages of verbal diarrhea boiled down to three sentences indicating that MECAC's only decision namely Yes/No regarding a Compliance/Forensic Audit is totally theirs alone. His entire speech is simply meant to allow MECAC to ignore if not indeed interrupt this Applicant from speaking to the real issues in mayor Shantz's four Financial Statements. MECAC will embrace this red herring with open arms. They will piously tell me, the public and the media that they are bound by this legal opinion when they absolutely are not. They will pretend to give it's overall nonsense undue weight and respect. The purpose is to once again avoid actually discussing, debating or examining the mayor's multiple, ridiculous violations and contraventions off the Elections Act. Township Staff, Council and mayor do not want discussion of how she originally included the nearly $700 of Thank You Notices published in the Observer and Independent in her election expenses and then removed them using a misinterpretation of the 2014 Candidates Guide. This removal reduced her Expenses below the $10,000 threshold for an Audit, the same way her manipulation of her Contributions with a bogus subtraction did.

At the end of the first paragraph above I didn't finish the quote by Mr. Thompson. It goes like this "...that question is solely for MECAC to determine, subject to review by the Ontario Court of Justice.". According to the Ontario Bar Association's 2013 report submitted to MECAC and the media, any appeal to the courts of a decision to merely investigate via a Compliance/Forensic Audit is an abuse of the entire MECAC process. It may be legal but is intended solely to waste everyone's time and run out the clock on the mayor's term of office. There are appropriate appeal methods available if the courts for example were to find mayor Shantz guilty of violating the Elections Act. MECAC's decision for example in favour of a Forensic Audit on Monday would not be remotely any determination of guilt, bad intent etc.. It would be a proper response to her multiple admitted and unadmitted Election Act violations and would finally have a fully independent, third party expert delve deeply into her election financials. This has not remotely occurred to date. The other thing this reference to the Ontario Court of Justice is, is a threat. MECAC are on very thin ice with two very bad decisions to date. The last thing they want is their behaviour being examined in a forum (court) over which they do not have control. Their decision in favour of a Forensic Audit would look good in court whereas the exposure of their overall behaviour to date, here in Woolwich, would be an embarassment to them, Woolwich Township, the mayor and even the Region of Waterloo.