MAYOR SHANTZ & PROVINCIAL OFFENCES COURT ARE ONE WEEK AWAY

Back in early December the ten Municipal Election Act (MEA) charges laid against mayor Shantz were adjourned until January 6, 2015 at 9 am.; I believe in either courtroom 101 or 102. Since that date it has become clearer to me as to the legal difficulties involved in prosecuting under the MEA. I have been documenting here since last September all the obstacles, hurdles and checkpoints faced and overcome. I have made it very clear that this is not remotely a user friendly process. That said I have seen some excellent, dedicated professionals with a sincere desire to do their duty. Unfortunately I have also seen a system that is not set up or prepared to accomodate the legal requirements as set out in the province of Ontario's MEA. That is disgraceful.

To date I have been given the wrong forms to fill out only to be so advised weeks later. Then after the charges were accepted by the Justice of the Peace they were sent to the wrong courthouse. We were initially in the Ontario Court of Justice only to find that we needed to be in Provincial Offences Court. Even there, another month later, I thought I heard the suggestion that some of the charges might need to be heard in a different court although I'm not 100% certain of that. Finally the latest procedural snafu or misadventure may relate back to the original laying of charges through the Justice of the Peace. Again all this is over my head but as you can imagine is discouraging.

At this point in time I am beginning to appreciate exactly how big a mouthful I have bitten off. Do I have any regrets? Exactly zero. Woolwich Township procedures and practices involved in this process have proven to be biased and dishonest. MECAC are so far over the line and totally out to lunch as to be beyond any hope of salvage. Tweaking will not give them any semblance of dispassionate honesty. While the courts to date have been slow, cumbersome and unprepared to deal with Municipal Election Act charges, nevertheless they are trying. They say that where there is a will there is a way. That is my hope and will remain so until it is finished one way or the other.

When I started last June 16/15 I knew that mayor Shantz was not the ethical individual I had understood for the previous nineteen years. Yes there had been, years ago, bizarre decisions and behaviour which she did her best to explain away. I naively had accepted those phony explanations (in hindsight) because I wanted to believe that she was the real deal, an honest politician. I was wrong then and she was exactly what she is today namely a politician with a sense of entitlement which includes deceiving and manipulating the public when she sees fit.

I have stayed the course exactly to determine if the system set out in the Municipal Elections Act is the real deal. MECAC are a pack of former politicians, wanna be politicians and political hangers on appointed ostensibly by the Municipal Clerks throughout Waterloo Region; who themselves are beholden to the current multiple Councils for their jobs. Now it is in the courts which have not received direction or probably even resources to do their jobs on this matter. The process has been ridiculously arduous, time consuming and filled with personal attacks and slander all of which are meant to discourage other citizens from ever attempting this process again. But guess what folks? A trail is being blazed. It will be much easier for a second citizen to follow their duty and their conscience. And after the second it will be yet easier for a third. Tremble all ye dishonest politicians.