HAMILTON COUNCIL REPEATEDLY VOTED TO SUPPRESS PUBLIC HEALTH RISK INFORMATION

Firstly I found this article titled "Did Hamilton sewage secret put public at risk?" in today's Waterloo Region Record on page A7. I have gone on-line unsuccessfully in order to provide a link to the story. For me this story underlines the perverse and perverted thinking common among our political elites. The story revolves around Hamilton councillors knowing that 24 billion litres of sewage escaped undetected over a four year period from a sewer overflow tank into Chedoke Creek.

While signage had been posted from an earlier public spill the signage had not been removed long after that spill had either been cleaned up or diluted and gone downstream. A local resident was stonewalled with his questions to the appropriate authorities as to why the signs were still up and if indeed there was still a problem with persons coming in contact with the water whether from swimming, fishing or even boating. Indeed "Council repeatedly voted to keep the information secret over legal liability concerns...".

That is what really grinds me and I would suggest that there is a similar attitude among various councillors here in Woolwich Township. When faced with a problem that could adversely affect the public, some of our councillors go into turtle mode. In other words they hunker down, pull in their extremities and basically refuse to answer legitimate concerns and questions from the public who are or will be affected by the problem. In fact I would suggest that not only are public officials who hide information of risks to the public more likely to actually cause that physical harm to the public but they are also more likely to exacerbate their legal liability in the process. There is a general principle in law that persons who have discovered a threat to others health and safety must both inform them fully and take immediate steps to attempt to mitigate those risks. Private votes to keep risks secret to the public should result in either removal as councillors or even legal charges.

Contaminated drinking water, methane, asbestos all come to mind. How much more do we not even know about?