INHERENTLY/ESSENTIALLY CORRUPT - TAG, RAC, MECP, GRCA, WOOLWICH COUNCIL, RMOW, GHD

NOW SOME PROVISOS, DEFINITIONS AND EXCEPTIONS ........................................................................................................ There are levels of corruption. At the highest most heinous level are straight bag men giving and receiving brown bags full of cash. Cash for services rendered whether legal, illegal, on the line or over the line. At the bottom end are simple fellow travellors who go along to get along. Their lives are made easier if they don't question vigorously or slow down the train too much. Then there is the definition of corruption as "being riddled with errors". An example of this would be self-serving technical reports that are accepted while being riddled with substantive errors that should in fact destroy the entire credibility of said report but do not. These are legion in Elmira, Ontario relative to the 1989 Elmira Water Crisis and alleged "cleanup". ............................................................................................................. Not all members of a corrupt body are themselves corrupt. I would hope that as many as four TAG members are honest, independent thinkers whose decisions are not predetermined for them. It is even possible that there are two others who are honest but are simply keeping their heads down so as to avoid personal or professional difficulties. That said I am afraid that it is crunch time. Either stand up on your own two feet and speak the truth or resign. Maybe do both or understand that disagreeing with Lanxess's program will get you replaced with a more amenable expert. TAG are an intentionally impotent body simply advising a more corrupt and woefully and likely intentionally ignorant body namely RAC. TAG have the knowledge but RAC's politicians and bureaucrats are long embedded with Uniroyal/Lanxess via private deals and agreements whether tacit or explicit. The other problem with TAG is the authority given to the Chair who is a paid appointee/employee? of Woolwich Council supervised by the mayor. Good God! Dr. Richard Jackson was excellent, his replacement is not. ...................................................................................................................................... There are many essentially corrupt bodies that have had good people as members trying to reform them. That rarely if ever works as they were intended to be corrupt in the first place and will greatly resist internal reform by all means. The Canadian Chemical Producers Association (CCPA) was a good example. Both good people and lots of self-serving corrupt ones have served on it. The CCPA later changed their name but were the same bunch jetsetting both corrupt and non-corrupt members around North America to examine various chemical facilities and make gentle suggestions or pat them on the back. A Public Relations scam. ....................................................................................................................... While decades of experience and observation are involved in my observations and opinions of the seven groups above lets also realize that even essentially corrupt bodies do occasionally make good decisions. The Region of Waterloo for example have been leaders in composting, recycling and garbage reduction. They have also utterly failed in properly supervising their police force both internally regarding female officers treatment and externally regarding the treatment of racial minorities. Also keep in mind that good people often work for bad organizations. Employees do not all have infinite employment choices. If they get a good job with one of the above corrupt bodies they likely want to keep it including wanting to be proud of it. ........................................................................................................ Lastly let me leave you with this quote from Saul Bellow: "A GREAT DEAL OF INTELLIGENCE CAN BE INVESTED IN IGNORANCE WHEN THE NEED FOR ILLUSION IS DEEP." The need for illusion is very deep in Waterloo Region especially in Elmira where public figures know that they as individuals and as organizations are vulnerable to civil suits including class actions for their failures, incompetence and negligence in allowing the gross contamination of both the Elmira drinking water aquifers and of the Canagagigue Creek. Ignorance includes refusing to even look at professional lab analyses done by experts in dioxin/furan and PCB analysis simply because the company's experts were not part of the whole process. Corruption as defined in the first paragraph above also includes politicians putting private interests ahead of the public interest.