The key is honest and motivated. None of those persons exist in Saudia Arabia, Iran, Russia, Washington, Ottawa or Elmira, Ontario. At least no honest and motivated politicians exist in those locales. Let me be more specific. If the "problem" is acknowledged as such then there is half a chance. Right now in the news Iran are being criticized because they don't see a problem in accosting, kidnapping and arresting young women who do not conform to their strict dress codes. For them the bigger problem is alleged disrespect for their religious faith's demands for extremely modest apparel. The occasional young woman dying in custody apparently isn't a problem for them. So try discussing/negotiating that with them. You are wasting your time unless you first overthrow their government and then ask them if they'd care to seriously discuss the problem of state sanctioned murder of their citizens. At that point and not before they might be open to honest discussion/negotiation. Maybe.
You can not force anyone to sit down and honestly negotiate a problem. They need to be motivated by a worse scenario/problem than the one they are trying to resolve. The Canagagigue Creek Risk Assessment is a farce and a sham which you want scrapped and started over with honest data and individuals in charge. Woolwich Township, the MECP, Lanxess and GHD do not want that. They won't budge an inch. So what to do? Up the ante. Figure out a way to make it more expensive to continue on the dishonest, corrupt path than to undertake it properly. I suspect that a few hundred people regularly attending Council meetings screaming at the councillors for the whole meeting would get their attention. Sure staff and Council would cry about undemocratic, mob justice blah, blah, blah but seriously they have ensured that polite, respectful delegations get nowhere unless the issue is not one that Council and their political colleagues haven't already ruled on privately. There is absolutely nothing forcing any Council, legislature or parliament to be reasonable, honest or even logical. The majority of self-serving individuals will make decisions solely upon their best interests. Sometimes those decisions coincide with the public interest. Often they do not.
Friend and colleague Richard Clausi has often stated that nothing will really be done to properly clean up Elmira's contaminated environment until half the town wakes up one morning to find the other half dead in their beds. Then maybe, just maybe real change, reform and cleanup will occur. Maybe if we are lucky.
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