ABUSE OF AUTHORITY AT ALL LEVELS IN CANADA

 Municipal, regional, provincial and federal: They all abuse their authority whether for personal gain, financial or other, power, greater authority, status, you name it. The old saying is that "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". It is true and it is understated and often misunderstood. 

There is an article in today's Waterloo Region Record by Paige Desmond which analyzes strip searches of various levels done by the Waterloo Regional Police. That too is one more example of abuse of authority. The proof is in the lack of accountability and transparency. I have sent a note to the reporter suggesting a few more statistics she might want to look at. If that data is made available to her I expect that the public will see way too much subjectivity, personal animosity and other inappropriate criteria being used for strip searches.  

As it is I believe that the social and cultural, Old Boys Network is far too pervasive here. No I do not believe that Waterloo Region is necessarily worse than other jurisdictions in Ontario and Canada. I do believe however that it is a microcosm of what goes on everywhere. Things like blacklisting for jobs is pervasive amongst certain employers. Their common thread may be membership in private clubs such as Westmount Golf & Country, DeerRidge and others. Many employers love the idea that here in Canada we have a major underclass of citizens permanently relegated to fairly menial, labour intensive jobs. I am not referring to skilled trades here by a country mile. Speaking of Westmount and DeerRidge do you think that our Chiefs and Deputy Chiefs of Police want to hobnob with the unwashed masses on their free time ? Hardly.

I believe that a formal "Blacklist" for employment exists here. It can be "justified" for example when an employee blows the whistle on an employer breaking the law whether labour law, environmental law or whatever. A few words dropped amongst peers and friends and that individual, even if their allegations are backed by the courts, is done locally for most good jobs. Likely there are other blacklists which when in the hands of police for example can be badly misused. I believe some of our school boards are also involved with blacklists when they get into trouble from complaining parents. And on and on. What a country. Our authorities don't generally murder their enemies here, they attempt to starve or criminalize them into submission.