Way back in the spring of 2016 Woolwich Township councillors (less Patrick Merlihan) voted in favour of censoring citizens from speaking to council unless they had previously spoken to one of their environmental committees (RAC/TAG) on the subject first. Curiously this initiative by Council occurred within a week of Mayor Shantz having all Municipal Election Act charges dropped against her. Well! No political pettiness up here eh?
Well it backfired spectacularly with radio, T.V, and newspaper media all appropriately pounding on Woolwich Council. Thank you Sandy as that certainly took the sting out of the rollover and abdication of responsibility by our courts. It also further confirmed to me the unhealthy link between our courts and our local politicians.
Keep in mind that TAG has never allowed any members of the public to speak to them since their inception in September 2015. Written Delegations which can be easily ignored are O.K. RAC on the other hand will listen to oral Delegations. Of course they only meet about four times a year so timeliness is a problem.
It did my heart good to see the Township and their self-serving, petty behaviour so uniformly castigated. They quickly backwatered and dropped their idiot decision basically attempting to further muzzle myself, CPAC and the general public Whether the Township staff and councillors actually learned anything is subject to debate.
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