NOPE YOU CAN'T LET WOOLWICH OFF THE HOOK! THEY ARE BOTH RESPONSIBLE AND CULPABLE

 There is a moral, ethical and probably even legal onus on Woolwich councillors to do the right thing . By right thing I would suggest that that means that whatever issues are municipal from taxes, various by-laws, local development, roads, sewers and water, noise problems, odour problems  etc. must always be decided with the public interest in mind. Both short term and long term public interests need to be considered. Hence a short term road closure may not be in the public's immediate best interests but surely in the long term a closure for repairs will be. 

So does that give the municipality free rein to lie to their citizens? Especially long term lying just because the councillors think that they know better than their citizens? I think not.  If councillors and mayor believe that a dirty polluter's value to the community is greater than it's harm to the community do they have the right to lie and gild the lily? They do not! If the Council wish to educate their citizens , fine. If they wish to hold public meetings and TRUTHFULLY broadcast all the wonderful advantages to the community by the presence of the dirty polluter, again fine. But when it gets to the point that the only way that Councils can sell the continued presence in town of a dirty, dishonest polluter is by lying through their teeth to the public then it's time for the liars, politicians and truth challenged individuals to get the hell out of town.

What about moments of huge crisis? Have any of Woolwich Township's elected councillors/mayors exhibited intellects so far advanced from the rest of us that we would assign them dictatorial powers? Good Lord no. Generally to get elected they either have Mennonite last names, look good or have catapulted from a smaller community size issue into public office. Yes there have been some smart, intelligent councillors but for each of those there have been some real putzes i.e. dumb, uninformed, lazy. I don't need to name them. If you've been paying any attention you know who they are.  

Maybe the day will happen when blatant lying and coverups will be punishable by law. Maybe we will eventually see dishonest politicians who are in it for their interests only, running for the hills. You can start with Woolwich any time at all. Going along to get along is not O.K..