TIME DOES NOT ERASE LYING & DECEPTION

 

It is far too easy in an uneven power relationship for the weaker party to tend to forget past wrongs especially if the present is tolerable. To a great extent I wonder if that is one of the reasons that we have had three sales of Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira since around 2000.  It is very difficult to saddle the new company/new owners with the sins of the past including the almost never ending blatant delays, deceptions and lying.  This is especially so when the allegedly neutral citizens are also repeatedly turning over on the various advisory committees whether UPAC, CPAC, RAC, TAG, or TRAC.   Some of these new "citizens" are also no longer from Elmira which again makes it less likely that they would have personal memories of past promises and commitments. Finally too many have connections with the environmental community as consultants for private companies who tend to deal with the Ministry of Environment as well as municipal and regional governments. This includes engineering companies who have done engineering work for both Woolwich Township and the Region of Waterloo.

I have recently been reviewing old newspaper clippings both of the Esther Thur collection at the Wilfred Laurier University Archives as well as others. It is truly shocking as well as outrageous how many times Uniroyal or successor companies begged for time claiming that they were already addressing a problem or just getting ready to start to do so.  We at UPAC or CPAC would give them that time simply never to see the item ever on the Agenda again or in some watered down version. This of course was aided by local politicians arbitrarily removing members and appointing their own uninformed buddies, sycophants and deferential "experts" with skin in the game who did not want to rock the boat.

Elmira has become the poster child for public consultation abuse. It is also the poster child for corporate abuse of citizens aided and abetted by local politicians whether municipal, regional or provincial. It's also funny how polluting industries seem to have support from both Liberals and Conservatives. Gee I wonder which two parties are the biggest benefactors of corporate donations ?