CHEMTURA : YOU DESERVE A REFUND ON YOUR INVESTMENT

Or: CERTAIN COUNCILLORS' WORDS SHOULD NEVER BE TRUSTED AGAIN


Woolwich Council have been exposed these last couple of weeks and it's not a pretty picture. Meaness, pettiness, stupidity, arrogance, grandiose ego and dishonesty it's all been there on display. What can you say about the blatant lying to the public? Councilor Bauman went on about sending "mixed messages" to the public, staff and the media. Mixed messages your fat butt, Mark. Councillor Murray Martin refers to "those people" and the "type of people we're dealing with.". Mayor Shantz "took a revisionist slant" according to the Woolwich Observer. In Marshall speak she lied like a dog. And for those politically correct hypocrites on Council, the fact is I like dogs and have owned dogs for most of the last twenty-four years.

Did you see any of the Councillors squirming with the exception of Councillor Merlihan when Sandy Shantz was castigating the media for getting it all wrong? Had any of them tried to dissuade her prior to her attempt to deflect criticism by revising (lying) what had occurred two weeks prior in Council Chambers? How dare she attempt to undermine the three upcoming citizen Delegations that were registered to speak against Council's undemocratic, discriminatory, improper and abusive Motion. This is not truly a woman with a soft voice and gentle demeanour. She is a damaged and dangerous personality who truly believes that lying, disinformation and character smearing are all acceptable behaviour for a politician in general and her in particular.

Murray Martin is simply a little shit. I'm going to let you in on a little secret Murray. "Those people" and the "type of people " you've been dealing with are longtime Woolwich citizens who pay your goddamn salary. They also pay inflated taxes
due to your stupidity. They have worked hard to inform themselves regarding severe local pollution issues while you've been hiding under the radar allowing Mark Bauman and Sandy Shantz to lead the attack against those same citizens who are demanding that the Ministry of the Environment do their job and force Chemtura to clean up their property as well as their off-site pollution. Any one of those citizens is worth a hundred of you or any other longtime local politicians who've done nothing but suck up to money and power.

Councillor Bauman is the sneakiest of the three. Councillor Martin the most egotistical and Sandy Shantz the dumbest. To our shame (and mine) we voted for these three twits.

Whatever Chemtura have invested legally in this community or otherwise, this Council, bless them for their stupidity in following Bauman's and Shantz's lead on the Chemtura file, have squandered their money. The last Council sincerely tried to do the right thing environmentally by Woolwich citizens, this one the opposite. When the smoke clears it may turn out that this Council, unintentionally and unwillingly, may have done as much good for the environment as the last one.

WOOLWICH MAYOR'S "REVISIONIST SLANT" ON THE PRIOR COUNCIL MEETING

Boy you have to give the Woolwich Observer credit. In their Editorial of two weeks ago they advised Woolwich Council to just drop the Delegate bashing Motion they passed. Council to their discredit did not do so. They are truly receiving some awful advice (CAO?) or they are just too dogmatic and pigheaded to listen.

Today's Woolwich Observer article is titled "Woolwich backs away, but not all the way down, from divisive delegate policy". I have not seen the Observer go quite so far in their comments regarding mayor Shantz. They suggest she is a liar albeit using more diplomatic language. Phrases include "...revisionist slant on what happened in council chambers two weeks prior." and "She said council did not try to prevent Holt from speaking, when that was clearly the case.".

Tuesday evening's second Council debacle in a row is the direct result of Councillor Mark Bauman and mayor Shantz being in bed with Chemtura. I know mayor Shantz has received untruthful and dishonest advice from former Councillor Pat Mclean for many years concerning Chemtura Canada. That said she has also received good advice from CPAC and ignored it. Bauman's and Sandy Shantz's preoccupation with protecting Chemtura Canada at all costs have led this Council into disrepute and disharmony. Councillor Merlihan trys very hard to be diplomatic with his Council colleagues but perhaps he's reaching the end of his patience. That would be understandable.

How much more obvious that Bauman and S. Shantz are on a mission to destroy and discredit the Citizens Public Advisory Committee (CPAC) can it become? CPAC's local, educated, experienced and informed citizens have taken the lead in holding both Chemtura and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment accountable. There is and has been a coverup of the environmental damage, both past and present, going on here in Woolwich Township aided and abetted by our local Councils specifically including Mark Bauman, Sandy Shantz, Murray Martin, Pat Mclean and former multiple polluter in his own right, Bill Strauss. Thank You mayor Shantz for your ongoing, public attempts to discredit the first and only CPAC (2010-2015) who have turned this coverup on its' head. Thank You Dr. Gail Krantzberg, David Marks hydrogeologist, MTE Consultants, MBN Environmental, three Phds on CPAC as well as a registered nurse, an environmental management company owner, a still active health & safety consultant and finally a retired high school mathematics department head for your professionalism and forebearance in the face of this unprecedented and cowardly attack by mayor Shantz and most of her Council colleagues.

They blatantly and publicly lied about CPAC all through last year in order to justify the unjustifiable. They dismissed CPAC because Chemtura and the M.O.E. boycotted public CPAC meetings the instant AFTER the new Council were elected in October 2014. When this combined with refusing any questions from the public attending RAC & TAG meetings failed to stop CPAC members, Council then broke their own Procedural By-laws in lying to CPAC Delegates by telling them they did not have the right to address Council.

CPAC continues and will fight all Chemtura/M.O.E. attempts at misrepresenting the truth. Woolwich Council either get on board or get the hell out of the way.

SHAMELESS LIARS

There are many euphimisms that can be used to avoid the word liar. "Gild the lily", "truth challenged", "factual fictions" and many more. All of them were applicable to Woolwich Council's tall tales last evening in Council Chambers. Mayor Shantz hit a personal best in truth manipulation. She claimed the media got it all wrong. She was away for a week and when she got back the headlines were all falsely proclaiming (says her) that Woolwich Council were banning Delegations on any matters pertaining to Chemtura Canada. It was all a big misunderstanding. Council never meant to do that at all and see this new Motion will set everything straight.

The mayor also told a whopper regarding Dr. Dan Holt's Delegation two weeks ago in Council. Dr. Holt is the Chairman of the Citizens Public Advisory Committee (CPAC) and his Delegation was to advise Council and the public that Chemtura and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (M.O.E.) were yet again planning on avoiding their responsibilities to clean up the downstream Canagagigue Creek. Mayor Shantz claimed that Dr. Holt was speaking on my behalf. WTF! Where does she come up with this crap? That's just pathetic and both Dr. Holt and myself made that very clear in our Delegations last evening. Oh and by the way, the world's most ignorant Council kept their mouths shut throughout our Delegations. Not a single interruption or frivolous excuse to stop us in mid stream.

What is the scariest to me is the lack of shame when Councillors Martin, Bauman and the mayor were speaking while blatantly disengaged from reality. Yes in my opinion the mayor was the worst by far but that is of very small relief to Councillor Bauman and Martin's credibility. It is almost as if she truly believes that it doesn't matter what lies she tells as long as she's the mayor all will be believed. I'm not a psychiatrist but isn't that getting close to sociopathic behaviour?

Councillor Murray Martin should also be ashamed of his lies and misrepresentations as he was mumbling into the microphone about not supporting Councillor Bauman's Amended Motion. He referred to CPAC as "those people" and inferred that we as victims of Council bullying and intimidation were somehow the gulty parties. Murray you are truly an asshole in so many ways.

Woolwich Staff were present two weeks ago as well as last night. The Woolwich Observer (Steve Kannon) were present both times. Dr. Holt, Richard Clausi, Vivienne Delaney and myself were present on both occasions. Also present on both occasions was the only honourable Councillor, Pat Merlihan. How stupid are Council that they would actually lie so blatantly with all those witnesses? Yes the meeting two weeks ago is recorded on tape but of course Council will never allow the paying public to hear it. The trouble is their own Motion from two weeks ago tells part of the tale. It states "That Council request staff to direct delegations with topics specific to Township of Woolwich sub-committees to go to the sub-committees first.". That's pretty clear even though it is watered down from their initial verbal demands to Dr. Holt.

Then it gets worse for Council. Their own published Minutes from the March 22/16 meeting state "Councillor Martin advised that as a result of TAG being the appropriate body, he would not let the delegation speak." The K-W Record did their due diligence in interviewing witnesses and in reading Council's Motion from March 22/16 prior to their publishing their story, their Opinion piece (Luisa D'Amato) and their own Editorial. And still Council and mayor put on their disgusting display last evening in Council Chambers.

All these obfuscations and manipulations are on behalf of Chemtura Canada. They are on behalf of a truly prolific and grandiose corporation who have never told anything but self-serving lies for the last thirty years. Council's protection and insulation of Chemtura from the truth, told by honest and informed Woolwich citizens, is now understood and apparent to the public.

MAYBE DEMOCRACY IN WOOLWICH STILL HAS A PULSE

Perhaps the lying and stickhandling actually means that Woolwich Councillors still believe that they have to be careful. They tried their best to promote a poor trade of land for better facilities in Breslau and got told off properly for so doing. They gussied it up with a so called representative committee who were to look carefully at all options and opinions. Unremarkably no one on the committee changed their position and at best the committee proved that the community were not enthralled with the Council proposed sale of their parkland.

Now Council in attempting to follow Councillor Bauman and mayor Shantz's protection of Chemtura Canada are in the crap again. Make no mistake this is all about Woolwich Council running interference on behalf of Chemtura. The Ontario Ministry of the Environment also have been doing it since at least the 1980s. I truly can not remember anytime in the past when Council have been so blatant. True they booted me off CPAC early in 2008 when I got too pushy on Chemtura's DNAPL (Dense Non aqueous Phase Liquids) coverup. Even then however they disguised their real agenda by having Pat McLean and Susan Bryant sell a red herring to CPAC regarding the new Ammonia Treatment System.

The CPAC appointed in early 2011 simply did not have enough Chemtura sympathizers on it to suit our favourite polluter. This was because the new Council really were new with the exception of Mark Bauman. This new Council followed the lead of then mayor Todd Cowan. Like most human beings and politicians, while fatally flawed, nevertheless he did try to correct the obvious biases and flaws that had been a part of CPAC for far too long. The alliance of Susan Bryant with Pat Mclean in 2000 should have sent off warning bells to everyone long before it finally did. They led CPAC into a self-serving (for Pat & Susan) happy co-existence with Chemtura & the M.O.E..

We will know that democracy is but a far distant memory when the time comes that our local politicians stop lying to us. When they just flat out say yes we are discriminating against a citizens group (Citizens Public Advisory Committee) because we don't like them. CPACs honest position opposing Chemtura and the M.O.E.'s non-cleanup plans are interfering with our carefully hidden support for them. Therefore we Council will continue to insulate Chemtura from informed criticism and furthermore we will actively use our offices as Councillors and mayor to undermine any and all citizens working towards environmental cleanup of our township; that we as Councillors have only given lip service to for decades.

ONLY A QUARTER OF THE FACTS ON THE WEST MONTROSE STORY

Saturday's Waterloo Region Record carried a very good story titled "Region to build $8.6 M water line to West Montrose". We are advised that between 2006 and 2011 close to 25,000 cubic metres of water has been trucked into the community's reservoir annually. This we are told equates to ten Olympic sized swimming pools per month. That's a lot of water. Strange that the Annual (Drinking Water) Reports for West Montrose don't say a thing about trucked in water. Also strange that there apparently are no numbers for the quantity of water being trucked into the community over the last five years. Local residents advise me that currently it is usually four tanker trucks of water per day unload into the West Montrose reservoir. Meanwhile each and every year the Region go to great lengths to describe both the nasty raw water quality from their four wells as well as the treated water quality and upgrades to the treatment system.

Something else strange is that this article talks about a pipeline from Conestogo over to West Montrose. No mention of the further pipeline from Conestogo over to St. Jacobs to hook into the Integrated Urban System (IUS) water supply. Recall that both St. Jacobs and Elmira are now supplied with water from a pipeline linking Waterloo to them. Also while the Conestogo Plains System has been looking good over the last recent years there was a time when they appeared to also be having raw water bacteria problems. I'm not sure how they stickhandled around that. Afterall simply look where their wells are located in regards to their residential subdivision. A subdivision on septic systems of course. This is the same problem as in West Montrose.

This article claims that the Conestogo Plains System has enough water for both communitys. Considering that the Conestogo Plains System is one of two separate systems in Conestogo, that may be so. I wonder however if increased pumping would be likely to draw more bacteria however into the wells. I also wonder about the statement that there is a quantity problem regarding West Montrose water. If that were true then an additional well added to their current four would certainly solve that alleged problem. Afterall these are river infiltration wells and the Grand flows throughout even dry summers courtesy of the upstream Shand Dam.

The Environmental Assessment back in 2012 had a typical preordained outcome. The Region clearly want to hook these communitys into the Integrated Urban System (IUS). Among other reasons this avoids separate treatment systems in each community that require local supervision and maintenance. There is ample clean groundwater in deeper aquifers all around the West Montrose area that could have had a couple of extra wells drilled into ithem. Local farms and businesses seem to have no problems with either quantity or quality of water.

This is similar with Elmira. The Region of Waterloo have long ago given up on using restored Elmira aquifers anytime before 2050. Even then they will only go that route out of dire need. This article also mentions Chemtura Canada and the growing skepticism that Elmira's Aquifers will be restored by the 2028 deadline.

POLITICIANS ARE COWARDLY WORDSMITHS

That is what politicians do. They haven't even got the courage to pass a Motion that aligns with their verbal statements. They gussy up their blunt actions in trying to censor and ban Delegates from speaking at Council on Chemtura matters. Mayor Shantz at the last Council meeting (Comm. of the Whole) on March 22; blurted out that it wasn't only "technical" discussions that were banned but ALL discussions dealing with Chemtura, contaminated groundwater and the Canagagigue Creek. Do they put that ridiculous and asinine statement into their Motion? Oh no, then it becomes "Delegations that are specific to any of our sub-committees go to the sub-committee first". They totally change it and broaden it to include all "sub-committees" so as to camoflage their bias against criticism of Chemtura and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.

Firstly RAC and TAG are not "sub-committees" of Council. Similarily all the other committees of council are just that: committees not sub-committees. I don't know if this is simply an error or yet another backdoor attempt by Council to have their undemocratic way.

Then there is the issue of Councillor Mark Bauman's Memo included under the Delegation section of Tuesday's Agenda. Mark is a slimy snake in the grass who constantly speaks out of both sides of his mouth. Witness his multiple turnarounds on the Breslau parkland issue. I view Mark's amended Motion as being a red herring at best and a backdoor change to the Procedural By-Laws at worst. All Council have to do is refuse to ratify Committee of the Whole's March 22/16 Motion/Recommendation. They have absolutely no need to amend their Proccedural By-Laws.

So is Mark's red herring amendment simply to make himself look good? Delegates already have the option of going to Committees of Council, no matter how Byzantine and awkward their Delegation process may be, and then going to Council directly. His amendment is meaningless.

Or is Mark really being sneaky? There are two physically separate paragraphs in his amendment. The first says that Delegates should be encouraged firstly "to contact the sub-committee or department where the concern can be best addressed ...". Then the second paragraph states that if "the delegate still wish to address Council, that staff is directed to list them on the next appropriate Council agenda.". So if Mark's amendment passed how difficult would it be for Council at a later date to simply drop the second paragraph from Mark's amendment? Could they bury this minor change in the middle of a three hundred page Council package with no one noticing? Most likely.

Council's Motion has been severely criticized in the Woolwich Observer, the K-W Record and on 570 Talk Radio. It is censorship and nothing more than a veiled attempt to insulate and hide Chemtura/M.O.E. from being in the public eye. Woolwich Council are shameless.

BACK TO THE OMBUDSMAN

The devil made me do it? Or better the devils, plural, made me do it. I'm not referring to Lucifer or Satan, I'm referring to a group of Councillors who just don't care about either rules or laws. They break their own rules with breathless abandon but that's not good enough for them. Then there is the Municipal Act as well as the Municipal Elections Act (MEA). Half of this Council have admitted to numerous contraventions of the MEA, only of course after being caught redhanded. Last summer this Council were on the carpet for breaking the Municipal Act. The Ontario Ombudsman investigated after my complaint about improper, closed (in camera) meetings. My complaints were confirmed and Woolwich Township were again advised that their practices were illegal. This matter has been discussed both in a Council meeting and in our local newspapers.

Has Woolwich Council learned? Apparently not. They continue to bend, manipulte and break both rules and laws with apparent impunity. Witness their behaviour in Council a week ago Tuesday. To date three media outlets of which I am aware have commented negatively upon Council's actions. Firstly they are interrupting and hassling registered Delegates to Council. They are forcing Delegates into spurious debates in order to exercise their rights common to all Woolwich citizens, namely addressing Council. Woolwich Council are firmly in bed with Chemtura and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and this is their method of discouraging criticism. First they lie about CPAC in order to disband them and now they are attempting to muzzle them. These Councillors (less one) do not care about democracy or decency.

Hence this Council by their law breaking have once again forced me into filing a complaint against them with the Ontario Ombudsman. Lord knows I wouldn't waste my time with any regional Ombudsman dreamed up by Regional Council, with or without input from the municipalities. MECAC (Municipal Elections Compliance Audit Committee) are a creature of that lineage and we've all seen their actions. Everything is excusable and nothing goes on to the courts including a Forensic Audit which did everything but use the F word (fraud) in describing Councillor Hahn's late in the day, magically appearing receipts and invoices.

Council have Codes of Conduct which they routinely break with citizens. They have a Procedural By-Law mandated by the Ontario Municipal Act which apparently they can and do amend at will in order to serve their own purposes. It covers Delegations in detail and at the moment does not have grounds for denying Delegations solely based upon their subject matter. This has not deterred Council from harassing honest citizens whom they simply do not like. Hence Council are now in a heavy handed manoever banning all citizens from speaking about anything Chemtura related unless they've already spoken to the RAC or TAG committees. Of course the minute citizens follow these about to be new rules, Council will again block Delegations with yet another trumped up excuse followed by yet another new rule.

Democracy and Freedom of Speech are much bigger than these petty individuals. The Chemtura environmental disaster continues despite a pipeline bringing water into Elmira. Dioxins and DDT downstream in the Canagagigue Creek as well as off the Chemtura site on the east side are the responsibility to clean up of both Chemtura and the M.O.E.. So sorry Council that informed and educated citizens are not willing to join you in burying our heads in the sand.