YET ANOTHER POLICE SHAME ON CANADIAN HISTORY

The article in today's Waterloo Region Record is titled "Toronto police board agrees to $16.5 million settlement over mass arrests at 2010 G20". Ten years of court proceedings and negotiations with the Toronto Police Services Board have resulted in the settlement of a class action lawsuit against the Toronto Police Service and the Police Board. In my opinion, in a truly free and democratic society, every senior police officer making disgusting decisions at the Toronto G20 summit and each and every Police Services Board member would spend some quality time behind bars. Then and only then might those filth begin to understand what it's like to be arbitraily thrown in jail based upon at a maximum peacefully protesting and at a minimum simply living and working in downtown Toronto and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. ..................................................................................................... The mass arrests of over 1100 people were the largest and nastiest in Canadian history. Citizens were surrounded (kettled) and held by riot police spme for four hours during a freezing downpour only to eventually be arrested, and thrown into third world detention facilities lacking food, water, bathrooms and heat. Some citizens were attacked and beaten by police. The fact that both the Police Services Board and the Toronto police spent taxpayers money for ten years fighting the class action lawsuit instead of owning up to their contemtible, illegal behaviour is a testament to their lack of ethics and morals. ..................................................................................................................... This behaviour by Toronto police was repugnant but far too typical of attitudes fostered by bad training and decades of minimal transparency and accountability. Even here in Waterloo Region, senior police officers are far too willing to throw people in jail for peaceful protest if there is a political aspect to it. This especially includes our school boards (WRDSB) and their incestuous and inappropriate relationship with senior Waterloo Region Police management. The legal system (police & courts) are seriously in bed with local taxpayer funded power brokers (i.e. biased) and it needs to end.

WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP, TAG, LANXESS, NEWSPAPERS & FILM

Today's Waterloo Region Record carries (pg. A3) the following article by Leah Gerber titled "Film looks back on Elmira's toxic past". It "stars" the following honest, local environmentalists namely Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach, Susan Rupert and yours truly Alan Marshall. There is also a newspaper photo of the departed Esther Thur who was a long standing member of the Elmira Environmental Hazards Team along with myself, Rich Clausi and Dr. Henry Regier. Finally there are two other people in it who are neither local residents nor citizens. ................................................................................................................ The article advises that Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira produced Agent Orange, a powerful herbicide containing dioxin that was sprayed in Vietnam (as well as in Ontario and New Brunswick). Both Elmira's aquifers and the Canagagigue Creek were poisoned courtesy of Uniroyal's (now Lanxess) production of NDMA, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and more. The article praises local activists and their dedication. "Everyone should celebrate them for their work". Furthermore in interviewing Ron Harpelle, one of the two filmakers from Thunder Bay, Leah Gerber writes "The filmakers hope it brings attention to a past wrong that still hasn't been made right: Cleanup of Canagagigue Creek and the aquifer is still ongoing.". ................................................................................................................ Dioxins have "...been linked to increased birth defects, particularly spina bifida, that continue today in Vietnam.". I will add that the medical effects from dioxins are actually much more damaging and extensive than mentioned in this article.

WATER STILL FLOWS DOWNHILL ...I'M TRYING TO ARRANGE A MEETING BETWEEN LANXESS, MOE/MECP & ISAAC NEWTON

If it works for Donald Trump then it certainly is good enough for our Ontario Ministry of Environment, Lanxess Canada, GHD, Woolwich Township and TAG. What works for Mr. Trump is bald faced, blatant untruths with either no backup or else with made up "facts" and made up "evidence" to support his position. Mr. Trump has certainly espoused the look them in the eye and double down on the prevarications when challenged. Former Mayor of Woolwich Township,Todd Cowan, liked to make up self-serving fibs including when he lied to his own council and told them (likely with the CAO's support) that I had promised not to write about CPAC issues in my Blog (i.e. this one). I of course had flatly refused that request from Todd and David prior to my appointment to CPAC. I only learned about how Todd via lying had convinced Woolwich Council to turf me from CPAC at the end of the term of council from one of the councillors. .............................................................................................................. Along those lines I am giving the majority of TAG members the benefit of the doubt by considering that they too have been manipulated by either the current mayor or other authority figure. I saw Susan and Pat behaving like that with CPAC over the years. Manipulating part time volunteers, even smart ones, is not that difficult if you are the Chair, the mayor or even simply a credentialed individual with little or no moral quallms about prevaricating to get your way. Honest, decent people, even the smart ones, find it difficult to believe that others, especially in positions of authority, are so willing to lie at the drop of a hat. Volunteers rarely will challenge those who have appointed them. They want to believe that they are working (for free) for the good guys. The last thing they want to do is get sidetracked by demanding full transparency and full, public disclosure of awkward or difficult situations. ..................................................................................................... Isaac Newton of course is the long departed renowned physicist who espoused the theory of gravity after allegedly being hit on the head by a falling apple. His theory has stood the test of time but Lanxess and friends via the methods of delay, deny and deflect have managed to keep the high probability of overland flow of liquid toxic wastes onto and past (i.e. eastwards) the current location of the Stroh Drain, Ditch & Berm (SDDB) off the agenda. The highly suspicious and self-serving artificial relocation of GP-1 they have also kept off the public agenda. They have not even verified, denied or confirmed their own ground surface elevation contour lines on their property and on Stroh's. Like Donald Trump, either don't talk about it or else lie like dogs, it's all in a days work. Unfortunately for them the facts (contour lines) are out there. Maybe just like Todd Cowan's lies they don't have to survive forever. Just for now.

OOPS I LEFT SOMETHING OUT OF YESTERDAY'S POST

In the second paragraph of yesterday's post I suggested in the second e-mail I sent the TAG Chair (Ms. Svensson) that there were a couple of new facts. I then proceeded to describe one, lost my train of thought regarding the second and continued on with the post. Here is the second "new" fact although frankly I discovered it a few years back and did present it publicly at that time. As with the vast majority of new facts discovered however that present either new challenges, require attention including money or that do not support the polluter and his bought and paid for consultants narrative, they are dropped like hot potatoes. They are ignored, they are not responded to if at all possible and they are buried hopefully never to be seen or heard from again. This behaviour can only succeed if you are a polluter in Canada with lots of money, brass and chutzpah. It also helps incredibly if you have your regulator wrapped around your fingers. ...................................................................................................................................... The second fact is that the position of GP-1 (gravel pit one) is in dispute. Now this point I have not vigorously persued within the incredibly stifling process that passes for public consultation here in Woolwich Township. I have not persued it because even though it probably was not an accidental slip up, I felt that the narrative presented by the "professionals" and the "experts" was flimsy at best anyways. That said I should know by now never to count out the power of credentialism and the power of men in suits, no matter how odourous the story they are selling. I mean simply look around at our politicians. There is hardly a government, provincial or federal that hasn't been caught red handed lying, trying to lie and then covering up those very same lies. Scandals, big and small are the norm. Lying is the norm. ................................................................................................................ The two maps, prior to Conestoga Rovers & Assoc. (CRA) current location, which show GP-1 east of its current location were produced initially by the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOE) and the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) in 1985 and finally by CH2MHILL, engineering consultants on behalf of the Region of Waterloo (approx 1992). My suspicion is that CRA felt that by shifting the location of GP-1 slightly westwards and away from the Stroh farm that they could sell their narrative to less diligent stakeholders. In fact as most of their "stakeholders" would better be called "fellow travellors", it really didn't require much of a sales pitch. If in fact GP-1 is located on the east side of the high ridge of ground that runs diagonally from north-west to south-east in Uniroyal/Lanxess's south-east corner; then in fact it is a harder sell to honest stakeholders that the overflowing east side pits (RPE 1-5) did not run directly over to the Stroh farm prior to the construction of the Stroh Drain, Ditch & Berm (SDDB) in 1983. For the dishonest stakeholders, any story at all will suffice.

I'VE RECEIVED A RESPONSE FROM THE TAG CHAIR

I posted here last Saturday August 8 about my e-mail earlier that day to TAG (Technical Advisory Group) Chair Tiffany Svensson. She responded with a brief e-mail back on Monday (Aug. 10). Her e-mail was polite, respectful, courteous and I might even suggest appreciative of my efforts to provide information and help to TAG. So far so good. She also suggested in her last paragraph that her e-mail "...is not likely as a robust a response as you would like,...". Well Ms. Svensson certainly hit the nail on the head with that point. My first read of that sentence left me wondering if she was inferring that there would be another more detailed response/explanation still coming. Second and third reads have not left me with that understanding. ............................................................................................................... Therefore the next day (Tues. Aug. 11/20) I sent Tiffany a second e-mail pointing out that my basic, bottom-line request for an explanation of TAG's complete rejection of my written Delegation presented to them last February had not been responded to other than her saying that she recognized that her response was unlikely to be satisfactory. The second e-mail while similar to the first did have a couple of new facts included such as the increased amount of liquid wastes overland surface flow both during high water table season (i.e. rain/spring) as well as during the winter when the ground was frozen and less likely to absorb overflowing surface liquid wastes. I also rather bluntly suggested that if TAG were unprepared to publicly advise the reason/rationale or evidence for their decision not to accept that overflowing liquid wastes ended up in the lower lying area to the immediate east of the Stroh Drain, Ditch & Berm (SDDB) then clearly they had zero respect or appreciation for citizen stakeholders preparing Delegations for them AND that this whole "public consultation" exercise was a mere facade , a sham. I went so far as to suggest that the sham was both for the financial and credibility benefit of Lanxess and the Ontario Ministry of Environment as well as to simply fool the general public. ................................................................................................................. If there is any technical evidence or reason to doubt gravity flow of liquid wastes to the lowest lying area (sort of bowl shaped) then it is way past time to present it. Unfortunately the history of both the company (& predecessors) and the MOE/MECP is to simply say "trust us, we know best". No, what you know best is what is good for your interests not what is good for the public interest.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

My first comment is that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That of course is a very old saying likely more in relation to political systems, parties and leaders. It is also true. I believe that in fact it is relevant to most of our modern day boards, agencies, government ministries, tribunals, municipal politicians, and even unfortunately our police, our school boards and our judicial systems. Without checks and balances, human beings begin to believe that they are omnipotent. J. Edgar Hoover was a prime example. As head of the U.S. FBI and without any controls on him, his corruption and perverse behaviour became legendary. .................................................................................................................. Four days ago the Waterloo Region Record carried a story titled "Louisana veteran serving life sentence for $30 drug sale set to be freed". Boy I'll bet you there were times during his past nine years in jail when he asked himself why on earth he would while in uniform carry a gun and put his life at risk for such an asshole of a country that the U.S. either is or has become. Now in fact the gentleman involved did more than sell $30 worth of marijuana, sort of. He had prior convictions for non-violent offences such as theft and drug issues. Because of that Louisana prosecuters and their infinite capacity to be assholes without checks on their authority, invoked the habitual offender law and applied it to the Black veteran, Mr. Derek Harris. It appears that this habitual offender law was at the discretion of prosecuters but not judges hence the judge claimed he had no choice but to give Mr. Harris a 30 year jail sentence after convicting him of a $30 marijuana sale. Good God but we humans (with authority) are such completely insensitve ignoramuses when we have the weight of the law behind us. Indeed it is questionable that prosecuters would have done the same thing with a white defendant in Luisana. ......................................................................................................................... Nine years later and Mr. Harris was given a new hearing and sentenced to the nine years that he had already served. Dear God but Canadaian authorities at all levels can be such twits and idiots but hopefully we aren't as bad as our southern neighbours.

WATERLOO REGION & THE GRAND RIVER ARE NOT IMMUNE TO MICROPLASTIC POLLUTION

Yesterday's Waterloo Region Record carried the following article titled "Microplastics found in Grand River mussels". A University of Guelph professor and a colleague have recently published the first study of microplastics in the Grand River. It is not good as 71% of the mussels sampled contained small amounts of microplastics. Mussels and other aquatic biota are filter feeders and if they are unable to expel the microplastics they and absorbed toxic chemicals from the river will build up and cause further damage. .............................................................................................................. Freshwater mussels help clean river water by taking in dozens of litres of water a day and filtering out algae and bacteria including E. Coli bacteria. Fresh water mussels have been dramatically decreased in the Great Lakes due to both pollution and to zebra mussels. River systems feeding into the Great Lakes are the last bastian for native freshwater mussels and they are thriving in many of those rivers.