WILMOT COUNCIL GETS A TALKING TO: SORT OF

 First of all it's pretty hard to get a talking to when you've got a rule restricting Delegations to only subjects on your Agenda for that meeting. Think about it. Certain politically sensitive subjects might intentionally NEVER be on the Agenda thus ruling them out for discussion despite their relevance or significance to many citizens.

Wilmot Council did magnanimously permit a single Presentation however on the Hallman Pit application. Samantha Lernout from Citizens for Safe Ground Water made a Presentation to Council which "...was met with extended applause."  This applause occurred due to her calling out Council on their broken election promises as well as  on the mayor's non-transparency and non-hearing the voices of the people.

Council and mayor claim that they felt that they would lose at the Ontario Land Tribunal and have no say in any terms or that they could settle and have some say in the final gravel pit terms and conditions. So exactly what concessions did Wilmot Council receive for their rollover and play dead behaviour, I wonder.

Today's Record article by Paige Desmond is titled "Wilmot residents rally against gravel pit". 

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE: "TROUBLE IN THE TOWNSHIPS"

 

Sandy Shantz says that "POLITICIANS ARE HUMAN TOO"

Really? Good to know because sometimes their behaviour is decidedly less than human. The article written by Paige Desmond of the K-W Record on March 5, 2016  is extremely interesting and in fact a little bizarre. It's bizarre in that there is a very clear picture of Sandy Shantz dancing in the foreground with former mayor Bill Strauss. Guess what is in the background albeit still very clear? One more unheralded election expense violation by our illustrious mayor Shantz. 

This violation was given by me in time to the Crown Prosecutor who sat on it along with all the other strong evidence and bullshitted the Court by advising that it was not in the public interest to proceed with charges. HORSE MANURE'  Sandy Shantz broke several different commands in the Municipal Elections Act (MEA) and this one publicly displayed in the Record was simply the last one that I caught. Last but Good Lord she'd been ordered by the Judge (Justice David Broad) prior to it to this time include ALL her legitimate election expenses in her third or fourth Financial Statements. 

This last expense was part of her election campaign as the MEA clearly indicates that any party for the victorious candidates, supporters, campaign workers etc. must also be included in her expenses. The photograph shows her dancing at the Elmira Curling Club with a professional, live, for hire band playing in the background. With assistance I have identified the one band member clearly shown and he is indeed a professional musician who charges for his work. Yet again Sandy conveniently did not include that expense in her campaign as ordered by both the legislation (MEA) and by Justice David Broad.  

OPPOSITION IS NOT FINISHED WITH LANXESS/MINISTRY OF THE ENVIRONMENT (MECP)

Harsh words are required. This is because the lying filth have the money, the power and the influence. Of course that is because so many of our species are so impressed or intimidated by power and influence. Our politicians want it both ways. They want to do what is in the public interest and be seen to do so hence assisting in re-election. At the same time they want the support of the big shots out there. Support means money for campaigning and it means not having money spent against you with advertising whether television, radio or in print. 

I may believe that 95% plus of human beings are inherently honest and up front but the problem is that it is the remaining 5% who comprise 95% of would be politicians. With only a tiny handful of honest people interested in political life and the public interest is it any wonder that our world is going to hell in a handbasket? Both Covid and Climate Change were foreseen but little was done. Now we will all pay.

I have been advised of a new player stepping up in regards to the Elmira cleanup. How far this will go I do not know. How much time and energy they can expend on the issue I do not know. I am willing and still able to help and have been so asked. I will do what I can as long as I believe that it is an honest and sincere effort. There have been too many insincere and self-serving efforts over the decades.

SOMETIMES "END RUNS" ARE THE ONLY REAL OPTION

 Group think is always a problem with human beings. I suspect that in a highly partisan venue such as the Ontario legislature or House of Commons that group think wouldn't appear to be as much of a problem although it is. All the people in one party (Liberal/Conservative/NDP etc.) tend to think the same or at least vote the same if they want to remain in the party. Group think is also more common in juries, committees and Boards however the latter two may be because members are picked specifically for that purpose. If for example you have a committee ostensibly to provide input on an environmental cleanup but that committee are appointed by long biased municipal council members  who really want to maintain the status quo then they will never appoint real activists only fake ones. Hence group think.

Thus going around groups (i.e. "end runs") that are intentionally designed to run interference and to actually block progress becomes necessary.  RAC and TAG are two such groups and is exactly why back in 2016 Woolwich Council got into such public trouble for attempting to block Dr. Dan Holt and myself from addressing them directly regarding Lanxess Canada (Uniroyal) here in Elmira. Not only was addressing those two groups generally a waste of time but they were simply insulating the then Woolwich Council from criticism and controversy over the environmental "cleanup" underway.

One must identify who are honest and who have open minds and approach them. Over time the makeup of Boards, committees and Councils can change. Then it's always worth another go at them to see if they are indeed the real deal and interested in promoting the public interest versus the usual private interests. 

MORE ENVIRONMENTAL CONDEMNATION FOR FORD's PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT

 Today's Waterloo Region Record carries the following Opinion piece from Luisa D'Amato titled "A harsh truth embedded in Wilmot's gravel pit decision". Luisa's harsh truth is that what is the point in having municipal councillors when they have so little power over the things that are so important to us. She is of course referring to Doug Ford's crappy Bill 23 enacted last year which gives the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) more authority to dismiss appeals as well as order costs against the losing party. This likely has created a chilling effect on municipalities including Wilmot to step in and say no to new gravel pits and other undesirable development and zone changes.

The OLT is the successor to the properly reviled OMB (Ontario Municipal Board) which was notorious for siding with developers and gravel pit proponents. Wilmot councillors may yet pay the price for their rollover however as citizens can forget many flaws but promising to block a rezoning from agricultural to aggregate during an election campaign and then doing the opposite is pretty much unforgiveable. 

The question in my mind is will this affect Woolwich councillors and their support for citizens in Maryhill who are trying to stop a new gravel pit around their corner. Woolwich councillor Bonnie Bryant is made of sterner stuff and I expect that she will keep her Council colleagues feet to the fire on this one. Time as always will tell.

BILL C-40 MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE REVIEW COMMISSION ACT

 OMG ! This is (at last) just scratching the surface but is still an incredible public admission as to how perverted and corrupted our criminal Justice System is in Canada. The "corrupted" is corrupted as in "...riddled with errors...". This recently introduced federal legislation has been overdue for decades. Quoting from today's Waterloo Region Record article titled "Wrongful convictions plan mostly right"; "And all it took was over 80 known wrongful convictions; urgent recommendations from seven public inquiries; decades of lobbying by volunteer advocacy groups; and repeated pleas from exonerees."

80 known wrongful criminal convictions mostly for homicide. Good God and we still pretend that our Justice System isn't biased, incompetent, unwieldy, expensive and mostly just plain inaccurate? These are wrongful criminal convictions for murder! If under a system that allegedly demands a standard of proof of "Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt" for crimes that include penalties of Life in Prison, then how many other wrongful criminal convictions are there for theft, assault, rape etc.? How many civil liabilities determined by a much lesser standard of proof of "On the balance of probabilities " are there?

Decades ago I began to understand how bad it was. The three M's come to mind namely Morin, Marshall and Milgaard. Guy Paul Morin, Donald Marshall and David Milgaard were all convicted wrongly in Canadian courts for murder. There have been so many others over the decades including Stephen Truscott and others convicted of murder when in some cases there hadn't even been a crime convicted. Junk science has convicted Canadians of murder in cases later found to be death by natural causes.

Shame on all senior Justice System personnel including Judges who sit on their  fat asses arrogantly advising as to how wonderful and world class our Judicial System is  when they have to have known themselves how seriously broken it's always been.

 

 

NEXT WASTE OF TIME TAG MEETING

 In the U.S. there is a well known phenomenon known as polluters "capturing" their regulators although this can happen in any situation whereby industry are regulated by force of law likely due to past sins of the industry. Obviously the financial services industry is a prime example. The name Bernie Madoff may come to mind as a glaring example of the failure of government regulators. Astonishingly the U.S. Environmental protection Agency was barely known until the Love Canal scandal broke. Again this was a failure of both the chemical industry and of the development industry who made money by building homes on top of Hooker Chemical's former chemical dump. Alas it was also a failure of the government regulators both for the housing /development industry and for the chemical industry who have an embarrassment of scandals around the world including Seveso, Italy and Bhopal, India.

Here the Ontario Ministry of Environment has long been "captured" by Uniroyal Chemical and successors. My guess is that decades of looking the other way and or of approving disgusting and useless toxic waste disposal methods compromised the Ont. M.O.E.  Also of course their decades of assuring the residents of Elmira that their drinking water was safe, even after they knew better, reduced their credibility and integrity to zero.

Add to this mix past lazy or apathetic municipal politicians and the stage has been set for the current sham that is supposed to pass for public consultation.  This can be seen yet again virtually on Thursday, March 23, 2023 at 6:30 pm. Intelligent citizens, particularly environmental professionals, will stickhandle their appropriate criticism regarding lack of Creek cleanup and more, such that Lanxess, MECP and GHD will take little or no offense. That is crucial because citizens were clearly shown in 2015 that blunt honesty  and truth are far less appreciated than either ass kissing or deference to those with money, power and influence  which means the polluter and his friends.