IS THE TAIL WAGGING THE DOG?

Luisa D'Amato wrote in the Waterloo Region Record last February 24, 2012 the following Opinion piece: "New role of school trustees is problematic". This article somewhat describes why I ran twice for school trustee in Woolwich-Wellesley over a decade ago. It is also why I feel badly for the likes of excellent Waterloo Region Distict School Board trustee Cindy Watson. She is battling an educational bureaucracy of low to minimal ethical standards mostly by herself. Past trustees have essentially sold the farm and given their power and authority to staff and the senior management. Some trustees may think or say otherwise such as trustee John Hendry: "Staff work for the board, ....The board doesn't work for staff." If only the facts supported Mr. Hendry but they don't.

This whole article by Luisa D'Amato dealt with the staff's recommendation that the board take over after school, day care. As Luisa correctly points out this didn't go to trustees for a vote. It should have. The best the trustees seemed able to do, at Cindy Watson's suggestion, was to set up public consultation sessions with parents. Thankfully the parents came out en masse , did not accept the idiotic propaganda session orchestrated by staff, and in no uncertain terms told the board where to go. Every once in a while parents sucessfully exert their appropriate influence on their childrens' education. It's way too seldom amd it's way too difficult and that's been done intentionally through self serving process and procedure by the school board. Added to that is the usurpation of power and authority by full time paid staff away from democratically elected trustees. Shame on parents over the last few decades for not keeping themselves informed and by not electing trustees who will represent them and when necessary stand up to the entrenched staff and bureaucrats at the school board.

WATERLOO REGION EDUCATION BUREAUCRACY

This following article was written in the Waterloo Region Record last March 1, 2012 :
"Parents fought the education bureaucracy, and the parents won". This of course refers to the issue of after school care being taken over unilaterally by the school board. This story , like the one posted yesterday, was also written by Peter Shawn Taylor. Parent Craig Holland stated that parents "...pushed and we pushed and we pushed". Then Mr. Taylor states "Finally when all the diversionary tactics and self-affirmation failed, the board-staff and trustees-listened.". Peter Shawn Taylor also describes Mr. Holland's discription of the difficulties parents faced. "He described how the initial response to parental objections was that the plan rested with staff alone and there would be no input from trustees or voters. Then his group was told the point of no return had already passed. After that , Holland said it was framed as an issue of social justice; parents seeking to save non-profit daycares were thus "misguided"." Fortunately despite the best (worst) efforts of schoolboard staff the plan failed and the parents took the day. This article begs the same question as yesterday's and that is why staff (employees) with self aggrandizing motives have become in charge of our educational system, to its' detriment.

NEVERENDING SCHOOL BOARD GAMESMANSHIP

Career bureaucrats have long learned how to have their way at the Waterloo Region District School Board. Sometimes it's smooth and subtle and other times they wield the big legal stick, backed by taxpayers millions of dollars which they control. Overall in my opinion it's a disgusting and contemtible system and as a direct result it lurches from one crisis to another. Yesterday's Waterloo Region Record carrys the following Opinion piece from Peter Shawn Taylor: "Waterloo Region's public school board plans new ways to ignore parents".

Recent crises include the Jesse Sansone unbelievable overeaction by a teacher, principal, School Board and FCS (CAS). Before that we had the extended day debate. "Faced with a massive wave of public outrage, and after months of stonewalling and diversionary tactics, the public board finally relented and shelved its takeover plan in February." If the system were honest and above board in the first place the bureaucrats involved in stonewalling and diversionary tactics would have been fired long ago. Unfortunately the foxes have long been in charge of the henhouse and no senior authority at the provincial level has ever seen fit to clean house. That's a shame and may be why our educational system will not and can not compete in honest world wide comparisons.

Mr. Taylor explores in detail the new rules that Trustees are introducing which will make public delegations so much less likely. He also compares them to delegations which go through rules to appear at our local municipal councils. It's an eyeopener. I learned many years ago just how badly broken the system is. Apparently it's not just broken enough for some of these self serving bureaucrats and their toadie Trustees. One notable exception is long time Cambridge Trustee Cindy Watson. Kudos to her once again for her principled objections to this plan.

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU

Friday March 30, 2012 the Waterloo Region Record carried the following story "G20 accused wanted to "stick it to system"". Well whether that title was true or not, I'll just bet he wants to stick it to the system now. According to this article Byron Sonne was arrested in June 2010 and held in custody for 330 days. His trial on charges of possessing explosives was into closing submissions last week. He was arrested prior to the G20 Summit, similar to a number of local activists here in Kitchener-Waterloo and Guelph. Aside from all the surveillance prior to any criminal activity is one particularily notable fact. Mr. Sonne didn't possess explosives. He did possess apparently a large "array of legal chemicals" however. What the hell is going on here exactly? Whether or not his claim that he had the chemicals for the purpose of producing fuel for a model rocket hobby is legitimate or not, the fact is what kind of a law says you can't possess explosives but you can possess the chemicals to make them? What kind of a law says you can legally possess and produce rocket fuel if indeed it's the same as possessing explosives? This case has a similar odour to it as the ones involving local activists who allegedly "conspired" to incite mischief and vandalism.

WATERLOO REGIONAL POLICE CRY THE BLUES

It must be tough being a cop and being on a budget. In the March 22/12 Waterloo Region Record Brent Davis has the following story "Chief makes pitch for more resources". Allegedly the public meeting was to discuss the Regional Police 2012-2014 strategic business plan but a skeptic might be forgiven for thinking it had to do with the black eye the local cops have gotten for their idiotic behaviour and overeaction in the Jesse Sansone case. Regardless Chief Torrigan used the opportunity to pitch for more money from beleagured taxpayers. Allegedly fifty police officers were recently removed from the investigative units and redeployed to front line patrol. I see that as a good thing when the investigative units have enough manpower to put full time infiltraters into local activist groups ahead of the G20. Don't get me wrong here. There is a time and place for this and I suspect that the undercover cop in the Nadia Gehl murder case was a good move. Also Chief Torrigan bemoans only having three cops available for the school resources program. Well once again referring to the Jesse Sansone case as well as personal experience; far too many idiot teachers and principals use our regional police for their personal vendettas and ego/authority power trips. Good riddance if the police are now too busy to go looking for trouble that doesn't exist.

PROVINCIAL LIBERAL BUDGET FAILURE

March 28, 2012 in the Waterloo Region Record, Luisa D'Amato wrote the following Opinion piece "Budget strikes hardest at society's most vulnerable". Luisa slams the liberals not only for their pettiness and meaness but as much for their puffery. The finance minister and other senior Liberals have the gall to suggest that even in hard times they are taking care of the poor. Poppycock! They weren't taking care of them in good times and now it's hard times and they've decided not to throw them a concrete anchor. Well bully for you Dalton McGuinty and friends. Further as Luisa points out certain items made it into the Liberal budget and certain things didn't. She states "But this budget tells me that they are still picking and choosing their favourite kinds of people, and the poorest of the poor aren't on the guest list.". Finally Luisa comments about the alleged 7.6% unemployment rate in Ontario. Give me a break. Those Statscan numbers have been bogus for decades. They are not and never have been an accurate representation of the number of people legitimately out of work and unable to find jobs. They may or may not be a compilation of people on unemployment insurance but that is an entirely different kettle of fish.

AGENT ORNGE

Yes it's a health issue, but a lot different than the one which showed up in Vietnam and other countries first. This posting today concerns Ornge Air Ambulance. The newspaper stories about this scandal are sickening. They are sickening for a multitude of reasons. People are dying in this country due to a lack of financial resources in the health care system. They are dying despite record setting health care expenditures. The economy is in the toilet and our taxes are out of sight. We are paying world class taxes for third world delivery of services. The waste and lack of government oversight into tax money wastage is criminal yet no one goes to jail. All Stephen Harper has to do to sell his "get tough on crime bill" is to tell Canadians that he's going to put politicians and bureaucrats in jail.

On Thursday March 22, 2012 the Waterloo Region Record printed this story "$730M to Ornge poorly watched". It deals with a report by Ontario auditor general Jim McCarter. He outlined massive wastage, expenditure and lack of government oversight into the operations of Ornge. Quoting the Health Minister Deb Matthews's somewhat belated criticism : "We have many challenges in our health-care system right now, and I cannot tell you how disgusted I am when I see people who are entrusted with responsibility in our health-care system to put their own interests ahead of the interests of the people that they are there to serve." This scandal has been unfolding over the last few months. Heads have rolled at Ornge but it's nowhere near enough. Heads need to roll on the government benches until this crap stops. Entrusting our money to politicians is like entrusting catnip to cats and beer to alcoholics. At least the alcoholics eventually pass out and stop drinking. Our politicians never stop spending 24/7.