OMB & MNR ARE UNDEMOCRATIC

Today's Woolwich Observer has Steve Kannon's Opinion and position in regards to the recent Decision by the Ontario Municipal Board Chair regarding the Jigs Hollow Pit. The title of his piece is "OMB decision reinforces belief officials have no desire to protect public interest". Local residents feel that three members of Woolwich Council just north of Kitchener-Waterloo sold them down the river. The real blame according to Steve Kannon rests with the Ontario government who have a fake process in place merely as windowdressing. Basically the O.M.B. are there to accept gravel pit applications and the citizens wishes, opinions and even facts are given little or no weight.

According to Steve "The poor provincial record of respecting local wishes is magnified in the case of gravel pits, where the Aggregate Resources Act is practically a cudgel and the Ministry of Natural Resources seen as a defender of operators, not Ontarians.".

Sunset clauses for pits need to be accepted and implemented and to date are not. Furthermore monitoring and supervision of active pits is abysmal. Violations are highly unlikely to be dealt with properly or in a timely manner. As it now stands many Woolwich residents have just learned first hand that their governments; regional, provincial and even municipal are not working on behalf of their interests.

WATERLOO REGIONAL POLICE SERVICE IN THE S*** AGAIN

What an outfit! Does the WRPS think that their actions, mistakes and or even perceptions of same don't reflect badly upon Regional politicians? Afterall who's in charge here? Is the dog (Regional gov't) wagging the tail (WRPS) or is it the other way around?

There's a tidbit of good news here and that is that this time it doesn't appear to be an individual officer or officers exhibiting human foibles, that have fallen off the rails so to speak. The bad news is that this latest embarassing problem probably goes right to the top. Can you believe that criminally charging a very well known, long term defence lawyer came from the lower ranks? Hal Mattson was charged with Obstruction of Justice two years ago. He is suing over his arrest and 3 1/2 hours he spent in custody.

Over the last several years a local lawyer by the name of Davin Charney has fairly regularily embarassed the WRPS by suing them, often in small claims court, over false arrests and similar offences. While I don't believe that he has a 100% sucess rate nevertheless he has done amazingly and embarassingly well. Now we have a 28 year veteran of the courts being arrested in public at Tim Horton's across from the Provincial Courthouse. One of Mr. Mattson's allegations is that Regional police "Used "grossly excessive" force during the arrest in a public place." I do not know if this refers to handcuffs or an actual physical "takedown". I do know having met and seen Mr. Mattson that he is not a young man any longer and that he is not built like a professional wrestler or boxer. I sincerely hope for everyone's sake that the arresting officers did not unecessarily use physical force. Quite frankly even handcuffs are ridiculous in the majority of arrests of non violent accused persons.

I have a serious suggestion for the WRPS and Regional Government. Up here in Elmira our local favourite disgusting polluter has hired the services of a public relations firm called the Sussex Group. Most especially if regional government are unable or unwilling to properly control even the appearance of malicious charges (as yet unproven) by senior police; then at the very least have professionals available to put spin on the inevitable fallout. This is a case that I hope is widely publicized and I personally hope to attend court to find out IF petty individuals within the WRPS have abused their authority and power. The article is in today's Waterloo Region Record titled "Lawyer suing police for $5.5M ".

BILL 115 IS BOTH POLITICS AND OVERKILL

On the other hand as Luisa D'Amato suggested last week, teachers en masse really are boneheads. Not all of them mind you, just the louder ones. The rest just maybe have a bigger picture view of the working world. It's not a perfect world for the lucky ones like teachers and it down right sucks for so many other non union, non professional employees. Even basic labour legislation is rarely enforced however teachers having excellent contracts and working conditions probably didn't need Bill 115 to wake them up. Clearly both sides are boneheads and have been for a very long time.

On November 24/12 another bonehead wrote into the Waterloo Region Record with this Editorial "Nothing boneheaded about dedicated teachers". This teacher has a sad story to tell regarding her personal circumstances. That is indeed unfortunate and no one wishes poor health on anyone's family. Apparently her teaching colleagues have been very helpful towards her and she objects to them being called boneheads. Obviously she is loyal to her colleagues which while admirable doesn't make them any less boneheaded.

Here is my suggestion to this letter writer who needs all her sick days and her constantly increasing pay cheque. Seriously look around and see if you can remotely find better pay, pension and benefits anywhere else. Please don't compare yourself to doctors, nurses, police officers, astronauts or professional athletes because you are none of the above. You are a teacher and your package surpasses 90% of the rest of us. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and be glad that in your personal time of need you've got a job and a union which will protect you far better than anything else the rest of us have got. As far as having a contract that has "...been earned in collective bargaining with my employer have been taken away by the government." let me say this. School Boards have been selling the farm on contracts with teachers for decades. Guess why? Because it's not their money they've been throwing at you. It's mine and ours and yes our government are ultimately in charge of education. Yes they too have pissed it away for decades and now they are trying to slow the drain. That means even heavily protected and unionized teachers may actually feel a tiny bit of pain. I feel sorry for your personal family problems but try dealing with them from the job and salary position the rest of us are in. Quite frankly my dear, you don't know squat.

THIS O.M.B. HEARING ISN'T DEMOCRACY

I think I'm getting old or perhaps just jaded. I've just spent two hours at an Ontario Municipal Board hearing in Woolwich Council Chambers in Elmira, Ontario. A quick head count showed me about sixty residents and citizens of Woolwich Township were present. They were not in a pre-Christmas festive mood. They were not amused in any sense of the word. What I came away with was the understanding that process, procedure and rules have long replaced democracy. This is no accident.

Five local residents from the Conestogo-Winterbourne area were formal Participants at this O.M.B. hearing into the proposed Jigs Hollow Pit aka the Kuntz Pit. I've heard most of them speak to Woolwich Council over the last couple of years and as always they were prepared, intelligent and professional. Their sense of being betrayed by Woolwich Council was very clear. Their command of all the issues was incredible. After each of their presentaions to the O.M.B. they were cross-examined by the lawyer for the gravel pit proponent. This lawyer was not impressive or in my opinion credible. He asked leading questions some of which were vague and appeared occasionally to be misrepresenting the facts. All four Participants who spoke this morning were incredibly poised. Without going out of their way they made the gravel pit's lawyer look like a horse's patootie. He got caught numerous times attemting to make points and then rapidly retreating to his next argument.

Many things about this process were appalling. The statement by the O.M.B. Chair that the Board weren't too concerned with one party (the Township) reneging on their own Motion removing Recycling operations from the proposed pit last June was shocking. Similarily I was appalled at what I believe the Chair said to the proponent's lawyer that she the Chair would temper the Participant's Presentaions and cross-examination testimony with the already submitted written evidence of experts on behalf of the proponent. To me this suspiciously sounded like the Chair had more confidence in long winded, esoteric formulas and theorys presented by credentialed experts than in the common sense and logical observations and studies by the local citizens.

One of the biggest elephants in the room in any O.M.B. and or environmental hearings has always been the purchasing of professional opinions by the parties with the most money. Any and all Chairs should be putting the weight of testimony on those who are working for themselves on their own time and money. Instead in this perverted system the bought and paid for consultants reign supreme. One of the participants made it very clear that at the Settlement discussions, the interests of the local citizens were not represented. The Region, the Township and the proponent all took care of themselves while the citizens were thrown to the wolves. Yes Township Staff and a Councillor or two will be willing to defend what they did. Sixty-one people present aren't buying what they are selling. The local citizens were deceived and manipulated for the financial benefit of the few.

MANDY HISCOCKS FILES COMPLAINT TO THE ONTARIO HUMAN RIGHTS TRIBUNAL

Today's Waterloo Region Record advises us that "G20 activist claims jail violates human rights code". If I were two or three decades younger and as naive as I was at that time I would be either appalled or laughing out loud at that headline. For me it would have been similar to a headline stating something obviously ridiculous such as convicted pedophile and mass murderer claims discrimination in his incarceration.

Ah but having seen all our wonderful government bureaucracies and departments and ministries in action over a period of decades; I can only say God help us all for they are truly awful. Ms. Hiscocks claims that the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services are unfair and discriminatory in their designations as to which inmates are assigned to maximum security. I suppose that logic would dictate that things like a history of violence or a history of escapes would be a fairly good classification method. Of course what to do if for example you've got lots of room in the maximum security wing and not so much in the medium security wings. I would think that this is where a certain amount of subjectivity could go a long way towards solving the problem. Lets see now: how about dark skinned women with poor communication skills plus as a bonus if they aren't Canadian citizens being designated as maximum security.

There see, the problem is solved. Now if only the Ontario Correctional Services had me on the payroll I would have saved them the annoying problem of Ms. Hiscocks complaint. Afterall she is white and has good communication skills as indicated by her Blog and her job at OPIRG (Ontario Public Interest Research Group). Putting her in maximum security was just stupid. Not having a process and a rationale for these decisions is just stupid. Refusing to share it with inmates is of course part and parcel of the dehumanization process and therefore helpful in justifying locking up non violent citizens for organizing, counselling and political resistance activities.

I have a further thought. I truly hope that our fair minded and honest prison authorities don't get the bright idea of treating Ms. Hiscocks in a similar way as they did Ashley Smith. Ms. Smith kept getting her sentence increased due to in house charges. It would be an incredible coincidence if a model prisoner transferred from maximum to medium security for good behaviour suddenly was "naughty" a few days after her complaint to the Human Rights Commission became known to the authorities. It would almost give the impression of a lack of accountability and transparency by a bunch of extremely petty and vindictive bureaucrats.

A WAKE UP CALL FOR TEACHERS

Today's Waterloo Region Record has an Opinion piece by Luisa D'Amato titled "Some advice for unhappy teachers". Luisa's first two sentences are worth quoting namely "Almost every teacher that I know personally is a wonderful individual- generous, kind, hard-working, knowledgeable. So how come they can turn into such boneheads when they act as a group?".

Oh Luisa that is precious and oh so true. I believe there's an area of study known as group dynamics. Perhaps that might explain how like thinking people can and will act stupidly in a group but when on their own are much more careful in their behaviour.

Long story short Luisa is basically advising teachers as a whole to use their numbers and their "considerable political muscle" to affect the upcoming Liberal leadership convention to choose a leader more to their liking. In my opinion that means another individual who will sell out Ontarians without "considerable political muscle" to those who have it ie. teachers. This by the way reinforces my posting of the other day (Tues. Nov. 20/12) in regards to income being a factor not of individual skills as much as due to abilty to out muscle other groups ie brute political power.

Finally Luisa is politely asking teachers to quit using children and students as pawns in their neverending political fights to extract more from provincial taxpayers.

OUR GOVERNMENTS AND SIN INDUSTRIES

In their neverending search for easy revenues, our governments are merely keeping one step ahead of organized crime. Indeed smoking, drinking and gambling have all been under the control of organized crime at one time or another. Once governments figure out how not to offend half the voters en masse, then I expect they will take over prostitution as well.

I attended an OLG presentation last evening at the Woolwich Memorial Centre in Elmira, Ontario. It was slick, smooth and almost not repulsive. The OLG reps kept assuring the audience that they and the government, working hand in hand are ensuring that their products are for entertainment purposes only and no one gets harmed. The Municipal government gets a cut for being the host community and lo and behold even police chiefs are lining up to give endorsements. The hypocrisy is nearly enough to make one choke. It's gambling and like most sins can be a lot of fun. Our governments who in my opinion have long abandoned the moral high ground are essentially pimping. Why shouldn't they you ask? They pimp for polluters, they pimp for financial thieves , speculators, developers and the like. The purpose of government is pimping for the monied interests while sucessfully selling it as good for the masses.

Is there anything good that can be said about gambling? Well yes there is. It is a form of income distribution from the desperate, the well off, the stupid and addicted to just about everyone else. If a slots and gaming centre can pull out $40M from a community and then give back $2 million to the municipality; well good for them. All the games are essentially rigged grossly in favour of the House. It's just about a license to print money and as P.T. Barnum once said "There's one born every minute".

All this being said once again the community will probably be divided. Many will legitimately want the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) to come to their community. Many will be opposed on legitimate religious or moral grounds. Me I don't even buy lottery tickets now because the odds are bad. If they come to town I will be disappointed although not surprised. Personally I hope they stay in Elora.

THE ONE PERCENT VERSUS THE REST OF US

Yesterday's Waterloo Region Record carrys this opinion piece by Thomas Walkom titled "Why the one per cent has it all and the rest of us don't". Mr. Walkom is studying a paper produced by a political scientist at George Brown College. Mr. Walkom states that this paper surmises "-that income is not distributed through the competitive magic of the impersonal market, but through naked power struggles in institutions that are near monopolistic. Think National Hockey league." WOW!

Society is becoming more unequal for a variety of reasons including corporate concentration. In other words as large corporations absorb smaller ones, competition including in prices goes out the window. Also the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) takes a lot of the blame; just about as exactly its'critics at the time suggested. Canada's manufacturing base has gone south, east and west courtesy of Free Trade with Mexico, the U.S. and China. Thank you very much Canadian politicians who have sold out to your monied pals leaving most Canadians worse off. Greater foreign investment combined with fewer viable unions has exacerbated the inequality problem. All in all it's been a twenty year very sucessful program to shift wealth upwards into fewer and fewer hands. Expect more of the same.

ELECTIONS ARE PRESSURE RELIEF VALVES

Democracy is merely one more political attempt by the minority to control the wealth of the majority of citizens in a country. Monarchys, Dictatorships, right wing military juntas, left wing socialist or communist states; they are all the same thing. A minority who feel they are smarter, stronger and wealthier than the other 95% of the citizens want to be in charge. Make no mistake, even in a democracy, elections are bought. Why do you think the United Staes have two major parties only? Why do you think Canada has only three? Money. It is the key to opening the doors to power. How many "independents" ever get elected in Canada? Look carefully even at your local municipal politicians. Most of them are affiliated with the NDP, Liberals or Conservatives. Can anyone join these parties? Essentially yes but these individual members do not make party platforms. They try and they send motions and ratificiations to the provincial and national bodies who consider them, maybe.

Democracy is messy. That is one of the reasons it is rejected by many powerful and wealthy elites around the world. Citizens often get it wrong. They mess up and can't always be trusted to blindly follow the bought and paid for road laid out for them. Sometimes as when the economy is in the dumpster they just arbitrarily kick the government of the day out on their butts. Not that they or anybody else actually think that the winning party will do any better. See, messy.

Here's the good thing about democracy. If you can play the game, abide by the rules (mostly) and win; then you can claim legitimacy. You are truly and honestly the peoples' representatives. You have the moral high ground. At least for the moment. You absolutely will have to lie, cheat and rob them blind during the course of your tenure in order to solidify your support and financial ability to fight the next election. While in power you can modify the rules to your liking while having to tolerate some media and some activists throwing stones, but mostly the majority aren't interested until the next election.

Here however is the commonality amongst vastly different political systems. The Arab spring has most recently brought this to the forefront. Eventually the people will get fed up. They will know if they are being lied to, too much. They will know if they are being robbed too much. And they will rebel. In the middle east a lot of it started and ended with peaceful mass protests and where that didn't work they engaged in violent response to the inherent violence of the state. Inherent violence by the way of all states, democratic or autocratic. A government of the 1-5% wealthy and powerful elite can not rule without police and military available to them from time to time. But when push comes to shove the 95-99% will win. This is the overiding fear of autocracys and dictatorships everywhere. The results are usually bloody. This is the one huge advantage of democracies. Regieme changes can and do occur. The ruling elite are not physically exterminated. They live to fight another day. The bad news is that the new regieme is usually inherently no better than the old. Merely different and at least for a little while a lot more careful. It is the older, long term entrenched governments who become complacent and arrogant. Until the pressure relief valve of elections comes along.

Keep in mind that our home grown politicians are skilful liars in order to convince citizens that they their duly elected representatives are working on their behalf. Imagine being the only party permitted in a country. Imagine being an allegedly benevolent dictator or monarchy. The level of lying and deceit is even more difficult under those conditions. Give credit where it is due. Stephen Harper and his crew should start taking lessons from some of the more blatant liars around the world. Or maybe they already are.

CORPORATE FINES VERSUS PRIVATE FINES

Today's Waterloo Region Record informs us that "BP to pay $4.5 B over Gulf oil disaster". That seemed to me to be an impressive figure. We all know how evironmentally damaging that blowout was. We also all know that eleven BP workers lost their lives. Finally it's become common knowledge that there was negligence involved beforehand followed by less than stellar honesty to Congress by BP afterwards.

Then I read in the same article that BP made $25.8 billion in profits last year. This settlement with the government amounts to less than 20% of one year's profits for the company. I compare this with a personal award against myself many years ago. The award related to a Libel suit in which the good judge decided I had libelled a teacher. He did this despite eight other parents testifying on my behalf. No one died. The victims according to the parents who testified were their children (and mine). My income was around $30,000 per year. The award was for $604,000 or more than twenty years of my earnings because a judge decided that I hurt a teacher's feelings and or reputation. I had no money for an appeal whereas the teacher and her business owner husband were well off.

So less than 20% of BP's annual income. Add eleven deaths and immeasureable environmental damage versus hurt feelings and allegedly reputation and I should pay greater than twenty years of my salary. Even if the judgement was accurate, which it wasn't, the fine/award was idiotic. The judge was ridiculous, biased and incompetent. These are the kinds of decisions which put the administration of justice into disrepute.

SUCKING & BLOWING SIMULTANEOUSLY

Foreign workers are cheap, easily controllable labour


I'm sorry but neither our Federal nor Provincial governments can keep on speaking out of both sides of their mouths. This is in regards to temporary foreign workers in Canada. Today's Waterloo Region Record has a opinion piece by Tim Harper titled "Treat foreign workers with fairness". Gee only in Canada you say. I really don't know what planet Mr. Harper is from. Yes the title sounds almost humane, liberal even. Is it actually 2012 and we aren't treating foreign workers properly? Holy crap I've got news for you Mr. Harper. There is no law currently being enforced in Canada right now that guarantees any such thing for non union workers (ie. the majority) in this country. Why the hell should foreign, temporary workers get a better deal than born and bred Canadian workers?

Recently here in the Advocate I posted a story about a Chinese mining company in British Columbia advertising for workers fluent in Mandarin. Mr. Harper refers to it in his article. Regarding my rhetorical question at the end of the preceding paragraph; foreign workers don't get a better deal. Afterall why do you think employers want them? They'll work for less. Less everything. They are more desperate than most Canadian workers and show me a desperate person who won't undercut the going rate if it will get him the job.

Here's where the sucking and blowing comes in. Our governments tell us that our home grown native sons and daughters are afforded a world class education here. To the best of my knowledge our native Canadian sons and daughters are generally born with one head, two arms and hands and two legs and feet. What competitive advantage do foreign workers have over Canadians? Oh yeah, they are more desperate. Or would our politicians, they of the indexed pensions, short work weeks and no accountability while on the public payroll, perhaps like to tell us that our sons and daughters lack the will to work? Would they like to tell us that our sons and daughters are inferior, mentally, physically or emotionally for these jobs? Would they like to tell us that our sons and daughters are too spoiled to get their hands dirty? Do they forget that Canadians came to Canada from originally Great Britain, Ireland and Scotland? Do Irish immigrants from the potatoe famine that literally killed millions in Ireland tell their children and grandchildren, now don't get your hands dirty? How about European immigrants after World War Two? Are we to believe that they or their descendants have an aversion to honest labour?

What I believe is that our politicians at both levels are simply damned liars looking out for the interests of their benefactors. Their benefactors are not you and I. Their benefactors are corporations here in Canada who have set up shop for the purpose of bleeding every nickel they possibly can out of Canada. If they are in a labour intensive industry then that means sucessfully lobbying politicians for labour policies that will benefit them and their wealthy colleagues. Throwing sucessive generations of workers under the bus is a time honoured method of maximizing your profits. Keeping unemployment high, labour unions weak; all the while bringing in either immigrants or temporary workers is all in a day's manipulation of the citizenry. Lying to the voters is a time honoured tradition and here in Canada our politicians are world class at that.

ASHLEY SMITH INQUEST BACK ON TRACK

At least that's what the title in today's Waterloo Region Record says namely : "Ashley Smith inquest appears on track". My first comment is oh yeah where do I get a government job that lets me adjourn on November the thirteenth for my Christmas and New Year's break. Seriously folks you had to adjourn yesterday until the new Year??? It's been more than five years since she died in custody.

The good news is that Correctional Service Canada and four psychiatrists now appear to be cooperating with the inquest. This is the fallacy of our so called judicial system. If you have the political power, muscle and public funds to back you up, you can sucessfully subvert the system for years on end. This by the way is not unintentional from the get go. Most of our laws, rules and regulations are designed with loopholes and escape routes for the powerful and wealthy. Afterall who do you think writes the legislation in the first place? It sure as hell isn't you or me and it's done by parties who are recipients of corporate and wealthy individuals' donations along the way.

If indeed it was the intervention of Prime Minister Harper or not, clearly since his comments things have been moving along better. It kind of makes you wonder if he'd bothered say five years ago, maybe this inquest would be finished and others currently incarcerated would be better treated as a result. The wealthy will never have any problem accessing legal representation or even private medical facilities for family members with mental health problems. The rest of us are stuck with the state's usual response which is to throw their butts in jail. A prime example would be the young man currently serving seventeen years in jail without parole for the unprovoked attack upon an elderly total stranger (Hunter Brown) a few years ago. With all due respect to Mr. Brown's family; can anyone seriously doubt that the murderer, without any apparent motive whatsoever, is extremely mentally ill? Maybe he can never be reintegrated into society. I don't know; but throwing him into jail rather than a mental health institution isn't going to help anyone.

OFFICER FALSETTO DEMOTED FOR POT OFFENCES

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Police Officer demoted for pot offences". There are a number of interesting items in this article which I would like to point out. Firstly Supt. Paul Pedersen of York Regional Police stated "She no longer feels she must fit in with the bravado (police) culture". This Supt. was part of the police tribunal which imposed the demotion and drug testing sentence upon Officer Falsetto. This is an interesting admission that I think should be seriously considered and looked into. Clearly this Officer and others have not been well served by that culture. Secondly Supt. Pedersen stated that he felt that public confidence could be restored through the "transparent" tribunal process. O.K. personally I'm a great believer in transparency and yes I'll go so far as to say that it does help restore confidence. But.... I'd really like to know the history, say the past twenty years at the Waterloo Regional Police. Have these multiple issues and problems with our Officers over the last few years been aberations or is this just an ongoing merry go round?

Constable Falsetto is alleged to have had a mental illness (depression) for a considerable length of time. The impression given by her and other officers mentioned in the Record was that she and they received little or no support at work. I would like to know if that is agreed/disputed and regardless if the WRPS are intending to increase timely assistance and intervention with their officers prior to a crisis occuring. We would all like to think that our officers are physically, emotionally and mentally more stable, not less, than the majority of the rest of us. The proof is in the pudding as far as public confidence in the Waterloo Regional Police Force. Let's see over the next few years whether officer breakdowns or crises can be handled in a more professional, proactive manner. Officers breaking the law, even unpopular laws are tough to swallow. Officers on the job who are hurting big time mentally or emotionally are a time bomb waiting to go off.

HYPOCRISY- HARPER IS THY NAME

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this opinion piece from Thomas Walkom titled "Ottawa loves veterans- if they don't cost money". Quoting Mr. Walkom "Disabled veterans had to take Ottawa to court once to stop it clawing back portions of their pensions. Now a separate group of vets is suing the government over another pension issue- Ottawa's decision to replace lifetime disability pensions with a cheaper, one-time, lump sum payment.". Clearly this is not a government with veterans' interests at heart. Apparently there is a book out titled "Warrier Nation" written by a historian from Queen's University which suggests that Harper's focus on past Canadian military accomplishments is really all about rebranding Canada more along Conservative ideology. Mr. Walkom bluntly is suggesting that the Conservative Party may talk fairness to veterans and poor or disabled Canadians but the proof is in the pudding. They aren't remotely interested in any of them .

CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST DAN KELLAR

Sketchy! That's how my kids would describe this situation. Today's Waterloo Region Record advises us "Harassment, other charges dropped against G20 protester". Quoting Dan Kellar's lawyer, Davin Charney, "It is fundamental that people be free to criticize police. The charges were laid to muzzle an activist. This is a case of police abuse of power and criminalization of dissent.".

Holy crap, here in Canada you say. The charges which were dropped by Prosecuter Jason Miller yesterday in Toronto included harassment, intimidation and counselling to commit assault. They were related to two undercover police officers who infiltrated various Kitchener-Waterloo activists groups prior to the G20 conference in Toronto in June 2010. This kind of politically motivated attempt to criminalize dissent is exactly what local activist Julian Ichim has been proclaiming both in his own case and that of other local activists.

Yours truly went through something similar fifteen years ago. In that instance I was protesting educational malfeasance by the School Board and essentially they called upon their buddies at the Waterloo Regional Police to straighten me out. This included something like eleven different Trespass charges as well as a criminal charge of Obstruct Police. The criminal charge was beyond contemptible and fortunately I had tape recorded my conversation with police prior to being arrested and charged. The Crown I will say had enough common sense and decency to immediately drop these charges.

The bottom line in my case is similar with Dan Kellar's in that I was criticizing the educational establishment and he the police establishment. The last two sentences of Davin Charney's in the first paragraph are dead on the money namely "The charges were laid to muzzle an activist. This is a case of police abuse of power and criminalization of dissent.". That is the ongoing shame in this province and country. Activists can and are harassed by the judicial system simply because they are criticizing the powers that be. What kind of a democracy do we really have when dissent and criticism are criminalized by the authorities merely to hide from that criticism?

SCHOOL BOARDS ARE IMPOTENT

Ooh this is fun. I could add a whole lot of words after impotent in the title which would be both accurate and insulting but I will rein in my enthusiasm for the current mess we are in courtesy of all our "partners in education". I think I will puke if I hear McGuinty or anyone else use that expression again. I could live with "partners in exploitation" or "partners in manipulation", "deception" etc.. Literally for decades the education establishment has considered both children and parents as unfortunate but necessary cogs in the wheel. Not stakeholders; definitely not stakeholders mind you, merely cogs. Parents are there to get their kids ready for school in the mornings and to ooh and ahh over the latest education flavour of the month nonsense. Parents most definitely are not there to actively participate as equal partners in their childrens' education. Parents are not so subtly told to butt out and leave it all to the educational professionals.

Here is the direct result of decades of the tails (plural) wagging the dog. Yesterday's Waterloo Region Record has an Opinion piece by Luisa D'Amato titled "Boards merely bystanders in teachers' standoff". Luisa's facts are accurate as she describes the gradual reduction in the power and authority of our School Boards. Where I respectfully disagree with her is in her suggestion that this is a bad thing. Luisa has spent years if not decades writing about our local school boards and I would suggest writing critically, especially of our public school board. I often describe the incestuous relationship in Elmira between Chemtura (Uniroyal) and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment as "partners in pollution". Regarding the teachers' unions and the public board I would suggest that "partners in self aggrandizement and self benefit" is totally appropriate. Therefore the moves by the Province over the years to fix this very badly broken educational scenario are all to the good. Don't get me wrong here however. There are no white knights involved. Our provincial politicians are also petty and venal. They are only motivated by votes and public opinion. It is truly a wonder our educational system hasn't totally imploded. Give it time perhaps.

Const. ANDREW ROBSON : BLACK & WHITE

Oh for the good old days; maybe a hundred years ago. Constable Robson done wrong so fire his ass. End of story! Pretty clearly those attitudes are alive and well and flourishing at the Waterloo Regional Police headquarters. Constable Robson was abusing alcohol and marijuana off duty and when his alleged superiors set a criminal trap for him, he did the deed. He stole two ounces of confiscated marijuana. It was actually a pretty clever trap at that. Nobody apparently was going to complain if two ounces of marijuana confiscated from a teenager disappeared for the officer's recreational/medicinal use were they?

Maybe there are larger issues at play. Should every single police officer in Canada who has ever smoked marijuana be charged and fired? Why are some officers charged and others not when they are caught? If the answer to the first question is the same if you substitute citizen for police officer then we have a systemic problem. The reason every single citizen isn't charged (or fired) is because we have mass disobedience of the law and the law in its infinite majesty and splendour would appear the ass by throwing half or two thirds of Canadian citizens in jail. This particular law is virtually ignored by most and in fact is only necessary to keep Police Force budgets inflated and Police Force brass looking busy. Take marijuana out of the criminal system and you've cut your police budgets dramatically. It's downright embarassing for Police Brass to realize that their own officers don't support the law in private. Are all these recent marijuana possession charges no more than face saving? I mean really; three separate police forces to get an off duty officer using marijuana to steal/take two ounces.

It's pretty clear that the Police Brass don't give a rats' (br)ass for Officer Robson. They are throwing him to the wolves. There are less drastic ways to deal with an Officer in distress. If indeed the distress was primarily caused by on the job incidents or not, nevertheless this isn't the middle ages or even a hundred years ago. Yes he needed time off the streets and he needed help for his problems. The Waterloo Regional Police instead threw him a concrete life ring. I don't see much integrity or honour on their part. Today's Waterloo Regional Record "Police officer's lawyer says drug sting unfair".

TEACHERS NEED PUBLIC SUPPORT

Back on Septemebr 12/12 Luisa D'Amato wrote an Opinion piece basically praising techers overall. I commented here in the Advocate that it was a moving testimonial to the positive influence teachers have on our children. At the same time Luisa suggested that the techers really should try and take the high road in regards to their dispute with Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty.

It's my opinion that McGuinty basically handed them the high ground with his perogation of the Ontario legislature and suspension of legislation. Unfortunately today's Waterloo Region Record informs us that "Teachers set for job action". The high ground basically meant not using students as pawns in their battle with the province. Apparently that isn't going to happen.

Coincidentally I was speaking just yesterday to a retired teacher whom I've known for many years. He had learned of local proposed "action" about to occur at our nearby high school. He was mostly disappointed with his former union. Basically he understands how good all the teachers had it under the provincial Liberal administration for many years. Now he suspects that the teachers union actions are going to backfire and drive voters towards Tim Hudak and the Conservatives. He's probably right and boy then the teachers just might wake up and smell the coffee. Job "action" now will not gain them public support whatsoever. Just the exact opposite.

GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT & REGULATION NO LONGER EXIST

The expression coined a few decades back was that government regulaters had been "captured" by the alleged regulated industries. A prime recent example would be XL Foods in Alberta. Government inspectors were relying on data sent them by this meat packing plant to determine compliance with health and safety regulations. We all know how that worked out with the E-coli crisis.

I'm going to quote the last four sentences in an Ontario Ministry of the Environment document I received (and dated) October 31, 2012.

LIMITATIONS

The purpose of the preceding review is to provide advice to the Ministry of the Environment regarding subsurface conditions based on a review of the information provided in the above referenced documents. The conclusions, opinions and recommendations of the reviewer are based on information provided by others. The Ministry cannot guarantee that the information that has been provided by others is accurate or complete. A lack of specific comments by the reviewer is not to be construed as endorsing the content or views expressed in the reviewed material.

The "...provided by others..." above refers to Conestoga Rovers (CRA), long time consultants to Chemtura in Elmira, Ontario. "The Ministry cannot guarantee that the information that has been provided by others (CRA) is accurate or complete.".

Funny but I thought that was exactly what you (M.O.E.) had been asked to do; namely verify or confirm the accuracy and completeness of CRA's August 29, 2012 Memorandum. The two page "Review of potential DNAPL ocurrence at OW57-32R" was written by Jaimie Connolly, Senior Hydrogeologist to the Ontario M.O.E.. His entire Review plus conclusions & opinions is based on information provided by CRA and yet he can not guarantee that that information provided by CRA is accurate or complete. Therefore his Review is meaningless. His review is inherently moot. The Ontario M.O.E. are moot. The entire Elmira "claenup" is moot.

Do us a favour M.O.E. and go away. You are as useless as tits on a bull.

RED LIGHT CAMERAS & HOW STUPID IS STUPID

Today's Waterloo Region Advocate advises us that red light cameras are a crock. The story by Jeff Outhit is titled "Red light cameras are not making us safer". Oh this is just such a surprise. Our traffic enforcement has been stupid for the fourty years plus I've been driving and I don't expect much improvement before I hang up the car keys. Our idiotic focus on nothing but speeding has always been merely a money grab. Our lack of enforcement of drinking and driving for many decades should have been the clearest evidence and indication that the people in charge of road safety are complete idiots.

How bright do you really have to be? Look around and pay attention while you are driving. Roundabouts are a brilliant idea for the 40-50% of the people who both know how to drive and also know that includes paying attention. I've used the term HUA for decades. HUA causes both minor and major accidents. It's an acronym for Head Up Ass and applies to about 50% of all drivers on the road. They are too damn busy talking to passengers, watching accidents on the side of the road, talking on cellphones or just plain daydreaming while driving. Get our police the hell off the radar guns on dry, sunny days and start watching the idiots in the roundabouts. Watch them literally wandering back and forth between lanes as they drive through the roundabout. Watch the particularily stupid ones do that after having their right signal on at the very start, fooling drivers behind into thinking that they are turning right and immediately exiting the roundabout. Actually hand out tickets to the idiots who put on their turn signals either after they've stopped or as they are making a rolling right hand turn. Watch how pedestrians nearly get hit by these idiots who don't signal their intentions.

So red light cameras are actually causing more accidents and more injuries. Oh what a surprise. They are also making money for companies and governments so don't expect their removal anytime soon. The buck stops at the top and when your politicians are self centred and stupid, count on all your government services to be similar especially police services. Traffic safety is just one more pretend concern of governments and as long as drivers' licenses continue to be handed out like popcorn to the inept and incompetent, don't expect any improvement. Most of these people aren't properly trained in the first place and sure as hell the police won't pull them over and explain things for them. Oh sorry, unless they happen to be doing 62 km/hour in a 50 zone in broad daylight on a dry road.

PRIME MINISTER WEIGHS IN ON ASHLEY SMITH CASE

Today's Waterloo Region Record has this front page story "PM calls Smith case a "tragedy". The sub title is "Says prison system's actions "completely unacceptable"". Ooh strong words from our Prime Minister, just about five years or more late. More shame on him, the Federal Correctional Service of Canada and finally on our Waterloo Regional police who decided that standing idly by and watching a teenager strangle to death, without offerring assistance, is not a criminal offence.

There isn't a legal duty to put one's own life in jeopardy to save another but there most certainly is a legal duty when there isn't immediate jeopardy to assist a fellow citizen and human being in mortal danger. That allegedly properly trained prison guards would stand back and accept idiotic orders not to intervene until Ashley Smith was no longer breathing, is beyond criminal. Both the guards and the superiors giving those orders need to be brought to justice. That our Regional Police would not lay charges five years ago is an abomination. Were they so in awe of Federal jurisdiction? Were they so in awe of the chain of command? Or is all of this simply their complete lack of respect for the humanity of a prisoner? Hell may have a special place for the guilty in this case.

ASHLEY SMITH VIDEOS

Riot gear, air masks, restraints, batons, tranquilizers, threats and more. I don't know what is the most repugnant behaviour on the video. Is it the guards behaviour or the nurses? Is it the handcuffs or the duct tape? I don't believe it would be legal to transport an animal anywhere even for five minutes, the way Ashley Smith was transported back and forth across the country.

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Smith videos screened at inquest". Is it any wonder that the Correctional Service of Canada didn't want these videos entered as evidence? How sick of a society are we if we allow this to go away without our authorities being held accountable? How sick are we if this tragedy doesn't demand changes at CSC? Keep in mind this is all above and beyond what happened the day she died. Is it any wonder she wanted out? I am disgusted.