TORONTO POLICE CHIEF LOSES JOB

Well the Toronto Police Services Board finally got their shit together. Why did it take them four years after the G20 fiasco and public shaming to finally get rid of their police chief? I seriously doubt that the beleagured Mayor Rob Ford has the pull at Council anymore to have orchestrated this; although undoubtedly the Chief wasn't his favourite person due to Ford's personal problems. Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Toronto police chief losing job". I am also wondering if last summer's Sammy Yatin shooting and tasering played a role in this. I have long suggested that bad attitudes start from the top and work down. Over time, overly aggressive and hostile attitudes at the top filter down to the rank and file. Also when front line officers behave badly and aren't charged or disciplined that also exacerbates the problem. The behaviour by police four years ago was reprehensible and the discipline up the ladder should have occurred quickly, not years later. There were fortunately charges and at least one conviction of front line officers on a more expeditious basis for unprovoked assaults upon citizens. The mass arrests seemed to have been ignored by our courts to their shame.

PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS THUMB THEIR NOSES AT THE CONSTITUTION

Mind you they do it of course with the tacit recognition and turning a blind eye by the Federal government. Last Friday's Waterloo Region Record carried this article "Don't hold your breath waiting for free trade within Canada". The author Derek James From is suggesting that our provincial liquor laws giving momopolies within provinces to the sale of liquor are essentially unconstitutional. It seems that everybody is turning a blind eye to what is a black and white no-brainer. Mr. From bluntly states "Liquor laws offer the perfect example of the collusion between the federal and provincial governments to erect trade barriers.". He also suggests that certain public sector unions are also self serving in their support of this anti constitutional activity. It makes me kind of wonder why both levels of government have to pretend. Why not simply make the practice legal? Otherwise somebody, somewhere is going to eventually push the issue and the courts will get involved.

IACOBUCCI REPORT ON POLICE COMES DOWN

After the alleged and apparent murder of Sammy Yatin one year ago by a Toronto police officer; a sweeping reviw of the Toronto Police Service's guidelines and practices was undertaken by retired Supreme Court of Canada judge, Frank Iacobucci. The retired judge indicated that firstly police officers are part of the mental-health system. As such they are front line workers and need much greater education on mental health issues. The purpose of that and other recommendations including expanded use of tasers and officers with body-worn cameras would be to avoid further instances of deadly use of force on the mentally ill.

These are all probably very good ideas. Even more important is an attitude change from the top right down to the bottom ranks. Some police officers have an us versus them attitude. Some are way too macho and ready to prove their the toughest nuts on the block. There was no excuse for what happened last July resulting in the death of Sammy Yatin. I believe the officer who shot Sammy as well as the officer who after the fact tasered him have both been charged criminally. That's what is required far more often. Train the police just like the rest of us that unecessary deadly force will have serious consequences. Last year's case thank goodness was caught on tape and there is no stickhandling around the facts. Justice will not bring back Sammy Yatin but it may prevent further unecessary deaths of people who are in crisis.

Last Friday's Waterloo Region Record carrys the story : "Tasers, cameras, training may help save lives: report".

HANG IN THERE, OMAR KHADR

You've done the worst of it plus a whole lot more. The finish line is in sight, so relax and let it come to you. The U.S. miltary and government are behind you and soon the idiots in the Canadian government will be as well. keep in mind that the Candian federal government have illustrated what we already know. Cowards are bullies when they have all the power. They will run and hide when you are released and they no longer have legal protection for their lies and untruths.

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys a Record Editorial titled "Let Khadr speak to Canadians". We are advised that former Public Safety Minister Vic Toews intervened and blocked an interview at Milhaven Institution in 2012. The warden at the Edmonton Penetentiary also blocked an interview last July. Finally the warden at Bowden Institution in Alberta denied media access to Khadr. It begs the question: What is the federal government so afraid of? Often in these contoversial cases the answer is simple: the truth.

The Toronto Star, the CBC and White Pines Pictures this week asked a federal court judge to allow reporters to speak directly with Omar Khadr. The Record suggests that the national interest will be best served if the court agrees.

OUR SELF SERVING JUDICIAL SYSTEM MARCHES ON

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Bail system in need of a revamp: report". The report was issued today by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. They claim that pretrial detention is vastly overused and is punishing innocent people, slowing the judicial process and costing unecessary tax dollars. It is indeed doing all of that and more. It is also used by overzealous authorities in an attempt to stifle legitmate dissent in this country. By throwing people in jail on the most minor of charges it can have a dampening effect upon legitimate protest. It has even been used in cases where the charges are withdrawn the next day after the innocent person has spent time in jail.

What is beyond ridiculous and should be prima facie evidence of the stupidity of the process is the fact that a number of provinces have 60 to 66% of their incarcerated citizens, on any given day, in jail without ever having been convicted of a crime. They are there awaiting either trial or a bail hearing. That is expensive and unjust. Also the vast majority of these people are incarcerated for non violent, minor criminal charges.

Other issues include judges imposing ridiculous bail conditions including someone can be returned to jail for being five minutes late for an appointment. One teenager was even advised by the judge that if ordered to make his bed and he failed, that was grounds for breaching his bail conditions. Go to jail immediately.

It seems clear to me that this is a system which desperately needs more inmates to keep their funding up. Hard to demand increases year after year if your "clients" are being reduced all the time. Hence bail conditions are a dandy way to keep your jails full. Talk about a marketing scheme. Way past time for governments to put a stop to this nonsense.

POLITICIANS ARE INHERENTLY TRUTH CHALLENGED

This title should also include high level bureaucrats. How high? Well in my mind I've started to think of George Karlos of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (M.O.E.) as number 78. That was his salary ranking last year at the M.O.E.. He is a recent guilty party involved in bantering, bafflegabbing and gross misleading of citizens. Then we have our local mayor. He misrepresented the position of these same citizens who are volunteer members of the Chemtura (formerly Uniroyal) Public Advisory Committee. Last summer at a General Membership Meeting of the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) he not only allowed a GRCA staffer (B. Brown) to misrepresent CPAC's position regarding a mickey mouse cleanup of Dioxins and DDT from Chemtura's south-east corner, but he contributed to it. Next this very same mayor (Todd Cowan) turns around and does the right thing by providing a memo from the Region of Waterloo's Waste Management Division to the Chair of CPAC (Dr. Dan Holt) who as I would have expected did the right thing by providing it to CPAC & SWAT (soil, water, air, technical). This memo advises us that the Region shut down a local drinking well just north of Elmira due to an industrial contaminant (1,1 DCA) in 2012 and are going to shut down two more this summer.

Back to George Karlos. He and the M.O.E. were asked by a local activist/citizen two years ago about the possibility of surface water or liquid contaminants ever having left the Uniroyal/Chemtura site and ending up in or near a nearby Mennonite swimming pond. George and fellow travellors emphatically said there was no such pathway. Not believing George to be stupid I believe therefore that that was a blatant lie. If I'm wrong then he's merely stupid and or uninformed. Regarding B. Brown at the GRCA meeting last summer perhaps this person is corrupt or perhaps merely grossly naive. Maybe they had asked the question of Chemtura or their consultants who were present and she simply repeated the lie told to her. Todd in the past has been described to me as a person who doesn't lie, he simply tells people what they want to hear. Well! Regarding the memo from the Region it is filled with assumptions, inferences and overall slick stickhandling around the truth. The former Woolwich landfill was closed in 1986 but even before it was closed there were contaminant plumes emanating from it. The landfill is just north of an area on the outskirts of Elmira known as the sandhills. What a just dandy place to locate a landfill that contrary to reports was used for industrial liquid wastes. The organic chemicals in the plume include phenolics, aromatics and chlorinated solvents. The Region's memo of course overlooks all this bad news and talks about low level dichloroethane not being a health hazard and all the usual buzzwords and bullshit. Thirty years ago it was known that nearby drinking wells were at risk but why bother doing anything until after the folks are drinking this crap?

OPP PLAY THE MOUNTIES GAME

It does seem a bit odd. With the head of the OPP, similar to the head of the RCMP, being a political appointee, you have to kind of wonder why they'd be so reckless. Why tick off possibly your new political masters by inappropriately intervening in an ongoing election campaign. Perhaps the OPP by taking a huge political step days before the June 12/14 provincial election felt that the risk was worth it. Maybe they weren't happy with the Liberals and thought that their last minute request for a judge's order for an additional evidence into the gas plant scandal would increase their odds of having the Tories to deal with in the immediate aftermath of the election. Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Political interference by the OPP was reckless".

Apparently back in 2006 the RCMP went after Liberal finance minister Ralph Goodale in the middle of an election campaign. They issued a news release indicating that they were investigating him in regards to alleged criminality. he was later exonerated but the damage before an election was done. In that case the RCMP Public Complaints Commissioner went on the offensive. A 32 page report he published indicated that police officers needed to be accountable as to why they would release a news release of that nature during an election campaign. In the current case there has been no demands for the OPP to set the record straight. They have been engaged in questionable conduct with literally zero accountability demanded by anyone. This is not a good scenario and raises the spectre of the politicalization of our senior police forces.

SENATOR MIKE DUFFY AFFAIR

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Bar high for proving Duffy charge, experts say". Well the RCMP have laid 31 criminal charges against Mike Duffy including fraud, breech of trust and bribery. That's isn't impressive, that's spectacular. It actually gives me comfort to know that everything isn't under political control at the top. Of course Duffy has had to piss off some pretty important people to get charged criminally at all in this whole affair. It's really weird that as a high profile Conservative, appointed by Conservative Prime Minister Steven Harper, that he's currently in this pickle.

Think about it. He didn't rob a bank. He didn't steal from a private company. He simply allegedly played a little fast and loose with his expense claims. The fact that this is standard operating procedure in the Senate, if not other areas of government, would be bolstered by allegedly similar behaviour by Pat Wallin, Mac Harb and Brasseau all three of whom are in hot water although not as deep as Duffy. None of this makes any sense at all. I believe Mac Harb is the only Liberal in the group. The others were all favourite sons and daughters of the Conservative hierarchy. Having a healthy sense of entitlement shouldn't surprise anyone. You've arrived long before ever being appointed to the Senate. That's just the cherry on top. Being a V.I.P. and then recognized by the governing party and Prime Minister of Canada as worthy of the supreme political patronage position where you not only get easy money and perks but even get to claim to be a mover and a shaker; well it would turn anyone's head. How horribly and incredibly mishandled this has been from the start. Again that gives me deep comfort that the Conservative Party are so dumb and vulnerable.

What about the RCMP? They hardly have clean hands themselves afterall. From murdering Polish immigrants to harassing female employees they leave a lot to be desired. Were they at all involved with the G20 civil rights abuses? If not they dodged a bullet on that one. Are they back to playing politics by going after Mike Duffy? Could there be some payback going on for perceived past political meddling by the federal Conservatives? If and when this ever gets to court I'd like to see who was pushing for all these criminal charges in what really appears to be just everyday ubiquitous sleaze, greed and entitlement combined with intentionally loose rules to make it all possible.

AND NOW WE SEE THE REAL PROVINCE OF ONTARIO

Look carefully folks. This is your Liberal province of Ontario in action. Incompetence, stupidity and negligence are all in a day's work but when caught redhanded due to a human disaster, they will use our tax money to defend the indefensible. Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Man sues for jail beating by inmate". The victim was in jail for drug possession and breach of probation. A good guess was that the terms of probation were not to attend an establishment serving alcohol which is where he was picked up.

The attacker one Donald Gibson had a recent horrific string of bizarre and violent behaviour to his discredit. He was clearly mentally ill and had been issuing death threats as well as beating up other individuals both at a local hospital and even in a court appearance. So what do our idiot authorities do? They put this violent and crazy individual into a cell with another person, in on very minor charges, and the entirely predictable occurred. The victim spent three weeks in a coma and 2 1/2 months in hospital. He is now suing both the Ministry of Community Services (Ontario) and the psychiatrist involved in some of the decisons around Donald Gibson. And of course the Province using taxpayers money are defending against the suit. Why??? Do you think that prisoners in jail do not have the right to their lives and health? Do you think that you are not directly responsible through your stupidity and negligence for what happened? This country may not be as bad as the U.S. for incarcerating their citizens for every excuse possible, but they are sure working on it. You the province are responsible for the health and safety of each and every citizen in your custody. You grossly failed Ashley Smith and no one went to jail. It's high time our "authorities" did some jail time themselves. They might then get serious about jail conditions as well as the state of our entire judicial system.

AS CHARLES DICKENS SAID " THE LAW IS AN ASS"

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this article by Peter Shawn Taylor titled "Time to decriminalize safe driving: the case for higher speed limits". Mr. Taylor points out the obvious and that is that Ontario (& Canadian) drivers have a comfort zone when they drive. Based upon visibility, weather and road conditions; mature, experienced drivers drive their cars at speeds totally appropriate to those factors. It matters not if the posted speed limit is 150 or 50 kilometres per hour, any experienced driver quickly understands at what speed they can safely travel a road. Similarily any abrupt change in driving conditions whether rain, snow or nightfall automaticaly triggers their adjusting their speed to a more comfortable, reassuring speed. Mr. Taylor points out the recent significant increases in speed limits in British Columbia as an example of a more progressive province. All traffic studies done after raising speed limits tells the same story. There is no increase in accidents and quite frankly very little increase in average speeds. What it does however is partly at least get the slackers and dreamers out of the fast lane doing 90 km/hour once the limit is raised to 120 km/hr. Increased speed limits also have little effect upon the minority of aggressive, drunk or distracted drivers. In fact it may very well cause the distracted drivers to focus more on their driving although this is as yet unproven.

To date ridiculously low speed limits have been a boon for cash strapped municipalities. They have also sucessfully magnified contempt of our grossly outdated driving laws. Higher speed limits do not cause accidents. Distracted, drunk and stupid drivers do. As in Europe pull over to the right and let the faster drivers go. Sitting in the left lane and taking a mile or more to pass a car by carefully only driving at a too low speed limit does not promote safety. If you're going faster than the car in front then pull into the fast lane, pass him smartly and pull back into the right or slower lane. This is not rocket science folks yet our outdated speed limits have simply promoted bad driving as drivers are too cautious in going by the slower drivers. They aren't being cautious safety wise they are being cautious for fear the O.P.P. or Waterloo Regional Police are lurking nearby looking for a quick $100 or $200 from you. Decades of low speed limits and primarily speed enforcement focus has enabled the incompetent drivers and merely pissed off the competent ones. "The law is an ass" albeit a self serving one. Excessive police salaries at all levels are being subsidized involuntarily by honest, average citizens driving safely and carefully ten to twenty-five kilometres above posted speed limits. This is nothing more than state sanctioned theft and harassment based upon disproven, self serving theories of "safety".

CANADA'S DRINKING WATER STANDARDS

Ecojustice out of Toronto have just released today a report titled "Waterproof: Standards". It is lengthy and detailed and I will get into it seriously over the next few days. Here is what I've gleaned in a half hour perusal. Firstly Canada does not remotely lead the world in drinking water protection. Claims by various Canadian jurisdictions about world class standards, treatment and source water are essentially no more than puffery. Secondly even our individual provinces have widely varying standards, treatment and source water. Finally individual municipal jurisdictions within provinces suffer the same problem as above.

Ecojustice breaks down Canada's water standards into three groups namely The Good, The Bad and The Ugly after the old Clint Eastwood spagetti western. The Bad includes substances for which Canada has or is tied for the weakest standard around the world (27 substances). Also substances for which Canada has at least one other member with a standard or guideline stronger than Canada (13 substances). The Ugly refers to substances for which Canada has no guideline or standard but at least one other country does (189 substances). Future postings will go into specifics and more detail although I must add the following. Overall Ontario unlike the other provinces has two general grade readings. The first is a "D" and refers to Ontario's drinking water protection prior to the Walkerton disaster (2000) and the second grade is "B" and refers to Ontario's grading since the Walkerton disaster.

ORGANIZED CRIME: GOVERNMENT OR PRIVATE

The above title is part of an old joke. A young boy tells his father that when he grows up he wishes to be part of organized crime and his father asks him "Government or private?". When it comes to sheer lieing, stealing and deceiving; governments of all stripes have no peers. When it comes to ethics and morals they will talk about them till the cows come home but everything gets sacrificed on the alter of partisanship advantage. The sin is in the getting caught not in the doing. When caught nine times out of ten governments will use taxpayers money to buy themselves out of trouble. So it is and so it has always been.

On line yesterday was an article from MacLean's magazine detailing British Columbia's raising of highway speed limits. Many highways will have their speed limits raised to 120 km/hour. All studies to date both domestic and foreign indicate that this will make a minimal to zero difference in people's driving habits. What it will do is allow those who routinely drive at the 120 km/hr point to do so comfortably and without government harassment and theft of their money. People both in town and on the highway drive at a speed that they are comfortable with based upon weather, road conditions, visibility, night versus day and traffic congestion or not. Automatically raising the speed limits does not cause an automatic increase in speed by the large number of people already routinely driving between 100 and 115 km/hr. Similarily those who routinely drive beteen 90 and 100 km/hr will under similar road conditions continue to do so.

So the question is what about the millions of dollars sucked out of motorists over the last fifty or sixty years. Was it all a sham? The answer unequivocally was and is yes. Both governments and insurance companies have long used "speeding" as an excuse to legally steal money from motorists. Perhaps laying a "speeding" ticket might be appropriate if it can be proven that "speeding" was even a contributing cause to an accident. The majority of accidents were and always have been due to HUA or head up ass. The recent terminology has been "distracted" driving but yours truly coined HUA literally decades ago. It doesn't matter how slow you're driving if you're not paying attention. People walking at three miles an hour bump into each other when they're not paying attention whether caused by ipads, cellphones or visual distractions.

LOCAL MUNICIPAL POLITICS

In a word it's disappointing. There are a couple of council candidates that I expect will do a good job if elected namely Lynne Hare in Ward 3 and Dr. Dan Holt in Ward 1. I'm also hoping for another candidate that I know to declare for Ward 1. We will see. Currently there are three candidates running for Mayor and in a nutshell all three have made mistakes in the past. It's almost a case of which one is the least obnoxious. Currently I have an e-mail in to candidate and current Ward 3 councillor Bonnie Bryant. My e-mail is in regards to drinking water issues in West Montrose which is part of her Ward . While she's had the opportunity already to get back to me on this serious matter nevertheless she gets one last chance. If there is no response or she refuses to share the Region's responses to the questions I provided her and Councillor Mark Bauman months ago then she will have proven herself to me (ie. negatively).

Councillor Sandy Shantz is the least obnoxious by far. In fact I can honestly say that it is always a pleasure speaking with her. She is pleasant, articulate, respectful and a reasonably straight shooter. So what is my problem with her? Firstly she has attempted to justify to me her voting me off CPAC in 2008. Unfortunately her reason is fatuous and frankly ridiculous. I asked for an honest answer not a "nice" answer. My second concern with former Councillor Shantz is this. She went from a rookie trustee with the Waterloo Region District School Board to the Chair's job in the blink of an eye. WTF! If the Board were an honest, decent, student focused group of people as they are supposed to be then I wouldn't mind her quick elevation. The problem is that I took that Board's measure between 1996 and 2004 and they were found grossly wanting. They are, at the top, professional liars, hypocrites and bullies spending millions of taxpayers dollars on lawyers to harass parents and anybody else they disagree with.

Then we have Todd Cowan. I groan just thinking about his behaviour on so many fronts since he became Mayor. Let's just skip to what he has going for him. He learned before becoming Mayor that the Chemtura Public Advisory Committee (CPAC) wasn't doing its' job. He learned this from professionals in the environmental consulting and cleanup field. He cleaned house and brought me and a group of new people in. On the one hand he has supported CPAC and their 2012 Resolution requesting a complete change in the cleanup plans. On the other hand he behaved like a horse's ass towards those very same CPAC members either individually (me) or as a group. He agreed to support my getting back on CPAC provided I give up the Elmira Advocate blog/website. I refused. He has recently been caught misrepresenting CPAC's position at a general meeting of the Grand River Conservation Authority last summer. All that being said I think he will be O.K. to stick with the same CPAC after the election. I think. I hope.

YET ANOTHER SENSELESS ON THE JOB DEATH OF A YOUNG MAN

The Waterloo Region Record has carried stories on both July 4 & 5/14 regarding a fatality at Polycon Industries in Guelph, Ontario. The title of the first was "Cambridge man dies in Guelph factory accident" and the second "Ministry issues orders after workplace death". The "Ministry" of course refers to the Ontario Ministry of Labour. This ministry is at least as competent and well funded as Ontario's Ministry of the Environment; which after twenty-five years of dealing with them I can advise you they are way beyond hopeless. I've had some dealings with the Ministry of labour and for example am still waiting for $9,000 awarded to me years ago from a local Elmira company (Pilgrim's Provident). As usual we have lots of laws but essentially more loopholes when it comes to enforcement.

The 22 year old man was working for Oskam Welding and Machine and was attaching a steel plate to a beam when he fell. The plate then fell on him. Clearly the history of on the job deaths in this province; especially of young, inexperienced males has had little real impact on business and industry. So called voluntary compliance is a joke with the M.O.E. so why would it be any better with the Ministry of Labour. The problem is obvious. Our major winning political parties, Liberals and Conservatives are nothing but mouthpieces for right wing business and industry. Every law, every regulation has to be vetted by the wealthy and powerful because it might cause them five seconds of difficulty or lost productivity. Compared to the renewable resource of young human life they have clearly made their decision. Profits first, health and safety second. There are always replacement workers and please keep the fines and charges to a minimum or we won't keep up our political donations.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT VINDICTIVENESS AGAINST OMAR KHADR CONTINUES

Is it vindictiveness, pettiness, bias or just an unholy wish to forever suck up to the Americans? Why would the Harper Tories continue to vilify and besmirch a Candian citizen who as a child was put into circumstances that no adult should ever have to face. Circumstances I might add that none of the federal Conservatives have any direct knowledge of. Khadr was fifteen years old and left in a building with friends and colleagues of his father. The building was attacked by American soldiers and the firefight including explosives lasted hours. Omar Khadr was wounded almost unto death and maybe he threw a grenade and maybe he didn't. In hindsight he was the only survivor from within the building. Awfully convenient to accuse him of throwing a grenade while fifteen years old and grieviously wounded. He's now spent a decade in prison and the Tories still aren't satisfied. They are appealing the latest court ruling which would send Khadr to a provincial jail and increase his likelihood of earlier release. Today's Waterloo Reion Record carrys this story "Court ruling may open new avenue to freedom for Khadr".

WATERLOO'S FIRE CHIEF IS WRONG TO GUARD THIS SECRET

Yesterday's Waterloo Region Record carrys a Community Editorial Board opinion piece by Gary Askin. While I agree with a number of his stated facts, it is his conclusion from them that I vehemently disagree with. The title of his article is "Waterloo fire chief right to guard this secret". Mr. Askin has far more confidence than I in the basic judgement and motives of our various authority figures. He suggests that prior knowledge of the train cars filled with volatile crude oil would not have prevented the horrible tragedy in lac Megantic. Maybe yes and maybe no. We will never know the answer to that one. Mr. Askin also seems accepting of the conditions put upon the dissemination of information from the railroad company to the fire chief. Namely if you make the information public we won't share any further information with you. Really? Then maybe it's hight time these train executives were given a little course in politics and jurisdictions. If they want to ship hazardous materials through residential areas or for that matter any high density areas the onus is on them to do everything imaginable ahead of time to minimize risk. This includes debate and discussion over alternate routes if the human exposure to an accident is too high. This includes being transparent and accountable to the public through whose neighbourhoods you are transporting hazardous materials. This includes publicly defending maintenance programs as well as procedural manuals for parking trains with or without supervision. Transparency is a two way street and can actually cause railroad managers to sit up and pay more attention to safety. That is never a bad thing.

CANADA'S SHAME IN THE OMAR KHADR CASE GROWING

Bad enough that child soldiers are revictimized. Bad enough that a grieviously wounded minor is charged with murder and war crimes. Shameful that our federal government would not help Omar Khadr a Canadian citizen but rather in fact continue to victimize him by keeping him behind bars in order to curry favour with the Americans. This last travesty merely adds further fuel to Canada's shame. Last Thursday's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Memo casts doubt on Khadr case". It appears that the very legal foundation upon which charges were initially laid by the U.S. against Omar Khadr are flawed. Therefore it is conceivable that his conviction had no legal merit which also brings up the question whether the Candian government knew that in September 2012 when Khadr was repatriated to Canada. If they didn't know then the U.S. government have misled one of their closest allies in order to induce them to wrongfully incarcerate one of their own citizens. If they did know then Canadian government officials desperately require some jail time of their own. Firstly as a learning experience and secondly as a deterrent to future politicians and bureaucrats.

PUBLIC CONSULTATION- MORE WONDERFUL PROVINCIAL HYPOCRISY

The Ontario Ministry of the Environment rely on public consultation; especially when their credibility is in the crapper. The Wakerton disaster was the third in just a little over a decade. Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira in 1989 and the Hagersville Tire Fire the following spring had people on edge. Ten more years passed before M.O.E. incompetence and budget stripping aided and abetted citizens in Walkerton dieing from bacteria contaminated drinking water. The culprit was E.Coli sort of. The real culprit was laziness, unaccountability, alcohol, budget cutbacks and a complete lack of transparency at all levels.

In Elmira the M.O.E. were just about as guilty as Uniroyal Chemical. Between them they managed to coverup and hide the longterm health effects of their negligence and incompetence. The M.O.E. did all their serious backroom dealing privately but then trumpeted their endorsed and promoted public consultation. First came the Uniroyal Public Advisory Committee (UPAC) followed by CPAC the Crompton and later Chemtura Public Advisory Committee. How serious were they to have legitimate public consultation? The answer is zero. What they wanted was the appearance of public consultation. That's all it takes to pull the wool over the publics' eyes. The M.O.E. neede to be able to say yes we have consulted. Then they claim that all issues have been addressed. The reality is that they spend two or three hours a month listening to the public and they feel that listening equals addressing. No more is necessary.

I've been a thorn in their side for years. I read all the reports and understand them. I ask questions and then I ask more questions about the answers I've received. Over twenty-five years I've been bullshitted, baffle gabbed and lied to by professionals. Every imaginable deception, deflection, prevarication, manipulation and just plain filthy lie possible has been used. Both Chemtura and the M.O.E. are currently in great pain in Elmira. The Chemtura Public Advisory Committee are professional, polite, firm and unrelenting. I try to be professional etc. but my forte is being well researched, knowledgeable and brutally honest. This drives the guilty parties crazy. The M.O.E. have been trying very hard for the past year to get me kicked off the sub-committee of CPAC referred to as SWAT for Soil, Water, Air & Technical. Ask yourself how the M.O.E. on one hand promote public consultation and on the other work so hard behind the scenes trying to turf an honest accurate critic of their and Chemtura's pretend cleanup plans. They are liars, hypocrites and cowards. It's well past time for them and their guilty polluting friends to get off the pot. If you aren't going to properly clean up your mess then just plain leave. We can do better without you here at all then wasting more decades talking and dealing with your self serving drivel.

DOWNTOWN KITCHENER TRANSIT HUB SECRECY

Last Saturday's Waterloo Region Record carried this story "Another big project-more self-serving secrecy by region". Jeff Outhit of the record gives several examples of regional secrecy revolving around transportation issues. He suggests that the Region's excuse, when they blackout nearly 150 pages of a 357 page report, that secrecy preserves future deals is that those deals may be suspect, poorly negotiated or ill advised. The Region have even kept secret their investigation into the serious roundabout accident involving a St. Mary's high school student. Ontario's information commissioner has suggested that while the region may have the legal right to do so; it is still wrongheaded to have done so. Her quote is as follows : "Citizens must be ensured the right to access government records in order to participate meaningfully in civil life, which is not possible if government activities are hidden from public view.".

CENTRAL PARK JOGGER RAPE CASE INJUSTICE

Talk about a double injustice. The victim in the case nearly died from the injuries inflicted by the perpetrater and then years afterwards finds out that the five men convicted in the case in which her memory was lost due to the head trauma; finds out that the guilty man was never convicted for his crimes. A total of five black and Hispanic teenagers were found guilty in the case and served years in jail. All their convictions were thrown out in 2002 due to evidence that another individual, acting alone , was responsible. Last Saturday's Waterloo Region Record carrys the story titled "Payout can't buy back lost time, exonerated men say". It can't buy back lost time nor does it remotely exonerate the justice system that found it so expedient to convict five innocent teenagers so readily. In hindsight I'm beginning to believe that there are individuals within the justice system who are far more concerned with speedy convictions in high profile cases than in getting the responsible person. In other words any likely candidate will do just so the police and Crown can pretend that they did their jobs properly and promptly. Shame on them.