THE FINE ART OF DISSENT

Last Saturday's Waterloo Region Record carrys an Opinion piece by Luisa D'Amato titled "Conduct codes shouldn't stifle debate". Luisa gives honourable mention to a number of local dissenters such as John Gazzola, Anthony Piscitelli, Stephen woodworth, Cindy Watson and finally Bob Mavin. "without these outsiders, it becomes too easy for councils and school boards to become cosy little clubs. The pressure to play nice cab be so powerful, its easy to forget the people who put you there. It's not only peer pressure that is used to control dissenters. It's also those codes of conduct, often deeply flawed, that politicians must follow.".

One section of the City of waterloo Code of Conduct says that "...if a member of council wants some extra information from staff on which to base a discussion or a decision, the rest of the group has to agree. An unpopular dissenter cab easily be disempowered in this situation." Further Luisa states "Dissenters help create a healthy exchange of ideas. That's what we all need. And any part of any code that gets in the way of that should be thrown in the garbage.". Hear, hear! Up here in Elmira, Chemtura Canada (Uniroyal) are big on Codes of Conduct and further muzzling of outspoken critics.