SO FAR PROVINCIAL OFFENCES COURT ARE ON TRACK

I've been listing here various issues both good and bad in regards to my attempts to have the Crown prosecute mayor Sandy Shantz of Woolwich Township for Municipal Election Act contraventions. The normal convention is to characterize them as allegations until the court decides either guilty or not guilty. In this case however I assume when she has admitted to nemerous contraventions it is O.K. to so characterize them as Election Act contraventions. To date she has explicitly admitted to faiing to file an Audit along with her Form 4 Financial Statement. This admission follows her admission that she miscalculated her Total Contributions (Income) thus under reporting them by more than two thousand dollars. She has also admitted to accepting a donation in excess of $750 by two associated corporations. Finally she has implicitly admitted to understating her election Expenses by at least $1,300 via her multiple, ongoing Financial Statements produced since the March 27, 2015 deadline.

While I had a battle getting through Intake Court, I believe it is referred to, in order to get the Information before the courts; nevertheless full credit goes to Justice Radulovic for making it happen on October 1 in Superior Court. Since then I attended Provincial Court last Wednesday as did Randall Martin on behalf of Sandy Shantz as well as the prosecuter, Mr. Alex Andres. He requested my presence at the front of the court simply to identify myself to the Judge who's name I do not know.

The next court date is December 2/15 at 9am. in Provincial Offences Court, 77 Queen St. Kitchener. The prosecuter indicated to the Judge that the intervening time is both for him to review the whole case and possibly he suggested that there might be some determination as to whether some charges might need to go to a criminal court. I am not positive on this last point as a particular legal term was mentioned that I simply couldn't get my ear around fully.

MUNICIPAL POLITICS EVERY BIT AS CORRUPT AS PROVINCIAL AND FEDERAL

Having been solely focused on environmental matters both local and regional for two and a half decades I've missed an awful lot of the local political corruption. Finally the last few years I've been paid much more attention and dear Lord it is indeed pathetic. Keep in mind that corruption can be brown paper bags full of cash courtesy of Brian Mulroney or it can also be defined as "riddled with errrors". Either way our municipal politicians have long ago learned how to master lying to and deceiving the public.

Here in Woolwich Township we have the spectacle of the Township setting up the next MECAC (Municipal Election Compliance Audit Committee) public meeting on October 26, 2015. Yes yours truly is responsible for this meeting as I applied again for a Compliance /Forensic Audit of Mayor Shantz's election campaign finances. Of course before I did that I also had, after weeks of effort, managed to file an "information" at Superior Court which has resulted in ten Municipal Election Act charges being filed against Mayor Shantz.

Therefore while the mayor and Council sucessfully conspired to get her job back after it was automatically forfeited last July 8, nevertheless her Election Act contraventions continue to haunt her. One of these initiatives is via the corrupt MECAC process. I would like to think that it was not intentionally set up that way by the province but really who can say for sure?

Currently via the Township Clerk all the stops are being pulled out to improperly limit the scope of this hearing on October 26/15. It should be a very simple and appropriate decision following case law that indicates when contraventions have been not only been alleged but especially admitted to by the candidate then a Compliance Audit must follow. The mayor avoided this proper outcome last time on July 2/15 through incredibly blatant corruption both by herself and by MECAC. It included ambushing me with 30 pages of financial documents literally minutes prior to the hearing and allegedly also ambushing MECAC although I'm skeptical of that for very good reason. This includes her sworn statement to Superior Court weeks later that MECAC had received their copies three days prior to the hearing.

DISGRACED POLICE OFFICER ALLEGEDLY NOW A SPECIAL CONSTABLE

I'm having a real problem with this one. We the public are supposed to believe the BS coming from the Police Chief, the union and the Police Board. The former officer of twenty-five years now hired as a civilian special constable had been facing Police Act charges of deceit, insubordination and corrupt practice. None of these were criminal charges.

First off Chief Larkin states that "...the spirit of a tribunal under the Police Services Act is always towards resolution and rehabilitation." What a cock of crap that statement is. We the public have seen Police Act charges over decades here and they are always aimed towards getting rid of police officers whether deserved or not. And there have been cases where they were not deserved.

The overall public view of Police Act charges has always been one of skepticism. This case almost reaches the level of bizarre and that does not particularily point the finger at the individual officer. In fact I've long suspected that something is very wrong in the upper echelons of the Waterloo Regional Police Service. There was a horrible scandal and ridiculous infighting back in the 80's first with the Henchman motorcycle gang followed by the Sid Brown affair. Have things really improved or not since then? Has civilian oversight made the situation better? I'm extremely doubtful.

The Waterloo Region Record carried the following story on October8/15 titled "Police Board votes to accept hiring of ex-officer as a special constable".

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE PROCESS

Decisions are usually determined before the meeting/hearing ever starts. It's all about those in charge of the process and what they want. This includes the Agenda, the order of speakers, whether or not questions from the floor are permitted, who the parties are, whether party status was tightly controlled early on and surprisingly who controls the Minutes. It's amazing what doesn't get into the Minutes but should have. Also of course is the composition of the members of either Tribunals, Boards or Committees. Conflict of interest rules are also crucial as otherwise stacking of Boards, Tribunals and Committees with friendly faces often occurs.

Here in Woolwich Township we have yet another MECAC meeting in regards to election expense contraventions. It is scheduled for October 26/15 at 9:30 am. and it is a complete crock of shit. The proof is in the pudding as two of their three Decisions to date are contrary to the Municipal Elections Act spirit and law. While numerous contraventions including bizarre late production of receipts and invoices occurred,a forensic audit was unable to substantiate their authenticity. That normally is the kiss of death and should have guaranteed the Municipal Election Compliance Audit Committee (MECAC) sending the matter to the courts for consideration. They did not.

MECAC have at least two members with a conflict of interest including their Chair. The Woolwich township Clerk is insisting on treating this Region of Waterloo appointed Committee as if they are strictly a committee of Woolwich Council which they are not. This includes strict speaking times for alleged Delegations. Unfortunately yours truly is not a Delegate, I am a party to the process as I am the Complainant/Applicant. Despite that I do not have any rights to question committee members, the candidtae or any one else in order to substantiate the very simple and obvious legal requirement for a Compliance/Forensic Audit needing to be ordered by MECAC. They failed miserably to do so last July 2/15 based upon two Financial Statements filled with erors and contraventions of the Municipal Elections Act (MEA) and now with a total of four of them; three being produced after the March 27/15 deadline, I expect they wish to do the same again. It's all about keeping the Mayor from facing the courts and the possibility that they might determine that she knowingly violated the MEA.

ARE PUBLIC COUNCIL MEETINGS FOR DECISION MAKING OR FOR THEATRE?

I believe there is a quote from Shakespeare possibly something to the effect of "...methinks thou doth protesteth too loudly". In fact that would describe Councillor Mark Bauman to a tee. He was loud and vociferous both last week at Council as well as this week to the effect that Council are undecided as to whether or not to accept the Catholic School Board proposal to buy public parkland in Breslau in order to build a school. In fact last week at Woolwich Township Council they voted 3-2 (Committeee of the Whole) to reject the proposal. Well lo and behold this week, the day before the Council meeting there are suddenly ten Delegations to Council all in favour of the proposal.

They spoke as well as other last minute requests (against it) and Council with the addition of Councillor Scott Hahn decided in favour 4-2. You guessed it Mark reversed his position and he and Scott voted in favour. So was this legitimate reconsideration or was the whole thing a set up from months ago? A real skeptic might even believe that Councillor Larry Shantz's vote against both last week and this was simply to hide the Family Compact of Mark, Sandy and Larry usually joined by fellow travellors Scott and Murray Martin with Councillor Pat Merlihan left on the dust, on his own.

Politics is a dirty business and most especially so here in Woolwich Township.

GOVERNMENT/JUDICIAL COMMUNICATIONS SCREWUPS

So does this simply boil down to unrepresented by counsel citizens getting the shaft, over and over? Or is there more to it? Is the judicial system inherently incompetent? Are the staff inherently incompetent or simply unaccountable? Are the staff unionized and only accountable through the negotiated union agreement and not through common sense as to how they deal with the public? Whatever it is it is ongoing. I've already posted here as to the amount of time and money I've wasted following inept, contradictory and just plain stupid directions from Superior Court staff in Kitchener.

Today I'm pleased to say was a little different. Today I tried to get some basic information from staff at the Provincial Offences Court. I was advised that the only route I had to speak to a prosecuter regarding an upcoming case was by showing up on a particiular afternoon without an appointment to speak to a prosecuter. Just like Superior Court it is but one day of the week although apparently it doesn't drag on all day as it does for J.P.s. Was I satisfied? Hell no. I had a friend several hours later phone the same number and ask for the same information. Well! He got a phone number given to him in order to attempt to phone the prosecuter. Now that's substantially better than waiting nearly two weeks due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and then driving to downtown Kitchener hoping for the best. Provided of course that the Prosecuter actually returns his calls. We'll see.

THE DEATH OF PUBLIC CONSULTATION IN ELMIRA, ONTARIO

What a farce. TAG stands for Tecnical Advisory Group and consists of two co-opted citizens who have long received personal benefits such as employment and paid trips from Chemtura Canada. Also included are curling buddies of the mayor Sandy Shantz. Truly unbelieveable. Meanwhile a total of four CPAC and SWAT members attended the first RAC (Remediation Advisory Committee) meeting last week only to learn that the mayor's so called "stakeholders" obviously don't give a crap. One Grand River Conservation Authority member and zero from the Region of Waterloo attended. How pathetic is that when they are replacing dedicated and honest citizen representatives?

Meanwhile even if the public attend these meetings they are not allowed to be Delegates at the TAG meetings. The RAC group will take Delegations but neither they nor TAG will allow questions from the floor. Hence any reports submitted by either the Ministry of Environment or Chemtura are protected from any prying or difficult questions. It is at least reassuring that the only remaining local media have clearly expressed their opinion that these two new committees are impotent and by so design.

ONGOING JUDICIAL MISCOMMUNICATIONS & FAILURES

Once more yesterday I had a first hand example of judicial incompetence. Who for certain screwed up I do not know. That said but for one sharp Justice behind the bench I would have been exactly back to square one. After nearly six weeks of navigating the process for a private citizen to lay an "Information" in order to have a Justice of the Peace "issue process" to have a charge laid I finally had my day in Superior Court. Mayor Shantz of Woolwich Township was subpoened, I was there and the prosecuter and court as well.

Turns out the subpoena and the whiole process were in the wrong court. I kid you not. To date I've spent weeks trying first of all to get the wrong forms to the J.P. and now this time we all end up in front of the wrong court. The worst of it is there is no accountability. Any private business would be falling all over themselves advising the customer or client as to how they would ensure this fiasco never reoccurs. Not so in our judicial system.

Not surprisingly the mayor's lawyer along with the prosecuter made a joint submission to throw everything out. Fortunately the Justice knew what was going on and refused their joint submission. Instead she simply scheduled the hearing before Provincial Offences Court for the end of the month. Thank You for that!