I GUESS IT'S A WIN SORT OF FOR THE WATERLOO REGIONAL POLICE

Things have been pretty tough for the Waterloo Regional Police Service the last few years. Allegations of police misconduct, misbehaviour and even criminal activity have tarnished them. Yesterday they had a victory, sort of. A Regional police office charged with sexual assault and suspended a year and a half ago has been found not guilty at trial. The newspaper story titled "Officer acquitted of sexual assault" seemed to focus on the alleged credibility of the accuser versus that of the defendant. Apparently the accuser waited for a month after the alleged rape before going to police and she also "communicated" frequently with the defendant during that time frame.

While it appears that there were no witnesses or physical evidence to back her story; nevertheless I wonder if there is supposed to be some sort of template by which rape victims are supposed to behave in order to bolster their in-court credibility. The benefit of the doubt should indeed go to the accused but was it necessary to publicly, in the newspaper, make allegations then against the alleged victim?

PETTY POLITICS AT ITS' FINEST

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Emails, texts link governor's aide to "punitive" traffic closures". This story resonates with me because I've seen locally here in Waterloo Region some incredible pettiness by politicians. Those more naive among us may think that this is merely one bad apple betraying the public trust. Too many so called public servants feel they have a legitimate right to payback once they are in office, for whatever perceived slights they have sufferred over the years. In this case the paper trail makes it appear pretty obvious that this jerk of a politician literally ordered the shutting down of two of three traffic lanes at a bridge simply to spite a political opponent and Mayor of a local community. If this can be proven to be true than he should be permanently banned from ever holding public office again. The supreme arrogance and brass to inconvenience thousands of commuters simply to take a shot at a political opponent is beyond contemptible.

MORE NEWS ON OFFICER ROBSON

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys the following story "Officer loses appeal to save job". The appeal was at the Superior Court and was an unsucessful attempt to overturn his convictions for stealing two ounces of marijuana that an undercover officer posing as a distraught mother had turned over to him. My last posting on this case was only last December 23/13. While I view myself as a critic of police brutality, lack of accountability and police politicization I have been conflicted over this case. The officer has issues that need help but criminally entrapping him seems an odd way to go about that. Also I wonder where the police union stands on this especially as it was a "brother" officer who turned him in. If a teacher ever got caught turning in a fellow union colleague there would be hell to pay even if illegal activity was involved. I stand by my comments in my last posting namely asking if there is not a better, classier and more humane way for the Waterloo Regional Police Service to handle this particular officer and situation.

SCHOOL BOARDS ARE "SPECIAL"

Boy oh boy, delivering the vote sure does have its' perks. As per the December 31/13 Waterloo Region Record article titled "School board managers escape wage freeze"; it sure looks as if the Education sector are treated with kid gloves. "The Liberal government implemented a two-year wage freeze in 2010 for non-union government managers, to ease a record deficit of $21 billion. Ontario school boards continued to award annual pay hikes averaging three per cent to many senior managers, according to an analysis by the Globe and mail newspaper.".

Further "The government has since passed new legislation that freezes non-union wages past 2012. The new law is clear that "senior executives at school boards should be covered by the wage freeze"". Apparently the loophole that school boards availed themselves of was the definition of "bargain collectively". While most of the unwashed masses would interpret that as unionized employees; the boards being much smarter and educated determined that superintendants could be considered a collective group. If you are noticing a small whiff of barnyard animal waste right now, you are not the only one. A spokesperson for the Education Minister did not respond to the question as to whether the government will seek to claw back earlier wage increases.

EDITORIAL REGARDING POLITICIANS

This week's Woolwich Observer has a Letter to the Editor written by Paul Marrow of Winterbourne. The title is "Politicians and bureaucrats should aim higher". Mr. Marrow points out two recent very disappointing public comments. The first was by a federal cabinet minister suggesting that he was not responsible for feeding his neighbour's hungry child. The second was by the head of Correctional Services of Canada advising the Ashley Smith inquest jury not to make recommendations that would be too expensive. The third that Mr. Marrow did not include would be the comment from the head of Canada Post suggesting that taking away home delivery would give seniors needed exercise.

All in all these are "callous and hurtful comments". These are comments by priveleged people in regards to those who are in more difficult circumstances. I agree with mr. Marrow's opinion that this is not the Canada that we were born in. This is a Canada that has been the victim of a coup by unaccountable bureaucrats and politicians.

ONE MORE PAST EXAMPLE OF REGIONAL POLICE OUT OF CONTROL

The title of the article in the Waterloo Region Record is "Lawyer who says he was wrongly detained settles suit with police, gets $5,000". This article however was in the paper February 2012. I'm assuming I just simply missed it at the time. Nevertheless it clearly exemplifies the mindset that police have. What I would like to see is every citizen who is harassed by the police having the means to haul their butts into court. That is by far the best way to address abuses of authority that some officers otherwise appear unable to understand. The other way of course would be an independent, transparent and legitimate investigative body to handle citizen complaints regarding police behaviour and misbehaviour. The problem with that is of course just getting another tame body with no independence or authority on its' own.

SCHOOL BOARD STUPIDITY AND "DISCOVERY LEARNING"

As if some of us had any doubts as to the amateurism, incompetence, flavour of the month educational fads and overall drivel promulgated by our "educrats" at the Waterloo Regional District School Board as well as others; we now have "discovery learning". According to Gwyn Morgan in today's Waterloo Region Record article titled "Why parents should worry about student math scores"; this latest educational fad is quite simply nonsense. Mr. Morgan states "If you suspect this destructive teaching fad was designed by math and science - phobic humanities graduates, your suspicions are well founded, considering that only a small proportion of teachers and administrators have significant post-secondary math and science training.".

The opposite of this mickey mouse 'discovery learning" is fact-based learning. For math and science training it is the only way. One other issue which is the elephant in the room is the competentcy of many teachers. Qualified and effective teachers must replace those whose qualifications are measured solely by their years of seniority. Teaching is far too important a career to be left in the hands of either unions or their in-bed together school administrations ie. boards.