BUREAUCRACY, RED TAPE & OBTUSE LEGISLATION

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Dead officer's mother seeks access to files". The mother of fallen police officer Jennifer Kovach of Guelph is trying to get more information from the investigation done by the Guelph Police Service. Officer Kovach died in a car accident last winter while responding to an emergency call fo help. She lost control of her vehicle and slid into an oncoming bus.

Her mother Gloria Kovach has been advised by the Guelph Police Service that there will be a $2,500 fee to provide further documentation for her. I wonder in what universe, even a politician would refer to this as Freedom of Informatuion. I have long known that FOI is a bit of a sham but these attempts by governments or government bodies to pretend to be recouping costs are worse than just saying no. Shame on the original writers of the FOI legislation and shame on the bureaucrats who hide behind the loopholes.

O.P.P. T. EGBERTS - TO SERVE AND COLLECT

First of all a ridiculously low speed limit on a an expressway which has been at 90 km/hour for the last fourty years. The Conestoga Parkway in Kitchener-Waterloo has been at 70 km/h for many months ostensibly because of construction. This construction doesn't exist on weekends and even during the week there are concrete barriers between the workers and the TWO lanes of through traffic.

Add to this an O.P.P. officer who likes to play games including artificially impeding traffic and charging and tailgating drivers while in an unmarked car without his flashing lights on. Meanwhile the Region of Waterloo are raking in fines which have little or nothing to do with driving safety. A pox on the lot of them.

WAS ASHLEY SMITH'S DEATH A HOMICIDE?

Today's Waterloo Region Record has this story "Cell death a homicide, jury told". Julian Roy the lawyer for the Smith family believes it was and is asking the jury to so rule. The ramifications of that are huge and indeed might be the only way to actually get substantive change within the Correctional Services Canada (CSC). Mr. Roy referred to the order not to enter Ashley Smith's cell until she stopped breathing as an "obscenity". Lawyer Howard Rubel representing the jail guards referred to the do not enter order as "illegal". While he claims that it was not obeyed by the guards nevertheless the ominous threats of criminal charges against guards if they failed to comply, most certainly must have affected their decision making and timing in entering the cell to remove ligatures.

The Warden Cindy Berry brought in a regional manager to advise guards that if Ashley Smith died it would be ruled "death by misadventure". Julian Roy's response to that is excellent namely "If you have decided it's an accident before somebody dies, it's not an accident". Management initially tried to scapegoat the very guards who resisted management's obscene and illegal orders. The buck has landed on the Warden's desk with a thud. Besides the regional manager and their disgusting comment does the do not enter orders go any higher up the CSC chain of command? That information I would like to have heard more about.

MORE DETAILS OF PMO MEDDLING IN SENATE BUSINESS

Well now Saturday's Waterloo Region Record has even more bad news for the Conservatives. The title is "Harper dodges questions, but Tory senators back audit study". According to this story the Prime Minister's Office went even past reaching out to Senate Conservatives to scuttle the audit of Mike Duffy's expenses. Apparently they went right to Deloitte (the auditors) to try and get confirmation that the audit would end once Duffy paid his expenses. A Conservative Senator approached a personal contact at Deloitte to try and get said assurances. They were unsucessful in then getting the specific Deloitte auditor to make any such commitment. Pretty clearly there are Canadian Senators whose partisanship far outreaches their loyalty to the Canadian public.

CANADIAN SENATORS ARE RATTLED

Today's Waterloo Region Record has the following story "Rattled senators troubled by court filings". The RCMP have produced an 80 page document which among other things suggests that Mike Duffy and Nigel Wright committed fraud, bribery and breach of trust with their secret deal to repay Mike Duffy's expenses. Personally I don't quite understand what the RCMP are doing here. If that's what they think and have evidence to back it up then why haven't criminal charges been laid? Are the Mounties playing politics here? Let's face it, they surely haven't gotten through the last decade plus unscathed. Their reputation has gone from good to horrible with issues such as multiple sexual harassment suits and the tasering death of a Polish immigrant a few years ago in a Canadian airport.

Our Prime Minister is still claiming he knew nothing about the deal to bail out Senator Mike Duffy. The Senators themselves are in shock over the meddling in their internal affairs by the Prime Minister's Office. Apparently the PMO did their best to quash an independent audit comissioned by the Senate as well as try to manipulate a Senate committee and its'report into Mike Duffy's contested living expenses. So much for an independent body of sober second thought.

PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE & MIKE DUFFY - BRIBERY, FRAUD & BREACH OF TRUST ???

Well this scandal is definitely going places. From a relatively minor in the scheme of things, Senate expenses scandal; we now have the Mounties suggesting criminal offenses. Today's Waterloo Region Record has this story "RCMP alleges greater role of PMO in Senate scandal". To my mind once again it's all about high government officials taking extraordinary steps to shut down or at least tone down a relatively mundane abuse of expenses. Yes it was taxpayers money involved but good Lord our governments are more used to wasting billions of dollars rather than mere thousands as is alleged with Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy. I'm not even clear as to how much of Mike Duffy's $90,000 was paid by taxpayers or whether it was Conservative Party funds presumably donated by the faithful.

What is clear is that there has been all kinds of meddling and interference in the Senate by the Prime Minister's Office. What is also clear is that the Conservative government have overeacted to a minor expense scandal and sucessfully turned it into a criminal investigation of themselves.

TALK ABOUT DYSFUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

They are everywhere! Anyplace that human beings decide to organize a venture of any kind, the potential for disorganization and chaos exists. Municipalities, school boards, government ministries and agencies and private corporations are susceptible. Recently here in Ontario we've had Ornge air ambulance, e-health, and the City of Toronto. This next one is a doozy. Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "U.K. considers law to jail medical staff for "negligence". Apparently at the Stafford Hospital in England "...hundreds of patients died unecessarily from 2005 to 2009.". That frankly is an incredible claim however investigaters found appalling conditions which they documented. For me it just confirms what I've long known. Any and all human organizations require transparency and accountability. Without it chaos and dysfunction will eventually reign.