GOVERNMENTS DO NOT PROTECT THEIR CITIZENS

As long as governments can sweep problems under the carpet or sucessfully minimize the threat to health health, they will do that before offending powerful interests. Here in Elmira, Ontario we are just now getting the Ministry of the Environment, a provincial ministry, involved in doing something about the discharges of DDT and Dioxins onto Chemtura, Canada's eastern neighbour's property.

Both the M.O.E. and Chemtura (Uniroyal Chemical) had full knowledge of these problems thirty years ago, yet chose not to take action. Various reports by consultants for the company as well as by the M.O.E. themselves made it clear back then that both surface and groundwater were flowing onto the neighbour's farm. There was visible crop damage done which is hardly a surprise when you realize that herbicides were part of the mix of toxic liquid wastes being discharged.

We have been finding disturbing levels of DDT in the Canagagigue Creek, downstream of both Chemtura as well as their eastern neighbour for the last three years of testing. These results are in contrast with improved biomonitoring results on the Chemtura site indicating that creekbank cleanup and stabilization have been sucessful in greatly reducing uptake by clams and leeches in the creek.

It is long past time for much greater action rather than the neverending investigations, work plans and assorted other time wasting efforts.

CORRUPTION INDEX: CANADA 8TH LEAST CORRUPT

Colour me skeptical. This group called Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index believe that Canada is the 8th least corrupt country and the United States the 16th least corrupt. Denmark is the least corrupt, perception wise, in the world for the second year in a row. Now many countries, third world or otherwise, democracies or otherwise, are indeed well down the list. Russia, Hungary, Poland, Turkey fare poorly on the list as "politicians and their cronies are increasingly hijacking state institutions to shore up power.".

I've got bad news folks. This is exactly what happens here in Canada and elsewhere. Politicians don't publicly advertise what their agendas are and what they are doing. They slowly subvert institutions from within. Friends and allys are appointed to key positions to be called upon when necessary to repay their appointments. I see it here provincially, federally and municipally. You don't absolutely require brown paper bags full of money to be corrupt. Even if you do we had a past Prime Minister caught in that position with a $300,000 donation from a German businessman. Did you see any politicians get charged or go to jail on that one? Of course not, this is Canada.

CONSTABLE FORCILLO GUILTY OF ATTEMPTED MURDER

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story titled "Toronto Officer Guilty of Attempted Murder". Well I expect there are at least a few sighs of relief that the public, blatant lifetaking of Sammy Yatin has been recognized. That said there does seem to be some sort of comprimise going on in this case. Sammy was shot three times by Constable Forcillo, collapsed and then shot at six more times. A total of eight of nine bullets fired struck Sammy Yatin, killing him. Then just for good measure as well as for show I would expect, another officer tasered the downed and dying or dead Sammy yatin. What a disgusting disgrace of police work.

Constable Forcillo's defence was that he was behaving according to his police training. Dear God but I hope the man is a liar because if that actually is how the police force trains their recruits then we as citizens in an allegedly democratic country are in big trouble. That is how I would expect police officers to be trained in a dictatorship but not here. Also of interest is the suggestion that Constable Forcillo is not guilty of murder because allegedly the first three shots were O.K. for him to fire and they are the ones that supposedly took Sammy's life. The next six shots got the officer convicted of attempted murder only as Sammy was already allegedly dead. Besides that somewhat bizarre logic is how exactly do they know which bullets of the eight fired did the lethal damage? Were there some shots more lethal than others? Are the bullets numbered for easy identification so pathologists know whether bullet one, two or eight did the deed? That of course is ridiculous as I suspect many will find this conviction to be.

GRACE SUDDEN TO THE RESCUE AGAIN ?

Recently Breslau residents were witness to two former Woolwich Councillors stepping up for their community. Both Bonnie Bryant and Grace Sudden stepped up and spoke out on behalf of their community regarding the proposed sale of parkland to the Catholic School Board. Both former Councillors felt that the best interests of the community lay in not selling their beloved and well used parkland.

Now it appears as if in a more subtle fashion, Grace Sudden may have also stepped up in her role as a member of the Municipal Election Compliance Audit Committee (MECAC). This committee has certainly been taken to task by yours truly over their mishandling and egregiously biased decisions regarding two current Woolwich Councillors. Councillor Hahn was found to be in contravention of approximately seven different Municipal Election Act rules by the forensic audit done by Froese & partners. Despite this MECAC chose to not send him to the courts for possible prosecution. Considering the severity of the violations and the questionable, after the fact, paper trail of receipts and invoices, that decision was unsupportable.

Similarily MECAC abandoned all pretense of independence and nuetrality with their mockery of their role to order a Compliance (forensic) Audit if any contraventions of the Municipal Elections Act even reasonably appear to have occurred. In fact mayor Shantz admitted at the first MECAC public meeting last July 2/15 that she had violated the rules by failing to file an audit, accepting an overdonation from a corporation and of miscalculating her total Contributions (donations) by nearly three thousand dollars. Despite these and other later proven and admitted contraventions MECAC twice refused to do their duty and order a forensic audit of the mayor's Financial Statements.

I have claimed both bias and conflicts of interest with a number of MECAC members. Indeed one member to his credit voluntarily chose not to attend the last MECAC meeting (October 26/15) after being called out by two citizens for his alleged conflict of interest. Now it appears that Grace Sudden actually has added more evidence to my claim that MECAC were biased to the point that they were essentially operating as an arm of Woolwich Council which by definition includes mayor Shantz. I mean really it now appears, thanks to Grace, that MECAC are in fact no more than a typical, totally under the control of Council, committee of Council.

All of us who have been members of committees of Council like to think that we are independent. We absolutely are not. As long as we follow what Council wants and supports, everything is good. Simply look at how this Council treated, maligned and abused the Chemtura Public Advisory Committee last year. The old Council supported CPAC, the incoming one did not. The new Council knew they had no legitimate grounds for dismissing them, so they made up the grounds and got away with it because afterall they do totally control their own allegedly independent committees.

The amateurishly written and sadly inaccurate MECAC Minutes of October 26/15 are posted on Woolwich Township's website.
Page 5 at the bottom and page 6 at the top, tell the tale. Grace Sudden had seconded the Motion dismissing my Application starting with "Whereas the Municipal Election Compliance Audit Committee (MECAC) of the Township of Woolwich...". Grace Sudden then asked for clarification that MECAC represented all the area municipalities not just Woolwich. Chairman Carl Zehr responded that while "..the Committee was jointly created by all the municipalities in the Region of Waterloo, however individual cases were handled by the affected municipality. The wording in the first sentence was correct.". Therefore thanks to Grace and Carl we have clarification that MECAC are no more than a bunch of political appointees under the direct authority and control of the local municipality. They are not independent and they are no more honest or ethical than the municipality in charge of them.

CRUNCH TIME IN THE MICHAEL BALL TRIAL

Well as I suggested yesterday it appears as if indeed Michael Ball's lawyer is attempting to impugn the testimony of the prosecution's star witness. Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story titled "Howlett died of overdose: defence". The defence are trying to imply that Erin Howlett not only died of an overdose but that it was from drugs supplied by the prosecution's same star witness, one Mr. Warwick. Furthermore the defence have laid out a scenario that certainly would give Mr. Warwick a motive for so pointing the finger at Michael Ball. Mr. Warwick was under considerable pressure from the Waterloo Regional Police to rat on Mr. Ball. In fact apparently the police had first advised Mr. Warwick as to how they believed that Mr. Ball had allegedly killed Erin Howlett. Mr Warwick, then under pressure, advised that Mr. Ball had confessed to him the same methodology that police had described to Mr. Warwick in the first place.

While reasonable doubt is the criteria, historically juries have seemed intent on assigning responsibility for a murder to someone. It's perhaps a physcological necessity to be able to have someone to blame for a tragedy rather than throw their hands in the air and say they don't know who did it. Canada and the U.S. are rife with examples of wrongful convictions for murder, even to the point of convicting people for murders that later are proven to be accidental deaths or even natural causes. In this particular case I don't know who or whether anybody did it. Hopefully the fog will clear with further testimony.

THE PLOT THICKENS AT THE MICHAEL BALL MURDER TRIAL: A JAILHOUSE INFORMANT?

O.K. I believe that the witness who just testified in Kitchener court that Michael Ball confessed to murdering Erin Howlett isn't exactly a jailhouse informant. In other words the confession didn't occur while the accused (Michael Ball) was in jail. The witness was just released on different charges (drug related) and then went and testified to the alleged confession. I had become very skeptical of this murder charge based upon the pathologist making it clear in his testimony that he could not determine if Erin Howlett had died of a drug overdose, drug reaction, murder or otherwise. To me once the Crown can't even prove there was a crime in the first place it appears bizarre to charge and try someone on merely an alleged crime.

This witness definitely thickens the plot. Oh my but about the only defence Michael Ball has now is to impugn the testimony of the witness alleging some improper motive or I suppose he (Michael Ball) could claim that he was simply posturing or strutting in front of his drug colleague. In other words Mr. Ball had already expressed his anger that his girlfriend had cheated on him and allegedly stolen some of his drugs. Therefore hypothetically if she died from a drug overdose/reaction could Mr. Ball have been so stupid as to brag that he made things right or that he wouldn't stand for being cheated on etc.? In other words perhaps a little too much macho, testosterone driven bravado for his own good? This is all hypothetical but I do now see why this charge went forward with this witness up the prosecuter's sleeve. Today's K-W Record carrys this story titled ""Michael Ball was the one that did it": murder trial witness".

ARE POLITICIANS BEING LESS SUBTLE OR AM I JUST BETTER INFORMED?

Two recent issues have shocked me due to the blatant lying and coverups by either politicians or senior bureaucrats. The one is in regards to the recent report regarding surficial soil and groundwater testing along the eastern border of the Chemtura site in Elmira, Ontario. The other is in regards to the knowingly producing and posting false and inaccurate Minutes of a meeting by staff of Woolwich Township.

The Ontario Ministry of the Environment are involved with the first one and while progress is belatedly being made they and the company involved are still being grossly dishonest to the public. The second one regarding the inaccurate Minutes are in regards to the Compliance Audit Committee's pathetic October 26/15 hearing to determine whether or not to order a Compliance or Forensic Audit for mayor Shantz. For the second time they chose not to and their pathetic rationale was equally bad on both occasions. Their process and procedure were biased against the Applicant (yours truly) and the whole thing was nothing but a charade. The final straw was of course the pathetic Draft Minutes posted on the Township's website for a month despite receiving within two days my written specific complaints as to where the errors were. They did make some minor changes prior to sending them off for approval by MECAC themselves. My strong suspicion is that MECAC did not have a copy of the taperecorded meeting when they approved the Minutes. That said based upon their earlier biased behaviour I suspect that they would have knowingly approved the erroneous Minutes regardless as all the errors favoured mayor Shantz.