Archive for April, 2009
In Defense of Ray Lam and Commentary on the Hypocrisy of Politics Tolerates
It’s been a while since I’ve waded into anything all that controversial. I figured the Ray Lam situation was one with enough self righteous indignation that it would be a worthy spot for me to remind folks I do like to call it as I see it and believe there are underlying principles that are important to remember in public debate.
Ray Lam did nothing wrong. Someone looking for a way to silence his voice opted to do so with smear and public humiliation instead of better arguments. Instead of beating him on the issues, or with stronger rhetorical or oratory skills they dragged the bottom of the barrel and entered into the realm of desperate gutter politics to tear him down. It is shameful. In fact considerably more shameful than anything Ray did.
What makes Ray so unworthy to hold public office? This 22 year old, gay community activist who has dedicated himself to a number of community causes touched the breast of a smiling woman at a party and someone took a picture. Four years ago, a picture was taken of him in his underwear, and a shirt. Considering both shots appear staged and don’t seem to have any impact on Vancouver False Creek, I recognize why it wasn’t a good idea to have these pictures taken, but at the same time, I don’t see it as disqualifying him from holding public office.
His opponents decided to stop at nothing to silence his voice, to deny his supporters a champion for their causes and they succeeded by bullying him out of the race. They did so by trying to destroy his reputation. My belief is those in public life need to recognize these types of attacks for what they are – attacks on democracy. You will never convince me anyone who is ‘upset’ at Lam’s actions actually cares about what he did. They are using it to silence his voice, to defeat him unfairly and above all to win themselves. It is an attempt to discredit him, making him and his party not viable in that race. When the Liberals take that seat, their candidate should feel the guilt of knowing how illegitimate her win is. It is as illegitimate as her demand for an apology from Lam, like he somehow did something to her. She should be apologizing for letting her own desperation to win, comprise her ethics or sense any of decency she had before entering public life.
I wish Lam had stood up and hit back. He had every right to defend himself, his supporters and the issues he speaks for. He should be in the race and should not have allowed self righteous indignation to force him out and silence him on the way. It takes a lot of courage to put your name on a ballot. Especially when you’re young and not connected or cynical. He had that courage and the destructive attacks on him, hurt the chances of other young candidates getting involved in public life. All for a single riding, this man’s story and picture became national news.
For Premier Gordon ‘glug-glug-vroom-vroom’ Campbell to somehow think this disqualifies someone from holding public office but his episode of drunk driving while Premier doesn’t is the height of hypocrisy. If there is anyone who should be a champion of ‘we’re all human, and prone to doing things we’d wish others wouldn’t judge us for’ – it is the drunk driving Premier himself.
It’s safe to say, all politicians are human. That is important. We need people who understand what it’s like to be a real person. Politicians are only useful so long as they remember, and feel what we feel. Somethings should not be commented on by a political rival and generally the only things that are fair game are: record, plans, public statements and actions that have a direct impact on one’s ability or the approach they would take as an elected representative. I doubt Lam would have made his term about touching breasts in public or pulling his pants down in the legislature and trust the voters of Vancouver False Creek if not denied the ability to make up their own minds, would have also recognized that one can touch a breast and still be a good representative.
I know a thing or two about attacking an opponent in politics. I have in the past, very strongly pushed back against an opponent of mine, but did so on things he said and did that were completely relevant to the race. I never would or have attacked anyone on anything personal, because it simply not relevant. What matters is what you’re going to do with the office you’re seeking and whether you can be taken at your word. How you spend your down time, doesn’t (unless it will result in a criminal code violation, which would result in your removal from office).
Let’s talk hypocrisy for a minute. I hate hypocrisy. It’s worse than lying in my books – and lying is bad enough.
Premier ‘glug-glug-vroom-vroom’ Campbell decided Lam’s conduct was an election issue. If so, should folks also judge the judgement of a man who while running the forth largest government in Canada thinks drinking and driving is appropriate? Normally I wouldn’t touch it, but if Premier ‘glug-glug-vroom-vroom’ Campbell thinks the bar is this low (and we know he knows about bars, at least in Maui where he was arrested for drunk driving) shouldn’t this too be fair game?
I’ll leave you to decide whose action is worse. Especially if you’re a BC voter. One thing is for sure, the Maui police department probably would not have arrested Campbell if he had committed Lam’s supposed offense. Unfortunately, Campbell and his party felt it was fair to destroy a young candidate and community activist over what can only be described as frivolous crap, and that to me shows a level of mean spiritedness and callousness I would not want to associate with.
Below are two pictures. Which of these do you believe is most concerning for a public office holder?
BC Premier Gordon Campbell’s Mugshot
Ray Lam’s Boob Shot
11 Comments »Toronto Hydro Admits to Serious Privacy Breach and TO Hydro Legal Department Contacts http://laforet.ca
As requested by a lawyer who works for Toronto Hydro Corporation I would like to advise you that the links I provided in ‘THES Illegal Application Accepted by Bought and Paid For Ontario Liberal Government’ have been renewed after it was found that Toronto Hydro Energy Services exposed the personal information of hundreds of Guildwood residents, myself included, as part of hundreds of privacy violations they committed.
In the early hours of April 15 2009, I wrote a blog entry called ‘THES Illegal Application Accepted by Bought and Paid For Ontario Liberal Government’. In it I included two links to Toronto Hydro’s Project Evaluation Report and another to the Project Evaluation Report’s Appendices. I titled them “Toronto Hydro Energy Services Illegal Application – Project Evaluation Report” and “Toronto Hydro Energy Services Illegal Application Appendices. I used the word ‘illegal’ because Toronto Hydro Energy Services has failed to comply with the legal requirements one is expected to meet to get to the point of filing a Project Evaluation Report for public review.
It turns out these links which I provided to folks in good faith to allow as many people as possible to read and comment on Toronto Hydro’s illegal application were in fact linked to reports that breached the privacy of hundred of respondents who have come forward to participate in the sham consultation process. Toronto Hydro Energy Services failed to live up to it’s legal obligation to protect the private information of hundreds of individuals who wrote to them and made their information easily accessible by anyone with a .pdf reader and a limited understanding how .pdfs work.
David O’Brien, President of Toronto Hydro Corporation, wrote a response to me this afternoon after I complained about a breach of my personal information. The subject line he chose was “Violation of Privacy” . In the body of the email he states “Toronto Hydro Energy Services advises that personal information was inadvertently provided in the digital copy of an Appendix to the Project Evaluation Report for the proposed Anemometer in Lake Ontario.”
He goes on to explain it has been pulled from the website, would be corrected and a new copy would be posted, this time without violating the privacy of hundreds of Guildwood and other Scarborough Bluffs residents.
Before I got this email however, I noted there was a considerable amount of traffic on my website considering I had not written anything in days. Toronto Hydro Corporation logged a total of 73 page visits on http://laforet.ca today between 8am and 5:30pm. Considering the ‘Anne Mometer‘ incident the folks at Gartner Lee (where the Project Evaluation Report was drafted) and Toronto Hydro Corporation had stopped what were 30 page views a day visits and have opted for more discreet, less frequent visits.
Around 5:15pm today, I got an email from Toronto Hydro Corporation’s Legal Department. Any email that begins with “Dear Mr. Laforet: Your blog currently contains…” generally can’t be expected to end well. Especially if it’s marked ‘high priority’ and coming from someone whose title is ‘Senior Commercial Solicitor’.
That being said; this email wasn’t a libel chill or what one might expect a blogger to receive from a corporation one is jousting with. That’s what makes it kind of neat.
Toronto Hydro’s legal department states “That version of the Project Evaluation Report and appendices has been removed from the Toronto Hydro Energy Services web site and has been replaced with a revised version that restricts the display of personal information.”
“We are requesting that you please immediately remove the current link and replace it with the following (and advise your readers that a new link is now available):”
For clarification the link Toronto Hydro’s legal department has asked me to correct is the ‘Toronto Hydro Energy Services Illegal Appendices’ to ensure it is the right version of their illegal appendices and not the one that also contravenes privacy legislation is made available. I’ve also corrected the link to ‘Toronto Hydro Energy Services Illegal Project Evaluation Report’ – the one I referred to as Bull Shit.
Regular readers at http://laforet.ca are aware that Toronto Hydro Energy Services has often been invited to respond unedited to any of the accusations I’ve made about their conduct plan or other information relevant to this proposal. In fact, there is a standing offer out there. At no point has anyone from Toronto Hydro Energy Services ever taken me up on this, and frankly when I saw all the activity from Toronto Hydro Corporation today on my site, I was anticipating a libel chill – although it would be baseless, it is a tactic big bullies have often used against their online detractors.
When I received an email from a lawyer with Toronto Hydro Corporation who had read ”THES Illegal Application Accepted by Bought and Paid For Ontario Liberal Government” and knew someone at Toronto Hydro Corporation had viewed “A Process As Tainted As the Lake Bed They’d Like to Disturb” and The Entrenched Corporate Irresponsibility of Toronto Hydro Energy Services in addition to a number of other pieces, part of me was intrigued that there was no mention of the language I’ve used to describe Toronto Hydro Energy Services.
I’m not a lawyer, but I have a reasonably sound understanding of law. I would like to think in a situation like this, if I was on their side of the fence, I would not have someone from a legal department contact an individual who regularly lays body blows on the organization requesting his help in minimizing the impact of that organization’s breach of law. I would only contact someone like that if they crossed the line, but certainly not after having read so many unanswered charges. If I was on the other side of this particularly situation, I would have asked O’Brien (who wrote me anyways on this topic and likely with legal input) to throw in a P.S. or something.
I am someone who has demonstrated his concern for the Guildwood community through years of public involvement. One of the men or women spray painting hand wells, after making sure THES would no longer continue killing family pets with them, could have asked and I would have gladly complied.
Naturally I do stand by comments I’ve made and have stated in past I am fully prepared to back them up, if ever challenged to. But for THES to have someone in their legal department to not take issue with any of this and to contact me about something that is resolved by simply killing the links and letting me figure it out on my own, I found interesting.
To me, it demonstrated they too recognize nothing I’ve said has crossed the line and isn’t actionable. Which in itself raises some interesting questions about what their internal legal opinion is of their own situation and conduct. Personally I like to make sure I am prepared to defend my actions before doing anything, but I’ve found a link with the advice for the folks at Toronto Hydro Energy Services to review: How to Respond to Accusations When Guilty
As I said before, I’m not a lawyer, but the actions of Toronto Hydro Energy Services and it’s employees and agents have been so inappropriate, I’ve known for months and have been open about how crappy of a spot they’ve put themselves in.
4 Comments »A Process As Tainted As the Lake Bed They’d Like to Disturb
Toronto Hydro’s brazen attempt to pull one over on the Ministry of Natural Resources is a clear demonstration that not only do they not care about the residents of Scarborough Bluff communities, but they seriously don’t care about the environment or laws.
They think by moving the Anemometer east of Guildwood – residents will go away. This is a highly cynical ploy by Toronto Hydro and part of a totally bogus process.
We’re not going anywhere, we’ll get louder than ever and are growing with everyday.
These folks are so ignorant to the what they’re doing that they’ve built holes big enough to run the massive barges it would take to construct turbines though. The errors and omissions are epic and demonstration these clowns behind the project haven’t got a clue what they are doing.
Now – we have 29 days to read through over 900 pages of their project evaluation and respond. And respond we will.
It will mean however I will once again be ducking under the radar for a couple of days to get through all of this.
See you Monday!
6 Comments »
