Keith and Ina Wood Should Be Celebrated – Not Arrested
Keith and Ina Wood are active citizens. They are fighting to preserve one of the purest water sources in the world (this is a statement based on scientific fact) from undo contamination from a Simcoe county proposal that has the approval of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.
On one side of the fight you have folks like Keith and Ina Wood from in and around Tiny township, Beausoleil First Nation, Chiefs of Ontario, Council of Canadians, Dairy Farmers of Ontario, David Suzuki Foundation, Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, Green Party of Canada, Native Women’s Association of Canada, Ontario Federation of Agriculture, United Church of Canada, Ontario NDP – this list goes on trust me.
On the other you have Simcoe County, the Premier of Ontario, and the OPP.
The process has been tainted beyond repair and if groups like the above mentioned were not prepared to stand up and risk arrest, this untouched piece of land atop some of the freshest water in the world would become Ontario’s latest dump site. It’s known as site 41, and the coalition of groups opposing is it can be found at Stop Dump Site 41.
It disgusts me to know that citizens standing up for the environment in the face of a tainted process and a total lack of leadership from Premier McGuinty and Minister Gerretsen, either of whom could require a proper process that would on it’s own prevent this irresponsible site selection from going forward, are now being arrested.
Folks like Keith and Ina Wood – retirees in their 80′s, Anne Ritchie-Nahuis, Bob Ritchie, Vicki Monague, Danny Beaton and others who are being jailed and charged for standing up for the environment should be celebrated for their actions, a peaceful protest, a blockade of land that needs protecting whether the government is prepared to or not.
The fact that government is having individuals with a differing political view arrested and charged when they are simply unable to answer the accusations and facts that point to Dump Site 41 being an inappropriate choice, is a very scary shift – one that hurts democracy, and the environment in one draconian move. We should all be very concerned.
This isn’t a municipal issue, it isn’t a provincial issue, this is an issue of national importance, which is why it has attracted folks like Andrea Horwath, Elizabeth May, Maude Barlow and many others to come out and help. We as citizens need to actively engage government in decision making and oppose bad projects when they crop up.
I urge you to visit Stop Dump Site 41 to read more about the proposal, the community’s struggle and what you can do to help.
You can also visit ‘Living at the Barricades’ a community radio show produced by the good folks at Lake Ontario Waterkeeper to listen to an episode they did on Dump Site 41 a couple of weeks ago.
5 Comments »City of Toronto CUPE 79 and 416 Strike – Day 31 – City Hall Open for Business(es) – Just Not Residents
Mayor David Miller announced yesterday that enough workers had crossed the picket line to allow the folks responsible for issuing building permits to get back to work. This seems to me like an odd choice of service reactivation considering the number of programs that affect the lives of people that are currently affected.
The Mayor presenting this as a good news story also seems to miss the point that allowing a strike to go on for over a month has hurt a lot of people including residents affected by service disruption and workers who are going without pay until the City bends from an unfair position even the Mayor now publicly recognizes could not pass muster with arbitration.
It has also been reported that the City will begin issuing refunds to the families that have paid for summer camp and recreation programs they have been unable to access. To me, it seems unconscionable to ‘hold cheques’ from residents when its clear the service could not be provided. In the mean time, these individuals have had to shell out again for another program, before receiving their refund.
It seems to me refunding money to folks who have paid for things they aren’t getting during the strike should have been the first priority when surplus workers became available. Issuing building permits is a great way for City’s to bring in money however, and it seems pretty clear that the folks in the Mayor’s office want a long strike in hopes of saving up money to cover the massive deficit they have had no plan for in the upcoming budget.
If David Miller believes arbitration would hurt the City, and a 12% pay increase would be crushing, then he needs to get the City’s negotiation team off it’s collective butt and working on a sensible plan, like say – meeting contractual obligations to date, and not retroactively taking money from workers. Who in their right mind would vote to take thousands of dollars away from themselves because some hypocritical City Council that is well stocked with rhetoric, but lacking leadership asks them to. You will recall David Miller refuses to allow Council to vote to take thousands of dollars they gave themselves this year back.
If Miller grandfathered in full payouts for the current sick bank, I’m sure he could get his way on the future treatment of sick leave and his proposed 7.2% increase, even if the year one and two increased represent just 40% of what Councillor’s just gave themselves this year and next.
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More Coverage of Liberal Staff Bizarre Attacks at PC Leadership Convention
I promised I would show the attack buttons the Liberal Caucus Services Bureau (a publicly funded, partisan arm of the Premier’s Office that is used entirely for partisan purposes). Unfortunately, after my first video, Liberal staffers steered clear and no buttons, press releases or other liberal attacks were dropped off.
I did get my hands on a couple of the ‘Frank Klees Leadership Kits’ I had seen Liberal Caucus Services Bureau and Minister’s Office staff handing out earlier in the day. That’s what you’ll see in the video below. It’s another bizarre attack and a total waste of taxpayer resources by Dalton McGuinty to advance his partisan interests. This has nothing to do with policy, or even Queen’s Park for that matter – it’s taxpayer money doing the bidding of the Ontario Liberal Party. It is also literally a ‘skin deep’ attack on a man who had the courage to seek to lead his party.
For a guy whose running the largest deficit Ontario has ever seen, I have a really good idea – cut crap like this right out. Stop using public tax dollars for partisan purposes, stop sending taxpayer funded staff to your opponents events and conventions in hopes of slamming them right out of the gate and respect the fact that using public resources to cling to power is both highly improper and totally undemocratic. Sure you probably wouldn’t win without it, but that doesn’t make it right, and frankly it makes this crutch all the more pathetic.
I recognize me speaking out on this likely makes the threat of Liberal Caucus Services Bureau’s highly improper use of public resources against me, should I seek public office, all the more likely – and my simple response is this – I’ve exposed LCSB’s actions this weekend on principle in my role as accredited media. If I was the victim of a campaign using public resources highly improperly, I would seek a legal recourse, and publicly expose and condemn it as well. That would be both principled and personal.
It is my hope that both the Ontario NDP and Ontario PC parties will help ensure this cat is routinely let out of the bag, so that the people of Ontario know what the Premier and his staff are up to. It not only levels the playing field, but also ensures elections in Ontario are both free and fair – something they are not if one party has a massive publicly funded arm that would make it so even if the NDP and PCs played the same game in response – their resources would not compare.
Update: Big City Lib finds humour in this bigcitylib.blogspot.com/2009/06/where-does-he-keep-his-crucifix.html
I don’t seek martyrdom, or the political equivalent. I don’t own a crucifix, and have no intention of ‘one day getting them all’ – whatever that means. But I do believe in fairness, and free and fair elections. Elections without fear, intimidation, cheating etc.
I think that’s important. It should be a pre-condition to accepting a victory, because a victory without a free and fair election is not a victory at all, its a seizure of power. Some folks are so focused on winning they lose a sense of what’s right. I’d rather lose an honest fight, than win an unfair one. My point in this post and others over the weekend, is that some folks have lost sight of that – the good thing is Ontarians are good at sniffing out tired governments and have a tendency of not electing them.
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