Category: Entitlement

Council Gives a Bad Name to Train Wrecks

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Ineptitude and bungling / PoliticsOne Comment

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In his latest post, fellow blogger Chris Potts opines on our council’s misogynistic bullying of former councillor Tina Comi that resulted in her resignation from the toxic environment in local politics. Potts calls our council a train wreck, noting: …my true opinion of this council and the only thing that comes to mind when I think of them is “Train Wreck”. Over the past months, we continue to watch the same crap day in day out, absolutely no leadership at the top, and to be honest, there really hasn’t been much leadership from the entire group. While he is absolutely ……… click below for more ↓

Comi-gate Continues to Plague Council

Collingwood / Council / COVID-19 responses / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Ineptitude and bungling4 Comments

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Mayor Saunderson and his gang of bullies continue to take flack for their hostile, childish behaviour towards the former Councillor Tina Comi, who resigned her seat late last month. The week after she resigned, the town’s integrity commissioner (IC) revealed a complaint against Comi filled by the Gang of Six because her 11-year-old son entered her room during a council training session that should have been held in public. You can read the story about their disgraceful, vengeful act here. And once again, our council lowers the bar when dealing with the public. At the Strategic Initiatives Standing Committee (SISC) ……… click below for more ↓

More Misogyny at Council

Collingwood / Conflicts of Interest / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour5 Comments

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At Monday night’s council (Jan. 31), there was yet one more example of the misogyny male members of council exhibit towards their female peers. And, as you might have expected, it involved Councillor Madigan, our mayor’s most loyal lapdog supporter who never seems to be called out for his puerile behaviour. You can watch it on the video of the meeting, starting at 01:42:35 or watch the snippet from the meeting, downloaded here.*  The snippet begins with Councillor Hamlin expressing her disappointment that “our community has spent almost $7,000” for the Gang of Six** to file complaints about former councillor ……… click below for more ↓

The Bullying Will Continue Until We’re Satisfied

Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour2 Comments

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Which of the following words or phrases do you feel best describe Collingwood Council (you may choose more than one): Petty Vindictive Puritanical Hypocritical Vicious Punitive Jealous Envious Mean-spirited Puerile Slavishly loyal to their Great Leader Self-righteous All of the above Imagine this (cue the Twilight Zone soundtrack…): a council member is participating in an in-camera Zoom meeting, this one a training session about the importance of in-camera confidentiality in which NO CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION was shared. It should, of course, have been held IN THE OPEN but because this council is so passionate about operating in the shadows, it was ……… click below for more ↓

A Bullied Councillor Resigns

Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour5 Comments

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On Friday, Jan. 21, Councillor Tina Comi resigned from council. I am deeply disappointed and troubled. She was the only one at the table not among the slate of slavish sycophants who serve The Great Leader. Her departure leaves us with a dysfunctional council devoid of wisdom, devoid of community spirit, with a black hole of greed at their collective core instead of a conscience. She was the sole independent voice at the table and will be sorely missed. While I have sometimes chastised her for not standing up against the Block and their myopic obsession to empower Saunderson’s vendetta ……… click below for more ↓

Saunderson’s Groundhog Day

Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Legal issues / Saunderson's MPP campaign / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial InquiryLeave a comment

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Mayor Brian Saunderon’s two petty, vindictive, and very personal motions are on the agenda for Monday, Jan. 24. You can read the agenda here, and read my comments on our mayor’s obsessive, Stalinist cancel-culture program here, and the background machinations that led to his motion here. This is nothing more than a personal vendetta using town funds and resources. Saunderson’s first motion — to revoke an award given for former Collus-CEO Ed Houghton’s contributions to the community 24 years ago — starts on page 5 of the agenda and runs on and on and on and on and on like ……… click below for more ↓

Socrates and Saunderson

Classics / Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Philosophy / Saunderson's MPP campaignOne Comment

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In Plato’s dialogue Gorgias, Socrates debates with three sophists — Gorgias the rhetorician and his pupils Polus, and Callicles — about justice, power, morality, and virtue. Socrates also questions the value of oratory and rhetoric — the crafts of the sophists — in contemporary politics and whether they do good for the people. Spoiler alert: he’s not convinced they are for the good. You can read the somewhat stuffy Benjamin Jowett translation here and here, or read David Horan’s more modern translation here. I realize that readers may not be in the habit of reading Plato, or might not see ……… click below for more ↓

The Dark History Behind Saunderson’s Cancel-Culture Motion

Collingwood / Council / Deceit / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Wacky WTF ideasLeave a comment

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Without any fanfare or media coverage (no surprises there!), last September Collingwood Council approved a significant change to the policy regarding the Order of Collingwood that would pave the way for Mayor Brian Saunderson to launch his cancel-culture attack on someone he despises for hurting his feelings. But the real history goes back to the spring of 2021. It began with a CAO report presented to council in April, 2021. That report included two neo-Stalinist suggestions to erase and revise Collingwood’s history to suit the official narrative developed under Saunderson (aka his cancel culture): Council consider the removal of the ……… click below for more ↓

Greed: Council Votes Itself More Money. Again

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Wacky WTF ideas3 Comments

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NB. This is a repost from Dec. 16, 2021 At its Dec. 13 budget meeting our perpetually greedy, self-serving council voted 5-3 to increase their own individual expense accounts from $4,000 a year to a staggering $5,500. That’s $2,000 more than councillors were allowed for expenses in 2014. That’s a LOT of money for a council that has spent the last two years in virtual meetings, not attending events, conferences or activities in person. It’s not as if they need it for travel. And guess who approves their expenses? Right: the mayor. You really think he’ll turn down his supporters’ ……… click below for more ↓

Collingwood’s Broken Windows

Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Ineptitude and bunglingLeave a comment

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NB. This post was first published on Dec. 9, 2021 If I sometimes seem to complain in a picayune manner, harping on the same signs of scruffiness and neglect that we seem to see more often around town these days, there’s a reason for it. Mostly it’s because I care about my community and it deeply bothers me when others — especially those elected to do so — don’t. But it’s also because I believe that even small signs of neglect reflect a larger problem, not just declining morale and ineptness in townhall. Contrary to the popular saying, the small stuff ……… click below for more ↓

Yet More Disrespect From Madigan

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Ineptitude and bunglingLeave a comment

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NB: This is a repost from Dec. 9, 2021. See below. Last year, I wrote about how Councillor Bob “Lapdog” Madigan had behaved in a churlish, misogynistic manner towards female members of council during open council meetings, first in March, 2021, and again in October. But if you thought the boorish Madigan — who, it’s rumoured, plans to run for mayor or deputy mayor next election — could not set the bar any lower in puerile, boorish behaviour, last December he showed his utter disrespect not only to council and staff, but to the entire community he is supposed to represent. ……… click below for more ↓

Power Play Behind Council’s Closed Doors

Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Saunderson's MPP campaignOne Comment

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This is a repost from a draft of the piece posted on Dec 7, 2021: In the Dec. 7 meeting of the Strategic Initiatives Standing Committee, last Tuesday, one of the issues discussed was the replacement of Deputy Mayor Hull during his unexplained absence, as well the “potential” (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) “Mayoral Vacancy” (readers will recall that Mayor Saunderson sloughed off his mayoral responsibilities and his oath of office last January to announce he wanted a better-paying job at Queen’s Park, and since then has practiced the art of flaccidity in office). And underneath that discussion broils the political ambitions ……… click below for more ↓

Utter Disrespect for Local Media and Citizens

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Publicity & CommunicationsOne Comment

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Recently, CollingwoodToday ran a six-part series asking all members of council to express — without editing or Berman’s censorship “fact-checking” — their thoughts on what they had done on council, what they hoped to do, what challenges they faced, what they thought was their “enduring” legacy (stop laughing!) and whether they planned to run again. Our mayor — who is expected to set an example for council, yet ever fails to do so  — showed such disdain for the local media and for the residents who depend on it for local news, that he refused to participate. That’s ironic, given ……… click below for more ↓

An Exercise in Hypocrisy

Collingwood / Conflicts of Interest / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / EntitlementLeave a comment

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A story in CollingwoodToday is titled, Collingwood residents asked to add to council code of conduct. It suggests the town (aka council) is looking for public input into the always-changing, always-ignored Code of Conduct. Yes, I know what you’re thinking when you read that story’s headline. Stop laughing. As if this council would ever pay any attention to public input. Or would heed any rules, codes, protocols, regulations or anything else that crimps their style or gets in the way of their ambition. This has always been a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do council. The story notes without a trace of irony: After the ……… click below for more ↓

Our Council’s Reprehensible Greed

Collingwood / Conflicts of Interest / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ineptitude and bungling / Planning & Policies / Taxes2 Comments

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Our council’s sense of entitlement again came to light this week. A report from a consultant tabled in the Nov.1 meeting of the Strategic Initiatives Standing Committee recommends that the mayor receive a 9.5% increase, while councillors get a 5% increase (page five of the report). Nine-point-five percent? Who gets a raise like that these days? Even five percent is over the top. The justification for this egregious salary boost is stated in the report: Remuneration traditionally is intended to provide some form of compensation to recognize the time commitment required to meet the needs of constituents and apply municipal ……… click below for more ↓

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