Collingwood’s Reichstag fire

Collingwood / Council / Deceit / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Election 2018 / EntitlementLeave a comment

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The Reichstag was the home of the German parliament until 1933, when it burned down just one month after Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor. The Nazis immediately blamed the fire on the Communists – their main political rivals – and used the event to suppress their opponents, repress opposition and dissent, consolidate power, while deflecting public scrutiny from their more hideous acts. Many historians believe that the Communists weren’t involved, but rather the Nazis set the fire themselves to help promote their own agenda and enable their vendettas. They used propaganda tactics to enrage the public, and consolidate their position. ……… click below for more ↓

The Hate Brigade returns

Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Election 2018Leave a comment

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The dyspeptic Hate Brigade was back in front of town hall last night, stirred into another mindless frenzy by misleading media stories, innuendo, and conspiracy theory. (Okay: they don’t have an official name, but it was that or Brian’s Bullies…) Last term Brian Saunderson and Steve Berman were the Hate Brigade’s leaders; now Saunderson is deputy mayor, so the public aspect of the dirty work falls to the slovenly mooch, Berman.  Saunderson made his cunningly timed appearance, entering the building to the anemic cheering of supporters; none of them apparently aware of how they’ve been duped over and over this term. ……… click below for more ↓

Innuendo, not guilt, in CBC story

Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Election 2018 / Publicity & Communications4 Comments

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By now I expect you’ve read the scurrilous CBC story written by Dave Seglins or at least one of its local spin-offs. For me, the best line in the CBC piece is the description of Seglins by David O’Connor, a “veteran criminal defence lawyer,” who called Seglins a “… f—— sleazeball.” Eloquently said, and certainly an opinion shared by others in town. I would have added a few other expletives, but I already stand guilty of egregious verbosity, so I’ll let the description stand on its own merit. It’s a story full of allegation and innuendo, but not guilt. The ……… click below for more ↓

Shaving redux

Daily life / Musings / Personal ReminiscencesOne Comment

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In mid-May, 2018, I published a post about my change in shaving technologies and techniques. I described why I thought it was a more environmentally friendly method, and somewhat of a homage to family tradition. Now I want to bring you up to date on my progress to date. Before I took the step back to the double-edged safety razors like my father used, I did (as is my wont) a lot of reading and research on websites and forums. Thankfully, there’s a lot of content about everything online, albeit that quantity doesn’t guarantee quality, or truthfulness. One of the ……… click below for more ↓

Ecclestone’s laughable campaign literature

Collingwood / Council / Election 2018Leave a comment

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When I saw Cam Ecclestone’s self-aggrandizing flyer, I was strongly reminded of the opening of Chapter 24 of the Tao Te Ching, which in my latest translation reads, Blowhards have no standing, The self-promoting are not distinguished, Show-offs do not shine, Braggarts have nothing to show, The self-important are here and gone. (The Dao De Jing: A Philosophical Translation, trans. Roger Ames & David Hall, Ballantine Books, Jan. 2003)* As the least active member of council, the vain Ecclestone’s main contribution to the process this term has been to make the motion to adjourn at the end of a meeting. ……… click below for more ↓

Really? Another sole-sourced lawyer?

Collingwood / Council / Deceit / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Election 2018 / Ethics and behaviourOne Comment

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Collingwood hires lawyer for judicial inquiry. That’s the headline on a story in the Connection. Do I understand this story correctly? The same sole-sourced lawyer who encouraged Brian Saunderson and his council puppets to launch a judicial inquiry that may cost taxpayers $6 million or more has been appointed to to be “legal counsel for the judicial inquiry”?* Anyone remember this promise by Brian Saunderson to… Change the purchasing policy to ensure there can be no sole sourcing of any contract for goods or services over $25,000, no exceptions. And yet there was no RFP for a position that could ……… click below for more ↓

Corruption, Saunderson and the CBC

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It’s a seven-year old story about the abuse of power, of corruption, of personal ambition thwarted, of an insatiable sense of entitlement, a craving for attention, and a clique of ruthless people determined to exact vengeance for a perceived slight. And it’s still being told today. It began in 2011 after the former council refused to build Brian Saunderson’s proposed $35 million “Taj Mahal” rec centre with public money and give it to the YMCA. Instead, an alternate staff plan was approved: two new, state-of-the-art rec facilities were erected at a fraction of the cost, and kept in public ownership. ……… click below for more ↓

Brian’s new campaign slogan

Collingwood / Council / Deceit / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Election 2018 / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour / Humour & SatireLeave a comment

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Brian Saunderson needs a new campaign slogan, now he’s officially filed papers in his ill-fated race to become mayor against the hard-working, well-liked, ethical, community-minded, former police chief, John Trude. It’s not good enough for Brian to run on his slogans from last election – “I’ll Show ‘Em Who’s Boss!”, “My Way or the Highway!”, “Why Be Open and Accountable When Secrecy and Deception Get My Way So Much Better?” and the local favourite, “I’ll Get Even With All of You!” Last election, he launched his campaign on the coattails of a phony OPP investigation based on innuendo, wildly unfounded ……… click below for more ↓

Plutarch on listening, and The Block

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviourOne Comment

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“[W]e observe that… the great majority of persons …practise speaking before they have acquired the habit of listening.” Plutarch wrote that in his essay De Auditu, or On Listening. Reading those words immediately made me think of that group we have on Collingwood Council who never listen to anyone but themselves and frequently speak without any apparent thought behind their comments: The Block. And, no, I don’t expect any of them to heed his words of wisdom or advice on this or any other subject. First, that would require reading, and reading is antithetical to all of them because it ……… click below for more ↓

Airports and opportunities vs. The Block

Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Planning & Policies / Publicity & Communications / Staff and administrationLeave a comment

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Strategic Vision: To become a premier regional commercial airport that stimulates the socioeconomic development of Simcoe County and the City of Barrie by improving connectivity, enhancing the competitiveness of the region and improving the quality of life for its residents. Mission Statement: To drive the region’s economic prosperity, enhance business opportunities, increase the region’s competitive position and support the travel needs of the community through increased connectivity. So opens a report on the opportunities and challenges facing the Simcoe Regional Airport, presented to the county’s Committee of the Whole session, May 22. You can see it here, starting at page ……… click below for more ↓

Jeffrey’s snout back in the trough

Collingwood / Council / Deceit / Entitlement / Ethics and behaviour4 Comments

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Last Monday The Block snuck a motion into the meeting without putting it on the agenda: to allow Councillor Jeffrey to pursue her personal political goals at taxpayer expense, and chase another seat on the FCM (Federation of Canadian Municipalities) board – even though she failed to win re-election to the board in May, 2017. At the upcoming FCM meeting in Halifax she can wine and dine on your dollar. Of course The Block didn’t want it publicized beforehand because they knew it would arouse community ire. After all, The Block have raised your taxes THREE times in three years, ……… click below for more ↓

Show me the documents!

Collingwood / Council / Social Order & Disorder / Staff and administration / Utilities: electricity and waterLeave a comment

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The trolls and troglodytes on social media are whinging again about allegedly missing documents that relate to the 2012 sale of 50% of Collus. They want you to think there was a conspiracy by the utility staff not to release crucial documents. There wasn’t. Period. No matter how many times this gets debunked, no matter how often it gets corrected, it rises again and again amongst the ignorati. This time it was the Block’s bullshit judicial inquiry (aka their campaign platform) that revived this particular zombie – in part because The Block’s few remaining followers (the trolls) want to keep ……… click below for more ↓

Block bullies are at it again

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviourOne Comment

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May 14’s council agenda (p. 40-49) contained yet more evidence of The Block’s bully-boy tactics and pettiness: a complaint made to the integrity commissioner against our mayor. They damn her no matter what she does. This complaint was filed by someone who might charitably be called the Block’s pet barnacle for his concreted attachment to them, dragged along by their momentum without any of his own. He’s also nicknamed the “frequent filer” for his habit of filing FOI requests against people he doesn’t like, apparently looking – unsuccessfully – for something evil in their emails he can then share with the ……… click below for more ↓

The greening of shaving

Daily life / Environment / Family history / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Social Order & Disorder4 Comments

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But my brother Esau is an hairy man, but I am a smooth man. I recall those lines from a Beyond the Fringe sketch first released in 1964 (see below).* And so it was in my family: my brother was the hirsute Esau to my near-hairless Jacob. I didn’t need to shave until my late teens and even then it was iffy. That was in the late 1960s when sideburns and moustaches were the rage. By the time I could grow enough, everyone had gone back to being clean shaven. Eternally unfashionable, I was, even back then. In another era, ……… click below for more ↓

Deception, The Block, and EPCOR

Collingwood / Deceit / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ethics and behaviour / Publicity & Communications / Utilities: electricity and waterLeave a comment

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The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) is currently conducting hearings about the proposed sale of our publicly-owned electrical utility, Collus, to the for-profit, out-of-province corporation, EPCOR. Several documents have already been entered into the record and you can read them here. Most of them are fairly technical and steeped in opaque legalese, but download and read this one: EPCOR_IRR_SEC_EPCOR Collingwood MAADs_20180503.pdf. There’s some interesting content here and I think it’s stuff that The Block, the town and maybe even EPCOR don’t want you – the public – to know about. After all, The Block and town administration conducted this whole process ……… click below for more ↓

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