A weekly hiatus is in effect but just to get your juices going here are a couple of links to the discussion about the left side of the political spectrum.

The ongoing debates http://goods.perfectvision.ca/SocDem/McGill.cfm
Ed's conference http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/programs/misc/socdem/

These are the discussions being put together by Ed Broadbent and Desmond Morton, check them out.

I am off to smell the apple blossom and to continue to appreciate the best small town in existence (I say that because I probably have ODd on Bill Johnson's column again). I must say that he is still pulling in a columnists fee for putting together other people's e-mails and print, Is that really original?

I took a drive past downtown on Saturday, about noontime, you could have blasted a cannon off and nobody would have noticed. Pity the DT people weren't in the flower business they would have really cleaned up!

I see in Today's Toronto Star there is the report of an OMB case presided over by our favourite chair; Ms Hubbard. The commentators reported that she gave the developers everything  they wanted. Not a contrary piece of evidence cited in her ruling, sounds familiar.

Oh, by the way if you check out the petition page you will see that it has been attacked by a person who doesn't have the brains not to leave their email address out of it. I have contacted 'hotmail' to complain but I don't expect much redress. The latest name, dude@dude.home.ca came back as returned mail so if anybody knows how to get at annymous remailers let me know and we will track the miscreant down.

It has been an interesting week for lovers of 'letters to the editor', even though some people don't get to read them because they have given up on the Cobourg Daily Star the contents of the letters somehow get around. In response to my suggestion that people who write to the letters should cc me I have had a few responses. Some have been published and some may never get published but here they are.

For those of you who get either discouraged by the enormity of being a dissenter in the face of so many others or those who may think that there is no point in objecting because you can't win should draw solace from this next snippet. I was pursuing the story of the County wanting to pay $622.000 a year for 25 years to a company in Newmarket for the disposal of organic waste. Talking to people on the inside I learned that County politicians, specifically Warden Bill Finlay, are absolutely petrified at the prospect of another public battle with CARF (Citizens Against the Recycling Facility). That would happen if the compost plant is built as planned. These folks fought the County to get an environmental hearing for the construction of the MRF in the early 90s, and because they were so successful in the courts the result was the halt of all MRF construction and operations in the Province. The Government of the day changed the rules and the MRF was built. However because CARF has not disbanded or spent its bank account taxpayers now have to pay a premium because the County Politicians are scared stiff of a bunch of citizens! A telling tale of a successful citizens group.

Back to the letters to the ed. Here is a page (wait for the download) that contains both Keith Oliver's explanation of his position and the expected response from Gordon Gilchrist. If Trustee Gilchrist ever wonders why grade 10s fail english comprehension perhaps he should look inwards!

For those who have had trouble with the Walmart petition I have posted some basic instructions on its use here. I have tested it in both Netscape and IE and I can make it work but as we all know browsers do funny things please email me if you can't make it work.

Also in response to a reader I will be forming the habit of setting up a "response" link at the end of each weekly commentary for those who want to respond after reading. The email link is on this page but not clear and obvious it will be now!

Reading the English papers this week I noticed that the "International Daily Express" is demanding, in its editorial the publishing of those who applied to be the citizen representatives for the House of Lords. Mr Blair has abolished the hereditary Peers and replaced them with members of the public. But lo and behold the people picking the new members of the house of lords have picked people who are fresh out of the establishment. Now the public wants to know why 'ordinary' people were not selected as promised. As they write the editorial the wording and intent sounds familiar to me: "Commission chairman Lord Stephenson was offensive in the extreme to rule out such applicants on the grounds that they would not have the social skills required to speak in public. The Government must publish a a full list of those rejected so we can see just how blinkered the selection process has been."

Another piece that is a telling tale of the lowering of public standards, in England but also applies here, and the accumulation of bad taste but for some reason it tickled my funny bone. "Three Appeal Court judges have ruled that there is nothing wrong in telling police officers to "F*** Off!" if the words are spoken not shouted. In ruling  the the appellant's phrase was commonplace amongst his generation, the 66 year old judge may have subconsciously recognised that the f-word was first uttered on BBC television in 1965, when the appellant was seven years old.

Respond to these comments and content: click here

Notes for this week; w/e 18/05/01

At least two people have told Mr Horne that the spate of letters is worth a complaint to the Ontario Press Council and talk of solicitors is abounding.

To his credit Mayor Peter Delanty has commented on the tone and bad taste expressed in the letters, "It is going to hurt Cobourg's reputation, we have to be more tolerant! In a democracy everybody has the right to object, I just happen to disagree with Mr Oliver" Unfortunately a quote was heard that went along the lines, "Mr Oliver is objecting to Walmart"
So Peter got it half right, full marks in applauding the right to object and bad marks for still perpetuating the myth that Keith Oliver is objecting to Walmart. How many times do we have to say this "IT'S A PLANNING ISSUE" At least Manfred Schumann got it right in a letter last night here.

Isn't it funny that most things have unintended results! The way the letters are being selected for publication is a result of an internal, and vigorous discussion, at the editorial table. Because the the Star came out early in favour of "Free Enterprise" and the dubious jobs and uncontrollable circumstances that come with a Walmart store, but it is no secret that not all in the discussion support the Publisher, they are now stuck on one side. So we may now see more letters supporting the objectors. Just to show how "Fair" they are. While we are talking about letter to the ed, why doesn't the paper fill up its webpage with ALL the letters sent in, they can't give us the old line that they have no space, instead of just one. Printing just one gives the Star too much room to manipulate opinion.

Oh by the way, here is a letter that I sent to Mr Horne, before the Munn letter was printed. This letter has yet to see the light of day
Dear ed.
It is with a sense of schizophrenia that I write to you to comment on a couple of items that you have been running lately.
In the past few days at least four letters have been printed about the attitudes and positions of the objectors to the rezoning decisions of Council. These Council decisions have been received as a plebiscite on the merits/demerits of a local Walmart store.

Unfortunately the letters of late that criticise the main objector, Keith Oliver, have become quite personal and in my mind objectionable. The last two one by Mr Powell and one by a person who says he has lived in Cobourg for 32 years, have both suggested that Keith "get back on the stead he rode in on" and "wait a couple of years before becoming vocal"

Now couple that with an editorial you wrote on the 30th April that suggests that the 'downtown dig' is building a sense of community and I say that you can't have it both ways. On one hand you cannot boast about what a fine community we have because it supports our merchants in their times of need and then run letters that suggest people who object to things the community does should either stifle themselves or move out of
town!

Now you may boast about being a well rounded paper by running any letters that demonstrate a diversity of opinion by saying "Look we run all types of letters" and hide behind your disclaimer of "the views published on this page are not  necessarily those of this paper" But unless you comment one way or the other about the vengeful intent behind some of the letters or discuss the arguments contained in the letters you are laying yourself open to the charge that you condone some of the opinions. Now I know from personal knowledge that not all letters get published on every topic so by controlling who gets on the letters page you have the power to mould opinion.

I would suggest that you do two things to make me change my mind about your current practice: one is to print all the letters you receive, so that the readers will nor accuse you of being selective to enhance the paper's independence or attitude and two, if you are being selective about the letters you run you should keep a running total in a small box bout the topics contained in the letters (a la Toronto Star) or add your comments to the bottom of the letter (a la Toronto Sun).

Yours Sincerely
Ben Burd

PS When I click on your website to get to the letters email box the real address is <entertainment@northumberland today> is that how you view these serious messages to you: entertainment!!

Stop the presses! The Toronto Star is reporting this morning that we (Canada) no longer have our own political prisoner. Jaggi Singh has been released but only if he promises not to be a leader in any protests or use a megaphone!

Talking about judge's directives, there were a couple more people, in the Cobourg courts this week, ordered to submit DNA samples to the bank. The notable facts (for me) were that both cases were women and one was a shoplifter!

Came across an interesting opinion here about the way the Province is being governed and it is a discourse about philosophical styles. Talking about it with a friend he got quite animated saying, "It's not Hegel, it's Machiavelli these guys care about" and who says a liberal arts education is redundant!

Finally there is confirmation that the Town, as of now, is determined to defend vigorously the OPA #54 and the OP. Good on them!
 
 

Sunday April 29th 2001

Sunday 29th April 2001
Believe it or not we now have a real Canadian Political Prisoner and as Naomi Klein in the letter below explains if it wasn't for the loss of liberty it would be comical (we are Canadians after all!). Jaggi Singh, remember his name from Quebec City, well read on!

Naomi Klein writes:
 Last week I wrote about activist Jaggi Singh's violent arrest by police dressed as  protesters during the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City (see below). Today I  got a prison call from Jaggi with some terrible news: bail has been denied. He will be  in prison until his trial, as long as three months. The police are trying to paint Jaggi as a protest "leader" who  ordered a crowd of his minions to attack the fence that surrounded much of Quebec City. The main weapon  of attack the police cite is a theatrical catapult that lobbed teddy bears and other stuffed animals over the  fence. Jaggi had nothing to do with it.
 All of this would be funny it wasn't costing Jaggi his freedom. Jaggi is also vulnerable because he has been  targeted by police before, and some outstanding bail conditions (on a charge he was never convicted of)  are now being used to make his presence at the Quebec City anti-FTAA protests a criminal offense in itself.  What we are witnessing with Jaggi's imprisonment is part of a larger pattern of criminalizing  protest -- now  by turning one of the most visible faces of this movement into a criminal just because he helped plan a  protest.
 I realize that this case can be confusing, particularly for those outside Canada. Please let me explain why  many of us are so worked up about it: we know Jaggi well, know that he is a peaceful activist whose tools  are writing and speaking. In his case, they are powerful tools, but they are legal ones, fundamental to our democracy. I have known Jaggi for nine years, from when we used to get into arguments about the way I  edited his articles at our university newspaper. Jaggi was one of the activists who inspired No Logo and is  quoted in the book a couple of times (pages 287 and 297).
Keep tuned to NoLogo.org for updates

And now for our own local conspiracy theory. That is the subversion of things we hold dear by the provincial Government led by Mr Harris. If a couple of things have become apparent in the last few years they are: Mr Harris and his gang can't stand unions and that they do not want to pay for healthcare. Now that a new hospital (totally unneeded and unjustified, in my opinion - we need small local hospitals not shiny big ones that gobble up gobs of cash) is a reality the Harris gang can kill two birds with one stone. That is they can infuriate the unions and get a cheaper hospital. In Canada major construction sites are always union, because non-union companies do not have the expertise or financial stature to build big things. So those jobs are always labeled 'high-cost' because of the wages paid (not really true because higher wage costs are offset by efficiencies caused by higher trained workers and lower safety costs). Now imagine a situation where a non-union company is considered as a serious builder. What you then have is a move by all the big companies to strike deals with the unions for concessions and lower costs. But how do you get a non-union company on the pre-qualification list? Well if you are building the Cobourg Hospital it's easy, find one, describe their hospital experience as good and they're on. However be prepared for a slagging match. That's what we've got right now. Of the seven companies that made the pre-qualification list (twelve applied) one is non-union: Kanadian. This company has very little experience building hospitals, or any big thing (they did put down a roof fixit job on the McMaster Hospital as their work experience), but fits the bill of being non-union. So now we have the sight of local union officials going nuts at the prospect of losing the work or even worse having to work at a reduced rate of pay just to keep the work. This situation will only get worse as the Northumberland Labour Council has thrown its support behind the union involved and now the prospect of a reduced and more difficult fundraising campaign has emerged. Stay tuned folks there is much more to this story but nobody wants to go on record yet as there are visions of lawyers coming into the picture. However in the meantime Mr Harris and his gang have succeeded in their objectives.

Talking about healthcare and trends I noticed yesterday on PBS (#21) that in Rochester a major hospital has shut down because of overcapacity and a move to healthcare competition. In the interview it was noted that four years ago when legislation was passed, by the State, mandating healthcare competition all the usual business coalitions demanded a swift conversion to this model. Guess what! now that the effects of competition have removed 2200 jobs and many beds and an emergency room from the local scene they (the business sector) have demanded that competition be reviewed and perhaps reversed!

Had to chuckle this week when the predicted letter from Al Mathews (a legend in his own mind and member of the WNEG) appeared in the CDS and complained that the recent letter writing campaign about the reasons for not supporting Walmart was rigged. He noted that "Keith Oliver had been seen" passing out letters of instruction to others and urging them to write those letters. Well who is the spy and why is Keith such a threat? It reminds me of the story, that was completely wrong, being spread by another of this "West Northumberland Economic Group" about Keith being financed by Zellers because a keen-eyed person had seen the OMB file and discovered that the Oliver and Zellers cheques were consecutively numbered. This person then told Bill Johnson who proceeded to spread the rumour that Zellers was financing Oliver. The delicious irony in this tale is that Oliver paid Zellers filing fee because Gordon Petch couldn't get into Town that day! However the question here is: "What does this ragtag bunch of rightwing free enterprisers (the WNEG) think they have to fear from both the democratic process and the objectors and why are they monitoring their activities so closely? Shades of a police state to me (STASI perhaps?)

I would suggest to the members of the "real press" that you write a story about the WNEG and really find how a handful of unelected old white men can declare themselves to be so important that they can demand a place in the political process. How few of them are there, who are they and what are they really up to?

Congratulations to the Cobourg and County Councils for participating in the "Workers' Day of Mourning" and even more so to Mayor Delanty for attending two ceremonies. This is a back-handed compliment as it was in 1986 that the first motion was made at a Cobourg Council meeting to do this. Thanks also go the attending councillors, I could see: DeVeau and Jackson. I guess the others must have been doing something useful, far from me to accuse them of idling a Saturday away and missing a civic duty. At the Friday ceremony at the County building in a large slice of irony touch Cathy Galt delivered greetings on behalf of her husband Doug. "He cannot be here today as the House is sitting" Yeah right! Doug's off passing strike breaking laws whilst his wife is extolling the virtues of Labour!

Billy Ps job just got harder by the apparent refusal of Port Hope and Hope, perhaps Brighton and Campbellford too, to hand over their share of the loot. This money came from the sale of County land to the Hospital.  A situation where we, the public, had to pay for something we already owned! It will get messier when Rick Austin has to play hometown politics and the others have their own hospitals to pay for.

I have put up a petition in support of the OMB objectors, I know it's a little hokey but in response to another one in the opposite direction it is needed. Sign Here

Sunday 22nd 2001
CONGRATULATIONS to Bill Patchett for his fundraising: $10.3 million -- boggles the mind that so much can be raised in such a short time.

Such a sum vindicates the choice of Bill as fundraiser, just remember there were some who thought he shouldn't be the guy. Well he proved 'em wrong.

One thing that blackened the whole day was the intentional omission of Organised Labour on the committee. Considering that a large part of the next stage will be payroll deductions such an omission is unforgivable. Perhaps they are hoping that a little thing like a non-union construction site could be glossed over. Just remember that 65% of United Way donations come from payroll deductions. The same percentage could be the way of this fundraiser. Just a small part of that being affected by a boycott could be serious.

For those who are interested in such trivia the selection process for the PUC Directorships has come and gone. I did get an interview and the results were announced some days later. Six were interviewed for four positions. Three new white men were selected for three years, one consolation prize was given to the previous Mayor, a one year term, one person was disqualified because of alleged commercial links to a competitor (an ISP) and I came in sixth! Enough said.

I did get some information wrong in my speculation about the report about Council pay raises, (unnamed sources sometimes don't get it all right all the time, that's why they remain unnamed) there will be no raises recommended. More comments in my column this week

As reported in the mainstream press there will be another twist to the Walmart debate. The appellants are off to Osgoode Hall to undertake a "Judicial Review" of the hearing that has just taken place. In other words did the Chair take into consideration  the appellants' opinions or did she just run a railroad? Three judges will now decide the inherent fairness of the proceedings. Stay tuned.

Here's a link for you: a new on-line publication from Peterborough, "The Peterborough Collective", thanks to John Gibson for sending ot to us.

The report from the citizens review panel about Council Remuneration is being presented on Monday night. The official response is to accept it and send to another ad-hoc committee of Council (Spooner, Jackson and MacCaughey). An unnamed source has told me that there are two items in it that have got Council's back up, this cannot be substantiated until I get the report tomorrow but I report it as a piece of gossip and to show what others are thinking of the process, one is that the recommended raise is only $1000 and the other is that it won't kick in until the end of the term (2003). Of course realise that this is pure speculation but if it is true Council will look pretty silly not taking the recommendations of a 'blue-chip' committee of citizens.

Had a conversation with "Tax fighter" John Floyd. this week. He is fuming about the 2point-something tax increase. Swears if he was on Council there wouldn't be any increase at all. But John just tell us where to cut?

Congratulations to Doug Warling and his committee of citizens dedicated to eliminating train whistles. They managed to get Council to live up to an election promise of passing a bylaw to eliminate the whistles. Pity the $5,000 needed to fund it came out of the Ecology Garden's hide.

Went down town last week and boy is it ever dead! I wouldn't want to be looking at my sales figures for the month if I was a merchant. I don't know if it has been done or suggested but a moratorium on taxes would look pretty good right now for those folks.

More e-mail about the FTAA and the fighting environment. There is a fundraising tool being used by a group in Ottawa, something that every well dressed activist must have: a scarf. Here are the details. All are being asked to buy one and wear it on April 22nd.

The political front was of little interest to anybody this week perhaps the Walmart decision exhausted all. The Lloyd Williams show faded to black this week with less than ten members of the public (DT merchants as well) turning up to discuss the downtown parking issue. The only way to resolve this issue Lloyd is to build a garage, it worked in P'boro'!

Here's an editorial taken from the Friday's daily local paper. For the full text go to the top right panel of this site and click on the 'Northumberland Today' logo and go to the forum page [that's enough free ads for those guys. Ed]

This referred to the question, that was posted below (Is the coming of Walmart to Cobourg a good thing or bad?). The questioned elicited many responses, I counted 95 and only 12 in favour. All 95 are printed on three pages of the paper and Don Horne certainly had an easy time putting this edition together. Congratulations to the Cobourg Star for doing it. Perhaps they realise that circulation is going down because people consider the paper to be an inferior product wrapped in advertising (just quoting my friends' opinions Don!)
Unfortunately the publishing of these opinions come too late to be included in the OMB hearing. But it is no secret that it has galvanised the No side. Watch for increased activity from both sides. I should imagine that this action has infuriated Messrs Gilchrist, Dabor and LeMarchant. The first predicted response will be the accusation of a stuffed ballot box.

The debate about the page and its efficacy and style got really heavy between a couple of readers; read the latest letter to the Editor, here. There are others but you can find them yourself look to the right panel under "Letters to the Editor". One is a response from Prof. Robert Washburn, which poses a couple of interesting questions about the style that this page uses. One is  "I particularly like the presentation of rough notes you post. This is utterly unheard of in traditional circles of journalism. I am very interested in why you chose to do this and what benefit it might have for readers."
My explanation is simple; when writing on the web (which is completely different from writing a novel or a story for the newspaper) only bare facts and statements are usually presented. This is because the average surfer scans and only looks for pieces that interest them. In that case the whole story can never be told, hence the notes ... read the piece, go to the notes and draw your own conclusions!

I have posted in the WalMart debate page a reader's response to a letter posted by a WalMart supporter. This response is well researched and linked to a couple of interesting supporting documents. Keep the content coming in and I will try to position them in interesting ways.

Take a look at the "straightGoods.com" logo at the top of the site, on the left. There is a link to an ongoing report (updated constantly) from Quebec City. Check it out often.

OK a quick question. Does anybody think that the denial of a $5.000 funding request for the Ecology Garden have anything to do with the questions raised about who was claiming political credit for an ecology garden in election pamphlets? Is this payback time?

Sunday 1st April 2001
An exciting week for many but I have been enthused by a couple of events,

The first was a complete column, written by Prof. Robert Washburn, based on the fact that this page could be the start of something big. I agree and take all comments as compliments but do disagree that this site is 'crude'. Au-contraire Prof. this site has been designed to look like this for two reasons: one is to enable fast loading (no fancy logos or flash graphics - that is intentional, for the average surfer will click off any page after only nine seconds) and as this site is for the dissemination of information the layout has to be easy on the eye because of the amount of text involved.

The other point raised by Rob in his column was that we should be moving to a state of e-democracy by establishing a virtual community to discuss the events of the day on-line. I have had for some time the policy of printing everything sent to me trying to get some debate going by posting both sides of the topic ("balance is necessary" M. Walsh publisher, Cobourg Daily Star). The point of this is that some of us are now working to setup a clean and easy discussion page, but until I am satisfied that the software will work, we are stuck with the old system of cut and paste on a separate page.

The other exciting event was to be able to participate in some of the events, that took place this week, designed to raise awareness about the FTAA and the summit of the Americas that will take place in Quebec City later this month. The Murray Dobbin talk (on Tuesday) was well attended by approximately 60 people and well received, on Friday night four speakers (including the President of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture) spoke to another 50 people. What was really gratifying was the appearance of at least ten students from all of the local High Schools, and these young people are keen. Their parents may be apathetic voters and avid consumers dedicated to the new economy but these students are certainly questioning the society we are living in. Grrrreat!

On to the happenings of the week. It has been dominated by the OMB hearing at Victoria Hall. For those of you who have not clicked on to the daily reports, here is a very brief summary. Expecting a Pre-Hearing conference, where issues were supposed to be highlighted and a date set for the real hearing, the spectators got the surprise of their lives .... a parade of lawyers arguing over everything possible even whether 45 minutes is enough time to get a sandwich for lunch! Monday will be the 4th day of this process. And, who knows what the result will be as the Chair could decide to delay a decision. But we do know that the Pre-hearing conference will go on (even if only to hear the second appeal) and that Marie Hubbard ( the Chair) has blocked off the months of July and August for the full hearing.

Another interesting story that demonstrates the power of this page. As you know there was a story last week about the possibility of the Hospital Auxiliary moving from the Downtown to the MidTown Mall. Walking from the Dutch Oven back to the OMB hearing I passed Bill Patchett, showing off his new storefront to another person. "Ben, how did you get that information about Petticoat Lane?" Walking home from the hearing later on that afternoon a lady identified herself to me as the President of the Auxiliary and asked the same question. "That information wasn't going to be released until the meeting tonight, we just wanted to know how it got on the internet!" Thanks folks keep the tips coming, I'll put them up.

Who's to say that the internet and local groups have no power here is a site that advertises itself as the FTAA international protest site and lil' ol' Northumberland is right up there (look in the middle of the Canadian list) Way to go folks.

I have finally found the article that Naomi Klein went to Porto Alegre to write here, very insightful and a comprehensive commentary on the problems and challenges of the "Pro-Democracy Forces" trying to build the "New World" I love this quote and yearn for the proposal that some of us made to Town Hall three years ago to try to replicate the experience here. " And then there was the living alternative of Porto Alegre itself. The city has become a showcase of participatory democracy studied around the world. In Porto Alegre, democracy isn't a polite matter of casting  ballots; it's a contact sport, carried out in sprawling town hall meetings. The centerpiece of the Workers Party's platform is something called "the participatory budget," an initiative that gives residents, through a network of neighborhood councils and a shadow city council, a direct say in such decisions as how much of the municipal budget should go to sanitation versus transportation."

I have been given the names of the people who applied to sit on the committees this year an image of the letter is here. The Town administration and Council have relented and answered my Freedom of Information request the list is here. Really the list is a bit of an anticlimax and doesn't really show much but some of you may want to read into the decisions of Council, in other words who would you have selected, ON MERIT, if you had been at the council table? I know that a couple of selections they made would not have been my selection!

An interesting meeting took place yesterday at Cold Springs. I recognised many readers present and we all discussed the ways of making the NDP relevent in today's world. Being an NDP meeting many things were discussed and a few resolutions arrived at. The obvious next step is after the locals have got a package of policies and structures together the public may be invited to tell them what to do with them!! No seriously, how can the NDP expect to renew themselves without road testing a few ideas first. Stay tuned.

I had a visit from a friend of mine who wanted to tell me about a growing storm amongst a very respected local charitable organisation. It seems that a charity that supports the hospital is going to have their premises downtown, sold out from beneath them and guess where they are going to go ... the MidTown Mall. All Some people [where are the names ed?] are questioning the motives of the people involved. There may be a simple explanation but time will tell. But in the meantime we now have another big hole in the Main Street as a local business exits.

Big happenings on the OMB front.
The big guns have turned up. The Pre-hearing conference has been turned into a lawyers circus. What would normally have been a meeting to define the issues and set a date for the real hearing has become a full blown hearing where the appellants will have to defend their positions. All of this was done with less than seven days notice. People who had only prepared their case to the point of explanation have now had to hire lawyers just to tell the Chair of the OMB why they want to be there.
Read all about it here

Bloody disgrace, which brings me back to another point. Our esteemed ex MP, school trustee, hobby farmer, gravel-pit owner short-arsed runt Gordon Gilchrist displayed his disdain of the system by sneeringly dismissing the appellants as obstructionists to the new world in a letter to the Cobourg Star this week. He questioned the fact that they are appealing at the OMB as holding up the wishes of the majority. Firstly how does he know what the majority want. Even the position that is going to be put forward at the OMB that an election was won on the issue is not proven. Secondly he appears to question the concept of "fairness". In a free society there always has to be a process to appeal the decisions of the rulers and the courts. I bet his conviction on tax evasion was fully appealed! So I say to Mr Gilchrist, Mr Johnston and all the others who question the right of people to go to the OMB, "If you don't like the system, change it -- at your peril!"

Don't forget the FTAA activities this week: Murray Dobbin at the Cobourg Library Tuesday 27th at 7pm click here for details. The Symposium at the Golden Plough Lodge Friday Evening and St Peter's Anglican Church on Saturday morning.

continued in the Archive