Today, I yield this space to my brother, John Hanson.

I just read an open letter of his, and it’s the best representation of everything that has to do with the labour mess between CLRCS and OPSEU Local 472.

And he does so in a polite tone that I could perhaps learn from.

As to that labour dispute between CLRCS and OPSEU 472, getting answers and seeking accountability is a difficult thing, solely and exclusively because of the unwillingness, reticence, and perhaps even disingenuousness of three different camps, all of them nestled on the management side of this.

I’m not here to label anyone as being a liar because, well, it’s not good form.  Plus different people have different views on what lying is, especially in this day and age where concepts involving different versions of truth get tossed around, where my truth might not match up with your truth.  So the moral repugnancy around lying that once was the social norm has been replaced with the idea that competing truths can exist, that there is no one universal truth surrounding anything, but rather oppositional truths which, upon analysis, are really just another way of deflection from the real truth, whatever that is.

Doug Ford and Billy Denault are on holidays, but they’re not really.

I mean, yes, the legislature isn’t sitting at the moment, nor will it until October 27, meaning that they, and all MPPs will be away from their day jobs of sitting through their version of Question Period in the legislative chamber.  If it’s a holiday, it’s a fabulous one, running some 21 weeks from early June to late October.  And it’s a paid holiday as well.

It’s good work if you can find it.

To say that John Hanson is an interesting guy is to do a serious disservice to John Hanson.

He can talk with the best of them, and when he points that ladle at you to emphasis a point he’s making, you stand up and take note because you’re not entirely sure if he’s gonna smack you with it, and who the hell wants a ladle mark seared on their forehead going into the weekend?

John is a lot, and he’s a lot of things, but he showed up in Renfrew as the OPSEU Chair of Provincial Retirees and OPSEU Vice-Chair Provincial Retired Members Division 4.  He came to town to back up OPSEU Local 472 in their dispute with CLRCS, something now entering its tenth week with absolutely no movement from the other side.

I’d like to loosely discuss the Board of Directors of Community Living Renfrew County South.  And I should be able to do that without eliciting a wave of hysteria form anyone over on the management side of this labour dispute.

My goal is not to disparage or discredit anyone.  I’ve already made clear my opinion that the members of this Board are all exemplary human beings, at least so far as I’m ever going to know.  But I’m a critical thinker, just the way we were all taught to be, so you can’t get all bent out of shape when that critical thinking is directed your way.

Critical thinking isn’t employed to embarrass or ridicule anyone here, but rather it’s an attempt to simply not accept everything in front of me as established and unalterable fact.  And so this process involves asking some questions.

And there are people around who don’t like that.

I got word of another community gathering in support of OPSEU 472 taking place at Renfrew’s Low Square, home of Renfrew’s Town Hall.  There was talk of treats, light snacks, and face painting.

Like I was going to miss that.

Again, I saw amazing spirit, amazing caring, amazing love.

I wonder if they’re experiencing any of that kind of thing over at Fort Lavallee?

“…we call upon OPSEU to focus their campaign on the funder rather than going after these dedicated members of our local Renfrew and Arnprior communities.”

Executive-Director Jennifer Lavallee

First of all, OPSEU’s not going after anyone.

It’s been me asking all the questions that make this person’s feelings so bruised.  And for the record, I’m not going after anyone either.  I’m just searching for accountability, as in who has it?  Who has whatever it takes to own responsibility for the decisions made by the management side in this labour dispute?

To borrow a phrase from Harry Truman, where does the buck stop here?

It troubles me to report on this.

Part of my efforts to cover the work disruption between CLRCS and OPSEU Local 472 involve me talking to people, that is people who have some sort of stake in the eventual outcome.  That will have  me making attempts to speak to people on either side of the issue, although I’ll admit to not having very much exposure to the management side, probably because they likely think that I’m some hack working for the union.  They’re wrong about the union part.

That said, I’d be more than happy to speak with any representative management might like to throw out there, but again, I don’t have a lot of confidence of such an outreach taking place from that quarter.  But the invitation still stands.

Imagine, another invitation to talk that will likely be ignored.  More than likely outright scoffed at.  But I get it.

If I were them, I wouldn’t really want to talk to me either.

To hear the government tell it, the labour dispute between Community Living Renfrew County South —  CLRCS — and Local 472 of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. — OPSEU — is a matter solely between the employer and the union.

That, generously put, is just not true.

And they know it but say it anyways, even with a straight face, something populists like them seem to thrive upon and take pride in.  To them, Conservative MPPs, deflecting truth is an art form.

There are  reasons why this strike is still going on, and there are reasons why there are other groups on strike against similar agencies also involved with tending to the needs of disadvantaged Ontarians.

If it wasn’t for U.S. President Donald Trump, Ontario Premier Doug Ford would be in a world of political hurt.

I mean, he’s already in a world of political hurt, but it would be a lot worse if a crazy American president wasn’t around to be an asshole all the time, thus allowing Ford to throw on his Captain Canada cape.  Every time Trump opens his mouth and says something stupid — which is pretty much every single one of the times — Ford gets an opportunity to play the bad cop to Mark Carney’s good cop when it comes to managing the unmanageable lunatic on the other side of the fence.  Polling backs up the fact that Ontarians like it when their premier talks tough to the president.

But even with the political convenience of Trump, Ford has his problems, and polling confirms that as well.