Tag: politics

MFIPPA: A JOKE THAT’S NO LAUGHING MATTER

After taking a second look at the MFIPPA document — Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act — I feel about as ready as I can be to offer commentary with the attached proviso that in no way am I suggesting said commentary is an exhaustive and thorough exercise.  I do, however, feel comfortable enough in concluding that the points and examples I bring forward are more or less translatable to the entire document, and thereby serve as an honest interpretation or representation of the Act as a whole.

Remember that lawyers fight about this stuff all the time, so if there’s disagreement around my interpretation, then fair game as far as I’m concerned.

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IT’S TIME FOR TRUDEAU TO WALK THAT PLANK

For me to have no response at all would be telling, and it would be telling the wrong thing, and as much as I would prefer to just look away from a serious train wreck, I can’t just let it stand.

So I’ll be brief —if such is possible — and just say it.

The prime minister must, unequivocally, resign.

So, way to go, Steve for saying something that thousands upon thousands had already been saying.  Good of you to finally get on the bus.  

I know full well there are plenty of people about who don’t give a rat’s ass about what I may think on just about anything.  I’ll even extend that to most people, maybe even all people.

But I do.  I give a rat’s ass about what I think.  It’s important to me, and the way I view my personal integrity.

This is no longer about fancy socks and haircuts.  It’s no longer about his feminism, woke-ism, virtue signalling and all the rest of it.

This is about leadership, stewardship, and good governance, both in terms of policy and people.  And a failure in each of those critical aspects.

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TRUMP GETS STUFF DONE BY DOING NOTHING

I don’t know how to say this.

I have a new-found appreciation for Donald Trump.  No, wait, I didn’t say that.

I have a new-found respect for Donald Trump.  Hell no, I didn’t say that either.

So what am I trying to say?

How about this?  The man has had more effect as president than just about most other presidents, and he’s not even the president.  It’s absolutely bizarre how many things are in a fire-drill frenzy just because this guy mouths off on his Truth Social platform.

Entire nations tremble.  The leaders of those nations fall all over themselves to get inside the arc of his punches, including our own prime minister.  Look at those pictures from Mar-A-Lago.

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MFIPPA: WHERE TOWN INFORMATION GOES TO DIE

This morning I read the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Then I took two extra-strength Tylenol.

Listen, if you’ve got absolutely nothing to do this Friday night, and I mean absolutely nothing to do, then you might want to nestle into your favourite chair, choose a libation that fits the mood — none that would come to mind, unless you had several of said libation —give the dog at your feet a couple of encouraging head-pats, and dig into this document.  If you felt there was nothing on television before all of this, I assure you you’ll change your mind once you start getting into it.

If you have a family member you absolutely detest but that familial protocol dictates you get them something as a stocking stuffer, print this thing out, wrap a pretty bow around it, and stick it in there.  Same for office parties where there’s a Secret Santa kind of thing going on.  If you got Bill from accounting, here’s your chance to really throw a f**k into his Christmas.

I now feel I’ve got a deeper appreciation for the intransigence that town staff, well some of them anyway, have for not being open with information.  For showing the public the hand when the public makes a request for information.  For going into closed meetings to conduct their backroom machinations away from any prying eyes that might upset their apple cart.

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RENFREW TOWN COUNCIL MEETING 10/12/24: SCOUTING REPORT

A lot of times you get what you pay for, and then sometimes you just don’t.

Some scouting report this is going to be, what with no high human drama to report on, no scandalous utterances, no gotcha moments, no fisticuffs like we see in some legislative gatherings.

Just business.  Present/discuss/vote/table/next.  Like I said, just business.

Coulda just stayed at home and watched some hoops on the tube.

Still, though, I’m glad I didn’t.

It’s not like I know everything about everything, and showing up to a Renfrew Town Council is an education of sorts, something I mean earnestly.  Democracy is a complex beast, and one of those things that seems to be viewed from a lot of different perspectives.  Braving freezing rain, like everyone else present did, is something one has to consider doing if one wants to truly understand, not just the issues and policies, but the mechanics and procedures of local democracy at work.

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WHEN A MAN’S MURDER BECOMES COMEDY

You’d think they arrested Robin Hood.

Luigi Mangione is simply this:  A guy in a hood with a 3D-printed weapon with silencer intent on ending the life of an unsuspecting father and husband as the latter walked to work in the early morning hours of New York City last week.

Is it only in America where a guy like this gets to be a folk hero?  Probably not, but as in all things, America does it bigger and louder, so here we are, some of us, finding humour at the assassination of a fifty year-old insurance executive, Brian Thompson.  And making little Luigi the poster boy for the righteous fight against corporate greed.

I’m not a big fan of corporate greed myself.  I’ll be right there at the start of the line when it comes to criticizing the actions of places like banks and insurance companies.  If they even knew about me and my commentary, they would consider me to be a hostile.  But that doesn’t mean they’re going to kill me.  And it doesn’t mean I’m going to kill them.

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RENFREW TOWN COUNCIL: MEETING PREVIEW 10/12/24

It’s Tuesday, December 10th and everyone’s phone calendar is beeping and pinging, flashing lights and spitting out confetti.  Because tonight is the next episode of a Renfrew Town Council meeting, a must-have on any self-respecting phone calendar app.

What makes tonight so special?  Well, nothing, really.  I mean there’ll be some stuff, because there’s stuff enclosed in the 200 page agenda output, so sure, there’ll be some stuff.

Will there be the push and pull, the thrust and counter-thrust of argument and ideas?  Will there be a clash of philosophical and ideological narratives?  How about giant personalities, standing out and apart from the pack, voices ringing in oratorical hyperbole, inducing tears of inspiration?

In order of appearance, the answers would be no, no, and, well,  no.

If you want that kind of thing, maybe you should just stay at home and wait for something to happen there.  Then maybe go to bed.

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COUNCIL BRAKE-CHECKS STAFF INFO-TECH RECOMMENDATION

In a way, it seemed that Wednesday morning’s Town Council meeting, at least the open part of it, was the relative political equivalent of a McDonald’s drive-thru window, in that you got what you were looking for much quicker than had you gone for the regular in-store experience.  At least for me, anyways, since Council then went into closed session, please don’t get me started.

But in that brief period of sunshine, important work was done, and that’s not being sarcastic.

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TOWN COUNCIL AND CLOSED SESSIONS. THE RULE RATHER THAN THE EXCEPTION.

I don’t think I’ve seen Renfrew Town Council at its best.  I don’t know if it has one.

So far as I’ve been able to determine from a first-hand point of view, there is no best to be had, unless they really crank it up behind closed doors, where they kick everyone out of the room so that they can talk about the real stuff, the stuff that people want answers to.  I can only assume they’re talking about important things in there, but how would I know?  As I said, I, and anyone else present, have been shown the door.  Only the so-called primary actors remain, the inner circle, the sanctum, the privileged few.  The ones who matter.

The foxes slamming the door of the henhouse once inside.

After close to three hours of the eyeball-bleeding, public-facing facade of “openness and transparency,” this council will often go into closed session.  Top secret, hush-hush and all that.

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WHEN THE DOGS AND PONIES ARE RUNNING THE SHOW

The circus comes to town every couple of weeks when Town Council has its regularly scheduled dog-and-pony-show exercise that passes itself off as municipal democracy in action.  And despite everyone performing their roles, with varying degrees of success, the production is made up seemingly of a council rubber-stamping whatever the administrative side of things wants it to rubber stamp.  Mind you, a couple of councillors will periodically raise objections to this, but will often get out-voted if they raise their concerns to the level of making a motion

That’s because here in Renfrew, we have what looks to be a chimera of democracy in play.  

Elected councillors are flummoxed by redundant and poorly organized agenda briefing documents, almost always numbering over a hundred pages, two-hundred pages, and often more.  This is how administration does it, firing smoke grenades to obfuscate things enough that councillors routinely pass what’s put in front of them because, as some have said, they trust the department heads to manage their departments with effectiveness and due diligence.

Sort of like the last council did.  

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