Click here to see the video collection. I decided to set up a special page so that the BurdReport didn't become cluttered. Also these videos may not appeal to all tastes.
Cobourg Poetry readingsClick here for a collection of videos of local poets reading their work
Well it's here - the HST that is. Nobody knows the impact of this tax except the consumers. they know that some goods not previously taxed will be now. And the taxes are going on the 'category-killers' of the household - utilities and gasoline. We have been told it is for our own good - the economic health of the Province needs it. Premier Dad has been primed with a report from a Professor Jack Mintz, of Calgary that if the amount of money transferred from the business side of the ledger is reinvested into the economy by retooling and keeping the money in all of the enterprises then 600,000 jobs will be created. So there you have it folks the theory of reinvestment according to Dalton: transfer taxes from the business side to the consumer side and we will all be rich. But here's the catch and where the BurdReport parts from the othodoxy. In order to see the theory turn into practise a couple of things have to happen: people have to be hired and prices have to go down. Because if those two things don't happen then we believe that business people, always out for a buck, will be pocketing the rebates produced by the 'input credits' and only they will have more money. Perhaps i am being too cynical but when I see the Fraser institute and Buzz Hargrove lining up on the same side something is smelly.
They are dumber than we think. Sunbay Energy see this story, still trying to get the best deal from public money, has floated the idea of using 15 acres of land in the newly purchased Industrial Park. Wait a minute what is it that these guys do again? Deal in rubbish, any kind of rubbish and they hope to treat in with high heat to make good stuff. Does this sound like a prestige industrial plant and something to be sited next to 401, in full view of the world or even abutting residential real estate? Perhaps Curtis Chicks a longtime enterprise in Port Hope may have something to say about the number of garbage trucks coming and going. But then as an after thought CC may want them there to take there residue of good chickens**t as a feeder stock.
This story from the greatest Football writer alive two hours to go before the kickoff for the England Germany game, the biggest so far! This story tells of the media war between the two rivals, interesting read. And this classic prose from Rosie DiManno of the TOStar: "Last word goes to an English fan overheard in Durban:“The World Cup has turned out like World War II. The French surrendered early, the USA arrived late, and we’re left to fight the Germans.”
The Tannery lands, now just a big piece of rotting industrial brownfield, was assumed by the Town as a result of the owner failing to pay his taxes and subsequently going bankrupt. This fetid place used to be the home to a tanning factory firstly for animal hides and then fish skins. The chemicals used over the years have been allowed to sink into the ground and previous employees have reported that they used to regularly pump the toxic wastes, arsenic, chrome and other tanning aids, into the ground. It is a potential hazmat horror story. When the town assumed the land they fenced it in and attempted a minor remedial process and demolished the buildings and it now sits on the Town's books as a tax liability with an accrued cleanup cost. Estimated at at least 1.5 million. The theory for this is that this money will be recovered when the Town sells it.
But on Monday night the first stage of the "Great Giveaway" will ocurr when the minutes of a special meeting will be adopted. A special meeting convened at 9.31 pm and adjourned at 9.35 pm on June 21st. A motion was passed to reduce the tax liability from $835,000 to an unknown amount. This is a statutory move designed to allow the CAO flexibility in his negotiations with prospective buyers. Depending on the new uses proposed by prospective buyers taxpayers of Cobourg will not know if this is a good move or not. But be aware that this could be a giveaway to a developer with an inside connection or a move for the public good. Either way Cobourg taxpayers are giving away tax money!
Will a real discussion about the riot yesterday take place? I doubt it, the 'law and order' types will defend the peculiar and sometimes brutal tactics of the security people and the 'free speechers' will decry the influence of the "Black Bloc" and carry on to the next demo. But there are people willing to start the discussion. See here where a correspondent is questioning the design of the event. I too watched the CBC newsworld wall to wall coverage of the happenings and wondered why the last police car to be set ablaze was just left there, in the middle of Queen St with the police not 50 yards away just watching; probably as bait for the Black Bloc guys. Still the whole deal made the right-wing radio stations happy, Arlene Bynon of 640 AM was almost orgasmic in her anticipation of someone getting punched out. At least Mansbridge was statesmanly in his approach to the feeds and reporters. Susan Ormanston will need a couple of days off after the feeds she was involved in.
Follow the comments in this thread to see more opinion about the theory that the police encouraged the protest by their inaction and dereliction of duty.
In many conversations taking place this week in the wake of G20 security procedures and the recent local hospital AGM, more than a few people are questioning both the tactics of the State, and institutions, in their quest for control. Using legal means and zealously enforcing the regs on the books one is forced to conclude that the perception here is that Fascism is alive! Whoa Nelly! before you go off at the messenger and look at the fascists in the past context and immediately make the leap that all who accuse others of Fascism are equating the leaders of today with those bad guys - you know the usual supects - Pol Pot, Idi Amin and the worst of all - Adoplh himself, just look at the measures being upheld by our leaders today. Search and seizure rights,suspended for the G20 exclusion zone, the ability of a 'rentacop' to arrest citizens for failing to produce ID in that exclusion zone, overwhelming police presence for seemingly routine building checks and the chicanery of procedural rules to eliminate opposition at the NHH AGM. What does it add up to? A weary opposition, a jaded electorate and an apathetic population which is reflected in a bunker mentality and a reduced voter turnout at elections. Throw in an unappealing list of people to vote for and one can be depressed very easily if you think about this stuff for very long. Still there are better days ahead and if you make the drive to "la belle province" beer is on sale at a buck a bottle at the corner store, one way at least to take your mindsoff these things - sit on the back porch and have a brewski!
"'Allo, 'Allo, 'Allo what have we got here?" and visions of the bobby on the beat come to mind when reading this story from NorthumberlandToday An open door was found at the GoodYear building on Thursday morning. It took up to fifteen police people, a canine unit and a SWAT team to investigate. Wow what were they expecting, what snippet of police information had been discovered to cause this amount of policing and how much will it cost as the majority of the exercise would have been pursued with cops on overtime and help from the Durham Service (not cheap). So if anybody on the inside wnats to comment we will pass the information to a breathless and waiting audience.
Brighton and Port Hope are going to have an election for the mayor's job. It appears that in these towns some people actually want to be Mayor, perhaps some one will want to be Mayor of Cobourg sometime before September 10th.
In Port Hope Linda Thompson was handing out strawberries and tea as well as announcing that she wants to Mayor for another term. What can we say about the term that is coming to a halt and why does she want to be Mayor for another term? Not much, except to speculate that the accumulation of power is heady and pays well.
This handsome fellow is Mark Walas, he runs a funeral home and now wants to be the next Mayor of Brighton. Challenging Christine Herrington may be easier than she thinks, at least he must have met most of the folks in Brighton already as he buries most of them. What a captive contact list!
0845am Ooops this just in - a correction:Hey Ben,Just a point of clarification: Mark Walas sold his funeral home about three years ago. He works full time now as a land and housing developer. Mark is a sharp guy, if sometimes perceived as being a little "slippery" around the edges.
So what's next in Cobourg, for starter's it's about time that the folks at the Homelike Inn get off their duffs and continue the election ritual of many years - that is to select someone who will appear in front of the press and announce that "I don't believe on acclamations and want to give Gil Brocanier a run for his money!"
Councillor Bill Macdonald will try to perpetuate the Peter Principle once more. Announcing that he will try for his seventh term as a councillor. Enough said, but if the only reason for him running is to provide experience all we atrthe BurdReport can repeat is the HR mantra - "twenty years experience is only one year's experience repeated twenty times." We will be watching just how up the ballot he goes, after all he has only squeaked in in every election he has run in proving to be a fourth or fifth choice every year. We can only hope that he doesn't make it again.
After three days of rumination, driving 3000 kms gives you plenty of time to chew the cud, here is my opinion on the hospital affair. Basically the opponents took a knife to a gunfight. Not knowing the rules, were they going to be King & Kerr (WTF were those?) or an imposed Robert's? It turned out to be neither. The membership, living in the past hadn't realised that time had passed them by and the Association had morphed into a Corporation, complete with the rules that allowed Conrad Black and other corporate tyrants to maintain power. It is obvious that this community has lost its Community hospital and now members will only have the right to vote on bylaws. The Board now will do what they want - braunnose the LHIN and hope like hell that they stay off the shitlist. Because now the LHIN controls the hospital sector by making all the Hospitals "compete" for funding. tTose not big enough, smart enough or compliant enough will lose out. In addition there is a LHIN requirement for funding that each hospital complete an "integration" process. When one looks at this an "integration activity" can be a removal of service so look for more lost services. [Hey hasn't all this been tried in the NHS in the UK and found to be wanting? - ed] What does this mean for the average person in the catchment area - diddlysquat as the perception that paying $10 for a membership allows participation is shot all to heck, these moves at the AGM just confirmed that, but as one emailer to me commented, "the board has been confirmed as a bunch of thugs and goons in the public eye!" the public has noticed. It will be hard slogging to fundraise this year. But then they are only funding equipment not services so who cares if we have the best equipment but no services to use them?
My advise next year read this book after all this is the bible that did us in, but it comes with a $600 per hour pricetag.
In this article, found on the Osler (the lawyers the NHH Board bought and paid for with our money which was according to John Hudson "is not much money") website: Contentious AGMs: 10 Lessons Learned | News & Resources | Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, Business Law in Canada there is to be found the formula for defeating "special interests" at contentious Hospital AGM's. Why didn't anybody find this before the meeting, the gameplan is all here.
3.30am Back on the road for a few more days but will be posting as time allows. There will plenty to write about especially how as decent polite and civil canadians got snookered last night at the NHH AGM. The meeting was run by a Chair that ignored rules and flouted the law citing legal precedence. At one time he said, "If you don't like this ruling go to court!" Frank Farago was especially tenaciou,s courageous and very civil in his attitude toward such rulings - thanks Frank.
Suffice to say a point was made, the community doesn't like what went on and the Province has seized our hospital and the current board members have aquiesced to that putsch. Not quite quislings but possibly Norwegian, and definitely Swedish - the Stockholm syndrome.
Often bandied about by randy young men this phrase is ominous, gleeful and full of anticipation. The Northumberland Hills Hospital will be holding its Annual Special Meeting to do a couple of things and not to what the majority? of members want, and the meeting is tonight!
At a meeting last night some members of the public, 50-60 all told, listened to members of the Citizens for Alternative Solutions as they explained procedures in conducting meetings and how to behave and handle questions at AGMs. "It's your meeting, it belongs to the members. It is not the Board's meeting, and as such you (the members) determine what goes on." You are not allowed to make business motions but you can control the way the meeting goes by moving questions of procedure." John Morand, a consultant and a lawyer versed in corporate law said.
The group also laid out their priorities, the major one being to force the Board to revise the Bylaw package being offered and to have an election that would allow members to vote for all of the candidates not just a selected slate. How these will be achieved is subject to speculation and the signs point to an interesting and levely meeting.
7pm at the Best Western, upstairs in the Ballroom.
As reported a couple of months ago the Hitler parodies were supposed to have been killed off because the owner of the clip was asserting copywrite. I guess the maker of this video didn't get the memo and now we have this video, which sums up my feelings exactly.
Remember the "Green Gaffe" or the "Gift from Clod"? The references to the goat of the England USA football game on Sunday? The only goal against the English team was an 'own-goal' and the 'keeper has been pilloried for the mistake ever since. The Germans have entered the debate by criticising the way both the manager and English team have been playing.
The English manager Fabio Capella, an Italian, has blamed the new ball. This ball is much lighter and is erratic in wind and altitude. This opinion was supported this week by Gordon Banks the legendary 'keeper in the 1966 World Cup win.
Now in this story England refutes the German criticism and complains that the Germans have had the new ball for months.
Get on with the game, win the next one and all carping about the ball will disappear - must really be a slow news day in south Africa!
As the date for the AGM of the Hospital approaches all kinds of correspondence is flowing from the Hospital CEO's office. It usually denys the petitioner information that the petitioner would like to have so that an argument could be made for certain positions at the AGM.
The latest letter, sent to all of those members who petitioned for a special meeting, contains the following paragraph. Note the words"specifically". However when checking the section 67 of the Corporations Act we see that it doesn't say that. Section 67 says that a Corporation may insert language that enables the removal of Directors. Something quite different from being specifically banned from asking for the removal of Directors. The BurdReport only uses this as an example of the way the Hospital is playing hardball with its perceived opponents to force the use of a lawsuit knowing that they have the money ot fight one (BTW whose money is it that they using, the lawyer they use a MR Watts of Osler Hoskins costs $600 per hour!).
One of the wonders, and dangers, of running an online publication like this that one runs into conflicts. The usual one for me is simple - do I publish anonymous emails, even if they are sole sourced. When they are topical or interesting I will publish as it may be in the public interest, besides 90% of them turn out to be factual. Such was the decision last week when I published an anonymous email quoting the Deputy Mayor being overheard saying topical things. I have since received a phone call from the Deputy Mayor refuting, in the strongest terms, the allegation that he was trying to support Mr MacDonald's incumbency by promising him any portfolio he wanted if he was elected. This is untrue as Mr Brocanier has told me it is. So we at the BurdReport don't apologise for the printing but do regret the consequences that may have caused to a few.
A lot of effort and hot air has been expended for the public good this week. I refer to the manoevres in the Hospital debacle. A perfectly good discussion of the issue - can we change direction and have the announced departmental cuts reversed - has developed into a test of wills between the Board and its members.
We must understand that the Hospital Association is just that, a membership of people who get together once a year to give people they elect to the Board the responsibility of running the Hospital on their behalf. Once a year the membership come together to elect new members to the Board or to replace the ones they have. It is the only guaranteed act that the bylaws allow - to vote in an election.
The present Board, in an effort to keep people they consider not qualified, one of the applicants was told by a member of the nominating committee, producing a potential Human Rights complaint, "You are too ****ing old!", out of the election nominated a slate of people equal to the number of vacancies and then are now prepared to declare them elected by acclamation. This will take place without a vote by the members.
This naturally produced pushback and 10% of the members asked for a special meeting the subject being the removal of Directors. The present Directors obviously declared the 'requisition' not within the purview of the role of a member and refused to schedule a special meeting.
Let's look at this phrase 'not within the purview of the role of a member'. This was the phrase used when Ben Burd tried to place a motion into the AGM. It has not been defined or explained. Mr Hudson, the Board Chair referred Mr Burd to section 296 of the Corporations Act. and that section explains the rightds of a member to make 'requisitions'. Why the CA you ask, well it's because not only is the NHH an association it is a Corporation in Ontario. Which brings us back to the Corporations Act.
This Act defined shareholders' rights and all shareholders are entitled to two things: the right to attend an Annuual Meeting and the right to vote as such a meeting. Also business may be brought before the meeting if the person making the 'requisition' has the support of other shareholders.
Now for the important part - if shareholders have the right to vote for Directors they also have the right to Unvote them. Ever heard of shareholders' uprisings Mr Hudson, well we have one here. I guess it's time to go back to the lawyer and force the NHH Board to live by the Corporations Act.
BTW letters have been received by the people who requested membership lists that they are now available. Apparently the Privacy Commissioner told Mr Biron what some of us have been telling him - that the list is public. Anyway when Mr Morand phoned to find out how to pick it up he was told by Mr Biron that it was only available from him. When Mr Morand went to Mr Biron's office, after being told it was available Mr Biron had gone away for the weekend. A piece of class! But still the stalling effort continues in his attempt to stop the membership being informed about their affairs. With a mailing ready to go out to all the members the loss of the weekend was crucial.
In an email just circulated the Chair of the Citizens for Alternative Solutions, Mr Frank Farago said,
"FYI at or about 1545h this afternoon, I delivered and handed directly to Mr. R. Biron the subject request.Outside the hospital, just before making my delivery, Eva and I were photographed for Northumberland Today. Mr. Biron said that they will be in touch with me later about the request."
So now let the lawyers battle it out. A Special Meeting of the members has been asked for and the Board must either dismiss the application as not being consistent with the Bylaws or schedule a meeting to be held in the next 21 days. I understand that the subject of the meeting will be a number of items including a move to replace the Directors. Interesting times.
BTW congratulations to all for standing up for local democracy.
In the name of fairness it has been pointed out to me that the comments in the comments section that are laden with F-bombs are not just the production of one person. So when I asked the person guilty in the last instance to tone it down he pointed quite correctly that he is not the only purveyor of F-bombs, so now everybody tone it down F-bombs are not classy and we all want to have class don't we? After a couple of well aimed ones are very useful to the comment but seriously do we need that much emphasis. Of course if the emphasis is fuelled by social lubricants just have a couple less before you let loose! Mary Whitehouse would appreciate it.
Ooooops the Town of Port Hope is basically bankrupt. Its expenses outweigh its revenues, but who cares? Obviously nobody on the Finance Committee. If the Town is running an eight million dollar overdraft there is something wrong in Denmark!
So the next question is - how do they get out of this and what kind of a repayment plan is going to be constructed? What a horrible piece of timing this is. It sets up all kinds of TeaParty candidates and will be fun to watch.
Just wonder how long it will be before one of the proposed solutions will be the dreaded almagamation?
This post, taken from CBC News and repeated on NationalNewswatch talks about senior level insiders from the NDP and the LPC talking merger - are they nuts? Coalition and cooperation maybe but merger? Bad idea and it will never fly. This just demonstrates the disconnect between public opinon and reality. Must be a bad news day at the CBC, but then Warren Kinsella will spout off his meglomaniacal opinions at the drop of a hat, pity the CBC uses our tax dollars to reimburse him for appearing and pontificate.
A merger will never fly at either of the Party Conventions required to approve it no matter how much massaging of the policy goes on. The Libs are regarded as neo-cons by the Dippers and the NDP are looked upon as raving lefties by the Libs. Best to strike an accord, rather like the UK model, and then govern. Preferably it should be announced before the election as a fallback position and if one wants to get really brave some form of seat sharing should take place but mergomg of policy - no thanks.
This fellow is Idi Amin, the infamous dictator of Uganda. Famous for his brutal treatment of his subjects but also the winner of every election that he contested.
How did he do it, he set up sham elections with only one candidate - himself - and then declared himself the winner. See any comparison to this and the way the the NHH Board proposes to run its election next week?
All legal but thoroughly reprehensible and an affront to democracy. This board, and Mr Biron, and the high-priced lawyer who is being paid for with our taxdollars, should be ashamed to even consider such moves that fly in the face of local democracy. Shame!
Got this a couple of days ago. Ben ... you probably know this ... I heard from a very reliable source, quote, "The Emperor-in-waiting, Brocanier, has offered MacDonald 'any portfolio he wants' if he runs and is elected. It seems he wants some familiar support on the new council." Counting chickens? If you haven't heard it and can use it, unattributed, go ahead.
Kinda goes against what i had been hearing so I held on to it, then last night I heard that Sluggo - Councillor "why do I always come in last" Bill MacDonald - has decided to run again. Let the fun begin!
You know the Town is in trouble when the future depends on "continuity" provided by a guy that can only bombastically declare, "Will this set a precedent?".
Not knowing the real answer to this question I asked the supreme authority of all - Wikipedia for the answer. Ironically the answer came back this way.
The most frequent type of acclamation is a voice vote, in which the voting group is asked who favors and who opposes the proposed candidate. In the event of a lack of opposition, the candidate is considered elected.
This form of election is most commonly associated with papal elections, though this method was discontinued by Pope John Paul II's apostolic constitution Universi Dominici Gregis.
The reason for the question is that now that the Board of the NHH has declared that only the sitting Directors, whose time is up, will be the recommended candidates in the Directors' election and the vote will be by acclamation I wondered just how that will go. But the second sentence of the answer is most revealing: this kind of election is usually associated with Papal elections - hmm sounds familiar.
For months now I've been ruminating about the escalating series of lies, screw ups and scandals perpetrated by our federal ruling party, and thought things were about as bad as they could get, but the advance media stories trickling out about the G-8 and G-20 Summits here in Ontario suggest it's only going to get worse.
Starting with the revelation that security alone for the two wank fests will cost a billion of our tax dollars, and will likely be much higher by the time it's all over, the whole thing becomes extremely anxiety provoking to contemplate what the entire tab will be.
With our intrepid RCMP in charge of security, they managed to find a company that isn't licensed in our province to do the work. Never mind, the provincial ministry will no doubt fast track the application process; they'd better, since hiring has already started and the fun starts rather soon.
The area around the Toronto event will be cordoned off, and even the Theatre District has given up and canceled performances that week, just as the CN Tower and Art Gallery will be closed to visitors. The University of Toronto, ever vigilant, closed down parts of the campus where it was deemed too close to potential protests. So has the Ontario College of Art & Design. The Blue Jays had to move their ball game out of town and even the much loved Steamwhistle Brewery will close its doors. Sounds more like a war zone than a conference.
But the icing on the cake has to be the artifical lake they are constructing down near the Exhibition grounds. When this story came out I thought I was dreaming. It's just too ridiculous, too bizarre, to be real. But, like the tories trumpeting maternal health while simultaneously banning funding for family planning, the fake lake is indeed true. And it is going to cost two million dollars!
This monument to wasteful spending and prime ministerial hubris is to include fake Muskoka chairs, a fake dock and fake back drop, all for the benefit of those journalists not chosen to head on up to the G-8 where the really important leaders will hang out. Maybe they can round up some of Mel Lastman's old life sized plastic mooses just to jazz it up even more. Perhaps along with them, a few fake fish in the water to add some realism. Hey, it's gonna need all the help it can get. Those journalists can get real snarky with their nasty comments.
It's a good thing our Auditor General, Sheila Fraser, will be on the job after the federal bank accounts have been emptied, to tell us all the juicy details about how our government, with a budget deficit this year of about 50 billion, blew all that dough on a party. It is to weep.
Here's an interesting quote from an email, "I just had a letter read to me by the Chair of the Nominating Committee indicating that there will be no election pursuant to the by-laws becuase only those accepted by the Board nominating committee as being qualified are eligible to stand for election and since the nominating committee felt that only their own candidates are eligible then the three of us are not going to be nominated as a member of the slate." Funny how a hunch just became a fact. Now's the time to stop fooling around get a lawyer and have them get an injunction to delay the meeting until the procedures can be put in place for a 'free election'
The 'World Cup" starts on Saturday, the game to be watched will be the opener between the USA and England. Today's odds at Ladbrokes are the same as they were in December when I picked up a couple of bets in Vegas - England 5-1 and the USA at 60-1. Pundits have proclaimed the USA as one of the teams to watch but the oddsmakers obviously don't agree. England, the screamers that is, is already complaining that the referee assigned to the game is a bit of a flake and the Brazilian will be erratic and produce controversial rulings. But we will see and Toronto will be going nuts in the ethnic enclaves and St Clair Avenue will be a place to avoid for the next two weeks. Let the games begin.
In every Army unit there is a F***up. Established in modern culture by the cartoonist who draws Beatle Bailey and perpetuated in every movie ever made about Armies. This FU is the guy who is late, never shines his boots, always fails his drill exercises, marches out of step and generally commits many small military crimes. The bane of his existance is the opposite; the Regimental Sergeant Major, the most feared man in the Unit. He is the man in charge despite what the Colonel thinks. He is the man who makes grown men quake in their boots and on his parades nobody slacks off. One of my recollections about an RSM is where a squad of apprentices, absolutely terrified of having to speak to the RSM, if he stopped in front of you when he was inspecting you and your kit, was the time he stopped in front of one fellow who after the RSM had spotted an error, "What's your name boy?" bellowed at top pitch. "Smith sir" "No it isn't you have just lost it - march him away Sergeant" The inset picture shows the most famous RSM in history - John Lord. A beautiful pic that shows him at his most fiercest - on parade. However despite the obvious bluster most RSMs always had another side of humanity and most were courteous gentlement who because they demanded the highest of standards from all they dealt with were obviously confusing human beings.
So back to the point: where are the FUs in the Canadian Army. Examining the press reports about the Canadian Army's performance in Afghanistan all we know is that each and every casualty is a hero. So asking the question again it is obvious that the only known FU is the Commander of the Force - Brig-Gen Menard who has been sacked.
Only in Canada can we find the only acknowledged miscreant in the Army is its Commander!
Mr Harper's vengeful streak struck again last week when he had his "lady on the broomstick" Diane Finlay, announce that a bill was being brought forward to disallow federal Pension payments to prisoners serving more than two years. Now this strikes me as meanspirited as how many prisoners other than Clifford Olsen are not married and may have family relyng on this money?
But that's not my main basis for objection. The equality argument is. Universal programs are just that - Universal. If Mr Harper wants to ride a wave of revenge and attack Clifford Olsen by removing his pension then do it another way. Try charging him a surcharge (for being a heinous criminal that we can't murder (no capital punishment left to apply), just because he did) that would be applied selectively to prisoners based on family need. This punishment just erodes Universality and I'm agin any of that!
Now just who are these people - Smart Systems for Health Agency? They appeared in the tracking stats around the time the BurdReport started to expose the machinations of the Hospital Board. IP lookup tells me they are based in Peterborough, and as of this morning they have hit the site 48 times, five times yesterday alone. But what do they do?
According to their website it is a Provincial Government Agency dedicated to finding IT solutions to Healthcare problems. Another interesting fact is that this Government Non-Profit is part of E-Health - Yikes.
Anyway all speculation aside, a message to the person who is assiduously tracking the site who is either a member of the organisation or is using a computer on the organisation's network - welcome and feel free to report back to your bosses just what the other side is thinking!
BTW don't bother clicking on their website - it doesn't work.
Newton's third law of motion states that for every action there is a reaction, so it is in the latest analysis of the fight to get the membership list from Mr Biron, the secretary of the NHH. In an exchange of emails with me he concludes that whilst the Hospital is governed by laws of privacy he was motivated to call on the Privacy Commissioner for a ruling; can he release a membership list to the public? by the plea from some members that they didn't want their personal information released.
So as one anonymous commentator has pointed out in the last thread, we are now in the situation of having shareholders rights trumped by privacy laws. This situation if allowed to develop is very dodgy. I would say to those members who don't want the contact information released - "If you want to stay private get the heck out of the Association". I would also say publically, to all who will listen and there are few of those around, "Please may I have the membership list without the contact information - just the names please?".
Because as it stands now the Board of the Hospital Association is acting just like a Klu-Klux Klan coven because of its insistence that the membership list remain secret. Public is public - give us the names.
This piece of local satire sums it up:
Imagine a day not too far in the future. We are in a comfortable middle-class dining room--after dinner. The talk, however, has been quite anxious.
A Father and son are talking. They talk about the future. The father is retired and although he has made many sound and wise investments--they are not doing so well. He has no control over them. And although he and is fellow investors believe a small change in management in some of the companies they have invested in would change the value of their investments--they are powerless to act.
They can't act because the very management they wish to address are the only people who can speak to all the investors. They as owners can not speak to their fellow owners--because they can not know them. Only the proprietors of information may know them. That being the government and, of course, the management of the companies.
This is because the "privacy" of the owners trumps their ability to communicate to each other. Even if that ability to communicate with each other would enable them, as owners, to redirect the companies they own to a greater and more prosperous future.
The son asks: "Father, why is it you can not know or communicate with the fellow owners of your company?" "Because," says the Father (with a heavy sigh), "it was decided one day at a hospital, in Cobourg of all places, that this was not permissable."
"But," ask the son, "Is not a hospital a non-profit organization?" "Well, yes," says the Father, "but at the time it was still technically a corporation and instead of owners it had members."
"And..." asks the son.
"Well, it was decided that to protect the identity of the members--they could not be allowed to communicate with each other. Especially around the management of the organization"
"Why," asks the son.
"Well, its complicated" says the Father, "But nevertheless it set a precedent that the privacy of the members was more important than the ability of those members to call into account the management and governance of that organization"
"And," says the son.
"Well, since then, because of that precedent no owner or shareholder, and no member, can know who are the fellow members or fellow owners of an organization or corporation--only management can."
"Oh, I see." says the son.
But he doesn't. Because he has never known any different.
I too received the same 'bedbug' letter that Bridget Campion received from Mr Biron, about the request for an association membership list; her's was on display last evening. In that letter shown on the right, click on the image to enlarge, he said that the release of the list depended on a ruling from the Privacy Commissioner. So when I called the Privacy Commission to see if they had a request on file and how long it would take for a response Karen Hale, a Privacy Officer, asked me, "Why would we make such a ruling, hospitals are not subject to the freedom of Information Act (FOI)?"
So is the request for a ruling just a stall or a move by a highly paid person who doesn't know the basics of FOI? I would prefer to think the former but then Mr Biron's motives may be questioned as an attempt to stall the release of the list until after the AGM.
This move doesn't pass 'the sniff test'. In an e-mail I have pointed this out to Mr Biron and asked for the list to be released.
Last night about 200 people gathered to hear what local people had on their minds as the Northumberland Hills Hospital AGM looms ahead.
The folks in the pics were the people who had something to say. Bill Patchett was the most stirring exhorting the crowd to keep faith in the Hospital. "It's your hospital, the government didn't give it to you they used your money to build it!" He did explain that of all the hospital fundraising campaign in North America Cobourg and District was the highest percapita contributor in measured campaigns. $450 dollars per person compared to the average $250.
Frank Farago used his time to explain the management mistakes observed in watching the CAO, Robert Biron. "Recent cuts do not include management even though the hospital will need less peolpe who are being manged, service cuts were made in the absence of alternate services and finishing with the quote, "hospitals serve patients not provide jobs.""
Deb O'Connor pointed out that low-income people, of all demographics are often unhealthier than the general population and cutting services will affect them the most as care now becomes more inaccessible than before. She suggested a few changes that could be made based on keeping community services local. But as with others she advocated the abolishment of the LHINs.
Peggy Smith described the emotional problem of trying to keep a level head on the very day that she, and all the others on her ward, were told that would be out of a job in September. She also mentioned the problems of trying to access distant clinics.
Rudy Roeleveld, a management consultant, explained, with the aid of PowerPoint his theories of the situation.
And, Tony Farren explained the upcoming AGM and the need for the members to elect him and two others to the Board for "transparency reasons". He explained the problems that his group has had in trying to influence the CAO, working on the onside, they have failed and "the public process of the hospital is one of not listening."
Others, not on the panel, also spoke. Michael Mackenzie, a supporter of the Board spoke with great courage as he publically supported the Board and criticised the "Citizens for Alternative Solutions" as being disruptive.
Others, Lloyd Williams, Bruce Steele, Jerry Ender, Stu Henry and Nancy Blakely all offered their opinions.
So how did it end up? Most people thought it was worthwhile and productive, we now know that are 375 paid-up members of the Association entitled to vote at the AGM for three new members chasing five vacancies. And the meeting was chaired very ably by Bridget Campion.
The 150th Anniversary of Victoria Hall came and went. The poetry performance in the Old Bailey Courtroom also came and went. There were two sessions of readings performed by Cobourg Poet Laureate emeritus, Eric Winter, and newly appointed Cobourg Poet Laureate, Jill Battson, and Port Hope resident, Patrick Gray, author of a single book of poetry, The Grace of Light, which is a limited edition.
It was an event organized and set up by the Cobourg Poetry Workshop, largely to promote and proselytize itself and its members. That it had anything to do with Cobourg, or anything to do with Victoria Hall, was almost beside the point.
The poets chose to recite British poets, American poets, and a few Canadian poets. The only link the poems had to Cobourg/Victoria Hall was that they were written during the lifespan of Victoria Hall. How easy and lazy is that! Cobourgers would be correct to think they had been short-changed.
Why was a Port Hope resident engaged to commemorate a Cobourg event? Does Cobourg not have any poets of its own? While it is understandable that the new Poet Laureate, Jill Battson, who was never a resident of Cobourg until 6 months ago, would be ignorant of Cobourg’s literary heritage, indeed, ignorant of the heritage of Victoria Hall, as were all three poets.
It’s not difficult to find the names of Cobourg’s poets of yore who wrote and published during the 150 years of Victoria Hall’s existence.Thomas Page, the cultured editor of the Newcastle Farmer in the later half of the 1840s, blessed Cobourg with two daughters who came to prominence as poets.
Elizabeth Agnes Page, published 36 poems in a 1850 book, Wild Notes from the Back Woods, with ironic parallels to another local poet, Susanna Moodie's, Roughing It In the Bush, which went on to inspire renown poet Margaret Atwood. Her sister, Rhoda Anne Page was well known for her poem,
Voices From The Woods: Oh! many a voice from the sequester'd wood May whisper to the soul in thoughtful mood, Wisdom that comes from Heaven.
Frederick Preston Rubidge (1806-98) was one of Cobourg's earliest poets, was also a producer and actor. He was noted for the sonnet, `River Otonabee` Stream of the wilderness, at whose far source The fierce wolf lappeth, or awaits its spoil; Through ages rolling thy ignoble course, But now to flow with corn, with wine, and oil.
Carrie Munson Hoople was another Cobourg poet, who had published ‘Along the Way With Pen and Pencil’, New York, 1909. She was also renowned locally for her incisive parodies.
Other poets that graced Cobourg include Stanley Howell, an insurance broker at the turn of the century who cleverly combined business and poetry, and Dorothy Herriman and Virna (Stanton) Sheard.
Let us not forget that one of Canada`s renown poets, Archibald Lampman (1861-99) was educated at Gores Landing, Cobourg Collegiate and Trinity School, Port Hope.
Cobourg also had poets during the twentieth century and they can be found published in the Cobourg Sentinel Star, especially during the era when Foster Meharry Russell was publisher and editor, as well as a poet and anthologists.
Long before the Cobourg Poetry Workshop existed, poetry was thriving in Cobourg – for five years during the late 1960s, young Cobourg poets published Refraction, containing poems written by individuals who eventually became prominent in the town. Cobourg has a rich heritage of poetry and poets, but this virtually unknown by the Cobourg Poetry Workshop, but then again, most of the self-declared poets of that group have shallow roots in Cobourg. The Town of Cobourg asserts that the duty of the Poet Laureate is to act ``as a literary ambassador for the Town of Cobourg.
Take a look at the video above and you will see that Glenda Jackson, a member of the Cobourg Poetry Workshop, was proselytizing as a literary ambassador for the group, not the Town of Cobourg Everywhere they appear, members of the Cobourg Poetry Workshop boast that they are a MAJOR VENUE for poetry in Cobourg. It is sure that they are a known and welcome node for poetry in Canada, but the self-aggrandizement is a bit over the top, especially in light of the fact that they have made negligible inroads in the very community they take their name from: COBOURG.The Cobourg Poetry Workshop organized a greet and meet authors a few weeks back in Grafton. The result was that almost twice as many authors showed up for their kudos people who attended to meet them. Now we have the 150th Anniversary, and the Cobourg Poetry Workshop failed to arouse any interest amongst the general population of Cobourg. It would appear that the Cobourg Poetry Workshop consists largely of a snobbish crew of the Better Poems and Garden set with no other purpose than the aggrandizement of their paying members. However, I do want to thank the group for their monthly poetry readings, which includes a feature poet from outside the workshop. These `real` poets are all too often my friends and colleagues that I have known for years in the poetry circles and triangles of Canada. It is a treat to have them visit my home town and sometimes drop over to my home. Wally Keeler
This Thursday at 10am drop around to Vic Hall and listen to Stan Frost tell the world why he wants to be Deputy Mayor. He's a budget guy and wants to get his hands on the Town budget, after all he has tuned up on the Police budget for the past three years.
That leaves Billy Mac to make a decision, otherwise the voters will make it for him, by tossing him out in November. In the wings, joining Forest Rowden and Larry Sherwin and John Henderson, will be Wayne DeVeau, who has told a couple of people that he will be running and now that Sue Glover-Dingsdale has her dream job she may not want to join the throng. But bet on at least ten names on the list. And before you ask, I am not making a decision until we can get the Hospital fight over for this year.
