A Lugubrious Week End

Filled with reading . My own stuff.   I  mostly hate that.

By the time I finish with a post, it' has  usually been  edited.edited,and edited some more. It  seldom takes less than three hours. When I finally decide that' s it; it goes like that or it doesn't go at all. My mind  concludes, no more reading.no more changes. It's only a blog. I'm just chatting with  some of my neighbours. I'm not competing for the Gifford or the Nobel Peace Prize..

I threw that last one in to infuriate Evalina. I know she hates it when I display any sense of myself. She has to come up with the optimum deadly squelch which  usually  arrives seconds after I click on "Publish"

Adding tedium  to the reading is trying to discern how words, published for anyone to read,frank and free without fear or favour, could  be legally scrutinised  and  interpreted to mean  evil intent beyond political ethics and morality.

I found something of  current interest. The  comments sent  to the Aurora Citizen Blog by the town's  Chief Administrative Officer in June 2010 in response to a  critical comment which contained the word criminal.

The CAO  demanded the  comment be taken down, the identity of the pseudonym "New Man In Town" be revealed and by a deadline of 5.30 pm.

The deadline was a dead give away,  The dictation was clearly  by Phyllis. She  was in the  habit of  issuing  threats and deadlines in what she imagined was true style of a  Monarch surrounded by loyal courtiers and servants.

At the time of that particular contretemps, she informed council "staff". meaning  CAO and Solicitor,had not been able to do any of their own work for over a week while dealing with the Citizen Blog,Google and  the anonymous author.

High-priced staff man hours  used to fight  political battles, no doubt cost many thousands of  tax dollars in addition to legal fees paid to itinerant lawyers for the same purpose.

I swear, I have never seen politics done  like that.

I sent a comment to the Citizen that the CAO was not directed by Council to engage in  dialogue with a Blog about an anonymous comment. His  statement  therefore had no official status.I made a private reference to the CAO himself about it. Which, as far as I could determine, was water off a duck's back.

So here we are, in July 2011, after hundreds of thousands of dollars,public and private, spent on legal fees and court time.

A learned  judge has ruled. People have a right to freedom of expression. They have a right to anonymity, if they so choose. Particularly,  in the area of politics.

Was I right then? Or was I wrong?

Did we live through a twilight zone in Aurora for four years?

By the time it ends, what will the total tally be to  fight, in the year 2011,  for rights enjoyed by free societies everywhere and guaranteed  in only one. By a Charter passed in 1982 and implemented in 1985.

Was there ever any doubt in anyone's mind,. except Phyllis, her loyal band , some town  staff and the  lawyers she found  to do her bidding, at  a price.

Criticism is an essential feature of a free society.

Even before there was a Charter, there was an old political maxim;

"If you can't stand the heat, stay the hell  out of the kitchen"