I've been asked to comment on the Mayor of Georgina suit against a former municipal employee for defamation and the rig-a-ma-role undertaken by Council to legitimize spending public resources to defend the Mayor's political reputation .
Since I am currently engaged in litigation against the ex-Mayor of Aurora and five Councillors , which is in small part about defamation of my character, my solicitor would probably advise me to steer clear
But there may be a couple of observations I am free to make.
I have a satellite in Keswick. I called my son with birthday wishes on Wednesday.
He asked if I'd heard about Grossi's Mountain. I said I had seen some video on Roger's Cable about the complex but I didn't know that was the official name.
He said it isn't. That's how it's known locally.
He told of a friend who had been on the toboggan run with his children. It was so fast it was terrifying.
Well, I thought, that's not good news.
Seems the snow-making machinery is situated so it creates blizzard conditions on a public highway. White-outs and icy conditions on the pavement.
My word, I thought.
Seems the former Director of Leisure Services Director said that would happen but they didn't pay any attention.
The facility ran substantially over budget. In the millions.
Hmmmm .....That's not good.
What is really odd about the situation is the former director speaking out.. He apparently wrote a Letter to the Editor in the local newspaper.
Two things about that.
First ....no mention of the newspaper being sued
Second .....public servants generally accept settlements and go away quietly. To do otherwise is to pretty well blow away your chance of being hired by another municipality. It's not professionally advantageous to take on a fight with politicians, except at the ballot box maybe.
It's not exactly a conspiracy of silence but it's close.
Keswick is a community of young families. The price of housing goes down the farther out from Toronto. The new facility would ordinarily be well received in a young community.
The municipality bought the seminary and farm years ago for a town administration centre.
I held a Social Assistance Review Board Hearing there in the eighties. The Council Chamber was a former chapel complete with light streaming from the windows on our heads. Like the Holy Ghost. A Catholic altar is generally designed that way.
The reception area had a furry fish that looked like rabbit in a glass trophy case
It was quite odd, presiding at a hearing seated on an altar.It seemed almost sacrilegious
Maybe it influenced Mayor Grossi's decision to sue a former employee for $100,000.
The Divine Rights of Kings and all that jazz.
Maybe $100,000 was the amount of the settlement
Litigation may be a way of trying to get it back now the beans were spilled about what caused the split between himself and the leisure services director.
A number of links has been provided to stories on the issue.
I haven't read them yet.
I didn't want to spoil my initial reaction.
Friday 27 January 2012
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16 comments:
One of our daughters teaches in Keswick. She said that the Mayor has made a mistake by drawing attention to what the Council has been doing. It has allowed the anger to focus when it was just swirling harmlessly before. Apparently a local Blog got interest peaked,
Years ago, many of them, Toronto was forced to shut down its very popular toboggan runs in High Park. The speeds that were being reached were dangerous and the accidents just piled up. Lovely long run down the steep hill and across the ice, frozen feet and icy mitts of wool, none of the new space age snow clothes.
How strange and refreshing not to have Aurora money on this race ! Weird that the talk in Keswick is about what to do with the money when the Mayor wins. What if he loses? That town will be on the hook and McLean does not sound like a roll-over. Fun entertainment and not costing us anything.
A shame that you cannot talk about this, It is long past the time when the actions of the former council should be controlling what we say or think. But it does look as though the Georgina Mayor's Mountain may contain something other than Rock Candy,
I see Progress in Keswick !!!! The blogger there is posting material worse than what the Mayor accused the staffer, former, of saying because he is confidant. And he is confidant because of what Aurora's bloggers did and what the courts ruled. Progress. Well done, Home Team.
This is the way I see it. Please feel to correct me if I’m wrong.
Aurora’s FORMER Mayor Morris used a vague council motion in order to access town funds in an effort to pay for her PRIVATE lawsuit directed against her political rivals who dared to try and hold her to account, despite the fact that the town’s much trumpeted Code of Conduct says that “public office can't be used for personal gain”. Morris then gets lots of heat from the public and a few weeks later loses the election by a landslide, capturing less than 22% of the vote. The new council cuts her funding off given the very apparent public outcry and then they pass a resolution that will make it more difficult but not impossible, for future politicians to access public funds in any potential future effort to silence political free speech. It then turns out that Morris has to face yet another court date in August 2012 given her potential breach of the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act stemming from how she went about getting funding for her private lawsuit (stay tuned for the outcome of that one). Once the playing field was evened out from a funding perspective and once Morris lost her Norwich motion on the grounds that she had not proven that defamation had even taken place she had to pay over $27,500 to the defendants. Shortly after, Morris discontinued her private lawsuit.
In Georgina, a past town director and Regional Councillor tried to defend town staff and Georgina Council saw fit to pass a motion that grants the Mayor personal access to town funds which were not available under the town’s insurance coverage, in order for the mayor to PRIVATELY sue a resident for the offence of sharing his opinion on matters of public importance. I bet that most Auroran’s know where this is going ! For more information on what is going in Georgina you can find stories, editorials and comments in the Pefferlaw Post and feel free to Google "Mayor Grossi lawsuit" on York Region.com. Every single response that I’ve seen to date from the public and in the opinion pieces have been very critical of Georgina Council and the actions of Mayor Gossi, which likely comes as no surprise to most residents of Aurora.
Anyone concerned with our fundamental democratic rights should take note of both of these cases. The implications stemming from politicians and lawyers accessing public funds in an effort to stifle political free speech are positively scary. Bad things happened when good people are afraid to speak up due to the potential of legal retribution paid for by their own government, regardless of their innocence.
As of Jan 26th, calls to Georgina's Town Hall were told that Mr. McLean was still an employee.
Governments have media relations departments, they websites, they can write letters and respond to comments made on blogs. They can even pay for ads. Why do certain politicians believe that the facts will defend them when they are challenged ?
There is a reason why it is illegal and unconstitutional for governments to be able to sue those they serve. It’s too bad that some politicians see fit to use tax dollars as their personal piggy bank while apparently circumventing the intent of the laws that are designed to protect free speech.
To the way I see it @10:42
Hard to argue your portrayal of events here in Aurora , but one must caution the passing of judgment in far flung regions, all situations are not exactly equal no matter how they appear , Yes citizens cry out rage at the very notion of what are seemingly political bully tactics aimed a muzzling opponents and critics , however until the dirty laundry is publicly washed clean there are two sides to every story, In this one all we know is that a senior staff member was quietly ushered out the door, this usually signifies shit has hit the fan , Quite often it also means that finances trade hands and gag papers are executed ,If for some reason the gag fails and words spew forth publicly there could be a price to pay , We'll have to wait and see ,
The way I see it
To the way I see it @10:42
Hard to argue your portrayal of events here in Aurora , but one must caution the passing of judgment in far flung regions, all situations are not exactly equal no matter how they appear , Yes citizens cry out rage at the very notion of what are seemingly political bully tactics aimed a muzzling opponents and critics , however until the dirty laundry is publicly washed clean there are two sides to every story, In this one all we know is that a senior staff member was quietly ushered out the door, this usually signifies shit has hit the fan , Quite often it also means that finances trade hands and gag papers are executed ,If for some reason the gag fails and words spew forth publicly there could be a price to pay , We'll have to wait and see ,
The way I see it
Instead of wasting taxes on this frivolous lawsuit, Mayor Rob Grossi could have saved us ALL a boatload of money, and saved HIMSELF from the disdain of an angry public by saying this:
"A disgruntled former employee has spoken his piece in this newspaper, as is his right.
Here is my rebuttal...."
I was unaware that he was using our money to sue the newspaper too...very interesting post.
Keep up the Wood Gork.
Well, I sat back and watched the Aurora mayoral scandal with much interest and looky looky what's been a brewing in my own backyard. Grossi and his posse offend me on a regular basis ignoring the public, and making decisions such as this in their own best interest.
To KeswickPinhead, 28 January, 2012 6:47 PM
I'm not sure that Mr. Grossi is suing the papers that ran the letters to the editor, which could in itself be seen as evidence that this is in fact a "SLAPP" lawsuit which is intended to silence political criticism.
If Mayor Grossi didn't in fact sue the papers someone may want to ask why... it's your tax money being used after all. Most people would think that the public has a right to understand council's logic (if you can call it that).
Anonymous said...
One of our daughters teaches in Keswick. She said that the Mayor has made a mistake by drawing attention to what the Council has been doing. It has allowed the anger to focus when it was just swirling harmlessly before. Apparently a local Blog got interest peaked,
27 January, 2012 4:54 PM
REPLY: Call it a mistake if you want but I call it grace that his insatiable ego feeding has finally reached heights that create a view for more people to see the truth. The harmless swirling was never harmless, Grossi hill was a mistake and rather than re-direction, the mayor chose to blow sunshine up the arses of the citizens with grandiose promises,that never panned out and wasted and continues to waste our tax dollars, so harmless it was not. I wish a mistake that exposed the truth had occurred much sooner
I can only hope that the people of Georgina are heard loud and clear at the next council meeting !
Anonymous said (second time around)...
Governments have media relations departments, they have websites, they can write letters and respond to comments made on blogs, just like the rest of us. Some politicians even have speech writers. Town’s can even pay for ads. Why don't some politicians believe that the facts will suffice for their defence when they are challenged ?
There is a reason why it is illegal and unconstitutional for governments to be able to sue those they serve. It’s too bad that some politicians see fit to use tax dollars as their personal piggy bank while apparently circumventing the intent of the laws that are designed to protect free speech. Some politicians would apparently rather crush their opponents on the town's dime. Keep that in mind the next election.
28 January, 2012 11:22 AM
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