The Deed Is Done

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Melange":

Councillor Buck, do you really think you should have published 11:11's comment? With our recent town history of defamation and libel actions, those unfair comments strike me as potentially injurious to Mr Thompson.

Please take better care.

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The comments are not helpful to either Councillor or the Mayor. I appreciate your concern for the Councillor's well being.

If there is a common denominator in politics, it is that criticism is an occupational  hazard.

You should have been there on Tuesday to hear Susan Walmer accost residents and promise "two more years" and we'll be back.

In the recent defamation  suit  undertaken against three people in Aurora  for publishing critical comments about a politician, the final determination was clear:

Citizens are entitled to criticize their government. There can be no law to restrict that freedom.

This is Canada, people.

 If we stand for nothing else, we have a  Charter of Freedoms.

Not everyone in the world  has that. Civilizations older than our own
don't have it.

We  have it  and  Sae  the Lord be thankit.

I think it might have been the Scottish genetic half of the late Pierre Elliott Trudeau that drove him to complete his second objective before he left politics forever.

Prior to Mormac, I never knew a politician who would  think of publicly complaining  about political criticism.

Since the internet, people  never before in a position to exercise the right without being fearful of losing a job, or a client or
 of a child paying the price in the classroom or the school yard, can now say what they think, anonymously, without  risk. Never, in the history of democracy, have people been as free as they are now to participate freely in  political debate.

Obviously tt would  be better if they could affix their names without fear of any consequences.  But we are not their yet.

Some argue there should be consequences. Along with freedom goes responsibility.

 I would argue fear is what has kept  democracy from coming alive.

I voted for Michael Thompson. I advised people  to vote for the Councillor.  As late as Tuesday's  meeting I commended my  colleagues for  thoughtful logical dignified argument in  support of the Abel/Pirri resolution in the face of  virulent and unbridled opposition.

The crowd had had their say. The town's business was set aside to allow them to repeat falsehoods and deliberate misrepresentation of the facts over and over.

Councillors took their various positions in defence of the town's interest and  fulfilled  their obligations with  calm dignity.

The debate  ended. It was  time  to call the vote.

The Mayor waited. Sure enough out of the blue came a   pretext of an amendment , that altered  the purpose  of the motion  and neutered its objective. 

The move  was seconded by Councillor Thompson, accepted by the presiding member and put to a vote.
 
 Had  they asked my advice would have been. You can't play games like that with public trust.  Try it and you  lose far more than you gain.

Putting a lid on criticism will not put out the fire.

The public watched it happen.

The rules are harsh.There are no second chances.

 I never promised  you a rose garden?