Category Archives: Education

Entries focusing on environmental education

A Tale of Two Citizens

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Actually, it is tale of two groups of citizen representatives, but I thought it was a catchy title – you know … “the best of times, the worst of times.” Few of us can complain about life here in Caledon, except for the unemployed, underpaid, unhoused and unheard. Most of our citizens are living reasonably comfortable lives as serfs in the Ford kingdom of Ontario. No bombs, no starvation, no Gaza or Ukraine here.

On the other hand, our Town of Caledon is currently divided between two groups of citizen representatives whose belief systems are worlds apart. One group believes that exponential growth and greed is a good thing. One group believes that smart growth and small is beautiful is a good thing. That philosophical divide makes it very hard to come to consensus on issues that pit greed and growth against ecological security and sustainable development. And, of course, in any set of opposing groups, there is always the fence sitter, whose disguise is compromise.

Over the last month I have been able to communicate with both groups, who I will call the Urban and the Rurban Teams. The current Urban group sees nothing wrong with the idea that in ten years Bolton will look like Brampton. They don’t want to oppose the developers in court, so just let them do what they want, build those communities, and former smart growth plans and By-laws be damned. If the law stops our growth, we’ll change the law! They believe in their hearts that this approach is right for Caledon.

The Rurban group on the other hand, believes in the Smart Growth planning for Caledon’s future created in the past twenty years under the Councils of Mayors Morrison and Thompson. These plans allowed for the protection of farmland, Greenspace, and places of ecological significance while allowing for communities to develop in appropriate places with future public transportation as a mobility culture goal.

In an article three years ago, I advised that if Caledon elected the wrong team of candidates, Caledon would look like Brampton in ten years. Doug Ford’s Bill 3 speeded that up with the Strong Mayors act and the offer of hundreds of thousands of dollars to build houses quickly. Who does this benefit more than anyone? The developers who vie for access to those previously untouched lands. Don’t believe me? Check who are the top developer donors who are “friends” of our current Premier. Their names are all on public record. At his fundraisers.

And several of them are alive and well and  influencing development in Caledon. The Urban Team is doing their bidding. The Rurban Team is fighting an uphill battle against power and money. So how do we help? We let the Urban Team of Mario Russo, Tony Rosa, Cosimo Napoli, and Annette Groves know that they will not be re-elected for the next municipal term if they vote to support a developer’s bid to destroy a newly created Caledon greenspace. The fence sitter will need to decide, regardless of the reports submitted to the Town on the viability of the destruction of this greenspace, on which side of the fence they want to be. Because one side is coming down.

“The only thing that is needed for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.”

The way I see it.

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The word rurban (rural+urban) refers to a geographic territory/landscape which possess the economic characteristics and lifestyles of an urban area while retaining its essential rural area features.

Moments of Peace

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Every morning at 5;00 a.m., a cold nose touches my hand. I pat the bed and 50 pounds of border collie love leaps aboard. We share about ten minutes of snuggles and sleepy conversation, and then he leaps off. It’s morning walk time.

I like this routine, especially in the summer. The mornings are cooler and quiet and generally car free. He has learned to walk on a relaxed leash now, very attentive to road crossings and the etiquette of using the boulevards to do his business. On the way, there is one favourite stop. A neighbour on our long loop has planted the most exquisite garden on both sides of the sidewalk.

He never pees there, but we both stop and circle the garden and sniff the flowers. I keep meaning to drive back during the day and thank them. They have cleverly planted the plots to bloom beautifully from spring to fall. A gift of peace to their neighbourhood reminding us all to stop and smell the flowers.

A little later on this walk, we usually bump into Bonnie. We met her one morning, a tiny grey clothed figure walking in the early morning light. Chase immediately went up to her with a wagging tale and she immediately fell in love with him. We chatted for a long time like old friends, Chase just sat down at her feet. Bonnie is eighty and I will turn eighty next year, so we had a lot of stories to share.

I look for her now every morning, another sign of positive energy and peace on the long walk through life. It is a balm from all the political chaos and personal tribulations that this life can throw at us. I may go back into battle tomorrow, but tonight I can dream of peace. The way I see it.

Propaganda 101

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The other day my wife sent me an Instagram clip of the Press Secretary for the President of the United States, a person named Karoline Leavitt, stating that the White House was demanding that President Trump receive the Nobel Peace Prize. In the clip she appears to enter a dream state, uttering all sorts of fantastical claims about the President’s prowess as a peacemaker.

The problem is, none of her proclamations fact-check. They may exist in Trump’s mind, made more believable for MAGATS through Ms. Leavitt’s eloquence, but they are simply half truths or mistruths. In the media world, this is known as propaganda. Adolph Hitler had Joseph Goebbels; Donald Trump has Karoline Leavitt. The Supreme Leader’s Propagandist has one purpose: to build up the leader to a point of almost divine superiority, one whose edicts and accomplishments must be elevated to levels inspiring awe and blind loyalty in their followers.

When I first saw the clip, I though it was an AI satire. No one could possibly make all of those outrageous and gag worthy claims and keep a straight face. But then I saw the official White House press release – it was all real. Ms. Leavitt seems to believe that everything she says about President Trump is the white evangelistic gospel truth.

Fortunately, the same clip showed a second section, with another person providing some truth serum to the press briefing. That was the Indian journalist Palki Sharma Upadhyay whose video rebuttal was a refreshing appeal to intelligent discourse. It was a full and frequently humorous assault on Trump’s arrogance. In it she outlined Trump’s addiction to “big bombs” asking if this was indicative of a man of peace. “In just five months, Trump has overseen nearly as many US airstrikes (529) as were recorded across the entire four years of the previous administration (555).” That quote quote came from ACLED President Clionadh Raleigh as reported in Turkey’s Anadolu Anjasi.

She then went on to detail the horrendous impacts of Trump’s cuts to foreign aid. That’s the loss of $60,000,000 for nutrition programs, vaccination campaigns, public health centres, and maternal health programs. The medical journal The Lancet predicts that Trump’s cuts could lead to 14,000,000 deaths by 2030. She concluded with, “Does this sound like a Peace laureate to you?”

And by the way Karoline Leavitt, it’s pronounced the Nobel Peace Prize, not the Noble Peace Prize. There’s nothing noble about this president’s actions. The way I see it.

 

 

Things Fall Apart

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TThis is not a satire article. This is probably the most serious article I have ever written. Between the Strong Mayor powers bestowed by Doug Ford’s. Bill 5, and Bill C5 enacted by PM Carney, we are in danger of losing our democracy. I cannot lecture, I am not on any pulpit of sanctity here.

Through the granting of Strong Mayor Powers, this Provincial Government has done the equivalent of handing a lite stick of dynamite to a toddler, saying “Go play!”

On the bigger scene, this Province and Country are royally screwed if if we allow this erosion of democracy to continue. The King had it right in his throne speech. “Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) is a crucial human right for Indigenous peoples, recognized internationally and enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).” How did we allow our PM to miss that!

Rewrite Bill C5, rescind Bill 5, and clean up your Acts. The way I see it.

Flushing out the Rumours

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Every once in a while our toilet system gets clogged. Two heavy duty burrito eating twenty-five year olds in the house may be part of the problem. They claim that their late night consumption of copious amounts of Mexican food and the flush failure is purely coincidental. Nevertheless, when that old toilet backs up it’s a scary moment. You notice the water not going down and you try to flush again. Big Mistake!

Your heart beats faster as the murky water rises to the top of the rim of the toilet bowl. You have grabbed all the towels from the wash, waiting for the dreaded overflow. Afraid not to make a vibration that may cause a ripple over the rim, you tiptoe to the basement corner where the toilet plunger resides. It is a dirty job, no glory here, but the plunger has never failed to get shit done.

The first delicate push, then the second, a more forceful third, and then comes the glorious deep sound of water and paper and composted burritos exiting the toilet bowl down the drain. Another flush and the clean water of renewal swirls back into your life.

So it is with rumours. They clog the channels of intelligent discourse. They fill healthy  social communication with murky speculation, conspiracy theories, and downright mistruths that get repeated in a sociopathic game of broken telephone. Take for example the rumours swirling about Mayor Annette Groves.

Was she still living in Caledon? Had she moved into a home in Brampton? Was she living in Woodbridge or Kleinberg in York Region?

I didn’t know, so I decided to drop by the Mayor’s old house in Bolton to see if she was still there. Nobody was around, so I texted her to let her know I was trying to verify that the Mayor of Caledon was still living in Caledon. That was when the toilet began to back up.

The Mayor responded by telling me that she still had the same residence in Bolton for herself and family, and that I could share that with my readers. She added that I was not to come by her house again or she would call the police. Ouch! I texted back to confirm that I would not come by again.

At 10:30 that night, just after I had gone to sleep, my son responded to a doorbell ring. He came up to my bedroom to tell me that there were three police officers at the door. I smiled. Time to clear the drain. I went downstairs, and sure enough there were three fully loaded OPP officers standing at the door. It was a hot steamy night, so I invited them into the cooler foyer and said, “This is from the Mayor, right?”

Yes, indeed the Mayor, fearing for her life, had called the police. “Yes sir,” the officer replied, “May I see some ID, please. and this is being recorded.” “Oh good,” I replied, “because I want to tell you the full story.” I showed the officers my text, her threat to call the police, my return text saying that I would not visit her neighbourhood again, did not do so… “And yet, here you are,” I noted. The officer explained that Mayor Patrick Brown had been receiving death threats and they had to respond to calls of concern. The toilet was really  plugged.

I replied that I didn’t know anything about Patrick Brown’s troubles. “I was merely trying to verify if the Mayor still resided in Caledon. I don’t know how that could possibly be interpreted as a threat.” First stroke of the plunger. “Am I still being recorded?” The lead officer replied “Yes.” “Oh good, because I want to share the full background on why I needed to clarify her place of residence.”

In a moment of pure bliss, I then delivered my ten minute delegation on the “Swan Lake” issue that was blocked by the Mayor and Clerk and some members of Council on July 8, 2025. The protests were covered on the front page of the July 10, 2025 edition of the Caledon Citizen. My delegation is now available on an OPP video recording available through an FOI request. The plunger stroked down again.

When I finished, the younger officer on the scene told me that the Mayor didn’t want me to communicate with her any more via email, phone, or letter. I stepped closer to him and said, “That is not going to happen. I am a citizen of Caledon and a journalist. If I need to communicate with the Mayor of my town, I will.” The plunger cleared the drain and the sweet waters of renewal filled the foyer.

I thanked the officers for their diligence and professionalism, and we said goodnight. Shortly after that incident, I made a visit to the OPP offices on Innis Lake Road, where I left a compliment to the OPP for their officers’ professionalism that evening, and made a complaint that the Mayor abused her powers by calling in protection from our police over a request for her to verify her residence in Caledon. Remember the little boy who cried wolf? In the end he lost  his flock.

I can assure you Mayor Groves, no threat to your safety will come from me. Now, your tenure as Mayor, that is another matter. That could be up to your next decision on Swan Lake. As I see it.