What’s the Rush?

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Some members of Caledon Town Council are in quite a rush to pass a new fill By-law for the Town. However, those same Councillors are not so keen to have legitimate public understanding of or informed input into the final version of that law. It is but another example of “developer influenced” democracy in the Town of Caledon.

Consider that a public meeting and Open House to review a new By-law dealing with procedural issues is being given five hours for presentation and discussion time. The new fill By-law, which will impact the health of Caledon for decades, is being given a two hour Open House presentation and discussion window. Someone is stacking the deck.

The Town has admitted that the urgency to pass the new By-law is being done “to accommodate a prominent developer.” The same developer for whom Premier Ford was going to change the route of the proposed 413  highway to benefit one of the developer’s projects. It seems that the philanthropic developer from Vaughan, Mr. Nicholas Cortellucci is the driving force behind Council’s rush to change the fill By-law.

The object of  his desire, in this case, is the property known locally as Swan Lake located at 0 Shaw’s Creek Road/519 Charleston Sideroad. Despite Ontario policies protecting water bodies from receiving waste soil, the developer and some members of the Caledon Town Council think it’s OK to change Caledon’s fill By-laws to allow this to happen quickly.

No, it’s not OK. It is a perversion of democracy and a betrayal of promises made to protect Caledon’s environment and greenspaces, to reduce dangerous truck traffic, and to listen to the voices of your constituents. The very successful and wonderfully philanthropic Mr. Cortellucci does not deserve to have his name dragged through the mud just because some members on Town of Caledon Council picked the wrong Lake to try to fill with waste soil.

Increase the Open House time, increase the question and answer time for this By-Law, and bring back participatory democracy.

Once upon a time our Strong Mayor, Annette Groves, said: “As part of Pits to Parks, the town would like CVC (Credit Valley Conservation Authority) to consider investigating the potential acquisition of the property at 0 Shaw’s Creek Road/519 Charleston Sideroad given this property’s proximity to the Pinchin Pit,”

Yep, time to reconsider. The way I see it.

A Brief History of the 413

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Once upon a time in Ontario, way back in 2002, a Premier named Michael Deane Harris was promoting what he called “A Common Sense Revolution.” Part of that common sense was recognizing that very wealthy and influential developers have lots of money to grease the wheels of industry and fill political war chests.

So, in order to help them boost the value of their lands in north Brampton and south Caledon, Mike and his friends came up with the concept of the GTA East West Economic Corridor. This was the birth of what would become the proposed 413 highway. The original concept morphed into the GTA West Corridor, until the plan was canned by the Kathleen Wynne Liberal government.

Enter Doug Ford and his cohort of developers who still want to boost the value of their lands. Now we have the proposed 413 Highway and extension that originally was intended to connect to Guelph, and Kitchener-Waterloo with their universities. That was shortened to become a route that would link Vaughan to Caledon through Brampton to Halton Hills.

The most recent “developer influenced” request to reroute the 413 in order to boost the value of  his lands came straight to Premier Ford and he said, “Yes.” Then he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar (AGAIN) and in a recent press conference had to admit to his misdemeanour and go back to the pre- developer influenced plan for the proposed 413. And right beside him, in his public admission of the developer influencers, was the Mayor of Caledon, “bang on” in agreement with the Premier, according to him.

Also witnessing this spectacle  was Conservative MPP Sylvia Jones, she who was an absentee landlord during the Covid epidemic, claiming that this would provide more time for families to be together. Well, the studies are mixed on whether or not the proposed 413 extension will provide any gridlock relief whatsoever. Sylvia, your warm and fuzzy family time stories may make good optics, but they have no basis in reality. Your story has no plot. You are selling a pipe dream, and no dream catcher in the world will help you when the public wakes up.

Dear constituent, you are being fed one of the biggest lies of the decade, next to Donald Trump being the Second Coming. “We are building this highway to help reduce your travel time, and increase your family time, and prevent gridlock. Actually, if I must be truthful Ontario, we, your government, are promoting this proposed highway so that friends of mine can make a whole lot of money.” Quote from an unnamed Ontario Conservative politician who can neither  confirm nor deny that they were part of this interview.

And that’s just the tip of the “developer influenced” iceberg. The way I see it.

 

Life out of Balance

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The Hopi had a word for it – Koyaanisqatsi – Life out of Balance. We know it intuitively in our gut when it’s happening. Supermarkets loaded with stores of food – chronic hunger and starvation in countries around the world. World “leaders” preaching peace – then dropping bombs. Politicians promising to respect rights – and passing Bills to overstep those rights. City Mayors hosting community fundraisers – with their own private event organizers.

It reminds me of the lyrics in the Crosby, Stills and Nash song “Long Time Gone”  “There’s somethingThere’s something goin’ on around hereSurely, you know it surely won’t stand the light of day.”

We know something is horribly out of balance, but how do we respond? It really depends on how comfortable we are. Or how informed we are. Here in Canada many of us live in a fairy tale. Home, food and water, shelter, sex, and a little time for arts and entertainment. For many it is a daily search for sustenance. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. If you don’t have the basics met, you don’t get to pass Go and collect your (in 1950’s Monopoly terms) $200.00.

To put life into balance you have to tighten your locus of control. For example, I can’t stop Donald Trump or Benjamin Netanyahu from dropping bombs. But I can treat my spouse and my children and my neighbours with love and respect. I can’t stop Doug Ford or Mark Carney from passing Bills that erode democracy and basic environmental safeguards. But I can ensure that I honour those rights and safeguards in my personal dealings with my community.

I may not be able to prevent local politicians from abusing their powers and selling out their community to the highest bidder, But I can speak truth to power and carefully cast my vote in the next election. It may not restore balance to the world, but it will keep balance in my world.

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.

 

 

When is a Mayor’s Gala NOT a Mayor’s Gala

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In the Town of Caledon a fundraising Gala was held on May 2, 2025 that saw thousands of dollars given out to support a wide variety of very fortunate community organizations, The generosity of the donors is admirable, and the organizations who received funding from the Gala must be very grateful. But the event itself has raised some questions when almost a month later the “Gala” was reported under a different title.

How did an invitation from Mayor Annette Groves to the “Mayor’s Gala 2025: a community fundraiser for 14 community organizations” become, in the gala committee’s invitation, the “Annette Groves Community Gala“? Did what appeared to be a Caledon event turn out to be a private function?. As reported in the May 29th edition of the Caledon Citizen it is called the “Annette Groves Community Gala“. But the online Eventbrite site for ordering tickets to the Mayor’s Gala 2025 carried the following invitation: For the purposes of responsible governance, fiscal transparency and accountability, a little clarification would be appreciated.

Mayor's Gala 2025 Tickets, Fri, May 2, 2025 at 6:00 PM | Eventbrite

You see when a Mayor’s Gala is announced it is assumed, quite rightly, that the Town or City of which the person is Mayor is helping to organize the event. Take for example the City of Ajax which describes it’s annual Gala this way:

“Since the Inaugural Gala in June 2019, the Ajax Mayor’s Gala has raised $1,300,000 net to support organizations making a meaningful impact in our community! In keeping with The Ajax Mayor’s Gala tradition, the purpose of our shared experience is to benefit charitable organizations and not-for-profits doing great work in our community.”

And the tickets aren’t cheap, with five sponsorship levels running from $10,000 to $30,000. Now that’s a lot of fundraising! But for a really big show, mark June 10, 2025 on your calendar! That’s the City of Vaughan Mayor’s Gala. Last year they raised 1.1 million dollars for local organizations. Again attendance isn’t cheap. You can be a Presenting Sponsor for $100,000 all the way down to a Corporate Table for only $5000.

Or, if you don’t have enough to do this pre-Christmas there’s always the Nov 29, 2025 Pickering Mayor’s Gala. The point is that towns and cities are always throwing fundraising events. But you won’t see the Ajax Mayor calling his event the “Shaun Collier Community Gala”, or the Pickering Mayor writing his own boastful article about the “Kevin Ashe Community Gala”, Or the Vaughan Mayor hosting the “Steven Del Duca Community Gala.”

So, what’s so different for the town of Caledon? An event originally titled as a Mayor’s Gala alludes immediately to the Town associated with that Mayor. People buy tickets and make donations based on that relationship. It is a fundraiser guided by the ethics, principles and policies of the Town, open to full financial disclosure and public accountability.

But when it becomes “Joe Schmo’s Community Gala”, not organized by a Town or City, that is a totally different matter. That can be a financial wild west show with money trails leading in all sorts of directions. Well, at least according to fans of Ozark. And the gifts doled out to the various community organizations are not done under the auspices of the Town. These are now personal donations from the Gala organizers.

What’s so odd about this recent Gala in Caledon is that it was clearly advertised on Eventbrite, the online ticket seller, as an “Invitation from Mayor Annette Groves to the Mayor’s Gala 2025” and yet weeks after the event Mayor Annette Groves wrote a glowing report in the local Caledon Citizen,  in her own Mayor’s column, about the “Annette Groves Community Gala

The Town has said they were not involved in the organization of this fundraiser, so who were the organizers of this sold out event? Will there be a full public accounting of all the monies raised, a list of the donors, and how the funds were distributed? If it is not the Town giving out this charitable money, then who? Queries to the Town of Caledon’s Communications Department for clarification were not answered by publication time.

In Caledon’s last municipal election campaign, a mayoralty candidate made this statement: “I believe in responsible government, fiscal transparency and accountability.”

Good words by which to live and lead.

The way I see it.

UPDATE. June 4, 2025, Town of Caledon Communications has responded that, although this is not a Town sponsored event, “This was Mayor Groves’ Annual Community Gala, which she held as a fundraiser to support local organizations doing meaningful work in Caledon.”

So, this event is clearly Annette Groves’ private Community Gala. Stay tuned.

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*image from Eventbrite