Caledon Councillor Conduct Unbecoming

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Four months ago, I wrote a news report for Just Sayin’ Caledon from the May 24, 2022 regular Town of Caledon Council meeting titled: “You Take My Breath Away: truck traffic, aggregates, and air quality in Caledon.” It featured a delegation by Bolton resident Joe Grogan detailing his concerns about increasing truck traffic and the health hazards of diesel exhaust. Council was so impressed with Mr. Grogan’s delegation and detailed scientific and medical research that they passed a Motion to address air quality monitoring in Caledon.

Mr. Grogan noted with disappointment that his Regional Councillor, Annette Groves, was absent during his presentation: “I’m disappointed frankly, that Councillor Groves at the moment is not available but hopefully she will appear and make some comments.” Unfortunately that did not happen and the Town Clerk noted when the vote was recorded that “Councillor Groves is still absent.” That struck me as curious. Ms. Groves purports to be a champion of community health and an opponent of heavy truck traffic around and through Bolton. So, where was Regional Councillor Annette Groves on the evening of May 24, 2022?

Before we answer that question keep in mind that Municipal Councillors play both a legislative role and a constituency role. “In their legislative role they are responsible for considering and establishing policies and by laws to implement Council’s decisions.” Our Caledon councillors are paid (before the raise) $40,000 a year by the taxpaying citizens of Caledon to carry out that legislative role responsibly and to be responsive to their constituents.

On May 24, 2022, instead of fulfilling her legislative and constituency roles in Council, Regional Councillor Annette Groves was attending a “Family and Friends” BBQ hosted by Falcon Xpress Transportation Group Inc, a firm with whom the Town of Caledon is currently in litigation. The legal department could not confirm at the time if this was in relation to the ongoing illegal trucking issues plaguing the Town.

At this “Family and Friends” event, Ms. Groves gave a speech seeking support for her mayoral bid in the Town of Caledon. Several other politicians were at the event, mostly campaigning for support in the Ontario provincial election.

Keep in mind that Councillors receive their agenda for the Council meetings days in advance, so Ms. Groves was fully aware that one of her own constituents was making a delegation on an topic which she claimed to champion. Instead, she chose to violate her constituency responsibilities by being deliberately absent from Council that evening. Further, she violated her legislative responsibilities by missing both the discussion and vote to create a policy for air quality monitoring in Caledon.

Add to this her attendance at an event hosted by a company with whom the Town was in litigation, and some might call it a breech of ethics or a conflict of interest or fiscally irresponsible, Some might choose all of the above.

In any case it was conduct unbecoming, and certainly unworthy of anyone seeking the office of Mayor. The way I see it.

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Skid Crease, Caledon

 

 

 

 

Setting the Record Straighter

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The Betrayal of Caledon, continued …

On Thursday, August 18, 2022, Regional Councillor and mayoral candidate Annette Groves put out a post on Facebook titled “Setting the Record Straight.” That record is in regard to Ms. Groves role in reducing Caledon’s representation at Peel Region Council. Unfortunately, Ms. Groves omitted a few key details which actually made the record more crooked. The act of concealing or misrepresenting the truth is known as deceit.

In her Facebook post, Councillor Groves encouraged all of us “to please do your research and look at the facts and the recorded votes which will clearly tell the truth.”

One omitted fact, on public record in the Peel Region Council recorded votes for November 26, 2020 reveals that Regional Councillor Groves was one of seventeen councillors who voted in favour of the Motion to reduce Caledon’s seats from 5 to 3 representatives. All other Caledon councillors present voted against the Motion. That is a fact.

At the Special Meeting called by Peel Region on December 17, 2020 to ratify the reduction of seats motion, the councillors from Caledon stood up and left the chambers. All but one – Caledon Regional Councillor Annette Groves. Under a Region of Peel bylaw, a council meeting cannot take place unless one representative from each of its three municipalities is present. If all of the Caledon councillors had left the chambers, the meeting would have ended, no vote could have been taken on the Motion, and it would have died on the floor or been deferred to a later date. That is a fact.

Ms. Groves was fully aware of the process of breaking quorum, having joined her colleagues from Caledon in walking out of a Region of Peel meeting on June 11, 2015 in order to stop a vote that would have stripped Caledon of authority over its own planning. However, this time Ms. Groves chose to stay, preserving quorum and allowing the vote to proceed. To add insult to injury, Ms. Groves then cast a duplicitous  inconsequential NO vote, thereby allowing her to go down on public record as having voted against the same motion she had previously supported.  The Motion was ratified. That is a fact.

This was the betrayal of Caledon. Facts and clear truth, All on public record at the Region of Peel. You can either trust the facts or you can buy the lie. Buyer beware.

Just setting the record straighter. The way I see it.

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Skid Crease, Caledon

 

2022 – From Local Chaos to Global Crisis

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We were hoping it would get better.In Ontario, We seemed to be turning the corner on the COVID-19 pandemic and things were about to get back to “normal” this year. Then came the temper-tantrum truckers who terrorized Ottawa for three weeks because they couldn’t handle the mask or the needle. We had Conservative members of Parliament cheering them on from the bridges of Ottawa. We had to bring in the Emergencies Act to get them out of town because the local police felt helpless to stop the honking diesel fume spewing trucks, and the harassment of local citizens.

They blocked borders, disrupted trade and commerce, sickened a city and forced our democratically elected government to invoke the Emergencies Act for the first time in history. Some of the terrorists got arrested but the rest of them all just went home. The border crossing mask mandate they were protesting still held, and it looks like the legitimate government they were trying to overthrow is sitting pretty until 2025.

The estimated cost to the City of Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, for the so-called “Freedom” Convoy’s selfish stupidity is an estimated $36 million and counting.  We thought that we had it bad.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine and all of our troubles faded in comparison. President Vladimir Putin claimed he was defending Russia’s borders. The UN knew otherwise and condemned his actions. The Kremlin was angry that international leaders were calling Putin a “war criminal” but what do you call a man who shells maternity hospitals and cluster bombs residential neighbourhoods? The UN called it a humanitarian crisis as four  million people fled Ukraine with more than half of those refugees entering neighbouring Poland. More than 10 million people, a quarter of the population, have been forced to leave their homes and belongings. NATO leaders talked about help but refused to call for a “no fly” zone over Ukraine. So much for diplomacy.

Meanwhile, as I write this, Ukraine continues to be pulverized by the Russian war machine. What’s stopping NATO? The very real fear that Putin may retaliate with nuclear weapons leading to a cataclysmic World War Three. While we delay, Ukraine is paying the price for our cowardly failure to admit them to the European Union and NATO. We have colleagues at the Kyiv Osokorky Elementary School currently under siege and begging for European and western assistance. Sometimes there is only one way to stop a bully.

Meanwhile in Ontario, the “Scientific and Chamber of Commerce Advisory Panel” has lifted the mask mandate and begun to Open Ontario for Business once again. Boss Ford faces a provincial election in June, Asphalt Annie wants to run for Mayor of Caledon in our October municipal election, and the weather, after a brief fling with spring, is turning back to cold and snow again. The least of our worries.

2022 is going to be a very interesting year. The way I see it.

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Skid Crease, Caledon