What's the cost of disagreeing with Mississauga City Hall?
Well, if you are interested citizen Stephen Wahl and you take your objections to the City's new ward boundaries to the Ontario Municipal Board, the cost could be $8,795.16.
That's the amount of the invoice that the City has asked Wahl to pay for the costs it incurred at a Sept. 14 OMB hearing.
Talk about your political overkill. Is City Hall going to get into the business of punishing citizens for exercising their rights to express a contrary opinion to the gospel according to She Who Must Be Obeyed Because She Never Will Retire?
Apparently so.
Now, don't get me wrong. Wahl should have known better than to show up before the OMB without a lawyer, with no real witnesses and with accusations of "gerrymandering" that he could back up only with fuzzy recollections of statements at city council meetings.
But, wasn't the embarrassment that Wahl put himself through at the Board, and the slagging of councillors at a subsequent council meeting, enough suffering?
After all, OMB Vice-Chair Susan Campbell dismissed Wahl's case in a heartbeat, without even retiring from the room to consider her rationale. She reprimanded him strongly.
"The allegation of gerrymandering gives the apprehension of this being a frivolous and vexatious appeal," she said.
Council took that statement as a licence to pile on.
Why is council being so hard on an ordinary working Joe to whom $8,700 is a big pile of dough?
"Muzzle," says long-time City Hall watcher Roy Willis, another political gadfly like Wahl who loves to stir the pot. "They want to keep him quiet so they're telling him don't do that anymore."
If Wahl's actions are frivolous and vexatious, what does that make those who would crush a long-time citizen-volunteer for having the temerity to questions the motives of politicians setting political boundaries? How about malicious and mean-spirited?
Comments (2)
If City Hall can afford legal fees and enough red tape to lynch volunteers, there’s certainly no short fall to raise property taxes 18%.
Posted by wayne nagy | October 21, 2005 10:01 AM
Posted on October 21, 2005 10:01
I don't see how the city has the power to force him to pay the bill. I'm far from an expert on the OMB but the way law usually works is that people only have to pay their opponents legal bills if a magistrate (person in charge of the court/tribunal/proceedings) finds it is appropiate.
And its in pretty rare instances where they actually do that. Going into a course case everybody is told that (if they can afford it) they have to pay their own legal bills.
Does the OMB have the power to order Wahl to pay the city's bill? If do, did the OMB directly order him to pay it?
If they didn't then how does the city have the power to compel Wahl?
If the city is harassing him to pay the bill and they have no authority to do this then that would be a gross abuse of civil rights and would likely be illegal.
Whoah that was a long legal rant. I'm not a legal expert but this whole situation sounds strange and fishy to me.
Posted by OJ | October 19, 2005 8:42 PM
Posted on October 19, 2005 20:42