Video "Allow the Ontario Ombudsman into Municipalities!" Please click here to go directly YouTube
Today we discovered one of our favourite turtles in a perilous situation. We've known her since 2002. Yesterday she was just fine. Today--well here's what she looked like.
Big fish hook embedded in her left flipper, fishing line attached to a milk jug float... She couldn't even rest on the bottom. We managed to cut off the milk jug but we still have to remove the remaining two feet of line still trailing from the hook. The hook must remain embedded and will have to rust out on its own. That's three turtles this week that we've encountered tangled up with line.
Anyway--
SPEAKING OF TRAPPED...
We turn our attention to human entanglement in the court system. Thank you to Don "Watcher" Barber for the heads up that Justice J. J. Keaney had finally released his Reasons for Judgment in the conviction of Mr. Antonio Batista --Mississauga's Pot Hole Poet.
I received permission from Mr. Barber to share the document in its entirety. But before I do, I ask readers to check out this Toronto Star article on what's what just to see what Mr. Antonio Batista was up against. And Don Barber will be up against. And anyone is up against when up against The Government.
This is a Must-Read article. Again, credit to Mississauga's Watchdog, Don Barber for heads-upping me on this article as well.
[I'll be providing commentary within this piece using square brackets]
Here goes.
Let judges run courts, lawyers say
Resolution urges governments to turn over control of court operation to judiciary to ensure autonomy
[Ed. Whaaa? Governments control court operations?! ]
Aug 13, 2007 04:30 AM
Tracey Tyler
LEGAL AFFAIRS REPORTERCALGARY–To some, having prosecutors running the court system is the precarious legal equivalent of leaving a fox in charge of a chicken coop. Yet in many provinces, including Ontario, that's reality, with attorneys general not just prosecuting people for crimes, but operating the court themselves.
[Ed. "including Ontario". Nice. Ontario --Have-Not Province. Recall Ombudsman, Andre Marin stating, "Ontario remains the only province in Canada where citizens cannot turn to their Ombudsman if, for example, they have a problem with a hospital." Or, for example, an evil empire government entity]
But Canada's largest legal organization wants to cut those bureaucratic strings and turn control of court operations over to the judiciary. At its annual meeting here over the weekend, the Canadian Bar Association endorsed a resolution urging provincial and territorial governments to shift from government to judge-based control of court administration, calling it crucial to ensuring the independence of the judiciary.
[Ed. LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE HOME TEAM!]
"What we have is a situation where judges are often not masters of their own houses," said outgoing bar association president Parker MacCarthy, who brought forward the resolution.
There are practical and principled reasons for ending government control of the courts and the public will be the biggest beneficiary, he said in an interview.
While judges often know best what's needed to keep courts running smoothly, they're typically beholden to the whims of bureaucrats when it comes to deciding whether and how court budgets will be spent. This includes everything from hiring staff to rooms for juries.
[Ed. Get ready for it...]
But even more important is the potential for conflict of interest when the government, which regularly appears in court as a litigant, is also controlling the working conditions of the bench, he said.
[Ed. Repeat]
But even more important is the potential for conflict of interest when the government, which regularly appears in court as a litigant, is also controlling the working conditions of the bench, he said.
[Ed. It's only recently that I realized just how often the government appears as litigant in the courts--but only with this article did I know that government also controlled "the working conditions of the bench. Gee. Anything else you'd like to share?]
Concerns about the government administering court operations were raised as long as 30 years ago, including by former Ontario attorney general Roy McMurtry. A report prepared for the Canadian Judicial Council last year said court administrators are often torn between loyalty to the government and loyalty to the judges they serve.
[Ed. " torn between loyalty to the government and loyalty to the judges they serve." Gotta wonder if Mr. Antonio Batista should've been told this government-court symbosis before shelling out tens of thousands of dollars from his mortgage in legal fees.]
Complicating the situation further, the report said, is the tension that's developed in recent years between the judiciary and some provincial governments over their failures to follow the recommendations of judicial remuneration commissions and raise judges' salaries.
The report's authors, including Toronto law professors and court administration experts Carl Baar, Robert Hann and Lorne Sossin, recommended a "limited autonomy" model for court operations.
Their system would see governments setting court budgets, judges deciding how to spend the money and an independent commission set up to mediate disputes.
In other developments over the weekend, the bar association also approved a resolution calling on the federal government to scrap the GST on legal services to reduce the high cost of litigation and improve access to the justice system.
The resolution calls for legal services to be "zero rated" for the GST, not GST-exempt like groceries, said Toronto lawyer Allan Gelkopf, who chairs the association's commodity tax, customs and trade section.
While the net effect is the same for consumers – they would pay no GST on legal bills – it's an important difference for lawyers because zero-rating the GST entitles them to claim tax credits on goods and services purchased for running their law offices, he said...
etc etc etc...
Bottomline and to review.
"But even more important is the potential for conflict of interest when the government, which regularly appears in court as a litigant, is also controlling the working conditions of the bench, he said".
and:
"Concerns about the government administering court operations were raised as long as 30 years ago, including by former Ontario attorney general Roy McMurtry."
ANYWAY. MOVING FORWARD AT THE END OF THE DAY...
Time to toss in a little Andre Marin:
"This is a downright embarrassing situation for Ontario. All is not well in the MUSH sector, yet Ontario is dead last of all provinces in providing independent oversight of these institutions. Millions of Ontarians are at the mercy of a special kind of Big Brother – the hospitals, the long-term care facilities, the children’s aid societies and the like are cleverly guised as “private entities” and deemed off-limits to proper checks and balances.
Big Brother has his hand firmly planted in our back pocket – government revenues his lifeline; unaccountability his refuge. Ontario is, shamefully, a “have-not” province in this regard. "
It's even worse than Mr. Marin states. Pity the poor sap whose Big Brother has most of the characteristics of a psychopath.
Now you're prepped and ready for the Judge J. J. Keaney's Reasons for Judgment.
If you can't wait til tomorrow, here's a link to it on Don Barber's site.
Mr. Barber has also provided the document as a pdf file here.
HEY and speaking of Government-influenced courts, look what I found on the Internet! What luck! Now I won't have to actually draw a cartoon!
This one goes out to Government Big Brother. Dedicated to Don "Watcher" Barber.
Oh. And wait... (she rifles through Google Video) where's my --AHHH! There it is.
Signed,
The (Ontario "dead last". Is there any place you'd rather be? HAHAHAHA hahaha) Mississauga Muse
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"We must employ every possible tactic to dissuade those who try to silence us with fear"
---The Mississauga News Editorial (2007-03-24)
"Edward R. Murrow --My Hero". To Go Directly to the clip on YouTube or Google Video)
"Mississauga Saga". To Go Directly to the clip on YouTube or Google Video)
"A Flag named The Andre Marin". To Go Directly to the clip on YouTube or Google Video)
FURTHER READING
Click here for John Stewart's Blog, RANDOM ACCESS
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Comments (3)
Gov't accountability deserves serious airing in this election
Wallace, James
Monday, August 20, 2007 - 07:00
Editorial - John Tory is having eggs, sausage and hash browns at an upscale greasy spoon along Toronto's trendy Bloor Street.
Between forkfuls he is talking, with considerable passion and animation, about government accountability, a dry-as-toast election issue that may go perfectly well with his breakfast but has, thus far in this campaign, generally failed to captivate voters.
Tory admits as much, but suggests there is broad frustration, even cynicism among voters about government in general and current Liberal regime in particular.
"I think people are feeling incredibly ripped off," Tory said on his perception of public sentiment toward Dalton McGuinty's government. "They feel they're misled and disrespected," he said.
Such rhetoric might be dismissed coming from the Conservative Opposition Leader in the heat of what polls suggest is a neck and neck campaign race leading up to the Oct. 10 provincial election.
But he's not the only one suggesting government isn't working the way it should.
Provincial Ombudsman Andr‚ Marin, in releasing his annual report this past June, decried "the litany of government organizations whose grandiose promises were exposed as puffery" following investigations by his office.
Marin tore a strip off a number of government agencies for resorting to hype and "hollow self marketing" to mask "unflattering realities."
Those realities included "cutthroat tactics" against property owners, "mollycoddling" deadbeat parents, "treating crime victims like rats in a maze" and "knowingly paying tens of millions of dollars to known fraudsters," lottery retailers who cheated customers out of winning tickets.
The province's information and privacy commissioner, Ann Cavoukian, in her annual report, meanwhile, exposed a culture of secrecy within government ministries and broader public service agencies and expressed ongoing concern over bureaucratic reluctance to release information that should be public, such as government contracts.
Cavoukian concluded Ontario's government is "failing the transparency test" and urged greater openness.
Similarly, the immigration slush-fund debacle that saw former citizenship and immigration minister Mike Colle arbitrarily hand out $32 million to organizations that serve new Canadians without bothering to take applications lacked any semblance of an "open, transparent or accountable" process, Provincial Auditor Jim McCarter found after investigating the matter.
The Ontario Cricket Association, to cite one example, asked government for $150,000 but was given a cheque for $1 million.
That all three watchdogs raised concern over government accountably this year suggests we have a serious problem.
Marin suggested as much in his usual cutting and colourful way at his press conference.
"When I meet my provincial counterparts, as I did this year, the provincial ombudsmen, they always say, "Any progress, Andr‚?" he recounted.
"And I have to say, 'No, I'm sorry - we have 38 per cent of the Canadian population in Ontario and we have the least checks and balances for public institutions,'" Marin said, then paused.
"The Ministry of Health's budget is something along the lines of $35 billion, which is almost three times our national defence budget, yet there's no oversight of hospitals," he went on. "It just doesn't make any sense to me."
Without doubt, the McGuinty government has taken steps to improve public accountability, for example giving the auditor the power to review spending by schools, hospitals and Crown corporations, as well as a decision by the Premier to end year-end spending splurges that prompted Colle's resignation.
Neither should the Liberals be held solely responsible for service and accountability problems that have existed for years in and throughout government.
But the Liberal reaction to accountability questions, frankly, has been reactionary if not superficial and usually hot on the heels of bad news.
As the slush-fund scandal illustrated, sloppy government is expensive government.
Ontario's government spends more than $90 billion annually delivering programs and services to this province's 12.5 million residents - an 80 per cent spending increase from 10 years ago.
The holes in our health-care system, the cash schools are crying for, none of this is a result of a lack of money.
Neither has continually throwing more and more cash at problems proved to be effective.
Tory proposes to create a new "culture of accountability" within government through a variety of measures, including rules to make sure grant money goes to groups that actually need it, that all grants be reviewed by an "arm's length" civil servant or advisory body and a promise to conduct value for money audits on grants.
He's also called for government to post public documents and records on the Internet and suggested he post a financial advisor in every ministry to review spending.
These promises are a start, but the whole issue of government accountability deserves a serious and thorough airing in this campaign.
James Wallace is Queen's Park bureau chief for Osprey News Network. Contact the writer at jwallace@ospreymedia.ca.
Posted by Dean Morra | August 21, 2007 11:26 AM
Posted on August 21, 2007 11:26
In reference to Bright Snoop’s analogy on incompetents and Machiavellians and/or both, former Ombudsman Clare Lewis would have had to reassess
[Ed. HUGE SNIP. Sorry there guy but I sure ain't got the guts to hit "PUBLISH" on the rest of what you wrote even though I agree with you...]
Posted by Abbe | August 26, 2007 1:38 PM
Posted on August 26, 2007 13:38
The thing is Ursula, Mr. Stephan Wahl had already paid out $8,795.16......
[Ed. have to "edit" the rest. MississaugaSpeak for "delete". I "edited" the rest for the very reason you pointed out. Unfortunately I can't publish that. Perhaps being less specific about certain individuals at The Corporation might help...
I will point out though that I agree totally and share your pain as do others directly affected. Until the Ontario Ombudsman is allowed jurisdiction into Municipalities, you, like me, like most citizens of Ontario, are out of luck.
I say "most" because there ARE citizens who benefit from what's happening. And benefit a great deal. At our expense.]
Posted by Abbe | August 30, 2007 2:09 PM
Posted on August 30, 2007 14:09