This is an exchange I had with Hamilton Spec editorial columnist Andrew Dreschel over a particular pointless rant in which he blasts the Mayor for not wanting to talk to him. Considering his bias mindless conclusions I don't blame the Mayor.

Mr. Dreschel, (re:”Bratina and Murray are in the hot seat‏”)
These type of childish hatchet jobs are indicative of  an annoying trend of the mainstream media to go with a cheaper and quicker method of tabloid style writing. Cheaper in that it doesn’t cost anything to strictly imply wrong doing or attack a persons character than allow uninformed readers to carry forth your biased opinions, like a black a widow spinning a web of lies. I don’t know my the Mayor refuses to talk to you, but I surmise it’s because of  you smugness and stench of arrogance. Drop the pretentious BS, and think back to the old adage of getting more with honey.

 

Comments go on the 'Comments' page, not the 1st, that page used to be the domain for the words of Generals and great leaders. If your work contains guesses and innuendo, such as 'manipulating behind the scenes', or 'was it just a coincidence,' along with many, many unanswered questions maybe you should roll up your sleeves and hit the proverbial pavement and do your homework. If there's a lot of guesswork involved maybe you shouldn’t be a writer,  for the sake of the Spec appearing like a professional newspaper.

 

It would appear the Mayor isn’t playing ball with old Andrew...and Andrew doesn't like it...take your ball and go home.

 

Sick and tired of the BS.

Reply,

Thanks for reading, Kendall. Actually, you’re quite mistaken. Commentary frequently appears on the front page of daily papers. See the National Post, Globe and Mail and Toronto Star, to name a few. Judging by your response, I surmise you really didn’t read the column very closely. Perhaps if you dropped the name calling and gave it another go, you might actually see it was founded on something other than guess work and innuendo.

 

All the best.

 

Andrew Dreschel

 

(love the Torstar blue type he sent this in tough to read, live his column)

 

Re: sent today

Andrew,

I read your column closely, please write another where you detail the conversations you had with the Mayor that would clear up your "unanswered questions" as you put it. I would read any of the other papers you list if there opinion columnists wrote something newsworthy of the front page full of facts that can be backed up. Otherwise, I would rather read a blog post from Raise the Hammer who can answer the questions.

 

Eager to read his reply.

 

I sent this the editor of Raise the Hammer, who after reading one of his posts on the same subject I felt we shared similar views. I never received a reply. I'll reserve judgment until a later time.

Ryan,

Lets get the sucking up part out of the way, I come to your site on a regular basis when I need an unbiased view of the news from the Hammer, unlike some of the Specs opinion columnists who I turn to when I need something to soak up chip grease. Speaking of fresh wrap, that brings me to an amusing reply to an email I sent to Mr. Dreschel (as you will see apparently we are on a first name basis, not.) This isn’t terribly news worthy, but I hope it gives you a chuckle. Oh, and thanks to the link to my little blog http://theeternalkenaz.blogspot.com/ sometimes I feel I’m the only one reading it.  I just read your post “Translation from Bob-Speak into English of Selected Portions of Mayor Bratina's Live Chat with The Spectator”, timmy’s coffee a touch bitter yesterday?(sic) Really, I found quite bemusing and poignant, I find having your Bob translator set to Klingon works best. Anyway here’s the email exchange with my buddy Andrew,

 

Later,

Kenaz

 

Hamilton hall of fame crooked cop says "I was ill"

Dishevelled in an orange prison jumpsuit, former police inspector Rick Wills finally provides a plausible explanation for his spectacular fall from grace.

“I am suffering from a mental illness.”

He says it quietly. Hands spread apart on the metal table at which he sits, slouching. Eyes not meeting those of two Ontario Parole Board members.

“I have been diagnosed with depression,” he says. “I believe that I've had that malady for some time. I need treatment to get my head straight.”

The veteran cop who stole nearly $60,000 in drug money, then breached his house arrest by playing golf, says the end of his 35-year career was steeped in depression.

“I didn't feel very good about being a police officer. I didn't feel good about the police service. I did what I did because I felt I'd never accomplished anything in my career. Everything stayed the same ... With all the investigations, all the drug work, everything I put my family through ... And, even though it was morally wrong, I took the law into my own hands.

“I was ill. Right now, sitting here, I'm admitting that. I never did before.”

He couldn't admit it, he says.

“As all policemen know, you don't admit weakness.”

He is on medication and suffers from anxiety attacks.

“I was a hard-nosed police officer,” Wills says softly. “I was a tough guy.”

Well if the holy than tho' b.s didn't work grab a slice of mock humble pie, hell worked for Jim Baker, for some. Thank god the parole board members aren't named Dewey, Soakam and Howe. Now, as he pleads with the parole board to release him from jail so he can seek psychiatric help — “Sir, I'm willing to go back to house arrest or wear a bracelet or whatever ...” — it seems like this could be the first glimpse of what was really behind Wills' bizarre behaviour these past few years.

This guys got a set, or he's psychotic. That I won't do it again crap didn't work with my third grade English teacher after missing yet another assignment.

While the board members acknowledge that Wills, 57, needs mental health care, they're not willing to let him out for it. After deliberating less than an hour, they reject his bid for freedom. His self-written release plan, they say, does not set out adequate steps to deal with his psychiatric issues, even though Wills insists it is his top priority.

Beyond that, well — they just don't trust him. After all, the reason he is in the Central North Correctional Centre is because he flagrantly disregarded a judge's sentencing conditions.

“Despite your professional knowledge, you breached those conditions not once but twice and perhaps three times,” the board said.

In February, Wills pleaded guilty to stealing while in charge of the vice and drug unit. Between 1998 and 2006 he had a city accountant cut cheques on an account for seized drug money. Wills told the accountant the court had ordered money be returned to the accused. He then endorsed cheques to himself and deposited them in a bank account he shared with his wife, Doreen.

In exclusive interviews with me after his arrest, Wills made himself out to be Robin Hood,

claiming he anonymously donated the stolen money to charities that help drug victims. He said he did so because he was frustrated with a broken justice system. Yet there has never been one iota of evidence he gave the money to charity.

Then, when his high-priced lawyer John Rosen (Little John to his friends) won him a conditional sentence, Wills blew the whole sweet deal by playing golf. (Out with OJ, Tiger?) That earned him six months behind bars.

But even on Tuesday during the parole hearing that was automatically scheduled after he'd served one-third of his sentence, Wills stuck to his story that playing golf is a “necessity of life” that would lower his cholesterol level. (Now he can take up Pilates, because it will take a lot of time in the downward dog position to convince anyone he should be free)

Even if the board bought that, he was unable to explain why he played golf for nearly three hours when he was only allowed two hours each week for the necessities of life.

Or why his wife — who ought to have known he wasn't to play golf — played with him.(Ava Braun, idea of stand by your man)

When police came to arrest him for playing golf, they saw him trimming hedges, another breach of his house arrest.

Twice the board referenced a possible third breach, of which Wills was never convicted. Though it was never detailed at the hearing, at least one off-duty Hamilton officer is certain he saw Wills and Doreen attending a movie during his period of house arrest.(Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, perhaps?)

Doreen was not at the parole hearing.

Wills says he was attending the Salvation Army Church while on house arrest (which he was allowed to do) and found “it's provided a lot of comfort.” Prior to that, he hadn't been to church in 20 years.(Please stop sullying the name of a great organization with your presence)

While in segregation, where he has been put for his own protection because he is a former cop, Wills has been reading the Bible and a book on depression.(I think I need to borrow that book, now)

“It says depression is like an iceberg,” Wills said.

“One-third of it can be seen above the water, but two-thirds is below the surface.”(Barf, please give this guy a book on how to use Analogies, which reminds me of a top list sight I came across on the worst Analogies collected by high school teachers. One sticks out when I think of Mr. Wills,

His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

Two thirds has another significance for Wills. He will now remain in jail until he has served two-thirds of his sentence. That will be in October. Then he can go shopping for new underpants, like a free man.

Later,
Kenaz

Hamilton's Dumbest Criminals

As the old tv show lamented "These stories are ripped from the back pages of the newspaper". To bring it up to date the crime section of the online version of the  local paper. These are,

Heist at a lemonade stand. Thieves cart off 10-year-old's cooler. ‘Disgusting,' mom fumes. While 10-year-old Madison Lord was cleaning out the stainless steel cooler she uses for her lemonade stand, she ran out of soap. The cooler had been sitting idle for a week, and mould had started to grow while she was at summer camp. She turned her back, leaving her post for only 15 or 20 seconds. When she returned, the cooler was gone. Stolen. Thrown into the flatbed of a silver Dodge Ram, a new one, with a tandem trailer attached full of scrap metal. Madison ran after the thieves, yelling at them as her heart broke.
“She's devastated,” said her mom, Stephanie Smith.
“I would just love to know who did it,” she added.

I agree my message to these a**holes,

Oh and I hope you have some extra private medical insurance and a good doctor, you might need it, buddy.

From creeps to a kid in love with his bunny, and the residences who wish he could just have bought a card.

There’s no love lost between local residents and a big, bold declaration spanning the Jolley Cut.
“Whoever wrote it should be chastised,” John Marshall said of the large “I love u Bunny (sic)” graffiti scrawled in white paint across the side of the roadway.
“They should really put a stop to this, because it’s starting to piss me off.”
Ward 2 Councillor Jason Farr said he wasn’t aware of the message before The Spectator posted a photo of it on thespec.com Monday. Since then, his office has gotten at least two complaints about it. “I’d like to find who’s in love with Bunny, because they’d be doing the cleaning,” he said.
Farr, who’s calling for a cleanup, said he would have found the statement much more heartwarming “if it had been in banner form.”
“Hopefully Bunny has seen the message … and now we can delete the message,” he said. I think if Bunny has any dignity left, the only 'cotton' lover boy will be chasing will be a box of Cottonelle.

And from the Annals of the Hall of Shame I give you these two half wits,

Nearly naked biker charged

It was speed and the fact he wasn’t wearing a helmet that first caught the attention of a Hamilton police officer patrolling Upper Sherman Avenue. But on second look, the officer noticed the 40-year-old motorcycle driver was missing more than his helmet — he was wearing only a T-shirt.
“He had no pants, no underwear,” said Acting Staff Sergeant David Hennick.
The patrolling officer was travelling northbound on Upper Sherman near Mohawk Road 4 a.m. Sunday, when the speeding motorcycle passed him going southbound.
The motorcycle driver then lost control of his bike, only to get back up and try to flee on his bike again, Hennick said.
At one point the man tried to flee on foot, “there was a brief struggle,” and then the man was arrested, he said.
The 40-year-old Hamilton man is facing charges including dangerous driving and flight from police.
Alcohol was a factor. He blew in the “warm range,” which is between 0.5 and 0.8, and received a three day licence suspension.

Finally I don't think this dumbass could even say "peace de la resistance" so I will refer him as another "peace-o-shite" going cheaper than than BJ on Barton.

For pete's sake, say no to drugs!
Or you will end up like the Toronto loser whom Hamilton cops charged with theft and drug charges after a strange series of events at the McMaster University GO TRANSIT complex. Police say a GO bus driver had left his bus for a washroom break yesterday afternoon. When the driver returned, he found the bus' doors had been pried open and the cash box was missing. Several students pointed the finger of blame at a man sitting in nearby bus shelter. McMaster Security approached the 22 year-old, who admitted the theft. While making the arrest, officers noticed a bag next to the man who denied it was his. A search of the bag turned up a quantify of crystal meth, ecstasy and a suspected date-rape drug. Also in the bag (dum-de-dum-really dum) ... the Toronto man's I-D. Doh!

Later,
Kenaz

Hamilton cop beating ‘coverup’ needs answers says judge

Lets step into our way back machine and travel back in time, not to some backwards country where cops without cause make bogus arrests or beat the crap out you. No we are staying here in democratic Hamilton and traveling just a little while ago.

Flashback, early the morning of Aug. 15, 2003, Mann and fellow officer Christian Beaulne responded to a call that a short white man wearing light-coloured sneakers was breaking into a John Street South jewellery store.
Around the same time, Dixon had gotten off a GO bus and began walking. The two officers ended up arresting Dixon at gunpoint in a parking lot along Hunter Street. He spent three days in jail and waited nine months before the Crown withdrew the charges.

Under cross-examination, Mann rejected Zbogar’s suggestion that he concocted his version of events to support the arrest. Dixon, a black man, claims the officers discriminated against him on the basis of race despite witness descriptions of the robbery suspect.

Superior Court Judge Kim Carpenter-Gunn ordered the police board, along with Mann and Detective Constable Jason Leek, who conducted a formal video interview the night of the arrest, to pay Dixon just under $80,000 to cover his legal bills. Beaulne, who died in 2009 of a medical condition, was exempted from the cost ruling.
Earlier this week, Carpenter-Gunn ruled the police board and the officers had committed false arrest, false imprisonment, negligent investigation and Charter rights of liberty and security of person, and called the officers inept, arrogant, closed-minded, lacking experience and suffering from tunnel vision.
She awarded Dixon $54,000 in damages, including prejudgment interest, which will be paid by Hamilton taxpayers as per Police Services Act rules.

Let's get back to this past year while the rancid taste in our mouths is still fresh, because history is repeating itself.

“Troubling ... inconsistencies ... inability or unwillingness ... strains credulity ... the spectre of a coverup.” So said Ontario Court Justice Paul Currie, in acquitting this week a Hamilton police officer charged with assault causing bodily harm to a refugee from Myanmar during a botched drug raid.

On May 4, 2010, heavily armed members of the Hamilton tactical squad mistakenly burst into the apartment of Po La Hay as he was cooking dinner.

Hay, a 130-pound single father of three, sustained cuts and scrapes to his face, three fractured ribs and a fractured vertebra after police broke down his door, put a handgun to his forehead, handcuffed him and saw to it that “a foot was applied to his left side, his rib area,” according to one of the officers.

It was only afterward that police realized something had gone terribly wrong; They had assaulted an innocent man and invaded the wrong apartment. Moreover, none of the five officers in the kitchen with Hay could positively identify which one “applied” the foot.

“It’s a case about an excessive use of force,” Crown counsel Elliot Behar said during the trial.

That case is over, but now it is about something else. Getting this man and his dignity back and shutting a bunch of useless arrogant sons of b's up. Hamilton Police Chief Glenn De Caire stated after the judge’s comments this week that Hamilton police “are cognizant of both the ruling and the commentary” and “accepts and respects the decision of the court.” The service has already “assessed our practices and procedures for entries during search warrants” and has made changes in the wake of the raid last year.

If De Caire spent more time in training officers in procedural manners instead of taking media training he might have some actual answers. Does the chief not owe it to the citizens of Hamilton and his own department to investigate further the “spectre of a coverup?” Would it not be appropriate to appoint an outside investigator to look into the matter and respond officially for the benefit of both the police force and the community?

"This is a serious matter. Police are trained in observation and recollection, which is why their testimony is given more credence during trials." I love this quote from the Spec, short answer, in the real world this would be the case, but when offers stare directly at a judge and tell them with a straight face they couldn't id their own fellow cops. Pal, don't snow the snowman.

Hay is seeking at least $1.35 million in damages, while his son Say Blut, nephew Pa Nar Noo and daughter Ba Blut are also seeking a combined $1.2 million, according to the statement of claim, which includes allegations not yet proven in court. Hay’s son and nephew were in the apartment when police burst through the door May 4, 2010, and both list “soft tissue injuries” to the chest, neck and spine in the statement of claim.

More than 20 current and former Hamilton police officers are listed as defendants, including members of the tactical squad, Police Chief Glenn De Caire and Detective Constable Ryan Tocher, who was found not guilty of assault causing bodily harm in a criminal proceeding related to the botched raid last week. The Hamilton Police Services Board is also listed as a defendant.

Unfortunately the tax payers will be on the hook for any payout to Hay, and unless De Caire grows a pair and rights this leaky ship and gets rid of the racist, subordinated, stench from his office Hamilton will continue to look unattractive to it's long time residences and anyone wanting to make a new living here. It's time for the blue wall of coverup to be torn down and replaced with a transparent shield of good faith.

Later,
Kenaz

Presto-Change-O The new dawn of public transit

Hamiltonian's are now able to breeze aboard public transit with the wave of a little green card.Since May 4, Hamilton was the newest municipality to join the Presto system, a provincial program that allows transit users to pay transit fares in cities across the province with the same pre-loaded card.
No, more searching for change, or being ripped off for an extra dime per ticket at a convenience store,  fares automatically deducted by tapping their card on green readers recently installed in HSR buses.
Hamiltonian's are now able to use the Presto card to ride transit systems across the province — including in Burlington, Oakville, Brampton, Durham Region, Mississauga, Toronto and on GO Transit.

Eventually, Presto cards will replace tickets, transfers and other paper payment methods on the HSR  but won't replace cash fares. I bought my Presto card online at prestocard.ca it takes up to six business days to arrive so plan ahead or at the GO station at 36 Hunter St. in Hamilton. The card costs $15, renewable every five years, but the good thing is the card comes loaded with $10. You than have a week to use your card for the first time, once you do your card is automatically activated. You than can  load your card with as much as $1,000 using a secure system that allows an encrypted communication from Presto to your bank. You can have the money taken from your bank account or credit card. Fares will be automatically deducted from that total each time they tap their card. The system will also be able to detect the last time the card was used, which will allow HSR users to transfer onto different buses on their route without being charged twice.

However, some conspiracy theorists either due to complete ignorance or because the Presto sight isn't specific enough for individual cities. So I hope I can clear up some misinformation so these people can quit with "The MAN is out to get us all!!!" crap.

1.When you transfer between GO & HSR you get a credit for you trip. If you ride HSR and then get on a GO train, you are charged $1.50 less for your ride. When you ride on GO back to Hamilton, and get on HSR, you pay 50 cents. That's pretty cool. It's the same for Burlington & Oakville.

2.Once you register the card online, you can check the balance, load it up, and once you use it during a monthly period as a pass it will send you a tax receipt for that month automatically at the end of the year. I also know how much safer, I feel with it. I don't have to worry about losing it. Just like a credit card you report it missing and they give you a new one with the balance from the old card.

3.There's no Time Expiration  one poster wrote in the Hamilton Spectator: "It doesn't mention in the article ... you have to keep loading something on it every 30 days or you lose your existing balance." No you don't! You load, it stays on the card until you use it.

4.

Will a monthly pass via Presto ever be an option? How will transfers work between systems? Will current transfer prices be honoured? Will we be able to load our card online and immediately start using it on buses or do we have to tap at a balance checker first? Don't get me wrong, I love the idea (got my card almost a year ago), I just think there needs to be more communication.

With GO, once you've reached the price of a monthly pass, it stops charging you. As for the HSR, a monthly adult pass is $87.00, for the blue collar worker who uses the bus to get to work and a weekend shopping trip, Presto deducts $2.00 for a single ride, that's 43 fares, plenty for most and even better if there is a cap. To be updated.

5.

...and how would riders ever know if the machine has charged them too much/more than once? What kind of hoops would they have to jump through to get their money back? Sorry, I just don't trust machines that much - they have faults. I'll stick to my bus pass thank you. Good luck out there, everyone!

The Presto machines have a large display that shows the fare deducted plus the amount left on the card. Machines aren't evil quit watching the Sci-Fi network, my toaster has never wanted to kill me just burn my toast.


6.

do people have the money to load a card expensive for some to put out money all at once. but on other hand welfare that hands out tickets could use this system and how do you check your balance

You can load the card via the phone just as easy as the internet a few bucks at a time or with cash at the GO station if you don't have a bank account to debit.

7.The Presto is not becoming mandatory for all HSR passengers. The Presto is straightforward, convenient, allows you to avoid ticket line ups and has other good features. However, if you don't like it you don't have to use it, even on the GO Train.

8.This will and should take care of all of the people who like to use transfers that are hours old and then make a huge issue when the driver states that the transfer is not valid. They always make a huge issue and the driver is always looked at like he is doing something wrong when he is just trying to enforce the rules.

9.

Is this a stealth fare hike?  If it is designed to replace tickets some day, that means the days of buying discounted tickets in advance is done. The businesses that sell HSR tickets will likely be hurt, and the consumer will pay cash rate all the time? Classy way to hike the fare..

I hate to sound like I'm picking on these people, but this one is so bad. The Presto card is not trying to put the mom and pop store out of business, I don't think they make a huge amount from the extra nickle or dime they charge for each ticket. By discount tickets I assume you mean free welfare tickets, sorry can't help you there. Even those using the discounted passes designed for persons with low income the Presto card is still a great idea, you don't have to provide your income tax information every six months or stand a half hour in line on a Friday to get your card.

I hope this covers some of the misinformation out there, the Presto Card is one of the few great ideas the Province has come out with in a long time. Europe has had similar systems for decades using everything from a card to a cell phone and it has seen numerous benefits to cost and speed.


Later,
Kenaz

News around the Hammer

The last while the news from the Hammer has been coming in fast and furious and has covered everything from a  cop in a deep state of denial, city tax payers picking up the check for a councilors fines, to a man with a novel idea for a gift for his wife. Hang on, strap yourself in and lets start the ride, I will meet everyone back at the end for a trip to the obscura  gift shop, enjoy.

Hamilton man charged in oprah ticket theft story
A Hamilton man beat himself up - literally - and claimed he had been mugged after failing to get seats for a taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show in Chicago on Tuesday.

(You didn't win a car!!!)

Police officer in dixon civil suit denies concocting arrest events
A Hamilton police officer, named as a defendant in an $180,000 civil lawsuit stemming from a wrongful arrest, was evasive, argumentative and confrontational on the witness stand Thursday. Oliver Mann admitted under cross-examination that he changed his testimony.

Early the morning of Aug. 15, 2003, Mann and fellow officer Christian Beaulne responded to a call that a short white man wearing light-coloured sneakers was breaking into a John Street South jewellery store.
Around the same time, Dixon had gotten off a GO bus and began walking. The two officers ended up arresting Dixon at gunpoint in a parking lot along Hunter Street. He spent three days in jail and waited nine months before the Crown withdrew the charges.

 Under cross-examination, Mann rejected Zbogar’s suggestion that he concocted his version of events to support the arrest. Dixon, a black man, claims the officers discriminated against him on the basis of race despite witness descriptions of the robbery suspect.

(Sadly, there's no litmus test for the police system to use to weed out these type of blatant racist ignoramuses so we as citizens are forced to pay for a broken chain of command)

*May 28 Update*
police have learned lessons chief

Superior Court Judge Kim Carpenter-Gunn ordered the police board, along with Mann and Detective Constable Jason Leek, who conducted a formal video interview the night of the arrest, to pay Dixon just under $80,000 to cover his legal bills. Beaulne, who died in 2009 of a medical condition, was exempted from the cost ruling.
Earlier this week, Carpenter-Gunn ruled the police board and the officers had committed false arrest, false imprisonment, negligent investigation and Charter rights of liberty and security of person, and called the officers inept, arrogant, closed-minded, lacking experience and suffering from tunnel vision.
She awarded Dixon $54,000 in damages, including prejudgment interest, which will be paid by Hamilton taxpayers as per Police Services Act rules.

Links to my original posts following the whole story
http://theeternalkenaz.blogspot.com/2006/12/hamilton-police-black-and-blue-in-2006.html
 http://theeternalkenaz.blogspot.com/2008/09/michael-dixon-wronged-by-hamilton.html

 Let the records show spring has sprung a leak
It’s official. The latest cloudburst pushed us well over the brink of what we actually needed to break a record this spring. With 27.2 mm of rain Wednesday, this spring is Hamilton’s wettest.

(Duck soup anyone?)

Whiteheads language malicious demeaning defamatory
City taxpayers are footing the bill for $15,000 in damages after Councillor Terry Whitehead lost a defamation suit filed against him by a deamalgamation advocate.
Justice James Turnbull ruled that Whitehead libelled Free Flamborough chairman Roman Sarachman when the councillor called Sarachman a “destructive, mean-spirited, irrational liar that does not deserve the time of day” in a May 2008 email copied to council.

“It is not in the best interests of the city that councillors address taxpayers in such derogatory and unfair terms,” Turnbull wrote in a judgment handed down Monday morning. “It is incomprehensible that an email with such comments fell within the scope of his duties as a city councillor.”

(Here's the kick in the groin by a bunch of clowns.

City solicitor Peter Barkwell says Whitehead’s costs are being covered because his case comes within the terms of the city’s indemnification bylaw. That means the city’s legal department and insurers feel Whitehead was acting within the scope of his duties as a councillor and acting in good faith when he sent the email. But in his judgment, Turnbull says Whitehead’s words did not meet either of those criteria.

(Tax payers get clowned again. We got three new councilors who have decided to join the good old boys club and stick it to the voters who voted for change)

*But wait there's more!!! May 28*

The city must cover all legal costs incurred by a Waterdown resident and deamalgamation advocate who successfully sued Councillor Terry Whitehead for defamation. In a judgment handed down Thursday, Justice James Turnbull ordered the city to pay $28,188.75 for Roman Sarachman’s legal costs.
That fee is on top of the $15,000 Turnbull awarded Sarachman in general damages at the end of the two-day libel trial that wrapped up in mid-May. Turnbull had reserved a decision on Sarachman’s legal costs until this week. The city is also covering the cost of Whitehead’s lawyer.

Walkerton compensation tops 72-million
Ontario has now paid out more than $72 million in compensation to victims of Walkerton's tainted water tragedy.
(The Spec's open comment policy brings out all sorts of misinformed ideas from people who must sit around all day making tin foil hats. Re:Comments from "Churchill" Friend of this guy?)





One last stop before we end the tour, welcome to never-never land where Hamilton's activists hang out stroking their egos and listening to Gary Wright's  "Dream Weaver" whilst insulting anyone who challenges the legend of an internet hero. Some good points are made in this post, but one glaring omission is obvious who's paying? Cheers! have another.

http://www.raisethehammer.org/article/1376/the_future_of_west_harbour_and_barton-tiffany

Gotta go, off to the new "Centre on Barton" to look at some new walking shorts, I'm as optimistic that the sun will rise as I am that Hamilton can rise from the ashes and shed this "what a dump" attitude our neibours and some Hamiltonian's have.

Later,
Kenaz