If anything, the recent court appearances by Toronto Mayor Rob Ford showed one thing. It can cost one hell of a lot of money to fight city hall. A recent Toronto Star article quotes $300k if you get stuck with losing and having to pay for both sides. Not chump change for sure.
As you know, Mattamy Homes, Peter Gilgan and their mouthpieces have threatened to take me to court on defamation charges, a charge I pointed out they too are guilty of. This is the type of tactic a builder will use in order to have their failures repressed. No one is perfect but, honest people fess up and fix the problem. Then there are those that hide behind politicians – politicians who receive donations from them. You see, donations are perfectly legal, even if they can lead to favours. But, try to prove some type of conflict of interest.
Others have tried the court route.
“Without securing funding from supporters in the community, Elias Hazineh says he would never have launched his suit against Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion. “As it stands now, unless you have deep pockets, you can see corruption happening in front of you and be able to do nothing about it,” he said.
Lots of people may think about taking a stand, but “once you hit the road block of financing, you realize you can’t do it on your own.”
But who should look after these conflicts?
“My guess is that my phone isn’t going to be ringing for while with people wanting to bring conflict of interest applications,” said Stephen D’Agostino, a municipal conflict of interest law expert with Thomson Rogers. “But I don’t mind because I think it should be handled by the Ontario government.”
Only an individual can bring a politician to court on a conflict of interest and the potential for financial ruin is great.
Trying to have the government do it is impossible as well. Remember who gets all the donations from developers. McGuinty and Hudak were high on the list. In my case, I did not go the route of a “conflict of interest” but tried to use my experience to have the Town of Oakville pass a simple bylaw that would allow a potential homebuyer to hire a house inspector to monitor the building of their new house; thus protecting themselves from shoddy and illegal workmanship. A privilege enjoyed by commercial builders – they have architects, engineers and site managers to keep an eye on their construction.
The Town of Oakville even did an investigation into my case regarding the illegal wiring of my house, which put my children at risk and,allowed the subsequent sale of the house even though it would not have been allowed by the town, according to their building director. What happened to this report? You’d have to ask former mayor Anne Mulvale. She seemed to have her finger on all aspects of my case – attended sub-committee meetings and led the charge at town council. The report was never given to me. Why is that? It was about me so, should I not have been given a copy?
No, it was hidden and my recommendation passed up to the provincial government. Funny thing is, a councillor who passed this, was subsequently elected to the provincial parliament and did nothing concerning this recommendation, which he voted on. So much for taking responsibility.
It would be hard to prove a conflict of interest regarding my case. I can only state the facts.
1: A Town of Oakville building inspector passed an illegally wired furnace, which allowed Mattamy to sell the house. A report was made concerning my incident and passed on to the mayor. I did not see the report. Was it fair, honest, relevant, illustrative, blaming, etc?
2: My recommendation was not followed through and passed into provincial oblivion. No real reason except they thought it was provincial. Sorry to say but enforcing the building code is municipal and therefore this would be one tool to ensure the structure was built to code. Obviously the town inspector cannot do this.
3: Mayor Ann Mulvale spearheaded an effort to have Mattamy donate money, etc to Wellspring – a personal project of hers.
4: Matttmy did in fact contribute to Wellspring.
5: Mattamy continues to contribute to the United Way – a personal project of former mayor Ann Mulvale.
6: Oh, I forgot. Mattamy was a very generous donator to Ann Mulvale’s election. Want to see the picture?
All facts (for the lawyers) and I leave the reader to draw their own conclusions.
I ask the Town of Oakville – why are you afraid of passing the recommendation? You pass all sorts of recommendations that affect the lives of Oakville’s citizens. Why not pass one that protects the lives of Oakville’s citizens? You stopped smoking didn’t you? Why not a tool to allow homeowners to prevent shoddy workmanship and unsafe construction practices?
Just what is your policy in terms of inspecting the new Mattamy subdivision – The Preserve? Do you intend to inspect all houses at all levels of construction? If you don’t, then I would suggest that people will get shafted just like I did. You know – taxpayers and voters. The people who should be protected – not BILLIONAIRES………
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