Yes, this is more ranting about what is happening in Ottawa… so many eyes will glaze over and click over to another, more ‘global’ post elsewhere…
BUT…
This is more than just ‘local politics’.
If one follows the proverbial ‘money’, it becomes clear that this show trial is less about the figures involved (as fun as it is to pull them apart) and more about – labour unions.
Because it was the labour unions who had declared a war on this rookie Mayor – a successful hi-tech business guy – for winning on a platform to ‘reign in the unions’… And the unions all around the country are watching the legal precedent this sets!
Does this seem far fetched?
Let’s connect the dots….
I’ll intentionally strip out the details, to reduce the ‘noise’ and make the facts stand out.
The Union of Unions laid the complaint….few months into the 4-year-Mayoral term.
The police (belonging to the Union of Unions) investigated the complaint….for over a year.
The civil servants (belonging to the Union of Unions) decided to lay charges….against the advice of their own prosecuting attorneys, none of which would take the case.
The civil servants (belonging to the Union of Unions) scheduled the trial a year later: for a time when most of the city union contracts are up for renewal…coincidence? Really?
During the Mayor’s leave of absence – for the trial – the city unions (belonging to the Union of Unions) negotiate ‘new contracts’ which are much more generous (money and control) to them than could ever happen if the Mayor were in his chair…..and even gave back concessions the Mayor had won earlier, when he refused to give in to a winter bus-strike.
By now, the Mayor has effectively been crippled by this lawfare for most of his term in office…and the next race has already begun!
Whether the Mayor is found guilty or innocent, it seems to me that the Union of Unions – the Canadian Labour Congress and its constituents and minions – have already won!
The end…
…of a lot of things!
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 