Yes, I was, yet again hanging out at the Elgin St. Court House in Ottawa on Monday, 18th of August, 2014.
No, I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. But, as a citizen of this great country of ours, I am seriously concerned about the erosion of our inalienable rights and freedoms and the ever-increasing government encroachment on these rights and freedoms and its accompanying rise in corruption.
So, when a friend emailed me to let me know that the founder of the Municipal Taxpayer Advocacy Group, will be in court regarding Kathleen Wynne and the whole Presto mess, I was eager to go and learn for myself exactly what is going on.
As usual, it is difficult to follow what happens in court if you walk in ‘cold’ – without knowing any of the background. Thus, I would like to present you how I see the case – what the crux of the matter is according to my never-humble-opinion, before I delve into the narration of what occurred in the courtroom.
Currently, Kathleen Wynne is the Premier of Ontario.
I know – I find it difficult to believe as well, but that is what happens when the group-think Cultural Marxist indoctrinated media does not inform the public about the real-life actions of their elected politicians. Without accurate, impartially presented information, the voting public cannot possibly make an informed choice in the voting booth: and we end up with people like [insert insult of choice] Kathleen Wynne as the Premier of Ontario. But, that is a rant for another day.
Prior to being the Premier of Ontario, Kathleen Wynne was the Ontario Minister of Transportation in the Dalton McGuilty Cabinet.
While she was the Minister of Transportation, Kathleen Wynne had presided over the whole Presto mess.
What is the Presto mess?
The way it looks to me (and I could, of course be mistaken: this is not a statement of fact but solely my imperfect opinion) is that a bunch of the municipalities in Ontario needed to step into the 21st century and introduce a way to pay for public transit electronically. So, they did what they ought to have: they opened it up to private companies to propose solutions and bid for the contract. So far, so good. Except that some liberal insiders decided that taxpayer funds is their personal piggy bank, so they forced TTC and OC Transpo to buy a highly inferior – but much more expensive (all those pockets don’t just grease themselves, you know) solution. Since it was shoddy and expensive, nobody wanted it – so, the Liberal government had no choice but to threaten municipalities like Ottawa and Toronto that unless they do go with Presto, the Liberal Government will not pay them the tax money they collect on their behalf from the gas taxes nor will they forward onto them the money they promised them for subways, light rail and other such little matters.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I think it is inappropriate for any level of government to provide a private service, such as transportation (much less to usurp onto themselves a monopoly over it). That having been said, we do live in a world where government-run public transit is a reality, so we must ensure that the process is as least corrupt as it can possibly be, given this sad state of affairs.
So, when one level of government collects non-voluntarily paid taxes (itself a form of slavery – but that, too, is another rant) on behalf of another, then threatens to withhold these funds unless the recipient levels of government enter into binding contracts forcing them to accept inferior goods at inflated prices – I am not exactly…happy.
And that is exactly what I think happened here. Not only have OC Transpo and the Toronto Transit been forced into accepting presto, the ‘deal’ forces the municipalities to pay its bill on time – without being able to invoke penalties for late delivery or equipment failure. Or, so a little bird told me… This is insult on top of injury and millions more lost, wasted…
But, what is one to do about this?
Well, one concerned taxpayer (let’s call him CT) DID do something about it.
He went on a hunt for the culprit – and found an official letter sent to the Ottawa Mayor, Jim Watson, from the Ontario Government, pretty much making that threat: accept the Presto system or you’ll not get the money we are legally obligated to transfer to you.
And CT found a signature at the bottom of this letter.
Whose signature was it?
None other than Kathleen Wynne’s, the then Minister of Transportation and the now Premier of Ontario!!!
To me, this seems like the proverbial ‘smoking gun’.
I suspect that CT thought so as well, since he started a private citizen’s prosecution of Kathleen Wynne.
More to follow PART 2 , PART 3 and PART 4 of this narrative.
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