Honesty in Accounting

The stories about the latest crisis unfolding on a native reserve far, far away are front and centre in the newspapers again, and I have been involved in some kitchen table conversations with various friends who have a lot of opinions about what has happened and what hasn't, in places like Attawapiskat.

Some of what I have been hearing in recent days is tinged with racism, and some of it is just simply misinformed. I confess to a lot of ignorance on these issues, too, so I went looking at the money part of the equation, leaving aside the questions that arise from the legacy of residential schools.

There are widely varied public reports of how much federal money actually flows to Attawapiskat each year, but from what I can gather, is it's somewhere about 100 million dollars a year. That's 100 million dollars annually to cover all the housing, all the health care, including mental health services, all the education, all the roads, water and sewer services, any firefighters, plus salaries for the people who provide all of the above to the about 2000 people who live there.

Let's compare, shall we? The budget for the municipality where I live was 66.8 million dollars this year for road and sidewalk plowing, asphalt, recreation facilities, salt, firefighters, salaries and services, but not for education or health care for the 18-thousand people who live in Collingwood.

My local hospital's budget is around 300 million from the province, but that figure doesn't include doctors' pay. I have no idea what is spent on the twice-a-year doctor appointments my husband and I average. There are also at least five mental-health counsellors working full time in a facility near the hospital; is there a way to know what it costs to house them, in addition to their pay?

The province pays for the nurses who work at the hospice. The province also subsidizes a lot of daycare spaces, while the feds are increasing the payment to parents this coming July to somewhere around 5K per kid per year, depending on your income.

The county spends another 300 million or so on things like welfare and operating the social housing units in our town, picking up trash, recycling and compost, and let's not forget the county-run old age home and the county-designated roads, which require plows and salt.

Do you know how much is shelled out on your kids' schools, including the salaries of teachers, support workers and janitors? How about the buses? I'd love to have a dollar figure per kid across Ontario, but I bet it's somewhere around 150k per child, and let's not forget the millions that flow to colleges and universities before you pay the tuition.

If only we could compare the raw dollars and then consider how much more it costs to do things up north before suggesting that the reserves are wasteful or corrupt or stupid.

It's possible some of the millions going to places like Attawapiskat is indeed wasted, but I'd wager if it were all added up, the number of dollars spent per person down here is much, much higher than what is spent on our fellow Canadian citizens on reserve.

Furthermore, after the report that came to Collingwood's town council recently about a dire lack of available information about the sale of half of COLLUS a few years ago, no one in this town should have even one word to say about a lack of reporting or mismanaged record-keeping elsewhere.

Panama, Shanama- the COLLUS Papers

We're going to need a bigger bus, what with so very many people being 'thrown under the bus' in the Collus Papers scandal. Full disclosure: no one but me is calling it that, but a girl can hope...

To catch you up, Collingwood's town council hired a lawyer to put together a map of how decisions were made regarding the sale of 50 percent of the town's utility, COLLUS. The final vote to sell was in January, 2012; half the utility is now owned by Powerstream, which owns and operates the electricity systems in Newmarket and Barrie and a few other places.

The report was delivered last week at a 2pm town council meeting that was standing room only. I got there early to secure a seat. In addition to interested citizens, a former mayor was there, along with at least three former town councillors. So was the rabble-rouser who got released a chain of emails between Ed Houghton and John Brown through a Freedom of Information request. Brown is currently the acting CAO for the Town of Collingwood. Houghton was the President of Collus when the town decided to sell off half the utility. Houghton was the town's acting CAO for about a year starting about three months after the decision about the sell-off was made. He remained the head of COLLUS during his tenure at town hall and is still the President and CAO of the half of the utility the town owns.

The lawyer's report basically says he couldn't actually offer up a 'decision tree' or a map of what happened, because either there are no records, or no one will give them to him. The report says there is no paper trail of decisions about the sale, no way to know how the decision was made of offer up 50% of the utility, and also that no one ever does a 50/50 sale of a utility, and he's been involved in dozens of these types of transactions. The report expressed consternation that a town would sell an asset for 8-14 million dollars (depending on how you do the math) with no real records of how the decision was made, in spite of repeated attempts to get those records.

During the 'questions' part of the meeting, one town councillor laid the blame for 'information gaps' at the feet of the former head of Collus, Dean Muncaster, who died two months after the deal was made. Another member of town council tried to blame Ed Houghton, although Houghton's name was spoken aloud only one time that I could count in the meeting, which I found very, very odd since he's front and centre at both the utility the town owned and town shortly thereafter. I was left wondering, is he Voldemort or something?

Emails leaked in that FOI request appear to cast blame for a lack of records from meetings on the Mayor at the time, who is still the mayor, saying that at the end of the day, final decisions were hers.

Now, a blogger in town whose LinkedIn page lists him as working for the Ontario Municipal Water Association, where Ed Houghton is now the Executive Director, appears to blame the town or the town clerk for bad record-keeping regarding the sale. Ian Chadwick the blogger was also a town councillor during the time of the sale, and his post also blames the current acting CAO because...rudeness. He suggests the lack of records could be blamed on spelling errors and a lack of politeness in John Brown's email correspondence requesting information about the sale.

So, that's four. So far. Yup. Definitely gonna need a bigger bus. Or at least, bigger tires.

Thought Experiment

Just for fun, try this little game with me today:

Take everything you've read about the Ghomeshi case as it relates to presumption of innocence, balance of probabilities, and reasonable doubt -- all the articles, tweets, facebook posts, commentaries and columns. Collect them up and let them float around in your head for a few seconds. Got 'em in there? Good.

Now, replace the charge of sexual assault with impaired driving and do a gut-check on your reaction. Does it change anything? Why or why not?

Those accused of drunk driving automatically lose their licence for a week. Their car is impounded before they ever see the inside of a court house.

If they are acquitted, they do not get that week back, and they still have to pay the price of impounding the car and the tow truck fees. They might lose their job just for being accused. Their names are made public.

But, it's drunk driving, not sexual assault, so we believe the police that charge the drunks before we ever have a trial.

I'm not suggesting we take away anyone's due process; I'm saying we already have, and doing so is not as unprecedented in our legal system as some would have you believe.

Hey, I'm on TV! OK, cable. Tune in to the Penny Skelton show on Rogers 53 tomorrow to see me in fake eyelashes, talking about the fallout from the Ghomeshi case with Penny and Alison Fitzgerald, the ED of My Friends House shelter.

Tricks

I have fallen for quite a few tricks in my day, happily none of them involving spiked drinks or serious trouble, but I admit to a certain gullibility.
But recently, I've been smartening up. I have figured out a few things, which leads to other revelations.

Hiking is really just walking.
Snoeshoeing? Also just walking.

Curry and stew are really the same thing.

No one cares that there's a difference between cottage pie and shepherd's pie.

Cheap and frugal are the same thing, but the word choice is revealing.

It's the Economy, Stupid

Donald Trump is getting a lot of attention for his racist, sexist, xenophobic remarks, but he's talking about more than that, and it might just be all that other stuff that's getting him the support that has stupefied so many of us.

Have you actually listened to any of his speeches? Beyond the water-throwing, disabled-mocking, wall-building and race-baiting, there is some substance.

This week, I spent several hours I can never get back watching Trump's speeches online, and I now totally get why he's getting so much support. It's not the racism, or at least, it's not JUST the racism. Trump talks a lot about the economy, and very few commentators are addressing the failings of the system that Trump talks about at his rallies.

Trump is saying out loud what a lot of people in the US have felt for quite some time: they are being screwed over.

Corporations have made out like bandits under free trade, but regular folk lost out. Those who have kept their jobs are now doing the work of the people who lost theirs, with no increase in pay. Many others are working three part-time jobs with no security and no stability, because of the way big companies do their 'just in time' staffing.

A lot of people in the US are no better off today than they were a decade or even two decades ago. Many have gone backwards financially. They know the banks, the corporations and the already-wealthy have done very well, and they have now figured out that the system is gamed against them. The house is always going to win, even while their house is 'underwater'. Trump is vowing to bring back the good times, when a person could make a living by working hard, not just by being born rich or with connections. He has tapped into the hugest fear most of us have: that our kids won't be better off than we are.

It remains ironic that Trump himself is the child of wealth even while decrying the graft of the ruling elite. He's also vulgar and rude, but being a loudmouth jerk doesn't take away the ring of truth to what he says about many Americans: things are not good for them and things are not getting better for them under the systems and policies currently in place. He's acknowledging the electorate's pain, often in a crude and ugly way, but acknowledging it nonetheless and no other candidate on either side is doing that.

Trump likely will not be able to fix the problems even if he does win the vote in November, but he's seeing and speaking a fundamental truth for the vast majority of Americans now: the American Dream is a chimera for all but a very few. The people who have lost out are blaming a government the voters know is no longer of or for the people, and they're looking for someone to set things right. Trump is popular because he's saying he's the one to fix it. He's promising to be a savior, and that's something US voters are willing to embrace.

Frankly, I am astounded and grateful that with all the anger and all the loss Trump is tapping into, that the people he's speaking to are are still willing to put their trust in voting for change. Think about all the guns down there.

Joking away the Blues

Things have been pretty bleak in my world over the last while, with several tragedies for people close to me and a bizarre grouping of strange losses and other odd happenings.

My spirits were lifted this weekend when I heard a subtle and very post-modern joke, which only some people get right away. Here goes:

A male feminist walks into a bar.
He couldn't help it; it was set so low.


Bwaaa haaa haaa! Happy IWD

Just what do I do, Anyway?

I find it funny and telling when people sneer about "the media". Especially when they sneer about it to me, a member of it.

Most people would never mention to their dentist any belief about a possible connection between their child's expensive braces and the doctor's new car, but no one spares much concern or contempt for my profession. Which is cool, since, as a journalist, I prefer openness and honesty.

As newspapers shut down their presses and the future of TV news continues to be debated by the CRTC, a curtain was pulled back recently on journalism as a whole in this country, courtesy of one Ezra Levant, who has previously testified under oath in court that he's not a reporter, but who insists he is one when it comes to his attendance at news events at the Alberta legislature.

The Rachel Notley government admits it made a mistake banning Levant from its newswers. They weren't wrong, entirely, but it was a mistake to give Levant any fodder for his ongoing smearing of anyone with whom he disagrees, or with whom he is paid to disagree.

The imbroglio has raised the question of just what constitutes journalism in a free and pluralistic society like ours, and there have been various and sundry answers, the most oft-quoted one being, "if you say you're a journalist, you are are one". That's as good an answer as any, since there are no rules governing journalism, only traditions, which are in the midst of massive change.

I am profoundly uncomfortable lumping myself in with the likes of Levant as a journalist.
And yet we are both journalists, and here's the secret about why: there is no such thing.

My electrician husband had to do an apprenticeship over the course of several years, and then take a licensing exam before he was genuinely an electrician. Before becoming teachers, my teacher friends had to take a year of college, for which they were eligible only after achieving high enough marks in an undergraduate degree. The plumber who unclogs the poop in your pipes has years of training, a certification exam and a college that can take away his licence if he does a bad job and collects enough complaints.

But we journalists, we who put information and ideas into your head, we need no credentials to do so: no high school diploma, no degree, no licence; there is no governing body, and there isn't even a requirement to display good grammar or syntax, not officially. Unofficially, a degree helps, and so does good syntax and grammar, along with the art of cold calling and being a fearless questioner. But there are no legal or otherwise 'real' requirements, and certainly not if the outlet of your reportage is your very own website, blog or podcast.

Here's another secret: generally, news conferences are open to the public, because we journalists, well, we ARE the public. Nothing more or less, not really.

Journalists act as surrogates for you, Mister and Missus John Q Public, asking the questions you might ask if you had the time or inclination to ask them. We provide information you don't have time to collect for yourself, and in my case, packaging it for you top and bottom of the hour as you get ready for your day.

We find out stuff, some of the very serious ones among us ferreting out information about corruption and graft, others us trying to provide for you some information that will have an impact on you or that might interest you, whether that impact is on your wallet, your heart or your mind, or even if the interest is in your neighbour's kids.

We go to town and township council meetings and tell you what happened, but we also meet with the proprietors of new businesses and talk with the organisers of events and activities. I arrive at work each day aiming to tell you what you need to know as the day goes by, and I try to entertain you a little bit at the same time.

Levant doesn't seem to be interested in edification. He seems to follow the likes of radio shock jocks in the US like Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter, in whose commentary high volume and repetition generally take the place of demonstrable facts. Levant used to have one of those ranting shows on Sun TV until the channel shut down for lack of viewers. Now, he has a website, which may or may not have fewer viewers. He was and remains apoplectic at the election of an NDP government in Alberta, and has been railing about what he thinks is the Notley government's incompetence since before it was sworn in. His opinion of Justin Trudeau is even lower. He called Trudeau's father a "slut" on live television. The Sun network apologised, but Levant himself has not.

Levant's list of offensive remarks and half-truths is very, very long. And yet he calls himself a journalist, and this week, many other people who also call themselves journalists, backed him up.

Their reasoning was thus: if we start saying who is and who is not a journalist, and start getting rid of the rules surrounding the openness of our democratic institutions, then we're in the kind of trouble imagined in A Man For All Seasons, where Sir Thomas More argues about providing the devil with the same justice as the rest of us. We need to protect the devil just as much as ourselves, for the safety of all.

I'm tempted to agree, but part of me doesn't. Journalist poseurs trading in half-facts and sorta-truths should be called out.

The question is, who's going to do that job while the 'journalists' are busy trying to uncover the truth about everything else on your behalf? In an open and pluralistic society, citizens have responsibilities, too, and one of them is a little bit of critical thinking. Which, considering SunTV has shut down for lack of viewers and Levant is reduced to ranting on website, seems to be working out just fine here in Canada for now.