"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Monday 25 August 2014

The Story

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Retrospective":

Evelyn...there's got to be more to this story. How the heck did they justify giving you this 25yrs service certificate 3 yrs late? You're a lot more gracious then I would have been. I would have told them to take it and

Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 24 August 2014 18:57


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I don't really know if there is more to this story. I don't put much store on government awards.

I think we are awash with awards .When so many are awarded  how meaningful. an they be?

I don't know how it was received at the Town Hall. It's a generic certificate with a space for a name to be inserted.  No dates are recorded .The name of the Minister of Municipal Affairs who was no longer Minister by the  time I received it. The Minister resigned from Provincial  politics to challenge the Mayor of  Brampton.

MLA Frank Klees was not present.

The Mayor's administrative assistant asked if I wanted to invite friends and or relatives .

My daughters came but they didn't need an invitation. Which is just as well because the Mayor just handed it to me  and that was that On to the next item on the agenda.

The certificate is in a plastic frame with a  Made in China  sticker still stuck on the back.

The town clerk,who is no longer with us, said  the people at Queen's park didn't want to send it up in December because  of the trial going on in Newmarket. They sent a letter acknowledging my eligibility but not the certificate.

I thought that was weird  considering it was a civil trial.

Actually, it surprised me they were paying that much attention. It meant they had to have noticed what was going on when the gang  cooked up the complaint against me under the Code of
Conduct they wrote that prohibited a Councillor from speaking critically about a Council decision.

Then they insisted on  a contract with an Integrity Commissioner with a termination clause. He apparently told the lawyer ,the clause denied him independence and was a deal breaker but signed it anyway.

Then he made a decision that their complaint was "entirely political" and dismissed it.

They tried to fire him before the decision could be distributed but he beat them to the punch.

So the Clerk, who only  ten months before  had accepted the appointment with the town , provided her resignation instead on the day she distributed the Integrity Commissioner's decision to  the person complained about in public form, in newspapers, on the world wide web , on television,  as a matter  of record in a public meeting.

That's another anniversary  The first week in August 2009 .

9 comments:

Anonymous said...


One should not accept recognition nor expect it to be tendered by people who are themselves bereft of the ability to think.

This takes in most politicians and civil servants, not just in Ontario.

Anonymous said...

It is hard to soar like an eagle when you work with turkeys.

Anonymous said...


I wish to respond to a statement made by Christopher Watts at 14:14 on August 19.

"What I find "rather curious" 12:51 is your insinuation that a standard requirement of a login to comment on a wordpress site has "suppressed engagement" opposed to merely establishing the types of engagement that are allowed. My site allows for login using twitter, facebook, google+ and Wordpress itself.

If you expect all websites to adhere to the same comment policy you're setting yourself up for serious disappointment.

I hear you, you don't want to login to comment on my site."

Well, Mr. Watts, I tried logging in to your site using google+ and there immediately appeared on my computer screen a box with my email address and a second box for me to fill in as user. I can't think of a computer that has not sent me an email so don't know if a person were to have my email address and wanted to send me an email would my name automatically appear? Possibly, but I am not prepared to take that chance.

As far as your other logins these social media are in my opinion literally for the birds, notwithstanding the multi-billion dollar valuations that have been placed on these companies.

We are soon going to be at a point where more than 50 percent of one's working day is spent screwing around with these time abusers. If someone like yourself makes one's living from this form of communication then you are more than entitled to carry on as you are.

But don't castigate those who refuse to identify themselves to you. I regularly comment on The Globe and Mail, The New York Times and The Financial Times. I do this because my comments bear pseudonyms and I have yet to hear from of these newspapers, to all three of which I subscribe.

By the way I have read the Psychology of Online Comments dated October 25, 2013, which was contained as a reference in your last sensible post. It contains strong arguments for anonymity as well as those against.

So get down off your high horse and recognize that the Evelyn Bucks and the former Aurora Citizen provided a valid forum for thoughtful expression - as well as for nonsense.

Anonymous said...

I think the "made in China" sticker speaks to the appreciation that such plaques from our government represent.

Anonymous said...

My spouse works for the City of Vaughan. They received a framed plaque for 25 years of service 3 years after the 25 years were in the book.

What does the plaque do for some one anyways. They know how long that they have been working down at the mine.

Anonymous said...

You may be right about all these awards being handed out these days like water, but to not recognize you being I believe the first female councillor, the first female mayor of this Town and to still be in this racket all these years getting paid peanuts. Wow. The Town’s Human Resource dept., Communications dept., local newspapers and of course the Mayor should all be ashamed of themselves. Sad.

Anonymous said...

Man, they should give you something you can spend, eat or drink. What good did a watch ever do someone who was retiring and didn't want to fuss about time ?

Anonymous said...

Gotta wonder what Mr Stronach did with his Keys to the City.

Anonymous said...

14:18
It doesn't “do” anything. But 25yrs service in this day and age proves true dedication, especially having to live and work through the last term. - Thank you Evelyn for 28yrs of service. Your friends and family are not the only ones that appreciate you and all that you've done and continue to do.