9:26 PM - 29.11.04
News and Such
The big local news story today was that the candidate who won one of the seats on City Council amid allegations of voter fraud quit just as the public part of the judicial inquiry was about to commence. According to the morning newspaper the parties challenging the results acknowledged that hundreds of people had come forward with unsolicited information - some of which was "quite startling" and could have "unexpected" impacts. A news story on TV tonight showed the person who stepped down sitting in a council meeting this morning and reaching into her bag to pull out her cellphone. She left the room and subsequently announced her resignation just as the review was moving to the public domain. Over the weekend two or three people from the same provincial party as her seemed to be trying to deflect attention from, or water down, the seriousness of the allegations by reporting anomalies they felt had affected the Provincial vote in their ridings one week ago. The odd thing about those allegations was that the fingers they were pointing were at members of their own parties and campaign teams. Just strange. Personally, I think the review should proceed anyway. I guess the best that one can expect is that it will not intervene in the parallel criminal investigation that is proceeding anyway into the October Municipal election and the fraud allegations.
Second big news is the visit to Canada by US President GW Bush starting tomorrow. Wait a minute, that's when Mercury goes retrograde - how come none of the news outlets picked up that significant factor. Apparently though, the three hour discussion scheduled between our two leaders is for the purpose of going over old ground, so that should be ok. There is an expectation of protesters wherever the President is to appear, but this is the polling results of Canadians opinions of the issue Americans.
Final news story is about the effect of a local "community standards" bylaw that was enacted this spring. I mentioned in an earlier post that even the length of the grass in one's lawn was now subject to a maximum height after which penalties are imposed - 15 cm/6". One reporter asked a bylaw officer to demonstrate for the camera exactly what was going to be used to measure the offending flora and how that would be quantified. Pull the blades taut and take the average height of a certain number? Maybe just one blade would have to be over the limit - what standards of measurement would make certain that all homeowners would receive equal treatment. I chuckled at the time but I'm not so sure any more. The story on the weekend was of a Dad who built a playhouse for his children in their back yard. One neighbour complained under the new standards act on the grounds that it was too high and would mean the children could see into their yard. A lot of the houses pictured roundabout had second storey balconies. Thirty three neighbours signed an affidavit/petition that declared that they had no problem with the structure. The order was given that the Dad had to take it apart, based on the one complaint over 33 approvals.
The reason that one struck home was a call from a neighbour of mine tonight. Did I know that one of my garbage bags broke and there was kitty litter in the alley last week? No. We put the garbage out for collection at around midnight for a 6 am pick up that same day. Too many dogs running loose in the community to do otherwise and besides that the bylaw also says that no one may put out their garbage more than 24 hours prior to pick up. I don't know if the bag broke when the garbagemen picked it up - litter is heavy when it has been used - or whether a dog had decided to "play" with it, but there was no intention to cause our neighbour distress and we weren't aware it had happened. Well apparently that was because he had seen it and swept it into our yard. Fine. "Don't let it happen again, I don't want my tires to get dirty when I drive into my garage" His garage entrance is angled so that there is no way he should even be able to enter it from the position where my garbage is situated, but whatever. He cited the bylaw as support for his demand and that ended the conversation. I hadn't any intention of deliberately letting my garbage be ripped open, however it occurred, and have tried to keep it within the wood container built for that purpose. He wanted that removed too he said - it's in my way. Well then how am I to ensure that there is no further problem. I went to check the bylaw just to see how stringent the guidelines were and according to the text anyone who doesn't like something they can see from the street in your yard has the right under the bylaw to demand you remove it or be fined. I hope there aren't going to be too many grinches complaining about Christmas decorations.
Maybe I'm being too thin skinned though. On the weekend his wife told me his 30+ daughter is quite ill and likely won't survive too much longer. He and his wife moved here from Hungary when she was born because her handicap meant that she would have been warehoused and left to die if they stayed in that country at that time. They have sacrificed a great deal so that she could have a chance at a good life. Maybe he just needs to feel that he is in control of something when the most important thing in his life is being lost against all his efforts. About the only comforting thing I have to offer is one of the kittens, but I guess that's out of the question right now. Hopefully he won't see creating conflicts with his neighbours as a form of diversion. As my youngest noted after, if he takes on the two neighbours on one side of us - the druggies who have their yards filled up with a whole suite of furniture plus a pack of yappy and wandering dogs - and the neighbours on the other side who have similar patterns of partying he may find he has bit off a lot more than the puzzled response he got from me.
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