No Contest Winner, Sorry

The contest is now closed and unfortunately, there were no winners although there were some clever answers.

You may recall that I ran a Transport Canada contest a few days ago. I provided a webpage and a list of International Bridges in Canada. I asked:

1. What is missing from this website
2. Why

The first question was easily answered: the Ambassador Bridge. It was the second question that caused the problem.

The answer has to do with CSIS, Transport Canada, Bill C-3 and Senator Kenny. It was all masterminded by a secret group whose function it is to protect Canada's valuable assets when in reality we have no money to do proper security.

Bill C-3 is actually more concerned about security of tunnels and bridges yet Transport Canada has no money to do anything about it if proper steps have to be taken at all of the international crossings in Canada. [Damn the "private" Ambassador Bridge, as the Ottawa hearings revealed, they have the best security in Canada! It forces the "public" sector to spend money to keep up to their standard]

The Senator has been on a top-secret mission from a group deep within the bowels of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) who play a leading role in protecting the national security interests of Canada. Until the public knew better when the US magazine article came out identifying that the Tunnel was a "unique" security risk, everyone assumed that the real border risk was the Bridge.

You may remember Senator Kenny carrying out his role with his Senate Report and when he made statements like: "If someone really wanted to lay waste to Canada’s political and economic future – and wound the Americans at the same time – the best target would be the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ontario."

The plan is so obvious now that we should have thought of it before. A CSIS genius told Transport Canada to divert attention away from the Tunnel to the bridge. Voila, perfect security for the Tunnel at no cost!

But the plan backfired as Bureaucratic plans normally do since many of them live in La-la land as far as the real world goes. Their model says one thing until reality bites and the plan is shown to be flawed.

Someone at Transport Canada obviously woke up in a sweat one morning (probably after he/she met Dan Stamper of the Bridge Co. at the Ottawa hearings) and figured out that the good Senator had been too successful. Too much attention was now being focused on the Bridge.

Sources tell me that a top-secret meeting was held in Ottawa involving Senior Mandarins from a number of Departments to deal with this imminent crisis. After days of discussion, another solution was agreed to, another no cost solution.

You have to admit the new plan was sheer genius. The ultimate security action is to pretend that the Ambassador Bridge does not exist! If it does not exist, then it cannot be a security risk. If it is not a security risk, no money has to be spent to protect it. What is the easiest way to pretend it does not exist: take it off of the list of Transport Canada International Bridges. If it is not on the list, then no one will know about it. Problem solved.

Oh, there you go again, laughing at me, thinking I am making this stuff up. No one could make up these things I am telling you! Want proof???

We know that the Tunnel is a unique security risk and this obviously has been known for a long time. Action could have been taken long ago--reverse customs is one answer-- to resolve the problem but, as I disclosed before, that would have made the Tunnel non-competitive with the Bridge. So what is done to pretend that the problem has been solved at no cost:

• "Tunnel blueprints yanked
  Doug Williamson, Windsor Star 08-14-2004
  
  Mayor Eddie Francis has ordered the removal of Detroit-Windsor tunnel blueprints and other structural documents from the public library... a button-click away from sensitive data.
  
  Francis, citing two sections of the Ontario Municipal Act which give him such authority, ordered library director Steve Salmons on Aug. 4 to remove the tunnel documents, which included detailed blueprints, from library archives, and put them under lock and key...
  
  He said he also urged the Detroit and Canada Tunnel Corporation, which manages the entire tunnel for Windsor and its Australian- based management company, to remove all information relating to tunnel infrastructure from its public website."

Now that was fast action by the Mayor. But I wonder why he has not taken real action at the Tunnel. After all, and Transport Canada should also take note of this:

"You never want to be in a position where somebody could say, 'You knew, you ought to have known and you didn't do something,'" Francis said."

Wow, quite a statement from our Mayor/WTC Chair/legal technocrat which I hope no plaintiff's litigation lawyer will ever have to use against the City or the WTC!

Eddie has NO choice now. He must call Ottawa forthwith and set up an appointment this week. He must go to Ottawa and have a meeting with senior Transport Canada officials and get this issue resolved. Poor Eddie, someone might otherwise say that he "didn't do something."