Co-opting The Environmentalists On The Arena

I am tired of secrecy in this City since I have great fear that taxpayers will wind up holding the bag. Let me tell you about another incident involving what I am told was a secret meeting--or at least a non-public one--involving environmentalists and the East End Arena.

As you know I have written to the Ministry of the Environment asking that they require the City to comply with the Environmental Assessment Act and do an Environmental Assessment. There are signfificant issues that need to be dealt with.

Let me pause and give you an excerpt from an article that I just saw:

• "Ron Duchin gave a speech to the US National Cattlemen’s Association describing how MBD works to divide and conquer activist movements. Duchin explained that activists fall into four categories: radicals, opportunists, idealists and realists, and that a three-step strategy was needed to bring them down.
  
  First, you isolate the radicals: those who want to change the system and promote social justice. Second, you carefully ‘cultivate’ the idealists: those who are altruistic, don’t stand to gain from their activism, and are not as extreme in their
  methods and objectives as the radicals. You do this by gently persuading them that their advocacy has negative consequences for some groups, thus transforming them into
  realists. Finally, you co-opt the realists (the pragmatic incrementalists willing to work within the system) into compromise.
  
  “The realists should always receive the highest priority in any strategy dealing with a public policy issue . . . If your industry can successfully bring about these relationships, the credibility of the radicals will be lost and opportunists can be counted on to share in the final policy solution."

I give you this excerpt because the City, via a Councillor, invited a number of environmental groups in the City to meet to discuss the groups' letters about negative environmental aspects of the arena's parking lot and their suggestions and recommendations to fix up the problem.

What bothers me is that if this is such a big issue that a number of groups felt the need to join together to deal with the City, then why is it not the subject of a PUBLIC meeting so everyone can be let in on the big secret! While the groups may think it shows their "power," in reality, they are being co-opted by the City who will play on their weaknesses.

Once the City "solves" the issue with their "assistance," to arrive at a "compromise" solution, then these groups have become a useful ally of the City both against other citizens and against the Ministry. How can you argue against the City when the environmentalists are onside! Aren't they the defenders of the faith!

A perfect example of how the City has done this in the past is "Windsor Area Green Party Activists Endorse The Schwartz Report."

I am not knocking the groups. They are doing their best. What I am absolutely against is the groups following the non-public route. There is no reason for them to keep it quiet. What they need to understand is that they do not need the City. The City needs them desperately.

It's time the groups let the citizens know what their issues are and support a full EA for the site. Otherwise, they will be piecemealed!