It's March 4, 2003 All Over Again, Part 2

Oh my gosh. My sides are still hurting from all of that laughter. In fact, I almost spilled my cup of tea since I was shaking so hard. Who needs tea leaves now when you have Gord!

I am sorry. I have to do an extra BLOG about Gord Henderson's Saturday column. If you wanted confirmation of the split between the Mayor and Council, the Sheriff just gave it to us.

And if Gord wanted to fuel that fire between them, he could not have done a better job.

Poor Daryl Newcombe. Now he knows why he was given an interview with the Mayor. He was used as a tool by the Mayor against Council so that Gord could write about Windsor's weapon of mass destruction, David Estrin. Daryl's interview was the set up with the subdued Mayor being cast as our downtrodden hero in need of the legal help of our hired gun outside lawyer to save the City from the nasty bureaucrats in Toronto. Daryl got some info, but Gord got the real scoops.

Still, it is better than what we Bloggers get! We have to scrounge for our information, not get it over a cuppa like the traditional media stars. Tea, watercress sandwiches, scones and scoops all on a silver platter just before press time.

While superficially Gord’s column seems to boost the position of the Mayor, BLOG readers know that you have to read much more deeply into what Gord is writing. This column is designed to inflame just about everybody in this City and elsewhere against Eddie. Gord can then look innocent and say “Really. Did I do that?”

Bureaucrats… the faceless wonders are demonized and by name too. I am sure that Peter Wilkinson, Shelly Jamieson, and Bruce McCuaig being the “consummate professionals” that they are will just chuckle at this silliness and not take it out on Windsor. Right!

Of course, this must mean that perhaps MTO’s Fausto Natarelli who is directly involved with the Mayor must be considered Eddie’s friend so he may be in trouble with his superiors since he was not outed.

Sandra and Dwight… oh my gosh…they have not been invited to High Tea with the Premier so they have no power. If that is the case, then why does Gord keep putting the pressure on them to do something. He is wasting the Star’s ink writing about them.

Windsor business leaders… stop talking to Councillors. You are only allowed to talk to the Voice of Council who will ignore you anyway. I’m surprised that these key people were not identified too so that we Windsorites could take out our feelings of animosity against them because they were selling us down the river. Who would ever buy a single thing from them again or imagine how difficult it would be to get a permit from the City to do something. That was the threat wasn’t it. Back off or you will be in big trouble in this City financially if you are ever named.

Nothing like making enemies of the movers and shakers, the people who will help get us out of this recession.

Councillors…we know that there are at least three “weak links.” IE those who have formerly supported the Mayor but are now wavering. However, what I suspect is that these three, who are not the Three Blind Mice, are the swing votes who right now are opposed to giving Eddie the right to sue the Senior Levels. What it has to mean is that the votes are 6-4 at least against Eddie right now within Council. Gord’s column will do nothing more than solidify their opposition to the Mayor’s proposed actions. Otherwise, it will look like they can be intimidated by a mere column in the newspaper.

I wonder which Councillors were as loopy as Gord:

• “Some of us waited with bated breath for news that there had been a meeting of the minds and a compromise between DRIC's Parkway and the city's GreenLink alternative might be within reach at last.”

To whom did the word “us” refer? Which Councillors were in the loop this time around?

Strange, my liberal source ---free with information not Big “L” Liberal--- told me that Eddie already knew that his new Greenlink had been shot down by the Province long before the Tuesday meeting. If in fact that is true, then the Tuesday meeting was a phony designed to accomplish one of Eddie’s unknown agenda items.

Other media… I have already discussed this subject enough. It will be interesting for the Councillors to know whether the media got the information before they did about the Tuesday meeting.

Windsor citizens… I am outraged that there was a leak about the new Greenlink plan before it has ever been presented to Windsor citizens to see if we are supportive. I guess it doesn’t matter what we think after all… we can just pay the bills. It’s pretty much like the canal vision. Eddie decides and we must follow like it or not.

Thanks Gord, now we have an Integrity Commissioner matter because of your comment “according to my sources.”

DUHHHH I wonder who that person was who leaked the confidential City information and who gave that person authority to reveal this confidential City data. That could seriously prejudice our negotiating position! Junior should be livid.

Council has no choice now but to demand that an investigation be undertaken. What gall to reveal information to one taxpayer, merely because he writes a newspaper column, and not to reveal it to all the rest of us. It is very detailed information as well. The length of the Schwunnels has been reduced to 2800 metres and the difference in cost is only $150 million.

The Ambassador Bridge Company… last but not least they have been told that David Estrin is still working for the City notwithstanding the Court of Appeals decision in the United States. If this is true, then the damages to which this City may now be at risk have just increased dramatically if the Bridge Company wins in its case.

Have the Mayor and Council put themselves at risk personally too now if Estrin is still acting? Would this be considered as deliberate acts to hurt the Bridge Company after the Appeals decision warned them of the risk of keeping Estrin on? Has the City obtained an outside legal opinion supporting this?

What Greg Heil did certainly should look appealling to Councillors now if a decision is made to use Estrin! I would certainly suggest demanding a recorded vote on the Estrin matter and express my opposition if I was in their position if I wanted to escape liability!

In the end, this all really all comes down to one thing. it has nothing to do with the DRIC Road or Greenlink or the new Greenlink. Eddie has known for a long time that he has lost out on that and there is still time for him to arrive at a “compromise.” After all, this intense pressure by Henderson’s column can be used by Eddie to say that he forced the Province to do something even if they make the tiniest of changes to the Greenlink proposal. He turns into our saviour, all accomplished by him personally in spite of a weak-kneed, turn-coat Council.

It all comes down to David Estrin. Look at the last two lines of what Gord wrote:

• “Apart from the power of public opinion, Windsor is left with but one weapon in this fight, David Estrin, the guy who wrote the book on environmental law in Ontario.
  
  But what a weapon.”

Hardly. That weapon may have no bang in it considering what the US Court of Appeals has said:

• "There are some conflicts of interest to which a client may not consent. Thus, the district court was only partially correct when it stated “that a client may impliedly waive its consent to an attorney’s conflict of interest,” J.A. at 589 (Order at 6), because it ignored the question of whether Gowlings’s simultaneous and adverse representation of CenTra and Windsor was in fact a conflict to which CenTra could consent. We hold that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Gowlings’s conflict of interest with regards to the Bridge Plan was one to which CenTra could consent...”

Now I understand that retaining Estrin to fight the Province may not seem to impact the Bridge Company directly but it would in my opinion. Don’t forget, the City does not want to build a road to the Ambassador Bridge. The Bridge Company could still make the argument that even with Estrin’s opposition to the Province’s road, which is not about the road’s route but on its manner of construction, Estrin is helping the City and the Province build a road away from the Ambassador Bridge to its detriment. Accordingly, Estrin should not act.

If the Court of Appeals is correct and the facts support what the Court has said, then Estrin is in serious trouble and so is his law firm. The conflict could not be waived.

Why would the City want to continue to be in this mess and run-up damages and why would it not want to retain another top-notch environmental lawyer in Ontario? They should and they should do so immediately even if it is just out of an abundance of caution.

The reality is that Eddie and Estrin are tied to each other at the hip. Eddie does not dare get rid of Estrin and that is one of the reasons why Estrin "fired" the Bridge Company as a client. They are in this together all the way.

So how does Eddie redirect attention away from himself and try to help out Estrin. Simple. Get Council to pass a Resolution authorizing Estrin to act even AFTER the Court of Appeals decision is reached. Then it is not the fault of Eddie "I am a lawyer" Francis if the Bridge Company gets a huge punitive damages award but that of Council!

If Council will not do that after an in camera meeting when Eddie asked, then surely it is expected that Gord will shame them into it after his Column if they want a political future here. Which "weak link" could resist that consequence! Better to toe the line

I can go back to juices now. No need to drink caffeine thanks to Gord's insights.

Can you image though. All of those machinations and the planning required just for this one simple point. No wonder nothing of substance ever gets done here.