A Ministry Of The Environment Dr. Diamond Is Not Forever

Hold your ears. That screaming that you are hearing from downtown is our Mayor over the telephone telling Dr. Gerald Diamond of the Ministry of the Environment that he is NOT going to be given the Keys to the City that the Mayor wanted to award him just a few days ago.

• “Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis is ecstatic over the “smoking gun” proof of DRIC’s environmental failings. “My initial reaction? Thank God. Let’s bring him down here and give him the keys to the city,” enthused Francis.

That was no smoking gun. Rather it was a pop-gun, a water pistol.

It is too late now but the Windsor Star should never have published the City’s Greenlink advertisement that appeared in the Saturday Star. That advertisement in relation to the Minister of the Environment Air Quality Analyst comments quoted therein in my opinion is misleading in the context of the ad.

While it is true that the analyst made those comments in the letter set out, the Star knew before the ad was published that the analyst also had clarified what he had said. There is no reason why they should not have brought this clarification to the attention of the advertiser, the City, and demanded their comments to justify the running of the advertisement as written before publishing it.

The Star knew because it published the Analyst’s Letter to the Editor on Friday morning, a day before the ad was run. Some of the comments that he made in fact should have been included in the advertisement to be fair if the Star was the going allow such an advocacy ad to be published:

• “Scientists still have to review final assessment
  
  Windsor Star, January 23, 2009
  
  Re: Analyst Raps DRIC, Jan. 10.
  
  The comments attributed to me reflect my review of a preliminary draft environmental assessment.
  
  They do not reflect my opinion of the final assessment submitted to the ministry and released for public comment on Jan. 9.
  
  I have not reviewed the final environmental assessment. It contains hundreds of additional pages of technical reports. These reports were not included in the draft environmental assessment I reviewed.
  
  Further to my comments on the draft, the final version contains significant additional information on air quality. It is normal process for ministry staff to provide feedback to proponents on draft documents to identify areas we believe warrant additional work. We have just begun the review of the final environmental assessment and I am one of many scientists and experts who will be involved in that detailed review.
  
  GERALD DIAMOND
  
  Air Quality Analyst Southwest Region
  
  Ontario Ministry of Environment”

Notice that the City's position on the 400 Building audit is so different with the Dunbar Audit which is NOT an Audit but a Report. It should not be released on its own since it is "preliminary" and more information has to be examined before the final report is issued. Why did the City take such an extreme view of Diamond but not with Dunbar.

We have to forgive Gord on this one. He would not know this. I cannot recall him writing a column on the topic of the so-called preliminary Dunbar Report and demanding its release.

That is a devastating repudiation of what the Mayor told us and wanted us to believe as outlined in the Henderson column.

Dr. Diamond’s comments were based on the draft provided by DRIC. There is significant additional information provided. All that he was doing was providing comments requiring additional work on the draft. He is not the only one involved in examining the final report but he is one of many others. He has not yet reviewed the final report.

Before anyone says that Dr. Diamond was forced to write that letter, all we need to do is read what Gord had to say about the good doctor of the Environment:

• “integrity can still be found within the provincial civil service, at least in the environment ministry where air quality analyst Dr. Gerald Diamond chose to tell it like it is...
  
  
• Talk about guts. Diamond, a scientist, had to know his scathing comments… would have the you-know-what hitting the fan…
  
  
• Diamond, who didn’t budge from his written comments in an interview with A Channel’s Daryl Newcombe.”

Dr. Diamond merely stated the obvious when his letter was first written and in his reply. Eddie knows better since, after all, HE IS A LAWYER and should understand how reports are done. Perhaps he should now show us drafts of all of the Schwartz and other consultant reports on Greenlink before the final ones were submitted.

It is nothing more than another shameful episode to try to confuse the situation and get the public all worked up. For what reason, I still have no real idea.

All I do know is that the Star should be ashamed of themselves. They owe their subscribers and readers an apology.

PS. I have marked parts of the ad that I thought you might be interested in.

• The fear of the Mayor that he is losing because of the "Jobs" issue
• The section dealing with Dr. Diamond's initial comments on the draft
• The section making it our job to do something as the Mayor hides
• The Windsor "entitlement" mentality again