Gordon Prentice at Large - Politics in Newmarket
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
This afternoon, at the amphitheatre at Fairy Lake, I heard the most remarkable unscripted address from Kim Wheatley, a Shawanaga First Nation Reserve Anishinaabe Ojibway grandmother who carries the Spirit name Head or Leader of the Fireflower and is Turtle clan.
It must have lasted a good one and a half hours but it flew by.
The audience was transfixed.
She spared no-one. She talked about the horrors of the residential schools. She crucified the Catholic Church and the response of Pope Francis. She lambasted the Federal Government and the Crown. And it was all delivered in a gentle cadence. But inside she was boiling with anger, decribing the pain she felt.
Interwoven into this assault on the institutions of oppression were personal stories drawn from her own experience. She described the traumas that were inflicted on her people – the mindless slights and the deeper institutional racism.
Her speech was moving and profound.
The Treaties
I don’t know where her narrative will take us. Her description of the Treaty process was fascinating. The treaties were written only in English, their meaning determined by the Courts.
Her people shared their land with the new settlers, negotiating treaties with the Crown but soon the relationship changed. It was no longer a Treaty between equals - two Sovereign nations. It evolved into something very different.
On my bookshelf sits a commentary on the Treaties and the Treaty Relationships.
It starts with this story from Karine Duhamel:
“In October 2017, twenty-one First Nations representing approximately thirty thousand people took the Federal and Ontario governments to Court, alleging that the Treaty commitments made by the man originally assigned to negotiate them in 1850, Special Commissioner William Benjamin Robinson, were due for renegotiation. The case focusses on a central question: How should Treaty terms negotiated nearly 170 years ago be interpreted today?
The First Nations who signed Robinson’s Treaties argue that the Federal and provincial governments have draw considerable resource wealth from their territory without ever renegotiating the terms Robinson made even though Robinson included a clause for renegotiation. The annual annuity to band members remains the same today as it was in 1874 – four dollars per person.”
Discuss.
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
Former Executive Director of Inn from the Cold, Tom Vegh, sat silent this morning at a meeting of York Regional Council as Mayor John Taylor called for $1M of emergency funding to avoid the homelessness organisation itself becoming homeless in 24 months time. 
Taylor told the Regional Council;
“Inn from the Cold Shelter in Newmarket is a little less than two years away from its lease being up which is already been extended once a little (and will) not be extended again… the Inn itself is on the verge of becoming homeless and it provides a critical service to the Region.”
Taylor said they were seeking to raise $2.5 million and a fund-raising committee has raised about $1.5 million to date. Extra funding would be coming from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation but a capital contribution of $1M from the Regional Council would make a huge difference.
In a long debate – with eight speakers – Vegh stayed silent when he could have been supporting Taylor and sharing insights about his work at the Inn from the Cold.
Aurora’s Mayor, Tom Mrakas, seconded Taylor’s motion. But at the end of the debate Mrakas told the meeting he thought it more appropriate for Vegh to be the seconder. This generous gesture was agreed nem con, without debate.
What is Tom Vegh for?
I was left wondering: What is Tom Vegh for?
He gets top marks for plastering the Town with his election signs.
But why won’t he speak out in support of an organisation he used to lead? Did he ask Taylor if he could second the motion? Did Taylor ask him to? If not, why not? Is the relationship between the two too far gone?
Will Newmarket Today and the ERA ask Vegh to explain why he didn’t speak in the debate when he had every opportunity?
What is the real story behind this?
Is timid Tom Vegh just doing what he does best?
Saying nothing of any consequence at York Regional Council but bragging on social media about what he gets done?
“Leadership you can count on”
What a joke.
And how the story was covered in Newmarket Today
more to follow…
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
Two and a half years ago our winter vacation in Mexico went up in smoke when Air York Airport Transportation Inc failed to get us to Pearson in time for our flight. It cost us thousands of dollars.
At the time a remarkable Zen like calmness descended on me. Sitting in the back of the car, stuck in traffic, I vowed I would make Air York pay and expose their useless guarantee.
Yesterday a Judge at the Small Claims Court here in Newmarket found in our favour.
Covid knocked the Courts sideways and delay followed delay but we now have the judgement in our hands.
This has been a huge learning experience for me. I now know that Court forms have to be absolutely tickety-boo. Not a dot or comma out of place. I swallowed hard and served the claim personally on the defendant. I navigated my way through the dense legalese. But now we're there.
Well, not quite.
There is the small detail of actually collecting the money owed to us by "worry free" Air York Airport Transportation Inc.
That may be a challenge.