{"id":8441,"date":"2014-10-08T20:48:46","date_gmt":"2014-10-09T00:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=8441"},"modified":"2014-10-08T20:48:46","modified_gmt":"2014-10-09T00:48:46","slug":"reader-fears-council-history-will-repeat-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/reader-fears-council-history-will-repeat-itself\/","title":{"rendered":"Reader fears Council history will repeat itself"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Gallo and Wendy Gaertner formed part of the bloc of six on council from 2006 to 2010 and there were countless news stories, cartoons, letters to the editor and editorials that painted a picture of their style of government.
\nI think that it is worth considering a sampling of a few of the headlines to the editorial written by the late Dick Illingworth between 2006 to 2009, keeping in mind that Dick was a well-respected past mayor and councillor, who also had provincial government experience. This is the kind of government that Geoff Dawe inherited and, in my opinion, turned around with the support of a new kind of majority.
\nThese are the headlines that most people in Aurora had to read when Gallo and Gaertner were in the majority\u2026<\/p>\n

–\tCouncil should not meddle in school board\u2019s business
\n–\tThings that bug me at council meetings are in abundance
\n–\tLetters reveal what people are thinking
\n–\tCouncil split in two camps
\n–\tToo many items being discussed away from public
\n–\tTraffic calming plan now biting council
\n–\tAurora Council is a paradox
\n–\tPublic has a right to know the outcome of that meeting
\n–\tFinancial burden on the horizon
\n–\tTown will have tough time winning issue
\n–\tTime is now for a decision on power
\n–\tInformation still held from public
\n–\tThis council is an embarrassment and a disgrace
\n–\tAurora Council needs to make a few decisions
\n–\tControversial group is still differing decisions
\n–\tProvince may decide where plant is built (NOTE: which the province ultimately did)
\n–\tCouncil walks a narrow line
\n–\tCitizen\u2019s lose battle between council, staff
\n–\tConflict of interest rules are confusing members of council
\n–\tSoothsayer wonders what is going on at political level
\n–\tFrustrated, Aurora Annie talks politics
\n–\tThe whole year a roller coaster ride for council
\n–\tCouncil running out of time before next election<\/p>\n

Dick Illingworth passed away in March 2009, not long before the former council agreed to fund a private defamation lawsuit with the use of public funds and the Town\u2019s solicitor.
\nMaster Hawkins of the Superior Court of Ontario ultimately determined that the private defamation lawsuit was a strategic lawsuit against public participation (i.e. a SLAPP litigation).
\nCan we afford to risk going back to those days?<\/p>\n

Richard Johnson
\nAurora <\/strong><\/p>\n

(Editor\u2019s Note: Mr. Johnson was one of three defendants in the defamation suit referenced above.)
\n<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Gallo and Wendy Gaertner formed part of the bloc of six on council from 2006 to 2010 and there were countless news stories, cartoons, letters to the editor and editorials that painted a picture of their style of government. I think that it is worth considering a sampling of a few of the headlines […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2c9","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-15 22:14:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}