SCREWED

Dog owners lose, dogs lose, democracy loses, due process loses, we never had a chance, they never intended to give the off leash dog park users any input into the process at all, as Al Hogarth would say the "fix was in”. It was supposed to be a slam dunk and the only glitch was MR council recognizing the total lack of democracy and due process and kicking it back to the Parks and recreation, in affect giving us a two day reprieve from June tenth to the twelfth, the next Parks and recreation meeting where the users were supposed to get to finally tell the users side of this issue, the schedule appeared to give us the opportunity to speak to the issue but when it came to the meeting the parks commission voted on the issue before the dog park users were allowed to speak, history sadly repeating itself. We heard Al Hogarth and others tell the heart wrenching story of the horror and stress of living beside an off leash dog park, stories of unsubstantiated complaints of noise, easily fixed problems of dust, lies about bio-hazard a strain of e-coli allegedly taken in the adjacent school yard, only one problem the e-coli comes from cattle, sheep and goats definitely not dogs, if in fact this is true it is undoubtedly coming from the farm on the North side of the playground and the dog park was originally farm land. The Parks board just took all this BS and without substantiating these claims they swallowed these sad anguished tales hook line and sinker. In the 5-8 months this small group secretly lobbied the commission I guess it never occurred to the parks board to actually do some decibel testing or put a hedge where there was an actual sound problem or change the park hours or how about put in some turf to stop the dust problem, I suppose for some unknown reason they just accepted all these lies and exaggerations as fact. One of the main reasons Hogarth, Morden used to shut the park down was the danger of violence and the safety of the dogs, I would have to ask Al Hogarth and Michael Morden if that is the case why they didn’t get the RCMP who apparently were never tasked to find the monster that has been poisoning and trying to maim our dogs ongoing for over a year, and I have been informed that the SPCA was never contacted about these crimes, I guess they weren’t all that worried after all. Then after all that they for some unknown reason chose to totally disregard the parks and recreation staff recomendations about the park. I guess they forgot to ask Sam the main spokes person for the 27 name secret petition how long he has lived in that home as the dog park was there when he bought the house and would totally make their argument about doing it right and to not make the same mistakes the next time, and make sure all the home owners adjacent to the next location for a dog park are happy with the decision a joke at best. 

In the end it was a done deal conducted in secret with the secret 27 with only one side of the issue of the park considered, users only finding out about the closure after the deed was done the 1300 names on a petition a waste of time and of of absolutly no consequence to these dictators, absolutely no democracy, no due process of any kind. 

You may have won the battle but it is very likely Al Hogarth and Michael Morden could lose the war, I know that there are 27 people that are very happy that your heavy-handed undemocratic un-inclusive good old boy political style got  them what they wanted, but even they might have second thoughts after seeing first hand how you operate when it comes to things that do not affect them personally, and make no mistake this is how these people operate doing all Maple Ridges business and I know 1300 people that will not be giving them another mandate and probably 10,000 other dog owners that have had a severe reality check watching this travesty unfold.

 

P.S. It would seem that Pitt Meadows has a few like minded politicians who are quite comfortable with a total lack of democracy or due process also, but that is for the most part Pitt Meadows voters responsibility to fix.