Why I Was Silent On The Border File Today

It really had nothing to do with what took place between the Prime Minister and the Governerd. With all the leaks, it was pretty much expected what was going to happen. I’ll take a look in depth at that later on but not now. I just know it is going to get even uglier and stretch out for who knows how long.

No, I was depressed today, quite sad about what was going on.

I happened to get up very early in the morning and turned on the TV set to watch the news on the various American channels at around 5 AM. I was sickened by what I heard. There were the announcers with their smiling faces telling us all that there was going to be a new bridge built soon that would not cost Michiganders anything and that it would create thousands and thousands and thousands of new jobs and untold prosperity because of the increasing international trade. This was of course was based on the Canadian Government and other DRIC-ite sponsored CAR Report that came out yesterday.

What a pile of hogwash.

Yet, I did not hear one critical comment whatsoever. I did not hear any questioning, any wondering, no one asking if it sounded too good to be true. Just complete misinformation being fed to the public as usual. So much for journalists.

Then I read the online newspapers. The hate was still there for the Moroun family, the press release journalism and oh yes, there was an article talking about the problems in getting a new bridge but it was all due to the fault of the Bridge Company.

It was all part of the same old, same old… the propaganda effort, the lies, the misinformation, the smears. More of it, almost to the point that I just could not take it anymore. So I did not. I forgot about it. I did something else knowing that I could catch up with it later on.

I really hope for a breakthrough for once. Maybe somebody saying something really silly like let’s try and negotiate a resolution of this matter in the best interests of the people of this part of the country. But that was not to be because there are too many egos in the way.

There is an agenda in place. I don’t know what it is although I have guessed what it could be. Whatever it may be is extremely powerful since Canadian politicians have been talking about taking over the Ambassador Bridge for about 50 years. It made a Windsor Mayor who had no interest in the border file make life difficult for the Bridge Company. It made the Conservative Government turn its principles on their head, pick up legislation that was introduced by their Liberal opponents and make it in effect their first major piece of legislation i.e. the International Bridges And Tunnels Act. It made a new Governor of Michigan follow the path of his Democratic predecessor, undercut his own party, endrun the Legislature and probably the People as well. As for the Ontario Government, who knows how much extra they are paying for their public-private partnership on the DRIC road. It is only my money that they are throwing away to some foreign P3 operator.

What force could be this strong and that could generate these feelings? Be real, what chance do you and I have if this force can act in this fashion against one of the most powerful and well-connected groups in the United States.

I got involved in this border stuff a decade ago as you well know more as a fluke rather than anything else. As a litigator, it did not take me very long to figure out that unless there was some kind of arrangement with the Moroun Family, this would be litigated forever.

I was right. It is only been 10 years so far and most of the lawsuits haven’t gone very far. There is going to be a whole bunch more, you can count on it because the media have already said that the Bridge Company is going to start them.

Oh sure the Bridge Company is litigious. Wouldn’t you be if someone wanted to take over your business or to destroy it. Ooops, that is being a “special interest.”

I thought again about what I wrote before. If the Governments had the power to do something with respect to the border crossing, they would have done it already. Clearly, the Bridge Company has something on their side, and I’m not sure yet what it is, that prevents the Governments from acting. There is no doubt in my mind that what is being proposed is nothing more than another step to force out the Moroun Family.

If I know it and now you know it, the Bridge Company knows it is well. So what is the purpose of all of this?

Why do I have to suffer? Why do my fellow residents in this region and in Michigan have to be used as pawns in the war between the parties? If the Governments want to do something, why don’t they do it already. Why did it take a decade for them to act with this Interlocal agreement? If they want to buy out the Ambassador Bridge, why don’t they do it already? They had the chance years ago to buy it for a few paltry millions but didn’t. Why are we playing these games constantly?

I pretty much understand what is being played. I learned it was all a lie when I discovered that a plan similar to that of DRTP has been rejected by MDOT many years before. If you had read the Wikileaks documents as I did and as I posted on here, then you would know the game also. It is hardly a big secret. It was all disclosed. I also posted Canada’s Ultrasecret Playbook. It is being played out as well too. Nothing new there.

It is this part of Canada and United States that is being made to suffer by the politicians and bureaucrats who really don’t care. Please, if I hear any more about thousands of jobs, I will throw up. The DRIC road has started in Windsor and I don’t see our area being all of a sudden wealthier and more prosperous considering that our unemployment rate is still the highest in the country. Young people are leaving here in droves we are told, looking for jobs elsewhere Where are all of those jobs that we were promised? I know there are some but certainly not the numbers that were alleged. It was all a fraud to fool us.

And now the Americans are going to share in our misery after the CAR Report.

I feel sad for Matty Moroun. Oh yes, I know what are thinking. I really don’t care. I cannot believe the jealousy. He only made the Ambassador Bridge crossing the model crossing in North America. Even the Blue Water Bridge People finally figured out that if they open up a few more booths then their backup problems would be solved. Isn’t imitation the sincerest form of flattery!

He made Windsor/Detroit number one, not the Governments and probably in spite of them. Nevertheless, we hate him for it and applaud when the Governments want to take away from him the grants that were given to the Bridge Company over 80 years ago. Why, what has he done to you other than succeed in his own business endeavours!

And what are we going to do, give away his rights to some other private party that we know nothing about and who may not have the faintest idea about how to run a border crossing. Does that make sense as we make Wall Street Bankers even richer? Not to me.

As a litigator, the court system in Michigan makes me ill. Of course, I don’t know what the rules of procedure are so probably I shouldn’t say very much. However, it is inconceivable to me that people can go to jail and have their property effectively expropriated and the superior courts wash their hands of the matter. Where is the justice that I have come to expect in our legal system? I have never ever seen an interlocutory matter dealt with in such a fashion. Forget about the reasonable apprehension of bias that is so obvious that it is almost laughable.

In the end though, it is the Government lies and misinformation that bother me the most. Gee, what a coincidence that the CAR Report came out the day before the big announcement telling us about how wonderful DRIC will be and how everyone will prosper because of it. I know that it is a propaganda effort. I understand it. It is painfully obvious. But not to most people.

It is worse than that because everything that they claim for the DRIC bridge produces the same results as a second Ambassador Bridge.

And that is the point that bugs me. It is no different than the grossest of misconduct perpetrated upon people of Sandwich and Delray and Windsor, especially those who lived along the path of the area of mass destruction of the DRIC road. It builds up people’s hopes when there is none. That is unconscionable. Then our leaders demand that we applaud their success. Preposterous.

I think the problem is that I’m too close to it all. I’ve lived it for a decade. I can see what goes on and I don’t like it. I’m very much the idealist who believes in all of the stuff that I was taught in school about our form of Government and Democracy. I just don’t see it being played out that way. I guess what bothers me is that it is my Government– municipal, provincial, and federal– that is doing it. It is very hard for me to accept that it has to be this way when it never should have been this way in the first place.

The problem is that there is nothing that I personally can do to make one bit of difference. No wonder that there was the Occupy movement.

End of lament.

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