THE MINISTRY OF TRUTH: Some first thoughts after last night's meeting

By Adrian Barnes

There's a lot more to come after last night's frankly astounding public meeting where Mayor Greg Granstrom attempted to engage around a hundred outraged Rosslanders over the Jason Ward affair, but the first thing I take away from the evening is the mayor's repeated use of passive constructs: "Mistakes were made".

Not 'the CAO made a mistake', or 'I made a mistake'. No, the mayor referred to ghost mistakes, made by invisible imps. Speaking as an English teacher, this sort of thing is always a warning sign: bad writing to follow; BS rather than honest facts; someone hasn't done their homework.

It was obvious to all in attendance that any of the twenty or more citizens who asked questions was better qualified to be mayor than Mr. Granstrom. Rosslanders spoke respectfully, intelligently, and with honest passion--and got very little in return. At times the audience laughed at Mr. Granstrom, it's true, but it wasn't cruel laughter--rather, it was the laughter of incomprehension. Shock. Can-this-really-be-happening laughter.

Mr. Granstrom spoke like he was some sort of TV politician, trying to hit buzzwords about 'mistakes' and 'expensive' forensic audits he didn't pursue and so forth. But this isn't TV. This is the frigging Mountain Kingdom and TV words just don't fly here.

The evening made me proud to live in this town and--as a citizen and as editor of this paper--resolved to make sure that Rossland gets the governance and management it deserves in the future.

Should the mayor remain in place after this debacle? Does the current council have any credibility at all, Councillor Moore aside? Should the Inspector of Municipalities be called in? These are questions we'll all have to think about over the next week or two.

But clearly Mr. Granstrom's responses resolved nothing. In fact, each time he spoke, more and more questions came to the fore.

This isn't the end, it's the beginning. The beginning of the revitalization of our democracy. The beginning of a push for proper governance. And the beginning of an end to a regime where councillors who ask honest questions are shouted down, where secrecy rules alongside the CAO by Delegation Bylaw fiat, where dog catchers make six figure salaries, where public information is guarded like misers' gold, where outgoing CAOs appoint their absurdly-compensated successors without open competition, where employees mysteriously resign for 'personal reasons' minutes before their deeds come to light, where the mayor then says 'he quit. What could we do?' or words to that effect, where crazy schemes to roof our little pool are pursued with no accountability, where the media is scorned and maligned, where the passive voice dominates, where....well, you get the picture.

Adrian Barnes is the editor of the Rossland Telegraph and president of Lone Sheep Publishing.