It's convex world

Ever use a magnifying glass to create a backwards, upside down image. Try it sometime. It could tell you a lot about politics, the difference between what politicians say and do, and how governments big and small justify their actions to people who should know better.

Hold a magnifying glass near a lamp and focus the light on a wall or other surface. Play with the focus, pulling the glass further or closer to the wall until you see an image take shape. The image of the lamp will be - as I say - backwards and upside down. Believe it or not, you’ve just taken a big step toward understanding Kanehsatake and, more importantly, what’s taking place at their Health Center.

What you may see with your own two eyes is the lamp. It’s reality. You know it’s there because you can touch it. You can move it. You can switch it off or even burn yourself if you touch the hot bulb without allowing it to cool. This is your world - not the one of the so-called board of directors at the Kanehsatake Health Center.

The so-called board of the Kanehsatake Health Center exist in a convex dimension in which wrong becomes right, openness becomes secrecy, a firing becomes a “suspension without pay”. It then evolves into a “suspension with pay” then into an “extended suspension with pay” until it goes full circle and becomes a firing after all. Just like we knew all the time.  But the board didn’t see it that way. Nope. Because apparently they exist in a convex world where personal dislike - even hatred - of a person is a firing offence. It’s not what you do that gets you fired - it’s who you are.

It’s a world where the board of directors isn’t really a board. It’s only an extension of the band council. It’s a world where the board - originally set up to ensure community involvement independent of the band council - has twisted things backwards. It’s a world where the very people who should be protecting the rights of people at Kanehsatake are violating them, undermining their community rights, and using personal hatreds to convince themselves and others that it’s okay.

It’s a world where the phrase “community involvement” means more band councillors but not a single community member as defined in its own Articles of Incorporation. 

Stick around because this is only Part One in a series of Four.  

Survey sez!

I collected the figures from the GoPetition site and created some nifty charts. Twelve people filled out the Survey - "Evaluate the Board of Directors of the Kanehsatà:ke Health Center"

Here are the nine questions. After that, I'll put a couple of charts from the numbers.  HINT:  the board of the Kanehsatake Health Center gets a great big fat "F" so far.  "F" stands for f**ked.

Read on, here are the survey questions:

1. The Board of Directors of the Kanehsatà:ke Health Center respects and applies Aboriginal principles of fairness, openness and respect
2. Your Board develops and maintains a longer term vision and clear sense of direction
3. The KHC Board of Directors ensures the prevalence of high ethical standards
4. Ensures effective performance through sound information and regular communications with the members
5. Ensures the financial & organizational health of the organization
6. Understands and honours the roles and legal obligations of a director of an not-for-profit corporation
7. Ensures sound relationships with membership, clients & citizens
8. Is accountable to the membership
9. Ensures the soundness of the governance system 

And here's the overall results in a chart.  Note that there was an overwhelming negative ('Strongly Disagree' to 'Disagree') response to the questions. Only 1 person selected 'Strongly agree' to only 1 question, the one about accountability (#8).

Results of 12 respondents - hugely negative on Board performance

For example, take this first question which is similar to most of the results. Most of the respondents didn't rate the Kanehsatake health Center's board of directors very highly.

These results should be looked at by people at Kanehsatake but also by the board itself. The board got low marks across the board - from communicating with members to treating people with respect, to handling finances and budgets well, and making themselves accountable.

In my opinion, this is what should be done very year to the Health Center's board to make sure that they do their jobs properly and to a professional standard. But people in the community should do something similar with the band council to make sure that the council as a whole, and the individual councillors, perform to the community's standards. Right now, they have none.

Regards,

what this is, and what it ain't

I hate being censored. I hate being shut down. I hate it especially when there is a good reason for publishing an account of how a small group of people in a community like Kanehsatake can abuse their positions and get away with it. I hate it when they make it difficult for that account to be read by others in the community - not because ti's wrong. Not because it didn't happen. But because they don't want anybody to read it. Maybe even ask questions of their own afterward.

Yep. That pisses me off.

Somebody gets fired in a most brutal way.  There are people who cheer.  There are others who don't.  The reason I wrote about that was because IF this bunch could violate one person's rights, then they could do it to anyone else's too.

The so-called board of directors violated my rights as well.  They took over a board - the board for the Health Center - by stacking it with themselves. Why? Not because the Center was being mismanaged. Policies were followed. Budgets were maintained.

Some people might not like the style of management - but that's is not a firing offence.  That's the point.  There was no legal justification for taking over the board - my board - and refusing to hold a public meeting of the community membership so that we members could control our own Health Center.

They took away my right to be represented on that board.

They took away my right to complain about the board and its actions.

And they threatened me with legal action for saying so.

Bastards. Gutless bastards.

the kicker - a community flyer

A kicker, in newsroom parlance, is a quirky or funny little story to end the newscast on a bright note. After all, the entire newscast may have been all doom and gloom, death and destruction, or maybe just boring stuff. So the lineup editor hopes - prays - that someone cane whip up a little something that can get a chuckle or even a full belly laugh out of someone out there.

Sometimes, it's ironic humour. A bit of absurdity.  Like this little thing that the so-called board of directors put out about moi - your truly.  Yes, my name is peppered liberally throughout with warnings not to read that damn Dan David's Facebook pages because it's all lies etc etc.  But everybody already knows what this bunch doesn't want folks to read.  So it's not about anything I've published online. Nope. It's all about their refusing to acknowledge reality.

But about this community flyer... Did I take offence? No.  Did I threaten to sue?  Mais, non!  Sacre bleu!  I have a sense of humour, unlike those poor sods who cling so desperately to their idiotic notions of power.  It is to laugh.  ha ha

Page 2 libel threat

And this is Page 2.  I suppose some law firms will do anything for money.  Shame on them too.

Threat to sue for defamation

When I first posted this on my Facebook group called "Protect the Kanehsatake Health Center", I added the comment that in order to sue for libel or defamation, one should first have a good reputation to damage.  Of course, Facebook kept allowing the so-called board of directors at the Kanehsatake Health Center (aka the band council and its minions) to "block access" to my group pages.  FB has no qualms censoring me.  Shame on Zukerberg and the rest of them at FB.

The so-called board of directors wasn't serious about suing me because they didn't have legal leg to stand on. No justifiable complaint. So the following letter is a SLAPP.  According to Wikipedia, a SLAPP is a:  

" strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) is a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.^[1]

The typical SLAPP plaintiff does not normally expect to win the lawsuit. The plaintiff's goals are accomplished if the defendant succumbs to fear, intimidation, mounting legal costs or simple exhaustion and abandons the criticism. A SLAPP may also intimidate others from participating in the debate. A SLAPP is often preceded by a legal threat. The difficulty, of course, is that plaintiffs do not present themselves to the Court admitting that their intent is to censor, intimidate or silence their critics. Hence, the difficulty in drafting SLAPP legislation, and in applying it, is to craft an approach which affords an early termination to invalid abusive suits, without denying a legitimate day in court to valid good faith claims.

Open Letter # 3

Dear so-called director,

I’m hurt. Really I am. I also feel insulted that you, individually and collectively as the so-called board of directors of the Health Center, haven’t deemed my two (2) previous OPEN LETTERS worthy of reply. Instead, you’ve sicced some lawyers on me with threats of a libel and defamation lawsuit. Rather bizarre because - first - you should have a decent reputation to damage. But that’s your problem. So is credibility.

I find it strange that you would spend so much time, effort and money trying to stop me from asking questions. For example: Why are you hiding from the membership? Why did you stop the election of community representatives to the board? Why are you preventing people at Kanehsatà:ke from controlling their own health programs? Why are you prepared to act illegally to prevent the Director of Social Services from assuming her seat? What do you think you’re doing? I’m asking because none of it makes any sense.

Instead of answering these simple questions though, you’ve done your best to pretend that nothing’s wrong - that you’ve done nothing wrong. You act as though you don’t have to explain anything to anyone. Worse, that you’re not accountable to anyone. There are words to describe your actions. I’ve put one of those words on the Facebook page: autocrat. Look it up. There are others, a lot less polite. People are using them.

If you believe you have good reasons for what you’ve done and what you plan to do, why not explain these to the membership (which is also the community)? This is not only reasonable but the right thing to do. Working in secrecy, threatening jobs if people discuss what’s going on, violating their civil rights, is ridiculous.

It reminds me of the Indian agent who acted as though (to paraphrase a former councillor) that it was “the ultimate authority”. It implies that the Indian agent/board/band council can act irresponsibly and doesn’t need to explain its actions or be accountable to anyone. At least, no one in Kanehsatà:ke.

People have seen what the band council has done to their children’s education. How money for programs is there one day, for counselling and therapy for their kids, but is gone without explanation the next day. Everyone knows that outside businesses contracted to service water systems in their homes - to ensure that their water is safe to drink - are refusing calls because the band council hasn’t paid its bills. People can see what’s going on?

KYOT. Daycare. Housing. Job training. The list goes on. People know their lives are affected every day by decisions made in secret. People apply for housing repairs but can’t get an answer by phone or letter for months and even years. Trainers for employment programs aren’t paid. People looking for answers are themselves asked why anyone would want to get job training anyway? After all, there aren’t any jobs at Kanehsatake! Now there’s a head-scratcher.

There’s less and less money to ensure health and safety in the community. But there’s cash to hire consultants and lawyers to make sure people stay in the dark, wrongdoing is covered up, and questions go nowhere. Even the kids in school know this wrong.

Here’s another question: If even those kids know better - why don’t you?

It’s time to stop hiding and answer some questions.

Regards: