Disgusting Behavior by TRWT Wins No Friends
Why do some think that rude and crude behaviour in place of civility is the way to dissuade or persuade others to a specific point of view. The fact is such actions simply insult the intelligence of all decent and reasonable people. A recent incident at a Tiny Council meeting is a case in point.
The subject of discussion, would you believe, was about garbage cans and their appropriate location at one of our beaches. The decision made by Council was to put them only on township property, i.e., at right-of-ways and on park properties, and easily accessible for pick up by the township’s garbage trucks. A deputation by Ms. Kathy Speers, supported by a group called Tiny’s Residents Working Together (TRWT), demanded that garbage cans be put on the beaches. To emphasise their position, the boys of one of their members trotted in bags of garbage and piled them in the Council chamber.
Crude You Say? Indeed! As Ms. Speers’ deputation proceeded, the president of Tiny’s Resident Working Together, George Lawrence, was heard to call from his place in the audience that Mayor Anthony Lancia was “an ignorant son of a bitch”. (Township tape of Council proceedings, June 26, 1995). To be sure that his remark was heard by all, he repeated it three more times.
Emboldened by this insulting remark, the father of the boys who deposited the garbage bags in the Council chambers called from the back of the room: “Dictatorship!… Tiny Township has a dictatorship!… Mussolini is back!… He’s here!”
Thank you, Sir! Restoring order to the meeting, Mayor Lancia, had the garbage bags removed and Council proceeded with the other business on the agenda. However, before Council returned to the agenda, another member of the audience received permission to speak. He expressed how offended he felt by the action of the TRWT supporters with their outburst and their insult to Tiny’s elected Council.
TRWT – What They’re About Tiny’s Residents Working Together is an organization that originated from the nucleus of another group which, between the years 1988-1994, was associated with frequent township agitation about beach ownership, and supported the Ministry of Natural Resources in its lawsuit claiming ownership of homes and beach to the ‘line of the wood’ along the 45 mile shoreline perimeter of Tiny Township.
The executive and associates working with TRWT include all the defeated candidates from Tiny Township’s 1994 municipal election: Ross Hastings, Lee Berriault, Gail Barrie, Fern Maurice and Mario Galluzzo. The group also includes: George Lawrence, Muriel Barker and Kathy Speers. They claim responsibility for the publication called Tiny Ties. The editorial style reminds one of another Huronia publication, the Midland Free Press.
