A tale of two McLeans and an email withheld from the public

by Sandy Buxton

That hoary cliche “and the plot thickens” is taking on new life in dear old Springwater.  Yes, we have a real mystery on our hands.  Not a murder mystery, mind you, but a good old head-scratcher nonetheless.

Here’s the plot so far. In February, when budget deliberations were underway, His Deputy Worship Dan McLean emailed a relative requesting a letter of support for the stance he was taking and asking this other McLean to forward the email to his contacts for more such letters.  An accommodating soul, this other McLean did just that and sent his own letter of support to Council. It didn’t occur to him to excise His Deputy Worship’s original email from it.  Trouble is, HDW McLean’s initial request contained comments he didn’t want anyone to see.  Except, of course, Council and countless cyberspace residents did!

A furor ensued, just like in the best page-turners.  Somehow, a few days later, the other McLean decided to ask Council for his first letter of support to be withdrawn and be replaced by a replica, minus Dan McLean’s email at the end.  Meanwhile, back at the palace ‘er Council, some Councillors who saw the entire original were pretty steamed up over the contents.  They also felt that one letter of support can’t be sanitised to make it more acceptable in someone’s eyes when all others are included, unrevised, as correspondence in the minutes.  Fair’s fair, right?

So Councillor Hanna brought forward a Notice of Motion at the last Council meeting to have the whole thing placed on the public record, just as the other letters regarding the budget were.  Courtier ‘er Clerk Daly said this would break an arcane clause of the Freedom of information act.  He then pointed out that any Councillor who released the mysterious email or referred to its contents in order to rebut them would be subject to untold sanctions.  Shades of Crime and Punishment!   He even spent some taxpayer money acquiring a legal opinion from an expensive “Bay Street” law firm.

This didn’t sit right with Councillors Hanna and McConkey. And, in no time at all, Councillor Clement entered the fray to say he couldn’t see why Dan McLean’s email couldn’t be made public and, besides, the comments in it were true, his own name was in it, and he agreed with it all.  Well, that put the cat among the pigeons!!  Councillor Hanna retorted that if Councillor Clement’s views were correct, he [Hanna] should resign forthwith, being clearly unworthy of the job, and maybe some other Councillors should do the same!  Ever watchful for rule infractions and pesky conflicts, Her Worship the Mayor quickly pounced to rule the matter essentially out of order and, therefore, closed.  Really?

The hapless reader ‘er resident is left hanging and confused. What could possibly be so awful, heinous, stupid, hurtful, incorrect or incendiary in Dan McLean’s email that it exploded like a bomb at Council?

It’s a funny thing about human nature.  When a bad smell permeates and we don’t know the cause, our imaginations run riot.  People are now wondering if the mysterious email contained a plot to start a war in Springwater or to overthrow one of our governments or to crucify a fellow Councillor or to make off with Township cash [not so much these days] or to assault the reputation of some residents or to turn Springwater Park into a theme park … well, you get the idea.

I guess we’ll never know.  Unless, that is, we follow Councillor Clement’s suggestion and ask His Deputy Worship to show us the email.

Now, is this a perfect case of the Law of Unintended Consequences or what?  The fallout from HDW McLean’s ham-fisted attempt to suppress an email he wrote, which actually did make it into the public domain, looms larger than the mysterious email itself in this election year.  Ah, transparency and inclusiveness, elusive as ever in the Court of Springwater.

I wish I could tell you the “crime”.  Unfortunately, you’re just going to have to make up your own minds as to who did what to whom.  Don’t you just hate loose ends?