Should public records be public?

Bells Corners resident Barry Wellar wants Jim Watson to come clean.

Wellar thinks that citizens should be entitled to free, easy, timely, and direct online access to public records.

Public records should be public. Watson doesn’t seem to agree. No surprise.

“The bobbing and weaving has begun for some, and others may be giving the matter deep thought. However, hiding for any length is not an option, names will be named.”

Ottawa Citizen editorial: “Who runs planning in this community? Certainly not municipal council. It’s city staff, the development industry and the OMB.”

Former University of Ottawa geography professor and urban planner Barry Wellar is not surprised that developers (and developer-funded career politicians) are held in such low esteem, seeing them as constantly fighting to protect their own pockets, not the public interest.

Thoughtful residents will get a chance to grill Watson and Chiarelli at the public budget “consultation” on Wed. Jan. 23, 6:00 at the Nepean Sportsplex.

Councillors Kavanagh and Leiper’s 2019 public budget event at Britannia Beach.

Thousands of students are bussed back and forth across the Greenbelt every day. Many Bells Corners and Crystal Beach-Lakeview-Bayshore residents voted for one trustee but are represented by another.



Two new trustees were  elected to serve Bells Corners students, parents, teachers, administrators and taxpayers.

New trustees, new director, new strategic plan: is meaningful change at the OCDSB possible?


A less than democratic community? What about the way the OCDSB treats “giftedness?”

Shady tax grab at the original Local Heroes?

Whose Corners?
Lynwood Village before we lost it.

Lynwood Village was built on the Stinson farm.

Bill Teron loved his Commodore split-levels.

“Executive” models featured a bathroom off the master bedroom.

Current Bells Corners home prices.

Pedestrian parade.

No need to follow the rules at the fake “community” associations?

$cam! Minimal transparency as data is denied. Governance via closed Facebook groups and secret email lists.

Insiders and political friends get free or heavily taxpayer-subsidized access to the privatized “community” buildings while the other 10,000 residents are shut out.

Building revenues generate huge unaudited bank accounts of public funds for unelected politicians at illegitimate community associations.

Rink “volunteers” receive many thousands of dollars in tax-free cash.

The Westcliffe rink is amazingly good but the Lynwood rink has been poor since Jean-Luc Cooke seized power in 2011.

Access to the change room and washrooms has been eliminated.

Westcliffe Rink:




Lakeview Rink

Time to lace ’em up.

Lock him up?






2018 Ottawa elections