To the editor,
Mark Goetz won the mayor’s race in South Bruce. While we congratulate the mayor for a successful campaign, we at Protect Our Waterways (POW) need to remind him that while the head of council comes with a chain of office and the title of “Your Worship,” it does not come with a licence to lie.
Yet, in his first media interview after winning, Mayor Goetz told the Wingham Advance Times “there was dirtiness from certain candidates – writing letters, banging on doors, a lot of mistruths.” He belittles his adversaries and fights back with lies.
Words matter, especially from our leaders when the community is facing a prolonged period of intensive studies and debate about the DGR (deep geological repository).
For example, on Oct. 5, Goetz told the audience at the all-candidates meeting in Formosa, “I am for the DGR, if it is safe.” Yet, just two weeks later, he told the London Free Press, “I’ve strongly maintained nobody should be for it. Nobody should be against it. It shouldn’t be dividing the community at this point; gather the information, review the information, and then make an informed decision.”
At that same meeting, the audience asked about the results of a published DGR study on the business impact of the DGR on agriculture (Aug. 22, 2022). Then-candidate Goetz responded to the Chapman’s Ice Cream comment about the stigma of hosting the DGR. Goetz dismissed the comment as “never proven to been said,” “fake,” and a “fear tactic.” Yet, on page 107 of the municipality’s own study, Ashley Chapman is quoted as saying “a nuclear waste depository underneath farm country may erode confidence in the Ontario dairy industry. The perception of the safety of our food supply may not always be accurate, but it still affects the buying habits of Canadians.” The source of the quote is CBC Television. In it, Chapman called the NWMOs’ plan “very short-sighted.”
But this is not what Mayor Goetz wanted you to hear, so he lied. He’d rather tell you that knocking on doors during an election campaign and talking to people about how they wanted to vote is “banging on doors and demanding they vote a certain way.” With words like these, Mayor Goetz characterizes political debate and differences of opinion as divisive rather than what he tells us he truly wants: shared information to make informed decisions.
With the dozens of NWMO studies to review before we are allowed to vote in a referendum, every resident of South Bruce has the right to ask questions and expect answers. They also have the right to disagree and make their disagreement known. Nobody – not a resident, not a political leader, nor organization – has the right to lie or spread misinformation.
Our concern is that Mayor Goetz will continue his political strategy that anyone who disagrees with him is a liar and not concerned about South Bruce. That was his strategy as a councillor, and we see no change as he warms up to the mayor’s chair.
People can have different opinions, but that does not mean they are bad people.
Our members have been called liars, but never with proof that any statement was false. Our fear is that Mayor Goetz has already set the standard for the next council, and the community, that anyone who points to a fact other than what they want to hear must be lying.
Here’s our pledge. We’ll continue to track lies and correct them with facts. Our website has the details: www.protectourwaterways.org. If we or any of our members lie or spread misinformation, we’ll track that too, correct it, and take action. We expect the same of others.
Anja van der Vlies
RR #2, Teeswater
