Scanned, recopied or Internet copy, if there are errors, please e-mail me with corrections:
Opening comments: More at the end.
This "opinion piece" is presented as part of the public service that the Democratic Reporter affords members of the community - a forum to speak their mind on matters that the main stream media and their friends in government want sweep under the rug. It has very little in the way of editing or notes added. It has been presented to all concerned for weeks if not months ago and as no comments back from them - it must be fair comment in their minds. Sorry for taking so long to post as I see many visitors to this web-site are still very interested in Mr. Osmond but life has not been so good (please send more money!).
2 more pictures added that got lost in the shuffle but which are now posted - they got Byron in trouble will the same happen to me?
Byron has noted to me that - "The attached images may help you connect the dots in your quest to do away with Mississauga corruption. These images were placed in my window on a Friday, the next morning at around 10:30 am my four year old child was attacked, with enough vigor to get the point across. This attack happened only a few days after my meeting with a city councilor. At that meeting the councilor complained of a locked neck and could not move it. The meeting lasted about 15 minutes. We stepped outside of the office in front of the secretaries desk. As I was walking away I turned around and asked " Councilor, do we have an organized crime problem in Mississauga"? Her head snapped towards me, her eyes popped open and she actually yelled " NO!" There was terror in her eyes. - Police would not help me, the media would not help and the community would not help, now that's power! Power can corrupt. Total power can corrupt totally. Imagine, attacking a child, and that's only the tip of the iceberge when it comes to what happens in M."
“Byron Osmond speaks out”
I was a resident of Mississauga for more than twenty years, and a Port Credit (P.C.), merchant and artist for more than a decade. I now question the integrity of some city employees and politicians. It would be worthwhile to get the message across to the public as to how these people do their dirty work and how they do everything possible to shut down and to shut up anyone who calls foul!We had felt that we were being treated unfairly and our business intentionally left out of the important advertising and information loop that the Port Credit Business Improvement Association (P.C.B.I.A.), is mandated to grant to all members. This has been an on-going complaint by many mom and pop shops over the years. The dispute escalated and actually caused the demise of my health, our hard earned business and our reputation. I congratulate all of those who did their jobs in the destruction of it. I have felt the might of a city run for thirty years by the same mayor and am not sorry for naming the “offensive” portrait of Hazel McCallion “1984” for it is most appropriate.
I had been asking the following statement as a question for more than a year without an answer and am dumbfounded to note that no other persons questioned it also. How could the manager of the P.C.B.I.A work simultaneously for the FRAM development and remain manager of the town’s business association. [2]
For this employee to stand at a public meeting being held for debate and support of the FRAM project and to personally and on behalf of the Business Improvement Association (B.I.A.), voice a strong backing in favor of the towers going up and for the land swap deal to go through, a deal supposedly undervalued in the millions of dollars at a huge cost to the Mississauga taxpayers is most improper.
With ward one city councilor being both the go to person on the FRAM land development arrangement and a city representative on the board of directors of the P.C.B.I.A. There is no excuse for this inappropriate behavior to be condoned with the city’s blessing.
For all of the underhanded tactics, briberies and other illegal activities that the city councilors have been charged with and accused of over the years, one would wonder why she would be so dim witted with her said knowledge of the workings of the city of Mississauga and to allow this to happen. Though to be fair it was stated in the Mississauga News that Councilor Corbasson “took exception” to the fact that the undervalued land swap deal was a “done deal”.
For the city to behave in such a manner while serving up the following tactics of innuendo, intimidation and at times complete fabrication should cause some alarm and a fear that this habit hold root and be used as a status quo for all who dare disagree with being ill treated. I’m sure if polls were taken a trend line in this common routine would be clearly shown.
On July 6, 2005 I received a visit from a very agitated solicitor for the B.I.A. The lawyer Marilyn Sparrow came into my studio and demanded I remove my employee from the room as she did not want a witness to the conversation. I was warned it would be in my best interest to shut up and to stop speaking up about the B.I.A. or else!
It doesn’t take much in a small community like PC for an organization like the B.I.A. with city backing to crush a small business. Case and point anyone who speaks up about the B.I.A.’s and Councilor’s of Mississauga find themselves on a constant attack from the powers that rule. Mr. Bapitista, Mr. Barber, a Mississauga magazine and yours truly just is a handful to mention. The Mississauga magazine made the mistake of running a cartoon portraying a character representing Hazel McCallion as a dictator, the magazine was later informed that funds and advertisements from the city would no longer be made available to them due to this infraction. (Do as you’re told or we’ll do unto you).
On Sept. 15, 2005 I received a threatening letter from the solicitor stating: You are not to attend at the offices of the P.C.B.I.A - furthermore the manager and her staff being employees of the B.I.A. will not be responding directly to your telephone calls, emails or other written correspondence. Any and all future communication you have is to be in writing and mailed. Your correspondence will be reviewed by the board of management and responded to by the board if and as deemed appropriate under the circumstances. I have been instructed to advise you to immediately remove from the window of your premised all references to the P.C.B.I.A., the board has not authorized and will not authorize you use of the name of the P.C.B.I.A
My client will seek all avenues of legal action against Byron Osmond personally, Byron’s Photography and Foto Galeries 4 to preserve the good name and reputation of the P.C.B.I.A
This letter came after I had already removed the protest. This was a shortened version of the three page letter I had received from that solicitor; the next letter I received from the B.I.A. solicitor was regarding the painting of Hazel McCallion titled “1984” and dubbed offensive by Carmen Corbasson and the BIA board members. It read; as you are aware I am the solicitor for the P.C.B.I.A., the current window display at 106 Lakeshore RD. East with references to the P.C.B.I.A and Mayor Hazel McCallion who has served in her capacity a Mayor for over 27 years is offensive to the entire community. This window display must be removed before 6 pm on Thursday Oct. 27 2005. - Marilyn L. Sparrow.
It’s clear here that if fear mongering and innuendo doesn’t work for them against anyone raising questions about city dealings, they will be sued.
In mid June of 2006, three peel police cruisers attended the break and enter of Byron’s Photography at 106 Lakeshore Rd East while the landlords entered the premises. The landlord and Peel officers led us to believe that they were acting bailiffs attending to a legal eviction. Two weeks after the landlords confiscated our belongings and inventory a letter was sent from the Peel Police offices stating that the reason for them being there was due to a “false alarm”. All requests for a copy of the eviction notice and the store inventory were denied. The landlords at 106 said that all contents and inventory of Byron’s Photography had been abandoned by the owner.
I would like to note that Councilor Corbasson and the P.C.B.I.A. took the time to involve my landlords by giving each of the owners a copy of the letter demanding I remove the “1984” image. Since when had it become protocol for city officials to have business’s put under attack by requesting the aid of the rent collectors and land owners? It appears that power has run amuck within the Mississauga political system. When an artist is not allowed to explore modern day issues at the hands of municipal politicians or to criticize political factions and the dangerous precedents they set. One need question the re-write of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the core of Canadian democracy itself. We are left to ponder how free speech and art could actually work in Mississauga when anyone who speaks up receives letters of litigation from the city and her cohorts.
For Carmen Corbasson to use city guards at a general annual BIA to intimidate me and any who would ask questions is another total abuse of city power, as per Ellen Timms at one time the guards were there for her protection in fear of me, another time Mrs. Timms said the guards were there for Carmen Corbasson, as usual their stories keep changing. It appears that all of those who would stand against them are a physical threat. I pray that one day Carmen Corbasson gets to taste her own medicine. I would write a poem about her but I fear it is now illegal to paint, write and speak in the city of M.
If this type of habitual abuse is to continue in Mississauga then someone at the city needs to redefine the meaning to the term democracy. That way everyone will understand exactly how their system works and a lot less time and money will be wasted on ruining people’s lives.
I once had a meeting with someone from the Arts Council of Mississauga and was told at the meeting by this person who fears for her job if she were to ever speak up that “if you’ve pissed off the Mayor she puts the word out to have you shut down and shut down you will be”. Had I’d known this earlier I would have never sent that image of the Mayor with angel wings and a halo with the request of auctioning it off for the blind. Visit www.the-democratic-reporter.com to view this image. At the end of this meeting I had in an art context said I was “going out with a bang. The employee assures me she didn’t relay that message to anyone, yet at a later time Ellen Timms the manager of the BIA came into my studio to give me that exact quote leading me to believe that I could now be listed as a Mississauga terrorist. It seems that I had become a new cell version of the Al Qaeda of Mississauga. And this is exactly how they work again with innuendo, lies, and outright threats.
These types of tactics should easily lead to the conclusion on just how controlling the Mayor has been over any media or other visual representation of her and her tools of choice through the decades. With opponents threatened and muzzled and all local media in her back pocket, it makes it simple to control the perfect image and easier still to control the knowledge of the voting public. It appears that everyone in M knows about the drinking and driving politicians yet it has never been allowed to surface for fear of what will happen. Again speak to nearly anyone in M and this is very well known, yet the police and local news seem to lose all hits on this. At this point one should question just what would have happened if someone had been killed. If anyone had been killed by a drunk driving politician with the cover-ups in government the norm it’s quite possible the public would have never been any the wiser.
How many out there had the sense not to raise questions after the warnings came, I know of many who know that for their own safety they wouldn’t dare speak up. How shameful this, how terribly sad. I had often wondered why people were scared to speak up about the B.I.A. and now after looking back on all that plagued us, that question has a very clear answer.
The B.I.A. is just another entity used by the city to make people feel that a small group is running for the people’s best interest but the truth of the matter is in Mississauga it is used as another vehicle of the Municipal government to strangle anyone who would dare question the status quo. The land developers come first with the Mayors backing clearly stated, therefore any hint of a small group of people trying to make a stand against these groups in their own best interest is stopped dead in it’s tracks at all cost.
The protest window display that speaks a Mississauga truth went up on a Friday night, the following Saturday morning a man attacked my four year old child [1] to really get the message across. One of the images shown was an elderly lady smelling flowers. The captions read “a Mississauga thing”, “smells like corruption”.
Mississaugan's should ask themselves, when city officials are suspect to be behind the attack of a child, what kind of a city do they live in. I should have never asked Carmen Corbasson "Do we have an organized crime problem in Mississauga?", I know the answer.
Regards, Byron Osmond
[COMMENTS BY DON B. -
[1] - Mr. Osmond reported to me that when he approached the police on this matter, they refused fill out
a report, which would keep it off the record.
From: "Port Credit" <info@portcredit.com> To: "'Watcher'" <watcher0I0@eol.ca> Subject: My work |
Both positions have the same mandate. To promote the Business Improvement Area in order to keep the business community strong. I am a self-employed contractor working part time for the association. The board was always aware of my outside work and in fact Byron Osmond was on the board during the time period I did some work for FRAM and did not object until much later. He brought it up at the BIA AGM this past winter, I explained my role and the members echoed someone’s remark that they could not imagine anyone more suited for the job.
I haven’t been retained since the FRAM sales centre was busy with the south shore developments and now I don’t intend to do it again. I have a cottage now and don’t want to work any more weekends then I have to. The BIA job requires a lot of weekend work during events – mostly summer.
General Manager
Port Credit Business Association
The Lighthouse
105 Lakeshore Road West
Mississauga, On, L5H 1E9
www.portcredit.com
905.278.7742
647.287.7742
]
Home Page - Main Table of Contents - Back to Top