Tuesday 3 July 2018

Reconciliation with Councillor Cilevitz Sought for Week Ending 2018-07-07

Revision history:

  • 20180723T2003Z/version 4.0.0: Kmo updated Section 3, quite a few days later than he had originally intended. 
  • 20180705T2150Z/version 3.0.0: Kmo updated Sectoin 2, to document the situation as at UTC=20180705T2150Z. 
  • 20180704T2132Z/version 2.0.0: Kmo updated Section 2, to document the situation as at UTC=
    20180704T211412Z.
  • 20180704T0203Z/version 1.0.1: Kmo corrected an unfortunate typo (changing the erroneous "2017-07-03" in the "NOW THEREFORE" paragraph to the correct "2018-07-03", and retransmitting his e-mail to clerks@richmondhill.ca, again with cc to 920@yrp.ca).
  • 20180703T2008Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo, having just e-mailed clerks@richmondhill.ca with cc to 920@yrp.ca, uploaded a complete section "1." , with stubs for the remaining sections.

 

1. Letter to Clerks in Town of Richmond Hill, with Also General blogspot Dissemination


Coordinated Universal Time (= UTC = EST+5 = EDT+4): 20180703T200418Z

TO: 
clerks@richmondhill.ca 


CC: 
920@yrp.ca

FROM: 
Toomas Karmo = Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com 

(with effect from 2018-07-01
residing  at 86 Crosby Avenue, Richmond Hill L4C 2R2; 

cellphone is unchanged, continuing to be 647-267-9566)  


RE: requesting Clerks' assistance w/Cnclr K.Cilevitz casework 


********

A. Preliminary Remark

Although I am writing on a rather small municipal matter, I nevertheless find it convenient to use here the "WHEREAS...AND WHEREAS" and "NOW THEREFORE" format sometimes used in large municipal matters. 



B. The Body of My Letter
WHEREAS


  • Councillor Cilevitz and I agree on the importance of free public speech

    AND WHEREAS
  • the Town and I jointly reinforced free-speech precedents on 2014-12-01 (MON), when I attended, unimpeded, and with plainclothes police protection, the social portion of the Town Council inaugural meeting, with flyers and placard in protest against the impending destruction of 32 out of the total 76.5 David Dunlap Observatory and Park greenspace hectares (therein opposing the pro-subdivision position of Councillor Cilevitz)

    AND WHEREAS
  • I have been placed under some personal-communications restrictions in a 2014 out-of-court settlement with Karen Cilevitz, in 2014 casework detailed at my sites http://www.karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/ and http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/

    AND WHEREAS
  • my two principal previous efforts, in the 2016 summer and the 2018 spring, at effecting a personal reconciliation with Councillor Cilevitz have been unsuccessful

    AND WHEREAS
  • Councillor Cilevitz is now the subject of a public dispute, or public controversy, involving local music-industry figures Mr Matthew Bergman and Ms Steffi Goodfield

    AND WHEREAS
  • the controversy offers a fresh opportunity for a reconciliation between Councillor Cilevitz and me, as I alert the public to deficiencies in some media coverage of the dispute or controversy

    AND WHEREAS
  • no out-of-court settlement - and in particular, not the 2014 out-of-court settlement between Councillor Cilevitz and me, on whose specific terms I herewith make no commentary - can undercut citizens' rights to civic participation, including the right to interview Councillors of their municipalities

    AND WHEREAS
  • on 2018-06-20 I had a 1h22m phone chat with Mr Matthew Bergman, in which he has put his side of the case to me

    AND WHEREAS
  • it is ethically correct to balance this 2018-06-20 chat with Mr Bergman by having a corresponding chat with Councillor Cilevitz, in which she puts her side of the case to me, and in so doing additionally explores with me the possibilities of a personal reconciliation between her and me

    AND WHEREAS
  • Councillor Cilevitz declared her willingness to chat with the public on the controversy, in her Facebook posting of 2018-05-31 (using for her declaration the wording "Should anyone have any questions or concerns regarding this matter, I invite you to contact me personally to have that discussion")

    AND WHEREAS
  • I now seek a chat of at least 5 minutes' duration, face to face, in the evening (at any time from 5:00 p.m. onward) of 2018-07-05 (THU), in the morning or afternoon or evening of 2018-07-06 (FRI), or in the morning of 2018-07-07 (SAT), with permission to operate my voice recorder, and with permission to use my voice recording in any way that may at any time seem appropriate to me - letting Councillor Cilevitz tell her side of the story in any way she pleases, to balance the account I received from Mr Bergman in our 2018-06-20 1h22m phone chat

    AND WHEREAS
  • I additionally seek in our envisaged chat to put the following four questions to Councillor Cilevitz:

    (1) Has she directed the Richmond Hill bylaw enforcement authorities to action in respect of any person or business connected with the entertainment or hospitality industry?

    (2) Is she willing to affirm to me privately my civic right to attend her "Ward 5 Music Festival" municipal event of 2018-07-07 (SAT) in Mount Pleasant Park, and to affirm to me privately my civic right in the course of my attendance to carry chest and back placards worded "COMMENT ABOUT MEDIA", and to affirm to me privately my civic right in the course of my attendance to hand out flyers headed "COMMENT ABOUT MEDIA" bearing the approximate text of the "APPENDIX" to this e-mail?

    (3) Can Councillor Cilevitz suggest any improvements in the draft text shown in my "APPENDIX"?

    (4) Does Councillor Cilevitz, while recognizing that there can legally be no ban on communications between the two of us in her Town-official capacity, now join me in an additional willingness to lift the ban on communications in her private-citizen capacity, thereby effecting a personal reconciliation between us? 
NOW THEREFORE


I respectfully ask Clerks to convey the substance of this letter in some way or other to Councillor Cilevitz (for example, by referring her in e-mail to my 2018-07-03
blogspot posting, which displays the text of this same e-mail; or by referring her through a phone call to my 2018-07-03 blogspot posting; or by directly forwarding this e-mail to her),and to confirm for me in a short e-mail that they have in some way or other conveyed the substance to her.





C. Concluding Remark


It would be appropriate for me to receive a response by the late afternoon of 2018-07-04 (WED), either from Clerks or directly from Councillor Cilevitz, in one of the following three logically possible forms: 

  1. No; contrary to your own professed belief, Dr Karmo, Councillor Cilevitz is under no obligation to grant an interview to you, and indeed declines to grant an interview. The legal reasoning supporting the Town's finding of "no obligation" (Councillor Cilevitz's municipal Oath of Office and the Town's municipal Code of Conduct notwithstanding) is the following: [[[[some reasoning here]]]]
  2. Sorry; nobody at the Town can transmit a reply to you by the late afternoon of 2018-07-04 (WED). Please anticipate a somewhat delayed response, on or before [[[[date here]]]]. 
  3. Yes, short interview granted: please attend at [[[[time here]]]], at [[[[place]]]]. 

(signed) TK


APPENDIX: Draft of Flyer for Public Distribution 2018-07-07


((DRAFT))
It is my civic duty to alert the public to deficiencies in the media coverage of a dispute (a controversy) involving Councillor Karen Cilevitz. 


(1) The Richmond Hill Liberal, at  https://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/8679645-richmond-hill-councillor-karen-cilevitz-demands-apology-retraction/ (dateline 2018-06-19, headline "Richmond Hill councillor Karen Cilevitz demands apology, retraction: Thornhill musician says councillor harassed vulnerable people", byline "Kim Zarzour") errs in discussing previous coverage. The most significant error is the Liberal's failure to supply readers, in the course of its discussion of previous coverage, with a link to the most pertinent piece of previous coverage - namely, to the YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBzt5jfE3zY) upload of 2018-06-08, by YouTube user "Rebel Media", under headline "Ward 5 Councillor's 'threats' to shut down musical acts baffles residents". The omission is significant because this particular coverage, unlike other coverage to which the Liberal does refer, explores by-law enforcement, raising a question of abuse of municipal power (to which the Councillor replies, in her remarks to the reporter, that there has been no abuse). As of early July, at UTC=20180703T173559Z, the "Rebel Media" YouTube upload had gained the surprisingly large total of 18,240 views.

(2) Councillor Cilevitz's Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/karencilevitz/, has been censored by someone, with incoming comments critical of the Councillor systematically, again and again, deleted soon after the server began displaying them (as I myself document, with screenshots, at http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/06/public-service-posting-facebook.html (comment of 2018-06-05, headed "PUBLIC-SERVICE POSTING: Facebook operations of Town Councillor Karen Cilevitz")).


An unfettered press is one of the bulwarks of Ontario's liberties. 


Respectfully, 


Toomas Karmo ((((Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com; 647-267-9566; I perform my ethical duty to disclose personals, by citing the my two pertinent Web sites (illuminating Cilevitz 2014 legals): http://www.karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/, http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/))))

((/DRAFT)) 






2. Response from Councillor Cilevitz's Side

[Situation reports are arranged in reverse chronological order, i.e., with most recent report at the beginning rather than at the end.]


(2) Situation as at UTC=20180705T215000Z:

Mail received from an official at Clerks, from UTC=20180705T1701Z, indicating that Clerks communicated my case to Councillor Cilevitz 2018-07-04 (WED), and that this official is ((QUOTE)) in the process of following-up((/QUOTE)) on my e-mail, and that this official will communicate an update to me upon receiving ((QUOTE))a reply from the Councillor((/QUOTE)).

I replied to this official as follows, copying also Mayor and Council and Sergeant Chris Palmer:

Coordinated Universal Time (= UTC = EST+5 = EDT+4): 20180704T215000Z

Dear ((REDACTED WHAT="name of official")),
with cc Mayor and Council, and Sergeant Chris Palmer,
and with posting to http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com with your name redacted:

Thanks very much. I am quite sure you have now done all that is presently in your power. I am now **NOT** left with any reason for distrusting Clerks, and a fortiori am **NOT** left with any reason for filing a complaint at the Ombudsman's office.

As you work on Councillor Cilevitz's file, the following fresh points may be of some help:

(a) I have today had a reasonably detailed chat, to a length of around 00h20m or 00h30m, with an individual, "ABCD", who has at least some inside knowledge of the Councillor Cilevitz file, and who has at least some level of personal sympathy for Councillor Cilevitz. On the strength of ABCD's various pieces of advice to me, I am now not at all certain that I should be distributing flyers at the 2018-07-07 (SAT) Ward 5 municipal event. My reasoning is now that in distributing flyers, I might be making myself the unwitting pawn of a faction in  Richmond Hill which wishes Councillor Cilevitz misfortune, and which has in ABCD's private estimation additionally shown some tendency toward intemperate action.

(b) In view of today's reasonably detailed chat with ABCD, it becomes all the more important for me to have an interview with Councillor Cilevitz, with my voice recorder running.  The Councillor may well have some argument for me establishing that my envisaged 2018-07-07 distribution of flyers would be unwise, as tending to assist an intemperate faction in our community without significantly tending to improve our community newspaper. Until I have such an interview, I cannot decide confidently either for or against flyer distribution.

My monitoring of e-mails tomorrow, 2018-07-06 (FRI), may be unreliable, as I continue working on a move from 406 Centre Street East (L4C 1B7) to 86 Crosby Avenue (L4C 2R2). On the other hand, I **COULD** interrupt my work on the move for 40, 80, or 150 minutes to attend to something as important as an interview with the Councillor. It would therefore be advisable for the Councillor or you to phone me as appropriate, on my usual number (647-267-9566), in place of relying on e-mail. You could always send me an e-mail also, for the formal record, secure in the assurance that I would be able to read it by 2018-07-09 (MON), perhaps without being able to read it as early as 2018-07-06 (FRI).


Sincerely,


Toomas Karmo




(1) Situation as at UTC=20180704T211412Z:

Transmitted following to Mayor and Council, as
officemayor@richmondhill.ca, vito.spatafora@richmondhill.ca, brenda.hogg@richmondhill.ca, greg@gregberos.com, tom.muench@richmondhill.ca, castro.liu@richmondhill.ca, david.west@richmondhill.ca, karen.cilevitz@richmondhill.ca, godwin.chan@richmondhill.ca, 

with cc both to clerks@richmondhill.ca and to 920@yrp.ca:


((TRANSMISSION))
Coordinated Universal Time (= UTC = EST+5 = EDT+4): 20180704T211412Z

Dear Members of Town Council, with Office of Mayor
(and with cc both to Clerks and to YRP Sergeant Chris Palmer):


In trying to effect a reconciliation with Councillor Karen Cilevitz,
I sent important e-mail on 2018-07-03 (TUE) to Clerks,
making my e-mail also publicly viewable at http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com
(in a posting of 2018-07-03, headed "Reconciliation with Councillor Cilevitz
Sought for Week Ending 2018-07-07". To my surprise, Clerks have
not responded to my mail, even though they know it is their
formal duty to respond, and even though they know I have had
success in the past at the Ontario Ombudsman's office, in
resolving casework in which Clerks appeared negligent in
correspondence formalities. I have asked Clerks to respond
on 2018-07-05 (THU).

Any suggestions or advice from any of you would now be
useful, as I seek to avoid an escalation to Ombudsman
on 2018-07-06 (FRI).



Sincerely,


Toomas Karmo


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Toomas Karmo <toomas.karmo@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jul 4, 2018 at 5:13 PM
Subject: Clerks: seeking yr response to my mailing of 2018-07-03 (TUE)
To: clerks <clerks@richmondhill.ca>
Cc: "Toomas.Karmo" <Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com>


Coordinated Universal Time (= UTC = EST+5 = EDT+4): 20180704T210544Z


Dear Clerks,


I e-mailed you twice yesterday. 2018-07-03 (TUE)  on the same matter,
once in the afternoon and once in the evening.  The second mailing,
copied below, corrected a typo in the first mailing.

It is now just after 5:00 p.m., and to my surprise I have received no
response to yesterday's e-mails. Could you respond, please, at some
point on 2018-07-05 (THU)? I will be away from my computer for part of
that day, but will nevertheless be able to deal with correspondence
intermittently - being, further, able to deal with incoming
correspondence thoroughly and with full concentration toward the end
of the day, perhaps around 5:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m.


Sincerely, anxiously,


Toomas Karmo
647-267-9566; new municipal address, as of 2018-07-01 = 86 Crosby
Avenue, Richmond Hill L4C 2R2

((SNIP WHAT="copy of text from my 2018-07-03 e-mail submission to Clerks")) 
((/TRANSMISSION))



3. My Impressions upon Attending Councillor Cilevitz's 2018-07-07 Municipal Event


The event was not too well attended. Of the other Councillors, I saw only Mr Tom Muench (representing Ward Two; he has recently been strongly critical of his Town Council colleague Karen Cilevitz). A minor unelected public servant whom I here choose not to identify more closely remarked to me that attendance overall seemed to him to be low. I carefully replied that I had no comment to offer regarding his assessment. 

However, the total attendance cannot have been too catastrophically low, since I distributed between 100 and 120 copies of my own flyer, over six or seven hours.

In its final text, the flyer read as follows:


PUBLIC APPEAL TO INDIVIDUALS
LEGALLY ABLE TO COMMUNICATE



WITH COUNCILLOR KAREN CILEVITZ (RICHMOND HILL, WARD 5)





I write as a resident of Ward 2, Richmond Hill, operating a cellular
phone at 647-267-9566, receiving e-mails as Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com,
and blogging at http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com. My 2014 legal
difficulties with Councillor Cilevitz are detailed at


(A) I reach out to the public in my continuing efforts at effecting a
personal reconciliation with Councillor Cilevitz. I have been trying
in various ways to secure an interview with the Councillor. The Town
Clerks did the best they could for me in the period
2018-07-04/2018-07-06, but were unsuccessful. Having failed with
Clerks, I now try a different avenue. Can someone in Karen’s circle of
friends and colleagues clarify to her that she is obliged, as a public
official, to grant me a face-to-face interview, and that this
obligation cannot be extinguished by any out-of-court legal settlement
which she and I may have been signed before her 2014 election to
public office? (In making this legal point, and in referring obliquely
while making it to the fact of a 2014 out-of-court settlement between
the Councillor and me, I do not comment in any way on the specific
terms of our settlement, and indeed do not herewith quote any of its
specific terms. Our settlement terms, and also the commentaries
permitted to Karen and me, are published at


(B) I have a civic duty not only to effect a reconciliation with
Councillor Cilevitz but also to alert the public to deficiencies in
the media coverage of a recent dispute (a controversy) involving her.
I now explain those deficiencies.


(B.1) The Richmond Hill Liberal, at




(dateline 2018-06-19, headline “Richmond Hill councillor Karen
Cilevitz demands apology, retraction: Thornhill musician says
councillor harassed vulnerable people”, byline “Kim Zarzour”) errs in
its discussion of previous coverage. The most significant error is the
Liberal’s failure to supply readers, in the course of its discussion
of previous coverage, with a link to the most pertinent piece of
previous coverage – namely, to the YouTube
YouTube user “Rebel Media”, under headline “Ward 5 Councillor’s
‘threats’ to shut down musical acts baffles residents”. The omission
is significant because this particular coverage, unlike other coverage
to which the Liberal does refer, explores by-law enforcement targeting
within the broad entertainment-and-hospitality sector, raising a
question of abuse of municipal power (to which the Councillor replies,
in her remarks to the reporter, that there has been no abuse). As of
UTC=20180707T1547Z, the “Rebel Media” YouTube upload had gained the
surprisingly large total of 18,400 views.


(B.2) Councillor Cilevitz’s Facebook page,
https://www.facebook.com/karencilevitz/, has been censored by someone,
with incoming comments critical of the Councillor systematically,
again and again, deleted soon after the server began displaying them
(as I myself document, with screenshots, at




(comment of 2018-06-05, headed “PUBLIC-SERVICE POSTING: Facebook
operations of Town Councillor Karen Cilevitz”)).

Two principal bulwarks of Ontario’s liberties are (A) access to
elected representatives and (B) an unfettered press.



(signed) Dr Toomas Karmo


Almost as soon as I started distributing my handout, I was interviewed by the Rebel Media camera. Perhaps we shall be lucky, and either (a) none of this interview will go to air or (b) what will go to air will escape tendentious truncation, being left long enough to preserve the true gist of what transpired. (Although I do not, in general, trust the media, I do realize that they can sometimes get things right.)   

As a precaution, I at any rate set down here the true gist of the interview: 

  • I neither affirm nor deny that Karen is a bully, and neither affirm nor deny that our 2014 out-of-court settlement places restrictions on my use of the word 'bully' in discussing Karen. More broadly, I make no comment on the terms of the 2014 out-of-court settlement between Karen and me, and I do not engage in partial quotation of our settlement terms. Our terms can be read in full on the obvious Web site [namely - I remark here, for the benefit of blogspot readers, although I probably did not say this to the camera - http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/].  (The Rebel Media camera tried to draw me out on the overall b-word topic. Mindful of my legal position, I politely declined to be drawn.) 
  • I am anxious to effect a reconciliation with Karen. (Rebel Media asked whether I would be willing to have an immediate reconciliation. I responded in some surprise by asking whether this meant a reconciliation here and now, right on camera, before remarking that yes indeed, a reconciliation here and now on camera would be fine. Having asked the question, Rebel Media then said that no on-camera reconciliation was in fact in prospect, explaining that Karen was at the given instant unwilling to chat with them.) 
The best reaction from the (rather sparse?) crowds came from a person on Councillor Cilevitz's side, who told me that I was making the affair more about me than about her, and that if I were to pull back Karen might for her part become more amenable to a meeting. I obtained from this person a promise to intercede with Karen on my behalf were I to pull back.  

A strong anti-Karen reaction came from a lady I did not know. She denounced Karen to me in private, vehemently.

Some pro-Karen reaction came either from one sweet old lady or a pair of sweet old ladies. Those pro-Karen comments somewhat reminded me of the Canadian television series Road to Avonlea - it was shocking that I was so persistent (et cetera; the tone was wholesome, like the television series). 

A lady from the Town Clerks argued with me that while I was within my legal rights distributing my flyer, civic protest was inappropriate in the context of a family event. Although her argument did have some force, and moreover was politely put, it was partially undermined a few minutes after our chat by the actual programme content. At that point a member of the First Nations rightly denounced, right into the official microphone, the past injustices inflicted on her community, while evidently speaking in ignorance of the 2008-through-2018 First Nations grievance regarding the loss of 32 David Dunlap Observatory and Park greenspace hectares. (The full facts here are the following: Karen, after shifting her political allegiance in or just after 2010, came to back a 14-street subdivision on 32 of the legacy 76.5 DDO&P hectares; the subdivision was strongly opposed by the (duly articulate) Mississaugas of the New Credit, who have a moral claim to be heard in the context of the Toronto Purchase, since this (unjust, exploitative, manipulative)  pre-Victorian treaty embraced the 1935-through-2008 DDO&P; through the Toronto Purchase, the Mississaugas of the New Credit are in a special and distinctive legal position, in contrast with other First Nations groupings, who have only a weaker claim to speak to the DDO&P file; relations between the Mississaugas of the New Credit and Karen were in 2012 strained, as I heard with my own ears at a recess during the Ontario Municipal Board hearing.)  If First Nations are right in protesting at the microphone (as they surely are, even in the context of a family event), then I for my part must analogously be right in protesting by means of a handout (even in the context of a family event).

At one point in the day, an angry middle-aged male told me, without any stimulus from me, that I was to keep away from his daughter. Since this odd remark was provocative in character, I called the York Regional Police, alerting them to the possibility that an attempt was being made to tip me into autistic meltdown. The police conferred with the angry male and the above-mentioned lady from Town Clerks, outside my hearing, for what seemed to me a surprisingly long time, perhaps on the order of ten minutes. The police then told me that no report would be filed, with my call merely being entered into their daily log. This police response seemed to me appropriate.

I stayed for pretty much everything, until the end, but with perhaps 45 minutes off in the early evening. Proceedings wound down around 8:00 p.m.

Although the music was for the most part not to my taste, I did enjoy what purported to be a "Cajun", or Acadian-exile, number, with vocals, and with a poignant melody line. 

[This is the end of the current blogspot posting.]