ONT Parliamentary Inquiry
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The Chair, Jim Schoening, has now instituted mechanisms for
excluding members of this Working Group from the equivalent
of our council chambers. Furthermore, he has applied these
mechanisms to one of the members, in point of fact, one of
the voting members of this Group. I do not believe that
he has followed any form of due process in taking either
one of these actions, but I will put it as an inquiry
to those who are more expert in parliamentary matters.
In the case at issue, Jim Schoening has charged one of the members
of the Group with trying to "impose" his "approach" on this Group:
| Jim Schoening wrote (Thursday, December 06, 2001 9:37 AM):
|
| You are probably correct, but we have a charter to try to develop
| a standards document within the next 3 years, and some want to try
| to do that, so you have no right to impose your approach on this group.
| Even if the majority don't think we can do this, they don't have to
| participate, but they should allow those who want to try to do so.
In point of fact, the only member of this Group who has the least
whit of extra power to impose his or her approach on the Group by
anything more than the force of a reasoned argument is the Chair,
and the Chair has exercised that force with increasing frequency
and insistency in every intervention that he increasingly takes.
However various members may judge this particular instance,
and especially in view of the opinion that the Chair expresses
in his remarks above about the opinion of the Majority, I submit
that the rights of every member have been eroded by this action.
No one can rationally ask any other member of this Group
to participate under the status of second-class citizen.
It is a fairly safe prediction, informed by history,
that the class of second-class citizens will not
long remain a singleton.
Jon Awbrey
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