You hear About Massive Street Gang Arrests. You Hear About Crackdown On Bikers. Have Your Heard About The Garbage Grannies?

If you want to verify the facts call Herr Miller's Office.......

Bad Girl…Bad Girl…

September 5th, 2007

What ya gonna do when they come for you…..?

Beware the next time you’re walking your dog in the park with your poop baggie or having a picnic with your family. The city’s garbage police might be watching.

Did you know we now need permission to use garbage bins that are located in the City’s parks?

I had no idea. Yes, believe it or not, it is a breech of the Provincial Offenses Act to deposit your waste inside a park garbage container without permission.

Are you guilty? Yup. So am I.

And so was a senior citizen, named Jane, who wasn’t even in the country at the time of the alleged offense. This bizarre bureaucratic episode was brought to my attention recently. According to Jane she is now charged with, 548-3b, which reads “permit refuse to be dumped on land without consent”.

To give you a little background, Jane is a 75 year-old grandmother who has never even had a parking ticket. She is a former city employee with 35 years of service. Presently she resides with her only daughter, Betty, in the States. This offense occurred at a park across the street from Betty’s second home which is located in downtown Toronto.

Now according to Jane here is what happened. As she started telling me her story, she was still frantic, so I had to remind her to give me, “just the facts ma’am just the facts”.

Her son’s wife, Liz, was staying at the Toronto house tending to her own ill mother, Tammy, who had been in intensive care. Now, the night before leaving Toronto to return to the States, Liz put the garbage out at the sidewalk for the next day’s pick up. In the morning, as she was leaving for the airport and noticed the raccoons had ripped the bag open and made a mess. The City’s garbagemen drove right by and refused to do the pick-up. In a panic over missing her flight, she quickly cleaned up the scattered debris and ran across the street and deposited the bag in the park’s waste bin.

She never knew the city now has their very own “Nazi” garbage police to patrol the parks. One efficient city “dumpster diver” employee saw fit to open the bag and do a forensic audit.

After identifying the culprit, through various personal mails, visa statements, and airline ticket stubs the city workers investigation went full-steam ahead. The big hunt was on. They contacted this poor lady and she had no idea what they were talking about. However, after conferring with Liz she found out just what had happened. Liz phoned the City employee back and apologized and offered to pay the ticket. The City employee wasn’t interested. They wanted the “big one”. To use their words, “we have the incriminating evidence”.

Poor Liz was beside herself. So in order to calm the situation Jane recommended that they fly back to Toronto to deal with it.

Back in Toronto the two ladies phoned the City and told them they were at the house.

Within one hour a hard knock sounded at the door. Jane says she remembers it like yesterday when Liz said: “Thank God, now we can get this over with”.

The City employees were not polite and had no interest in Liz’s admission of guilt. They wanted Jane. It was her trash. Liz was so distraught over the entire incident she pleaded that they charge her instead of her mother.

By the way, it took two employees to serve the court documents. I guess there must be some city policy based on a “fear of safety”.

Somewhere in the middle, when it got to this point in the story, I was waiting to hear, “Book ‘em Danno’.

Both ladies were in left in tears. And all the city official had to say was: “Sorry. Tell it to the judge”.

Does anyone realize how much it costs the taxpayers to open a file in the Superior Court of Justice? How many thousands of tax dollars are spent? How many people who work for the City have had to touch this file?

Talk about literal and figurative waste.

Now I am not recommending Jane go out and hire the lawyers of the “the Association of the Wrongfully Convicted”. But why should she pay the fine or admit the guilt for something she did not do? She wasn’t even in the country. So it’s off to court.

Consider the cost per hour to the taxpayers to run a courtroom.

I will be monitoring the trial and will let you know the result.

Lastly, the story you have just read is true. The names were changed to protect the innocent.

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