Roses and Thorns: Of horse racing and apologies

ROSE: To Fort Erie Race Track, which hosted the 83rd running of the Prince of Wales Stakes last week. The second jewel of Canadian thoroughbred horse racing’s Triple Crown was won by Wonder Gadot, the 4-1 favourite who had previously earned victory at the Queen’s Plate. It seems unlikely Wonder Gadot will earn the Triple Crown this year, the first horse to do so since Wando did it in 2013, as the filly is expected to run in Saratoga for a $600,000 purse, rather than the Breeeders’ Stakes at Woodbine on Aug. 18 for $400,000. However, the real winner of the Prince of Wales Stakes was the Fort Erie track, which gained a national audience with TSN televising the race. This is a jewel of a facility too many people in Niagara know little about.

THORN: To U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer, who last Thursday under pointed questioning about American steel and aluminum tariffs in front of a U.S. Senate committee, described Canada as a national security threat. Lighthizer was not referring to anything other than the steel industry. He told the committee the decision to impose tariffs on a number of countries was aimed at protecting the U.S. steel industry and the Trump administration couldn’t exempt one steel-producing country over another. Canadian officials have previously denounced Lighthizer’s argument, rejecting the notion that Canadian steel poses any kind of national security risk and noting Canadian products are integral to the U.S. defence industry as well as its Canadian counterpart.

ROSE: To Niagara Region council, for coming to the realization, if belatedly, that Standard reporter Bill Sawchuk and citizen blogger Preston Haskell were the wronged parties during the Dec. 7, 2017, council meeting at which the two men’s equipment was seized and they were unceremoniously tossed out of the council chamber and regional headquarters. The incident set off negative coverage of Niagara council across Canada and beyond, raised questions about not only freedom of the press, but also about other constitutional rights, such as the freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. The Region’s intransigence and inability to recognize it had trampled on the rights of two citizens made matters worse and was only overcome when Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dube released the findings of his months-long investigation into the incident. But finally, during Thursday’s meeting of council, chair Alan Caslin “wholeheartedly and unreservedly” apologized to both men. Written apologies are expected.

THORN: To Niagara Region, for wasting more than $95,000 on legal fees for costs associated with the above-mentioned Ontario Ombudsman’s investigation. Niagara Region paid the fee to Toronto law firm Norton Rose Fullbright, whose lawyer Jennifer Teskey represented the municipality. The Ombudsman’s final report says Teskey attempted to manipulate the outcome, despite a pledge of “full co-operation” from Regional Chairman Alan Caslin. The external counsel, selected by CAO Carmen D’Angelo because the Region’s own lawyer was a witness to the events of Dec. 7, “ostensibly on behalf of their client, attempted through its response to influence our investigative process, challenge our well-established statutory authority and dictate the content of my report.” Dube wrote that Teskey’s responses were adversarial and were contradicted by other sources of information, including police, regional staff, as well as photographic and audio evidence. How the lawyer came to act this way remains unclear, but we have to assume it was at the direction of the client. Council was told last week that D’Angelo and the Region’s legal director, Donna Gibbs, were the only staff talking to Teskey. Council has voted to release memos from Dube and Teskey if both parties agree — and we hope to be able to gain a further understanding of how this process unfolded.