On October 3, 2014, just a three weeks before the municipal election, the Era headline roared: "Newmarket Soccer Club Ends Loan Link to Town: The Newmarket Soccer Club is off the Town of Newmarket’s financial books."
This article was particularly well-timed and fortuitous news for embattled incumbents Tony Van Bynen and John Taylor. It was deflating for the campaigns of their challengers.
And it was a lie.
A falsehood.
A misrepresentation told in a conspiracy between the Town of Newmarket and the Newmarket Soccer Club to steal democracy from Newmarket residents in favour of the liars and their allies.
The truth?
The loan wasn't "off the books" until yesterday, unbelievably almost four whole months after the conspirators' false report.
The problem is that the employees of the Town of Newmarket had a responsibility to dispel the lie but were complicit in their silence.
These employees had a fiduciary duty to the public to confirm what candidates Chris Campbell and Darryl Wolk were saying about the soccer loan. Instead, all senior management kept mum while Tony Van Bynen and John Taylor were quoted in the paper on October 24th while continuing to dupe the public into believing the Soccer Loan was a done deal.
Newmarket voters have every right to be outraged. We expect our politicians to lie to us but if we can't rely on the bureaucracy to be non-political, what protections does our democracy have?
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