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The fragile and tortured Maddie Di Muccio has withdrawn from the race to become the Progressive Conservative Party candidate for Newmarket-Aurora in the forthcoming Provincial election. 

In this curious article published today she infers she is the victim (there's that word again) of sexism in the PCs with a Committee of Party grandees asking her all sorts of inappropriate questions such as how she could possibly combine being an MPP with motherhood.

Of course, these kinds of questions are totally off-the-wall and smack of ancient prejudices. So why didn't she face the old grey-beards down?

I think her outrage is a tad contrived. There are lots of able and personable women who have succeeded in politics. But Di Muccio's problem is her poisonous personality which repels people even in her own Party. She says terrible unsisterly things about other women. The evidence is everywhere.

She says she had the support of the Party leader, Patrick Brown, who, when told of all these shenanigans, advised her to stick with it. But she didn't. She quit.

But why? If she had recruited zillions of new supporters her path to the nomination surely would have been clear.

Not smooth necessarily. But clear.

But no. She threw in the towel and lost the chance of gaining an important platform to promote and promulgate her views - zany though they are.

I honestly don't know if I am surprised by what has just happened.

Probably not.

I'd like to think I saw it coming.

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Aspiring Provincial Parliamentary candidate for the Newmarket-Aurora Progressive Conservatives, Maddie Di Muccio, today deleted tweets claiming I am a paedophile.

Di Muccio liked tweets from the troll, TruckMafk TMTM. He has also removed a lengthy series of tweets alleging my paedophilia.

Derek HighwayMonitor, who, like Di Muccio, re-tweeted baseless allegations of paedophilia has also deep-cleansed his Twitter account.

I am still waiting to hear from Patrick Brown MPP, the Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, and from Derek Murray, the President of the Newmarket-Aurora PC Riding Association.

Yesterday I asked them to take whatever steps they considered appropriate to get Di Muccio to remove the Tweets. I also asked them to secure an apology from Di Muccio. In my letters to Mr Brown and Mr Murray I included screen shots of Di Muccio's smears.

Although the offending tweets and re-tweets have now been taken down - and I am grateful - the issue is not completely resolved until I get an apology from Di Muccio.

I shall post updates.

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Five days ago Maddie Di Muccio told her twitter audience she liked tweets linking me to paedophilia.

And Di Muccio's tweets are still up there in cyberspace, available to a global audience.

I have therefore written today to the Leader of the PC Party of Ontario, Patrick Brown, and to the President of the Newmarket-Aurora PC Riding Association, Derek Murray, asking them to take whatever steps they consider appropriate to ensure that Di Muccio:

  1. deletes her Tweets liking those from the troll TruckMafk claiming I am a paedophile
  2. expresses regret to Patrick Brown and Derek Murray for her actions which promoted the belief that I am a paedophile and apologise in writing to me.

In the absence of any expression of regret or an apology, I have urged Mr Brown and Mr Murray to advise Di Muccio to take her concerns about my alleged paedophilia to the police together with the facts she is relying on to support such an assertion.

Di Muccio is currently seeking the nomination to become the Progressive Conservative candidate for Newmarket-Aurora in the Provincial election in 2018.

I shall post updates in due course.

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PC wannabe MPP Maddie Di Muccio "likes" tweets that claim I am a paedophile.

Twitter tells us

'Likes are represented by a small heart. They are commonly used to show appreciation for a Tweet.'

Not long after I posted my piece on Maddie Di Muccio and her unsuccessful bid to extract $25,000 from Canada Post, the dark, fetid, unsavoury underbelly of the internet began to stir.

TruckMafk TMTM @TruckMafd sets the hare running yesterday with this tweet:

@gordon_prentice Is that pedophilia charge against you cleared up yet or is that trial still on? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

then this one

@gordon_prentice is it true that you're currently in court defending #Pedophilia charges?

followed by

@gordon_prentice can u address the rumours of #Pedophilia charges against u? Are u innocent? Did you ever mollest #children?

 

 

 

 

 

followed by

@gordon_prentice on these alleged #Pedophilia allegations, do u got any comments? If true, is there anything u'd say 2 their families?

followed by

@gordon_prentice r the rumours true that the judge may throw out your case of u raping a kid? R u still advised 2 stay away from schools?

followed by

in reply to Johnny D

TruckMafk TMTM @ TruckMafk

@horsesandbeer I also hear rumours of this sick man's pedophilia. Keep yr kids away from @Gordon_Prentice until these rumours are addressed!

Engaging with trolls

Instead of ignoring this tripe, Di Muccio chooses to engage with this troll - more than once. Her appreciation of tweets alleging paedophilia by me plumbs new depths, even for her.

And to be clear, M'Lud, I do not have a criminal record either here in Canada or in the UK. Furthermore, I have never been charged with any crime nor have I ever been investigated by the police in connection with any crime whatsoever, anywhere, in any jurisdiction. I am, M'Lud, a model citizen.  

For her part, Di Muccio has chosen to engage on social media with someone who posts baseless allegations of paedophilia and who makes crude sexist and pejorative comments about people.

If the Newmarket-Aurora Riding Association abandons all sense of decency and selects Di Muccio as their candidate in the Provincial Election in 2018 they will be telling the rest of us a great deal about the standards they have set themselves.

Fake news

They will be saying it is OK to coarsen and debase political discourse locally and it is OK to promote "fake news".

The leaflet on the right was circulated by Canada Post on behalf of its client, the newspaper Snap'd, in the run up to the October 2014 Newmarket municipal election which saw Di Muccio losing her Ward 6 seat to Kelly Broome. We do not yet know who was responsible for the text.

But we do know Maddie Di Muccio believes it contains

"vile and disgusting smears".

As it happens, Matilde Barbara Di Muccio will be returning to the Newmarket Small Claims Court on Friday 10 February 2017. This time, she is seeking $5,000 in damages from Regional Councillor John Taylor who is accused of causing her

"reputational damage".

In the extensive list of things she claims Taylor has allegedly done to her I see the words

"injurious falsehoods"

I am left wondering if the promotion of unfounded allegations of paedophilia by Di Muccio against me counts as an injurious falsehood?

If it doesn't, M'Lud, then perhaps it should.

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The oldest house in Newmarket, dating from 1811, is in a truly dire state.
 
So it is fortunate we have a heritage watchdog to act as our eyes and ears when old buildings are in danger of falling down. At its meeting last November, the Town's Heritage Newmarket Advisory Committee discussed the derelict state of Bogart House and decided photos should be taken of the decaying structure. These would then be passed to planning staff
 
"in order to commence a formal legal process to require remediation of the house."
 
This is excellent news. But why has it take so long to act? What has the Ward Councillor been doing other than twiddling his thumbs?   
 
I took this photograph on 27 August 2015 but, even so, it doesn't tell the whole story. The back of the house was completely open to the elements.
 
A few days later (on 1 September 2015) in a wide-ranging blog about the venerable Dave Kerwin I mentioned the calamitous condition of Bogart House and urged action.
 
Its future was tied to a major development in Kerwin's ward. I wrote:

"The proposed development is next door to the wooded Bogart Trail with its attractive private lake. John Bogart House, the oldest house in Newmarket, is inconveniently situated on land the developer wants for other uses. So it is to be moved to a new location a short distance away.
 
The clapperboard house was constructed in 1811 and has been designated for its historical and architectural significance. John Bogart was a Quaker pioneer from Pennsylvania, who had a saw mill on the nearby creek. It is one of the first two storey residential buildings constructed north of Toronto. To me, this is quite a big deal.
 
Dave Kerwin might have told us the old house is open to the elements at the back with a non existent window letting in rain, snow and goodness knows what else. This bit of Newmarket history needs a quick repair job asap."
 
Earlier, on 15 June 2015, I had written to the Town expressing concern about "demolition by neglect". I was told the Town was looking at preparing a Heritage Building Standards By-law
 
"that will prescribe a minimum standard for the maintenance of the heritage attributes for the property both in a Heritage District or individually designated".
 
A year later, I followed this up asking what progress had been made. I was told Legislative Services had scheduled an update to the Town Wide Property Standards By-law on their work plan but due to other priorities work had not started (that was on 9 August 2016).
 
I am told many issues can be addressed under the current property standards by-law.
 
But, self evidently, some issues cannot be addressed.
 
Otherwise why was Bogart House allowed to deteriorate into its present lamentable condition?
 
If our by-laws aren't working we need to change them and instill new vigour into those charged with enforcing them.
 
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