By Pepper Parr
October 2, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
We are not naming sources in this article. Gag orders appear to have been slapped on everyone involved in the process.
The date was set as September 29th – the two swimming clubs that are battling over the amount of time swimming pool time they will be given, were to have submitted their clubs’ membership by that date,.
In order to determine who is going to get what in terms of pool time – the Procurement people (it may be people from some other department) asked each club to provide verifiable membership numbers.
BAD: Burlington Aquatic Devilrays
The most recent information request from the city was for a list of the postal code for each member of the club.
Golden Horseshoe Aquatic Club
One of the clubs, we have yet to determine which club, had a problem with just a postal code to determine if a swimmer was a resident of the City. They could give a Burlington postal code for a relative or a friend – there would be no way to follow up and verify.
The source of verifiable information on swimming club membership rests with Swimming Ontario. One of the swimming clubs suggested that the city get the information from that source.
No response yet from the city.
Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns
The intention Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns expressed to have the City Auditor look into just how the decision to award swimming pool time was made isn’t clear – someone with the authority to acquire information was needed.
At this point, the matter does not appear to be on the Council agenda for next week.
Additions can be made to the Agenda before the meetings on October 6th and October 7th. Or Kearns can bring a Motion to have an item added.
Prior to this year, BAD had 40 hours of pool time each week. They now have 17 hours, while GHAC is believed to have 37.
The reduction in pool time is hammering the BAD club – their membership was once at 400; it is now less than 175. Swimmers join a club that has pool time.
The wheels at City Hall do not move quickly – they are as bad as they are in the provincial Court system.
But this will get resolved.
And if it is done fairly Burlington will have a hometown swimming club.
If it is unfair, the Burlington Aquatic Devilrays will become part of the city’s history.
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The City asking for postal code data, one assumes is because it wants both clubs to provide supporting information to their Burlington residency numbers. I would not call that movement. Movement in my opinion would be a change in the allocated pool times or confirmation that the deal previously worked out will remain as is, i.e a conclusion.
I don’t know how the gag order can be interpreted as being fraudulent. Certainly it could be seen as being censorship. Non-Disclosure Agreements (gag orders) are commonly agreed to by opposing parties during settlement negotiations and in concluding out of court legal settlements.
None of that meets or comes anywhere close to the definition of fraudulent – the act of causing someone to accept as true or valid what is false or invalid : the act of describing.
The article says one club is questioning if the other club is manipulating residency information by using Burlington resident relatives’ addresses for non-Burlington resident swimmers. If that is happening that would be fraudulent. It would only make sense for that accusation to be coming from mud slinging BAD.
The article was lacking in any information to back up its headline – what movement? No facts or even “informed source says” to say what movement there might be.
The article, written as a report not as an opinion piece says:-
“And if it is done fairly Burlington will have a hometown swimming club.
If it is unfair, the Burlington Aquatic Devil Rays will become part of the city’s history.”
That is an absurd thing to say when having no inside or pertinent knowledge of the matter. The expressed sentiment reflects Trump/MAGA-speak which always says something is wrong, fake, fraudulent etc if they disagree with the position.
Editor’s note: The city is asking for postal code data – that’s movement. You see it as fake, fraudulent. But you say nothing about a gag order being in place. That ain’t fake – but it comes close to fraudulent.
If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck it’s a duck. The data won’t be correct or legitimate unless it’s from Swim Canada, there’s an old saying “pics or it didn’t happen”, Burlington doesn’t need to know full addresses, weights or deepest secrets of the swimmers just a authentic postal code based on where they actually live. I know you want this to be like Trump so lets “Make Burlington Great Again”.
Blake, you misunderstand. I do not want to make anything like Trump. Quite the opposite. But it seems either the city or one of the clubs is suggesting that postcode information could be manipulated. The data at swim Ontario is only as good as what is provided. The swimmer or somebody else registering the swimmer could for example register a swimmer using a Burlington resident family member’s post code because the swimmer themself is not actually located in the City of Burlington.