United States government want to control the information you get about your city. What do you think of that?

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON December  24, 2012  How do the Homeland Security people in the United States get to decide what you can see about a project that took place in this city; that you paid for and that has been shown at a public meeting of your city council – but it can’t be shown to you on television or in print, or on Our Burlington either?

Well that is just what they have apparently done.

Last Thanksgiving the city took part in the building of a grade separation on King Road.  It was a monumental undertaking that took place over a three day period and called for close to minute by minute timing.  There were experts from around the world on site to watch the event take place.

The grade separation became necessary when the number of trains running through Burlington increased significantly, due in part to the opening of the Aldershot GO station.

The city asked CN Rail to put in a grade separation on King Road.  The railway said – if you want a grade separation – go ahead and build one.  The city said the only reason we need a grade separation is because you are running more trains and the road is closed to local traffic too often.

That’s your problem said CN Rail.  The city sued the railway and took their case to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) which provides regulation, mediation, and dispute resolution for the Canadian transportation industry.

The Agency ruled that CN had to put in a grade separation but that Burlington had to pay for 15% of the cost.  CN was not happy with Burlington.  If you are into the minutia of this kind of thing – take a peek at the CTA decision.

With the legal fight out of the way the railway got on with planning for the building of the grade separation and the city got on with its part of the project.  It was quite the project – with problem after problem but they were all resolved and come last Thanksgiving weekend the construction took place.

Burlington’s Engineering department had every reason to be very proud of how well the King Road grade separation project went.  They needed some good news – the construction of the pier has been the biggest stinker that has come out of that department in a decade.

The King Road project had a 5000 tonne concrete tunnel built and then literally slid it into place beneath the CN rail line during a marathon weekend engineering feat.

Burlington didn’t do the actual move – that was a CN job but the city was all around the project – so you could call it a joint effort.

The city decided, rightly so, to let the public see as much of the work being done as possible.  They arranged for three cameras to be set up that would show everything going on – literally minute by minute, and streamed it over the internet.  The city also set up a small set of bleachers people could sit in to watch the work take place.  The seating was such that it wasn’t possible to see very much but a city staffer filmed some of the work on his iPad and would scoot over to the seating area and let people see on his iPad screen what was taking place.  That staffer had taken customer service to a level not often seen in this city.

One of those huge construction trucks, the one with wheels higher than most tall people, would come roaring into the hole that was being dug, swing around, back in, get loaded and be out – all in less than two minutes.  They worked at it all night long. It was an immense construction task.

Our Burlington covered the event with several stories in which we included a number of photographs.  At one point during the construction, one of the cameras went dark.  At the time we thought there was a technical glitch then learned that CN had a problem with what was being shown and they ordered that one of the cameras, the one showing trains going through while the construction was taking place,  go dark.  This happened at the front end of the construction work – it wasn’t the time to argue.

We learned later that CN had some security issues – it is their railway and if they don’t want film of their railway operation, fine by us  – how their trains move is their business.  For the most part the public was able to see the actual digging of the hole the tunnel was going to be slid into and then the moving of the tunnel and that was the really exciting part.

Job done; everyone is slapping everyone else on the back and Burlington’s engineering department has a little less egg on their face.

Couple of months later city engineering staff show up at a city council committee meeting and run a two minute clip of the construction work.  What they showed was a film clip that compressed three days’ work into two minutes.  What we saw was a piece of video that was fantastic.  In the video everyone is scurrying about very fast but because the time had been collapsed you could actually see the tunnel slide into position.

It was really a fantastic bit of film work and the city had every reason to be proud.  So proud were they that they announced the engineering department was going to make presentations to two different engineering conferences where the video would be shown

Along with the two minute version it turned out there was also a ten minute version that was not shown.

Those of us sitting at the media table were very impressed and Our Burlington began to make arrangements to get a copy of both the two minutes and the ten minute versions of the video and post them to the web site.  The video would then be available to anyone for the next twenty five years or longer.

Then – well, here is where Burlington’s problem with keeping its citizens informed comes into play.

We wrote our contact at city hall, Bob Jurk, who was the point man for us and one of the most excited guys we talked to during the project.  Bob was always available, candid and upfront with us.  He was also the guy who presented the video to the city council committee.  And he was the guy we asked to send us a copy of the video.

No can do says Bob.  Not allowed to

What do you mean we asked; that video is public information.  It was screened at a public meeting – it’s public; send is a copy.

No can do says Bob.  CN says we can’t give anyone a copy.

Turns out – are you ready for this,  the railway has said that United State Homeland Security Department doesn’t want the public to be able to watch the video and be able to determine how many trains go by because they might learn what the traffic flow is like along that stretch of track.

Hold it – Our Burlington had already displayed pictures of the construction work taking place where you could clearly see the trains moving through the site.

Someone out there had to be kidding – but nope – here are the words Bob Jurk sent us:

Unfortunately CN has placed very tight restrictions on our use of the videos.  They have sighted Homeland Security as a major concern.  As a result, we are unable to release the videos.

Our immediate response was: Anyone who wants to know what the train traffic is along that stretch just has to sit there for a few days and count the trains going by.

We pressed a bit but Bob Jurk wasn’t able to do anything.  He wasn’t the guy making the decisions.  He was just   stuck in the middle, proud as punch of the job that was done and just itching to tell anyone who wants to listen about the success.  CN was saying you can’t do that.

We took our request further up the food chain at city hall and came face to face with General Manager Scott Stewart who did his best to bring us onside by explaining that things with CN were kind of touchy at times.  They are a big part of the way train traffic flows through town; the city has to work with them and needs a strong positive relationship so that when there is a problem it gets worked through.  The derailing of that Via Rail train awhile back is an example.  The city just has to work with them.

Apparently, when CN Rail says the US government doesn’t want us to do this – the city sort of hangs its head and like a puppy that has been slapped on the nose for doing what it shouldn’t do on the kitchen floor and then skulks back into its cage.

Our Burlington doesn’t see this quite the way the city says it has to.  Our view is that the event was filmed by a crew hired by the city and shown on an internet link the city arranged to have put in place.  Anyone who wanted to stay awake for the three days could see what was taking place.  Admittedly, they couldn’t see the CN traffic moving along.

The city had a fabulous video and screened that video at a public meeting.  That folks means it was then public property and the city could have and should have said it was going to make the video available to the widest possible public.

But the city folded when CN said you can’t.

We are going to try and not fold.

We think it is possible to ask a Judge to order the city to make available copies of a video that have already been shown to the public available to any and all media that want a copy.

Doing this is going to cost more money than we have – but we will work on that problem and see what we can do.

What amazes us is that we have to fight this battle.  We think the city is the one that should be hiring the lawyers to ensure that you get to the information you’ve paid for.

Burlington’s legal department seems to focus on hiring lawyers to keep information away from you.  You still don’t know how much the city has spent on legal fees for the two court cases it has going on related to the construction of the pier.

Your council members know – the city’s solicitor Nancy Shea Nicol divulges those numbers to council members during regular closed sessions of council.  The lawyers  appear to argue that telling the public how much they have spent on fighting the claim they are making against the contractor that walked off the job and the company that designed the pier will damage and limit their court case.

The only thing that is going to get damaged when those numbers come out is the hides of the council members that kept them from the public for so long.