Welcome to Municipalmedia.ca!
The design, construction, and operation of a media website is an unanticipated venture that I never expected to be involved in. My name is Dan Buryn, during the 2013 municipal election I was elected councillor for Division 1, Thorhild County, Alberta.
MunicipalMedia.ca is a News, Information, and Networking venue, which has been inspired by the traumatic experiences of a first term municipal Councillor. One of the most important motivating factors learned from this traumatic municipal government experience, is the societal need of factual information. MunicipalMedia.ca is far removed from the mainstream media – “moron media” – ideology. Mainstream ideology disregards facts of matters and sadly supports the sale of sensationalized media reports. Diversion from facts of matters for sensationalism, ends in the ultimate harm of individuals and communities. MunicipalMedia.ca provides an alternative News & Information source to the public, with the intent of empowering the individual with factual information and networking opportunities. Absolutely free and clear from mainstream media and government sensationalism!
The focus of this website is to create networking opportunities by sharing factual information from many sources. If you are a writer or just have one idea to share, you have an opportunity to share it here. Most of the content on this website will be News and Information Articles, Audio Podcasts, Photo Gallery, and Video. MuncipalMedia.ca is also interested in News Tips and Whistle Blower Information. Advertising space is also available for your marketing needs.
Why?
Procedurally Unfair Inspection and Dismissal costing over $15,000 in legal fees
The experience as a Councillor has been especially traumatic, as a result of the illegal and unlawful, inspection of Thorhild County. The inspection which was conducted by Municipal Affairs resulted in the publication of a defamatory report. Adding to the trauma is the minister’s procedurally unfair dismissal of me as a Councillor, costing me over $15,000 in legal fees and very serious injury to my reputation and career.
The Dishonorable Minister of Municipal Affairs, Danielle Larivee.
On March 10, 2016 the Dishonorable Minister of Municipal Affairs, Danielle Larivee, while practicing her tyranny, dismissed me and two colleagues from our county council. The following court decisions provide only a small portion of the facts related to the illegal & unlawful Municipal Inspection/Inquiry procedures in Alberta, unbridled for the past two plus decades.
Buryn v Alberta (Minister of Municipal Affairs), 2017 ABQB 613 (CanLII)
Blais v Alberta (Minister of Municipal Affairs), 2018 ABQB 71 (CanLII)
“Among the normal rights which are available to every British subject against all the world are (1) personal safety and freedom; (2) one’s good name; (3) the enjoyment of the advantages ordinarily open to all the inhabitants of the country e.g., unmolested pursuit of one’s trade or occupation and free use of the highways; (4) freedom from malicious vexation by legal process; and (5) to one’s own property.”
Justice Irving J. ~ REX v. SUNG CHONG
Donations, Consultations, and Advertising will help rebuild my reputation, career, and prevent harm to others.
So far I have solely funded the website and received two, generous first donations of $800 and $250 from a research contact and Councillor contact. The intent of this website is to create a positive outcome from a traumatic experience. I have to maintain a website in order to repair my reputation, career, and prevent the same harm to others in the future. Today business and employment opportunities are damaged by false and misleading media reports due to online availability. Your support by donation, consultation, or advertising will create new opportunities and protection for many in the future.
Consultations will provide unique experience and research for your strategic goals.
In an attempt to remedy the damage to my reputation and career, I am offering to share my councillor experience and research with municipal councils, municipal administrations and other corporate bodies. Please contact me if your organization is interested in a confidential consultation where unique experience and research is available for your strategic goals. To emphasise the unique learning opportunity available to you, I was a first term councillor under attack and I managed to reveal the illegal and unlawful inspection procedures in Alberta. With the combined efforts of a talented member of the public, we documented over two decades of Administrative Bad Faith, resulting in injury to many municipalities and individuals throughout the province since 1994. Making my experience and research available to your organization provides opportunities to create synergies where, 90% of municipal legal costs could be eliminated across the province. As well as the costs associated to government contractors (usurping judicial authority and neglecting judicial duty) conducting the multitude of municipal inspections in Alberta.
Councillors and Administrators throughout the province, are at risk of dismissal.
Another area where my councillor experience and research is advantageous to municipalities relates to The Municipal Government Act – Current as of January 1, 2018. As councillors we were always encouraged to learn about this statute and to abide by it. Your attention is needed in – Part 14 – General Ministerial Powers – where numerous changes have been made giving the minister unusual powers contrary to the basics of Natural Justice and Procedural Fairness. When the MGA, Part 14 is compared to the Saskatchewan Municipal Act and other provinces across Canada, we do not see the same authoritarian focus. The new legislation in Alberta is clearly the mind of the government and I believe that councillors and administrators throughout the province, are at risk of the same abuses inflicted on me and colleagues. Such a statutory scheme will provide for a despotic cycle of appointment and dismissal to the whim of Municipal Affairs.
Hanasyk Appointed – Buryn, Croswell, and Sisson Dismissed
In 2009, Municipal Affairs appointed Shelly Hanasyk to the County of Thorhild, Council. She was the former mayor of the Village of Thorhild. The village was bloated with debt, dead on its back, mill rate above 16, with all legs pointing up to the stars, and the economically advantageous swimming pool was unfit for use and closed. During the 2009 village dissolution, Hanasyk was parachuted to a county seat by appointment and a new electoral division created. The new division encompassing the former village and a small rural area, were in place for the 2010 municipal election. Ladies and gentlemen, I wish to emphasize that the same dark history of Thorhild County is bound to repeat itself anywhere in the province. In 2009 Hanasyk was appointed by Municipal Affairs to the county council and quite contrary in 2016, Buryn, Croswell, and Sisson were dismissed by Municipal Affairs from the county council.
Municipal Inspections/Inquiries in Canada
The resulting inspection report of Thorhild County, September 8, 2015, was laden with allegations of misconduct, published without any opportunity to respond, and used as an authority to impose interventions on 3 of 5 Councillors, to the extreme of dismissing the chief administrative officer and later dismissing 3 of 5 Councillors for breaching non-existing statutes. It is clear that Natural Justice and Procedural Fairness were disregarded in the Minister’s ultra vires processes. Three procedurally fair, judicial inquiry reports between the years 2005 – 2014, are summarized by the Manitoba Law Reform Commission in their final report of January 2016 titled: Modernizing The Municipal Council Conflict Of Interest Act: Accountability, Enforcement & Oversight. The Bellamy, Cunningham, and Barclay reports are models of Natural Justice & Procedural Fairness. In comparison of, the first 23 pages of the Barclay report, to the first 13 pages of: A Report on the Inspection of The Town of Peace River – August 2014. The rationale gleaned from the comparison of reports, provides a very clear apprehension, that the inquiry process in Alberta is tampered with and procedurally unfair. The writer of the Town of Peace River report mentions absolutely nothing of Natural Justice and Procedural Fairness. Instead the writer cherry-picks from the Municipal Government Act and Public Inquiries Act, creating an unlimited terms of reference:
- [Letter from Minister] …”The broad scope of issues addressed in the inspection should result in recommendations that…”
- “Our contract required us to report on matters which we believed fell within the guidelines of ‘irregular, improper or improvident conduct by Council, individual Councillors or by municipal staff’.”.
- “Any such matters that we believe fall into one or all of these categories [irregular, improper or improvident] are identified in this Report.”
- “Through this clause [s.571(3)(4)], an Inspector is provided with considerable power to acquire information, per section 3 of the Public Inquiries Act which includes:…”.
- “The key point is in general the Inspector is not restricted in his/her scope. Also, Section 571 provides an Inspector with sufficient power necessary to complete a project.”.
- “Our work requires us to ‘get to the bottom of things’…”.
These points differ greatly from the procedural fairness logic of the Bellamy, Cunningham, and Barclay reports. Since 2009 to 2017 over 30 municipal inspections have been conducted in Alberta, a tenfold comparison to the 3 municipal inspection/inquiries in the remainder of Canada from 2005 to 2017. Why the high level of municipal intervention in Alberta compared to the other provinces? Much effort has been focused toward keeping my writing short to prevent confusion as public inquiries are rare. The Bellamy report, Volume 3: Inquiry Process, notes on page 72 that many of the lawyers representing parties were not familiar with public inquiries. Since lawyers are unfamiliar with public inquiry procedures, focusing on procedural fairness is a great starting point, to ensuring clarity of the legal and lawful municipal inspection/inquiry procedures according to statute and common law.