For the past six years, hospital planners have been telling Windsor Essex residents to "let the process play out." For just as long, local elected and unelected officials have assured us "it's a done deal" - even in the years prior to the August 2018 approval of the Sandwich South development. Supportive opinions were welcomed and amplified, while public expressions of concern were disparaged. Throughout the planning process, medical professionals associated with Windsor Regional Hospital have been unable to publicly express their concerns for fear of reprisal.
Don’t believe those who now loudly argue that CAMPP's legal appeal is a delaying tactic or a burden to taxpayers. Our goal is to ensure all the proper steps have been taken, before finalizing a decision with health, economic and environmental consequences that will affect the region’s well-being for generations to come. We are advocating for transparency: disclosing all the costs that will be imposed on our community if the 1,000 acre (400 ha.) Sandwich South development, anchored by the new hospital, goes ahead as proposed.
In December 2019, the heated debate about the location of our community's new acute care hospital reached a new low. It was fueled by several highly inflammatory postings on social media pages controlled by persons in significant public leadership positions.
CAMPP is an entirely volunteer group. And we put considerable effort into maintaining decorum with all public postings and comments. Our supporters have diverse backgrounds and a broad range of political views: and yet, by setting a respectful tone, we listen to, and learn from each other.
We're aware how easy it is to inadvertently write something that can be misinterpreted. Several diligent volunteers monitor CAMPP-owned and operated social media platforms. Our moderators take their role seriously to maintain a restrained and respectful public discourse.
We welcome discussion and different points of view: we therefore seldom restrict membership to our public social media accounts. However, we do ask that members act politely. Several years ago we changed the group's privacy settings in response to a number of offensive posts. Since then, we've vetted the comments to avoid alienating those wanting to discuss the facts. Because of our policy, it's easier to write without fear of inflammatory reactions and trolling behaviour by a small group of instigators.
There is no place for personal insults or attacks, nor bullying, defamatory, threatening or factually incorrect statements.
We encourage elected and unelected officials, including hospital decision makers, especially those on the public payroll, to start upholding a more professional standard in their own social media postings. They need to closely monitor the comments by others on pages under their control.
We hope 2020 will finally mark a turning point in the tone of public discourse. We encourage officials involved in this process to promote a more respectful and factually-based public discussion. It's time to extinguish the aggressive and defamatory comments.
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