Ontario called for fines that hurt. Here is what Owen Young said:
"So I'm suggesting a financial penalty that hurts. Chief Morris said
they couldn't afford that but that they could reconcile with themselves
going to jail. Well, the very fact that it will hurt means that it's
the appropriate penalty because the objective here is to be
persuasive."
Bryant now says that the Province favours negotiations.
We have to ask ourselves: Why does Ontario now say they want the KI
six out of jail?
Is it for a principled reason. No, its for a political reason.
Again from the court transcripts.
"Jail's not the appropriate remedy. It's not the appropriate remedy, in
my submission, because all that does is it first creates a situation in
which people who are acting in self-help outside the process get to
say, 'See, the process doesn't work.' It allows them to portray
themselves – it doesn't make them martyrs, Your Honour, but it allows
them portray themselves as martyrs.
Ontario knew that the "optics" of jailing the KI leadership would look
bad on them. And they knew that it was likely that the KI leaders would
get jail. So they asked for fines to try to do some damage control on
the bad publicity.
IN PR this approach is known as inoculation.
Ontario made no mention in court of their preference for negotiations.
They said fines that hurt because we don't want KI to publicize
(martyrs) the injustice they suffered. And in fact we don't believe
that any injustice they suffered warrants the label martyrs.
I'm wondering how did the Ontario braintrust imagine the KI leadership
would approach negotiations with folks who put some hurting fines on
them. I guess the thinking is that the KI leadership would say: Aren't
those people from the Ontario government nice folks. Platinex is so mean, they sue us for $10 billion and use the courts to bankrupt us, but Ontario is so nice, they intervene in the litgation on the side of Platinex but only want to hurt us with fines in order to persuade us to make a deal that allows the Platinex drilling that we said no to.
Huh?
I guess they were hoping for political amnesia.
