Basic cooperation and mutual respect will become increasingly important over time as rail traffic increases and residential presences grow.

We’ve already discussed, at length, some of the issues that you raise here yet again.

I take your criticisms as a compliment; if my credibility, or that of this blog were, in question in any way, you’d be giving this site much less attention.

The fact that we do not agree on key issues and yet this blog does not hesitate to publish dissenting views such as your own is one of the ways with which we’ve established our credibility.

We won’t be railroaded into having it any other way.

Speaking of dissent, we’ve been closely watching the gathering storm at your former employer and company with whom you hold a lease, CP Rail.

Given your expressed opinion that “All that matters is money” you must be looking forward to the upcoming vote at CP Rail’s Annual General Meeting on May 17th.

Mr. Bill Ackerman of Pershing Square Capital Management (the “dissenter”, according to CP Rail ads) is making quite the case to shareholders of CP being an underperforming railway, and one that more profit can be wrung out of.

As you probably know, Mr. Ackerman proposes a slate of seven nominees to change the face of CP’s Board of Directors, including replacing CP Rail’s Chief Executive, Mr. Fred Green, with former rival CN Rail Chairman, Hunter Harrison.

Ackerman certainly has received considerable publicity for this proposal, whetting shareholder’s appetite for profit by trotting out Harrison, CN’s retired warhorse, around the ring in what is looking to be, quite possibly an acrimonious shakedown at CP Rail.

If Harrison becomes the new CP Rail President, we predict the CP Rail that you know and have worked for, will rapidly become a thing of the past.

Quite possibly, some of the colleagues that you have at CP will find themselves having to adapt to a much different company culture, and perhaps a different quality of life as well.

Ask CN Rail employees about what it was like to work for CN during Harrison’s reign (I did, and got an earful) or talk to some former BC Rail employees in British Columbia who found themselves in a very different work environment when CN Rail swallowed up BC Rail during Harrison’s tenure.

Or, is the human element in all this simply an irrelevant issue to you Mr. Willsie, given that your view that economic considerations quash quality of life concerns? (Compared to a balanced approach, which considers both…)

Will you be at the AGM tomorrow, shaking hands and patting the backs of CP’s ousted Directors if Ackerman succeeds, telling outgoing Directors that their exit is a move in the right direction in the name of profit?

Given your opinion that “All that matters is money,” have you, as a railway President, put your support behind the existing CP Board, or given your support to Ackerman’s bid?

Or, have you simply decided to sit on the fence with a wait-and-see attitude as to which way the wind blows on this one?

Have you, or will you, stand up for your stated principles at this crucial crossroad in Canada’s railway industry?

As the saying goes, if you don’t stand for something, then you stand for nothing.

What do you stand for, Mr. Willsie?

Jeff Willsie, President
Ontario Southland Railway

Without customers, railways would not have any business, and these customers, at times, have been very vocal with Government over their problems with rail service, and have pressed the federal government to further regulate the industry to rectify this.

Please see our former post “Forestry Industry Asks for Rail Service to be Regulated.”

You state that you have contacted your M.N.A. (FYI: for our readers, a M.N.A. is a M.L.A. in other provinces) – could we suggest that you also contact your M.P. as well? Your M.P. represents your area on a federal level, as railway noise and vibration falls under federal jurisdiction.

Please let them know that this problem is severe enough that you feel you have little alternative except to give up your home and move.

We think it’s quite likely that this problem may very well continue after you leave, for other people, so it would be a helpful gesture if your elected representative there is made aware of the problem now, in the event of its continuation.

1) Whether you agree or disagree with “Train Jane” (and it’s very obvious), taking a rude and shove-it stance (as for you, this is a pattern, so it shows) reveals character. Character cannot be changed – behaviours can. Even some of the most disliked people have a way, through their behaviour, to debate and articulate that at least earns them some respect. Unfortunately, I cannot even “hear” you in your posts as they are so rude, one just tunes them out.
2) If the tables were turned and something was negatively impacting you and your family or those that you love, you would not want to hear someone berate you and basically say “move” or whatever the situation may be. Show compassion to all my friend.
3) The Titanic was supposedly “unsinkable” and what seems to be a karma thing in life is that those that are so high and mighty in what they build or what they represent, often are so wrong.
4) Please note, “explane” is actually explain

Thank you

These two authors emphasize at the introduction to their publication that “It could be done only on principles of private justice, moral fitness, and public convenience, which, when applied to a new subject, make common law without a precedent; much more when received and approved by usage.” Willes, J., in Millar v. Taylor, 4 Burr, 2303, 2312.

This reference to Millar v. Taylor is actually expressly recognizing a prior legal argument, by book publishers, to a right to copyright to the exclusion of having a published work ever entering the public domain.

Wikipedia, Millar v Taylor (1769) 4 Burr. 2303, 98 ER 201 is an English court decision that held there is a perpetual common law copyright and that no works ever enter the public domain. It represented a major victory for the bookseller monopolies.

To my understanding of the circumstances associated with the issue of railway noise and vibration within the boundaries of the City of New Westminster, attorneys for the railway(s) have exerted a claim to a right to privacy over the distribution of the written contents of their agreement with a group of residents.

So, the railways companies’ attorneys, and the railway companies themselves, are advocating a legal position that has been used, in other places and times, to establish a right to privacy that extends to the “legal value of sensations” of individuals within a legal context.

Will there be consequential legal action in Canada that recognizes the “legal value of sensations” for Canadians? Thanks to the attorneys for the railway companies, their advocacy of copyright is a step in the “right” direction.

I think we can all agree that the expansion of rail is positive in many different ways. There are no arguments about it. Even the harshest critics of rail effects on urban population will have to agree with this.
Now how you conduct this expansion and how you deal with your sector criticism is something different. You seem to be from an old generation that does not seem to realise or care about these issues. A ever-more rare breed of businessman that is falling into irrelevance and is not prepared to lead for the future.

Fighting your critics won’t solve any problems, Mr. Willsie. Why not engage positively in debate and in finding ways to improve your company relations?

After all, if the public is not satisfied with your sector, they will be sure to favour public officials that will give you a hard time.