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User:Barry Wells

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Barry Wells (talk | contribs) at 02:38, 9 January 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

"Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth." -- Major League Baseball player (Pittsburgh Pirates) Roberto Clemente (August 18,1934-December 31,1972).

"Christianity is Judaism with a nose job." -- Jewish-Canadian poet Irving Layton ((March 12, 1912–January 4, 2006)

Brief Bio and Background

This user has been named to the 2006 Mayor's Honour's List for Heritage for the City of London, Ontario, Canada.

My name is Barry Wells of London, Ontario. I was born in Woodstock, Ontario, in 1954 but moved to old south London in the summer of 1965. Wortley Village and the historic "normal school" (old teacher's college built in the late 1800s) and its adjoining field in south London on Elmwood Avenue are my old "stomping grounds."

I am a graduate of Wortley Road Public School and South Secondary School's arts-and-science program. I've also completed history and history-related credit courses at the University of Western Ontario and Fanshawe College. Over the years, I've been everything from an assistant manager in the Odeon chain of cinemas to a cab driver working the night shift, construction worker, paralegal and a bi-weekly magazine's news editor.

Laughing and a sense of humour is like bread to me. Manna from heaven. Show me an individual who rarely laughs and I'll show you an individual who's barely alive. Show me an individual who laughs too much and well, it may be time to get out the butterfly nets.

I must say, the Wikipedia project is remarkable, ambitious and extremely well-organized in the software department. I hope to contribute to it in a positive way on a semi-regular basis, without being a slave to the Internet and its addictive qualities.

Community Involvement and Service

From November of 1996 to November of 2004, I worked as the senior editor/ news editor of SCENE magazine, a locally owned bi-weekly publication covering news, arts and entertainment. I was also a regular columnist at SCENE, writing a lively opinion column under the banner of "RamFed&Loaded." Today, I am a freelance writer and researcher/ author.

ArtSCAPE, a new monthly arts publication in London to be launched on January 20, 2006, will feature my column on city hall and the arts, although my first column will focus on Black History and the contributions of African-Canadian Londoners to the city's arts and culture.

I have been a longtime community activist receiving the municipal meeting agendas and attending meetings at city hall since 1990. I've lobbied aggressively at city hall for numerous public interest initiatives and projects over the years and have enjoyed about a 50-60 per-cent success rate. You win some, you lose some. That's life. I've met some incredible people along the way.

During the past 15 years I've assisted on several civic election campaigns as well as one federal election campaign. I've also done some paralegal work, representing a variety of individuals (occasionally former colleagues at work) in areas of employment and labour law, small claims court, landlord-tenant, EI Board of Referees and Criminal Injuries Compensation Board hearings, traffic court etc., winning a case at the Ministry of Labour Office of Adjudication Tribunal level in 1994-1995 and then in Divisional Court in 1996 before three Justices of the Ontario Court of Appeal and another in the Tax Court of Canada in 1998, that remain precedent-setting in the area of employment law, employment standards and employment insurance eligibility.

Precedent-Setting Cases won

  • 858532 Ontario Limited o/a Checker Limousine v. Jim Eiler, Director of Employment Standards, Ontario and Dana Randall (Court File #544/95).
  • Stuart Campbell v. Ministry of National Revenue (Court File #97-739-UI). The thrill of victory after working on a case for several months or even years as occurred in the Checker Limousine case (1993-1996) above, is sweet. Moreso when your honourable corporate adversary is represented by a high-priced lawyer or two.
  • Another public interest case that I was involved in and won involves our municipal freedom of information and protection of privacy legislation. After being denied access to the identity of the holders of two City of London taxi-plates (#320 and #323) by the City Clerk on August 12, 2003, I filed a formal appeal to the Information and Privacy Commission (IPC) office in Toronto on October 6, 2003 (MFIPPA Request 2003-28), pursuant to the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

DECISION: Finally, after 13 months, the IPC reversed its earlier decisions/ position on similar cab industry information requests/ appeals and ruled in my favour on October 28, 2004, ordering the City of London to release the information to me (IPC's seven-page decision and Order #MO-1862, dated Oct. 28, 2004). This decision has a province-wide impact involving similar requests for municipally held information about those holding taxi-cab owner licences -- relevant to those who undertake to track the ownership of lucrative cab plates in an-often controversial industry.

I have also been a volunteer member of numerous community organizations at various times in recent years, including the following:

  • Secretary, The Oxford Park Residents' Association, 1994-1997
  • Member and Vice-Chair, London Canada Day Committee, 1994-1996
  • Member, The Urban League of London, 1994-1997
  • Co-chair of the Taxi Reform Coalition, 1994-1995
  • Member, The London Advisory Committee on Heritage (LACH), 1995-1998
  • Member, London Endowment for Heritage Grants Committee, 1996-1998
  • Member, Education and Stewardship Sub-Committees of LACH, 1995-1998
  • Member, Western Fair Association, Attractions and Entertainment Sub-Committee, 1996
  • Member, Western Fair's Technology Exhibit Steering Committee, 1996
  • Member, Heritage London Foundation, Board of Directors, 1996
  • Member, London and Middlesex Historical Society, various years
  • Intermittent Chair, Grosvenor Lodge Management Committee, 1996
  • Co-founder, The Friends of Labatt Park, 1993-the present day
  • Member, Checker Limousine Union Organizing Committee, 1992-1993
  • Member, Labatt Park 150 Reunion Event Organizing Committee, 2005
  • Doors Open London, 2001-2005 (hosting the public at Labatt Memorial Park)

Interests

I am currently completing a 135-page, fully footnoted paper entitled, A Colourful History of London, Ontario's Acrimonious Vehicle-for-Hire Industry, 1855-2005, as part of London, Ontario's 150th anniversary as an incorporated city (more than 10,000 residents).

Also in the works is another book, tentatively titled, Juice Monkeys: The Incredible Cock-Up at London Hydro, 1996-1997. This electrifying civic nightmare has more twists and turns than the road map of the U.S. State of Georgia.

My primary interests are:

I used to use Wikipedia's main IRC channel on a semi-regular basis to ascertain what the other ants in the colony were thinking and discussing. Not anymore.

Comments on Contributor/ User In-fighting

Being an administrator on Wikipedia has no interest for me and I find it curious that so many individuals appear to be caught up in the illusory pursuit of "power" associated with being an administrator, bureaucrat etc. Kind of like chickens in the hen house vying for pecking order position as a substitute for real life. lasphemy, surely!

No wonder so many individuals wind up taking "wiki-holidays" or "wiki-breaks."

While there's obviously an extremely valuable role for administrators, bureaucrats, stewards and mediators to play, it seems that the deeper one gets involved with Wikipedia, the greater the expectations and ultimately, the heartaches. Kind of like life itself.

The often-petty in-fighting that I've come across amongst various contributors over this or that information/ edit/ block is unfortunate. But, given a project of this size, its complexity, the number of active users and human nature itself, I suppose that it's surprising there's not more nastiness, trolling and vandalism.

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