Council of Canadians requesting letters of support for a moratorium on Dump Site 41
From The Council of Canadians web site
ACTION ALERT: Support a moratorium on Dump Site 41
Updated August 13, 2009
On August 25 Simcoe County Council will discuss placing a one-year moratorium on the construction of the landfill at Site 41.
Please join us in letting Simcoe County Council know that you support a moratorium on the landfill by clicking here to email the Simcoe County Council.
As the opposition against the landfill at Site 41 continues to grow, protestors are being arrested for attempting to protect one of the most pristine sources of ground water in the world as a result of an injunction filed by Simcoe County.
The landfill sits atop the Alliston aquifer, a source of water for several communities, farms, reserves and wildlife. The decision to construct the landfill was based on predictions that water would not flow downward into the aquifer. Observations on the ground show that these predictions generated by computer modeling used by Jagger Hims (the consultancy firm hired by the County) were probably wrong and it is, in fact, very likely that ground water will be contaminated by the landfill.
There has been a failure to consult the public and little transparency around the decision process the County took to build the landfill. Jagger Hims has not released the model for public scrutiny or for independent review and the elected officials at Simcoe County did not formally approve the actual construction of the waste cells. The only approval on public record was for preliminary exploration.
Simcoe County must revisit its decision.
Thank you for taking action right now, and forwarding this to your family and friends,
The Council of Canadians
CLICK HERE TO SEND YOUR LETTER NOW
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From The Barrie Examiner http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1692449
First Nations eyeing landfill SITE 41
By DOUGLAS GLYNN
One of the women from Beausoleil First Nation who first established the protest camp across the road from the main gate of Site 41 will go to court later this week calling for work on the controversial landfill to be halted until First Nations are consulted about the impacts of the project.
Simcoe County workers -- accompanied by a contingent of Ontario Provincial Police --arrived the late Friday afternoon to clear chairs, tents and other items from in front of the gates and reenter the landfill.
"The Ontario and federal governments have a duty to consult First Nations about this project and that hasn't occurred," Vicki Monague told supporters Friday after being formerly charged with mischief for protesting at the North Simcoe Landfill, formerly called Site 41.
She is expected to appear in Barrie court Thursday with her lawyers to argue that the construction of the landfill must stop until First Nations have been consulted about the impacts to their traditional lands as required under Canadian law.
Simcoe County's application for a permanent injunction is also scheduled to be heard that same day.
The county, which obtained an interim court injunction banning protesters from blocking entrances to Site 41, is seeking damages of $160,000 from Monague and Anne Ritchie Nahuis because work at the site was stopped during the blockade.
Monague and Nahuis are among 10 people who have been charged so far. The first arrests came Thursday when Keith Wood, 82, and his wife, Ina, 76, went to the Southern Georgian Bay OPP detachment in Midland and were each charged with mischief.
They were released after signing an undertaking to stay away from the dump on the 2nd Concession of Tiny Township. Also charged Thursday were Barbara Hunt, 69; Bob Ritchie, 67, Nahuis' father.
Hunt was released after signing an undertaking to stay a kilo-metre away from the site, but Ritchie and Nahuis were both placed in jail cells when they refused to sign.
Ritchie was released a short while later because of his health, but Nahuis was held overnight and appeared at a bail hearing in a Barrie court Friday morning. She was remanded to Sept. 17, released and ordered not to be in front of the Site 41 entrances. However, she is allowed to be on the 2nd Concession.
Mohawk environmentalist Danny Beaton, 54 -- who last winter walked from Site 41 to Toronto to protest against the dump -- was arrested Thursday night at one of the entrances. He was remanded in custody and sent to the superjail in Penetanguishene for the weekend and is scheduled for a bail hearing today in Barrie.
Gavin Jamieson, 20, was also arrested Thursday night at the home of a relative.
He was charged with mischief and released after signing an undertaking not to be near the site.
Early Saturday, OPP charged Beth Elson, 50, of Christian Island, with one count of mischief and one count of intimidation. She was released and is prohibited from returning to the site.
John Hawke, 35, of Christian Island, was charged a week ago in connection with the blockade.
George Lawrence, Tiny Township deputy mayor, who was among supporters at the OPP detachment when Monague was charged, said a motion calling for a one-year moratorium on Site 41 construction will go to Simcoe County Council at its Aug. 25 meeting.
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Public forum
A public forum to stop Site 41 will take place in Toronto on Thursday at 7 p. m. in the University of Toronto Medical Sciences building.
Featured speakers include emcee Dale Goldhawk; former Toronto mayor David Crombie; University of Toronto student union president Sandy Hudson; Council of Canadians water campaigner Meera Karunananthan; Vicki Monague; Georgian Baykeeper for Georgian Bay Forever Mary Muter; and Steve Ogden.
Details about the forum and the growing campaign to stop Site 41 are available at