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South Frontenac Councilby Wilma Kenny
Does South Frontenac have its building permit yet?At the Sept 11 Committee of the Whole meeting, Councillor Hicks had expressed concern about the manner in which repairs to the old stone schoolhouse (township property in Hartington) had been carried out. He asked why, if the run-down state of the building raised health and safety concerns, neither the Portland District councillors nor the Chief Building Official had been notified of the need for immediate repairs. CAO Burns agreed that proper procedure had not been followed. At tonight’s council meeting, Deputy Mayor Stowe asked whether or not a building permit had been issued for the building repairs. Mayor Davison said he assumed so. Stowe said he wanted to know for certain: the township requires residents to obtain permits, so the township should set a positive example by following its own rules. Burns agreed to confirm that the permit had been obtained.
Policy re illumination of intersections
Bill Blum, Public Works Manager, recommended Council adopt the Provincial Illumination Warrant Standards for Intersection Illumination. At present the township has no policy regarding intersection illumination. The provincial standards could become the basis of a policy to address all potential safety concerns, and would assist in assessing requests for illumination at all township road intersections, including intersections of public and private roads. Blum noted that probably very few public/private intersections in the township would qualify for publicly funded partial illumination. However, it would still be appropriate to allow for partial illumination if the requester agreed to assume the cost of installation and upkeep. Council passed a motion to adopt the provincial standards.
Communal garbage collection boxes for private lanes
There continue to be many complaints about communal collection locations for garbage: there is a problem with untagged bags at these sites, especially in the summer, and locations without boxes are targeted by animals, making a mess for township staff to clean up. Council passed a resolution to encourage the use of communal collection boxes by providing a ‘standard specification’ and subsidizing half the cost, providing the Private Lanes Associations agree to the ongoing maintenance of such boxes and also agree to monitor and tag any untagged bags. Councillors Hicks and Robinson were opposed: Robinson said this amounted to "going into business with the community." Councillor Vandewal countered that he thought it was council’s role to work with the community to try to resolve problems such as this.
Minimum Standards for Private Lanes
Council approved on a trial basis the establishment of a fund in Bedford District to partially subsidize the upgrading of substandard private lanes to minimum acceptable standards as outlined in Public Works Manager Blum’s report, which lists the following criteria:
- Private lane associations be the vehicle used for approaching the township.
- The Existing Lane Standards adopted by Council December 2006 be applied.
- The private lane be inspected both before and after the completion of the work.
- That receipts accompany any submission for subsidy funding.
- That the (available) $20,000 be pro-rated based upon the monetary value of applications received.
- That the amount of subsidy funding be limited to a maximum of 50% on any application received.
They_are_off
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Feature Article - September 13, 2007And They're Offby Jeff Green
Someone should tell the candidates for Member of Provincial Parliament in Frontenac Lennox and Addington that the election has been called.
The candidates have been so busy attending candidate meetings, pressing the flesh at community events, and organizing their campaign offices that they may not have had time to notice that the 10th of September has come and gone.
For the first time, Ontario is experiencing a fixed date election, so the traditional visit to the Lieutenant Governor by Premier McGuinty to dissolve parliament and initiate a 30-day election campaign was more ceremonial than anything else this time around.
Conservative party candidate Randy Hillier has been running full out since early June, hosting several meetings, and Liberal candidate Ian Wilson has been a familiar sight at summer events throughout the riding. NDP candidate Ross Sutherland was the first politician to visit the occupation at the Robertsville mine back in late June, and has been steadily establishing his positions on various issues all summer. Rolly Montpellier of the Green Party was the last candidate into the race, only securing his party nomination in August, but he has been able to bring the party leader Frank deJong into the riding on several occasions since that time.
The candidates have also been participating in all-candidates meetings before the election was officially called. Back in July, Sutherland, Hillier, and Wilson participated in a meeting focussing on the mining act, hosted by the Bedford Mining Alert, and last week a meeting was held on Amherst Island. One of the central topics at that meeting was wind power.
Now that the election is underway in earnest, the candidates will be in different corners of the riding for all-candidates meetings on at least a dozen occasions, including a pair of meetings sponsored by the Frontenac News. The first will be on Monday, September 24, at 7:00 pm at Prince Charles Public School in Verona, and the second on Wednesday, September 26 at 7:00 pm at the Kaladar Community Centre.
This will be the first time the Lanark Frontenac Lennox and Addington (LFL&A) riding is contested in a provincial election, although Federal Conservative Scott Reid has been elected in LFL&A twice, winning over 50% of the vote in 2006.
The riding is made up of part of the Hastings Frontenac Lennox and Addington riding, which has been held provincially by Leona Dombrowsky for two terms, and the Lanark Carleton riding, which has been represented by Conservative Norm Sterling for eight terms. Sterling has been an MPP since 1977.
Sterling and Dombrowsky are both running in neighbouring ridings this time around, leaving LFL&A wide open.
Although a composite of the results in what is now LFL&A shows that the Liberals received the majority of the votes, two election prediction websites: election prediction.org, and democraticspace.com, call for the Conservative party to take the riding in a close race.
Provincial issues such as education and health promise to be important locally, as will the viability of the rural economy. Also, this time around, energy production will be discussed in a way that it hasn’t been previously in different parts of the riding. The wind project on Wolfe Island and a proposed project on Amherst Island will be hotly debated in those locations, and the prospect of uranium exploration will bring mining issues to the forefront in Frontenac County as well as Lanark Highlands and Carleton Place.
The election will also feature a referendum on a new electoral system, the mixed-member proportional representation system (MMP), which will need an endorsement by 60% of voters in order to be adopted.
If MMP is adopted, voters in future elections will vote for candidates as they do now, and will vote for political parties as well. The outcome of the election in terms of the percentage of votes would be directly reflected in the provincial legislature.
At dissolution, the Liberals held 72 of 103 seats, after receiving 46.5% of the vote in 2003. The Conservatives held 24 seats on 36.5% of the vote, the NDP 7 seats on 14.7%.
Hurry_up
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Editorial comment - September 13, 2007Hurry Up & Waitby Jeff Green
It has now been 10 days since an injunction was served to the occupiers inside and outside of the Robertsville mine site, and the OPP has thus far refrained from enforcing the order. Officially, they say they are “continuing to negotiate”.
From the point of view of the owners of the property, and their lessee, Frontenac Ventures Corporation, the occupation was clearly illegal when it began on June 28. Indeed, the two Algonquin communities have been waiting for the police to try and remove them from the very beginning.
Nothing has changed since then, with the exception of some courtroom manoeuvring and significant media coverage.
From the start the issue has been both legal and political. The occupation, which now involves aboriginal and non-aboriginal anti-uranium activists, has always included a component of civil disobedience.
All of those involved in the action are perfectly aware that they risk arrest. Indeed, the consequences of arrest could have serious implications for many of the protesters, particularly the three chiefs. Randy Cota, co-chief of the Ardoch Algonquins, is an OPP officer. He accepted a transfer to Orillia recently, and once the injunction was served he has been facing the loss of his job if he enters the mine property. His co-chief, Paula Sherman, is an assistant Professor at Trent University, and faces the possibility losing her position if she is convicted of an offense. Doreen Davis, of the Shabot Obaadjiwaan, is also a member of the negotiating team for the Algonquin Land claim, and she faces her own dilemmas trying to maintain those two roles while leading her community in this occupation.
Nonetheless the occupiers have said they will not leave. Frontenac Ventures lawyer Neal Smitheman and the Kingston Whig Standard newspaper have called this situation “anarchy”, and last week the Provincial Conservative leader John Tory weighed in, saying, among other things, “We can't have even legitimate complaints settled by people taking the law into their own hands.”
These are the strongest opinions that have been expressed publicly, and none of them has gone so far as to say the OPP should risk violence to end the occupation.
Given that there is a broad consensus on that point, what next?
David Ramsay and Rick Bartollucci, the two senior provincial ministers involved, have said they are willing to meet the anti-uranium activists, as soon as this week. There is a slight possibility that the province could craft a decision over a moratorium on mining permits in the traditional territories claimed by Sharbot Lake and Ardoch on the grounds that the communities were not consulted before permits were issued.
However, this would set the kinds of precedents that legal and political advisors to the premier will be strongly advising against.
For one thing, the provincial economy is dependent on mining. As well, the government has recently made a further commitment to nuclear power. The government will also be wary of the fact that under the Indian Act the two communities demanding the moratorium are non-status Algonquin communities, and the demands they are making have not been strongly endorsed by either the Pikwakanagan First Nation, who are the only status Algonquin community in Ontario, or the Algonquin Nation Representatives.
It is highly unlikely the Liberal Party election team will want to deal with this during the current election campaign.
Hearings are scheduled to start in Kingston Superior Court over an interlocutory injunction on September 20, but given the political reality, the practical implications of those hearings might be minimal.
JG
Referendum
An Ontario Referendum, Are We Planning to Separate?by Wima Kenny
For the first time in 83 years, Ontario voters will be facing a provincial referendum question on their October 10 ballot, and this time it won’t be about alcohol, as all the previous ones have been. This one’s asking us to consider a change in our electoral system.
Unfortunately, little information has been easily available until very recently and most voters are puzzled.
What’s a Referendum?
A provincial referendum is a new experience for all of us who are younger than 104. It’s an opportunity for every person of voting age to express their opinion on a matter considered of importance to all.
What’s the Question?
This is the wording of the referendum question:
Which electoral system should Ontario use to elect members to the provincial legislature?
* The existing electoral system (First-Past-the-Post)?
*The alternate electoral system proposed by the Citizens’ Assembly (Mixed Member Proportional)?
Whose Idea Was This?
Contrary to one e-mail I received recently, this is not a plot hatched by feminists and homosexuals to destroy family values. (I’m not making this up: I really did get that e-mail!)
In March 2006, at the direction of the Provincial Government, Elections Ontario created a Citizens' Assembly to examine our electoral system and recommend whether we should keep it or adopt a different one. To form the Assembly, one citizen was selected at random from each of Ontario's 103 electoral districts. (Dianne Carey of Inverary represented our riding.) They met under the chairmanship of Judge George Thomson, were independent of government influence, and did not represent any political party. Between Sept 06 and April 07, they studied the various ways worldwide that votes are translated into seats in a legislature, listened to experts, politicians and ordinary citizens, and after much consideration arrived at the following recommendation:"We, the Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform, recommend a new way to vote that builds on the province’s traditions and reflects the values that we believe are important to Ontarians. The Assembly recommends that Ontario adopt a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system, specifically designed to meet the unique needs of Ontario."
Why Change the Present System?
In our present system, the candidate with the most votes wins. When three or more parties are running candidates in a riding, the representative elected frequently is not chosen by the majority of the voters. (Candidate A gets 40 votes, B gets 35, and C gets 25: A wins, although only 40 people voted for him or her, and 60 people voted for someone else.) This is what "first-past-the-post" means: the one with the most votes wins.
A political party may not be given the chance to speak for people who supported it. (The party that candidate C represents may have received several hundred thousand votes across the province, yet have few if any members in parliament.) Therefore, voters often face the dilemma of whether to vote for a person or a party. The person you want as your representative in government may not belong to the party you would like to see in power, or to the party that has traditionally won in your riding. The MMP system is intended to address these problems by giving voters greater choice, fairer election results, and stronger representation.
How Does the Mixed Member Proportional System Work?
In brief, a Mixed Member Proportional system (MMP) combines members elected in local districts in the usual manner, and members elected for the whole province from party lists drawn up by each party (in proportion to votes received) to serve as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) in the legislature. This combination produces proportional election results that better reflect the wishes of voters. More detail next week about how this might be done.
Where Can I Get More Information Right Now?
By telephone (toll free): 1-800-ONT-VOTE : 1-800-668-8683, weekdays, 8am-9pm and weekends 9-9, to speak to a live person, or by computer: www.yourbigdecision.ca , or, if you want a reply to a specific question, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Candidates
Candidates Face the Publicby Jeff Green
Ross Sutherland, NDP; Randy Hiller, PC; Ian Wilson, Liberal; Rolly Montpellier, Green
A crowd of about 125 people filled the gym at Prince Charles Public School in Verona on an unseasonably warm night this week to hear from four candidates who hope to represent Lanark Frontenac Lennox and Addington after the provincial election on October 10.
Randy Hillier from the Conservative Party, Rolly Montpellier from the Green Party, Ross Sutherland from the New Democratic Party, and Ian Wilson from the Liberal Party faced questions about issues such as health care, education, and municipal downloading that have dominated the provincial campaign, and some local hot button issues such as uranium exploration, mining rights and the challenge of serving a geographically large riding.
True to the form they have exhibited throughout the campaign, the representatives from the two largest parties, Ian Wilson and Randy Hillier, presented their contrasting styles. Hillier described many of the problems facing the government as stemming from a Toronto-centred government that is controlled by a bloated bureaucracy.
“There isn’t a bureaucracy that can stand up to the pressure I can exert,” he said at one point.
Wilson presents himself as a more co-operative politician, bent on continuing the incremental reforms his party has been instituting over the past four years.
The largest single number of questions in the debate centred around health care, which is a topic where both Ross Sutherland, a nurse from Hotel Dieu Hospital, and Ian Wilson, the former chair of the Board at Kingston General Hospital, have considerable experience.
Sutherland characterized privatization of health care delivery under both the Liberal and Conservative parties as being a major source of service cuts, specifically in the area of rural homecare in Frontenac County.
Wilson, on the other hand, cited the development of the Local Health Integration Network, and infrastructure improvements that are coming on stream.
Randy Hillier used Kingston General Hospital as an example of bureaucratic overspending leading to insufficient services to patients. He pointed to the back page of the hospital’s annual report, which lists “KGH leaders”. Hiller said there are “Three hundred and seventy five members of various boards listed on this page. Three hundred and seven people run the Province of Ontario, but we need 375 people to run Kingston General Hospital. If we cut some of these people, there would be more money for rural health services.”
(About half of the people listed on the page Randy Hiller referred to are listed under the heading of “KGH Governors”, and that list includes MP Peter Milliken, former Provincial Conservative candidate Barry Gordon, Conservative senator Hugh Segal, and Kingston Mayor Harvey Rosen. Included as well are the 22 members of the hospital’s Board of Governors, and 19 members of the KGH Foundation.)
The liveliest of the evening’s exchanges revolved around uranium exploration and the ongoing occupation at the Robertsville mine.
Ian Wilson said he thought that mining rights should be extinguished in the riding as a solution to the problem, because it is not a use “that is consistent with the enjoyment of the land that we all cherish.” Both Ross Sutherland and Rolly Montpellier expressed support for the Aboriginal occupation, and both supported a moratorium on uranium exploration and mining, which is what the Algonquins are demanding.
Randy Hillier pointed out the municipal councils all want a moratorium on uranium exploration and mining, and said it is time the wishes of “local people are given more weight than those of people who don’t live in the area.”
However, he expressed strong opposition to the occupation, because it is on private land. “We can’t sit back as people take over other people’s property, people’s houses, people’s businesses,” he said.
Injunction_formally_served
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Feature Article - September 6, 2007Injunction formally served at Robertsville mine
by Jeff Green
________________________________________________________________________________
Two representatives from the Attorney General’s office, accompanied by two OPP officers, arrived at the site of the occupation at the Robertsville mine at about 3:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon.
They were greeted by members of the Ardoch and Shabot Obaadjiwaan Algonquin First Nations, who have been encamped behind the gate at the privately owned mine since June 29, and also by a crowd of non-Algonquin supporters outside the gate.
As the Attorney General’s representative read out a 7-page order from Kingston Superior Court Justice Gordon Thomson, the crowd drowned out his voice with cheers, drumming and singing.
The judge’s ruling said that everyone located behind the gate on the mine property, and all those supporting the people behind the gate, must leave, and the ruling granted Frontenac Ventures Corporation, which has a leasehold interest in the property, “unfettered access” to the mine site and the 30,000 acre uranium exploration property they have attained through staking.
With the order being filed, the OPP now have authorization to force the people in the encampment out, including placing them under arrest.
OPP spokesperson Paige Whiting told the News that the OPP is considering the ruling now that it has been formally served, but at this time is maintaining the same profile as it has from the start of the occupation two months ago.
On the Tuesday preceding the serving of the injunction, (August 28) a senior police officer assured the leadership from both Algonquin communities he will meet with them again before there is any change to the OPP operational guidelines at the site.
Subsequent to that meeting, a tent city sprung up outside the gate, with non-aboriginal anti-uranium activists establishing a physical presence between the road and the gate. A few of the non-aboriginal protesters have subsequently joined the Algonquin communities behind the gate.
Hours before the order was delivered on Friday, letters were received by chiefs of the two First Nations from Provincial Ministers David Ramsay (Natural Resources and Aboriginal Affairs) and Rick Bartolucci (Northern Development and Mines) offering to meet and consult with the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines.
Paula Sherman, one of the co-chiefs of the Ardoch Algonquins, said she “isn’t sure that the province is really serious because they say they want to continue to consult when they have never even started to consult. They needed to consult before issuing mining permits, not after they’ve been issued”.
Nonetheless the letters are the first provincial response to requests for provincial intervention that the Algonquins have been making since June 14.
Whether the timing of the letters, so soon before a court injunction was served, is coincidental or not, remains unclear
OPP still reviewing the situationAs of this Tuesday, September 4, OPP Communications Officer Paige Whiting was still reporting that the OPP Aboriginal Relations Team (ART) and Major Event Liaison Team (MELT), who have been overseeing the police response to the ongoing occupation since it began on June 28, are still in negotiations over the court order.
Members of the ART team were stationed as “integrated officers” inside the occupation on a rotating basis, until August 30, when they were asked to leave by the leadership of the two First Nations communities.
Although the ruling authorises the OPP to carry out arrests, it also grants the OPP discretion, and calls for confrontation to be avoided.
When the OPP did not act to enforce the court order over the long weekend, lawyers for Frontenac Venture Corporation contacted Judge Thomson, seeking a remedy against the OPP.
(Media reports that lawyers for Frontenac Ventures met with Judge Thomson last Thursday, before the injunction was served, have proven to be unfounded)
As always, we will post updates to this story as they occur on our website: www.frontenacnews.ca.
Anti-uranium_new_phase
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Feature Article - September 6, 2007 Anti-uranium exploration activities entering a new phaseby Jeff Green
It has been more than interesting to watch the politics that have developed around uranium exploration in North and Central Frontenac over the past year.
It all started for us at the Frontenac News early in the summer of last year, when we received an email about a large number of mining stakes in Palmerston and Oso (the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines still uses pre-amalgamation boundaries).
It turned out that most of the claims were being staked for Frontenac Ventures Corporation, and just as had been the case in the 1980s and earlier, the mineral of interest was uranium.
A small item in the Frontenac News in mid-July (’06) brought little or no public response.
At the time the Ardoch Algonquins were heavily involved in cutting and clearing land for heir controversial Pow Wow grounds on Pine Lake. When informed about the staking, Ardoch co-chief Randy Cota just said, “It’ll never happen. We won’t let it. Those are Algonquin lands”
In the fall of last year, Gloria and Frank Morrison found out that their property had been staked, and they began to research and publicize their concerns about the issue of surface and subsurface mineral rights.
Three concurrent issues were coming together: uranium exploration, surface/subsurface rights, and Algonquin territorial claims.
Frank and Gloria Morrison were not the first people in recent years to find their property has been staked against their wishes, but they showed tremendous zeal in fighting their predicament, bringing it to the attention of he national media
Gloria was a lead interview on As It Happens in February this year, leading the program to a week-long exposition on mining rights on private lands. Frank was the subject of a feature article in the Ottawa Citizen and a five-minute news report on CBC Ottawa television later on.
On Good Friday, a group of property owners from the Snow Road area called a public meeting to discuss mineral staking in the area, and to begin talking about the impacts of uranium exploration, and uranium mining on the surrounding region.
People at that meeting included two members of the Shabot Obaadjiwaan First Nation, several township mayors and councillors from the surrounding region, PC provincial candidate Randy Hillier, and Mark Burnham, the chair of the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority.
Meanwhile, Frontenac Ventures Corporation had begun their program of exploration for 2007. A series of data-gathering flights over the 30,000 acres of claims the company has secured took place in April and May. Work also progressed, using Gemmil’s Construction from Snow Road, on widening an access road from the Robertsville mine and Crotch Lake, and hiring, including local hiring, was taking place.
The company was looking to secure a drill, and by early June plans to commence a $2 million, two-year core drilling program were made. Their intention, in the short term, was to duplicate core-drilling results from the 1970s, which would enable them to take their claim public by listing it on the Toronto Stock Exhange this October.
Meanwhile, the Ardoch Algonquins had been discussing the situation at their monthly meetings, and began talking with the members of an anti-uranium group that was being formed at the time. They were also forging an alliance with the Shabot Obaadjiwaan First Nation over a joint response. This alliance represents a big change in the relationship between the leadership of the two communities, which have been dominated for years by a profound disagreement over the conduct of land claims negotiations.
In early June, the Ardoch Algonquins sent a letter to Frontenac Ventures Corporation, telling the company to leave their leased headquarters at the Robertsville mine by June 28. In effect, the letter constituted an assertion of sovereignty over the mine, which is a privately held parcel of land, and over the 30,000 acres for which Frontenac Ventures possess mineral rights.
Frontenac Ventures Corporation, in consultation with the OPP, decided to vacate the premises before the 28th.
At the time, company President George White was under the impression that he was merely keeping his people away from the site during the Aboriginal days of protest, and they would be returning after the July 1st long weekend.
But the Ardoch Algonquins had no intention of leaving, and when they arrived at the Robertsville Mine on June 28, they were joined by Chief Doreen Davis and other members of the Shabot Obaadjiwaan First Nation, and non-aboriginal anti-uranium activists who were prepared to take a supporting role for an occupation that will be ten weeks old this Thursday.
Their intention was clear; they were committed to stopping uranium exploration on what they consider their traditional lands.
Phase 2 Frontenac Ventures seeks relief from the courts
Soon after the beginning of the Algonquin occupation of the Robertsville mine two things became clear: the Ardoch and Shabot Obaadjiwaan Algonquins were united, and the OPP was not interested in stopping the occupation.
The OPP attitude surprised Frontenac Ventures Corporation and Peter Jorgensen, the owner of the mine, who found he had no access to his own property.
The Algonquins were equally surprised. On Tuesday morning, July 3, the first business day after the beginning of the occupation, all of the children that had been on site during the weekend were gone. A dozen warriors, some of them from other First Nations, decked out in bandanas and camouflage, took up a line at the edge of Highway 509, as a show of force against any attempts by the police to infiltrate.
The OPP, who at that time and since have maintained a visible presence, with four vehicles located along Road 509, never approached.
Two weeks later, Frontenac Ventures met with members of the two First Nations and the non-aboriginal anti-uranium activists to begin consultations.
Lawyers for the Algonquins and the company wrangled over what “meaningful consultation” is. A week later, Frontenac Ventures levied a $77 million lawsuit against the two communities, and persons un-named. The suit now includes the Province of Ontario.
When the suit was brought to court a few days later, on July 30, a three-day hearing took place on a motion to adjourn. On August 15, Judge Thomson ordered all parties off the land until a formal hearing on a company motion for an interim injunction could be set up.
The Algonquins did not leave, and the OPP did not act to make them leave.
A further meeting with Judge Thomson took place on August 23. The Algonquins had already said they would no longer participate in the injunction proceedings, calling the situation a political matter that should be addressed by the provincial government and not the courts. The OPP lawyer was non-committal when Thomson asked why the force had not acted. He implied that the order did not clearly stipulate what they must do.
On August 27, Judge Thomson released a new order, this time ordering all protestors off the land, granting “unfettered access” to the company, and authorizing the police to act.
On the morning of August 31, Provincial Ministers Rick Bartollucci (Mines and Niorthern Development) and David Ramsay (Natural Resources and Aboriginal Affairs) finally responded to a request for a meeting that had been sent to them by the Algonquins on June 14. The letter offered to continue consultation between the communities and Mines and Northern Development, saying meetings could begin as soon as September 10. On the afternoon of Friday, August 31, Judge Thomson’s order was formally served.
What Now?
Everyone is waiting for the OPP to decide on their next course of action. They could arrest everyone at the site in the next few days, risking confrontation and the arrival of outside activists, both aboriginal and non-aboriginal
All of the people on site thus far have made a commitment to non-violence, but the Algonquin leaders have said they cannot control people that may come to the scene later on.
The OPP may also ask all of the protesters to leave, but stop short of arresting anyone, perhaps incurring the wrath of the courts.
They could also seize on the decision of the provincial government to meet with the Algonquins for the first time, and say they don’t want to jeopardise that process by acting.
This would undoubtedly lead Frontenac Ventures Corporation to ask that the OPP be charged with contempt of court for not enforcing a judge’s order.
Then again, the company may have done so already.
The protesters at the Robertsville mine have now forged a firm three-way alliance. They are all anti-uranium activists, aboriginal and settler alike. They have different pasts, but they share a common cause and a may share a common fate.
There is another group of people who have had no voice throughout this process: those in the community who support the mining exploration, either for reasons of their own interest or because they see at as something that could bring benefits and would not likely bring environmental harm. They have remained quiet throughout the past two months, fearing perhaps they would be labelled anti-environmental or anti-aboriginal. The tension felt by some of these people has surfaced a few times over the summer and in recent days.
Student_vote
Although the majority of students in Ontario are under the age of 18, they have been allowed to vote in mock elections since the Ontario Provincial Election of 2003. Created by Elections Ontario, partnered with Student Vote, this initiative was undertaken 5 years ago in order to educate students about the electoral process, as well as voting procedures and the importance of voting. Schools who choose to register in the faux ballot casting are given the resources in order to stage a realistic election, which runs parallel to any provincial or federal election that may be taking place at the time. The goal is that responsible voters will be created by the time students hit the legal age to take part in an election and that their decisions will be well-informed.
Since the formation of Student Vote, Sharbot Lake High has registered as a participating school and again partook in the election that coincided with this year’s Ontario Provincial Election. SLHS teacher, Randy McVety, coordinates the event every election year and once again undertook the task, along with his senior Social Science classes. Assigning small groups of students to represent each of the local candidates, it was up to the teens to explain the details of their parties to their peers and to convince the students to vote for their specific representatives. As well, another group was assigned to explain the new electoral process, and their job was to give details about how both the First Past the Post (FPP) and Mixed Member Proportion (MMP) systems work. For two days prior to the vote, the seniors went around to classes clarifying their platforms and encouraging students to cast their ballots, which they did on October 4, six days before the actual election.
Not surprisingly, the voter turnout was primarily unsatisfactory at a 50% participation rate. However, opinions were swayed when Sharbot Lake’s numbers were compared to those of other schools, such as Regiopolis Notre Dame, who had a mere 3% turnout and Napanee District Secondary School, who had a count of only 22 ballots. In fact, as Year 5 student Missy Tallon says, “Based on the results from the other districts, we were in the highest percentages for voter turnout”.
What was surprising though, were the results of the student election at SLHS, at least when contrasted with the rest of the province. This year, the Green Party won, snagging 44.4% of the 117 acceptable votes cast. The NDP came in second with 27.4% of the vote, followed by 13.6% for the Conservative Party, 9.4% for the Liberal Party and 5.1% for the Family Coalition Party. In previous years, the results have always put the Liberals in first, with the exception of last year’s Federal Vote, which put a Conservative in the lead. However, since the issue of the environment has exploded into popularity, it seems fitting that Green would win this year’s election. As Mr. McVety further states, “There seems to be more support for leftist parties at the school”.
Oppositely though, the overall winners in the student vote in our riding were the Conservatives, with the Liberals coming in second. And in the province, the majority student vote went to the Liberals, who won a massive 63 seats, with the second closest party being the Green Party with 18 seats. In all three cases the MMP was stricken down, most likely due to a lack of understanding of the how the complex system works, which was also reflected in the adult vote.
There is no clear-cut pattern as to how the youth of today are voting, with the exception of our riding, where results were very similar to those of the adult vote. It is apparent that more and more students are voting left wing, as was shown in the overall provincial student election, but who’s to know what the results will be, come next election.
Grannies
Raging Grannies
On
October 15, the Ottawa Raging Grannies visited the uranium protest site
near sharbot Lake to lend their support to Donna Dillman on Day 8 of
her hunger strike. The Ottawa Raging Grannies wrote several
anti-uranium mining songs for this event and sang them for Donna at the
protest site. Algonquin protesters have begun to build a shelter on the
site, outside of the gate, in anticipation of an agreement to enter
inot mediation talks withe the Provincial and Federal Governments Provincial_election_07
Provincial Election 2007: A Voter's Guide to LFL&A.
This is the final issue of the Frontenac News before the provincial election on October 10. In order to help voters as they consider whom to vote for, we have included articles that provide a bit of background and some of the policy positions taken by Rolly Montpellier (Green), Randy Hillier (PC), Ross Sutherland (NDP), and Ian Wilson (Liberal). We could not reach Stella Postma (Family Coalition Party) early this week, but we did receive a letter from her, which is reprinted below.This will be the first provincial election in the new riding Lanark Frontenac Lennox and Addington and after it is over we will be represented by a first time MPP. The riding is listed as one of 14 “ridings to watch” by the National Post, and is either listed as too close to call, or as a riding which is expected to go PC in a close vote by various election prediction organizations. The local election results will not be printed in next week’s paper, which will be at the printer’s on Election Day, but we will post the local results at Frontenacnews.ca as soon as they come in.
Family Coalition Party: Stella Postma
Thank you for taking the time to read this introduction of myself as a candidate for the Family Coalition Party (FCP) in the electoral district of Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington. I have resided in the Addington County for 20 years and the first 17 years as an entrepreneur in the tourist sector of the Land o’ Lakes region. I have decided to run for the FCP mainly because of the referendum, which represents the real chance for the FCP to have a level playing field and fully participate in the political discussion in Ontario. A Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) has been successful in many countries. The FCP has existed for 20 years and have strived to alert the faith-based citizens of the declining morals and culture.
The FCP stands for 1. Upholding the Traditional family as a natural institution based on marriage. 2. Marriage as the union between a man and a woman. 3. Protection of life from conception to natural death. 3. Parental rights in the education and upbringing of their children. 4. The right to public Practice of personal freedoms of: conscience, speech, association, and faith. 5. The right to own property. For more detailed platform principals go to the website www.FamilyCoalitionParty.com.
Speaking for myself concerning Family and coming from a large family situation, I know how important principles are in sustaining a strong family unit. The family has been under considerable changes in many ways in the last decade. There .are many issues in this election campaign but the word "family" seems to be purged from it; it’s not politically correct and in Ontario Law every reference to real marriage and family terminology has been erased. Personally I feel that without the basic structure of family life for the present and future generation, there will be no hope for successful government.
May I urge all family conscious voters to consider exercising their rights on October 10 towards a turnaround for a stronger and healthier Ontario and a future for our children.
Green Party: Rolly Montpellier
Green Party candidate Rolly Montpellier is a relative newcomer to the region, having lived most of his life in the Sudbury area until moving to Buckshot Lake in North Frontenac with his wife Karen two years ago. He says, “The warm, open-hearted and neighbourly people we have met since our arrival have been the best part of our experience of moving to North Frontenac".
Shortly after moving to the area, Rolly joined the local Green Party and when he was approached to seek the nomination for this election, he says he "felt that the problems that we are facing as a society are serious and I had a moral obligation to run in this election". The highlight of the campaign so far for Rolly has been the opportunity to meet people throughout the riding, and he feels he has been able to give the Green Party a larger profile in Lanark Frontenac Lennox and Addington.
He brings an intense commitment to environmental issues to the election, hence the connection to the Green Party. "The Green Party is the only one that looks at the energy debate in terms of the limits on the amount of energy we can use in our daily lives, and as a society. There are real limits; that will have an economic impact. We can't change that simply by tinkering, by putting scrubbers on coal-fired plants, and things like that."
He has been disappointed, however, by the amount of time that has been devoted to the faith-based school debate in this election. “It has distracted from the real issues, such as the rural economy, the environment, health care and others. The faith-based schools discussion, which is not central to people’s daily lives, has derailed the whole agenda," he said.
Rolly Montpellier worked for many years in the education system in the Sudbury region, spending 20 years as a school board superintendent of business. He has long been active in his community, as a school board trustee, and a member of two different hospital boards, and the board of a credit union. He has also participated in government study groups, and served as CFO of several provincial and federal election campaigns in the Nickel Belt riding.
Rolly, the local Green Party Association, and the provincial party as a whole, have actively supported the anti-uranium exploration protests in North Frontenac. Party leader Frank De Jong visited the protest site with Rolly in July, and the two men supported the protesters at Parliament Hill last Friday.
The party is opposed to nuclear power and supports a moratorium on uranium exploration and mining throughout the province. In that sense they are similar to the NDP.
But as Rolly explained at an all-candidates meeting in Kaladar, the Green Party energy policy extends into their tax policy. They intend to introduce a 2-per-cent carbon tax on oil, natural gas and coal imported or extracted for use in the province, and a corresponding decrease in personal and corporate income taxes. The proposal goes under the slogan, “Tax what you burn, not what you earn.”
Liberal Party: Ian Wilson
"Unfortunately, I have a lot of time to devote to covering this large and diverse riding as MPP," Ian Wilson said at an all-candidates meeting in Verona when asked how he would try to be responsive to constituents’ concerns if he is elected next week.
This might seem like an odd response, but Wilson was referring to the fact that he is a widower, and he has had time to pour himself fully into the current campaign, which he has been waging since he won the Liberal nomination after a hard-fought selection process in early June.At church suppers, pancake breakfasts, summer fairs, and every other manner of summer event, Ian Wilson has been visiting and talking provincial politics for the past three months, and he seems to be enjoying himself.“It’s stimulating, it’s great,” he says, “you get up in the morning and that is what you are doing. By meeting a lot of people I’ve become better informed on a wide range of issues, and for someone who is a bit of sponge as far as learning is concerned, that makes for a good day.”
It has surprised Ian Wilson that during the writ period the issue of faith-based schools has come up repeatedly as he travels the riding.“It’s not an issue that you would think people would concern themselves with in a riding like ours, but you’ve got to find the money to do it somewhere, and if it goes ahead the impact will be felt across the province. The Liberals have invested in rural schools, and part of what makes a community is its schools,” he said.
He has also found that the issues that concern people “are very personal, and vary across the riding. The uranium exploration is important in North Frontenac and Lanark, and health care continues to be an issue throughout the riding.”
Ian Wilson came into the campaign with an extensive background in public service. He worked at St. Lawrence College for 36 years, as a professor and dean of the school of business: served as a councilor, deputy reeve and reeve of Ernestown Township and county councilor and warden in Lennox and Addington; served as board member and chair of the Kingston Area Economic Development Commission (KEDCO), and as founding president and chair of the Kingston Area Recycling Corporation; served on the board at Kingston General Hospital and chaired the board from 2001- 2003, and on the board of the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority.
He describes himself as someone who is adept at working with government. “We are going to get a lot further in this riding by working with the government to make improvements,” he said.
In terms of health care and hospital funding, issues that are close Ian Wilson’s heart, he says the Liberal government is on the right track.“The Liberals have moved a long way in terms of improving the hospital situation, including a $21.5 million addition to the Lennox and Addington Hospital in Napanee and the redevelopment at Kingston General Hospital … this is a government that is investing in health.”
Ian Wilson has also taken a stand on the issue of mining rights and uranium exploration in the riding. He supports a moratorium on uranium exploration and has made the proposal, which he acknowledges is a position “that goes much further than the party,” that in certain parts of the province such as LFL&A, which is a tourist-based economy, “mining rights should be extinguished altogether.”
New Democratic Party: Ross Sutherland
This is the third time Ross Sutherland has contested an election for the NDP. He ran federally in LFL&A and provincially in Hastings Frontenac Lennox and Addington during the last provincial election.
"I'm enjoying it more this time around," he said earlier this week, "I'm getting a much more positive response than in previous elections, more sign requests, more literature requests. A lot of the traditional NDP vote seems to have come back, partly because people are unhappy with John Tory's ideas, and there is a general dissatisfaction with McGuinty. There's a lot of movement out there, people are going in different places, and I feel great about it.”
Another difference for Ross in this campaign is that he is a full time campaigner. A career registered nurse who worked in the emergency department at Hotel Dieu hospital for years, Ross stopped working last year to complete his Master's degree, and after receiving the NDP nomination he redoubled his efforts and completed his thesis in August to free up the entire election period for the campaign. This is one of the advantages that have come from the scheduled elections that Ontario has adopted; candidates are able to plan their time to take on the commitment to run.
As always, health care is an important policy issue for Sutherland, who in his role as a co-chair of the Kingston and Area Health Coalition has been an outspoken critic of privatization of health care delivery in Ontario, which he says is costly and inefficient. In his view, this has hit rural Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington in terms of the delivery of home care services.
"The province is spending more and more money on rural home care, and delivering less and less service, because of the competitive bidding system that was introduced several years ago."
He has noticed during this current campaign that people in the riding are concerned about the issue of downloading of services from the province to the municipalities and its impact on property taxes.
"People understand the downloading issue; they link it right back to Mike Harris, which is a problem for the Conservatives” he said. “The NDP have a plan to upload $1.4 billion in municipal services over 4 years.”
Sutherland has also taken an active role in supporting the anti-uranium exploration protests in North Frontenac, visiting the site on the first day of the occupation and several times since, and participating in rallies. He was in Ardoch when the canoes left for Parliament Hill in September 22, and was at Parliament Hill last Friday when the canoes arrived.
"The NDP is opposed to nuclear power, and to uranium mining as well. We support the moratorium on uranium mining that the Algonquins are calling for. Energy policy is something people want to talk about in this election," he said. “The McGuinty proposal to build two nuclear power plants at a cost of $40 billion is an expensive mistake.” To illustrate the financial costs of nuclear power, Sutherland has been bringing blow ups of his own hydro bill to all-candidates meetings, with the item “debt retirement charge” circled on the bill.
“That is the charge we are still paying on our hydro bills for the 30-year-old nuclear power plants we already have. The Liberals, and the Conservatives, would have us repeat an expensive mistake on a technology that will be devastating to the environment,” he said at an all-candidates meeting in Kaladar.
PC Party: Randy Hillier
Randy Hillier has already had a political career, of sorts.
As the former President of the Lanark Landowners’ Association and the Ontario Landowners’ Association, he has been at the forefront of what he calls “a rural revolution.” For several years, rural landowners, farmers and small business people who have run up against government regulations, ranging from the size of eggs for sale at farmers’ markets, to rules under the Nutrient Management Act, to regulations about sawdust piles, Randy Hillier and the Landowners’ Association have come forward to confront the situation on their behalf.
On a macro-political level, the Landowners organized tractor convoys to Parliament Hill in Ottawa and Queen’s Park in Toronto to protest against government policies and assert the rights of the farm community and rural landowners in general.
Randy Hillier’s flair for the media, and his steadfast commitment to a landowner’s right to the “enjoyment of his land”, have been the basis of the work he has done as a political activist.
Many of the issues he has taken on have to do with the relationship between rural landowners and government officials.
In a radio interview that is posted in his election website, he described the source of this conflict.
“Government does not respect or trust landowners and this is evident from the host of regulations. Trust and respect are traits that are earned and never is achieved through coercion, intimidation or legislation.”
Randy Hillier described his decision to run for office in an interview with the News by saying “I found that I’d gone as far as I could working from the outside, and decided to make changes to the system from the inside.”
Even though he is committed to working within a party structure, Hillier says he will not shy away from his political beliefs and the wishes of his constituents.
“There is nothing more powerful than a sensible, reasonable argument, delivered with conviction. That’s what I do now, and that’s what I’ll do in government as well.”
Randy Hillier made reference to two very recent developments to illustrate this point in an interview with the News on Monday.
He talked about the decision by Conservative party leader John Tory, announced earlier that day, to allow a free vote on extending provincial funding to faith-based schools, which he said came about because candidates from across the province convinced John Tory that they did not support faith-based schools.
Hillier had expressed support for the faith-based school funding proposal at all-candidates meetings, with the proviso that it would only be done after a process of public consultation.
“I still support the process that John Tory has outlined, which will allow everyone to look at this situation,” Hillier said in Verona on September 24th.
However, he said this week that he does not support funding faith-based schools, although he thinks looking at the idea in more detail is reasonable.
Randy Hillier has been an advocate for changes to the Ontario Mining Act, partly as a response to the ongoing protest in North Frontenac, and because of his commitment to landowners’ rights. This week, he announced that at his request, the party “has committed to addressing the conflict associated with the exploration of uranium in our riding.”
The release quotes John Tory, who said in a speech in Thunder Bay, “The PC Party will undertake a complete review of the mining Act.”
