Is Justice Blind?

A private prosecution alleges that MNRF has failed to enforce the Aggregate Resources Act. Yet the case against Picton Terminals’ rock quarry on Picton Bay has been withdrawn by a sister agency, the Crown Attorney. 

The Crown is, on paper, independent, but it ultimately reports to the same master that MNRF does, Premier Doug Ford.

Should those of us who care about our community and the health and safety of our drinking water and the peaceful enjoyment of our homes without the constant jack hammering and explosions of a rock quarry — give up because we have politicians, both local and provincial, who just don’t care, or are ignorant, or both?

Picton Terminals wants us to believe that the destruction of the escarpment and excavation of over a million tons of rock is simply to improve the area around the shipping dock.

I thought I was hallucinating the other day as we sat in local Court waiting to hear what the Crown Attorney was going to do with our private prosecution of Picton Terminals for running an alleged illegal quarry.

The first case on the docket was a young man charged by the MNRF for leaving his fishing hut on Wellers bay after the date set for its removal. It was frozen in the ice and he couldn’t move it, so he had removed his ID tags to avoid detection.

This was so egregious and important a crime that the judicial system and MNRF Conservation Officers brought down the full force of the law with a substantial fine.

A few moments later, the Crown Attorney, who has ample experience in violations of the Aggregate Resources Act and illegal quarries, requested the Justice of the Peace to withdraw the charges against Picton Terminals. 

This JP and a previous JP had read our evidence and, without passing judgment, had believed a trial was warranted. A summons was issued to Picton Terminals to stand accused. 

Under our system of Justice, the Crown prosecutor can step in and stop a private prosecution without any right of appeal. It comes to a screeching halt. 

This Crown Attorney explained to the JP that, in his opinion, there was no reasonable expectation of a conviction, and that it was not in the public interest to pursue prosectuion because of a legal concept called “officially induced error,” a fancy way of saying that MNRF, the agency tasked with enforcing the Aggregate Resources Act, had screwed up by giving Picton Terminals the green light to continue excavating and selling the escarpment, which was supposed to be protected by the County’s Official Plan. 

We don’t know what Picton Terminals said in writing to MNRF to justify their excavating and then selling $50 million in limestone or to justify defacing the waterfront here in Picton Bay. We do know they entered into contracts to sell hundreds of thousands of tonnes of limestone to projects aimed at protecting the waterfront in Toronto and Hamilton.

We are still waiting to get to the truth through Freedom of Information requests.

The ball has now been tossed back to the County to enforce its zoning bylaws which, I might remind residents, currently prohibit any activity on the site other than what the previous Superior Court decision confirmed was involved in the trans-shipment of bulk cargo — not the quarrying of rock.

We’re not done, not by a long shot. We now wait to see what the province will do with the request by the municipality to circumvent these zoning restrictions by way of a Minister’s Zoning Order, the result of a Settlement Agreement narrowly approved by Council. 

Will we stand by as hundreds of acres on both sides of White Chapel Road are turned into a giant, unregulated rock quarry?

Victor Lind, Picton

In Resistance

Heartfelt thanks to the Gazette for inviting Charlie Angus to visit us in Picton. 

Charlie’s message to us all is vitally important. As he said, the current conflict with the Trump Administration is not a “trade war,” it is a struggle against fascism — against “a gangster regime” that wants to cripple our economy as a first step in making Canada “the 51st state.”

But as our Prime Minister proclaimed to Mr. Trump, “Canada is not for sale; we will never be the 51st state.” We will continue to resist fascism as we did at Juno Beach, and in Sicily, and on the Italian mainland.

Last week my wife and I needed to travel to Michigan to offer support to family members 90 and 92 years old. We saw graphic evidence that the boycott of Trump’s disrespect of Canada is working. We were the only car crossing the Bluewater Bridge at Sarnia at noon last Tuesday. The only car! None ahead! None behind!

Our government needs our strong support so that they may continue to resist the Trump threat: “never say never.” 

Universal health care. Supply management to protect our dairy and egg producers. The CBC providing us all with factual information rather than disinformation. Our rights and freedoms, guaranteed by The Charter. Protection of our planet and its delicate ecosystems. All of these are under threat. So it is that I say “God bless Charlie Angus!” 

The Honourable Charlie Angus’s speech to a capacity crowd at The Regent can be seen on YouTube. Yours in resistance.

Rev. Philip Hobbs, Picton