Media from Ottawa

local garlic news

Protest with a bite

By Ken Peters, Hamilton Spectator

Westdale High School Grade [10] student Evelyna Kay chose a unique and demonstrative way to make the most of a glorious Thanksgiving Sunday morning.

She donned an orange costume, boarded a chartered Hamilton Street Railway bus and helped plant garlic in a farmer’s field across from Hamilton International Airport.

“I care about the environment and I don’t want to create a world that is not sustainable. That’s why I dress up as the Climate Carrot,” said the 14-year-old Hamilton environmentalist, who is a member of Students Bridging Borders, her school’s popular social justice group.

Evelyna was just one of about 50 Hamilton members of the city’s 350 Committee which boarded their “garlic bus” for the ride to the “aerotropolis lands” to plant garlic bulbs to protest the potential loss of some of Ontario’s best agricultural lands.

Local organizer Jennie Rubio said the Hamilton event was just one of some 7,000 activities promoting climate change action taking place in 188 countries.

The group’s 350 name refers to the target, in parts per million, of how much carbon dioxide needs to be in the air. Currently, she said, there is 390 with the threat the figure could hit 450.

So, what does this have to do with garlic and the Hamilton aerotropolis lands? Well, the Hamilton 350 Committee opted to protest the planned urban development of prime agricultural lands adjacent to the airport. The development is 662-hectares.

And the garlic?

“We know our food supply is becoming less and less secure. Instead of importing our food from around the world, we could be growing,” Rubio said.

“So as part of this protest movement we’re going to plant garlic because you can’t buy local garlic in the supermarket, it is all imported from China. Yet it grows perfectly here,” she said, as her work party waited to board the bus in front of the Sky Dragron Centre on King William Street.

“It’s to send a message to our local government that we need to be making better choices with what we’re doing with this wonderful land. The idea of paving it over, you can’t go back. Once it is paved over it’s gone. We need to be thinking about what kind of decisions we’re making,” she said.

Rubio, an editor with Oxford University Press, said she loves cooking and she particularly loves garlic.
“There are a lot of things we can be growing here instead of importing.”

And so the local garlic growers, armed with cloves and spades, boarded the bus.

Well-known Hamilton environmentalist Don McLean was among them. He acknowledged the group was trespassing on private land but was hopeful no arrests would be made.

“We’re not doing any significant damage here, it is fallow land. If we are approached on the subject of trespassing, the people who are doing it will decide whether they want to back off or if they are so determined to get arrested doing it. But it is a symbolic event,” he said.

Hamilton environmentalist Glenn Robinson was working the spade.

“I believe there are a lot of opinions about what is happening in the community and this is one voice that should be heard,” he said.

The city’s planning and economic development committee approved moving forward with the airport development and the issue will come before city council Wednesday for ratification.

Spectator at Wescam

Wescam demonstrators arrested      (view a video of the action)

Six members of peace coalition face trespassing charges after protest

By John Burman, The Hamilton Spectator BURLINGTON (May 16, 2006)

Six members of a loose-knit demonstration led by the Mother's Day Coalition for Peace have been charged with trespassing after trying to enter Wescam's North Service Road offices.

Halton police said the demonstrators were arrested just after noon yesterday after demanding a meeting with Wescam management and refusing to leave when asked by security.
Andrew Loucks, a member of Hamilton Action for Social Change, said the group -- which also marked Mother's Day with a demonstration at the same site Sunday -- chose Wescam because it provides imaging equipment for war purposes.
The group placed about 100 black paper "grave markers" beside Wescam's entrance. Each bore the name of a civilian, some as young as two, who the group says have been killed in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Wescam was bought in the fall of 2002 by L-3 Communications, a giant, New York-based U.S. defence contractor interested in Wescam's wireless cameras and stabilizing mounts.
The Hamilton-born company -- famous for making Superman "fly" in movies with its camera equipment -- now counts on the military, governments and law enforcement for about 75 per cent of its business.
Company security chief Don Wallace was not available for comment yesterday.
The six were taken into custody, charged under the Provincial Offences Act and released. Each faces a $58 fine if convicted and have 15 days to decide whether to fight the charge.
Loucks was not among those arrested yesterday. He said the coalition sees Wescam as an opportunity for those against war to "think globally and act locally."
Halton police Detective Steve Skerrett said the group was part of a larger number of protesters who moved onto the property after a peaceful demonstration to seek a meeting with Wescam officials. Skerrett did not have names of those arrested.
Most of the group retreated when asked, he said. When some refused, Wescam security called police and an officer and three constables responded.
Randy Kay, a Hamilton peace, cycling and transportation activist who earned a Vision 2020 Sustainable Community Recognition Award two years ago, said the coalition sees Wescam as part of the "military-industrial complex right here in beautiful Burlington."

RED HILL EYE

Save Red Hill Creek
BY GORD PERKS (EYE Magazine, Thursday, August 21, 2003 -ENVIRO)

We must do what we can to stop the construction of the Red Hill Creek Expressway. We must because we treasure important ecosystems, because we oppose sprawling, car-dependent development and because we are contesting what is meant by "democracy." Red Hill is both a precious place and a precious political moment.

The expressway is planned as a 7.5-kilometre highway running through the Red Hill Creek Valley, which snakes down from the Niagara Escarpment to the east end of Lake Ontario. Transportation planners who work from different maps see the expressway connecting the Lincoln Alexander Parkway to the QEW.

Red Hill Creek Valley is made up of over 700 hectares of mostly forested natural area and parkland. It has remarkably diverse plant, mammal, bird, fish and butterfly populations. Over half of the valley is in the United Nations-designated Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve. Building the expressway would require blowing the biggest man-made hole ever through the escarpment, then rerouting the creek through a new 7.6-kilometre trench, and finally clearing a quarter of the valley and stripping out 41,000 trees. A native band, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, have asserted their inherent rights to camp, hunt and fish in the Red Hill Creek Valley. They have told the city to stop the project and have issued a permit to protesters to occupy the land and frustrate construction efforts. Also at issue are 22 archaeological sites in the valley.

The two purposes of the road are: 1) to add the final link to a trucking route that runs from the American Midwest, across southern Ontario, over to New York state. Some call this the NAFTA highway. It would allow truckers to bypass tolls in the US, and would shave 9 kilometres off the current route; 2) to open up the area south of Hamilton for subdivision development. Hungry developers are already queuing up at the Ontario Municipal Board to win approval for plans to slap sprawl on this spot.

For a visceral understanding of the issues at stake, meditate on two questions: what would Toronto (and Markham) be like if we hadn't built the Don Valley Parkway? What would Toronto be like if the Spadina Expressway hadn't been stopped? Look deeper into the Spadina question. Look beyond the fact that Forest Hill, the Annex and Chinatown would have been blasted to smithereens. Apply the aphorism "to the victor, the spoils."

The Spadina Expressway battle was a watershed moment in the civic life of Toronto. It made heroes of people like Jane Jacobs and the late Colin Vaughn. It emboldened others from the struggle to do still more. They include some of the Toronto School Board trustees who brought in heritage language programs and a host of other progressive reforms that Harrisites haven't been able to completely dismantle. The Spadina struggle made way for the famous "reform councils" at Toronto City Hall, councils that saved and strengthened the neighbourhood character of the city and developed world-renowned programs such as the Healthy City model.

The politics that brought us all of this were legitimized because they triumphed in the Spadina Expressway battle. How different things would be if the other politics had prevailed. Replace protest, street theatre, marches, civil disobedience and an alphabet soup of community organizations with backroom deals, bureaucratic control and growth at any cost. Civic duty in this scenario is reduced to paying taxes on time, following rules and picking a candidate from a ballot just as you would pick a brand of soft drink from a variety store shelf.

Back to the Red Hill battle: the question of which politics will be honoured, legitimized and tolerated is precisely what is in play. Should the expressway be built just because the duly elected Hamilton City Council has decided that it should be? Should protesters back off because Hamilton's city fathers are seeking a court injunction to end the protests and criminalize the native people and activists who have been delaying construction these past three weeks? What is your civic duty?

If you answer this last question the same way that hundreds of anti-expressway Hamiltonians have answered it, and you want to join the battle against the expressway, you can find out what help is needed by going to www.hwcn.org/link/forhv/.

I should acknowledge my friend Don McLean for much of the information above. For well over a decade, Don has been an awe-inspiring researcher and organizer on this issue.

PERSONAL NOTE

This was written with pencil and paper during the big blackout. For reacquainting me with that pleasure, I want to thank everyone who pushed for deregulation, privatization and free trade in electricity. I also want to thank the energy technocrats who built a big, centralized, brittle power system while pooh-poohing environmentalists who pleaded for conservation and green, small-scale, flexible power systems.

Gord Perks is a campaigner with the Toronto Environmental Alliance. Enviro appears every two weeks.

ON RED HILL: NOW

On Red Hill

A quarter-century scrap over controversial expressway opens a legal hornet's nest

By JOHN BACHER, NOW Magazine, Thursday, August 21, 2003

Hamilton ecologists have re moved their banners and their protest tents from the golden trefoil-dappled meadow at the foot of Greenhill Avenue. Now nothing is left but the rustle of the tall grasses. But after a quarter-century contest over the proposed Red Hill expressway, this silence will clearly be temporary. Last Friday (August 15) an agreement was reached in court whereby environmentalists will leave the site in exchange for a delay in construction of the much-disputed highway that is, until September 3, when court proceedings begin on a city of Hamilton bid to remove anyone blocking construction.

The question is, will the city be able to steamroll over protests from an astounding number of constituencies to legally proceed? The injunction move certainly has an air of desperation about it. The city watched helplessly last week as protest campers stopped construction trucks from beginning a feeder road.

And municipal authorities must know what a legal hornet's nest their bid is sure to stir up, including debates over the Migratory Birds Convention Act, the Fisheries Act, the Planning Act and the Niagara Escarpment Act. Not to mention a 300-year-old treaty between the Iroquois and the British Crown, called a Deed of Trust, which may fundamentally throw into question land tenures for all of southern Ontario.

Indeed, the most sweeping objections in Friday's courtroom drama came from lawyer Paul Williams, representing the Iroquois Confederacy at Six Nations near Brantford. The Red Hill Valley has 22 identified archaeological sites, including an 11,000-year-old site and a native village whose partial excavation has generated over 56,000 artifacts.

It was Williams's treaty claims that shook up the proceedings. Referring to the 1701 treaty, he said it gave the British the obligation to act as an agent of the Iroquois with respect to an area of land reserved for them, "an area which includes southern Ontario and was known as the Beaver Hunting Ground.''

To this, Superior Court Justice David Crane in some degree of shock responded, "Are you saying the city of Hamilton is a hunting ground?"

Answered Williams, "Although our people have not hunted in the Red Hill Valley for many years, it is viewed by our people as a hunting ground, an area where we can gather the fruits of nature. Our role here is as protector of the valley.''

This explains why in April the Confederacy ordered all digging in the valley to cease and then posted no-trespassing signs, making it clear that these were not directed at hikers. Though they denied a permit to the city of Hamilton, the Confederacy gave one to campers protesting the construction. These permits pledged those who entered to abide by the Iroquois Great Law of Peace and to refrain from "violence, verbal and physical, towards any person'' and to "not damage property.''

So now the city is facing the combined opposition of bird watchers, eco activists and a prestigious traditional First Nation government. And while the Friends of Red Hill Valley folk were party to the vacating deal, Six Nations traditionalists who don't recognize the Canadian court system are maintaining their own parallel camp in the black walnut and oak forest that guards the slope of the Red Hill Creek's valley. Deep in these woods, near the centre of the designated construction site, they have built what they call a "round house," an arbour protecting what they say is a sacred fire.

Nature lovers can only hope it keeps on burning.

calling the columnist on colonialism

First Nations have a claim

RE: Six Nations' Red Hill claim defies native history (Aug. 20).
Ignorance of and inaccuracies about First Nations history have once again reared their ugly heads. Andrew Dreschel's commentary about Six Nations' "flim-flammery" not only smacks of colonialism and conceit, but misleads readers to believe in erroneous information.

Dreschel claims that the Five Nations had been driven out of the area north of Lakes Erie and Ontario a decade or so before 1701 by the Ojibwa. For the record, the Five Nations withdrew peacefully and orderly to national territories in present-day upstate New York to provide reinforcements against attacks by the French.

Although the Ojibwa did indeed compete with the Five Nations for rich fur resources, there was no clear victor. In 1700, they eventually entered into a mutually binding treaty to hold in common the hunting grounds north of Lakes Erie and Ontario. This treaty ended the beaver wars between the Five Nations and Ojibwa, and was regularly renewed thereafter.

Dreschel also writes that the English "Crown retained the right to use and develop the land." In actuality, the Five Nations placed their hunting grounds in present-day Ontario under English protection by virtue of the Nanfan Treaty of 1701 to maintain continued and unimpeded access to vital hunting grounds and prevent encroachment by Europeans.

Dreschel implies conservation is incompatible with hunting rights. Indeed, conservation is integral to ensuring a viable hunting ground. The Five (later Six) Nations have always been sensitive to the need to cultivate game, fish and food supplies as well as the relationship between earth and game: the delicate balance of conservation and hunting.

Dreschel questions whether the protection of hunting grounds in the Nanfan Treaty of 1701 extends to the present- day Red Hill valley because provincial laws prevent hunting in densely populated urban areas such as the Red Hill valley. This appears to be based on the erroneous assumption that the Nanfan Treaty of 1701 only protects the right to hunt with firearms, which activity would threaten human life in urban areas. However, the protection of hunting rights in the Nanfan Treaty of 1701 includes a broad range of hunting, trapping, fishing and harvesting activities that do not threaten human life in urban areas. In addition, wherever treaty or aboriginal rights have been asserted by a First Nation, an obligation to consult is imposed. The Crown or third parties who will be using land or resources in such a way as to affect an aboriginal or treaty right must consult in good faith with that First Nation and reasonably accommodate their interests.

Dreschel's commentary is based on contentions demonstrating, at a minimum, historical ignorance. Misguided and erroneous information only furthers the divide between Canadians and First Nations at a time when we urgently need to work together in cooperation. Whitewashing history? To Dreschel, we say: Do your homework.

Chief Roberta Jamieson, Six Nations, Ohsweken.

View from the Valley

REBELLION TAKES ROOT

by Randy Kay
August 14-20, 2003
Hamilton City Bylaw 01–219 makes it illegal for people to use green space they have been using for several decades at Greenhill Avenue. The bylaw warning against “trespassing” came into effect 7am Tuesday, August 5, 2003, the day after several hundred people rallied for the adjacent Red Hill Valley. A week later, people are still camping on the site, neighbours continue to walk their dogs, children play, adults stroll or jog down the footpath to Red Hill Valley, all in contravention of the bylaw.

The Greenhill Community Garden, located at the site of proposed on–ramps for the $220–million Red Hill Creek Expressway, is being tended despite signs posted by the city of Hamilton threatening people with trespassing charges. Twelve–year–old Patricia Nowak of Harrisford Drive was there last Thursday evening (August 7) helping keep the Greenhill Community Garden bird–feeder filled with seed.

“A lot of animals and trees are going to die because of the road. I hope they change their minds about building this and just leave it,” she says as she stretches to pour seed into the feeder perched atop the custom–painted Greenhill Community Garden sign. Brown–eyed Susans, Purple Coneflowers and False Sunflowers nod in the breeze beneath the sign. The flowers, transplanted to the site August 4, are being watered by volunteers with the aid of neighbours’ hoses.

Across the field, people open their back gates and walk into the 01–219 trespass zone. Margaret Hastings stands in the off–limits area in her pyjamas and talks with her Brookstream Court neighbours Angie Blaschuk and Donna Staruck. Hastings has lived in the area for 28 years. She’s had a long–term relationship with the Expressway project.

“It raises its ugly head, then it lies down again, raises and lies down” she relates. She thinks the trespass threat is “ridiculous.” “People have been walking here a long time, and hopefully will continue to do so.” Blaschuk has lived on Brookstream for 20 years. “Who is to say I can’t go through here to go to the mall to do my shopping as I’ve always done? I can’t see how I’m trespassing on park land.”

“I’m coming out here with the dog and I’m walking up there until someone tells me I can’t. I’m not stopping because someone says ‘no’ after I’ve been doing it all these years,” Staruck declares. These residents only received a letter from the city on July 4 notifying them of impending construction including noise walls that will go up at the back of their properties.

The three women join other area residents and activists from across the city at nightly outdoor meetings at the site. People discuss tasks and strategy in their ongoing efforts to save the valley. Oakville–based Dufferin Construction has refused to come back to the area until protesters are removed. They have also refused to take part in discussions with protesters. Mayor Wade refuses to discuss anything but implementation of the road, and is seeking a court order to end the pickets at Greenhill and Albright roads. Donna Staruck’s husband Joe says the lack of process has been frustrating.

“I just get pissed off at the way government forces their way onto people without going through the whole process properly. Nobody [from the city] has said anything to me yet, and I’ve lived here for 20 years. This nonsense about killing the last green we have is sheer stupidity.”

At City Council last Tuesday, Ward 15 councillor Margaret McCarthy asked for a referendum on the Red Hill Expressway issue to allow citizens a voice. She was supported by councillors Andrea Horwath (Ward 2) and Dave Braden (Ward 14). The remainder of councillors present voted the motion down.

Back at the Greenhill Community Garden they helped to build, nine–year–old Jessika and her friends are sharing concerns about noise and air pollution as well as the impact the road will have on wildlife. Children in the area are especially vulnerable to the negative health impacts of the expressway, with asthma being all too common for the east–end kids. Losing the access to nature they currently enjoy would also be a blow to their quality of life.

So far, The Showstoppers, a coalition of people opposed to the destruction of the valley, have prevented Dufferin from taking vehicles onto the site. Showstoppers have initiated attempts at dialogue with the city and the contractor, and refuse to let any destruction take place until outstanding issues are addressed. Issues include the likely presence of migratory birds in the area which could trigger a federal Migratory Birds Convention Act limiting activity that would disturb their nesting and mating, the lack of permits to undertake work in the valley including a Niagara Escarpment Commission (NEC) permit, and outstanding First Nations issues.

The Showstoppers and Friends of Red Hill Valley have been issued a permit from the Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse), who have inherent Aboriginal rights to camp, hunt, and fish in the Red Hill Valley.

Along with the right to use the valley, the Haudenosaunee have the responsibility of protecting the valley for future generations. They have not issued any permits to the city.

Arrests have been threatened but so far avoided. A private security firm keeps a wary eye on the 24–7 protest.

And so it is, beneath the shadow of threatened lawsuits, criminal charges, heavy machinery and bylaw 01–219 that the first wave of citizen rebellion against the Red Hill Creek Expressway has taken root at Greenhill Avenue.

Not Goodbye - the beginning of Nonviolent Resistance

Goodbye to Red Hill valley?

Protesters say farewell as bulldozers poised to make east Hamilton greenspace a construction zone starting today

By Lori Fazari
The Hamilton Spectator. Tuesday August 5, 2003 (front page) Hundreds of people came out to say farewell (sic) to Red Hill valley as they knew it. Today bulldozers arrive and begin work on the new north-south road.
When Brian Tammi wakes up in his tent this morning, he'll be breaking city bylaw number 01-219, which has to do with municipal parks.
Tammi and his fellow campers are well aware of that. It's the reason they set up camp this weekend on a patch of land at the end of Greenhill Avenue, off Mount Albion Road in the east end.
This morning, the green space officially becomes a construction zone, the physical start of building the Red Hill Creek Expressway.
"No entry beyond this point," says the sign posted at the edge of the grass.
But Tammi, 18, and other activists are making a last-ditch effort to stop the start of construction and show their opposition to paving the Red Hill valley.
This fight's been going on long before Tammi's time, decades before he was born. But the moment has arrived for bulldozers to begin work on the expressway that will connect the Lincoln M. Alexander Parkway on the Mountain to the Queen Elizabeth Way in east Hamilton.
Dufferin Construction crews were to arrive early this morning at the eastern edge of the valley, at the dead-end of Greenhill Avenue, which will be extended to connect with on and off ramps to the expressway.
Yesterday, protesters, neighbours and those drawn by the sight of the crowd of hundreds spent the afternoon in the sun in the park, listening to anti-expressway speakers. They gathered for a group picture, with a line of trees in the background, and held a potluck.
Tammi was the first one here, Saturday afternoon.
Others were supposed to camp out with him that night but couldn't make it, so it was him alone -- one man with a tent and tarp, camping supplies and the conviction that the expressway is a bad idea.
"This expressway is, for lack of a better word, silly," he said yesterday afternoon, sitting by the campers' tents while the crowd listened to one speaker after another.
"Economically, environmentally, legally, it's not sound."
Tammi often rides his mountain bike on the valley trails. On Saturday he was loaded down with gear, so his mother dropped him off at Greenhill Avenue, just before the rain started pouring.
He camped in the rain here just last month. Expressway opponents spent a weekend camping and planning ways to block the start of construction without violence. Tammi said some people were scared off from coming out this time, after the city sent a letter threatening to arrest or sue protesters.
"It's just bullying tactics and it's worked," he said.
Things were peaceful on the Civic Holiday weekend. Tammi was joined Sunday by other protesters, six of whom camped out with him that night. They spent the afternoon digging out a circle of grass to plant flowers in a Greenhill Community Garden, topped with a birdhouse. Their food was plentiful, with several watermelons for the potluck.
Tammi has been involved in many a protest and can't understand why more people don't get involved. "That's disgusting that people think they can't change anything," he said. "Apathy rules."
He wasn't sure what to expect this morning when construction crews arrive. "I don't plan to risk arrest," he said. "If they ask me to leave, I'll leave and I'll just return when it cools down."
As long as he stays off the grass, as required under bylaw 01-219.

The Sun on Red Hill

Rally rips new Hamilton Road

Expressway through greenbelt

By FRANCES PETRUCCELLI
Toronto Sun, Page 19, Tuesday, August 5, 2003

Several hundred people rallied in east Hamilton yesterday to stop the construction of a four-lane highway through one of the city's largest greenbelts.
Work is set to start today on the first ramp of the Red Hill Creek Expressway, and eight-km freeway linking Hwy 403 to the QEW.
"We need to stop the destruction of over 40,000 trees in the Red Hill Valley," protest organizer David Cohen said from the Greenhill Ave. construction site.
Some participants were planning to stay overnight at the site so they could be there when work crews arrive. They plan to use "every peaceful means at their disposal" to convince Hamilton to halt the four-year, $220-million project, Cohen said.
Even though half the cost of the epressway will be covered by the province, Cohen said critics are opposed to the "tremendous tax burden" it will put on city residents.
City staff were not available for comment yesterday, but in a statement Friday, Hamilton's city manager Bob Robertson urged protesters not to interfere with a "democratic decision that was taken years ago, after years of study on this much-needed transportation route."
Robertson said the city will take legal action against anyone who causes costly delays to the project.
"If they decide to take illegal actions that drive up costs, the city will have no choice but to seek to recover those costs from the persons who are responsible," Robertson said.

Showstoppers under the gun

Protest must be peaceful

Police to watch as Red Hill work begins

By Eric McGuinness The Hamilton Spectator, Saturday, August 2, 2003.
Hamilton police say they weren't consulted about a city letter threatening Red Hill Creek Expressway opponents with lawsuits or arrests for any attempts to delay construction. Deputy Chief Brian Mullan says police understand the city's position, but remain neutral in the dispute over putting a road through Red Hill Valley.

What will happen next week when the anti-expressway Union of Showstoppers says its members will use non-violent civil disobedience to halt construction?

Mullan says: "We acknowledge an individual's right to protest and demonstrate. We as a police service take the position that when possible we will facilitate that. When behaviour becomes unlawful and public safety is in jeopardy, we will step in and take the necessary steps to protect public safety."

Signs are already up warning that the area around Greenhill Avenue will be closed to the public at 7 a.m. Tuesday, and save-the-valley groups plan a rally at the site while it remains open. Organizers say there will be walks, talks and a mass photo shoot, among other activities, starting at 1 p.m. on Civic Holiday Monday. The gathering will be on the eastern edge of the valley, where Greenhill dead-ends off Mt. Albion Road.

Hamilton West NDP MPP David Christopherson, a mayoral hopeful and expressway critic who will speak at the rally, says the warning letter sent to selected expressway foes "sure smacks of bully tactics. Whether that was the intent or not, that's how it looks."

Former councillor Fred Eisenberger, also running for the mayor's chair, considers it "overkill" and "more than was necessary," although he supports the expressway and says everyone should accept that it's going ahead.
City manager Bob Robertson said yesterday the letter was approved by a staff-level committee he chairs, one that has consulted former deputy police chief Christine Silverberg, recently retained on Hamilton's behalf by the city's Red Hill lawyer, David Estrin. Silverberg, a former Calgary police chief, was used by the city last year in talks with native leaders concerned about the valley's archaeological sites.

An aide said Mayor Bob Wade wasn't available for comment yesterday and acting city solicitor Elaine Holt, author of the letter, did not return a call from The Spectator.

The letter, which Robertson says went to 10 to 20 people, said the city could file multimillion-dollar lawsuits against those delaying work and that those who couldn't pay might see their homes seized and sold.

Canadian environmental lawyer David Boyd calls it "extraordinary" and a "slick" move to intimidate protesters without letting them respond.

Boyd, a research associate at the University of Victoria and former executive director of the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, said it's not unusual for environmental activists to be sued, but the suits are generally used only to get a court injunction to stop demonstrations. They almost never go to court.

Boyd says what's unusual is that protesters haven't done anything to block construction, and it's a government going after environmentalists.

"That's what's odd about the situation. No one has done anything remotely unlawful. And in most cases, it's a corporation wearing the black hat, not a democratically elected government."

Boyd said defendants in a "strategic lawsuit to suppress public participation" have means to fight back, but Hamilton's letter only threatens legal action, so "there is little recipients can do to defend themselves. It's fairly slick for the city to do this by means of a threatening letter."

Julie Brezden, of the Red Hill Neighbourhood Association, complained yesterday the city hasn't consulted area residents about construction-related issues even though a recently distributed "neighbour's guide" said local issues were to be addressed at meetings in June and July.

Robertson offered no explanation for the lack of meetings, but said something could be set up quickly to answer questions.

CITY THREATS

Red Hill trespassers warned

City letter threatening arrest or lawsuits called 'appalling tactic'

By Eric McGuinness
The Hamilton Spectator, Friday, August 1, 2003

The City of Hamilton is threatening to arrest Red Hill Creek Expressway protesters or sue them and seize their houses if construction is slowed or stopped.

The warning was delivered yesterday afternoon, with the first interchange work in the Red Hill Valley scheduled to start Tuesday. A six-page e-mail message to opposition leaders such as Don McLean of Friends of Red Hill Valley and David Cohen of the Showstoppers Union says it will be illegal to enter the valley at the dead end of Greenhill Avenue after 7 a.m. Tuesday.

That warning appears to apply to anyone who enters the construction area but it was sent specifically to protest leaders who have vowed to stop the highway. Mayor Bob Wade couldn't be reached for comment last night, nor could senior city officials.

Dufferin Construction is expected to start building a bridge Tuesday over the route of the expressway that will connect the cross-Mountain Lincoln Alexander Parkway to the Queen Elizabeth Way in east Hamilton.
Paul Muldoon, executive director of the Canadian Environmental Law Association, is outraged by the letter, saying it's wrong for the city to presume expressway opponents intend to break the law.

"They must presume any protest will be a lawful assembly, that people know the rights and responsibilities of a citizen," he said yesterday. Muldoon, a Hamilton native who has led anti-expressway legal action, called the city letter "an appalling tactic that speaks loads about how this council views its own electorate."

Councillor Larry Di Ianni, chair of the expressway implementation committee, said he hadn't seen the letter from acting city solicitor Elaine Holt, but "from what staff say, I wouldn't characterize it as a threat, but rather information.

"I've heard Paul Muldoon's rhetoric before and I respectfully disagree with it. We expect things will go peacefully and everyone will respect the law. We want to give people the opportunity and right to protest and are saying, 'Here are the laws, we hope people will stay on the right side, and here are the consequences if people go beyond.'"

Those consequences, as outlined by Holt, include being sued for any loss and legal expenses if the $220-million project is held up, being fined under bylaws that make it an offence to obstruct vehicles or pedestrians on any street or sidewalk, and being arrested for mischief, intimidation or other offences under the Criminal Code.

Police officials could not be reached for comment.

It says the city can seek court orders against any attempt to obstruct access to the construction site and can ask to have violators jailed or fined for breaching such orders. It also says any damage award can be enforced by seizing and selling the defendant's property. It's not clear if council authorized the notice or if city bureaucrats gave the OK.

"I was floored to be warned of all the different ways the city can get us, that the city might sue for more than the total value of the contract and if you don't pay would take your property," said McLean. "I think it's very heavy handed. We've been treated as enemies and I think it will make people angry."

Cohen said the e-mail "strikes me as a bit of an intimidation tactic and I resent that. I don't take kindly to receiving a lawyer's letter from the city to which I pay taxes when I haven't done anything wrong."

TRAIN TO BLOCK ROAD...

Protesters train to stop Red Hill

Hamilton Spectator, Monday, July 28, 2003

Red Hill Expressway opponents have begun training to block bulldozers for construction they believe may begin as early as Aug. 5.

Protesters from several environmental organizations have formed Showstoppers to mount what they call a non-violent defence of the valley.

The group met Saturday at McMaster University to co-ordinate rallies, street dances, symbolic plantings and civil disobedience.

Andrew Loucks, one of the group's organizers, said they took their name from a comment from Councillor Larry Di Ianni who recently said the road would be built unless there was some kind of showstopper.

Showstoppers brought in Matthew Behrens, a Toronto activist with a group called Homes Not Bombs, to provide advice on civil disobedience.

"We do everything from what your legal rights are as protesters to how to maintain non-violent discipline, looking at how to protect your body in a confrontational situation, how to make it impossible for opponents to use violence," he said.

He said the protesters are committed to principles of nonviolence, no use of drugs or alcohol, making decisions by consensus and being open to everyone, including opponents.

"The group is giving a sense of wholeness to those who wish to act in defence of the valley," Loucks said.

Human Rights to the Court

Wescam protesters acquitted

Three men arrested for trespassing following an anti-war demonstration in December at Wescam were acquitted last week following a one-day trial in Burlington court. 

Andrew Loucks, David Jefferess and Matthew Behrens were part of a 25-person protest Dec.10, 2002 at the local high-tech company located at 649 North Service Rd. 

Loucks said the group was there to request a meeting with Wescam officials to discuss the belief the company's technology might contribute to what was then an impending war in Iraq. 

Following a brief protest the men were arrested by Halton police and charged with trespassing. 

They were acquitted last week before Justice of the Peace Barry Quinn. 

Loucks, who is from Hamilton, said the trio is happy with the acquittal and plans to continue protesting. 

"We're definitely going to continue, people have been continuing in Burlington," he said. "There are a couple of folks who are there pretty much every night just raising the issue to folks who happen to drive by."


Jefferess is also from Hamilton, while Behrens lives in Toronto. 

Wescam - one of the city's best-known companies - designs and manufactures high-tech camera equipment. 

Bruce Latimer, Wescam's vice-president of corporate development said the company accepts the court's decision. 

"I think Mr. Justice Quinn provided a well-reasoned decision based on the evidence that was placed before him," he said. 

In response to the protest in December, Latimer told the Post details about the company, its products and clients are available online at www.wescam.com and noted while the company produces high-tech camera equipment for military uses, it also makes cameras for other purposes. 

"We run the full gamut from sporting events...to search and rescue operations," he said. Latimer also noted Wescam has a long history of service in the Golden Horseshoe area. 

"We have been a proud member of the Hamilton/Burlington community for 25 years," he said. 

"The tragic events of Sept. 11 have highlighted what we do but it hasn't changed the business."



By Robb Swybrous, Burlington Post Staff.

Poverty Protest

Activists send warning to city council: take poverty seriously
By KEVIN WERNER, Ancaster News, May 29, 2002

The drums along Main Street contain a warning to Hamilton councillors to assist the city's less fortunate and eliminate the Red Hill Creek Expressway project of face the consequences in 2003.

About 200 people attended a rally outside city hall May 29 to protest the 2002 budget and the cuts they believe threaten the environment, social service programs and residents quality of life. The rally was to coincide with council's ratification of its budget, which contained a 4.6 per cent average residential tax increase. The increase translates into an additional $120 to the property tax bill. Council approved the budget at a special meeting May 23.

And as councillors carried on their business in the council chambers, natives thrummed on their ceremonial drum well into the night, making it difficult for politicians to be heard.

"We can find a way to provide $1.2 million for business people (to purchase a hockey team), said Don McLean, a director of the Friends of Red Hill Valley, which helped organize the rally along with Hamilton Action for Social Change. "But we can't find a way to provide the money to the transit service."

He urged people, a mixed crowd of young and old people, environmentalists and union supporters, to "give a lot of these councillors their walking papers" after the 2003 municipal election.

Peter Archibald, for the Coalition of Social Justice, was more direct in his attack against councillors, who he said was the root cause of Hamilton's problems.

"Throw some of the bastards out of office," he shouted.

The protesters were angry that the $477 million budget contains $7.1 million in business tax cuts, while residents have to pay more in taxes for less services.

Due to area-rating and a phase-in program councillors agreed to last year to counter the effects of amalgamation costs, Flamborough residents will see a 6.9 per cent tax increase, while Ancaster and Glanbrook residents will absorb a 6.1 percent and 6 per cent tax hike.

In addition, the protesters contend councillors, where a majority of them were wearing green buttons, along with their supports in the council gallery last week, that stated "The Expressway, the Right Way" in defiance of calls to eliminate the expressway, are supporting a multi-million projhect rather than using the money to rehabilitate the city's crumbling infrastructure; keep city libraries open; and repair community recreation centres.

"There are more people homeless, more people in need," said Wayne Marston, president of the Hamilton and District Labour Council. "Yet council is committed to paying for the expressway. The mismanagement is disgraceful."

Councillors are following a pro-business agenda and are contributing to the "erosion of democracy," said Ray Cunnington, Hamilton's representative of the Council of Canadians.

"The city of Hamilton has its priorities wrong," he said.

Lynda Lukasik, an east end Hamilton environmentalist and a member of Environment Hamilton, warned the people, some carrying signs that read "Red Hill: A Faster Road to Bankruptcy"; "Put People First"; and "Amalgamation Meant No Tax Hike",that the city's financial situation isn't going to get any better over the next few years.

Robert Rossini, the city's director of budgets and Hamilton mayor Bob Wade have confirmed that residents could be facing nine and 11 per cent tax increases over the next two years if the provincial and federal governments don't assist the city in lifting some of the social service expenses Hamilton has been forced to shoulder. They also confirm that the city isn't providing enough money to keep its aging infrastructure and recreation centers form falling into disrepair.

If councillors continue to follow a business-centred agenda, residents should expect even more cuts to needed environment programs, she said. This year councillors cut money to Action 2020, an environmental policy city councillors are expected to follow, and they rejected a reduced pesticide spraying program.

"We need a people's agenda," said Mrs. Lukasik. "It's time for a change."

 - - -
Drums protest expressway as council passes budget
By DAN NOLAN, Political Affairs Reporter, The Hamilton Spectator


The loud tones of drums and native chants played as a backdrop to city council last night as it met to rubber stamp its $477 million city budget.

The sounds came from in front of City Hall by native protesters who were part of a rally staged to show displeasure at the budget.

Councillors, however, were unfazed by the noise which, at times, made it hard to hear people speaking. No one referred to it and they passed the minutes of their meeting last week in which they approved the budget.

The rally, attended by more than 200 people, was staged by the Hamilton Action for Social Change. While the group's spokesperson, Randy Kay, said members were disturbed by numerous aspects of the budget -- such as their allegation it caters more to business than the average citizen -- the majority of protesters sported stickers proclaiming, "I love the Red Hill."

This referred to council's continued commitment to spend more than $100 million to help build the Red Hill Creek Expressway.

Critics argue it will bankrupt the city and destroy the last remaining greenspace in the city's east end. Some natives are opposed because they claim the valley is full of native burial sites.

Supporters, including the majority of council, say the highway is needed to move traffic and build up new assessment. Ward 12 councillor Murray Ferguson said people are free to demonstrate, but said debate on building the expressway was settled long ago.

About half a dozen people spoke at the rally, including Wayne Marston, president of the Hamilton labour council. He said council was heading down a "dangerous" road with the expressway.
Hundreds Rally to Oppose City Budget

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Hamiltonians turned out in large numbers to register opposition to the city's budget last night.

Hamilton Action for Social Change

What would normally be yet another dull council meeting was livened by the 250+ crowd gathered in front of city hall to register their opposition to a budget that abandons justice and sustainability for a pro-business "economic development" model.

As council voted to give more than $1.2 million over five years to owners of a Hamilton hockey franchise --some of the richest men in the community -- the majority of citizens were handed cuts to services and tax increases.

Outside city hall, aboriginal drummers and dancers worked to make the Creator smile, while inside, council rubber stamped an unpopular and destructive budget.

In the new budget, taxes for home-owners will rise by $120, almost half of which will be transferred to the corporate and business community through tax reductions.

Further millions will be spent to destroy the city's largest urban park, the east end's Red Hill Valley, by going ahead with plans to build a $220 million expressway through the valley.

Cuts to HSR bus service, libraries and public health were also approved by council.

Lynda Lukasik, director of Environment Hamilton, warned the crowd that cuts to public transit, public health and environmental programs will only increase in subsequent budgets.

"The majority of council are not listening to us. Now, more than ever, we need a people's agenda."

The white-male dominated council is solidly in support of policies favouring business interests.

Yvonne Maracle, a Mohawk activist who spoke at the rally, suggested that council should instead tend to the dismal state of the torn social fabric and homelessness before handing millions over to the rich.

"Governments have forgotten about the basic element of life: caring about our fellow man," said Maracle. "Instead of looking at the immediate community as a resource, they look on us as a hindrance. To start the healing, Hamilton must invest in the weakest link to make us stronger."

Don McLean of Friends of Red Hill Valley reminded people that grassroots activism has already prevented many of the cuts originally set out in the draft budget. For weeks prior to the rally, activists put up posters and handed out thousands of leaflets to citizens on the streets, urging them to contact their councillors to register their concerns, and to attend the rally.

McLean said the next step is for people to continue to organize in the community, and work to "give councillors their walking papers" in the 2003 municipal elections.

Peter Archibald of Hamilton Coalition for Social Justice said that the budget process has to be "opened up to the community." He also told the crowd to prepare for civil disobedience in the face of an unresponsive council and their destructive policies.

Other speakers included Wayne Marston, President of the Hamilton Labour Council, Ray Cunnington of the Hamilton chapter of Council of Canadians and David Jefferess of Hamilton Action for Social Change, the group who called the rally.

- - - -
[text from the call out]

PROTEST THE CUTS:
PROTECT OUR CITY

Community life threatened by city budget cuts
The new City budget imposes major cuts on libraries, social housing, public health, HSR bus service, cemeteries, recycling and a long list of environmental programs. It terminates the Clean Air Hamilton program, reduces park maintenance and slashes the Seniors tax rebate program as part of $26 million in budget cuts. Disabled transit (DARTS) will not receive any new money needed to provide adequate service. At the same time, residential taxes will go up $116 per home, nearly half of is being used to REDUCE business taxes by $7.1 million. The Red Hill expressway remains a council priority, but the budget baldly admits that "insufficient funding is being provided for facility maintenance, rehabilitation and renewal; and capital funding levels are far below infrastructure needs in the area of roads, storm sewers and waste management."

=======RALLY=======
Hamilton City Hall, 6:00 pm
Wednesday, May 29, 2002

Mayor Wade's budget will trash community needs but will still push for building the clearly unaffordable Red Hill Creek Expressway, despite dire staff predictions about falling "further behind in infrastructure maintenance, rehabilitation and replacement" and creating conditions where "new capital projects will become financially prohibitive." City of Hamilton Budget 2002.

"This singular project (Red Hill Expressway) is taking us on the slippery slope toward bankruptcy," Ward 13 Councillor Russ Powers

SEND COUNCIL and STAFF BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD.

• NO TO THE PROPOSED BUDGET!
• NO CUTS TO THE PUBLIC GOOD!
• NO HANDOTS TO CORPORATIONS!
• SCRAP THE EXPRE$$WAY PROJECT!

Speakers:

• Wayne Marston - President Hamilton & District Labour Council
• Yvonne Maracle - Aboriginal Activist
• Don McLean - Friends of Red Hill Valley
• Lynda Lukasik - Environment Hamilton
• Peter Archibald - Hamilton Coalition for Social Justice
• Ray Cunnington - Council of Canadians, Hamilton

HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT!

HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT

The Committee is gravely concerned that such a wealthy country as Canada has allowed the problem of homelessness and inadequate housing to grow to such proportions that the mayors of Canada's ten largest cities have now declared homelessness a national disaster.

United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Ultimately, a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for the "least of these."

Martin Luther King Jr.

Z e r o % C i t y ?

INSIST THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TAKE ACTION ON HOMELESSNESS: SUPPORT THE 1% SOLUTION.

Homes not Bombs Hamilton invite you to attend ZERO CITY, a cardboard community set up to demonstrate that a government not willing to implement the 1% solution to homelessness is preparing the way for increased misery in our communities. ZERO CITY will set up in front of Liberal M.P. John Bryden's constituency office Wednesday afternoon (February 9, 2000) at 5:00 p.m.

ZERO CITY hopes to draw attention to the fact that a motion before the House of Parliament (M123), to be debated on Friday (February 11) at 1:30 p.m., is seen by many anti-poverty organizations as a desperately needed first step to addressing the serious crisis of lack of affordable housing.

"If the government doesn't seize this opportunity to address the lack of decent, affordable housing, they are dooming millions of people to a future of life on the streets, in places like Zero City. We need a 1% beginning, not a zero percent abandonment," says Homes Not Bombs spokesperson Gail Lorimer.

ZERO CITY will be constructed out of cardboard and found materials. Candlelight vigils will remind people that a lasting solution to homelessness needs the attention, and financial support of government. People are being encouraged to contact their MPs and ask them to support this motion.

Wentworth Burlington MP John Bryden's office is located at 2 King Street West in Dundas.

For More information about ZERO CITY please contact Gail Lorimer at (905) 634-7654

- - - -

NOTES FROM ZERO PERCENT CITY
Wednesday February 9, 2000. "Homeless: Studied to Death; Social Housing Now!"
 
A cardboard city sprang up in minutes outside Liberal MP (Wentworth/Burlington) John Bryden's constituency office in Dundas, Ontario today.
ZERO CITY, a "cardboard community" was set up by Homes Not Bombs Hamilton activists to draw attention to government inaction on the crisis of homelessness. A sign asking "Is 1% too much 2 ask?" highlighted the concern that a government not willing to implement the "1%" solution to homelessness is preparing the way for increased misery in our communities. The 1% motion, drafted by NDP member Libby Davies, states
"That, in the opinion of this House, the government should adopt a national housing strategy and housing supply program, in co-operation with the provinces, that recognizes housing as a human right and meets the goal of providing an additional 1% of federal budgetary spending to meet basic housing needs in Canada."
Many anti-poverty organizations see the 1% motion as a desperately needed first step to addressing the serious crisis of lack of affordable housing in Canada.
"If the government doesn't seize this opportunity to address the lack of decent, affordable housing, they are dooming millions of people to a future of life on the streets, in places like Zero City. We need a 1% beginning, not a zero percent abandonment," says Homes Not Bombs spokesperson Gail Lorimer.
Leaflets encouraged people to contact their MPs and ask them to support this motion, scheduled for debate on Friday, February 11 at 1:30 p.m. About 20 people attended Zero City, which ended with a candlelight vigil, as the names of people who have died homeless were read out. The refrain "people who have died homeless, who might have lived: 1% is not too much" was repeated at intervals.
54 Homes Not Bombs activists were arrested in Ottawa, November 12, 1999, for taking part in a non-violent demonstration attempting to convert the War Department into the Housing Department. Trials are pending. Homes Not Bombs (Hamilton) can be reached at hasc@tao.ca or by phoning (905) 627-2696 or (905) 528-5925. Homes Not Bombs Toronto can be reached at tasc@web.net or (416) 651-5800.


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Dundas Star News, Wednesday, February 16, 2000

Bryden fingers Tories for homeless situation

Protesters are marching at wrong door, MP says

By Richard Leitner
Staff Writer Wentworth-Burlington Liberal MP John Bryden says protesters are choosing the wrong target by demonstrating outside his office for more money for social housing.
Rejecting their calls for his government to boost its spending on social housing, Mr. Bryden said the province is to blame for the growing number of homeless people in Ontario because it prefers cutting taxes over fulfilling its constitutional responsibility for housing.
"As far as I'm concerned, the protesters are protesting at the wrong door. They should be protesting at the door of the area MPPs" he said, calling homelessness a provincial disgrace. "We all want tax cuts, but the whole idea of having organized society is that you have to pay a certain amount of tax for a certain amount of service. And as a government decides not to provide a minimum service that is expected by the taxpayers, the taxpayers should expect to see consequences."
During an early evening protest outside his Dundas constituency office last week, a dozen people called on Bryden and his government to commit to a target of spending an extra one percent of the federal budget on housing - about $2 billion annually, double what it currently spends.
The Chretien government stopped building social housing in 1993, a move that cut the planned construction of 75,000 units by 1997. It recently committed an extra $305 million for housing shelters over three years, but has made no indication it will start building housing units again.
"It was declared a national disaster by the United Nations but they've done nothing" said Randy Kay, a Dundas resident who helped organize last week's demonstration.
"They've studied it to death, literally to death - people are dying all the time - and they're studying and they want to study it more. It's time to start taking small steps toward (solving the problem)."
A member of the group Homes Not Bombs, Mr Kay said the federal government didn't blink an eye in spending $500 million on the war in Yugoslavia, so political will, rather than money, is at the root of the problem.
"Someone's got to take responsibility, Who is the federal government supposed to be governing for, if not all the people?," he said, calling the one percent target reasonable.
But Mr. Bryden said homelessness is less the result of a housing shortage than the provinces closing of psychiatric hospital beds and "desperate" underfunding of existing shelters.
He said he opposes his government re-entering social housing construction because it is a provincial responsibility and will only lead to more federal bashing.
"I feel very strongly that this federal government, and I hope the (upcoming) budget reflects it, has to spend in the federal areas, and that the provinces spend in the provincial areas," Mr. Bryden said.
"Otherwise, we get blamed for not spending in areas of provincial responsibility at the same time as we're blamed for not cutting taxes. I can tell you up here in Ottawa, I think just about every Liberal backbencher is fed up dealing with Ontario. We're fed up with the fact that we're being blamed for what is entirely an Ontario responsibility."
While Wentworth-Burlington currently has no provincial representative, Stoney Creek Tory MPP Brad Clark aid he believes his government is doing more than its fair share to address homelessness. TREATMENT
The province has assumed financial and administrative responsibility for thousands of federal not-for-profit housing units, he said, calling the issue of psychiatric bed closures "a red herring" because discharged patients who refuse to take their medication cannot be forced into treatment.
"I think it's shameful that politicians from all levels of governments are still playing the blame game. It's the responsibility of municipalities, the province and the federal government to deal with the homeless issue," Mr. Clark said.
"I think everybody should be sitting down working together to solve the issue."
Murray Lumley, an Ancaster resident who also took part in the protest, said Canada is one of the few developed nations without a national housing strategy, something he blames on the current political climate.
"I think (federal Finance Minister) Paul Martin and the business leaders in Canada have gone the route of neo-liberalism or neo-conservatism that says the free market will take care of everything," he said.
"It doesn't work in the United States. They have a huge gap between the rich and the poor. It's not working here. I read things from Central and South America; it doesn't work there.
"The neo-liberal agenda creates millionaires, but basically takes away from the lowest income and most vulnerable people in every country. There has to be some sort of levelling and redistribution so that everybody tends to live, but I don't think we have the political will in Canada, even among the populace, to make it happen."

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[Photo caption: PROTESTERS HOLD A candlelight vigil outside local Liberal MP John Bryden's office in honour of more than 40 homeless people who have died on the streets in recent years. The vigil was held to show support for calls for the federal government to boost spending on social housing.]