Marching through the clouds on the “Rooftop of Ontario”

Here are some selections from the press release that went out on Tuesday and a few photos from the march:

After 119 kilometres and more than a few blisters, local farmers, First Nations and supporters from across southern Ontario gathered today at a local farm to celebrate the end of their walk in opposition to a 2,316-acre quarry proposed for Melancthon, a township north of Shelburne, Ontario. 

 

Danny Beaton, a  Mohawk environmentalist, helped organize the walk. “We won a victory today,” he said. “We’ve won the battle for awareness with the people of Ontario. Now people know, and they’ve showed they care. This is not an  area for mining, this is farm land” he continued. “My elders are against it, this community is against it and people from all over the province are against it, too. We are not going to back down – the momentum we’ve got will keep growing.”   

 

The five-day walk ended today at Jim Black’s farm, 200 feet from the proposed quarry site. Just across Highway 124 lies a broad expanse of fields beginning to show green, but the entire area would become a 200-foot deep, 5-mile wide hole in the ground if the quarry is approved by the Ontario government.  The quarry would be deeper than Niagara Falls and destroy more than 2,300 acres of prized Honeywood Silt Loam, a rare type of soil that is particularly suited to potato cultivation. It would also require the removal of some 600 million litres of water per day to keep it operational. 

 

This prime cropland was acquired over the years by the Highlands Companies, owned by an American hedge fund called the Baupost Group – purportedly for growing potatoes. Forty-five days ago, Highlands filed an application to turn it into the second largest mega-quarry in North America. Although an environmental assessment is required to erect a house in Melancthon township, no assessment is currently needed for a quarry. 

 

“With enough public pressure,” said Jim Black, “the McGuinty government will have no choice but to end this short-term profit making at the expense of the environment, of our children and grandchildren. The proposed quarry might make a bunch of Americans rich, but financial gain is not the only way to measure things. To destroy the land and the water for any amount of money is just plain unacceptable, that’s all there is to it.” The Black farm has been in the family since 1938 and has three generations working it at the moment. 

 

Maude Barlow, national chairperson for the Council of Canadians said “Last year we stopped Dump Site 41 – a landfill that would have contaminated the groundwater in Simcoe County. We will do everything we can to help this community protect itself. With the shocking indifference of the provincial government and the pure greed of the American billionaires that bought up the farmland, this will be an uphill battle,” continued Barlow, “but there will be a provincial election in October and we have tens of thousands of members in Ontario – and they love to vote!”