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NEWS: Barlow in Barrie to speak against Melancthon quarry, March 7

The Barrie Examiner reports, “She’s a Canadian author and activist with a global reach. Yet Maude Barlow, national chairwoman of the Council of Canadians and board chairwoman of the Washington-based Food and Water Watch, also takes in a strong interest in what’s happening here in Simcoe County. She was active in the campaign to shut down the Site 41 landfill. Next month, she’ll be in Barrie to talk about the implications of the proposed Alliston-Melancthon mega-quarry. The public discussion is part of the UPC Speaker Series at Georgian College.”

“Barlow will be speaking in Barrie on March 7 in the Georgian College Theatre, Barrie campus, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 for the public, $6 for students, available at the Georgian College Bookstore, Page and Turners, at 123 Dunlop St. E., as well as at the door.”

The proposed 2,316 acre limestone quarry would:
-be the second largest quarry in North America
-be deeper than Niagara Falls
-be 200 feet deep, well below the water table
-need to pump 600 million litres of groundwater back into the aquifer every day
-be located at the headwaters of five major rivers
-mean the loss of prime farmland
-mean 7200 trucks on local roads on a daily basis

Timeline of Council of Canadians opposition to the proposed Melancthon quarry:

2010
January 16: Ontario-Quebec organizer Mark Calzavara speaks at an NDACT public forum in Alliston against the quarry, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=2379 and http://canadians.org/blog/?p=5801.

2011
March 24: Calzavara and water campaigner Emma Lui visit the proposed location for the quarry, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=9700.

April 13: Calzavara attends a Highland Companies’ ‘public information session’ with about 400 other people critical of the quarry, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=9107.

April 21: Calzavara presents at Queen’s Park more than 1300 signatures opposed to the quarry generated by a Council of Canadians action alert, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=6600.

April 23: Calzavara and organizing assistant Maryam Adrangi support a five-day march from Toronto to Shelburne to protest the quarry, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=9112, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=6634 and http://canadians.org/blog/?p=9114.

April 26: Maude Barlow submitts a formal letter of oppositon to the quarry to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=6650 and http://canadians.org/water/documents/Letter-Barlow-Melancthon-0411.pdf.

July 11: Guelph chapter activists Norah and Richard Chaloner join with Avaaz to deliver a massive national petition against the quarry to the provincial government, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=9917.

August 2: Maude Barlow threatens war over the quarry during the provincial election, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=9917.

August 30: Calzavara joins with 120 other people to deliver a petition against the quarry to a Conservative MP and MPP in Orangeville, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=10183.

September 1: Just days before the provincial election began, the McGuinty government finally agrees to an environmental assessment of the quarry, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=10270.

September 11: Calzavara is quoted in the Boston Herald opposing the quarry, financed by Boston-based Baupost Group, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=10380.

September 12: Calzavara is in Orangeville for a provincial election debate dominated by concerns about the quarry, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=10411.

September 21: Barlow is in Toronto to speak at a public forum against the quarry, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=10547.

September 30: The Council of Canadians particpates in a protest in Toronto against the quarry, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=10804.

October 16: Calzavara speaks against the quarry at the 20,000-person Foodstock event, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=11207.

December 13: The Peterborough-Kawarthas chapter screens a documentary on the five-day walk against the quarry, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=12769.

2012
March 7: Barlow to speak against the quarry at a public forum in Barrie, http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3480201.

For numerous other campaign blogs related to the Melancthon quarry, please see http://canadians.org/blog/?s=%22melancthon%22.