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Citizens
for the Environment and Future in Eastern Ontario |
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Citizens
for the Environment and Future in Eastern Ontario |
Citizens for the Environment and Future in Eastern Ontario
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Press release (4 March 2003)
100 citizens say NO to industrial hog operations
at largest demo ever in East-HawkesburyMore and more citizens join the movement opposing the establishment of industrial hog farms in East Hawkesbury in Eastern Ontario, at two steps from the Québec border. Despite the freezing temperature (-24 degrees), close to 100 people showed up on Monday night and demonstrated peacefully but loudly in the parking lot of the municipal building in St-Eugene. People said YES to farms, YES to the rural environment, but NO to industrial hog operations.
"Pollution knows no borders", "Don’t contaminate my well", "Don’t kill our rivers", "What about the value of my house?" and "Protect farmers, not industrial hog operations" were among the many signs carried by people who chanted and sang in the darkness, illuminated by the lights of trucks in the municipal parking lot. Demonstrators included farmers and other residents from St-Eugene and Ste-Anne de Prescott, who fear for the very future of their communities, but also people from Rigaud, Très-St-Rédempteur, Pointe-Fortune and Hudson, who are extremely worried about the toxic substances that prevailing winds would blow in their direction, and about manure run-off into the watershed of the Rigaud River, the Ottawa River and the Lake of Two Mountains.
After the demonstration, the «Citizens for the Environment and Future in Eastern Ontario» made a presentation to the municipal council, in a room packed with people. The Citizens (a non-for-profit organization formed three weeks ago) spoke about the devastating impact the establishment of industrial hog operations would have on local farmers. Their statement that «farmers need protection, not industrial hog operations» was greeted by the applause of the many farmers present.
After the presentation, many citizens asked the four remaining council members what they would do to protect their communities from the onslaught of the hog industry. (The Mayor, Michel Lalonde, had to withdraw from this file on 20 February because of a personal financial interest in the application for a building permit for an industrial hog operation that was submitted only hours before the municipal council adopted an interim by-law to ban buildings or structures for the purpose of such operations).
Deputy Mayor Ronald Conway said that the municipality is awaiting to hear from a lawyer about whether it can refuse issuing the building permit for the industrial hog operation that was submitted just before the by-law was passed. Several members of council stated unequivocally for the first time that they share the citizens’ concerns and don’t want East Hawkesbury and Eastern Ontario to become the dumping ground of Quebec’s hog industry. But those present were not satisfied: they asked Council to follow the example of other Ontario municipalities, such as Ottawa and Tweed, that have actively fought the issuing of building permits for hog industries, fighting with and for their citizens.
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Please see our resolution 2003-1 – FARMS, NOT HOG FACTORIES
The text of our presentation to Council is available here.
As well as more photos from the demo.
Information: stopthismegamadness@globetrotter.net