July 25 rally for the Site 41 moratorium

Updated July 23:

Help fight the injunction against the indigenous blockade of the illegal landfill construction at dumpsite 41 by coming out on

July 25th for a rally for the Site 41 moratorium.

ELMVALE --- July 13, 2009 --- Tiny Township cottagers, First Nations people, the agricultural community and the Council of Canadians are calling for Simcoe County Council to place a moratorium on construction of the Site 41 dump.

The Federation of Tiny Township Shoreline Associations (FoTTSA) is one of four organizations sponsoring a rally to support the moratorium, on Saturday July 25 at 1:30 p.m. at the Anishinabe Kweag protest camp on Tiny Concession 2, opposite Site 41.

Speakers will include

§ Former Toronto mayor and federal cabinet minister David Crombie

§ Maude Barlow, the first Senior Advisor on Water to the President of the United Nations and Chairperson of the Council of Canadians

§ Georgian Baykeeper Mary Muter

§ Charlie Angus, NDP MP for Timmins-James Bay, one of the leaders of the successful fight to ban Toronto garbage from the Adams Mine

“A year-long moratorium is needed to allow independent review of all aspects of the dump site,” says FoTTSA President Judith Grant, “including lack of peer review of the key data supporting the engineering report that provincial and county politicians say “proves” the site is safe.”
The company hired by Simcoe County to create the report, Jagger Hims, has refused to comply with an order from the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario to release the data.
Grant warns cottagers that Site 41 will impact Georgian Bay. “Leachate contains heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, and other chemicals,” she says. “The seams of the dump’s plastic liner are only covered by a two-year warranty and eventually it will leak, risking the pollution of important aquifers that feed Georgian Bay.”
Grant notes that scientists predict climate change will lower the water levels in Georgian Bay and thus probably the water table, which would play havoc with the upward pressure crucial to the design of Site 41.

Vicki Monague of the Anishinabe Kweag, the women from Beausoleil First Nation who have been protesting at Dump Site 41 for 66 days, called on Canada to protect the drinking water supplies of the surrounding First Nations. “They have a duty to do so,” she says. “However it is clear to us that the Federal Government has not heard our pleas to intervene with the Province’s decision to approve this reckless project. “We will continue to maintain a peaceful presence at Site 41 until it is stopped permanently - in coalition with the surrounding communities and organizations, to ensure that the life blood of our Mother the Earth will be preserved in its natural pristine state for the Seven Generations to come.”
Local resident Stephen Ogden stresses that “the negative effects of Dump Site 41 on the MacDonald Creek were never considered during the environmental assessment hearings because the proponent was able to argue that the dump would never leak.”

Ogden adds: “Even if we accept that the dump won’t leak, which I do not, the County’s plan is to collect the leachate and truck it to a sewage plant for treatment - but the plant is not capable of removing the most toxic elements and so they will be discharged into Georgian Bay.”
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For more information
Federation of Tiny Township Shoreline Associations, Judith Grant 416-924-7064 or 705-533-4366
Anishinabe Kweag, Vicki Monague, 705-247-2636 Cell 705-305-8425
StopDumpSite41, Stepehen Ogden, 705 322-2398 Cell 705 543 1470
Council of Canadians, Mark Calzavara, 416-979-5554

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