Significant victory in court – development continues.

A great update from the site 41
resistance!

BARRIE – The Dump Site 41 battle moved out of the court system and into the political arena after lawyers representing Vicki Monague of Beausoleil First Nation reached a settlement with Simcoe County representatives Friday morning.

The deal ensured that no procedural tricks will get in the way of Simcoe County councillors being able to deal with three key issues at their next meeting: the moratorium, the response to the Information Commissioner, and the legal action against protesters.
The deal also pre-empted a possible return to the witness stand Friday morning of County Clerk Glen Knox who might have been needed to give further evidence in response to questions Justice Peter Lauwers raised at the start of Friday’s proceedings on the nature of the authorization County Council had given to allow construction of Dump Site 41.
The following is a transcript of what lawyer Peter Rosenthal told about 70 people who gathered outside the courtroom after adjournment of a hearing into whether Simcoe County should get a permanent injunction, or whether the injunction be lifted.
“All we were trying to do in some formal technical sense today… was get the injunction lifted…and our main arguments were that the County came to this with dirty hands.
“If you ask for an injunction you’re supposed to yourself have clean hands and we said they had dirty hands because of their refusal to give this calibrated model after two years of fighting them, and because of their refusal to squarely meet the issue with a council resolution. Instead it was a budget item. We said those were dirty hands. We also said they failed in their duty to consult First Nations people …
“Now, in my view, the information that was obtained when Chris Reid and I cross-examined Simcoe County affiants (Mark Aiken, Glen Knox and Rob McCullough) is information that you people should find very useful in fighting against this thing and I hope you use it well politically…Use it to point out to Simcoe County councillors what’s been going on, what staff has been doing without their direct involvement. And find out, are they going to stand for this?
“…What I’d say, every councillor in Simcoe County should be appalled at what staff are doing without getting their authorization, whatever they feel about Dump site 41. They should feel that it’s inappropriate for them to proceed the way they did.
“So, we negotiated a settlement today of this particular litigation. All we could possibly win if we won this argument would be that the injunction be lifted. So we think that what we got is better than that. As far as the injunction we agreed that it would remain in place until the trial of the action.
“But we also did it on the understanding… which includes that, at the August 25 meeting or possibly spilling over into the next day, Simcoe County councillors will be discussing the issues that we flagged… in particular they will be discussing the question or whether or not there should be a moratorium on construction at this site.
“It will also be discussing the question of whether or not the lawsuit, suing these two people, should be dropped. And a discussion of whether that injunction should be dropped against these two and other people .. And they’ll also be considering the appropriate response to the request for a calibrated model. It is my opinion that the only appropriate response to that is to tell Jagger Hims and its now parent company (Genivar) – you better produce that by tomorrow or we’re going to stop your contract…
“One other thing: whatever happens on August 25 and in the future on these issues, these two people and I believe eight other people are facing criminal charges. Once the criminal charges are laid, It’s beyond the police and it’s beyond Simcoe County officials, it’s in the office of the Crown Attorney how to proceed, whether to withdraw them, go to trial, whatever.. . So that’s a separate matter. Whatever else happens I hope you’ll be supporting these two and other people when and if they have their criminal trials.”