• Protecting Water and Farmland in Simcoe County

Tuesday October 13: County Council debates legal action against AWARE Simcoe

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In About Us
Oct 12th, 2015
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Beeton Woods

Please attend tomorrow’s council meeting! 9 am, Midhurst

AWARE News Network

Tomorrow, Simcoe County Councillors will decide whether to continue with a bid to recover legal costs from AWARE Simcoe, relating to the citizens’ group’s application for a judicial review of the county’s decision to lift a Stop Work Order in the clear-cutting of the Beeton Woods.

The county has already applied to the court for cost recovery. We disagree strongly with the submission put forward by Marshall Green, the lawyer who is acting for the county. One of his characterizations of AWARE Simcoe is that we are a corporate lobby group.

As AWARE chair Don Morgan states in a letter sent out to members and supporters last week:

“Yes, we recently incorporated, so that makes us ‘corporate,’ we suppose.

“And yes, we are a lobby group.

“We lobby for our farmland and local communities, we lobby for our wetlands and forests, we lobby for our First Nations allies and future generations. We consider it our responsibility to be active during municipal elections, and we consider it our responsibility to remain involved between elections.

‘The price of democracy is eternal vigilance.’ ”

Our lawyer Michael Fleischmann will be submitting his arguments to the court this week and we will be publishing those when that happens.

Subsequent to the drafting of AWARE’s letter to members, the county posted its staff report on the agenda for tomorrow’s council meeting. It contains statements of fact and opinion we also disagree strongly with, and will address in future postings.

If you agree that AWARE Simcoe has a role to play in Simcoe County by monitoring local councils, boards and agencies and bringing issues affecting water, the environment and health to the attention of other citizens, please contact your mayor and deputy mayor, who represent you on county council.

Tomorrow, Tuesday October 13, they and the other representatives of the 16 member municipalities will debate the matter. We would greatly appreciate your support by your attendance at the Council meeting, which starts at 9 am – the item looks to be high up on the agenda.

3 Responses to “Tuesday October 13: County Council debates legal action against AWARE Simcoe”

  1. Ann Spence says:

    Modified comment…

    I cannot be there to support you at 9 a.m.
    You do have my support.
    I’ll be there as soon as I can.

    • Susan Hirst says:

      Sorry I couldn’t be there in person this morning, but I have written to Gord McKay asking him to reject the idea of recovering legal costs from AWARE Simcoe. How did things go today? I will continue to let people know what’s going on, and i support your group’s efforts.

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