Bob Ritchie: Larger than life

Bob Ritchie at a tractor rally by the proposed Dump Site 41 on Tiny Concession 2 in 2009. | Linda Chernecki photo 

By Kate Harries – AWARE News Network

Larger than life – in stature and in spirit – mill owner Bob Ritchie was an imposing and reassuring presence on the front lines of the battle to stop Dump Site 41.

“First thing in the morning, he and Clara Anne would be there, coffee, sandwiches, people standing around sharing the news, joking and laughing,” recalls Don Morgan, chair of AWARE Simcoe. “Bob made you feel positive, he made you feel this was the right thing to be doing. He made you feel safe.”

Bob Ritchie passed away peacefully on November 27, 2021, at his home on land that had been the Ritchie family sugar bush, located next to his beloved sawmill in Elmvale, Ontario.  He was 79. He leaves his wife Joanne, four children, two step-children and many grand-children and great grand-children. Clara Anne predeceased him in 2011.

“That’s what I remember,” Don says, “Bob in his black truck with the signs painted on the side, his arm hanging out, directing traffic, not literally directing traffic, but involved in what was going on, driving all over the protest area. He was there every day.”

When it came to relations with the County of Simcoe and the police, Bob’s presence made a difference, Don adds. “He was always very calm – never loud, never brash – but he stood strong. When he was there, there was less of a feeling of intimidation.”

The fight against Site 41 had been underway for 25 years in May 2009, when the Anishinaabe Kweag – women from Beausoleil First Nation – set up camp on the Parnell farm opposite the landfill being constructed on Tiny Concession 2. Bob and Clara Anne were at the camp right from the start.

But they had already long been part of the battle to defend what had been identified by scientist William Shotyk as the cleanest water known to the world, recalls his daughter Anne Ritchie-Nahuis. Bob was concerned about the effect of a dump on the local farm community, especially the local dairy farmers, and was not persuaded by assurances that it would not or damage the environment, she says.

Bob drove in a farmers’ tractor protest on Tiny Concession 2 (then MPP Garfield Dunlop was there too), his equipment adorned with explicit reference to an about-face by then Springwater Mayor Tony Guergis who had been elected on a promise to fight the dumpsite, but then, as Simcoe County warden, worked to get it built.

Bob had a second vehicle, his black pickup, painted with ‘Protect our Water’ slogans. “My father could not stand a bully, abuse of power, and/or someone who did not stand behind their word,” Anne remembers. He would take the truck everywhere – he would park in Elmvale, he would park at the county building, the Fall Fair Parade,  he would drive down in it with tenders, he was not going to be intimidated. Everyone has a democratic right to speak out when the concern of their drinking water was so great.”

An injunction resulting from a County of Simcoe SLAPP suit – a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation – led to charges against Site 41 water defenders. In August a 100-vehicle motorcade accompanied Keith and Ina Woods (then 82 and 76) to Midland where they turned themselves in on charges of mischief.

The peaceful occasion provided an opportunity for police to arrest several Site 41 leaders on outstanding charges, including Bob and his daughter Anne. Bob was released for medical reasons but Anne was held in jail overnight because she refused to sign an undertaking to stay away from the camp. The next day, a Justice of the Peace accepted her argument that the undertaking would be a violation of her constitutional right to free speech. Later, all charges were dropped.

The tenacity that made Bob and Clara central to the Site 41 battle was a key part of her father’s character, Anne says. “My father and mother would not have accomplished what they did without it, the sawmill started from very humble beginnings and he, my mother, and those that worked with them had to work very hard and not give up to move ahead.”

Then and since, the County has remained an important part of the Ritchie Forest Products business. Bob started it in 1983, after working for various employers locally and up in Sudbury where he went down the mines. Bob was born in Matachewan, the second of eight children.

The Site 41 battle was won in the fall of 2009, after a court hearing in a lawsuit the county had launched against Anne and Anishinaabe Kwe Vicki Monague resulted in a settlement, and the deal was ratified at a raucous county council meeting in front of a packed gallery, while an overspill crowd of people waving signs and singing filled the stairs and the grounds outside.

For Bob, recent years saw a steady decline in his health. But he went to work every day until the last few months of his life.  He cared deeply about the men and women who worked with him and felt proud that the mill was able to employ 25 people, Anne says. Bob had an intimate knowledge of the forests all over southern Ontario, where they worked, what years they thinned them, who the owners were and where you might encounter problems.

Left bereft after Clara Anne’s death, Bob connected with a cousin of hers, Joanne Madill, née Blow. “He would tell us all, when they were going out for dinner, that it was just to get out of the house,” Anne says. “But we could tell something was blossoming.” They were married in 2015.

A private funeral has been held and can be viewed at this link. Donations in memory of Bob Ritchie can be made to the Elmvale Foodbank, Elmvale Presbyterian Church, Save our Water Legal Fund Campaign or the charity of your choice.

Save our Water Legal Fund Campaign non charitable receipt details can be found at http://www.tinycottager.org/donate-to-save-our-water-tiny/

Elmvale District Food Bank https://elmvaledistrictfoodbank.net/donation

Elmvale Presbyterian Church https://elmvalepresbyterianchurch.com/

Bob Ritchie and family at the Site 41 camp. | Linda Chernecki photo