Pro-Family & Anti-Wind Turbine Rally at Queen's Park

by: Gary F. Patton

Angry citizens from Guildwood thrown out of the Ontario Legislature's Public Gallery

Hi Neighbour;

Many from Scarborough-Guildwood, including me, went down to Queen's Park yesterday. I haven't had as much fun pulling the noses of non-democratic politicians in over 20 years ...the Ontario Liberals this time, .

Over 500 people came from all over the Province to voice their concerns about wind turbines!

Maybe you caught our protest as reported on the 6:00 & 11:00 p.m. TV & radio News last night. The event was well-covered by the media due to the Rally organizers' hard work.

This will share the many news-worthy things that didn't make yesterday's news because Reporters have early deadlines.

Scarborough Residents have a ball getting to the Rally

We Guildwood protesters got to ride down to Queens Park in a comfortable, Scarborough-based limousine for the same cost as a school bus.

This class-act was courtesy of the kind organization of Toronto Wind Action

for we Guildwood folks. We even were provided with free, iced bottled-water and a visit to a Health Food Store to buy tasty, light snacks on our way downtown. Plus we had a secure place to leave our personal belongings all day instead of having to lug them around!

All this was in addition to luxurious comfort plus fun, laughs and interesting discussion on the way down and back. (I'd have been happy to get you on if you were able to go down.)

You'll be able to access some more pics of your neigbours in action shortly. I'll let you know when & where soon.

We had lots of terrific entertainment during the Rally to add to our enjoyment. This included the song already on YouTube:

Rally Information a real eye-opener for some

The Rally was helpful in educating people like I was a year ago before I checked into what I was being told by the Government. The rally was designed to assist citizens and younger students who have been "green-washed" as well as protesting Government denial of health and other dangers with Wind Turbine Farms.

Numerous expert speakers confirmed for Rally attendees how well-meaning "green-energy" supporters have been misled by the well-connected & powerful Wind Turbine Lobby. We've been misled, they said, into mistakenly believing that everything 'green' is efficient, practical & worthwhile ...when it's not.

This anti-family Lobby, we also were told, has worked hard to confuse us about the truth around the product that its big-business members will make fortunes from at taxpayers' expense.

The Liberal Government has also conned many in Toronto into accepting that the opposition to Wind Turbines off the Scarborough Bluffs is NIMBYism, Rally-goers from other parts of Toronto and all over Ontario learned. Opposition is not only about aesthetics and view despite what Ward 43 Councillor, Paul Ainslie, allegedly said on a morning-radio show the day of the Rally.

Other expert Rally speakers, like Environmental Law Expert, Eric Gillespie, LLB, confirmed that Ontario Liberals, from Premier McGuinty on down to the newest back-bencher, have knowingly & repeatedly lied to voters when they say that Wind Farms will replace Ontario's coal-burning energy-producing plants.

It's a lie, Gillespie noted, because the Liberals all know that world-wide experience confirms this is untrue. Wind Turbines phasing out coal-burning in Ontario is a Government lie because of the inconsistent energy delivery of the wind everywhere in Ontario, Gillespie told the Rally.

The fallacies of this project off Scarborough Bluffs are confirmed because two independent and unbiased reports already have said that there is insufficient wind at the proposed Bluffs' loacation location.

Despite this, Toronto Hydro continues to waste it's customers' money because there appears to be pressure for the Bluffs project by Mayor Miller and Premier McGuinty.

In addition to the speakers, we heard letters of support read encouraging our resistance. These letters were from associations of people from Australia to the Baltic states.

These foreign writers were harmed by the very same Wind Turbine Factories in places that Ontario's Government is using as examples from Europe of Wind Farm success.

OPA is Marched-On

After the speakers, some lined-up to be let in to the Legislature. They did so while being prevented access for a long-time to the only public washrooms in the Legislature building and the Legislature's public Cafeteria. While many lined-up in discomfort and hunger, others marched to the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) further down University Ave. This is the Ontario Government group which awards lucrative contracts to wind turbine builders and developers.
Principal among these is the foreign Samsung Corporation that has been welcomed to Ontario by McGuinty et al in a non-tendered, private deal.
The Rally marchers were escorted by the police while chanting their angry slogans, blowing whistles and waving their anti-turbine placards.

John Laforet, President of Wind Concerns Ontario lead the parade. He had been invited by the OPA Chair to address OPA's Board of Directors at about the time the marchers arrived. Laforet called up to see if anyone at the OPA would come out and address the crowd.
No one would even pick up the phone inside the OPA despite Laforet's invitation to come.
We marched back in time to line up to go into the Public Gallery in the Legislature to watch the only part of the afternoon Session we were allowed to have access to.

Those of us who had not marched got inside our own Legislature only about 3:00 p.m. We were first subjected to an almost 2-hour, line-up and wait. In addition, a bureaucratic sign-in procedure was used by the courteous, sensitive & well-trained Legislature Security Guards.

The slow sign-in procedure was used not only for entry to the Legislature Gallery but, also initially, before we could get into the public cafeteria and washrooms after attending a two (2)-hour Rally.

I discovered that this seemingly harassing procedure was not normal.

When I asked why the complicated & difficult procedure was necessary, a Sergeant of the Guards' contingent politely advised me that the wait and sign-in were designed to protect us from another angry Group visiting the Legislature.

You like I would not have been amused when I soon discovered who were the only other "groups" visiting our Legislative Building on Wednesday. These groups marched past we who had lined-up for up to 2 -hours without sign-in or waiting.

These to-be-feared groups were a contingent of public school students plus a group of wheel-chair pushing-families representing the "March of Dimes". These families later were honoured in the Legislature Session. Might you have concluded, like I did, that this hassle seemed to be designed to encumber Rally attendees from getting into the building for which citizens' taxes paid and provide support? I also wondered if the Government might have requested it?

Most of the many who had marched were prevented from entering the Legislature. They were barred despite the numerous empty seats that I saw in the Gallery and it's wings which remained unfilled during the debate that many Rally attenders also came down to hear.

A not-boring but raucous debate

Those of us who got in heard the regular business of the afternoon Session after about 3:15 p.m. plus a special, two-hour debate on the Ontario Conservative Party's "Opposition Day Motion". The motion asked that the House:

Historical Municipal planning & decision-making power over Wind Turbine Farm placement was taken away by the Liberals through what many feel are the too-far-reaching and undemocratic provisions of the Green Energy Act.

Fifty-five Municipalities all across Ontario agree.

The fifty-five have each passed a motion demanding the return to local government control of what is an important health and safety issue for their local citizens. Wind Farms have had considerable negative impact on municipalities outside Toronto and on the health and property values of local citizens in Ontario's rural areas for some time.

I was shocked to see that at one point during the debate, there were only three (3) Liberals on their side of the House. Only eight (8) Liberals, were the maximum that I counted who bothered to attend at one time or another to the business of the Ontario Parliament throughout an afternoon.

And the House was conducting other business besides the Conservatives Motion. That's our government Liberal majority in non-action!

We heard several supportive speeches from the Conservatives. One excellent speech was actually delivered on your behalf. One senior Conservative front-bencher started his remarks by saying he was speaking on behalf of the citizens of our Riding, Scarborough-Guildwood. He said he was doing so because we are continuing to be robbed of representation by our own MPP, Margaret Best, on the Bluffs Wind Turbine proposal by her non-action on

our complaints.

The Conservative further pointed out that Ms. Best's non-action is particularly troublesome because her Department, The Ministry of Health Promotion, is responsible

for ensuring that Wind Turbine Farms will not endanger your family's health before they are built.

This Ms. Best has not done according to the earlier statements to the Rally by prior Deputy Deputy-Minister of Health, Dr. McMurty.

One small, ill woman reacts to lies from Liberal speakers during

Debate & pandemonium results

Near the end of the two hour debate after politely listening to Liberals defend their indefensible, anti-family actions on Wind Turbine Farms, one petite nurse in the Gallery could no longer listen politely to the lies.

She exploded when one Liberal MP, Helena Jaczek, denied that there are health problems with wind turbines.

"HOW DARE THIS GOVERNMENT!" our Gallery colleague boomed in a commanding, powerful voice that seemed to supernaturally fill the legislature. "A government which is supposed to protect us is denying that this [harm] is happening to us! How can you [Liberals] all sit there and deny what is going on? Where is my government? Where is my MPP?" That heart-felt and plaintive appeal for help and redress from a rural Ontario woman made seriously ill by a Wind Farm caused the Gallery to errupt with applause & cheering. Catcalls of "shame", "democracy gone in Ontario" and "fascist Government" rang out from the Gallery for many minutes ...until the Guards moved in.

The results of the Gallery's expulsion

We were a group of plain ordinary and very angry citizens who are sick & tired of being steam-rollered in a so-called democracy.

Based on what I later was told by a long-term member of the Ontario Legislature, most MPPs were impressed about the spontaneous & unmanipulated behaviour of our group in the Legislature Gallery.

"Some," he said, "were ecstatic!"

"It's the first time in the McGuinty Government's long reign," I was told by another, "that the Gallery has had to be completely emptied because of angry citizens demading redress from an unfelling & no-responsive Government."

More line-ups followed our being escorted five floors down to the basement of the Legislature and taken directly out a side door. We had to line up outside again, this time withoug our coats, phones and jackets, in the cold Toronto evening air before we could re-enter, three (3) at a time to reclaim our belongings.

Many would have waited in the cold for over an hour.

Hopefully you enjoyed reading & seeing the pics above. The day was an incredible lift for some battle weary residents of Toronto!