RALLY MONDAY 6PM @ CITY HALL!

Hello!

As you may know, the HCBP occupation is going to court on Monday, August 10th, to fight the City’s attempt to silence us with an injunction and legal fees. 

Please come out to support us!
Monday August 10th, 10 am at the Superior Court (74 Woolwich St).

Also – we are organizing a RALLY!! 

CITY HALL (1 Carden St) 
6 PM, MONDAY AUGUST 10th

PLEASE COME OUT AND SHOW YOUR SUPPORT! 

Make this Rally the biggest that Guelph has ever seen!  Let the City see the widespread opposition to the Hanlon Creek Business Park! Bring your voices and your banners! Show the City that our resistance to the HCBP is as strong as ever, and growing by the hour!

Official court order text

The previous post of the court order was taken from someone else’s notes, so this is the official court order, minus some stuff that’s only relevant to legal submissions and cross examinations.

How you can support us

This is a simple update for all the folks out there wondering how you can help us out on the site of the occupation and in general in our collective opposition to the Hanlon Creek Business Park & sprawl in general. Here is a list of different ways you could help, but be creative, everything counts. 

• Come visit us at the front gate, just south of the subdivisions on downey rd. north of Laird rd. join us to keep watch, help us keep a strong presence and offer an opportunity for anyone to stop by and enter into dialog about the issues surrounding the Land and sprawl in Southern Ontario. We need your support, both physically and emotionally. 
• Drop off some supplies for the land defenders living on site, fresh vegetables, firewood, pc mobile phone cards, and any other thoughtful gifts are greatly appreciated and help keep moral up in camp. 
• Help us organize against this project, and other similar projects. We need more support from people off site raising awareness about the occupation, the planned development and sprawl in Southern Ontario. Protests, flyering, benefit shows, teach-in’s and indymedia are just a few ideas that would help in our efforts to protect natural sites all around us. 
• Consider helping us out financially,

-if you would like to support the legal costs for our defense, Cheques can be mailed directly to: 

 Eric K. Gillespie Professional Corporation
 10 King St. East, Suite 600, Toronto Ontario, Canada, M5C 1C3.
 Cheques can be written out to ‘Eric K. Gillespie Professional Corporation’. If you can also email us at  hcbpoccupation@gmail.com to let us know the amount you’re sending, that’ll help us determine things on our end.

 
-If you would like to support us in the costs of maintaining the camp, we accept donations at the front gate

 

 

•  We are calling for all our supporters to come to our injuction hearing on Monday August 10th, from 10 AM on in the Superior Court (74 Woolwich St.) we need your support to show the city that this is a big issue, and that they can’t just silence our opposition by slapping us with a lawsuit and criminalizing us. 
• Please don’t think of this as a complete list, what makes us so effective is that so many people are organizing against this independently of each other in collective opposition to the HCBP and sprawl in general. We need every creative means used against this project and others like it as possible. 

p.s. if you are fighting a development project within your community, WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU, it is truly inspiring to hear of other people fighting against bad development projects all across the world. Come down to the site to share with us, or if you can only reach us from a far, send us an e-mail to share with us about your communities struggle. 

A note on differentiating the HCBP occupation from other organizing against the HCBP

There are many different kinds of people in Guelph, and many different organizations and different kinds of organizing.  This occupation came about from a network of friends and allies who have watched every legal process fail us, yet wanted to take a stand and do something more to protect the land.  This has clearly spoken to many other people, and has become an effective occupation that will last at least 14 days.

Numerous groups have taken on the HCBP over the years.  Most recently people have been opposing and organizing awareness around the HCBP under the name LIMITS, which stands for Land Is More Important Than Sprawl, but this occupation was a separate event with nothing to do with LIMITS.

Guelph Mercury: Judge allows protesters to stay on Hanlon Creek lands

August 05, 2009

Thana Dharmarajah

tdharmarajah@guelphmercury.com

GUELPH — A Superior Court judge will let the occupation of the planned Hanlon Creek Business Park continue until Monday, under certain terms.

Justice Bonnie J. Wein’s order will allow no more than 30 activists and five press representatives, at any given time, on the Hanlon Creek lands.

The protesters will be allowed to remain in the area, where they have already set up tents, a shade structure, a log tower, a kitchen, a composting toilet, a handwashing and first-aid station.

Injunction adjourned for 6 days, Land Defenders granted continued occupation!

(Please forgive the lengthy and not quite so focused rundown, the author is running on one hour sleep)

Victory in court?!?  This morning we were entering the state of mind that the police tactical unit could raid us immediately upon the granting of an injunction.  And indeed they were ready and waiting in the court building, but they did not get their wish.  The courtroom was packed with 70-80 people, many of whom were new to the 7 defendants.  An enormous thank you to everyone who came out to support!

Instead of granting an injunction, the judge decided to adjourn until Monday, August 10.  Some of us didn’t sleep at all last night as we worked from 12 noon right through to 9am, preparing our legal defence in the form of affidavits.  Despite our tiredness, our spirits remain strong among the company of so many amazing people, both with us in person and in spirit.

Court Tomorrow: An Urgent Request for Support

As you may know because of earlier posts, we have a court date tomorrow regarding the injunction that the City is trying to file against us. We have a wonderful lawyer and are planning on going to court to fight against this injunction. If we win the construction stops and we stay on the land, and momentum around this issue will continue to grow. So we have an extremely important and urgent request.  We are collecting as many possible letters of support, which we will submit to the judge as affidavits.  These letters are covering a wide range of issues – from professors and experts writing about the legal and technical reasons why the HCBP should not proceed, to mothers who have brought their children to the site explaining the importance of keeping this land free of an industrial park, to neighbours writing about the special place in their hearts the site holds, to participants in the occupation explaining why this is such an important stand to make.  Basically anyone and everyone is writing in.

We ask for your support in two ways:

1) We have to be in court for 10am tomorrow morning, in downtown
Guelph, and we first need our lawyer to notarize all these letters
(they have to be signed by you as well).  We are hoping we can receive
all these letters by this evening.  If you can bring them by the site
before this evening, that would be amazing.  If you have access to a
fax machine, you can fax them to 519 836-4394.  If you would like us
to pick them up from your house, we have several vehicles we can use
to come by your home.  If you have any questions at all, please email
us at hcbpoccupation@gmail.com. 

2) If you can come to court for 10am tomorrow, please do!  Help us
pack the courtroom and show the city how much support we have.  The
location is downtown, at 74 Woolwich St., across from the River Run
Center.

Please please please, if you can help in any way, we would appreciate
it.  Most importantly, the land, the old growth forest, the hanlon
creek, would all appreciate it.  There is a lot at stake with
tomorrow’s court date.

City of Guelph moves for a $5 Million Lawsuit and Allegations of Extortion etc.

Day 6 of protecting this beautiful and sacred ecosystem.  Here we stand, growing in numbers every hour, strengthening our relationships with each other and the land, meeting new supporters and hearing their connection to the land as well, and sharing stories.

Yesterday Peter Cartwright, the General Manager of Economic Development, with Hans Loewig, the Chief Administrative Officer, one uniformed cop and one white collar intelligence officer, and two city employees, all visited the site and dropped a phone book-size motion for an injunction into our hands.  They left while ignoring our questions and Cartwright clearly has had a miserable week. This injunction will be heard in court this Tuesday, August 4, at 10am, at 74 Woolwich St., downtown Guelph.  Please come and pack the courtroom with us!  If this injunction goes through, it would mean that anyone who stays on the site after this court order would thus be in ‘contempt of court,’ and subject to imprisonment.

Also included in the injunction is notice of allegations of crimes of ‘Nuisance,’ the ‘Criminal Offence of Mischief,’ the ‘Criminal Offence of Intimidation,’ and the ‘Criminal Offence of Extortion,’ and ‘Inducing Breach of Contract.’  The City is also claiming ‘Damages in the amount of $5,000,000.00 ($5 million) for conspiracy, interference in economic relations, inducing breach of contract, trespass, nuisance, and intimidation.’ This has instead increased our numbers and support from the general public, and we have consulted with numerous lawyers who are advising us of numerous brilliant strategies.  We have some good ideas up our sleeve.  Stay tuned.

Also of note is that this injunction has been authorized by the City and Councilors.  Interestingly, the same day of the beginning of our occupation, the Council had a secret meeting.   So, depending on how you feel about the City of Guelph slapping mostly young and broke protestors with a $5 million lawsuit, perhaps you could write in to them and let them know how you feel.

Family Fun Day & Day 6: a Wild Success!

Family day went off wonderfully, with a wonderful diversity of ages, cultures, and genders.  Well over 150 people were in and out of the site throughout the day, with many babies in arms of mothers, dogs, elderly couples, and new folks.  Thank you to everyone who came out!

A huge meal was served, with soup, bread, carrot cake, deer, and much much more. People have been sharing sing alongs throughout the evening.  People are working together in ways that are rarely seen in ‘normal’ life.  This occupation is opening all of our imaginations as to what life can really be outside the confines of our roles in society and it’s normal processes.  We now have a permanent roof on our kitchen and a plethora of food, and a new structure to protect us from the sunny skies.  Some of us saw a really interesting dragonfly today with a teal body and red wings.

Support the Land Defenders

Yesterday, a supporter dropped by the site and gave us Karan Farbridges home number, because we had expressed some concerns over our trouble getting a hold of her. If you can’t reach her at her office give a call to her here to express your support of the land defenders out at the Hanlon Creek site, call 519-766-0381 and please be respectful. thanks again for all the support.