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Even Tractors
Protest WMI
Waste Management Inc. (WMI) has transferred its rail scheme of Los Angeles (LA) to Toronto, Canada. Just about the time that WMI LA managers go to trial for their illegal activities, WMI hopes that in October 2000 Toronto's city council will approve a rail plan to send one million tons per year to Kirkland Lake's old iron ore mine, Adams Mine. The
citizens of northern Ontario are up in arms
with tractor demonstrations and meetings with 3,000 in attendance. They are
pressuring
local officials who refuse to allow a referendum. For information see their
website at www.adamsmine.com.
The local provincial parliament member, David Ramsay, has also actively opposed the WMI scheme. He has called for an environmentally sound study and a district wide referendum. In addition he questioned his constituency in a survey to find that 83% of the citizens opposed the plan to insert Toronto garbage in the abandoned mine south of Kirkland Lake. Constituents returned 5,340 cards in the survey, a 32% return. Ramsay stated that "the survey method, while not perfect, certainly reflects the opinion of a representative sample of my constituents."
The New Democratic Party environmental critic Marilyn Churley also weighed in against the project. Churley at a press conference released background documents that detail criminal, antitrust and environmental cases involving Waste Management in the United States over the past 30 years. In two articles in the Toronto Sun (8/16/00 and 8/18/00) Churley also revealed that WMI gave Ontario's governing Conservative Party $73,000 in the 1999 election year. She asks, "Who will speak louder? WMI's money or the public interest? How can we trust the Conservatives to do the right thing and put a clean environment ahead of the business interests of their corporate friends?" The Sun also reported that WMI officials didn't return telephone calls. Churley said that the two needed permits from the ministry of the environment should be denied.
The Adams Mine site is now owned by Notre Development Corp, but WMI will assume ownership in October if Toronto's council approves the plan. Churley charged Notre with conflict of interest since their lawyer is also adviser to the provincial government on environmental matters and the three northern communities close to the mine site! Notre's CEO Gordon McGuinty confirmed the charge but claimed there was no conflict of interest since the company had spent $7 million and the province had taken five years on the Adams Mine proposal. On WMI McGuinty discounted their corrupt practices as "in no way negating their reputation." He said the allegations are "almost the normal course of landfill business." Nortre's corruption appears to equal WMI's!
On the technical questions of using the old abandoned mine, probably the most damaging testimony against the project comes from geologist Dr. Larry Jensen. Jensen, who worked 30 years for the Ontario Geological Survey in the Kirkland Lake area, stated in a letter to Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman that the proposal "is a disaster for the not too distant future ... for all those people and the wild life to the south and southeast ... to the mouth of the Ottawa River, an area hundreds of times larger than Toronto itself." The problem, Jensen claims, is the huge amount of water constantly draining into and out of the mine cavern. For the entire letter, see (site address)
For the sake of profit, millions estimated, WMI through its Canadian Waste subsidiary, continues to trample over citizens and the environment using political manipulation and legal bribery to meet its ends.
An update: Toronto approved the proposal but WMI rejected the contract since WMI had to accept any liability. By March 2001 the issue still was alive because of powerful forces. See Still Alive?
Another update (8/03)
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