www.hcbpoccupation.wordpress.com
On July 27, 60 people took over the construction site for the Hanlon Creek Business Park (HCBP) in Guelph, Ontario. For more information, please see www.hcbpoccupation.wordpress.com, as well as videos of our other press conference, available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leWEl0DaAj4 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDHxjnEXRtU.
This press conference took place on August 28 in front of Guelph's city hall. In attendance were:
* Jim Bogart, Professor emeritus of the University of Guelph, Jefferson Salamander expert, and author of the Jefferson Salamander's Recovery Strategy
* Two members of the hoskanigetah of the Grand River
* Shabina Lafleur-Gangji and Matt Soltys, two Guelph residents who have been involved in organizing around the HCBP and were participants in the occupation.
This press conference came just after Liberal MPP and Minister of Natural Resources Donna Canfield gave permission for the City to continue work on the HCBP. Part of the intent of the press conference was to let people know about the contradictions between her decision and the prior position of the Guelph MNR, as well as the needs of the Jefferson Salamander to survive.
The two members of the hoskanigetah of the Grand River provided information about their perspectives as Indigenous people who live downstream of Guelph. They also speak about the Haldimand Tract and the Two Row Wampum, two very important things that everyone living in Guelph and the surrounding area should know about.
People from Guelph have been building relationships with the hoskanigetah for a while now, dating back to their opposition to a garbage dump in Cayuga (which you can read about here: http://intercontinentalcry.org/six-nations-concerns-over-edwards-landfill and here: www.peaceculture.org/drupal/node/106). We have been similarly building an alliance in opposition to the HCBP.
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The HCBP is a proposed 675-acre industrial park that has been hotly contested for years. Opposition has significantly increased in the last year, due to numerous ecological and social reasons. When people took to the land, it was after every other 'democratic' and legal process had been exhausted. The occupation attracted an amazing amount of widespread support from people who are tired of politics and business-as-usual.
People lived collectively on the land for 18 days, creating a temporary autonomous space complete with a kitchen, compost toilet, strawbale structure, and many other facets of living light on the land. During this time, people were going door-to-door talking with folks, organizing demonstrations, tabling downtown, at the farmer's market, and at other events, organizing a legal defense, creating media, and learning about and connecting intimately with the land around them.
The land is vital for many reasons, including:
* the presence of and Old Growth Forest with trees up to 500-600 years old,
* a headwater tributary of the Hanlon Creek, which feeds into the Speed and Grand Rivers,
* habitat for numerous animals, including 112 species of birds, 16 species of mammals, and 20 species of reptiles and amphibians, including Federally and Provincially protected species like the Jefferson Salamander and the Western Chorus Frog,
* Provincially Significant Wetlands, and
* the Paris-Galt Moraine, which is an extremely important groundwater recharge zone.
Beyond that, the social reasons for opposition are lengthy as well; there have been so many amazing people involved in opposing the HCBP that it would be impossible to list all the reasons why. People are tired of Southern Ontario being turned into an industrial wasteland, rationalized as 'economic development.' People are tired of the greenwashing and spin from Guelph's City hall, that tries to come across as a 'green' city, while wanting to attract biotechnology as well as heavy industry. People are tired of the earth being treated as a 'resource' instead of a sacred home that deserves respect.
All in all, this story is far from over. For more information please visit www.hcbpoccupation.wordpress.com, and/or email hcbpoccupation@gmail.com.
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