"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Wednesday 24 April 2013

Different Faces Same Old Spaces Between the ears.

Last night's debate on the Bell Communication tower on Bathurst Street was interrupted  frequently with hard ,prolonged  belligerent applause.

The scene has been repeated many times in the Council Chamber.  At times it seems the only thing missing is the  sound of jack boots pounding on the floor.

An emergency meeting has been called  to decide if the town should spend money on legal fees to file an injunction to stop Bell from continuing  construction.

In brief, the story is as follows;

The tower is in King. Industry  Canada  has authority . King was notified and asked to comment.

A sign was posted on the property informing of the application.

Twenty  residents within a certain radius, were notified.

An Open House was held in June in a venue in King. Two residents from Aurora attended. The meeting was re-scheduled  for August. No residents attended.

The sign was not convenient to read from a passing car.

Now construction is under way  and weeping and wailing and gnshing of teeth is heard throughout the immediate neighborhood,

 Aurora Councillors received a stream of e-mails full of accusations of negligence and failure to look out for the interest of the residents and other sundry insults.

One woman sent a photo taken from inside her home showing a simple structure barely showing above a tree line and demanded to know  "How would you like to see this from your stairs.?"

Prominent  in the picture are three beautiful windows and a fine deck outside awaiting warm weather.

A couple of Councillors have jumped on the bandwagon and declared the town culpable.

The loudest cheers of  all greeted a proposal  to spend town resources to  force Bell to take down that tower.

We've been here before. Many times.

 A former mayoralty candidate limped into office with votes from people who sucked in her promise to get the power lines in the  transmission corridor buried .

It never happened. Homes are still occupied despite claims  of studies proving children' s health was at risk .

Public resources were spent.

Power  lines were not buried. But the candidate who  won on the promise was well and truly in the next election .

Now we have almost the exact scenario repeating itself.

To-night ,we will discover how far it will play itself put.


20 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure that an injunction can be obtained by one municipality to stop construction in another. More legal stuff I didn't need to know but will soon. The rush might not be practical either. A lawyer has to be selected & do his/her research and a judge has to be found & time arranged. If it is Newmarket court, we have good & bad judges in the pot.
That really nasty bit about bringing in outside people to investigate what Aurora's staff have or might have done should be cut off at the pass. It is disgusting and cheap.

Anonymous said...

So who wrote: "At this time of crisis residents need leadership, not finger pointing. The mayor's response is bitterly disappointing to many."
Why our very own Councillor Ballard- the one with all his fingers pointing. He seems to jump on every bandwagon 1/2 supporting the citizens and 1/2 using it as a cause to point the finger at either the Mayor, other councillors, Town management or staff. In the same breathe he'll state how do we prevent this from happening and who do we blame. While it may appear to ciitzens that he has good intentions, I sometimes feel he is using it as political fodder. Just an opinion.

Anonymous said...

It was just like when that woman appeared with a photo of HER tree on which an owl would sit before Beacon Hall reminded her that it was THEIR tree and cut it down. The owl just moved farther down the road to our place. She can probably see it when she walks along the street.

Anonymous said...

Ah , shades of the past , the nimbi’s descend on the Town like a pack of wolfs ready to devour the lowly politicians who have not one iota of authority to intervene , But wait bring in her majesty ,surely it can be stopped ,surely with enough lawyers and the town treasury to back them this wrong can be righted,
lets take up the cause its sure to win votes,

Anonymous said...

The EX did not take up the cause when those trees were cut down on Bayview.Oh,she stood amongst them after the fact ,and yet a citizen spoke up about enviornmental concerns .She explained to them what a SLAPP suit was.We need a Mayor with courage and a little class next election.Not bullies and the ignorant.

Anonymous said...

Let the Aurora resident that doesn't own a cell phone cast the first stone!

Anonymous said...

Sorry. Ballard has only managed to make Aurora look stupid. Something we really did not need after all the notorious lawsuits of the recent past. King's council staff did what they could and so did ours. No one needs to be pilloried in our non-existent town square.

Anonymous said...

Ballard is out of bounds with this and I have told him so.

The tower is in King. King did what they were obligated to do. This is a federally regulated industry.

Suck it up Cranberry trail.

Anonymous said...

In one of his earliest books, Farley Mowat wrote about how wolves will pee on any territory that they wish to claim as their own. Aurora is getting thoroughly pissed upon by C. Ballard.

Anonymous said...

This is quite odd. I live within spitting distance of the that tower. Who are all these people who are claiming to speak for me & my family? There were no votes for Councillor Ballard from our residence.

Anonymous said...

The only councillor at the meeting without is doing their homework is Evelyn Buck. She has not done any research, looked into the matter, seen the tower or made any suggestions on how to proceed. She is unprepared, uninformed and irrelevant. Only ignorant people would want to have such an eyesore and health risk near their neighbourhood.

Anonymous said...

Ballard's Tower of Babel ?

Kelli said...

I cannot believe we are even spending one ounce of time on this issue. Ballard keeps arguing these meaningless topics because he is not intellegent enough to tackle the real issues this town has!

Anonymous said...


There are some wealthy and very influential King families living immediately adjacent to the tower, and they could not do anything to change or influence or fight the tower. The 10 Aurora families contacted by Bell, only 2 attend the initial meeting, both too busy to follow up on next meeting( at cottage)Why didn't any of the 10 Aurora households contact King City or Aurora Councillors and staff when they received letters from Bell? John Cunningham mentions 100s of homes being negatively affected by this tower. Really? Why did this loud and unruly group not descend on King Townships council meeting to ask for help? Are the residents that are really concerned with this willing to pony up funds to help fight this? Let's put our money where our mouths are. Maybe start with a few over zealous councillors to see how much they would personally contribute. I like the idea of working with Industry Canada and Bell to see this doesn't and can't happen again, but that's it. Please don't spend my tax dime on trying to move the tower, it is not a municipal problem.

Anonymous said...

10:34... What is the health risk? There is a cell antenna built on top of the water tower in the Bathurst/McClellan area. If there was a health risk, why would former councillor MacEachren be living in it's shadow?

Anonymous said...

10:34 AM
Good luck with your whacky attitude. There is no way to proceed. Bite the bullet. That tower will always be a reminder of Ballard's folly in trying to stop the unstoppable. Like the chicanes were for Morris.

Anonymous said...

Ballard will not pony up a single dime. He got hit with that Bullfrog wager where he pledged his Christmas money. That's if you believe him, which I don't.

Anonymous said...

Dear 10:34am,
RF Towers ARE NOT HEALTH RISKS. Your TV, FM radio and cellphone have far more health risks than this tower. Any homeowners on Cornerridge that use cellphones should switch providers in protest, or better yet, stop using their phones completely! Yeah right!That would do about as much good as this stupid injunction could. This whole argument at council stinks of NIMBY.

Anonymous said...

Come on 10:34 AM. Is this about the cell tower or your admiration for Councillor Buck?

Anonymous said...

I find it ironic that at the same meeting, a residents group from Newmarket concerned about development in Aurora bordering their properties was given short shrift and basically told to 'take a hike.'