{"id":3638,"date":"2011-01-24T20:46:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-25T01:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=3638"},"modified":"2011-01-24T20:55:48","modified_gmt":"2011-01-25T01:55:48","slug":"court-challenge-to-wind-power-in-ontario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2011\/01\/24\/court-challenge-to-wind-power-in-ontario\/","title":{"rendered":"Court challenge to wind power in Ontario"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wind power has been (and continues to be) a controversial topic in the North Country. It&#8217;s a subject of debate in Ontario too, including a court case in which Prince Edward County land owner Ian Hanna is challenging current regulations governing industrial wind turbines.<\/p>\n<p>The Ottawa Citizen has an interesting article by Lee Greenberg on an<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ottawacitizen.com\/health\/Court+challenge+threatens+Ontario+wind+energy+plans\/4152749\/story.html\"> informational meeting held in North Gower<\/a>, Ontario, with an estimated 125 in attendance this past Sunday.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Wolfe Island resident Janet White painted a bleak picture of life among wind turbines. She said corporate wind developers have driven a wedge in the small community between those who oppose the development and those, like her neighbours, who support it and have allowed a company to install three turbines on their property.<\/p>\n<p>White said the Wolfe Island wind turbine developments have created few jobs or other economic benefits for the community as a whole. \u201cWe\u2019re not building anything, there\u2019s no legacy here,\u201d she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The article goes on to detail how orthopedic surgeon and former medical school dean Dr. Bob McMurtry went from wind power fan to critic.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>After spending more than 2,000 hours researching the issue, he concluded that people living within two kilometres of the turbines are in danger of experiencing adverse health effects.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Greenberg has a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ottawacitizen.com\/Ontario+lawyer+challenges+credibility+leading+witnesses+challenge+wind\/4159696\/story.html\">follow-up article<\/a> which presents an over-view of Monday&#8217;s actual court proceedings. Ontario government lawyer Sara Blake discounted the testimony presented by McMurtry and two other physicians that questioned current safety standards.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Blake said McMurtry expresses opinions in a deposition that he is not qualified to give.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is pure advocacy,\u201d she told a three-member panel at Osgoode Hall in Toronto Monday. \u201cHe is not an expert &#8230; It is the belief of a passionate person.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Hanna&#8217;s attorney Eric Gillespie countered with criticism of how existing regulations were enacted.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>(Gillespie took)<\/em>&#8230; issue with the fact that a planning expert \u2014 and not a public health expert \u2014 reviewed the science on the impacts of turbines.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn a matter of human health it is not enough to have a land use planner say we considered it,\u201d he said in court.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div>According the the article, it is unknown when the three-judge panel may issue a ruling on the one-day hearing. Ontario&#8217;s Attorney General has also argued for turning the matter over to an environmental tribunal.<\/div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ottawacitizen.com\/Ontario+lawyer+challenges+credibility+leading+witnesses+challenge+wind+farm\/4159696\/story.html#ixzz1C0NSGdBE\"><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wind power has been (and continues to be) a controversial topic in the North Country. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[5599,5601,5597,5384],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3638"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3639,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3638\/revisions\/3639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}