Bitter, cold: anti-Wynne/wind turbine protest at Queen’s Park

Hundreds of people from rural Ontario piled into buses to Toronto, and on a freezing and windy February 24, gathered in front of the Ontario Legislative Building at Queen’s Park, and then at the Royal York Hotel, to protest against the Liberal’s Green Energy Act and to condemn Premier Kathleen Wynne’s continued cold-hearted proliferation of destructive, extremely harmful and utterly useless industrial wind turbines in the Ontario landscape. The monster machines have made life a special kind of hell for the people living in their midst, and represent a horrendous, possibly corrupt economic, environmental and fiscal Liberal boondoggle.

Urbanites should scroll down and take a good look at the faces of these brave people whose communities are being turned into industrial wind factories, and whose health, livelihood, quality of life, community harmony, wildlife, environment, and property values are being systematically destroyed.

Meanwhile, electricity costs are going through the roof and will continue to climb every time a useless, giant wind turbine, with its 20-year guarantee of above-market returns for the (often foreign) owners is erected. Everyone in Ontario except the wind turbine owners and their government enablers loses.

How much longer are we in Ontario going to tolerate this absolutely insane, toxic and corrupt situation?

Above: In front of the Ontario Legislative Building at Queen’s Park. A sign reads: “Ontario paid Americans to take $120 million worth of our electricity in December while Toronto froze” (when the heat and lights shut off during the huge ice storm).

Above: At Queen’s Park protesters braved freezing temperature and icy wind chill.

Above: At Queen’s Park protesters heard stories of personal tragedy, politicians’ promises, and news giving hope that the destructive tide of fake-green alternative energy scams such as wind power may be turning. Rural residents have been trying to make their voices and complaints heard for years, but the government has responded with silence, brush-offs, platitudes, and even more undemocratic regulations favouring wind companies. Urbanites must make an effort to research and become aware of the tragedy taking place in their backyard and join the demand for a moratorium on new wind projects and a halt to the costly and useless operations currently underway.

Above: At Queen’s Park a variety of speakers addressed the crowd. A report on what they said and promised to come in a future post.

Above: Following the speeches, the protesters marched from Queen’s Park ten blocks down University Avenue to demonstrate in front of the Royal York Hotel. They were kept safe from traffic by police mounted on bicycles.

Above: On the march down to the Royal York Hotel, protesters handed out leaflets to Toronto passersby. This one refers to the fact that each industrial wind turbine requires 800 tons of concrete for its base. Green, eh? Three turbines are planned to be built over an aquifer that supplies water to Walkerton, with its horrific, lethal, contaminated water tragedy of 2000 still fresh in the community’s memory. Protesters said that the government does not require that the concrete, which apparently contains heavy metals and toxic chemicals, be removed when the turbines are decommissioned.

Above: Arrival at the Royal York Hotel where a meeting of politicians, NGOs and Premier Wynne was reportedly taking place.

Above: Protesters bear witness in front of the Royal York Hotel.

Above: Edvard Munch’s The Scream effectively conveys the existential horror that rural Ontarions must endure under the relentless, implacable, seemingly unstoppable industrialization of the countryside.

Above: Landowners could simply have said “NO” to wind operators, but communities that declare themselves “Unwilling Hosts” carry no weight under the draconian, undemocratic dictates of the Green Energy Act which gives industrial wind turbines unprecedented rights.

Above: Industrial wind turbines despoil the natural beauty of the Ontario landscape, in addition to all the other evils the monster machines represent. This signs sums up what it means for tourism.

Above: A study, entitled ‘Wind Turbine Noise, Sleep Quality, and Symptoms of Inner Ear Problems’, funded by the University of Waterloo and the Ontario Ministry of Environment found statistically significant results for sleep, vertigo and tinnitus: “All relationships were found to be positive and statistically significant.” The Ontario Ministry of the Health and Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health do not seem to be overly troubled by this report. No health studies were done before industrial wind turbines began to infest rural Ontario.

Above: A call to action.

Continue to Part 2 for text and video of speakers.