In spite of a move by the proponents’ lawyer to block testimony by expert witnesses called by the appellant, the Association to Protect Amherst Island, and further to disallow testimony of 30 residents of Amherst Island who have logged sightings of the endangered Blandings turtle, the Tribunal ruled today that the witness testimony would be heard.
The hearings in this matter have already begun, with a site tour on Monday and proceedings yesterday; the appeal will now likely take longer than the four days originally allowed.
The tribunal ruling is an important step in that allows actual residents of the affected community to be heard during the appeal.
For more information on the wind power project and Amherst Island, check the APAI website here: http://protectamherst.yolasite.com/
4 Comments
Mike Jankowski
This is, of course is a step in the right direction, but I fear pages of the material will be striken and the proponent will promise to build a recreation club for turtles and all will be forgotten…
Keeping hoped high and expectations low.
Wind Concerns Ontario
The fact that it happened is a step forward. There is no “silver bullet” in this struggle but every step forward counts.
wgulden
If you want to see a map of where the Blandings Turtles were seen on Amherst, go to
http://amherstislandwindinfo.com/turtles/turtle-maps-d02.htm.
There’s good reason the proponent wants to suppress this information.
Richard Mann
What happened to the MNR turtle expert (Joe Crawley?) who testified at the Ostrander Point tribunal? Will they be called as a witness here? Will the government be called upon to produce the missing documents (from 2010?). The absurdity of the ERT continues…