Unreasonable decision

As Canadians, we have rights and freedoms for which thousands of soldiers, who put the good of the country before their own wants and needs, fought and died.

One of those freedoms was to have our day in court. To provide evidence and testimony to a judge and/or jury who would fairly evaluate that evidence and make a ruling.

As Canadians, we should all be ashamed that Christine Burke, a well owner whose water was contaminated by pump-clogging sediment, has been stripped of that right by the provincial Attorney General’s office.

A Justice of the Peace agreed in the summer she had enough evidence, before even calling expert witnesses, to proceed with her case against the wind farm companies she believes are responsible for the destruction of her well and the devaluing of her property, as well as charges against the provincial ministry that is supposed to protect our water, no matter what source it springs from.

She, with the assistance of lawyer Eric Gillespie, filed charges under the Environmental Protection Act.

Instead of having her day in court, a provincial ministry came in and told her it “wasn’t likely” she could prove her case, so her charges were withdrawn before a single word from expert witnesses.

Access to clean drinking water is a basic human right. When a 1,000-year-old aquifer suddenly starts churning out sediment and clogging well pumps across a large area, there is obviously a problem. Governments at all levels refuse to acknowledge the problem because they don’t want to look at the possible cause – wind turbine construction and operation.

Neither the health ministry, public health, the environment ministry or our municipal government will step up and say, ‘Yes, the fact these people don’t have access to clean drinking water is a problem,’ and make a commitment to helping them.

If we can’t trust our government, at any level, to protect our rights, whether it is access to clean water or to our day in court, we need to reexamine our system of government.