Posted on 02/26/2008 10:27:12 AM PST by USFRIENDINVICTORIA
Langford plans to sue a group of protesters to recover the costs of their interference in construction of the new Trans-Canada Highway interchange near Spencer Road, Mayor Stew Young says.
"It's trying to get money out of people who can't rub two nickels together, but we have to go after some of them," Young said Monday.
Langford is still negotiating with the province over who will bear the cost of a massive RCMP operation about two weeks ago in which an estimated 50 to 60 officers surrounded, and then cleared away, a tree-sit protest in the woods between Leigh Road and the highway in order to make way for the interchange.
That operation alone - in which three protesters were charged - could cost the municipality more than $100,000, Young said.
Prior to that, protesters, some covering their faces with bandanas, had turned away surveyors.
Since the operation, protesters have intermittently scaled trees and interfered with heavy equipment - sending workers home early and stopping work on the interchange that will provide secondary access to the Bear Mountain development and ease congestion on the highway.
Young said there are costs associated with the protesters' actions, and believes the municipality is within its legal rights to try to recover those costs from both the protesters themselves and the protest organizers.
"You may not be criminal, but if you put masks on and you block our surveyors and impede us ... then we can sue you for our costs. They may
not be criminally charged by the RCMP, but we're going to now go after damages," Young said.
"That's hilarious," protest organizer Zoe Blunt said yesterday when told of Langford's plans.
"I don't know what they're going to recover from people that they haven't already taken away - their backpacks, their shoes, their coats, their IDs, their wallets. I think he's beating his chest and he's trying to intimidate people."
Blunt said that unlike Young's "billionaire friends" her only asset is "a five-year-old computer." She welcomed meeting Langford's lawyers in court.
"We would like to see all the evidence of all the money that was spent and all the plans that were made and everything that had to do with the transfer of land; and all of their own assets and all of their interests they have in Bear Mountain and other resorts and other land and properties. We would like to get that all on the table," she said.
Ben Isitt, a protester and former Victoria mayoral candidate, said the move was "typical of Langford's bullying tactics to try to silence legitimate dissent."
"The campaign against the Bear Mountain interchange has been picking up steam and I think vested interests are obviously alarmed by the growing opposition so they're responding in different ways," he added.
Young said he understands that people might think the municipality is trying to intimidate protesters, but that is not the case.
"I don't want it to be a threat of a lawsuit. I'm just saying if you break the law in Langford, then I'll use whatever resources are then under the law to make sure that I recover some of the costs to the residents of Langford," he said.
Curious...how did the protesters get there? Walk? Fly?
I’m guessing they used ROADS. lol
Good one. And, if they’re like everyone else here, they cursed the delays at the intersections where there are no interchanges.
“And, if they’re like everyone else here, they cursed the delays at the intersections where there are no interchanges.”
You just can’t talk to people like that.
I don’t know much about trust funds. Registered retirement plans are protected — but, I doubt that applies to any of the protesters.
While I am not a fan of enviro protesters I have a problem with the city suing citizens expressing their rights. If they broke the law that is one thing, but the mayor said they did not. Also, I have a problem with trying to charge citizens for police services. That is why we pay taxes. There is already a conflict of interest by using the police as revenue generators for the city. Fines go up, number of citations go up. Here in Portland there is never a shortage of police on I-5, I-205, and US-26 writing speeding tickets that cost around $300. Running a red light is about the same. In the mean time there is a trend of gang members beating up commuters at light rail stops. I was in Law Enforcement for 22 years and it appears to me that, in this area at least, the trend of using the police to generate money more than to protect the citizens is worse than it has ever been. Now they are trying to get the citizens to pay the police anytime they come out for crowd control or traffic control. That is their job bought and paid for by tax dollars.
And I was wondering how they got the Trans-Canada Highway over to Vancouver Island? Somebody build a bridge I don’t know about?
It’s not a matter of interfering with the right to peaceful protest. The protesters intimidated workmen, and blockaded a major highway. If they had just marched around peacefully — no anarchist masks, no blocking traffic — then there would have been no police actions taken.
over FROGS!
geeez.
It has gotten to the point where the first think a developer should do is kill ever single living animal on the property in order to prevent any animal stopping development.
Find an owl? kill it.
Find sea turtle nests? crush them.
Find a mouse? blast away at it.
Oh, just as our State Route 20 includes the Port Townsend to Keystone ferry - when it isn’t falling apart, that is.
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