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Quarry warriors

Ontario farmers, aboriginal leaders, and environmentalists gathered outside the provincial ministry of environment Thursday to protest against a proposed quarry that they say will wreak havoc on their land and community.

“We are here educating Ontario so that we can come together, and the people of Ontario will hopefully understand what’s going on and demand a stop to it immediately,” said Danny Beaton, a native environmentalist and artist who helped organize the protest.

Roughly 100 people took part in the demonstration, and given that Thursday was the hottest day in Toronto in living memory, just being there showed considerable dedication. Beginning at noon, they stood outside for over an hour listening to speeches and chanting. Earlier this year the same group marched from Queen’s Park to the proposed quarry site. It took them five days.

The site that the Highland Companies group wants to dig on lies about 104 km north of Toronto near Melancthon Township, and the project being proposed is massive. It would cover over 2,300 acres and sink 61 metres into the ground. Highland would pump 600 million litres of groundwater out of the huge pit each day in order to extract an estimated 1 billion tonnes of aggregate, the crushed rock material used to make concrete.

The aggregate industry in Ontario is worth $1 billion a year and employs 16,600 people. With the GTA’s booming construction market consuming 184 million tonnes of the aggregate each year, the province is desperate to find a new, nearby source for the material.

Environmental groups like the David Suzuki Foundation say the Melancthon quarry would severely disrupt the local water supply, harming the environment and threatening the livelihood of local farmers. The headwaters of seven rivers are located in the region.

A report commissioned by Highland however found that the quarry would do minimal damage. Its authors concluded “the Proposed Melancthon Quarry will not cause any significant negative impacts on the agricultural resources of the … surrounding farm operations.”

Carl Cosack, a farmer and leader of the Preservation for Agricultural Lands Society, told the protesters that Highland isn’t telling the truth. “They’ve hired the biggest PR firm on the continent to sugar coat the facts,” he said. “They’ve been asked to make sugar cookies out of dog poop.”

While the quarry is still in the initial phases of the government licensing process, protesters are demanding the province reject the permit outright.

After standing outside the ministry building in the baking heat, the protestors walked the short distance to Queen’s Park, where they called on Premier Dalton McGuinty to take action to stop the quarry.

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