Anti-highway
group blocks construction
Second day of protests
City of Hamilton threatens lawsuits Aug. 7, 2003
Toronto Star
HAMILTON,
Ont.— For the second day running protestors yesterday prevented
construction crews from starting work on a $200 million expressway
that will cut through green space in the east end of the city.
Some
two dozen protesters twice blocked a construction truck from entering
the Red Hill Valley near Greenhill Ave. During the second confrontation
police warned protest leaders they could be arrested or sued by
the city. The
long planned Red Hill Creek Expressway is a north-south road through
the valley that will connect the Queen Elizabeth Way in east Hamilton
to the Lincoln M. Alexander Parkway running across the south end
of the city to Highway 403 in Ancaster.
Proponents
say the project will ease congestion on existing roads, improve
access to Hamilton Airport and literally pave the way for thousands
of new jobs and new homes above the Niagara Escarpment. Opponents
complain it will destroy the last large green space in east Hamilton
for the benefit of developers and Michigan-to-New York truckers
seeking a shortcut around the Burlington Bay Skyway.
Project
manager Chris Murray met for three hours with representatives
of several anti-expressway groups and native people, achieving
only an agreement to talk further. The two sides remain on a collision
course. Murray
said he's under city council orders to build the road, and his
company, Dufferin, has a contractual obligation to start work
on a bridge and ramps for the expressway. "I'm not telling
Dufferin to stop construction. They're to continue to attempt
to do that work."
George
Sorger, a McMaster University biology professor representing the
protestors called on elected councillors yesterday to "drop
their contempt of us" and talk.
Another
protestor, David Heatley argued the pickets have a permit from
the hereditary Six Nations Confederacy, while the city is trespassing
on traditional native hunting and fishing territory.
CN
Rail has begun shifting its mainline track near the northern end
of the expressway route, and construction of an interchange at
the south end is underway, but the Greenhill site is the first
substantial work in a natural, wooded area.
Protesters
let surveyors walk into the valley Tuesday morning, but would
not allow a pickup truck carrying rolls of plastic construction
fencing.
Last
Thursday, the city threatened to arrest protesters or sue them
and seize their houses if construction is slowed or stopped.
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