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September
23, 2003
UGLY ATTACKS ON VALLEY SUPPORTERS
The
Hamilton Spectator is reporting that Ward 4 Councillor
Sam Merulla has sent a letter to other councillors calling
for the City to try and squeeze $235,000 out of the six
citizens who volunteered to represent the public interest
in the recent injunction case. This is apparently the amount
spent by the Toronto legal firm that sent seven lawyers
to court to obtain a garden variety injunction. The six
citizens represented themselves in court and spent less
than $500 on their defence, supplemented by advice freely
provided by public-spirited lawyers.
Merulla’s
demand should be understood as part of an increasing hate
campaign being waged against anyone who disagrees with the
expressway project. To try and foment public anger, Merulla
makes the absurd claim that protests have cost the City
“millions of dollars”. Here he is taking his cue
from Councillor Larry DiIanni (who’s running for mayor).
DiIanni recently declared on CBC Radio that opponents of
the expressway “have literally cost the City millions
of dollars in obstruction costs”.
DiIanni
has also enthusiastically endorsed a recent letter in one
of the local weekly papers that called on the City to “inflict
the furthest, hardest financial and custodial sentences
available in this great land on every single individual
who impedes the construction of this expressway in any way.”
The letter writer demanded that opponents of the expressway
not only be sued by the City, but also “be incarcerated
at their own cost”.
There
is one bright spot in Merulla’s letter. He seems to
be actually suggesting that Councillors should make the
decision about the City’s punitive attacks on its citizens,
instead of lawyers and bureaucrats. It was the latter who
wrote and approved the July letter that threatened to sue
people for millions and take away their homes if they dared
oppose the expressway. They may also have been the source
of mid-August decision to hire 50 thugs to “take out”
the occupants of the Roundhouse — a wild scheme that
was thwarted by the Hamilton police department. The authors
of this scheme have not been revealed, but like everything
that has happened in the past eight weeks, it was not discussed
or approved in a public City Council meeting.
Citizens
must vigorously oppose the revenge plans of Merulla and
DiIanni. They are a serious threat against everyone who
dares to have an opinion different from these self-annointed
dispensers of punishment. Their activities underline the
necessity of getting involved in this fall’s city council
elections and ensuring that we get some desperately needed
improvements at City Hall.
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