The injunction in Quebec Court is not against CCB or the Miller Mine. Its against the Mayor/Council and anyone else Le Gris can sue to try and stop a legal process.
Le Gris feels the Council/Mayor and whomever else agrees with the mine is not doing their Jobs, and of course by extension that means he is doing his as a protester.
So what Le Gris is doing is attempting to use the courts to prevent the lawful progress of mine development in Quebec.
So mine applicants are told You must jump through the following hoops...A...b....c....d...e...f etc
Le Gris does not like the idea that if you conform with the "LAW" that you can get your mine, assuming it meets all the regulations.
So he has decided the Quebec Courts should be the place where he finally "gets even" with the Council and Mayor.
What is amusing about this is he is going to ask the Quebec Courts to stop a process that is adhering to the letter of Quebec Law. Because he does not like the process. To wit, I say tough!
For 5 years residents like Le Gris, (who lives in Hawkesbury ON, not Grenville, decided to ignore the "noise they insist is a problem, ignore the dust they say is an issue with the road, ignore the tree cutting, ignore the blasting, ignore the drilling and channel cutting. What is amusing is Le Gris was "aghast" at what CCB had been doing for 5 years and did not know it!! YET insists the noise will be bad etc etc, which no one complained about for 5 years....strange eh?
You will note that he has 19 pictures of No Mine, thats because people who live in Grenville are not buying his scam. They know the size, they know the area and they are unconcerned. 200 people out of 3100 are being loud, which they are entitled to be. But they are not the majority and they know it. So because they could not get the community support they say they would have Le Gris has tried another tactic, which is fine.
He can use the courts to challenge the Municipalities right to approve. What he will find is it was not a right and they really could not disapprove. Mining laws are put in place to protect the process. So miners do not spend tons of money to then end up having the rules change. So the process was grandfathered. That process can be challenged but it would require the laws for mining in Quebec to be changed, again. Even if they were changed it STILL would not affect Miller. All because of the Grandfathering clause.
So to put this in perspective. If in the future ZEN attempts to develop Albany (won't happen) but assuming they did. Then they are grandfathered based on the mining law that was in place they day they started drilling. If Ontario Changes the mining law, the change only affects those that have not been Grandfathered or "future mine applications". Otherwise the moment that it destroys Grandfathering the following would occur
1) ZEN could sue for expenses up too this point which exceeds $25,000,000
2) ZEN could then sue for lost revenue, and loss of the deposit
So Clyde, you may want to gloat about the little issues we see from day to day in our mine development but these are issues that at the worst of cases would be seen as incidental. You always get groups who do not want to see a mine exist. Hence the need for Gov Control and not people control.
So Le Gris will argue that the Mayor had no right to approve. The Mayor in due course will present the facts to the Quebec court that shows he has no right to disapprove because thats how Quebec law is written. If Le Gris were to win, what he would win is a change to mining law that would allow Municipalities to stop mining. That my friend would NEVER happen but even if it happened it still would not stop Miller because of its Grandfathering position. You cannot retro actively stop a mine that has been approved under an earlier process unless you are willing to accept the financial liability that incurs.
However, I enjoy his efforts, it will remove cash from his pocket faster than a Casino will. Its literally a little justification to CCB holders to see him do this because of the distorted info he enjoys passing out, it will fit him to a tee until he has to tell the truth.... then it becomes thorny and costly.
The reason CCB is not named in Le Gris suit is because you cannot sue some one for adhering to the existing laws, you can attempt to short cct the law structure by attacking the law, but you cannot sue people for adhering to it. Here is what Le Gris is against. Lets say the speed limit is 100kmph on hwy 50, Le Gris wants to change that. He cannot sue the people do 100Kmph as they "whiz by" so he challenges the law, not the people that are adhering to it. If he were to win and get the law changed to 90kmph he then could not have the people fined who were doing 100kmph before the new law came into effect. |
