{"id":919232,"date":"2022-12-14T11:10:05","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T11:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/environmentaldefence.ca\/?p=37166"},"modified":"2022-12-14T11:10:05","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T11:10:05","slug":"environmental-defence-and-democracy-watch-call-for-opp-investigation-of-insider-information-leaks-to-sprawl-developers-in-advance-of-greenbelt-land-removals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/12\/14\/environmental-defence-and-democracy-watch-call-for-opp-investigation-of-insider-information-leaks-to-sprawl-developers-in-advance-of-greenbelt-land-removals\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental Defence and Democracy Watch call for OPP investigation of insider information leaks to sprawl developers in advance of Greenbelt land removals"},"content":{"rendered":"
ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE, DEMOCRACY WATCH<\/p>\n
Toronto | Traditional territories of the Huron-Wendat, the Anishnaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Chippewas and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation \u2013 Today, Environmental Defence and Democracy Watch called on the Ontario Provincial Police to investigate whether the provincial government’s apparent leak of secret plans to allow residential development on 15 specific areas within the Greenbelt amounted to a criminal breach of trust by a public officer. It seems very likely that before any authorized public <\/i>disclosure of the province’s plans to remove these specific lands from the Greenbelt, some government official, government MPP\u00a0or employee leaked that information privately.<\/p>\n
Recent investigative reporting by the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, The Narwhal, and CBC, has revealed multiple transactions to purchase Greenbelt land conducted prior to the November 4th announcement of the plan to remove 15 parcels of land from the protected Greenbelt. These transactions would seem to have been irrational if all the parties were unaware that these Greenbelt lands would<\/i> be proposed for removal.<\/p>\n
Prior to November 4th \u2013 and continuing right up to that day \u2013 publicly-available information regarding the present and future status of these Greenbelt lands offered no rational basis for prospective purchasers to expect that significant residential, commercial or industrial development of these lands would be permitted at any <\/i>time in the foreseeable future.\u00a0 On the contrary:<\/p>\n Given that the integrity of the Ontario government\u2019s policy making process is essential and fundamental to ensure the public interest is upheld and protected, and the significant potential negative financial, social and economic consequences of the decisions in question for other landowners and the Ontario public, it is imperative that the OPP investigate whether this apparent leak of the government\u2019s secret plans to break its Greenbelt pledge constituted a criminal Breach of Trust by Public Officer, contrary to s. 122 of the Criminal Code<\/i> of Canada:<\/p>\n The questions that should be addressed in the OPP\u2019s investigation include:<\/p>\n QUOTES:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cRemoval of thousands of acres of legally protected farmland, forests and wetlands from the Greenbelt threatens us all. A government doing so in a manner shrouded in secrecy that appears to benefit a select group of property owners, including recent purchasers, needs to be thoroughly investigated by the OPP,\u201d said Tim Gray, Executive Director, Environmental Defence.<\/p>\n “The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that it damages our democracy if a situation even appears to raise questions about the integrity of a government policy-making process, and that law enforcement must be strict and strong to prevent this damage, so given the Greenbelt policy change smells badly, the OPP must investigate,” said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch.<\/p>\n ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca<\/a>): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.<\/p>\n ABOUT DEMOCRACY WATCH (democracywatch.ca<\/a>): Cleaning up and making governments and corporations more accountable to you, and making Canada the world’s leading democracy.<\/p>\n \u2013 30 \u2013<\/p>\n For more information or to request an interview, please contact:<\/p>\n Allen Braude, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca<\/a><\/p>\n Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch, info@democracywatch.ca<\/a><\/p>\n The post Environmental Defence and Democracy Watch call for OPP investigation of insider information leaks to sprawl developers in advance of Greenbelt land removals<\/a> appeared first on Environmental Defence<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n This post was originally published on Environmental Defence<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE, DEMOCRACY WATCH Toronto | Traditional territories of the Huron-Wendat, the Anishnaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Chippewas and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation \u2013…Read More<\/a><\/p>\n The post Environmental Defence and Democracy Watch call for OPP investigation of insider information leaks to sprawl developers in advance of Greenbelt land removals<\/a> appeared first on Environmental Defence<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":713,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[529,24076],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919232"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/713"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":919233,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919232\/revisions\/919233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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