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PRESS CLIPPINGS
City shuts out Wal-Mart foes
Store opponents told city council won't talk about court battle in
public forum
VIK KIRSCH
GUELPH (Mar 20, 2006)
Wal-Mart opponents are getting their day in court, but not in the city
council chamber.
City staff have refused to allow a delegation before council tonight to
explain a battle launched by about 16 people in the Ontario Superior Court.
They want to quash a city zoning bylaw allowing a Wal-Mart store next to
the Ignatius Jesuit Centre.
The group is arguing the store will disturb the serenity of the
religious retreat on the city's northern extreme.
The faction heard Friday the issue isn't on council's agenda despite a
request earlier in the week.
"I think that's kind of unfortunate city council can't find some way to
hear why this bylaw is being challenged," the ad hoc interfaith group's
spokesperson Bill Hulet said yesterday.
City clerk Lois Giles said council has no jurisdiction in a court matter.
"Because it's litigation and it's in the courts, we felt that we weren't
able to discuss it at a public council meeting," Giles said Friday.
Would-be delegation member Sam Turton, a practitioner of aboriginal
faith and Zen Buddhism, said he wanted to make clear to council why
meditating at the retreat would be difficult with the business bustle of
a nearby Wal-Mart.
"I think that communication's important," Turton said, adding he wanted
to impress on council the seriousness of the situation for many Guelphites.
"This (opposition) is a reflection of a large segment of the community."
Providing officials in positions of power such public feedback, he said,
is part of a healthy democracy.
Hulet dismissed a public perception that those opposing the
135,000-square-foot Wal-Mart development on religious grounds are "a
flaky bunch of people."
In truth, he said, those who provided affidavits in the court challenge
on the detrimental effects of a nearby department store comprise more
than a dozen of the city's religious leaders, including mainstream
ordained priests and reverends.
The court battle resumes tomorrow morning with an application by
Wal-Mart representatives to get official intervenor status in the case,
Hulet said.
Intervenor status would allow the discounting giant to defend the
construction underway on the Woodlawn Road site during the court case.
vkirsch@guelphmercury.com
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