An interesting element of our modern-day wired world is the ability, at times, to read tomorrow’s news today. There were four media outlets present today at the Vancouver Island Community Forest Action Network (VIC FAN) press conference. Three of them (the Times Colonist, Goldstream Gazette, and inside Langford) have published articles on the press conference, the T-C’s to be published tomorrow, the Gazette’s to be published next Wednesday at the earliest. For those interested in comparing and contrasting the articles, here are the links.

Goldstream Gazette: Activists seek fresh Skirt Mountain public hearing

Inside Langford: City of Langford put on notice about public hearing

Times Colonist: Critics of Langford development assail mayor’s conduct

Zoe Blunt, representing the Vancouver Island Forest Action Network, delivered a letter today to the City of Langford. Upon being told that no members of Langford Council were available to receive the letter, Langford Treasurer Steve Ternent received it on behalf of the City of Langford.

Speaking with reporters afterward, with a pair of City of Langford Bylaw Enforcement officers nearby on bicycles, two local residents, flanked by supporters, shared their experiences at Monday night’s public meeting and their interpretation of provincial regulations that govern the conduct of municipalities,.

Zoe Blunt said she wanted to “let Langford know we’re not going to tolerate Langford not letting people be heard,” and that they are “putting them of notice that we won’t accept this kind of bullying behaviour.” She raised the spectre of a court challenge if the City does not agree to hold the public hearing again. “We’re hoping to get a new public hearing and a better process, one where people weren’t intimidated from speaking.”

When asked by a reporter what might happen if it goes to court, Read the rest of this entry »

A group is calling on the City of Langford to conduct a new public hearing on the South Skirt Mountain development due to apparent abuses of process that local citizens and media have identified, and raised the spectre of court action if their calls go unheeded.

At issue is Monday night’s public hearing on Bylaw 1209, for the proposed South Skirt Mountain development. A public hearing, as its name implies, is where the politicians are to hear the public. However, many argue that did not happen Monday night. A Times Colonist reporter wrote that “Mayor Stu Young berated, bullied and browbeat citizens who raised any objections.” A Goldstream Gazette reporter noted that members of the audience in the public hearing “saw a combative mayor argue with speakers,” and that the mayor, rather than listening to the public, was “occasionally straying into a lecture during the public hearing,” complained that “many of the same people were making the same protests ‘time and time again,’ ” and “implied that some residents were being hypocritical, saying homes around Florence and Langford lakes sit on long-damaged sensitive ecosystems.” Readers leaving comments on Inside Langford echoed these reports, and expressed their concern about the mayor’s behaviour. Comments from readers of the Times Colonist article on the public hearing were unusually one-sided.

In the past, public hearings in other municipalities have been overturned by the courts for something as simple as Read the rest of this entry »