Citizens’ action group called ‘terrorists’ by Canadian wind industry member 

January 18 Toronto – Wind Concerns Ontario, the province’s wind action umbrella group has called on the president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association to condemn a stunning assertion by its member John Andrews of IPC Energy. Andrews, in a statement yesterday, declared that Wind Concerns Ontario is ‘a group of terrorists’.

John Laforet, president of the volunteer association stated, “As a member of the Canadian Wind Energy Association, John Andrews should be held to some standard by the industrial wind lobby, which represents his interests on his behalf. This violent rhetoric damages the image of the industry as a whole.” John Laforet said.

Two days prior to John Andrews ‘terrorism’ outburst, Mr. Laforet read three inflammatory emails his organization had received from Andrews to a room of 200 concerned residents in Wainfleet, where Andrews is proposing an industrial wind plant.

“This is perhaps the most egregious thing that has been uttered by anyone from the wind industry during the debate that has been raging in this province for the last four years,” said John Laforet.

Terrorism can be defined as ‘violence against civilians intended to intimidate a population or a government from taking or abstaining from an act.’ This does not represent the peaceful, concerned citizens of rural Ontario in any way.

“First the Wind Industry lobbies government to have our towns stripped of local planning control over industrial wind turbines. Those decisions are now made behind closed doors at Queen’s Park. They extract billions of taxpayers’ dollars to pad their bottom line and the decisions are not subject to freedom of information requests. Then the Wind Industry actively opposes proper scientific study to prove the validity of their claims and proceeds to label opponents of their corporate welfare schemes as violent killers. It is unacceptable conduct.”

In September 2009, CanWEA’s, Robert Hornung, was asked directly by Wind Concerns Ontario if CanWEA has a code of conduct. The reply was no they did not but they were working on it. “They need to work a lot harder on it and quickly,” stated Laforet.

The unprofessional and inappropriate nature of John Andrews’ comments cap a string of bizarre emails he has been sending slurs about Wind Concerns Ontario such as ‘fear mongering’, ‘a litany of lies’, ‘uneducated self-indulgent bullies’ ‘childish behaviour’ and in one, making a request that Wind Concerns Ontario ‘not hijack’ a meeting. The
inflammatory language and at times violent imagery being presented by this individual is concerning to members of our organization who seek only the right to have science based decisions made about or energy future and local democracy restored to planning. In the meantime families in rural Ontario are abandoning their homes and suffering serious adverse health effects because industrial wind turbines have come to their communities.

Wind Concerns Ontario represents fifty-five volunteer run, community-based groups opposing irresponsibly planned renewable energy developments in Ontario. The group seeks the restoration of local planning control to municipalities over renewable energy developments, independent science based studies to determine the impact and merits of large-scale industrial wind development in Ontario.