September 29, 2019
Ontario
Ontario
Story bigger than ‘just a man who showed his ass,’ says turbine project neighbour who denies ‘mooning’ crew
Nation Valley News | September 28, 2019 | nationvalleynews.com
Nation Valley News | September 28, 2019 | nationvalleynews.com
NORTH STORMONT – The stress and noise of living near three industrial turbine construction sites fanned a local man’s frustrations to the point of showing “not even half a moon” to a Nation Rise project worker while they mutually pointed cameras at each other.
So says Randy Lamb, 52, nonetheless now accused with the whole Criminal Code charge of “Indecent Exhibition” after the Sept. 21 incident in North Stormont, where contractors for EDP Renewables are currently building the biggest wind farm to be erected solely during the tenure of Ontario’s Ford government.
“It wasn’t really a moon. I pulled my track pants down near my hip, an inch, if that,” he told NVN this week, describing the charge as “ridiculous.”
Also accused of Causing a Disturbance, Lamb says it’s the din of a multi-million-dollar construction project unfolding around his home that’s causing the actual disturbance.
Precursor to the OPP arriving at his property was two weeks of construction activity, daily from 6:45 a.m. until 8 p.m., he says, “with vehicles on the left side of my house, the right side of my house, and in my backyard, constantly, humming and humming … and that big giant vacuum.”
On one occasion, the hum of an idling excavator woke him up at 7 a.m., a machine that sat running unattended for three hours, according to Lamb, who also complains of exhaust fumes.
He adds, “I was getting stressed and the noise was getting to me.”
Work was again underway at that hour on the morning of Saturday the 21st, he says. Again awakened by the noise, his complaint to the crew, he claims, elicited only smiles and laughter. Later, he says he heard excavator operators making whooping sounds. He believes they were mocking him, possibly because of the anti-wind-turbine signs festooning his property.
“Another one walked by my house, by my barn, and he looked at me sitting on my step with a big ear-to-ear smile,” Lamb says. “They were mocking me. So I go out there with my camera, taking pictures of all their work, then the big turbine boss with the white hat takes his camera out and takes a picture of me.
“So I said, ‘You want an [expletive deleted] picture? ‘Here.’
“I gave him a finger and … showed him not even half a moon.’”
Lamb places the event in the context of the upset experienced by himself and some others in North Stormont as construction on the 29-turbine wind farm proceeds – and much more than the bare police report that simply put his name out there with the indicated charges.
“It’s a pretty big story than just a man who … showed his ass,” he asserts. Maintaining his innocence, he insists “it wasn’t a full [expletive deleted] moon! … It was hardly even a moon.” Wearing a legal g-string would have exposed more than he did, Lamb adds.
Const. Tylor Copeland of the SD&G OPP confirms the incident “involved the wind construction folks” in North Stormont but couldn’t “get into the evidence” against the accused “so his exact actions won’t be disclosed.”
Ruby Mekker, a critic of the ongoing project, said Lamb’s residence is surrounded “on all four sides” by turbine sites. A lot of the recent work involves trenching for cables, she said.