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The Coalition Against the Proposed Prison (CAPP) is a grassroots organisation engaged in a David and Goliath battle with the province to save prime agricultural land and existing heritage farm buildings of the former Kemptville Agricultural College from being paved over to build a provincial jail. It’s been a three-year fight to date, and we’ve won some battles: for example, we’ve been able to push back the timelines of the prison project and foiled an attempt by the then Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing – and our own MPP – Steve Clark to use Elections Ontario to silence us during the last provincial election. We’ve also convinced the municipality to not publicly support the prison project. Our biggest victory has been to have the courts reject the province’s initial attempt to have our current Judicial Review application summarily dismissed.

The Judicial Review application challenges the provincial government’s decision to pave over prime agricultural land. The grounds for our application are that the province failed to abide by its own Provincial Policy Statements that protect agricultural land, and did not follow the Planning Act when they failed to consult the municipality and have regard for the municipality’s Official Plan before making its decision, as required by the Act.

Our case is strong. When the province’s first reaction to our Judicial Review application was to try to get it summarily dismissed, Justice Robert Smith of the Ontario Divisional Court rejected their motion to dismiss, noting among other things that our grounds for the review were good ones. Then when the province’s second attempt to dismiss the case under the Ontario government’s new rules for judicial reviews, the panel of judges that ruled on the matter also noted that we have a good case for a judicial review. And if nothing else, the province’s determined if not desperate efforts to avoid the review show that it also knows we have a good case.

This is a costly process, but if we win, it will stop the prison project and save the farmland. It will also set a very important precedent that will be helpful to all the other Ontario groups fighting to protect farmland, green spaces, species-at-risk and watersheds across the province from undemocratic and unnecessary decisions that favour development over the protection of agricultural lands.

Even if the province succeeds in not having the Judicial Review heard in court, there are other strategies we can pursue to save the farmland.

• We can force the municipality to seek an amendment to the OP to accommodate a prison inside the town of Kemptville, which would be a public process for North Grenville residents to oppose.
• We can also raise awareness about the many species at risk that live on the proposed site.
• To build a prison on the farmland, the province would also have to divert a tributary of Barnes Creek, a Rideau River watershed creek, that cuts across the farmland site. This can be fought with a strong public awareness campaign.

So while the judicial review would stop the prison project in its tracks and save the farmland, these other strategies related to the prison project can be pursued with your help.

Together we can win the campaign to Save the Kemptville Farmland by stopping a prison project that no one asked for and experts tell us is unnecessary. We will prevent the destruction of existing farm buildings and protect plant and animal species at risk on the property. We can turn towards community-based alternatives to achieve community safety, community care and community-based alternatives to criminalization and incarceration. We will set a precedent that will help other groups across Ontario working to preserve and protect our farmlands and green spaces. It will be a great victory.

Please donate today!

Together we can stop the province from destroying farmland in Kemptville! Please donate today!

In partnership with The Coalition Against the Proposed Prison (CAPP).