Rally Against Bills 5, 6, 17 at Kitchener City Hall, 11:30am on Sat. 31 May 2025

What: Rally against Bill 5, Bill 6, and Bill 17, aka Rally for People and Planet
When: 11:30am to 2:00pm on Saturday 31 May 2025 (speeches at Noon)
Where: Carl Zehr Square, Kitchener City Hall
Location: 100 King Street West, Kitchener, Ontario Map
Website 1: https://gren.ca
Website 2: https://environmentaldefence.ca/stop-bill-5/
Contact: Kevin Thomason – [email protected]

For your safety, never register for rallies, protests, or other events where civil disobedience may occur.

We need to stop Premier Ford’s Power Grab

Premier Ford promised to protect Ontario. But now that he’s been elected, he is already breaking that promise. His latest bill would give his friends special permissions to ignore laws that protect us and our environment.

No guardrails.
No accountability.

We can’t afford to let him and his cabinet get away with this.

Kevin Thomason writes:

It has been an unprecedented week as Doug Ford has tried to ram through the horrific Bill 5 while all the opposition MPPs have worked together to do everything in their power to stop it, join the Kitchener Rally Against Bill 5 on Saturday at 12:00 noon, participate in upcoming webinars and events, speak up against Bill 17’s devastating impacts on our communities, learn about the latest very disappointing Hidden Valley loss to developers in Kitchener, the Greenbelt Scandal continues with more concerning e-mails found, and more. Here’s the latest:

1) Bill 5 Pushback Grows – There are more protests, more groups speaking out. and actions against Bill 5 the “Protect Ontario By Unleashing Our Economy Act”, a dangerous attack on our rights, environment, and democracy. First Nations, environmentalists, civil liberties organizations, labour, municipalities, and even Amnesty International have come out against Bill 5.

It was fantastic to see all opposition MPPs working together to do everything they could stop the bill this past week including an impressive filibuster at the Standing Committee meeting until midnight on Wednesday night. While the Ford government is promising amendments to try to quell First Nations concerns, Indigenous Leaders say it is too little, too late and frankly the government has made only ineffective, minor, superficial amendments as “window dressing” while completely ignoring the vast majority of concerns raised by tens of thousands of concerned citizens so far.

Protests/Rallies — There have been large protests including hundreds of people in Guelph last weekend. Please plan to join the Kitchener Protest Against:

Bill 5 — Sweeping powers to fast track development, bypass environmental protections, create law-free economic zones, ignore archeology, and violate Indigenous rights.

Bill 6 — Harsher penalties for drugs and trespass targeting homelessness with punitive measures rather than support.

Bill 17 — Prohibiting needed Green Development Standards, limiting development charges, enabling new MZO’s, encouraging dangerous inexpensive water and wastewater systems.

Date/Time: Saturday, May 31st at 12:00 noon
Location: Carl Zehr Square on King Street at Kitchener City Hall

#EnvironmentalDefence #GrandRiverEnvironmentalNetwork #GREN #KevinThomason #WaterlooRegion

Rally Against the Big Sprawl: 2pm Sat 29 July 2023 in Waterloo Park

When: 2:00pm to 4:00pm on Saturday 29 July 2023
Where: Waterloo Park
Rally Location: University Ave between Westmount and Seagram Map 1
Picnic Location: The Bandshell Map 2
Website: https://stopsprawlwr.wixsite.com/rally
Email: [email protected]

In the midst of our affordable housing and environmental crises, the Provincial government is removing land protection legislation to enable the construction of inefficient and expensive detached houses on precious farmland, the Greenbelt, and other natural spaces. This housing is not affordable for most people nor is it usually accessible by public transit.

Furthering the devastation of Bill 23, the Ontario government has already overridden the successful and strongly supported sustainable Waterloo Region and Hamilton Official Plans, forcing thousands of acres of additional unnecessary farmland loss. Now the province has proposed allowing every farm and rural property across Ontario three severances with up to 12 building lots and homes on each and every farm — forever devastating our agricultural system, impairing our ability to produce food, and threatening our groundwater aquifers.

The province is proposing full-throttle sprawl that undermines sustainable, transit-supportive, affordable communities. They want to cut policies requiring efficient growth and eliminate policies protecting environmentally sensitive areas and wetlands. The government even wants to delete the Provincial definition of “affordable housing.”

The facts are that municipalities already have enough land allocated to build over 2 million homes.

Focusing only on housing supply without considering affordability or sustainability will not fix the Page 1housing crisis. There is no need to force unsustainable boundary expansions, destroy irreplaceable farmland, remove environmental lands from the Greenbelt, and threaten our water supplies.

Concerned groups and representatives from community, environmental, affordable housing, climate change, and agricultural organizations are planning a community rally this coming Saturday, July 29th starting at 2pm along University Avenue West in Waterloo, followed by speakers and a picnic at the nearby Bandshell in Waterloo Park. Confirmed speakers include Waterloo NDP MPP Catherine Fife, Green Party Candidate Aislinn Clancy, NDP Candidate Debbie Chapman, National Farmers Union President Jenn Pfenning, and representatives from Hold The Line and ACORN.

Citizens are urged to join the rally on Saturday at 2pm with creative signs at the corner of University and Seagram Drive in Waterloo and submit comments to the Environmental Registry of Ontario prior to the August 4th deadline to help ensure numerous improvements to the proposed PPS — most importantly the full and complete removal of any sort of rural severances — upholding the No Rural Severances Policy that the Region of Waterloo and other municipalities have had in place for decades.

In summary, our members and groups want to ensure a future with sustainable, affordable, transit-supported development in complete communities on already approved lands within our current urban boundaries across Ontario.

More Info

Learn more about the event at Stop the Sprawl Rally or www.50by30wr.ca

About:

Grand River Environmental Network (https://www.gren.ca) is a grassroots community group that is a proactive voice for the environment in the Grand River Watershed.

The Nith Valley EcoBoosters (www.nvecoboosters.com) is a not for profit, non-partisan volunteer group committed to achieving and supporting a long-term healthy environment in Wilmot and Wellesley Townships through education, action and collaboration.

Keep the Greenbelt Promise (www.greenbeltpromise.ca) is a network of grassroots organizations working together to stop development in the Greenbelt, on farmland, and in natural areas.

Media Inquiries:

#democracy #environment #50by30wr #grand-river-environmental-network #gren #nith-valley-ecoboosters

https://kwpeace.ca/rally-against-the-big-sprawl-2pm-sat-29-july-2023-in-waterloo-park/

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