Letters

Erosion of Democracy?

July 17, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Sheralyn Roman

Well, well, well – that was something else. That was both an example of democracy in action and its exact opposite, a crackdown on the right to free speech. What am I talking about? The July 8 meeting of Council that saw an estimated 150 to 200 people turn up to express their concern on a land use proposal.

In what turned out to be no ordinary meeting of Council, those seeking to exercise their democratic right to participate in municipal government were effectively silenced as together, with the assistance of Caledon OPP, many of those same 150+ people were removed from Council chambers. Along with concerns about the erosion of Caledon’s existing greenspace, so too should Caledon residents be concerned about the erosion of the democratic process here.

Caledon is truly in crisis.

We have an abundance of land and everyone wants a piece of it. We have a nine-person Council who consistently seem to vote 5-4 on most major issues.

We have quarries and pits – old, abandoned ones, currently working ones and proposed new ones that will blast well below the water table.

We have illegal trucking yards scattered across the entire region and problematic roadways where deaths by some sort of vehicle (often an 18-wheeler) are increasing exponentially.

The environment seems to be last on the list when it comes to being protected. Yet when residents arrived en masse to express their concerns about the environmental destruction of one rehabilitation project that’s been done well, every effort was made to deny their right to do so. 

In the past, when large groups of residents are anticipated at Council meetings, extra seating is provided in the Council atrium so folks can still feel a part of the proceedings. Lengthy delegations have been allowed by individuals – sometimes lasting so long they stretch into the wee hours of the morning. None of this happened on July 8.

Perhaps anticipating community outrage, the only “overflow” space provided was in the Town’s cafeteria (well-removed from Council chambers) and any delegates were limited to no more than three minutes (to a maximum of 15 minutes for all) to express their concerns during “Public Question Period.”

Frustration and emotions ran high as those present recognized they were essentially being prevented from speaking about the proposed destruction of “Swan Lake,” a completely rehabilitated natural lake doomed to be filled in by the construction debris of a “prominent developer.”

The decision to call in the OPP to remove us (at least three officers in full uniform were within my line of sight) was a ridiculous “power-play” that did nothing but amplify tensions unnecessarily. 

Perhaps it’s no surprise the meeting became so contentious. When people feel they aren’t being heard, or their concerns ignored, speculation as to the reasons why begin to fester. When a question by one community member led to a response from Mayor Groves, tensions mounted even higher. The question was whether the decision to grant a fill permit was in any way linked back to a donation made by Nick Cortellucci (the aforementioned “prominent developer”) to the Mayor’s Gala held in May of this year.

Mayor Groves responded noting that a number of local community organizations were benefitting from that donation and that if members of the community had concerns they should speak to the recipient organizations themselves asking them, “if $25,000 from Mr. Cortellucci is going to make a difference in this decision.”

She further suggested the question was “inappropriate,” saying, “I don’t think this is relevant.”

Perhaps it wasn’t, but the timing, and the process, of how this possible fill permit made it on to the Council agenda was bound to raise some eyebrows and shutting down the right of residents to express such concerns feels like a removal of their democratic right to do so and it certainly didn’t help matters. 

In the end, despite the “Public Question Period” being extended by a whole five minutes (insert sarcasm here) giving residents 20 minutes in total to speak, that portion of the meeting might best be summed up by this exchange: after the Mayor, in response to another question about whether the decision to allow construction debris to fill “Swan Lake” was in fact “a done deal,” she stated unequivocally, “No decision has been made.”

Too bad the Town Clerk Kevin Klingenberg then clarified, when answering a question about an email he’d previously sent to a resident on the matter, “it’s a done deal with conditions.”

No wonder faith in the democratic process here in Caledon is waning alongside the slow and steady erosion of the environment too. 

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