Freedom Flyer Summer 1987 Cover

Freedom Flyer 10

the official newsletter of the
Freedom Party of Ontario

Summer 1987




BIA CAMPAIGNS DRAW GOVERNMENT BACKLASH

Hamilton City Council votes to ban FP's BIA brochure!

Freedom Party's provincial warning campaign against Business Improvement Areas [BIAs] became much more aggressive in the months from January to May of this year, continuing the process outlined in the last issue of Freedom Flyer.

In terms of its implementation, the campaign is pretty straightforward and uncomplicated. When we learn of a business community with an existing BIA, particularly where there is already internal opposition to it, our BIA Warning brochure is delivered to businesses in the area, accompanied by a covering letter explaining the issue, why Freedom Party is involved, and who we are. Also enclosed is a card that can be mailed to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, and a return envelope and response card. When we hear of a BIA being proposed in a business community in Ontario, we follow the same procedure. The only difference in dealing with existing BIAs and proposed BIAs is that we have a very good chance of preventing the latter from forming, while abolishing existing BIAs is a very difficult and tedious undertaking.

THE AREAS (as delivered)

September: London: Richmond St. (250); London East (100);

October: Toronto: Yonge & Eglinton (1,300); Yonge St., north of Lawrence (200); Bayview Ave., south of Eglinton (East York) (200); Highland Creek Village (Scarborough) (100); London: London East (second delivery, additional material) (100);

November: Toronto: Avenue Road (North York) (300); Dufferin Ave., south of Lawrence (North York) (100); Bloor St., between Dufferin & Christie (250); Keswick (a town on Lake Simcoe) (125); Newmarket (100); Aurora (125); Burlington (350);

December: Bronte (a suburb of Oakville) (200); Hamilton; (James St. North) (200)

January: Oakville, downtown, Lakeshore Blvd. (250);

February: Mississauga: Clarkson (150); Port Credit (300); Streetsville (80);

March: Toronto: Yonge Street, north of Lawrence (200); St. Clair Ave. West (250);

April: Georgetown: (150); Acton: (80); Waterdown: (60);

May: Hamilton: Barton Street (150); Ottawa Street (200); King Street (175)

June: Niagara Falls, Queen St., (200)

OAKVILLE

Following the delivery of our original BIA Warning brochure to Oakville's suburb of Bronte, Freedom Party Action Director Marc Emery, along with Fp's Halton-Peel representative Bill Frampton and his wife Cathy, delivered the revised brochure to the businesses of downtown Oakville, which were already forced to belong to a BIA.

Reaction from the local merchants was somewhat restrained, but media reaction was substantial, resulting in a front-page article and photo appearing in the Oakville Beaver, a very distinguished weekly newspaper. Though both sides of the BIA controversy were accurately and extensively covered (much to the credit of the Oakville Beaver), the paper nonetheless launched an editorial denunciation of Freedom Party's BIA campaign.

The paper's editorial was criticized by a brilliant editorial response by Bill Frampton (who will be Fp's Mississauga East candidate in the upcoming provincial election). To our astonishment, Frampton's letter was followed by a second editorial regarding BIAs, which acknowledged that many problems had come to light and which urged a "go-slow" approach to the establishment of any new BlAs. We can only conclude that the newspaper investigated our allegations and found them to be true! What can one person do to change public --- and media --- opinion? Plenty! Just ask Bill Frampton.

MISSISSAUGA

Our visit to Oakville produced an unexpected benefit. Only a week following our mail drop there, a businesswoman from Mississauga happened to be a client of a downtown Oakville hair salon. She made a remark about how corrupt her own BIA in Mississauga was, and the salon's owner (bless her!) passed our BIA brochure on to her and said "These people were here last week about BIAs."

That's how we came to meet Pat Pleich of the Barn Antiques which is in the Clarkson BIA in Mississauga.

Pat is an individual completely committed to ridding her business area of its BIA, a task she has taken on, largely on her own, for the past five or six years. But like Ron Boyko of the Jamesville Street North BIA (Hamilton) and Bob Adams in North York (who finally had an existing BIA in his area abolished last November), she is unrelenting in accomplishing her goal. Every businessperson in Clarkson knows Pat, and she is armed to the teeth with facts, figures, and the usual stories of pervasive corruption that all BIA-fighters eventually collect.

As a consequence of meeting Pat, Fp Action Director Marc Emery, with the constant advice and assistance of Halton-Peel FP representative Bill Frampton, coordinated our effort to deliver our BIA Warning brochure to all three Mississauga BIAs: Streetsville (80 businesses), Clarkson (150 businesses), and Port Credit (350 businesses).

In direct contrast to Oakville, where business reaction was restrained but media reaction was substantial, reaction from the businesses in all three Mississauga BIAs was much more vocal and supportive of our campaign, but the weekly Mississauga News placed a complete news blackout on our activities by refusing to print anything critical of BIAs.

Nevertheless, rapid and encouraging activity is underway. All three BIAs are being petitioned for abolition as we go to press. The petitions were produced by Freedom Party and signatures are being collected by local businesspeople.

TORONTO

In the December 1986 issue of Toronto's Metro Business Journal, BIA fighters Bob Adams and Bonnie Byford were profiled in an article about the growing dissent within the Toronto business community to BIAs. A follow-up letter from Fp Action Director Marc Emery was printed in its February '87 issue, and this resulted in an inquiry from a businessman petitioning to get rid of his BIA in the area of St. Clair Avenue West where 250 BIA brochures (covering only 65% of the district) were delivered the following week.

We also made a second visit to the Yonge Street area, north of Lawrence, because a local business association there has been persistent in promoting the BIA concept. When the proprietor of the Vienna Clock Shop, in the area, requested if we could provide someone to speak on the subject of BIAs, Fp supporter and BIA-fighter Judy Emslie (who, with Bob Adams, was instrumental in abolishing the Avenue Road BIA in North York) gave a speech to local merchants as to the inherent dangers of BIAs at a general meeting of the business community.

While little support for the BIA concept exists among businessmen on Yonge Street North, it may be necessary to do a third information mail-drop because of the determination of a local businessman's association to force a BIA on its business community.

On another front, meanwhile, keeping close tabs on the Yonge and Eglinton business area has been necessary because certain interests have been steadfastly promoting the BIA concept there. The affected area consists of 1600 businesses, of which only 500 or so are retail.

1300 BIA Warning brochures were delivered to the area last fall but it is apparent that another effort may be necessary. Over 20 businesses for this area have written us indicating their opposition to the BIA concept, so it seems that a local group can easily be formed to oppose the BIA if necessary.

GEORGETOWN and ACTON

In early April, Freedom Party was contacted by a reporter from the Halton Herald, a weekly newspaper in the communities of Georgetown and Acton. He was interested in our BIA brochure, which he had received from an affiliated newspaper in the region. After the interview, a front-page story appeared in the Georgetown edition of the Halton Herald with one of the most provocative cover headlines we have seen: Party urges town BIA to revolt.

Although we might have preferred a less sensational headline, the article accurately reprised our information and position. Two weeks after the article appeared, Fp delivered its BIA brochure to both Georgetown's and Acton's existing BIAs, and to an area threatened by a proposed BIA, Waterdown, a community on Highway 5, north of Burlington.

HAMILTON

Veteran BIA fighter Ron Boyko of the Jamesville Street North BIA (see last issue of Freedom Flyer) passed on to us the name of another established BIA that was facing internal opposition from its members (Ottawa Street) and he also told us about two proposed BIAs (King Street and Barton Street) where we delivered our BIA brochures in early May. Response to our material was hot, as most businesses on Ottawa Street completely agreed with our stand, and some good contacts were developed.

In contrast, one businessman on King Street was so incensed at our attempt to derail the BIA proposed for his area that he nearly physically struck our volunteers threatening that he'd "make it so that you'll never be allowed back in Hamilton again!"

His threat may be supported by Hamilton's City Hall. Unlike all other Ontario municipalities who have been (perhaps grudgingly at times) cooperative in supplying us with BIA information, Hamilton refuses to supply us with information on BIAs even though such information is clearly within the public domain. The administration forced us to make our requests in writing, promising to send us the information requested under such circumstances, only to refuse us upon receipt of our written request!

HAMILTON CITY COUNCIL VOTED UNANIMOUSLY TO ASK THE ONTARIO GOVERNMENT TO BAN OUR BIA PACKAGE

Hamilton City Council is acting even more strangely than its administrators. Four weeks after our BIA mail drops in Hamilton, its City Council voted unanimously to condemn Freedom Party's BIA Warning brochure --- and further recommended that the Attorney-General investigate us under the Criminal Code Section 177!!! This is the law that was used to prosecute Ernst Zundel for "spreading false news" and reads (much to our nation's shame): "Everyone who willfully publishes a statement, tale, or news that he knows to be false and that causes or is likely to cause injury or mischief to a public interest is guilty of an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for two years."

Council's motion was covered by Hamilton's CHCH-TV news, which included an interview with Hamilton's Ward 3 alderman Verlaine, who proposed the motion. While news cameras panned extensively on our brochure, Verlaine remarked, "This pamphlet is changing the way businesspeople think," and that it might result in the cancellation of future plans for more BIAs in business areas of Hamilton!

FREEDOM PARTY LOOKS FORWARD TO FACING CHARGES UNDER SEC. 177 OF THE CRIMINAL CODE: "SPREADING FALSE NEWS"

The Attorney-General's office is now faced with the unpleasant prospect of considering Hamilton City Council's bizarre request. Of course, from Freedom Party's point of view, a challenge of this sort would be most welcomed. Not only would we prove extensively every assertion in our brochure, but we would be in a legal position to subpeona Hamilton's civic administrators, politicians, Mayor Mel Lastman, Toronto's Mayor Art Eggleton, London's Mayor Tom Gosnell and Bernard Grandmaitre, of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs. A court challenge would force them to corroborate for the courts and media, our side of this corrupt BIA legislation. We would also be able to present dozens of friendly witnesses whose stories would make our currently circulated information seem to be merely a preamble to the real story behind the issue.

Stay tuned for further developments.

FP WILL HELP IN HAMILTON CITY ELECTIONS

In addition to the recent areas visited, our relationship with leading activists and businesspeople in areas visited last fall continues to develop as their fight against BIAs continues.

Freedom Party supplied the Jamesville merchants (James St. North in Hamilton) with 'No BIA' buttons for a rally at Hamilton City Hall on the future of their BIA.

Action Director Marc Emery has been asked to help plan campaign strategy for BIA activists in Hamilton who intend to run in the city's 1988 city elections. Meanwhile, Emery himself will be a contender in London's 1988 city election.

CONTROVERSY STILL RAGES OVER BURLINGTON BIA

Freedom Party delivered its BIA package to merchants of downtown Burlington last November, and the issue still continues to create controversy. As recently as April, Freedom Party was interviewed by the Burlington Post on the subject of BIAs in Ontario generally, and in Burlington specifically. A random poll conducted by the paper discovered that most merchants are opposed to their BIA.

THIS SUMMER OUR BIA CAMPAIGN GOES TO SARNIA

Over the summer of 1987, petitioning to get rid of the three BIAs in the Mississauga area will continue. Fp intends to expand our BIA campaign to western Ontario communities such as Sarnia, Windsor, and Forest. Most certainly, we will be returning to Hamilton --- often!

As usual, we will continue to give highest priority to distress calls from businesses facing the establishment of a new BIA.

Need more information on BIA's and how to stop them? Contact us!




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