Adams Mine Fight Far From Over In North
Region preparing for a confrontation

by Charlie Angus
August 7, 2000

The New Liskeard office of the Anti-Adams Mine Campaign is in high gear. Two women -- one Anglophone, one Francophone -- field the never-ending stream of phone calls. People are continually coming in off the street looking to help or offer money. One old codger in a golf hat comes in wielding a chequebook wanting to know where to make his donation to the "fight". As soon as the cheque is written asked if he'll take two minutes to write a letter to the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne Switzerland.His letter is then added to the ever-growing pile of anti-Olympic letters.
In the midst of the chaos, a volunteer takes the time to read out the latest Toronto Star editorial. It's not that the Star had a problem with building a dump site that's sunk 300 feet into somebody else's water table. Nor did they sweat the fact that the plan was fast-tracked through a narrowly scoped EA and still couldn't get a clear passing grade.
No, what bothered the bowtie and Panama hat crowd is optics of the whole thing. Basically it was a crude and nasty deal which is leaving a lot of unanswered questions. What's at stake is Toronto's reputation as a swell kind of place.
The Star's solution is to send Mayor Mel on a publicity tour of the boonies to "mend fences" and deal with the "ruffled feathers" of northern residents.
The naivete of this sentiment draws a round of derisive laughter among the volunteers. In Temiskaming there is a widespread belief that things are going to have to get a lot uglier and spread a lot wider before any fence mending can be done. A campaign to tarnish Toronto's national and international reputation in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics has been gearing up on both sides of the northern Ontario and Quebec borders.
Right now however, Mel is still in a fighting mood. He says he won't be blackmailed by the northern malcontents. But don't be surprised if his handlers opt for the kinder gentler Mel in the coming weeks.
I can see Mel now on his "fence mending" tour; tossing trinkets to the surley folks along the farm roads and bush roads of Temiskaming. An old Caribanna t-shirt here; an '88 blue Jays pennant there; some "Our Cops Are Tops" buttons for the kiddies. Trinkets to show the rabble that Canada's richest city isn't such a meanie after all.
But judging from the mood up here, I'd say Mel should be worried about more than ruffled feathers.

A version of this article was featured in Now Magazine.
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