CJRO News March 17 to April 7, 2024

Hello bonjour and welcome to CJRO news. 

The Township of Russell is holding a meeting revealing the new draft official plan for the township on April 7 at 6 p.m. The press release says the public meeting is to consider a revision and provide input on the draft plan. The public is "strongly encouraged" to make written submissions beforehand, or to comment publicly at the meeting. If not, the release states, "If a person or public body would otherwise have an ability to appeal the decision of the Township of Russell Council to the Ontario Land Tribunal but the person or public body does not make oral submissions at a public meeting or make written submissions to the Township of Russell before the proposed Draft Official Plan is adopted, the person or public body is not entitled to appeal the decision...or may not be added as a party to the hearing of an appeal before the Ontario Land Tribunal.

The lawsuit brought by fourteen Ontario schools and school boards, including the Ottawa Carleton District School board, against several social media companies, will go ahead. Meta, Snapchat and Tiktok attempted to have the case dismissed but the courts "saw merit in the case," according to the school board's law firm Neinstein Law. The lawsuits against the tech giants are for disrupting student learning and the education system, and demand the products be redesigned to keep students safe. The motion to strike the claim was dismissed on March 11. To follow developments see schoolboardsforchange.ca.

A team of consultants will be removing trees for pathways to allow geotechnical investigations on the future Tewin site. They will be working in the area bounded by Ramsayville, Leitrim and Anderson roads and the Smith Gooding Drain. The release from Tewin said the company had a permit for tree removal. In 2023 the unauthorized removal of an entire forest with tens of thousands of trees by Tewin contractors had the community up in arms. Tewin principals said the clear cutting was to prepare the land for farming, but so far no farming activities have taken place.

I'm Candice Vetter for CJRO News and the Local Journalism Initiative, and this is my final News broadcast. I will be retiring from local news, but not from writing, at the end of this month. Thank you to all the listeners who have tuned in, to all the community members who have contacted me with tips and stories over the last five years, and to everyone who has supported CJRO. Au revoir.