Fort Saskatchewan AB Noise Lawsuit Update

I spoke with Mr. Richard Jones this morning regarding the lawsuit in Quebec that was referenced in his interview with Lindsay Morey of Sun Media last week. (http://www.fortsaskatchewanrecord.com/2014/10/09/city-sued-over-noise)

I asked him specifically about the lawsuit in Quebec he referenced in the interview above, with the quote below:

Begin Quote:
"Resident gave warning of lawsuit in February
In late February, the 99th Avenue resident stood in front of city council and said the noise situation in the Fort has become “grave” over the past 15 years.
Jones highlighted a precedent set in Quebec where the residents sued the government for $8 million over the same problem. END Quote

Since I could find no case in where a Quebec town had sued over motorcycle noise, which is what I thought Mr. Jones meant, I decided to contact him.

In fact, he was speaking of the ability of citizens to sue their city/region over noise issues when they fail to enforce the law.

The case he refers to transpired in Laurentides QC. The ruling in the lawsuit took place in 2004.

Here is a link to the decision in the lawsuit 2004 CanLII 45407 (QC/CS)   It is in French

From CBC: Ruling could hurt snowmobile tourism

Begin Quote: "In a decision that could cause ripples across Canada's winter tourism industry, a judge in Quebec has ruled that people living near a snowmobile trail in the Laurentians should be compensated because of noise levels.

Calling themselves the Coalition for the Protection of the Environment of the Petit Train du Nord Linear Park, about 600 residents took the province, Laurentians municipal government and snowmobile clubs to court when the trail was approved seven years ago.

They filed a class-action lawsuit, arguing the snowmobiles were a source of noise pollution that affected their health." End Quote

From the report by Fasken Martineau DuMoulinAttorneys:

Begin Quote: On November 30, 2004, the day before the season opened, the Superior Court of Québec ordered the Laurentides regional county municipality to bar snowmobiles from using the P’tit Train du Nord linear park between Saint-Faustin-Lac-Carré and Labelle.

This injunction is the result of a class action filed by the Coalition pour la protection de l’environnement du parc linéaire “Petit train du Nord” – the group’s representative – and two designated members, Gérard Emond and Aline Thibauld-Emond. The Coalition was also seeking damages for neighbourhood annoyances suffered by members of the group in the 1997-1998 winter season. The defendants include the Laurentides regional county municipality, the Club de motoneiges Diable et Rouge Inc., the Club de motoneige de Labelle Inc., three insurance companies and the Attorney General of Québec. End Quote

The judgement from the same report - Begin Quote: Damages

The Court awarded a $1,200 indemnity to each member living within 100 m or less of the trail between the 1997-1998 and 2003-2004 winter seasons. This first amount was to be paid by the regional county municipality. The Attorney General of Québec was then ordered to pay the same amount for the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 seasons. For their part, the snowmobile clubs were not ordered to pay any damages. End Quote
While Mr. Jones may feel the case in Quebec verifies that individuals have the right to sue government, I do believe that every case needs to move forward based on merit.

I am no lawyer, but when I look at what transpired in Quebec, and how the snowmobile trail came to be, I see no way to compare it to the case in Fort Saskatchewan, not even in regards to citizens having the right to sue a municipality. Other than noise being a bone of contention, I see no parallels here.

I am waiting for a response from the organization "One Square Inch" to see if it is true that they have offered to fund Mr. Jones lawsuit.

At the end of the day, our cities are getting noisier. The bigger our populations get, the worse it gets.

Our community, like all road user communities, has members within it's ranks that don't play well with others and those people are ruining it for everyone else. It happens within the tuner car community, the snowmobile community etc.

MOST Loud Pipes, when used respectfully, don't generally piss people off - I think we can all agree that this issue is not just about the pipes themselves but the person in charge of them and their use - the person controlling that right hand....

I truly believe that this whole issue would go away if we could just learn to share our communities better.

What say you?

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving Day.

Belt Drive Betty
Editor & Rider

Non Profit Motorcycle Club being sued over NOISE

According to an article on the CBC web site and one in the National Post,  the City of Fort Saskatchewan, the RCMP, and the Fort Saskatchewan Motorcycle Association are being sued by an elderly gent who is tired of having his peace and quiet disrupted.

He says his complaints have fallen on deaf ears for 18 years and he's tired of it.

Noise, it has become such a bone of contention and as our cities get bigger, it will become even more contentious.

I know what the gent in these articles, Richard Jones, feels like. I truly can empathize.

When we bought our home in 2001, it was on a dead end street with a green space at the top of the T intersection that separated our community of Avondale from the bypass.  It was wonderful, two school yards in our back yard (so very quiet at night) and very little traffic in the front.

We felt like we lived in the country with all of the conveniences of being in a small city.

Then the city, in its wisdom, punched through that lovely green space and put a connector to the bypass in.

Our street became a race track.  To slow traffic down, the city the installed these hideous centre dividers with planted trees in them, and installed bike paths although the bicyclists still prefer to use the sidewalk.  They installed these ridiculous bulbous sidewalk turnouts at every intersection so that pedestrians didn't have so far to go to cross the road (Like 10' makes that much of a difference to a person on foot).

All through this process, no matter how much people didn't want this development, not the connector to the bypass or the stupid big cement planters, or the idiotic 3 blocks of bike path, no one would listen to the people who live here.

All of the planning and info meetings were nothing more than a delivery method that said this is what you are getting. There was no consideration for those who live here.

The hideous planters did little to slow people down and when you add the new fire hall into the mix, (we are now on a major route now for the fire trucks), let's just say what used to be a peaceful place to live is no longer peaceful.

Our street used to be a major school bus route and in the winter it was cleaned so fast and so well but now, because of those ridiculously hideous planters and the sidewalk turnouts at the intersections, our street is not the priority it once was and the grader operators have a hell of a time trying to clear our street now.

I understand Mr. Jones frustration with the noise.  For him the noise might be motorcycles, in our case, it's chipped up 4 x 4's and import cars with booming stereos and fire trucks. We have the odd biker that rips through our neighbourhood on the throttle, barking their pipes steady - they piss me off too, but most people who ride through our neighbourhood are polite and respectful.

I know this much:

- There are inconsiderate people in every walk of our society.
- Change is the inevitable.
- Growth has both a positive and negative side.

My husband an I still lament the changes, we still long for the "old" days when our community was a peaceful and restful place at night. (School yards during the day are noisy and we have two directly out back of our home.)

What are the answers to teaching people consideration?
What are the answers to having our elected officials actually listening to their citizens and being fair, impartial and realistic in their approaches to situations?
What are the answers to noise pollution?

I have no idea.

Richard Jones says he's in it for the long haul, that he's tired of being ignored.

Is this a frivolous lawsuit or is it meant to force the city of Fort Saskatchewan to adopt a motorcycle only noise bylaw or more?

I'd love to go set up a video camera on this man's street and record the traffic and noise he says he experiences.  I wonder if all that noise he talks about is truly motorcycles.

I still can't fathom someone suing a non profit association that does so much good in their community.

Did it really need to go this far?

I wonder if at any point it was ever suggested that all parties get together and have a chat?

While I empathize with Mr. Jones, I think his way of going about things is horribly wrong minded, that's my personal feeling.

What say you?

I'll be contacting people from the Fort Saskatchewan Motorcycle Association and seeing if there is anything we can do to assist them in their legal battle. I know all too well how time consuming, how costly and how frustrating it is to be named in a suit that is just so wrong on so many levels.

Have a great day, and if you are blessed enough to be riding today, please, ride like everyone around you is blind and cannot see you.

Belt Drive Betty,
Editor & Rider