How Monte Dennis managed to get himself sued for libel and the help he needs to resolve the problem.

By Pepper Parr

December 13, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

Monte Dennis is an activist – he makes no apology for the way he takes on public issues. He is a responsible citizen who delegates at times at city council.

He produces well researched papers on different subject. He is an engineer by profession and lives in rural Burlington where he was one of the founders of the Rural Burlington Greenbelt Coalition.

Monte Dennis – wrote a Letter to the Editor of the Hamilton Spectator – he got sued for that.

In April of 2014 Dennis read a piece that Vince Rossi had published in the Hamilton Spectator. Rossi is the owner of the Air Park in Burlington that was dumping tonnes of landfill on the property to level the property for further development as an aeronautical operation. Rossi had plans to develop something much bigger than the single runway that was in place when he purchased the property.

Dennis read the Rossi letter, which is reproduced below.

Hamilton Spectator, April 16, 2014
By Vince Rossi
As the owner of the Burlington Executive Airpark, I am proud of our long and accomplished history in Halton Region.
The airpark opened in 1962. Since that time, it has served as a flight training centre, an aircraft maintenance base, a recreational flying facility and a key transportation hub for Halton residents and businesses.
Thousands of pilots have received their training at Burlington Airpark, many of whom are now airline pilots who safely transport thousands of Canadians every day. The training and maintenance facilities, along with the charter services, are independently owned and provide skilled employment opportunities for our community. In addition, there are jobs for those who provide services to the airpark and the businesses located there.
Many leading companies, including Ford Motor Company, Mercedes-Benz Canada, Evertz Microsystems and L-3 Communications, use the airpark for the transportation of people and key materials.
The airpark is also used for patient transfers and organ donation flights, given its proximity to medical institutions that serve Burlington, Milton, Oakville, Mississauga and Hamilton.
Ontario’s air ambulance service uses special facilities installed at the airpark for advanced training.
The airpark is also used for law enforcement, search and rescue, military and ambulance flights.
Finally, the airpark is home to a thriving recreational aviation community. It is the host of community service events such as educational flights for school groups, the semi-annual Big Brothers Big Sisters Airlift and serves as a partner and rest stop in the PwC Epic Tour Halton, a regional biking event.
There is a shortage of smaller general aviation airports in southern Ontario with reasonable proximity to cities. The airpark is a unique and essential asset for Halton Region.
But we want to improve and do more.
I purchased the airpark from the Kovachik family in 2006, having done my own flight training here.
Since then, I have invested more than $4 million in infrastructure improvements. I have not received financial assistance from any level of government. This has included widening and improving both runways, adding taxiways, improving the refuelling facilities and building additional hangars.
We have always been open about our plans and goals to improve the airpark. Over the years, we have posted plans on our website and we have held a yearly reception as well several open houses and barbecues that have been attended by neighbours, airpark users and politicians of every level. At these events, we have shown our improvements and plans for the future.

This Appleby Line resident wonders if the Court decision will mean this pile of earth will be hauled away. Or does the decision mean she has a claim against someone for the damage done to the value of her property?

Our efforts to improve the airpark were halted in July of last year, after complaints were raised by a few of our neighbours, some of whom had only recently purchased their homes. They made unsubstantiated claims that the fill being imported to level the remaining airpark lands was waste, which, of course, it was not.
The situation then became political. City of Burlington councillors repeated the unsubstantiated rumours of contamination. The City of Burlington, citing its site-alteration bylaw, took steps to stop the improvements. Despite the fact the airpark is federally regulated, we met with the councillors, city officials and our neighbours to try to address everyone’s concerns reasonably. Notwithstanding, the mayor of Burlington publicly vowed to take whatever steps the city could to stop the infilling.
To be clear, every test of neighbouring streams and wells has met or surpassed federal and provincial environmental standards. There have been six inspections, studies and/or tests carried out since 2009. None have indicated a problem with the fill or an adverse impact on local water. Further, after discussions with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, the airpark is in the process of voluntarily completing the most comprehensive study to date by carrying out a test well program.
Sadly, we and the city are spending time and money in court to find out whether the city is entitled to control improvements at the airpark. During the past 60 years, courts across this country have held that the federal government has exclusive jurisdiction over the location, design and materials used to build and improve airports. There are more than 1,400 airports across Canada. It would be chaos if each one was subjected to different municipal standards, which is what the courts have consistently held. We hope for a resolution in June.
I’ve always respected our neighbours and the City of Burlington and was hopeful that we could have reached a compromise that protected and enhanced the interests of all parties.
In the meantime, the Burlington Executive Airpark will continue to serve the interests of our community, and our region. We’re here for the long term and look forward to moving forward with our neighbours.
Vince Rossi is the owner of Burlington Airpark Inc.

Monte found much that he felt was not quite the true and he wrote a letter to the Editor of the Spectator. The original version of the letter was signed by the Rural Burlington Greenbelt Coalition. The Spectator called Monte Dennis and said they needed the name of a person and he agreed that the Spectator could use his name.

The Monte Dennis letter is reproduce below:

April 24, 2014

Missing Facts from Airpark Article
The recent article, “Airpark Improvements up in the air” in the Hamilton Spectator by Burlington Airpark owner Vince Rossi leaves out very important and relevant facts.
• The Burlington Airpark’s own soil analysis data, provided to the City of Burlington’s soil specialists Terrapex, showed that much of the fill imported onto the Airpark is chemically contaminated, and represented only a portion of the imported fill.
• The tens of thousands of loads of fill dumped onto the Airpark were spread throughout the site and will require a grid-work of soil sampling to find and quantify.
• Depending on imported soil types, conditions, groundwater mobility, precipitation amounts and other factors the negative impacts could take years to find and be detected in area wells.
• Although the dumping has stopped, the concern is that toxic materials in the soil will sooner or later leach into neighbour’s wells.

John Hutter in the foreground along with Ward 6 Councillor Blair Lancaster, Carey Clarke from the city’s Engineering department and property owner Carl Cousins inspect the landfill at the edge of the Cousin’s farm property that was flooded and not usable for farming.

• The immediate neighbours have experienced excessive water runoff due to the altered drainage. Some of the land is too wet for farming.
• Some of the wells are silted, making the water undrinkable.
• Airpark neighbours’ vistas have been blocked by huge amounts of fill, resulting in the loss of enjoyment of their properties.

While waiting for a court settlement and the Ministry of Environment research results, the surrounding residents are suffering from the stress of the uncertain future.

The clean-up and rectification of this mess could take years and cost millions.

Why won’t the Burlington Airpark share the soil and groundwater test results? The Airpark is claiming that the data is private and confidential!

The Ministry of Transport directive asks the airparks to comply with Provincial and local regulations that do not affect aviation. Federal legislation regulates the safe movement of aircraft. The Airpark lost the court case on the validity of the Burlington fill bylaw and is presently going to appeal in June 2014. In the case of Scugog Airpark, a judgment decreed that fill operations must comply with Scugog’s municipal fill bylaws, which should be the case with all municipalities. This would not result in chaos as suggested but lawful, responsible and environmentally sustainable development.

Sincerely,
Monte Dennis

That letter resulted in Dennis being sued by the Air Park Inc. Pepper Parr and Vanessa Warren were included in the libel suit for material they had written.

What is interesting is that the Spectator wasn’t sued by Rossi – just Dennis, Parr and Warren.

Dennis and Warren found that the cost of defending themselves was proving onerous and they turned to the public for support. A fund raising web site was used to give the public an opportunity to help.

Landfill being dumped on air park property without the city’s knowledge or permission.

The Gazette first brought to the public’s attention the heavy truck traffic on Appleby Line that was taking load after load after load into the air park property.

Those early news reports led to the city beginning to ask questions about just which laws applied to the Air Park and the formation of the Rural Burlington Greenbelt Coalition.  As the news reports kept being published the city began to take a closer look at what was going on and eventually sued the Air Park – at the time the city was suing the Air Park and the Air Park was suing the city – a Judge pulled the two law suits together and a trial took place.

The city won the trial – which was over whether or not the air park operation had to comply with municipal by laws.  Justice Murphy said they did have to comply; the Air Park appealed but lost the appeal.

Nothing happened – all the city had was a decision saying the air park had to comply with municipal bylaws.

The city then sued the Air Park again, asking a Judge to order to Air Park to comply and remove the landfill and file a site plan.

That court case, heard in November, is awaiting a decision.

Meanwhile Dennis, Warren and Parr wait for their day in court.  Dennis and Warren are asking the public for financial support.

They have reached the 5% level of their drive for the $100,000 they feel they need.

You can support their battle at: fundrazr