Archive

Lake owner seeks guidance over hearing adjournment

September 29, 2016   ·   0 Comments

Faced with a potential five-month delay in hearings over his bid to have water-skiing events on his private lake, Caledon orthodontist Cliff Singer is seeking guidance from the Niagara Escarpment Commission (NEC) hearing officers.

“I am worried about the five-month hiatus diluting the value of the testimony of my witnesses and how this issue will be dealt with by the Panel,” Dr. Singer said in an e-mail to the NEC.

He said he was also “troubled by the disclosures of the NEC and Town of Mono being accepted in their entirety as exhibits when they contain sections which do not constitute legitimate evidence. Yet, when I attempt to have my disclosures accepted in a similar manner I have to advocate to have each individual item accepted.”

“This is unfair. Either all parties’ disclosure books are accepted as a whole or alternatively the onus is on each party to show that each item of their disclosure book merits exhibit status. There cannot be different exhibit acceptance criteria for different parties.”

He also complained that correspondence from a Mr. Lockerbie had been introduced as an exhibit without his being previously informed.

“Yet when I attempt to subsequently introduce correspondences from Mr. Lockerbie that indisputably show that I had every reason to believe that he submitted a letter of support on my behalf, my reply correspondence containing my evidence is blocked by the Hearing Coordinator.”

In addition, “MC2 has Party Status and has even attempted to introduce questionable ‘evidence.’ Their principle representative has gone so far as to accuse me of prior criminal activity. I wish to exercise my right to question the afore-referenced individual with respect to his comments at the Hearing as per the Rules of Practice.”

Alleging that the Town of Mono’s lawyer “has used legal euphemisms to call me a liar,” he asked for the right to challenge the lawyer’s “false and misleading statements disguised as questions during his cross- examination of me which remain unchallenged and unsubstantiated.”

He also advised the commission that he had yet to receive a response from the Town to a letter sent to Mono Mayor Laura Ryan on Sept. 3 proposing an out-of-court settlement of the dispute over whether he should be permitted to hold up to two annual water-skiing competitions at the lake near Mono Mills, located on a 204-acre portion of a worked-out gravel pit.

Readers Comments (0)