The Ontarion - News
September 29, 2005
RSD CALL FOR WAL-MART PETITION
Written by Meghan Moloney
The activist group Residents for Sustainable Development (RSD) has made an offer to Mario Pilozzi, the CEO of Wal-Mart Canada, stating that they will accept the proposed location of the store at Woodlawn and Woolwich, if the company successfully petitions the community for support. They are specifically asking for the signatures of over half the adults in Guelph and suggest that Wal-Mart entertain alternate locations if they cannot produce the petition.
The offer is just one more development in a long campaign against the retail giant. Since 1995, RSD (formerly known as the Big Box Action Group or BBAG) has been opposing Wal-Mart's proposal to build a 350,000-square-foot mega-store at the intersection of Woodlawn and Woolwich.
The City Council of Guelph originally voted against Wal-Mart's application in 1997, in order to protect its Official Plan for municipal development, which led to an appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB). However, throughout the next few years, the city changed its stance on the Wal-Mart issue several times.
In 2004, the city approved a revised application for a 135,000-square-foot store, and a few months later the OMB approved it. Almost immediately, the decision was protested. RSD launched an appeal beginning in early 2005, which is currently still being reviewed in court.
"We could avoid any further action if they accept the petition offer," said Ben Bennett, a spokesperson for RSD. "But it looks like they're not going to accept it.
"The court action will work its way through, and we should have some news on that in November," he said.
Bennett emphasized that their campaign is focusing on the proposed Woodlawn/Woolwich location in the north end of the city, rather than on the question of whether Guelph needs more "big box" stories in the community.
"The main demographic that Wal-Mart serves is young families in new homes," Bennett said last week. He points out that the neighbourhood surrounding Wal-Mart's proposed location consists mostly of cemeteries, religious centres, retirement homes, and factories. The west, south, and east parts of the city, on the other hand, are full of new growth and housing developments for younger families, and are in need of a wider range of shopping centres.
"We haven't been able to engage them in any discussion of why they wouldn't put it somewhere else," he said, describing the fight as a "David and Goliath struggle."
"This is literally the only site for Wal-Mart in Guelph," said Wal-Mart spokesperson Kevin Groh. "We've looked at size, we've looked at traffic, we've looked at community converns and this is the site that works."
Groh says Wal-Mart has always been committed to finding store locations that benefit communities.
Aside from the issue of the demand for a large-scale shopping development, Bennett and RSD also cite environmental concerns as part of the motivation for the current campaign. They claim that developing the north end would create more traffic congestion and, by extension, more noise and pollution with residents from the south and other parts of town driving to and from Wal-Mart.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
THE BARD IS BACK: Future festival will make Guelph Shakespeare central
The Ontarion
Arts & Culture
Thursday, September 29, 2005
THE BARD IS BACK: Future festival will make Guelph Shakespeare central.
Written by Meghan Moloney
A public meeting was held at the River Run Centre last Thursday night to discuss a new Shakespeare festival being planned for January to May 2007. The festival will be a joint effort between the University of Guelph, the city's Arts Council, and the Stratford Festival. Rob McKay, the Director of Culture in Guelph, is part of the group responsible for developing a proposal for the festival in conjunction with the university.
"The project is just in its infancy," McKay said in an interview on Friday. "We had an open meeting for representatives from various art groups--we had excellent representation, a lot of enthusiasm, the mayor attended and gave her support, so it all looks great."
The festival will incorporate multiple areas of the community, from the university to local arts groups, and cultural centres, as well as elementary and high schools. It will also include many different types of events and opportunities. According to McKay, the festival "really has a number of facets, it's not strictly the performing arts ... there'll be a gallery exhibit, education programs, we're hoping, for children and even for adults, and then of course the performances." Instead of being a "centrally planned" series of events, McKay is hoping that each participating arts group will "choose a Shakespeare theme" during the specified time period, creating a loose collective of events and performances based around the city of Guelph.
The choice of Guelph as the site for the upcoming festival was an obvious one for the organizers. Not only is the regional arts community influenced by nearly Stratford, Ontario, but as McKay said, "The University of Guelph has a real connection to Shakespeare, in that they run a website which is probably the best and most comprehensive website dedicated to Shakespeare in the world."
The website was created by the Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project (CASP), and is directed by Professor Daniel Fischlin of the School of English and Theatre Studies at the U of G. It includes an online anthology of rare material, focusing on scripts, literary works and other multimedia sources from Canada's cultural history that are related to, or adaptations of, Shakespeare's work. The CASP website was launched over a year ago and has since been hugely successful.
"The background for the idea around the festival originated in the website and the kind of international and national attention it drew when we launched it," said Dr. Fischlin. "The benefits of undertaking such a festival involve creating unexpected convergences of ideas that in turn generate new art, new ways of thinking, and new ways of building the artistic infrastructure in the city."
"Dr. Fischlin also highlights the ways in which the cultural phenomenon known as "the Shakespeare effect" is helping to bring forward different perspectives, including "aboriginal communities and French-Canadian communities, gay, lesbian, and queer communities," and other so-called marginalized groups of society.
The project plans are far from being finalized at this point. McKay said, "We have got some preliminary work done on the business plan and we are in the process of costing it, but nothing's complete in that area yet."
Arts & Culture
Thursday, September 29, 2005
THE BARD IS BACK: Future festival will make Guelph Shakespeare central.
Written by Meghan Moloney
A public meeting was held at the River Run Centre last Thursday night to discuss a new Shakespeare festival being planned for January to May 2007. The festival will be a joint effort between the University of Guelph, the city's Arts Council, and the Stratford Festival. Rob McKay, the Director of Culture in Guelph, is part of the group responsible for developing a proposal for the festival in conjunction with the university.
"The project is just in its infancy," McKay said in an interview on Friday. "We had an open meeting for representatives from various art groups--we had excellent representation, a lot of enthusiasm, the mayor attended and gave her support, so it all looks great."
The festival will incorporate multiple areas of the community, from the university to local arts groups, and cultural centres, as well as elementary and high schools. It will also include many different types of events and opportunities. According to McKay, the festival "really has a number of facets, it's not strictly the performing arts ... there'll be a gallery exhibit, education programs, we're hoping, for children and even for adults, and then of course the performances." Instead of being a "centrally planned" series of events, McKay is hoping that each participating arts group will "choose a Shakespeare theme" during the specified time period, creating a loose collective of events and performances based around the city of Guelph.
The choice of Guelph as the site for the upcoming festival was an obvious one for the organizers. Not only is the regional arts community influenced by nearly Stratford, Ontario, but as McKay said, "The University of Guelph has a real connection to Shakespeare, in that they run a website which is probably the best and most comprehensive website dedicated to Shakespeare in the world."
The website was created by the Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project (CASP), and is directed by Professor Daniel Fischlin of the School of English and Theatre Studies at the U of G. It includes an online anthology of rare material, focusing on scripts, literary works and other multimedia sources from Canada's cultural history that are related to, or adaptations of, Shakespeare's work. The CASP website was launched over a year ago and has since been hugely successful.
"The background for the idea around the festival originated in the website and the kind of international and national attention it drew when we launched it," said Dr. Fischlin. "The benefits of undertaking such a festival involve creating unexpected convergences of ideas that in turn generate new art, new ways of thinking, and new ways of building the artistic infrastructure in the city."
"Dr. Fischlin also highlights the ways in which the cultural phenomenon known as "the Shakespeare effect" is helping to bring forward different perspectives, including "aboriginal communities and French-Canadian communities, gay, lesbian, and queer communities," and other so-called marginalized groups of society.
The project plans are far from being finalized at this point. McKay said, "We have got some preliminary work done on the business plan and we are in the process of costing it, but nothing's complete in that area yet."
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