A welcome sign for the city of Stratford, Ontario.
A welcome sign for the city of Stratford, Ontario. Credit: Ken Lund / Wikimedia Commons Credit: Ken Lund / Wikimedia Commons

Stratford, ON is a throwback to a more peaceful time and slower pace. It’s home to the Stratford Festival, authors Timothy Findley (1930 – 2002) and Jane Urquhart, as well as musician and social justice advocate, Loreena McKennitt.

Stratford is also where multinational Xinyi Glass hoped to build its first Canadian float glass facility on 173 acres of prime farmland with production set to start by 2023. 

What residents did not know was that Stratford City Council had been secretly planning the deal for two years. Then, on October 29, 2020, the local paper ran an article exposing that the city pressured the provincial government to issue a Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) preventing citizen oversight and consultation, environmental assessment and appeals.

Concern over water consumption, emissions, lost farmland and a planned dormitory for foreign workers mobilized residents who formed the registered citizen group, Get Concerned Stratford (GCS). Within a week, GCS had a team, a website and a mailing list.

Some members of GCS also belonged to the Guelph-based non-profit Water Watchers (WW). They knew that in 2018 WWs organized the Guelph-Eramosa Township (GET) Concerned campaign that convinced council to uphold an existing water use bylaw effectively refuting Xinyi Glasses’ application to build the plant outside Guelph.

Those folks also knew that campaign director Mike Balkwill’s expertise was pivotal to the success of the GET Concerned campaign, so they signed him up as campaign organizer. Within 15 weeks, Xinyi had abandoned the factory proposal and astonishingly, the Ontario government rescinded the MZO. 

Writing the playbook

GCS’s success prompted Balkwill and Sam Demby, manager of communications at Ontario’s Reform Gravel Mining Coalition, to write A Winning Campaign — a case study featuring the story of how GCS pushed back against stealthily employed undemocratic tactics in order to successfully squash an apparently “done deal.”

Balkwill and Demby acknowledge how rare it is for grassroots campaigns to accomplish such a complete victory in such a short period of time. That’s what makes the lessons learned from this “textbook” for grassroots campaigns so invaluable.

The authors want folks to know, “The main message of this story is that there is a method to winning campaigns that people in communities anywhere can use.”

That’s because much of the success lies in building relationships, identifying targets, telling a convincing story, having a range of wins and staying the course.

It also helps when internationally influential folks, like McKennitt, play a role. McKennitt is a Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee and founder of Quinlan Road record label who established three charitable foundations including the Cook-Rees Memorial Fund for Water Search and Safety that has raised more than $4 million in support of water safety education, as well as search, rescue and recovery operations.

Initially, McKennitt formed a grassroots group called Wise Communities Stratford which continues to address civic, climate and technology issues with the goal of informing and empowering folks.

While not a member of GCS, McKennitt organized weekly rallies outside City Hall, capping the number of attendees using electronic ticketing to comply with Covid-19 restrictions. 

When the maximum number of people allowed to gather at one time dropped from 100 to just 10, McKennitt proposed installing several hundred pairs of shoes outside city hall as a visual to show public opposition to the factory.

Making good leaders

Balkwill and Demby don’t believe only well-known individuals make good leaders. Experience has taught them that anyone can be a leader, play a role and prevail against all odds simply by becoming an engaged citizen. In fact, that truth is mirrored by GCS’s steering committee. 

The committee members included Sharon Collingwood is a retired teacher who has lived in Stratford for the past seven years. Jamie Gibb lives and farms next to the proposed Xinyi site. Environmental activist and member of the WWs Board, Susan McSherry. Mike Sullivan, a retired media workers union representative and retired MP, who recently completed a Masters in Environmental Studies. Retired chemical engineer, educator and energy/environmental consultant, Doug Tripp. Local businessperson, Melissa Verspeeten, who often serves as spokesperson for GCS.

And when appropriate, external experts like Winnie Ng, a Hong Kong-born Canadian labour activist and member of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China, spoke at online meetings about Xinyi’s track record on labour rights and corruption.

While in-person meetings and rallies had always been the go-to before the pandemic, online gatherings allowed so many more activists and allies to attend events where they learned about GCS wins, losses as well as the intersectionality of struggles all while keeping solidarity and momentum alive.

Andrea Muehlebach, associate professor at the University of Toronto’s department of anthropology and author of A Vital Frontier: Water Insurgencies in Europe, called A Winning Campaign, ‘A gem of a book – short, sweet, and with a host of remarkable take-home lessons.”

She added in her review, “Get Concerned Stratford has done us all a service by clearly spelling out a remarkable win against a corrupt
city council and corporation. Outstanding!”

Fighting the alliance between corporate power and politics

As A Winning Campaign lays bare, the playing field is not level. Instead, it’s biased in favour of corporations and their government partners – something known as corporate power.

Together corporations and government partners have years of experience, tactics, resources, means of intimidation, not to mention, money.

In this case, Xinyi used its economic influence to change government policy while circumventing established public policy and the democratic process.

Stratford council used its power to demand GCS pay $8,850 before the city would release requested information. At other times, council said the records were either not available or were confidential.

Council then began banning delegates who spoke out against the glass factory not only from attending council meetings, but also the farmers’ market, hockey arena, library, and city events for three months at a time.

When GCS filed freedom of information requests, the city resisted. That’s when GCS hired environmental lawyer David Donnelly who sent a legal advisement to Stratford’s Mayor and Councill informing them that there would be no legal consequences for voting against a proposed cost-sharing agreement that outlined the necessary  infrastructure associated with the factory and who would pay those costs. Donnelly continues to work with GCS.

Small change makes a big difference

Unfortunately, all of these costs meant GCS needed money. Fortunately, Balkwill is also Vice President of Campaigns and Engagement with the Small Change Fund (SCF). The registered charity and non-profit organization provides an easy and effective way for communities across Canada to amplify the impact of their projects with expert advice, greater awareness and indispensable crowdfunding.

According to Kerrie Blaise, environmental lawyer and founder of Legal advocates for Nature’s Defence (LAND), “The Small Change Fund does a tremendous job challenging the mindset that ‘resistance is futile’ by showing how community-driven, solution-focused efforts can make a difference.” 

Since their incredible victory, GCS has continued their investigations. Not surprisingly, the more documents GCS accesses, the bigger the treasure trove of government deceit they uncover.

Council continues to block transparency

GCS found that at least three letters were sent from Stratford’s mayor to the Ontario Miniter of Municipal Affairs and Housing asking the province to issue the MZO. Each letter was written on Council stationery.

GCS requested an investigation of inappropriately closed council meetings where the Xinyi deal was discussed. Council was reprimanded by the closed meetings investigator and instructed to change their protocol for such meetings going forward. 

However, the city continues to argue that it would be inappropriate to make the minutes of discussions held under the old, illegal protocol public. GCS continues filing freedom of information requests.

Some of the questions GCS wants answered include whether councillors knew about the letters requesting the MZO? Whether council signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) ?  As well as, were all required procedures followed during the annexation of the Xinyi lands? 

The city has refused most information requested through freedom of information requests. All of these are under appeal to the province.

The city refuses to make public the “general nature of the business” being discussed during in camera meetings held between summer 2018 and summer 2021. GCS has requested access to these records through over 150 closed meeting investigations.

It’s important to note that, the MZO was not only rescinded by the provincial government, but an Ontario professional Planners Institute disciplinary committee ruled Chris Pidgeon, the planner who worked on behalf of Xinyi was also a founding member, and then-president of, GSP Group the Kitchener-based land use planning firm that was paid for services by both Xinyi and the City of Stratford. Pidgeon is now listed as retired from GSP.

In February 2022, the Centre for Free Expression (CFE) awarded Stratford council the 2021 Code of Silence Award for “outstanding achievement in government secrecy” for the way council handled the Xinyi Glass plant proposal. A Winning Campaign is available from CommonAct Press.

Doreen Nicoll

Doreen Nicoll is weary of the perpetual misinformation and skewed facts that continue to concentrate wealth, power and decision making in the hands of a few to the detriment of the many. As a freelance...