Work continues on a new road to a future tree nursery off Finn Road, despite protests by FarmWatch at the entrance to the site. FarmWatch’s Ray Galawan was served with a $25,000 lawsuit this week by the company building the nursery.
Photograph by: Chung Chow , Richmond News
A second farmland protestor has been served with a $25,000 lawsuit.
The News understands that Bob Featherstone — one of the forces behind FarmWatch — was hit with the suit on Friday, two days after his FarmWatch colleague served Ray Galawan with a similar document.
FarmWatch blockaded two weeks ago the entrance to a parcel of land on Finn Road, where leaseholder Bill Jones, of Bill Jones Horticulture, is using fill materials to build a road to a future tree nursery.
FarmWatch claims the materials used are harmful to the surrounding farmland and charged the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) wasn’t doing enough to prevent the alleged contamination.
However, Jones and his business partners — who contend they’ve done nothing illegal and have complied with several recent ALC inspections — served lead protestor Galawan with a lawsuit on Wednesday as he continued his demonstration at the site.
Galawan is being sued for $15,000 for disruption to the business and another $10,000 for damage to reputation through defamation.
