Chip Martin – October 19, 2013 – The London Free Press

FOREST – From pickups to tractors and manure wagons, nearly 200 vehicles blocked off a 30-kilometre stretch of Hwy. 402 Saturday.

In what is believed to be one of the largest demonstrations against wind turbines in rural Ontario, the eastbound lanes of the freeway were shut down from Hwy. 21 near Forest to Centre Rd. at Strathroy

“Premier Wynne, you will learn we are a tough crowd when we are pissed off,” activist firebrand Esther Wrightman of Kerwood told a rally of about 300 participants afterward.

“Ms Wynne, we will not be bullied and terrorized any more,” Wrightman told a crowd that drew participants from Niagara Region, Grey County, Haldimand, Chatham-Kent and elsewhere.

Conservative MPPs Monte McNaughton, Bob Bailey, Lisa Thompson and Lisa McLeod told the protesters their party would dismantle the Green Energy Act, which has helped kill 300,000 jobs in the province, they said.

OPP closed access to the major artery and provided an escort for the rolling protest that stretched as far as the eye could see.

The demonstration started about 10 a.m. and took more than two hours to reach Centre Rd. and a closing rally beside the Gemini Sportsplex.

Neil Switzer, a member of a Niagara Region group opposed to wind turbines, said the protest “is very encouraging because it brings people together from all over the province”

“And this is also a show of support for Esther Wrightman,” he said.

He said he has been fighting turbines for three years and is most concerned about how government won’t listen to reason and keeps promoting wind energy.

Link to story: London Free Press – 402 Anti-Wind rally