CAPP (Coalition Against the Proposal Prison) is a group of Kemptville and area residents fighting to stop the construction of a new prison on high-quality publicly-owned farmlands in Kemptville, ON.
They’ve released a new video detailing some of the environmental concerns with the proposed plans, which sees the prison being built over the rideau watershed Barnes Creek and floodplain.
“In August 2020, Ontario Premier Ford, cabinet minister and local Member of Provincial Parliament Steve Clark, and other provincial government officials announced the Eastern Region Strategy, which in the short-term entails new provincial prison infrastructure projects in Brockville, Napanee, and Kemptville. In the case of Kemptville, they announced the construction of a 235-bed Greater Ottawa Correctional Complex. Without consultation with Kemptville residents and local politicians representing them in the Municipality of North Grenville, the Ford government announced that this new prison – now known as the Eastern Ontario Correctional Complex – would be built on these grounds of the decommissioned Kemptville Agricultural College (1917-2014), which is located on unceded and unsurrendered Algonquin Anishinaabe Territory. The property includes arable farmland, valuable farm buildings, a creek connected to the Rideau watershed, and floodplain. This video provides an update on what the Coalition Against the Proposed Prison has learned about the placement of the prison on the site and the struggle to stop it. Viewers are encouraged to contact Premier Ford (phone: 613-325-1941 | email: premier@ontario.ca) to demand that his government release the environmental assessment and other “due diligence activities” documents associated with this infrastructure project, as well as tell him #SaveDontPaveFarmland #StopTheKemptvillePrison and #BuildCommunitiesNotCages.”