Dear editor:

In a letter to The Lake Report on April 15, (“Town was right to impose development freeze”), I expressed my personal opinions concerning developer Rainer Hummel and his reasons for the legal action that he launched against town council and the resident taxpayers of Niagara-on-the-Lake over the interim control bylaw. 

It is now a matter of record that these general opinions are similar to those expressed in greater detail by Justice James Ramsay of the Ontario Superior Court, who has dismissed Hummel's claims as contrived and invalid in their entirety.

Now, of course, as one might expect, he plans to appeal this decision. (After all, is this not within his legal rights and is there not still a chance even now for him to reach into the pockets of the resident taxpayer!)

To me this is very regrettable coming from someone who received an award as citizen of the year in 2018.

How on earth did this individual with his obvious interest in personal enrichment (at the expense of the resident taxpayer), regardless of other factors that may or may not be related, become a recipient of this award?

As I see it, this is simply not the action of a citizen of the year.

Derek Collins
NOTL