M’CHIGEENG—All that remains of the Williams family’s dreams of an abattoir in M’Chigeeng is a smoldering pile of ash despite the best efforts of the M’Chigeeng volunteer fire department and the neighbouring departments of Billings and Central Manitoulin who were called in to assist with the blaze. The suspected cause of the fire is arson.
The distraught co-owner of the building, Miriam Williams, blames the fire on arson.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Ms. Williams. “It’s the death of a dream.”
Work on the building began in March 2003 when Ms. Williams and her husband Richard, a trained meat inspector who once worked at the abattoir in Mindemoya before it closed down, created a business plan and applied for funding to create what was then a highly anticipated local agricultural resource.
Disputes over the building with former M’Chigeeng chief Joe Hare led to the building being held in stasis and it has languished ever since.
“Joe Hare claimed that the building wasn’t up to code,” recalled Ms. Williams. “But it was a provincially inspected building that was going to be an abattoir, it had to be up to code.”
Ms. Williams said that, in her mind, the fire was clearly an act of arson.
“There was no power to the building, there was nothing in there to cause a fire,” she said. “Just a little while before the fire a neighbour called to say they had seen lights and heard banging at the building.”
Upon inspection, the Williams discovered that a large hole had been cut through the walls of the building. “Someone had chopped a hole through the wall in back between the studs,” she said. “They had cut through the inner and outer walls.”
“We didn’t want to go in because we didn’t know what we might find in there,” said Ms. Williams. “We went to the police, but they said they had another emergency to attend to.” It was a number of days before the police attended the site.
This isn’t the first time the Williams’ property was attacked. They also found themselves a target a couple of years ago. “There was damage to the steel building,” said Ms. Williams. “Someone stole a front-end loader from the landfill and the police chased them.” The culprit drove the loader through the sides of the couple’s steel-clad building.
Ms. Williams and her husband are seniors, but she claims the band staff were of little to no help.
“They claim they respect the elders, but they didn’t do a thing,” she alleged. “We didn’t even get a call. I left a message four times. We have not had an answer to this day.”
The buildings were not insured.
“We lost everything with the steel building, we lost everything with the wooden building,” said Ms. Williams.
Ms. Williams said that the building has remained vacant due to intransigence and outright blockage by the band.
“We had a doctor who was interested in setting up practice in the building,” she said, but alleges that the deal was blocked by band leadership.
“It just feels hopeless,” said Ms. Williams.
