Dear editor:

It seems that the favourite recourse of developers when their plans meet with less than an enthusiastic response is one of personal abuse.

First there was a prominent Niagara-on-the-Lake developer’s vindictive rant against Lord Mayor Betty Disero following her defeat in the last municipal election.

Now we have a bizarre diatribe by Rainer Hummel against Brian Marshall, a regular columnist for The Lake Report, who dared to voice concerns about the latest iteration of Mr. Hummel’s plans for the Phillips estate.

According to Mr. Hummel, your columnist “has no current professional qualification” but has “a made up label”, “creating his own qualifications” and writes “fabricated nonsense” with no “expertise beyond a layman’s awareness.”

I find these personal attacks disturbing when they are directed at prominent citizens of NOTL who – unlike developers – have no financial skin in the game, but are simply expressing their views on how the town should grow for the benefit of all and without eyesores or white elephants.

Mr. Hummel’s last line is a gem: “Opinions are the least valuable form of human knowledge; they require no accountability or genuine understanding.”

I hope Mr. Marshall will take some comfort from this statement when he ponders Mr. Hummel’s opinion of him.

Richard James
NOTL