Each example is by a different participant.

[brackets] indicate where data have been omitted to maintain privacy.

I had done the research about the wind turbines since [date], I was quite aware of the possibilities of having health impacts but I didn’t realize just how bad they would be and if I would be personally affected by it.

About [x] years ago we had to look into wind turbines when a project was proposed about [x km] from us…I’ve spoken to [a former Premier of Ontario]…I said “People are getting sick. You have to do something.” …They just walk away from it.

I was very engaged in the literature and a volunteer…we have to be really close to the turbines because there’s nowhere else to put them…That was the basis for starting to worry or be uncertain about whether we could tolerate living in amongst them [IWTs].

I think that we became involved in the issues with turbines in the early 2000s more because the turbines were going to be put in around [our location]....we did an awful lot of work to try to get that [IWT project] cancelled…we started to broaden our horizons. Started to get more people to start to take notice, how many halls that we’ve been in the course of this journey, trying to get the information out to people that, quite frankly, didn’t care...they don’t care that you had to sell your house, they don’t care that you might not have had your health. They don’t care.

We started thinking about it when we first heard that the [IWT project] was going to be built in our neighbourhood. I’m doing what I would call at that time casual internet research on wind turbines which led us to become aware of some of the physical effects that people were reporting.

I think the education of the broader community, the broader province has been good. Unfortunately, it came too late…as far as stopping the turbines in [IWT project]. Yes, you feel like it was a big waste of time. The government had made the decision. The contract that they made with the host, made it impossible to get out of. They didn’t give us options.

Initially when neighbours decided to put turbines in, because of my knowledge and my previous studying about the possible health effects, and the effects to animals. I already thought before they turned the soil that there may be issues coming ahead, and that was [x] years ago.

I’ve since gone to a number of these developer open houses, and I get the same thing. Same experts in a lot of cases, they’ve got the same charts up on the wall. It just feels dishonest. The whole process feels very dishonest.

I went to a lot of open houses…talked to our local mayor and the councillor...helped with a petition or a protest…I don’t know how many letters I would write to the MOE [Ministry of Environment] or MNR [Ministry of Natural Resources], that kind of thing I did do. I don’t know how many protests that we went to Queens Park [legislature] and we protested locally. We did what we could.

[We] have written many letters…to government officials, some groups and we’ve gotten them [neighbours] to send in statements to the Environmental Bill of Rights…We’ve kept ourselves informed…we’ve learned more and more…it’s occupied our life for [x] years now…We’ve reached out to the federal government. And they blowed it off.