However “friendly” the officers may have appeared, the Ontario Provincial Police was way out of line when its cops visited citizens who planned to speak at hearings on the proposed nuclear waste dump near Lake Huron.

Without hard evidence of imminent danger from a protest, the provincial police should not be doing anything that might put in question Ontarians’ democratic right to express their opinion on nuclear waste – at a public forum no less. Indeed, it’s fair to say that Ontario Power Generation’s plan to bury low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste in a deep underground facility near Kincardine deserves serious scrutiny.

The OPP should cease and desist. Community liaison officers in other police departments have dealt with potential protests through organized, general meetings. The OPP’s home visits were far too invasive.

As the Star’s Thomas Walkom reported over the weekend, officers collected the names of locals who were scheduled to speak against the dump – as well as one who supported it – at ongoing environmental assessment hearings. OPP officers then tracked them down at their homes, much to the residents’ surprise.

Two cops visited the home of Beverly Fernandez, an organizer with Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump. They asked if a protest was planned and told her that numerous undercover cops would be attending the hearing. As Fernandez said, “I wasn’t intimidated because I’m not easily intimidated … but others were.” It’s pretty safe to suggest that police, who are supposed to have a better than average understanding of human behaviour, would recognize the impact of their words.

So too, one might assume, would Ontario’s Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur, who dismissed it as mere police “prevention.” If anything, the OPP’s clumsy intervention has succeeded in making the hearings an even bigger story.

And, without a doubt, the decisions facing the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), along with the federal environmental assessment agency, have residents on both the Canadian and American borders of the lake on high alert.

Even the nuclear safety commission says it was dismayed by the police tactics. Its director general, Patsy Thompson, issued a statement saying the commission tried to stop officers in advance. “The CNSC considered that such actions by the OPP would be perceived as harassment and intimidation,” Thompson said. It was a wise, if obvious, warning.

Now that four weeks of hearings are underway, there must be rigorous questioning – without fear – of the proposal to bury radioactive waste. Decisions on how this sensitive project is handled are important to us all.