WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, the ruling is dead wrong and the Town of Orangeville would be doing all Ontario a service by appealing it.

We refer, of course, to the decision of Ontario Superior Court Justice Francine Van Melle that Orangeville's 27,000 residents will have no voice when Dufferin County Council debates the pros and cons of selling the former CPR line north of Orangeville to Highland Rail Group.

If nothing else, common sense ought to have convinced the judge that Ontario's Municipal Conflict of Interest Act targeted personal, not contractual conflicts, and was never designed to disenfranchise entire communities.

Coming from a Superior Court judge, this bizarre ruling will bind all lower courts and tribunals until it is overturned on appeal.

As for the judge's suggestion that the circumstances were unique, let's consider the fact that in virtually every county and region decisions on how to deal with solid wastes will inevitably affect local municipalities differently, particularly if they have contracts. In Dufferin, half the municipalities and more than half the population currently have no landfill sites and must contract to have the wastes transported elsewhere.

Does this ruling mean Orangeville, Shelburne, East Luther Grand Valley and East Garafraxa should have no voice in finding solutions?