A Salt Spring Island resident has launched a class action lawsuit against BC Hydro over Smart Meters.
Nomi Davis says a Smart Meter was installed at her home against her wishes in August 2012, and the event was caught on tape and posted on YouTube:
The lawsuit was launched with the support and representation of the Citizens for Safe Technology Society (CST) & the Coalition to Stop Smart Meters.
It was filed on July 25, and others can join the lawsuit if they meet the criteria.
“If BC Hydro has forced a Smart Meter on you, threatened to cut off your power or refused to provide you with power unless you accepted a Smart Meter, then you may fit within the Class of persons on behalf of whom this claim is brought,” said Steve Satow, a CST advisory board member.
The criteria is laid out in paragraph 29, and states that the class member must have communicated to the Defendant (BC Hydro) that he/she opposes and/or does not consent to the installation and/or operation of the “Microwave Device” at the subject’s property.
Anyone who wishes to support or participate in the action can contact www.citizensforsafetechnology.org
Those involved in the lawsuit are looking for an order that BC Hydro remove unwanted Smart Meters, and a permanent injunction restraining BC Hydro from exacting payment in exchange for an opt-out.
Executive director Una St.Clair said they are not going to sit and wait for the government to decide on its policy over the Smart Meters. “If I choose to avoid chemical fertilizers on my property because I think they’re unhealthy, that is my choice,” she said. “The same goes with exposure to Smart Meter radiation. In a free and pluralistic society, a possible toxin cannot be forced down anyone’s throat – or forced onto one’s property.”
Davis’s lawyer said the lawsuit states the home is a private domain where free choice and autonomy rule. “It claims a right of control over environmental exposures generated from one’s own domestic dwelling; and it alleges that BC Hydro has unlawfully leveraged its monopoly powers to violate that right by coercively and deceptively imposing a smart meter on the Plaintiff and other members of the Class,” he said.
It is expected BC Hydro will receive notice of the lawsuit today. They will have 21 days from being served to file its defence pleading after which Davis will seek to have the action certified under the Class Proceedings Act.
About 60,000 customers have resisted having the meters put in by BC Hydro.
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