Ontario board rejects Jesuit arguments against Wal-Mart next door

Published: 2005-01-19

TORONTO (CNS) -- The Ontario Municipal Board has rejected Jesuit arguments that the spiritual values invested in their 600 acres of farmland north of Guelph, Ontario, are incompatible with building a Wal-Mart next door. In early January, the board ruled that Wal-Mart is free to build a new shopping center next to the Jesuit retreat center and between Catholic and Protestant cemeteries. Religious values, which the Jesuits argued are in direct conflict with consumerist values represented by Wal-Mart, cannot be part of the planning process, the board ruled. It was the final word on a case that has been before the Ontario Municipal Board in one form or another for nearly 10 years. Wal-Mart expects to have a shopping center operating at the north end of Guelph in 2006. "No one has a license to create a 'zone of exclusivity' which would be the result if the position of the Jesuits was adopted," read the Ontario board's decision. Jesuit Father Jim Profit, superior of the Jesuit community in Guelph, said the board sided with the arguments of the Wal-Mart lawyers. "The bottom line is that what we do on our property ... has a long history of being done here," he said. "I would consider it to be spirituality and to be important not only for the city but obviously for a wider group of people."

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