The proponent uses threats of legal action, rather than actually going to court, to intimidate the public. They initiate legal action but then don’t actually pursue it. They lose when attempting to prevent the public from receiving documents through the Freedom of Information process. Here are some examples.
| Year initiated | Proponent’s legal action | End result |
| 2010 | Initiated $126M lawsuit as City of Thunder Bay Council wanted to approve only 14 of the 18 wind turbines | City was intimidated into agreeing to two more, Zwig dropped legal action without going to Court. |
| 2010 | Initiated legal action claiming City of Thunder Bay had no land lease and therefore no right to arbitration in determining location of proposed Thunder Bay wind project. | Judge dismissed lawsuit, saying there was no lease. |
| 2013 | Proponent claimed $3M damages in defamation against Township of Muskoka Lakes. | Zwig never advanced lawsuit, never went to Court. |
| 2013 | Requests to be a party in Township’s Judicial Review against the MNRF. | Zwig’s lawyer was not given an opportunity to speak. |
| 2013 | Initiated Judicial Review against Ministry of the Environment requiring proposed Thunder Bay wind project be approved. | Zwig loses. Judge ruled the Court would not get involved, and ordered some of the Fort William First Nations legal costs be paid by Zwig. |
| 2015 | Requested to be a party in SaveTheBalaFalls.com’s request for an injunction to prevent the Township of Muskoka Lakes leasing land to the proponent. |
Concerning whether SaveTheBalaFalls.com should pay the proponent’s claimed $24,000 costs, the Judge ruled of the proponent’s involvement:
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| 2016 | Initiated $60M lawsuit against Ontario government, claiming $10M development costs incurred and $50M for lost future profits due to MOECC finding that proposed Thunder Bay wind project would harm the environment, so cannot proceed. | No progress on lawsuit for several years (one would expect that if Zwig believes he could win this he’d work on advancing this). |
| 2018 | Objecting to the release of many documents requested by SaveTheBalaFalls.com through the Freedom of Information process. Objections include that they planned on legal action against the MNRF, so those documents cannot be released. | Zwig loses. In several Orders issued by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (such as here and here), the proponent’s arguments were found to have no merit, and the documents were ordered to be released. |
And now the proponent has hired three lobbyists telling Premier Ford and anyone else they can get at that they would sue for $100M if their proposed Bala project was stopped. They are citing this ridiculously high number in an attempt to neutralize the fact that if this proposed project proceeds, Ontario taxpayers would be paying a subsidy of $100M to this private developer over the 40-year term of the contract.
We hope that given the proponent’s track record above, the Ontario PC government is smart enough to see through this attempt at intimidation.