ABSTRACT
In 1949, Peter Lewington discovered a surveyor’s stake on the farm he rented north of London, Ontario. In this way he learned of Imperial Oil’s plans to install a pipeline; the company, granted expropriation powers by the federal government, had not bothered to inform him that it would be digging a ditch diagonally across his property. Imperial’s secrecy served as a rude introduction to pipeline companies’ negligent expropriation 185practices, preparing the Lewingtons for what was to become a 30-year struggle for environmental responsibility and justice. 3
