An Ontario town struggled for years with illegal trucking. Did the fight just turn deadly?
The stillness of a cold night in the rural town of Caledon, Ont., was shattered by the sound of gunshots just before midnight on Monday.
The town sits to the northwest of Toronto and is home to some of the province’s most beautiful countryside and farms.
That night, however, the southern edge of Caledon, by Mayfield and Airport roads, was a hive of police activity.
“A few gunshots, and then I saw the police in the morning,” one neighbour, Wilifredo Rodriquez, told Global News.
Officers at the scene were investigating a triple shooting that left one person dead and two others with injuries. Ontario Provincial Police believe it may have been a targeted homicide.
While investigators are staying tight-lipped on a possible motive for the shooting, the address where the deadly events transpired has a history of breaking local rules.
The scene — located at 6186 Mayfield Rd. — was the home to what the town described as an illegal trucking operation.
Illegal trucking occurs when a company uses land zoned for activities like farming or homebuilding and converts it into a large, industrial truck depot without local permission.
In Caledon, several trucking operations have also been accused of burying potentially toxic substances like asphalt or concrete in the ground, without notifying local authorities or getting the green light to begin changing the landscape.
According to the town, the Mayfield Road site is one of dozens of similar unregistered outfits around the town that residents claim are causing noise pollution, health issues and worse
Ontario Provincial Police say they do not have records of complaints about trucking at the address, though municipal and court officials were aware. Police have not said if they believe the
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