Markham tree-cutting woman pleads guilty, fined $4,500

yorkregion.com
May 18, 2017
By Tim Kelly

A $4,500 fine for the woman charged with cutting down three mature trees on her Unionville property will not deter anyone else from doing the exact same thing, believes a neighbour.

Jialing Wu, who pleaded guilty Thursday morning in Richmond Hill provincial court to chopping down the trees at 47-51 Gainsville Ave. last December, was fined $1,500 per tree in a joint plea agreement between the city and defence.

Wu was not in court. Her lawyer David Goodman made the plea on her behalf.

It was later discovered, after the City of Markham released a statement Thursday afternoon, that Wu has also made a donation to the city's "Trees for Tomorrow Fund" of $45,000. It's not known whether the donation had any impact on her plea agreement. The donation was not raised in court.

Before the short court proceeding could conclude Thursday morning, Unionville neighbour Pam Scarrow, who has attended most of the previous court appearances at Richmond Hill provincial court, stood and asked the judge if she could read a victim-impact statement.

The highly unusual action was denied by the judge given the prosecutor and defence had reached a joint submission.

Scarrow had plenty to say about the decision outside court after the proceeding concluded.

"Obviously the bylaw is not effective. One of the trees is valued at $75,000 and two others were valued at well over the fine that was levied," Scarrow said.

"The fine is not going to be any deterrent to anyone else who chooses to cut down trees," she said.

Peter Miasek, past president of the Unionville Residents Association, is hopeful Markham council will continue to work on improving the tree-preservation bylaw.

“We made a list of eight suggestions to strengthen the bylaw including having licensed tree-cutters and to post signs of when you have a permit,” he said.

Meanwhile, a source close to Wu said she will comply with a bylaw order to plant 18 trees before May 31 at 4:30 p.m. in Markham. The trees must be from an approved list of 22 species and at least 60 mm in width. If she doesn’t meet the deadline, she will have to pay a $10,800 fine.