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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2015-01-15, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 2015. Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny Scott Advertising Sales: Lori Patterson & Amanda Bergsma The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M 1H0 Ph. 519-523-4792 Fax 519-523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. N0G 1H0 Phone 519-887-9114 E-mail info@northhuron.on.ca Website www.northhuron.on.ca Looking Back Through the Years CCNA Member Member of the Ontario Press Council The Citizen is published 50 times a year in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $36.00/year ($34.29 + $1.71 G.S.T.) in Canada; $160.00/year in U.S.A. and $205/year in other foreign countries. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Mon. 2 p.m. - Brussels; Mon. 4 p.m. - Blyth. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca January 11, 1962 An estimated $1,500 worth of merchandise was taken from the Oldfield Hardware store. Items taken included a television set, several radios, a number of guns, two floor polishers and a number of other tools. The Brussels Arena opened to the public once again after nearly $7,000 was spent improving the building and its facilities in the off- season. Improvements at the centre included new heating and plumbing systems, new dressing rooms, a new office, and a large, heated viewing room, from which people could watch games in warmth and comfort. W.A. Williamson, who had operated the arena for a number of years, said it had been at least 30 years since improvements had last been made at the arena. January 10, 1979 Members of Brussels Village Council approved a pay raise for themselves, accounting for an approximate 6.5 per cent increase for everyone. Councillors would now get paid $800 per year for their services, while the reeve would get paid $1,000 per year. Clerk Bill King saw his salary rise $1,000 to an annual rate of $14,000. The raise came partially, The Brussels Post reported, because King got his degree as a clerk in the year that had just passed. King’s secretary Ruth Sauve had been paid $4 per hour, but would see her wages rise to $4.25 per hour. Five guns were stolen from Oldfield’s Hardware in Brussels. Two shotguns, two 22s and one pellet gun were discovered stolen when Nora Stephenson reported to work. She also said that while the store’s cash drawer was found open, no money had been taken as part of the theft. When Stephenson arrived at work, she found that the glass frame in the store’s front window had been smashed with pieces of glass lying inside. January 10, 1990 Jim and Crystal Taylor of RR1, Auburn were the proud parents of the first baby of the year at Clinton Public Hospital. Their new son, Andrew Boyd (Drew) hadn’t been expected for another month, but arrived just before 11 p.m. on Jan. 1 weighing six pounds and four and a half ounces. Huron County councillors found themselves uneasy regarding the future and impending costs associated with Huronview Home for the Aged at council’s first session of the new year. The county had initially planned to renovate the home. However, when the county was told that renovation costs would be nearly as great as costs associated with building a new facility, the Ministry of Community and Social Services urged the county to consider building a new facility instead. The county then set up a Seniors Care Facility Committee that suggested a new Huronview with a larger home at the current site, as well as two smaller satellite homes, one in the northern part of Huron County and one in the south. Councillors took pause, however, as early estimates pegged the cost at approximately $14 million, which had then ballooned to an estimated $24 million. January 10, 2001 With a lot of snow making its way to Huron County in the previous two months, along with it came a huge economic boost for local businesses, as well as the snowmobile industry in Huron County. Lynn Hoy of Wingham said he had the “cleanest floors” he’d had in 15 years, meaning that he had sold all of his 2001 snowmobiles and had only a handful of the previous year’s machines left in his snowmobile showroom. With amalgamation of several local municipalities just underway, a large story in The Citizen instructed readers where they needed to go if they wanted to find municipal services. At the inaugural meeting of Central Huron Council, Reeve Carol Mitchell was sworn in to her new position. “Today we as Central Huron Council members begin the process to prepare for the year 2001 and to begin long range planning for our new municipality,” Mitchell said upon being sworn in. “As all of you are aware, the year 2001 will be a transition year and we will face many challenges. We as Central Huron Council members will provide a solid sense of direction in working toward common goals and the best interests of Central Huron.” Goderich Mayor Deb Shewfelt said that Huron County needed to work on improving its image after a debacle regarding the Huron County ambulance service. Several established paramedics were not hired by the county when it took over from the province, Shewfelt said in his first meeting of Huron County Council, which painted the county in a bad light in Ontario. “I have to tell you that across the province we don’t have a very good reputation,” Shewfelt said. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright What happened to diversifying? With oil prices in free-fall, there are concerns that Canadian governments’ revenue, and the Canadian economy, may be endangered by depending too much on natural resources at the expense of other sectors, including industry. In a different way, Huron County may have also become dependent on commodities – those produced on farms. For generations, the concern was that Canadians needed to become less “hewers of wood and drawers of water” and develop more further processing. We needed industries, we were told, so we wouldn’t depend on cutting trees, taking oil and minerals out of the ground, and growing crops. Ontario had become the centre of industry, but the last couple of decades, as globalization emphasized the “comparative advantage” of producing any product in the least costly place, it became difficult for Canadian industry, with higher wages and regulatory expenses for things like environmental protection, to compete. At the same time, soaring oil prices and the growth of Alberta’s oil sands projects, drove up the value of the Canadian dollar, making it even harder for industry to export its products. Plants closed. Workers lost their jobs. Those same conditions have hit Huron County hard with major industries like Volvo and the Seaforth Creamery closing and others, like Wescast, reducing production. Huron County had always dreamed about attracting more industry to balance off our dependance on agriculture, but in the last decade, as industrial jobs were lost, we’ve come to depend even more on agriculture and tourism. Huron County had been blessed with fertile land to make it an agricultural heartland, just as Canada has been blessed with oil and minerals. Still, it’s never a healthy economic situation when a community or country depends too much on a few products. Globalization has given consumers a bonanza of cheap goods, but it has turned us back into hewers of wood and drawers of water. –KR Free speech isn’t simple In the wake of last week’s assassination of the staff of a Paris magazine that published satirical cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, millions have marched in support of the principle of free speech. In our everyday world, however, free speech is a more difficult concept to live with. It’s been relatively easy for westerners to unite behind the right of free speech after the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo that killed 12 people. Why should people lose their lives just because they make fun of something or someone: even a religious figure? After all, the magazine had also made fun of the Pope and many other powerful figures in the past. But the other big, ongoing story in Canada in the past couple of weeks, has been the controversy about what to do with a group of male Dalhousie University dentistry students who posted degrading comments – which they thought were funny – about female students in their class. While no one has suggested these students be shot for their comments, the reaction to the university’s measured approach to disciplining the offenders has been so outraged, it sometimes seems that nothing short of drawing and quartering the men will be accepted as proper justice. In recent years, Canadian society has also taken a strong stand against bullying, whether it be in the school yard, the workplace or social media. Many of the people we now term as bullies think they’re being funny when they pick on someone. They could argue that they’re just practising their right to free speech. In these cases, we accept that there are limitations on free speech. Could it be that people in the Muslim world think ridiculing Muhammad is just as bad as unfunny jokes against classmates or co-workers? Bullies like those Dalhousie students make fun of the “other” while closing ranks around their own group. When we say we’re exercising free speech but we pick on people because they don’t think as we do, are we in danger of becoming bullies to? If we feel it’s necessary to curtail free speech to protect others in our own society perhaps we also need to be careful about ridiculing outsiders’ religion. –KR & Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your letters brief and concise.