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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2015-05-14, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 14, 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 May 17, 1962 With approximately 60 people in attendance at the NDP nominating convention in Goderich, 52-year-old Grey Township farmer Carl Hemingway was chosen to represent the Huron riding in the upcoming election. The decision was unanimous. The Brussels United Church was set to hold its annual flower service on May 27. The theme for the day would be “On My Way To Heaven” and it would be sponsored by the church’s Sunday School and the Young Peoples’ Union would be in charge of the day’s evening service. Danny Kaye would be on the silver screen at Listowel’s Capitol Theatre in On The Double. Kaye played an American soldier, British General and Nazi officer in the film. May 16, 1979 The Brussels, Morris and Grey Catering Committee presented a cheque for $3,000 to the Brussels Recreation Committee, which was intended to go towards general arena maintenance. The cheque represented the catering group’s profits to date. Since being formed, the group had served nearly 1,400 hot meals to hungry diners and had a solid stream of bookings through the coming summer and fall months. Wingham OPP officers informed the public that the police force was currently in the middle of 40 investigations from the previous week, including a number of Highway Traffic Act charges and several Criminal Code charges. May 16, 1990 Morris Township ratepayers were set to potentially face a large tax rate increase, in excess of 11 per cent. Council had approved the year’s budget at a meeting just one week earlier. Similarly, Grey Township Council announced that its tax rate too would rise 8.5 per cent. However, due to a large increase handed down by the Huron County Board of Education, residents would face an even larger total tax increase of 10.8 per cent. Several members of Blyth’s Cubs, Scouts and Beavers were out and about throughout the village collecting empty bottles to help raise money for scouting projects, with Neil Saur, Shawn Clark and Brent and Justin Sauve all chipping in that day. The poster for the 1990 Blyth Festival was revealed in a picture in The Citizen featuring all three companies involved in the poster’s creation, including Doug Whitmore of Blyth Printing. Brussels Village Council announced that a bylaw had been passed that regulated coin-operated video games, as well as other arcade games, in locations accessible to minors. With council attempting to keep the hands of minors off of the machines, business owners could still have the machines in areas that were accessible to minors, but they would have to pay $500 per machine for a licence to do so. Council also decided that failure to comply with the new bylaw would result in a fine of $500. May 16, 2001 The Avon Maitland District School Board decided that there was not enough demand to warrant a special busing system to transport Walton students to Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton. North Huron representative Colleen Schenk voted in favour of the concept, but in the end there just wasn’t enough support for the Walton students wishing to attend school in Clinton. Huron-Bruce MP Paul Steckle announced that he would be bringing Minister of International Co-operation Maria Minna through Blyth for a visit later that month. Steckle said he felt that the people of Blyth would be very interested in meeting Minna for a number of reasons. “Minister Minna is responsible for a wide range of matters including the Canada Foodgrains Bank and the Canadian International Develop- ment Agency. I strongly believe that the people of Huron-Bruce will have a considerable interest in this Minister,” Steckle said. A consultant’s report received by the Avon Maitland District School Board suggested the closure of 15 schools across the board’s catchment area, which included Huron and Perth Counties. In addition to the closure of a number of schools, there were also a number of other recommendations made that were designed to address enrolment concerns throughout schools in the two counties, including the shifting of Grade 7 and 8 students from area public schools to secondary schools, namely F. E. Madill Secondary School in Wingham. The decision to end the discussion regarding the potential construction of a new, state-of-the- art health care facility that would effectively “merge” the Clinton and Goderich hospitals had many in the medical community upset. The plans for the new facility were shelved after a meeting on May 7 when a decision on a potential location for the would-be facility could not be reached. 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 Why the rush? Organizers of the Guelph-to-Goderich Rail Trail (G2G) didn’t do themselves, or the project, any good when they jumped the gun to announce the trail will be open July 1. Municipal councils along the route of the trail have reacted in shock and surprise. In North Huron’s case, the township still controls the lease for a piece of the trail just east of Blyth for another year. Other municipal leaders told Huron County Council last week that they were unsure the concerns of landowners along the trail had been properly dealt with. Trail organizers’ temptation to try to push the project ahead is understandable since there are opponents who would delay the project as long as possible in the hope that it might just go away. Some of those opposed to the rail have raised legitimate concerns while others have stretched credibility with their visions of all the horrors that could go wrong. Still, as many as possible of the concerns of landowners should have been resolved before barging ahead. At the very least, they should have made sure municipalities knew they were planning to open the trail. This project has the potential to be an economic boon to Huron County, linking as it does a large population centre with Lake Huron’s coast through a 137-kilometre trail, but it needs to be done well and to have the support of as many people as possible, not create enemies by moving too fast. –KR What’s reasonable ? Ontario has its own “reasonable accommodation” debate going on these days: not over veils or other religious clothing but over what standards society expects in things like sex education. Last week thousands of parents in the Toronto area held their kids out of school to protest the new sexual education curriculum the province plans to introduce next September. In one Toronto school with 1,350 students, only 130 were in class May 4. Across the Toronto District School Board, 15,000 students weren’t in class on May 7. The boycott involves mostly parents from newcomer groups, from Polish Catholics to Chinese Canadians to Muslims. The one thing they have in common is the sense that sex education should be done by parents in the home not in schools. In truth, this means that many won’t give their kids sex education at all, of course, and in some cases will continue inaccurate, even prejudicial information and opinions. Ironically a main goal of the new curriculum is building understanding and tolerance. It seeks to give children accurate knowledge about their own bodies, teach understanding of others who aren’t necessarily like them and inculcate respect for a woman’s right to be more than a sexual object. Some people claim it’s giving children this information at too young an age. Who knows? Certainly in this day of the internet and hypersexualization, kids are getting sexual information outside of the school earlier than ever. Two “rights” are going head to head on this issue. On one hand, we celebrate multiculturalism and the right of people not to be homogenized when they enter Canada. On the other, we seek to build an informed, tolerant society. In the long run, the final goal is most important. –KR Be Progressive, too Give him time to define himself, but here’s hoping the selection of Patrick Brown as leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative party on Saturday doesn’t mean the party will once again leave itself so far out on the right that Ontario voters won’t support it. Certainly during the leadership campaign Brown seemed to emphasize the “conservative” more than the “progressive” side of the party’s name but he still has a chance to position himself as a reasonable alternative to the current Liberal government. His predecessor Tim Hudak seemed certain to win the last election until he chose to promise to cut 100,000 government jobs, a pledge that was too radical for most Ontarians. Some day this government will be replaced. If the Progressive Conservatives want to be the replacement, they need to remember the “progressive” half of their name. –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.