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Home My WebLink AboutThe Citizen, 2015-10-08, Page 1CitizenTh e $1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, October 8, 2015 Volume 31 No. 39 THEATRE - Pg. 18 Blyth Festival’s Garratt to head provincial group ELECTION - Pg. 9 North Woods students to hold their own election Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0 INSIDE THIS WEEK: Witches Walk cancelled due to regulations, timing Over the hump The Edge of Walton Challenge Course was the setting on Sunday for the Maidens of Mayhem Li’l Mud Run, a team-building obstacle course event for the girls hockey teams of Blyth, Brussels and beyond. Here, a team from Bluewater makes its way over a wall of hay bales. The course also featured a balancing act on telephone poles and a backwards crab walk down a large, muddy hill. (Jim Brown photo) Federal candidates debate the issues The 14th annual Blyth Witches Walk won’t be happening this year because of complications with timelines for fire safety compliance, according to organizers. Originally set for Oct. 17, the event, which was to be held in the North Huron Public Works Shed behind the Blyth and District Community Centre, has been going for the past 13 years thanks to a strong core team of volunteers and their friends and family. Witches Walk Committee Member Hope Button reported that the committee met with Fire Department of North Huron Chief David Sparling and Inspector James Marshall as well as North Huron Department of Recreation and Facilities Department head Pat Newson on Oct. 1 and were told several changes to the event were necessary to prevent possible fire hazards. “What they were asking wasn’t a problem,” Button explained. “It was the timing.” The issues included spraying everything, including the walls, with a fire-retardant chemical. There were also some issues with exit signs. “Everything has to be sprayed with the chemical,” Button said. “Everything. The black plastic on the walls, the canopy, the corn, everything.” The chemical, which has to be shipped in from British Columbia, would have cost $500 according to committee member Bev Blair. While that is expensive for a volunteer group, Blair did say that it would be a one-time cost for most of the decorations since the spray is permanent. Getting the spray and applying it, however, just wouldn’t work. “With the walk so close and only having four members of the committee, we have limited time,” Button said. “It meant we would have to pull everying out and spray it all. We don’t have that kind of time.” Button went on to say that finding time to spray, in some cases multiple layers, would be difficult because of the weather in October. Blair agreed, saying that the committee often finds itself putting decorations up the day of the event, so putting that extra work in is just something they don’t have time for. While both said they weren’t casting any blame towards North Huron staff, they did say they were surprised and disheartened by how late the information was brought to them. “We just don’t understand why this wasn’t brought up beforehand hand,” Button said. “We don’t have enough time to address the issues.” Blair said the committee understand the issues and think the suggestions are great, they just needed more time to implement them, pointing to last November when Newson and Sparling visited the site and made no comments about future changes. “Everything that was asked of us we understood fully,” Button said. “We’re not mad about anything. If we knew sooner, however, we could have pulled out the decorations in the good weather and started spraying them.” The committee members did everything they could to try and make the event happen, according to Blair. “We met for four hours on Friday after the meeting and brainstormed to try and get it to work,” she said. “There was just no way we could get Rare universal applause erupted at the Sept. 30 all-candidates meeting when Huron County Federation of Agriculture (HCFA) President Joan Vincent made an announcement that all in attendance could support: during the meeting the Toronto Blue Jays won their division for the first time in 23 years and were playoff- bound. Aside from the rare Canadian baseball triumph, there was very little the Huron-Bruce federal candidates – Conservative incumbent Ben Lobb, Liberal Allan Thompson, Gerard Creces of the NDP and Green Party candidate Jutta Splettstoesser – could agree on at the Sept. 30 meeting, ahead of the Oct. 19 election. OPENING REMARKS Lobb, as the incumbent, was given first opportunity to address the standing room-only crowd, saying that he loved attending the HCFA meeting because farm families are the backbone of Huron-Bruce, and of Canada. Under Conservative leadership, he said, markets have grown substantially, giving farmers access to foreign markets they’ve never had; and there are more on the way in the form of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Farmers have had their best 10 years in recent memory under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Lobb said, and the Conservatives remain committed to the supply management system and expanding upon the 43 foreign markets opened to Canada under Harper. Splettstoesser told those in attendance that the Green Party, under leader Elizabeth May, is committed to sustainable economic growth and taking strong measures against climate change. The party has committed to invest in people and to end tuition for those attending post-secondary schools. Born in Germany and landed in Canada over 20 years ago, Splettstoesser said it was agriculture that first brought her to Canada. Creces told those gathered at the Holmesville Community Centre that the NDP has a growing support base that is getting bigger every day. He said he hopes to build on the success of the last election, where the NDP finished second to the Conservatives in Huron-Bruce, and the Liberals took the bronze medal. The NDP, Creces said, is committed to cleaning up over a decade of “malfeasance” under the Harper government and “taking the power back” to end the “culture of entitlement” in Ottawa. Thompson said he was born on a family farm near Glammis in Bruce County, but that he wouldn’t attempt to “out-farm a room full of farmers”. He pursued a career in journalism, On Thursday, Oct. 1 the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau, Drug Enforcement Unit, West Region Emergency Response Team (ERT), West Region Canine and Huron OPP executed a Controlled Drugs and Substances Act search warrant at residence located on Marnoch Line in North Huron’s East Wawanosh Ward and discovered $2,220,000 worth of cannabis marijuana. As a result of the execution of the search warrant, police revealed a sophisticated cannabis marijuana grow operation. Police seized cannabis marijuana plants and processed cannabis marijuana. The combined estimated street value of the controlled substances is $2,220,000. Police also seized offence-related property that consisted of trafficking paraphernalia and cash with an estimated value of $2,000. A total of eight people were arrested on the property and have been held in custody for bail hearings that were scheduled for Oct. 5 at the Ontario Court of Justice in Goderich. The accused were arrested and charged with Production of Cannabis Marijuana and Possession of Marijuana for the Purposes of Trafficking. The accused are a 49-year-old Scarborough man, a 70-year-old Markham man, a 33-year-old Port Hope man, a 58-year-old woman from Rhode Island and four North Huron women, aged 55, 57, 66 and 68. The Citizen Celebrating 30 Years 1985~2015 By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Continued on page 8 Millions seized in NH drug bust By Denny Scott The Citizen Continued on page 3