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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2010-08-19, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 2010.Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Acting Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny ScottAdvertising Sales: Ken Warwick & Lori Patterson The CitizenP.O. Box 429,BLYTH, Ont. N0M 1H0 Phone 523-4792 FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152,BRUSSELS, Ont. N0G 1H0 Phone 887-9114 E-mail norhuron@scsinternet.com 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 $34.00/year ($32.38 + $1.62 G.S.T.) in Canada; $105.00/year in U.S.A.and $175/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: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: norhuron@scsinternet.com August 18, 1948 In its first two league games, the newly-formed Blyth Junior Football Team suffered defeats, but The Blyth Standard called both showings “creditable” as the team lost by scores of 2-0 and 3-1 to Winthrop and Walton respectively. The Blyth Legionettes turned their losing ways around with an exhibition game win in Hensall. The ladies defeated Hensall by a score of 13-7. The game was the first in a home-and-home series that would see Hensall visit Blyth on August 28. Main Street in Blyth was in the midst of receiving a facelift, which was said to add greatly to the appearance of the village. A Toronto-based company was doing the heavy lifting applying new surface pavement to the street. “The new surface is about four or five inches in thickness and when applied leaves a smooth surface, almost akin to driving on glass,”The Blyth Standard reported. August 22, 1968 A two-car crash claimed the life of a Brussels-area man. William Jamieson became the fourth member of his family to lose his life due to an auto collision. The accident occurred just after 10 p.m. on the previous Friday. Jamieson’s car was involved in a head-on collision with a car driven by Charles Bray, also of the Brussels area, on County Road 12 just two miles south of Brussels. Bray suffered chest injuries, a broken jaw and a broken arm, as well as multiple bruises, as a result of the collision and was reported by The Brussels Post to be in satisfactory condition at Wingham and District Hospital. The prize list for the Brussels Fall Fair was released to The Brussels Post and the fair was to hold several new features in 1968, including an exhibition car race to go with regular events like the school parade with bands, floats and several other attractions. The annual Johnston Reunion was hosted by Bernie and Doris McKinley of Zurich at the Hensall Community Park. Approximately 70 family members came out to enjoy the festivities. A double feature was being held for a seven-night stay at Brownie’s Drive-In in Clinton, which featured the Academy Award-winning Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner starring Sidney Poitier and Catherine Hepburn, followed by Casino Royale, a comedy featuring legend Peter Sellers. August 22, 1990 A Walton firm, L.H. Resources, built a giant compost mixer that was said to help speed up the composting process by breaking, mixing and chopping the compost material at a rapid rate. The machine was bound to a project at the University of Minnesota. Chris Lee of L.H. Resources originally got involved with the project and the University of Minnesota as a result of a study that was being conducted at the university. The Maitland Valley Conservation Authority was told, at its general meeting, that the environment in the watershed was “suffering” due to tough times. “We are on a downward swing and depleting our capital at an accelerating rate. The environment is suffering,” said Rick Findlay, a director of the Ontario Round Table on the Environment and Economy. Findlay was the guest speaker at the meeting. He had held a position with Environment Canada before taking his position with the Round Table. An all-candidates meeting was scheduled to be held at Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton. The meeting, which was sponsored by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, was set to address a decline in funding towards public schools, which the Federation called “child neglect”. August 21, 2008 David Sparling of Sparling’s Propane, as a lead instructor and course developer for the Ontario Propane Association, was called in to assist a massive explosion that took place in North York on the morning of August 10. David Sparling called the scene “a pretty horrendous sight”. Sparling, along with Dave Cartwright of Blyth, spend five hours at the scene of the explosion, helping to wrap up the incident. While at the scene, Sparling said he was happy to see that all but two of the Propane Association’s response team were trained at Blyth’s Emergency Services Training Centre. Reverend Gary Clark was welcomed to the Blyth community as the new minister at Blyth United Church. Clark graduated from a seminary in Prince Edward Island, then heading to Saskatchewan and later Manitoba before making his way to Ontario. The Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority led a farm tour throughout its watershed that stopped at the home of Murray and Wilma Scott to view their demonstration project. As of that tour, nearly 200 people had toured the site to view the demonstration project and municipal drain that runs through their property. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Doing the right thing It was welcome news last week when the Ontario Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure and the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) did the right thing by farmers and landowners who had made applications under the microFIT program for ground-mounted solar power panels. OPA had shocked thousands of applicants when it announced on July 2 that it was rescinding its original offer of 80.2 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity from these small facilities, replacing it with a 58.8 cent rate. Those whose applications had been in for months and hadn’t been approved were left wondering if they would get the price originally offered or the revised price. The announcement last week finally cleared up the issue, promising the 80.2 cents for all those who had made applications before the July 2 date. It also promised that those backlogged applications would be cleared up soon (a press release from Carol Mitchell, MPP for Huron- Bruce on page 6 of this issue says most that have been submitted will be processed by the end of September). As well, OPA announced a new rate for ground-based solar generation under microFIT of 64.2 cents (the old 80.2 rate still applies for roof-mounted solar panels). The government of Premier Dalton McGuinty has shown admirable willingness to admit mistakes and correct them. While some people see a government changing its mind as a sign of weakness, better to realize you’ve made a mistake and fix it than to try to tough it out, never admitting your fallibility. In that, our federal government could learn something from the province about listening to what people are saying and being willing to back down in order to meet the needs of the people the government serves. The federal government’s stubborn refusal to reconsider the need for a compulsory long-form census shows just the opposite need of doing the right thing, no matter what embarrassment might be involved in changing your mind. — KR A cause for soul searching Canadians’ self-image as a nation offering a new opportunity to troubled peoples is being tested after the arrival of a shipload of Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka on our west coast last week. For many Canadians it’s hard to know just how to react because there is no simple answer. For others, of course, the answer is simple – the ship should be turned around and sent elsewhere. People who board a ship and just land on our shores are trying to get ahead of all those law- abiding people who sit in other countries waiting to be able to apply to immigrate to Canada. But turning away a ship of refugees has, in Canada’s history, put an embarrassing stain on our image as a just country. A shipload of Jews, facing extermination from the Nazis in Germany was turned away, having to return to Europe where many of the people later died in death camps. If a ship is sent back to sea and there’s a tragedy and women and children die, will we regret our actions? Some claim these are really economic refugees, not people avoiding persecution. On the other hand, Amnesty International’s 2010 report on Sri Lanka released at the end of May cites cases of arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial executions of people suspected to have links to the Tamil Tigers. There’s also the issue of rewarding smugglers who take advantage of desperate people. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said each passenger paid $40,000 to $50,000. At that rate, the ship owners may have pocketed more than $20 million. And then there’s the worry that Tamil Tiger terrorists are among the migrants and that they want to use Canada as a base to continue their fight against the Sri Lankan government for an independent homeland for Tamils. We’ve had this problem before when Sikh extremists organized the Air India bombing from Canadian soil killing hundreds. So this is a difficult problem with no easy solution. All we can do is hope for wisdom on the part of those making the decisions. — 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.