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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, September 23, 2010
Volume 26 No. 37ELECTION- Pg. 10TransCan founder to runfor Huron East Council STUDIO - Pg. 23 New dance studio opensin BlythSPORTS- Pg. 8Huron County FastballLeague wraps in BlythPublications Mail Agreement No. 4005014 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:
Newly-elected Huron-Bruce New
Democratic Party candidate Grant
Robertson and Wayne Marston
welcomed representatives of the
farming community to the Clinton’s
Regional Equine and Agricultural
Centre for Huron (REACH) discuss
the future of rural Ontario.
Robertson, the former National
Farmer’s Union Provincial Co-
Ordinator, and Marston, the NDP
MP for Stoney Creek/Hamilton,
represented Jack Layton, who was
unable to attend the September 16
meeting due to inclement weather.
The members of the agricultural
sector included representatives from
the Huron and Bruce chapters of the
Federation of Agriculture, members
of the Labour Council, and local
municipal representatives, as well as
concerned citizens.
Marston started the meeting by
stating that he knows that there are
changes that need to be made in the
agricultural sector, despite it not
being his area of expertise.
Among the changes Marston
spoke about were that food labelling
needs to be changed to better serve
the consumers and producers of
Ontario, that restrictions need to be
equalized between foreign-produced
and Canadian-grown food, and that
free trade needs to be re-evaluated
and decided upon by a sector to
sector basis.
These changes, according to
Marston, would help farmers be
more competitive in the local and
Several anti-wind turbine citizen
groups in Huron County came
together to send a message to the
province - we don’t want wind
turbines here without the research to
back them up.
Central Huron Against Turbines
(CHAT), Huron East Against
Turbines (HEAT) and Huron
Against Lakeside Turbines (HALT)
held a public meeting about the
effects of industrial turbine arrays
that are popping up across Huron
County, at the Regional Equine and
Agricultural Centre of Huron
(REACH).
Headlined by the Former Dean of
Medicine at The University of
Western Ontario, Dr. Robert
McMurtry, who has presented
information that throws into the
question of the safety of wind
turbines to both the province and his
own community, the event focused
on the possible presence of more
wind turbines in Huron County and
Ontario.
McMurtry quoted his Hippocratic
oath first, stating that, as a doctor,
and as a human being, he seeks to
help others, not hinder them.
“I am a doctor. I care about
people’s well being,” he said.
“‘First, do no harm’, and we seem to
have lost track of that.”
McMurtry shared his own story,
where he wanted to build a wind
turbine, so he started researching it.
Eventually, he realized there are no
regulations placed on the turbines
from the medical standpoint.
He urged his local municipality to
create regulations based on medical
tests, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.
McMurtry said that individuals in
the wind turbine business have even
stated that there needs to be more
tests.
“Four things need to be
measured,” he said. “The intensity
of the sound, or decibels... the time
of exposure to the sound... the pitch
of the sound... [and] the effect that
the sound has on people.”
McMurtry went on to state that
people are being put in harm’s way,
and that the harmful health effects
that these industrial turbines are
creating are being felt, and reported,
globally.
Originally, McMurtry found it
difficult to find individuals who
would support his cause, but stated
that, now that the information has
been coming forward, he has
doctors, lawyers, experts,
psychologists and other
professionals signing on with his
desire to have more tests done before
any more wind turbine arrays can be
placed.
“The number of disciplines that
are supporting us is extraordinary,”
he said. “We’re spread across the
world, we have teleconferences with
people from the United States, the
United Kingdom, Romania, Quebec,
Saskatchewan, Australia, Poland
[and others].”
McMurtry said that before any
more turbines are constructed the
long-term effects of them on
individuals need to be tested. He
called out to the assembled audience
to join him in saying that the
turbines must not continue to be
built.
“The truth must come out. Join me
and say ‘Enough’,” he said. “There
is no safe place from these turbines,
this is targetting rural Ontario.”
His evaluation states that the
setbacks that are in place in Ontario,
and in local municipalities aren’t
enough. He stated that, in his
medical opinion, a landlocked
turbine should be at least two
kilometres from any home,
depending on circumstances, and an
offshore turbine should be placed at
least five kilometres away from the
shore, given how low frequency
noise can not only travel well over
water, but can be amplified by it as
well.
McMurtry then fielded questions
from the audience, stating that the
cost of research is reasonable, that
The Avon Maitland District
School Board has responded to
review requests from concerned
citizens of the Brussels and Zurich
areas in response to school closures.
The board’s responses can be
viewed on the board’s website at
www.amdsb.ca
Petitions have been submitted
from both Brussels and Zurich,
requesting an “Administrative
Review” of the two accommodation
review processes undertaken in
2009-10 by the Avon Maitland
District School Board.
In June, 2010, trustees voted to
close Zurich Public School, with
students transferring to Hensall and
a to-be-implemented Grade 7-8
section of Exeter’s South Huron
District High School. In a separate
accommodation review (which also
culminated with a trustee vote last
June), the board approved the
closure of Brussels Public School in
favour of a consolidation of students
at Grey Central Public School in
Ethel.
The letter from the Brussels
community, charges that the board’s
justification for placing the school
on last year’s Huron East North
Perth (HENP) Accommodation
Review Committee (ARC) actually
disappeared when the Education
Ministry denied funding for a
planned “Phase 2” of a previous
accommodation consolidation in the
Wingham area. But Brussels Public
was, nonetheless, left on the new
HENP review.
The accompanying letter, written
on behalf of Brussels residents
James Prior, Glenda Morrison and
Charles Hoy, also charges the board
repeatedly misrepresented the
school’s state of repair, due to
erroneous information about
projected long-term upkeep costs.
“In actual fact, Brussels was in
line with other schools under the
board,” a mistake the board “finally
recognized … on Dec. 13, 2009
through an e-mail issued to the
HENPARC as well as an article in
the Dec. 24, 2009 edition of The
Citizen newspaper. However, the
damage to Brussels was already
done.”
The Brussels letter, significantly
longer than the Zurich submission,
goes on to chronicle various specific
meetings of the board and ARC,
highlighting perceived
contraventions of the province’s
accommodation review guidelines
and of generally-accepted rules for
conducting meetings.
A petition from the Zurich
community, submitted July 20 along
with a letter signed by two Zurich-
based members of the board-
mandated Bluewater South ARC,
sets out three main justifications for
calling for the decision to be re-
examined.
Supporters believe the board did
not comply with the timeline
requirements – in particular, the
time given to the ARC – in its own
accommodation review policy. And
they believe public consultation was
not in keeping with provincial
requirements.
“The board actively blocked the
ARC’s attempts to consult with
some parties that the ARC felt had
relevant information,” charges the
NDP holds roundtable
Anti-wind turbine groups
hold information meeting
Tug o’ war!
Students from East Wawanosh Public School and Blyth
Public School tried to prove which school was the mightiest
with a tug-of-war competition at the 90th annual Belgrave,
Blyth, Brussels School Fair on Sept. 15. Blyth won the
younger competitions, while Belgrave took the two oldest
age groups. The fair included a showing of various
animals, races, food and lots of fun for all of the students
involved. (Denny Scott photo)
Petition responses
posted by board
C e l e b r a t i n g 25 YearsTheCitizen1985-2010
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Continued on page 21
By Stew Slater
Special to The Citizen
Continued on page 7
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Continued on page 18