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The Citizen, 2008-04-17, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2008. Looking Back Through the Years April 18, 1962 The Blyth congregation of the United Church of Canada began negotiating a contract with Gerrat Construction Company of Waterloo for the development of a new building. The new church would be facing Mill Street, and offered more facilities, such as a school room and sanctuary, that the former building did not. The former building was erected in 1877, and cost approximately $3,500 to build. In 1925 it was bought by the United Church of Canada from its former owners, the congregation of the St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. The congregation of the Blyth United Church was formed in 1934. A renewed interest in television series based around the lives of doctors had now influenced the fashion world. Nicknamed the “Doc-Look”, the fad consisted of a lot of crisply structured jackets and pants, often in white or pale blue shades. A new device, called the Electrocular, allowed the wearer to watch a closed-circuit television picture from a remote source while performing other tasks. Rather ridiculous in appearance, the device consisted of a miniature cathode tube contained in the right side of the headset, which reflected the images with mirrors onto the monocle, a transparent viewing mirror. It was developed for both civilian and military use. Sarah Churchill, 47-year-old daughter of Sir Winston Churchill, was to wed long-time fiancé 48- year-old Baron Audley. The wedding was to take place in London, England, and would be Sarah’s third wedding, and the Baron’s second. April 15, 1981 Thieves made off with an unusual bounty. Kaz Kiezik had two bee hives stolen from behind his shed at his home a quarter mile south of Londesboro. They left one of Mr. Kiezik’s three hives still standing at his property. OPP were alerted of the theft, and continue to investigate. A Variety Night was being held at the Blyth Memorial Hall, featuring the 80-voice Colborne school choir, a local rock group from Blyth, and a variety of dancing. The event was also sponsored by the Blyth Centre for the Arts, and would be aired on CFPL television as part of their Performance series. A tragic car accident took the life of a Blyth resident. The man was pulling out of Concessions 2 and 3 of Morris Twp. onto Hwy. 4 when he was struck by an oncoming transport truck. His vehicle was plowed into a nearby fence. He was taken to hospital but later died of severe head injuries. Damages to the transport were over $40,000, and to the other vehicle, $4,000. No charges were laid in the incident, but OPP were investigating. Seats were almost sold out for a Blyth Memorial Hall appearance by one of Canada’s most renowned contraltos. Maureen Forrester was often hailed as the world’s foremost opera singers, and would be visiting Blyth on a worldwide tour. It provided local music lovers the opportunity to see one of the world’s great performers in an intimate setting. Forrester was born in Montreal, and had appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic, and Metropolitan Opera Company in New York as well as the Toronto Symphony and the National Arts Centre here in Canada. She sings in seven different languages, and was one of the first soloist artists to perform in the People’s Republic of China in 1978. April 18, 1990 A Blyth woman was struck by a pickup truck in the downtown area of the village, and was sent to Victoria Hospital in London suffering a broken shoulder and pelvis. The driver of the pickup, a Monkton resident, was passing a double-parked delivery truck when the woman entered his path. No charges had been laid in the incident. In a more tragic incident involv- ing a car accident, a Listowel man perished in a crash caused by slippery road conditions. The man was a passenger in a vehicle which lost control on Hwy. 86 due to wet conditions and crossed the path of another vehicle, driven by a Wroxeter resident. The two men in the Listowel vehicle were taken to hospital, but only one survived. All others involved in the accident remained in stable condition in hospital. No estimates in damages had been made, and no charges had been laid in the incident, although investigation continued. Long-time East Wawanosh resi- dent Robert Peck was inducted into the Essex County Agricultural Hall of Fame in honour of his years of contribution to the seed industry. Also a member of the American Soybean Association, Peck had retired from farming in 1976, but he and his family still continue to play an active role in the farming community. April 12, 1995 Playing at the Park Theatre in Goderich was Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks. The film was the winner of six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Also playing was a free matinee of Baraka, a film being shown in celebration of Earth Day. Creating vulnerability A country that can’t feed itself is a country that’s made itself vulnerable in the most basic of ways. Yet that seems to be the course Canada is taking, and with very little reaction from our governments. A spate of recent headlines tell the sad story. The CanGro Foods Inc. vegetable processing plant at Exeter is closing along with the company’s fruit processing plant at St. David’s in the Niagara Peninsula. With its closure there is no fruit canning plant in North America east of the Rockies. The Gencor Foods abattoir at Guelph which processed older cattle, many of which can’t travel across the U.S. border to U.S. plants, has gone into receivership. That plant was opened after the BSE crisis when the closure of the American border made it impossible for Canadian cattle producers to find a market for their cattle. Meanwhile U.S. beef is undercutting home-grown product on the Canadian supermarket shelves. Maple Leaf Foods plans to close its Burlington pork processing plant if it can’t find a buyer. When U.S. pork is flooding across the border, finding a buyer might be difficult. Governments seem content to allow Canadian consumers to depend on imported food, some from as far away as Asia. In fact, not only is the government doing nothing to stop this trend, in beef processing at least, it’s accelerating it. Gencor Foods cited the $40 per head government- imposed cost of disposing of “specified risk materials”, those that could help spread BSE, as one of the reasons they couldn’t compete with U.S. processors which don’t have the same requirement for disposal. Free traders won’t bat an eyelash at the prospect of us losing our food- processing industry, even at losing our food-producing farmers, because they believe that the cheapest source of any good or service is the best. But in food at least, it isn’t always. While our governments load our farmers and food processors with more and more regulations in the name of consumer safety, they don’t assure that those same precautions apply to food imported from Third World countries. Our government accepts at face value the health assurances of other countries, even if those countries allow use of pesticides — for example — that they don’t allow our farmers to use. Then there’s the matter of national security. Riots broke out in Haiti last week because of the rising cost of food. At least one commentator lay part of the blame for the situation on the fact that Haiti is not self- sufficient in food production. As well, countries that are friendly today may not always be and if we depend on them for food, we have put ourselves at their mercy. Our growing dependence on the Communist dictatorship in China for food and so many other products should be worrisome to our leaders. Apparently our leaders don’t see a problem in our vulnerability. — KR OFA Commentary Editorials Opinions Publisher, Keith Roulston Editor, Bonnie GroppAdvertising, 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 FAX 887-9021 E-mail norhuron@scsinternet.com Website www.northhuron.on.ca 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 $32.00/year ($30.48 + $1.52 G.S.T.) in Canada;$101.00/year in U.S.A.and $175.00/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 PAP REGISTRATION NO. 09244 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: norhuron@scsinternet.com We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright & By Bette Jean Crews, Vice-President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture It was encouraging to hear Prime Minister Harper outline government plans to overhaul and strengthen Canada’s product safety laws recently. Increased consumer safety and protection appear to be the basis for the plan. In a news statement, the Prime Minister is quoted as saying: ‘We need to set and enforce state-of-the- art safety standards on domestic and imported goods.’ This action followed the government’s Food and Consumer Safety Action Plan announced last December amidst a flurry of product recalls – things like children’s toys with lead paint. Mr. Harper’s news statement promised ‘severe punishment’ for any supplier of products that ‘willfully expose Canadians to danger.’ As producers of food, Canadian farmers share an important responsibility in providing an abundant supply of safe food. Canadian farmers have been perfecting their food safety practices for a number of years and are now documenting these processes in food safety programs. Similar standards may or may not be the case for imported food products. As a result, many Canadians are now looking at labels to confirm the foods they are buying are actually grown in Canada. Unfortunately, this country’s labeling regulations pose another danger for Canadian consumers – the current regulations really don’t help consumers identify the source of food contained in a product and may, in fact, completely mislead consumers into thinking they are buying Canadian-produced food in marking imported products as “Product of Canada”. Current regulations allow even imported products to be marked “Product of Canada” if 51 per cent of the value is added in Canada – that may be the packaging. So, we say to Prime Minister Harper that, as another line of defence against potentially dangerous goods, his government should ensure Canadian consumers have the privilege of knowing where their food comes from. In particular, they should know if the Product of Canada food they buy is really grown in Canada or imported. Changes to labeling laws are long overdue. The Canadian Federation of Agriculture is working on a ‘Grown in Canada’ designation as a way of helping consumers find food products that are truly grown in Continued on page 14