HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2008-12-11, Page 1Winter came early and with
serious intent, but tempting as it may
be to get those snowmobiles fired up
the local Ontario Federation of
Snowmobiles Clubs wish you
wouldn’t.
The trails maintained by the Blyth
and Brussels-area clubs remain
closed and representatives said it
could be another week before that
changes.
Bruce Howson with the Blyth
Sno-Travellers said the biggest
problem right now is that there are
still too many fields with corn in
them. “Every trail we have has corn
in the way and we can’t get around
it.”
Merv Bauer of Brussels, who
grooms trails for the B-W
Trailblazers, said there’s no
guarantee when that situation will
change. “If it doesn’t we’ll have to
find a way to go around them, which
is going to take even more time.”
Also, with the ground not being
frozen beneath the snow, it’s makes
the work next to impossible.
“The swamps have so much water
we can hardly go through,” said
Bauer.
Howson agrees saying that when
the ground isn’t frozen over the
wheatfields in particular it can make
for a lot of problems.
Both are optimistic that the
situation will change soon. Howson
said he expects the trails will be
staked this coming weekend, while
Bauer hopes their trails are ready for
riders in 10 days to two weeks.
The OFSC has asked
snowmobilers to be patient,
stressing that it takes more than
snow to create perfect trails. They
say a solid week of sub-zero
temperatures combined with enough
fresh snow to groom it will help get
at least some of the trails ready.
With the long-range forecast
indicating spells of above zero
temperatures and some rainfall over
the next two weeks, those ideal
conditions may not be here yet.
The OFSC noted too that the early
snowfall may have resulted in a bit
of over-zealousness. “The whole
system typically doesn’t open until
after Christmas,” the OFSC website
reminds.
They also suggest for those
finding difficult to wait to get on the
trails that they approach it a different
way. “Contact your local club to see
what you can do to help.”
Artists Janet Cardiff, formerly of
Brussels, and her husband, George
Bures Miller are the recipients of the
2008 Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual
Arts awards.
The $25,000 prize for outstanding
achievement by a Canadian artist was
presented Dec. 2 at a ceremony at the
University of Toronto.
Recipients were selected by a jury
of arts professionals from across
Canada. In their recommendation of
Cardiff and Miller for the award, the
jury highlighted that since the 1990s
the pair has made “engaging,
challenging installation works that
have contributed enormously to the
evolution of contemporary art.
Their poetic, multi-faceted
exhibitions have moved and
influenced a number of generations
of art makers across Canada and
throughout the world.”
Their moving art “embraces our
human frailty and vulnerability
through a mix of genres: film noir,
sci-fi thriller and experimental film.”
The jury’s remarks concluded,
“Their unique use of binaural
‘surround sound’and haunting music
creates enchanting immersive
experiences. Cardiff and Miller draw
upon boundless numbers of
disciplines to weave together stories
that confront the mysteries of the
heart, the soul and the workings of
the human mind.”
Cardiff was born in 1957 and is the
daughter of Jack and Audrey Cardiff
of RR5, Brussels.
She and Miller have been
practising artists, singly and in
tandem since the 1980s. In recent
years their collaborative multimedia
practice has been celebrated around
the world and they have generated
much excitement and pride as
ambassadors for Canadian
contemporary art.
The couple currently lives and
works in Grindrod, BC and Berlin,
Germany.
In 2001, Cardiff and Miller won
the prestigious Venice Biennale
Special Award for their installation
The Paradise Institute. They were the
first Canadians to receive this honour.
That same year, Cardiff’s solo
work Forty-Part Motet won the
Millennium Prize of the National
Gallery of Canada. The installation
has been circulating internationally
since.
Recent works by the team include
The Secret Hotel, 2005; Opera for a
Small Room, 2005; The Killing
Machine, 2007 and A Murder of
Crows, 2008.The latter was one of
the highlights of the 2008 Sydney
Biennale.
A solo exhibition of their work was
presented at the Fruitmarket Gallery,
Edinburgh, as well as Modern Art
Oxford in 2008.
Barbara Fischer, chief curator of
the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at
the University of Toronto won the
2008 award for curatorial excellence
worth $15,000.
The Hnatyshyn Foundation is a
private charity established by the late
Right Honourable Ramon John
Hnatyshyn, Canada’s 24th Governor
General. Its programs are funded by
donations from government,
foundations, corporations and
individuals. The Department of
Canadian Heritage has provided $2.4
million in matching funds to the
Foundation.
Waking the grizzly
East Wawanosh Public School presented its annual Christmas concert, An Old-Fashioned
Christmas on Dec. 9. The Grade 1s performed The Grizz Gets Christmas. Hunter McCullagh
as the bear asked for pity because he hibernated through Christmas every year. A helpful bird
(Mackenzie Wightman) tried to wake him each winter to no avail. Finally a decision was made
to hold Christmas for him each spring. (Bonnie Gropp photo)
Yet another art award for Cardiff
Provincial-level talks have
officially broken off between the
Elementary Teachers Federation of
Ontario (ETFO) and representatives
from the lobbying organization
representing public school boards in
Ontario.
And a quick visit to the websites
of the two organizations reveals a
level of animosity that calls into
question the potential for a return to
negotiations in the near future.
Blaming the Friday, Dec. 5
breakdown on what he describes as a
“monumental blunder made by the
Ontario Public School Boards
Association (OPSBA),” ETFO
president David Clegg provided a
video statement for the teachers’
union website.
In the video, Clegg says ETFO
offered to forego a salary increase in
the final year of a proposed four-
year deal, freeing up funds for
boards to hire more specialist
teachers and maintain or enhance
teacher preparation time. He then
accuses OPSBA of rejecting these
offers, attempting instead to “claw
back most of the improved working
conditions that we bargained for in
2005.”
“Based on these positions, it was
clear that the school boards entered
into these discussions with no
intention of bargaining
collaboratively and in the spirit of
reaching an equitable agreement,”
Clegg concludes.
A news release on the OPSBA
website, meanwhile, blames ETFO
for walking out on provincial-level
talks in May, returning under an
extension just hours before an
Education Ministry-imposed Nov.
30 deadline, and then – as the five-
day extension drew to a close on
Dec. 5 – “making demands that went
far beyond those agreed to by all
other unions.”
All other education-related unions
in the province (most recently the
Ontario Secondary School Teachers’
Federation, or OSSTF) reached
provincial agreements with OPSBA
prior to the Nov. 30 deadline.
“ETFO’s demands would have
resulted in unfunded costs to boards
of over $260 million,” the OPSBA
news release charges. “This money
would have had to come out of
already-stretched budgets dedicated
to support our students.”
In response to the lobby
organization’s $260 million
prediction – which was attributed to
OPSBA in media reports about the
failure of negotiations – Clegg says
in his video statement that
projections of a shortfall are “simply
not true.” He adds that Education
Ministry officials agreed that the
Trails still closed
CitizenTh
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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008
Volume 24 No. 49COMMUNITY- Pg. 22Huron Historical Noteson Blyth GOVERNMENT - Pg. 23 Councillors to meet withHuron youth councilSPORTS- Pg. 8Local teams compete intournamentsPublications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 PAP Registration No. 09244 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:
By Bonnie Gropp
The Citizen
ETFO contract
talks break down
By Stew Slater
Special to The Citizen
Continued on page 6