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The Lucknow Sentinel, 1994-03-23, Page 1PUBLISHED IN LUCKNOW, ONTARIO Wednesday, March 23, 1994 550 G S.T Included ORG's peaceful protest now a legal wrangling by Cameron J. Wood Freedom of expression.. It's the basis of an argument that initially started with a peaceful protest against Bill 91 that has now turned into a legal wrangling between Premier Bob Rae and the Ontarians for Responsible Government. The philosophical dispute between the two groups regarding the unionization of the family farm took the legal turn earlier this month when the, provincial government - through the Ministry of Transportation - ordered Jeff Balfour, a Mitchell area farmer, to remove a banner from his property or face a $1,000 fine. • The sign in question carried the exact same message as the one currently posted on Wilfred Haines property along Highway 4 south of Wingham: "Bob Rae is going to unionize the family farm.. Help us stop him." "Soon after. the banners went up the farmers learned that these signs were• illegal and they were threatened with fines up to $1,000 Unless they were removed. It seemed to us that this was a desperate attempt by the NDP to. stifle opposition to their bill which would unionize Ontario's farms later this year," ORG director.Thom Corbett said. Apparently the MTO mentioned the Haines sign and another posted near Listowel, but hasn't expressed any concern with signs along coun- ty controlled roads. Corbett said_ since the publicity surrounding the Balfour sign, the others haven't heard anything- from the MTO. "Every citizen should have the right to express a political view, especially on his' own property." At a press conference held near. Wingham last Thursday, Corbett announced they were prepared to take - the freedom .of expression - issue to the court level; providing ' documentation from the Toronto- based law firm Bolten and Elliott. The constitutional law specialists. state in their argument that "By prohibiting poster bearing non-com- mercial , messages, including political messages, the (MTO) policy represents a direct infrin- gement of (the ORG's) ability to express itself." Further to that, solicitor Ronald • Focrster of Borden and Elliott states in his legal opinion, "We are also of the view that the government will not be able to justify the policy as a reasonable limit on freedom of expression pursuant to section 1 of the Charter (of Rights and Freedoms). It is difficult to see any rational connection between a legitimate government objective - such , as regulation of highway safety or aesthetic promotion - and complete prohibition of non-com- mercial banners...Ie anything, because the. Policy is aimed specifically at non-commercial speech, it represents a clearer violation of the Charter guarantee of freedom of expression." WANTS T UNIONIZE TH E FA M LY RM 808 RATO: The Ontarlans for Responsible Government have stepped up their protest against BIH 91. This sign was .posted recently on Highway 86, at the end of Diagonal Road, Wingham. Pictured in front holding the banned signed: John Clark, Ross Proctor, Tom Corbett, and Vince Speziali. (Cameron Wood photo) The issue at the heart of this dispute is the regulations cited by the MTO's Stratford office when they approached Balfour to remove the sign on his property. Brenda Brooks, MTO corridor management officer for District 2, said in her letter that it was not up to code. According to the Public Transpor- tation and Highway Improvement Act -signs or billboards must be of a commercial nature, no closer than 75 feet to the highway; and at least 1,000 feet apart. ' She said in her letter the sign on Balfour's property was not of a commercial nature therefore posed a safety hazard. At the Mar..17 meeting, Corbett laughedthat off, pointing out how ridiculous the regulation was. If the ORG signs advertised a commercial business like a restaurant, he said, they would lqualify. "What's the difference if you're advertising tractors or expressing your point of view?" What puzzles Corbett is that signs protesting the installation of a mega dump in the township of Vaughan, north of Toronto were posted en masse,. yet nothing ever came from the government- regarding the mat- ter. Also in question is•the,erection of pro-life, pro -choice and drinking and driving billboards. None qualify as commercial. Adding irony to . it* is election signs erected along highways are exempt from the law, including the setback from the road and frequen- cy. Corbett also said .the premier has been notified of the. ORG's intent to pursue the issue as a constitutional matter. He said theyhaven't put any deadline on a reply from Rae, but,added if they do not hear back within a month they will proceed with the constitutional challenge. "I consider it to be a fundamental •turn to page 2 Area church aids in feeding hungry by Marg Burkhart Lives are being changed; futures are being built. Thanks to the ef- forts of the Canadian Food Grains Bank and the generosity of Canadian' farmers and their urban neighbors, the world's hungry can be fed. . The Canadian Food Grains Bank is a, multi -church partnership whose' role is to collect food grains and cash and distribute according to the needs of its ;partner churches in countries where hunger is a problem. Presbyterian World Service and Development is one of the partners in this project. Locally, the congregation of South Kinloss Presbyterian Church has accepted an invitation from Knox Presbyterian Church in Tees - water to. be a mission partner in Presbyterian Cropshare. The Teeswater church/ will be responsible for the production of the crop which is likely to be corn. Voluntecys will do the field work, order the necessary inputs such as seed, fertilizer, and sprays., and maintain the crop. The crop will be harvested a,the appropriate time and, transported to a local grain handling facility. The Canadian Foodgrains'. Bank will take over at this time and be responsible /for delivering the crop_to those who need it most. Although a site for the crop has not been confirmed just yet, the Teeswater congregations is looking • at several locations and hopes to make a decision soon. They an- ticiriate planting approximately 50 acres. To undertake a project of this nature requires capital, and this is why Knox in Teeswater has con- •turi to page 2 Bring home `Young Canada' honors The Lucknow Pee Wee "A" team won the "C" division of the Goderich Young Canada Hockey Tournament, last Saturday. Coming up against rival team Ripley, the local team was vic- torious 6 to 1. Earlier in the tournament -the team defeated Chesley 5 to 1, and Clinton 7 to 4, to advance to the championship round; The Cardiff trophy was presented to team captain Craig Moffat by Murray Cardiff. This trophy was donated by the Car- diff family in 1951 and that year was won by the . Luclmow Flax Flyers. Forty-three years later, the Lucknow team repeated history. As a matter of. clarification, the team - reporter was unable to determine if Luck- • now had won that trbplfy bet- ween 1)51 and 1994. The team received a 'keeper' plaque to be placed nil the local arena. Jonathon MacKinnon opened the scoring, in the first period. C. Moffat tallied another one as- sisted by Ean Moffat and MacK- innon. MacKinnon scored again in the second, this time assisted by the Moffat boys - Craig and Cam. Lengthening the team's lead in the third were Greg Courtney, unassisted, E. Moffat and Craig Moffat, assisted by MacKinnon. Joe Scott scored Ripley's only goal, assisted by Darrin Mac- Donald. Council news Suggest meeting to talk about Phase 2 of. arena ASH1IELD TOWNSHIP - The question'of continuing with Phase 2 of the Luckngw and District arena construction has been making the rounds of .the 'four co-operating municipalities. Whorl the question was raised at Ashfield council's Mar. 15 meeting, members expressed an interest in participating at a meeting between the four local municipal reeves, clerks, arena board and local ser- vice club representatives, to deter- mine the extent of support for the 'project. After reviewing correspon- dence from the - Huron County Planning Department, council agreed it had no objections to a proposed plan` of subdivision in Colborne Township. No objections were 'forthcoming by council on a proposed official plan amendment for the County of. Bruce, as circulated by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs. Bert. Doherty has been employed to .count the'dogs and, sell tags for 1994 in the municipality. Rates were set at $2.50 per dog; and fees for dog tags at: males $20, spayed fem,le $10, female $15; second dog of either sex $20, and each additional dog 520. Linda Andrew, clerk,' was asked to obtain .quotes for seasonal gar- bage collection along the lakeshore: Roads department Kevin Cook, road superintendent„' presented.his report. Dale Fielder was given permis• sion to construct a public stairway on a portion of Sydenham Street, in Port Albert; with the understanding that the township is not responsible for any future •maintenance.' After reviewing three tenders for • the crushing, hauling and stock- piling of "A” gravel, council ac- cepted Joe Kerr's tender. The price is $1.87/ton for crushing and hauling and .82 for stockpiling, subject to the Ministry of Transpor- tation's approval. Two quotations were received for calcium application on township roads: Neither quotation .was ac- cepted and Cook was directed to call for new quotations at his discretion. The discussion on options'for the road budget were held over"unti the Ministry Of Transportation set the 1994 subsidy allocaL,ns.