The Lucknow Sentinel, 1994-09-14, Page 1•
PUS.L,ISHED IN
I,.UCKNO N,, ONTARIO.
Wednesday,
September 14, 1994
55e
G.S.T. Included
Fire ravaged the barn of Brian Courtney of Dungannon last week. Livestock in the bam was saved but all the hay and straw was
lost. Firefighters battled the blaze all night. (Marg Burkhart photo) "
St. Helens signs
by Paul Ciufo
The Twp. of West Wawanosh has
expressed displeasure with four
signs erected recently in St. Helens.
Acting on complaints by unknown
persons, councillor Ron Snowden
brought forward a motion to send a
letter to Kathy Leeman, the St.
Helens resident who arranged for
the making of the signs.
"We just wanted to make it know
that residents are unhappy. It's a lot
to do with the picture on the signs.
It doesn't look like a horse and it
doesn't, look like a buggy. The
horse 145oks like it has arthritis,".
Snowden said in an interview
Friday,
He added Amish people have
objected strongly to the illustration.
"I'f there's any pictures, they think
it's vain," he explained.
Snowden declined to name any of
the people who raised complaints.
Leeman said she was extremely
disappointed with the council's
reaction.
I was just trying to do something
nice for the community. The old
signs were dilapidated and there
was only one left. I thought it
would be nice for people driving
through. It's no wonder people lose
interest in helping to improve their
community if you get a slap in the
face. Maybe because I'm a •new -
corner I shouldn't be trying to
improve my community and take
pride in where I live," she said.
Amish people are not offended by
the sign, Leeman said. An Amish
man, Bill Shetler, helped erect the
signs.
Snowden said Leeman presented
stir controvers
the council with three options and
their choice was . a plain sign
without illustration. '
"I thought we were paying for it,
so we should have a say. But
(Leeman) went out on her own."
Leeman said the artist, Dungan-
non painter Jack Miller, decided to
add the illustrations when he dis-
covered the signs were too bare.
"The council was given a choice
of three estimates. What they liked
cost fifteen hundred dollars and
they/ weren't willing to pay. So the
took the third one, under two
hundred dollars for four signs. Talk.
about looking a gift horse in the
mouth. The artist was doing a com-
munity-based thing; he only
charged fifty dollars for labor. At
the time, the councillors knew Jack
Miller and his work."
Leeman how suspects the council
has been trying to thwart her
initiative every step of the way. She
said they first demanded she collect
signatures from people living all
around St. Helens, which she did.
Then the council asked for various
cost estimates for signs and told her
if the council could not afford the
full cost, donations would have to
cover the balance.
The letter of complaint is not the
end of her woes, she said. She was
forced to move one of the signs
Monday because resident Wayne
Todd complained to the road
superintendent he didn't want it on
the edge of his living area.
"It's politics I tell you," Leeman
said.
Experts examine Steckle's ideas
BY PAUL CIUFO
Huron -Bruce MP Paul Steckle's
crusade to revive corporal punish-
ment for prisoners is highly mis-
guided, said a . sampling of various
law experts in Huron .County and
beyond. People who teach, practice,
or enforce the law attacked Steck-
le's views as useless, inhumane,
and legally infeasible, or un-
palatable to the public.
"Besides the fact that the lash
won't work as a deterrent, it's
barbaric, and it breaks' the Charter
Of . Human Rights and -Freedoms,
it's a swell idea. It's too bad we
don't have keel hauling and
drawing and quartering and all
those really gory old punishments,"
quipped Robert Solomon, a law
professor at the University of
Western Ontario (UWO).
Clinton police chief Frank Young
supports Steckle's views, but the
chief said corporal punishment will
never be rt;instituted.
"I'm in agreement that something
has to be done. If there's something
to corporal punishment to make
criminals think twice, make them
think 'I don't want to be lashed in
prison,' sure. But Steckle is a long
way from passing it; you're never
going to cane people here (in
Canada),". Young said.
Steckle first called for the revival
of corporal punishment during a
Standing Order (an MP's oppor-
tunity to speak on a topic of his or
her choice) in the House of Com-
mons in May, contending the harsh
punishment would "put the fear of
the Lord" into criminals and tum
them away from crime. He is cur-
rently circulating a petition which
he plans to table in parliament.
Solicitor " General Herb Gray,
reached at his Ottawa office,
declined to comment about the
petition prior to Steckle presenting
it to parliament. However, he sug-
gested corporal punishment is far
from making its way onto the
government agenda.
"The government has not in-
dicated any inclination to get into
the area of corporal punishment.
Corporal punishment was part of
the justice system in Canada and
Britain and it was done away with
in- the '30s. One must consider why
it was done away with," Gray said.
Solomon stressed that proponents
of harsh punishments tike Steckle
are misinformed about the effec-
tiveness of such measures.
"Everything I've read suggests the
severity of the penalty has limited
deterrence. I'm not aware of any
research saying corporal punishment
has any kind of deterrence,"
Solomon said.
Goderich criminal lawyer Norman
Pickell said he has had clients who
could have been whipped "twenty-
five hundred times and it wouldn't
have helped them."
"To go out and give people ten
lashes on the bare back --1 don't
believe that deters them," Pickell
said.
People who commit crimes often
do not look ahead at the potential
penalties, explained Paul
Whitehead, professor of sociology
at UWO.
"We wouldn't get a society of
"The government has
not indicated any
inclination to get into
the area of corporal
punishment," Herb
Gray, Solicitor General.
less crime simply because we were
going to whip people. For a whole
lot of people, going to jail is pretty
distasteful., Yet people take their
chances. They think they won't get
caught," he said.
People who commit crimes are
.turn to page 2
Police
probe
murder
By Scott Hilgendorff
Kincardine Ne'ws staff
Kincardine OPP are investigating
a murder in Inverhuron but have no •
suspects and few leads at this time.
The body of Kestutis Baltrusaitis,
40, of 30 Lake Street, Inverhuron,
was found last Wednesday morning
in his home.
. An autopsy performed last Thurs-
day evening in Owen Sound
revealed Baltrusaitis died from
gunshot wounds.
According to a Friday,'OPP press
release, police are "continuing •their.
search for the weapon and other
details surrounelFhg this violent
death."
Police don't have asuspect in the
murder and are focusing the investi-
gation on the time immediately " .
prior to the murder.
Baltrusaitis was last seen alive by
friends on Sunday evening, Sept. 4.
. His body was found at 10:23 last
Wednesday morning by a neighbor
who was doing construction work at
the back of the home.
Police have received descriptions
of three different people near or at
the 30 Lake Street home shortly
before the crime.
On Sept. 3, a man wearing a
yellow T-shirt was seen standing in
the front yard of the residence. He
is described as tall, heavy -set with
shoulder length, grey hair and is
about six feet tall. •
Around noon on Sept. 4, a blue
ford pickup truck was,seen near the
residence with a man and a woman
inside.- .
A black motorcycle was parked
just north of the residence at noon
and again at 6 p.m. on Sept. 5.
These people have not been iden-
tified by police.
The investigation has involved the
OPP dive team and members of the
Emergency . Response; Team..
coordinated from the district head-
quarters in Mount Forest, who have
done a street by street search of the
area looking for evidence and the
murder weapon.
The search took them along
ditches all the way to Tiverton.
With windows and doors covered
to keep out light, a special lighting
device was used in the house
Thursday to detect details not vis-
ible to the naked eye.
The device can be used to help.
detect fingerprints on a body or
footprints in carpet where normal
detection processes would fail.
The scene was videotaped and an
area of the crime scene had to be
cleared before the body was -
removed at about 6:45 p.m. Thurs-
day night.
Interviews have been conducted
with neighbors and with
Baltrusaitis's wife who neighbors
say they haven't seen for several
days.
Neighbors also report Baltrusaitis
worked as a pharmacist, offering
leave for other pharmacists when
they wanted vacations.
.turn to page 2