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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1989-09-27, Page 1Killick gets 3 yr.jail term for Brussels Legion fire The long story of the fire at the Brussels Legion Hall finally came to an end last week when Lenard Gordon Cowie and Robert Martin Killick pleaded guilty t^> charges VOL. 5 NO. 39 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1989.45 CENTS West Indian workers Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. David Griffiths of Blake’s Apple Orchard is flanked by his two Trinidad are part of an Agricultural Resource Management seasonal employees as they walk on a misty morning through Program. the orchard. Titus Leonard, left, and Wayne McLean from Trinidadian workers help in local orchard For the past two years, David Griffiths of Blake’s Apple Orchard near Brussels, has found an inter­ esting, yet sensible solution to his employment problem. . David explains that in the fall, when the apples are ready to harvest, it is extremely difficult to find domestic help. “Students are back to school and everyone else has resumed a normal routine,” he says. So, when he heard, through the media, of a program that was available he immediately decided to look into it. According to David, the program started several years age when the Foreign Agricultural Resource Management took the position of situating seasonal help from West relating to the fire that gutted the building in the early morning of July 6, 1988. Both men had been scheduled for trial by judge and jury in Indian countries with orchard, greenhouse, and tobacco farmers. Today, David says he doesn’t know of many orchard farmers not in­ volved in the program. Titus Leonard and Wayne Mc­ Lean are two young men from Trinidad, who have been employed with Blakes for the past two years, during harvest time. Both 25 years of age they have left family and friends thousands of miles away to pursue some chance of employ­ ment in another country. As Wayne says, “We will go where we can to get work.” Prior to arriving at Blakes, Titus and Wayne were employed in the St. Catherine’s area harvesting peaches. Ontario Supreme Court in Goderich last Tuesday but changed their pleas to guilty before the trial began. Mr. Killick was sentenced to two and a half years in peniten­ “It actually works quite well,’’ says David. “Just at the time they are done with the peach harvest we are ready for help.’’ Both men of course find Canada quite different from their home, but only Titus has seen snow, as they usually leave before it hits. Gate up as Brussels Fair enjoys perfect weather While the perfect weather may have kept many area farmers from attending last week’s Brussels Fair, gate receipts show an in­ crease in attendance from previous years. Secretary-Treasurer Barb Mutter tiary for setting the fire that caused more than $200,000 damage to the Legion building. He also received four months consecutive on a break and enter charge and two months “As soon as harvest is over, ’"hey will return to Trinidad. Probably in early November,’’ David says. David specifically asked for Titus and Wayne after having them work for him last year. “They are good workers and they know what they’re doing. That’s not easy to find,” he says. stated that while she did not have an accurate total figure for the crowd, she did know that the gate receipts were higher this year, “so one would presume that more Continued on page 2 consecutive on a theft charge. He also received a two month sen­ tence, to be served concurrently (at the same time) on other charges. Lenard Cowie pleaded guilty to a break and enter charge and was sentenced to one year in a reforma­ tory with a recommendation he be assessed for alcohol problems. He also received a one-year probation period at the end of his reformatory sentence. Evidence given at the pair’s preliminary hearing in Wingham March 22, upon which a ban on publication had been made, show­ ed that Mr. Cowie had confessed his part in the event to police at 11:16 a.m. on July 6, about eight hours after the fire. He said he had entered the Legion through a window in the women’s washroom of the building. He made a second statement July 8 in which he said Mr. Killick had poured liquor over the bar area and set fire to it. Police testified that Mr. Cowie said that while he felt guilt over the situa­ tion, Mr. Killick didn’t seem to mind. After his July 6 confession Mr. Cowie had taken police to a dead-end sideroad in Morris town­ ship where they recovered a large quantity of liquor and cigarettes hidden there. Mr. Killick in the meantime was in Toronto and eventually contact­ ed the Wingham Ontario Provincial Police office and left a number where he could be reached. Con­ stable Richard Balzer called him and told him to stay where he was until police arrived. He called Metropolitan Toronto Police and asked them to arrest and hold Mr. Killick. He went to Toronto on July 7 and arrested Mr. Killick at 9:46 p.m. Accompanied by Sgt. Greg Minnick, a detective from the Mount Forest district headquar­ ters, they drove back to Wingham, stopping at Brussels along the way. According to testimony by Con. Balzer, Mr. Killick first said his mind was blank because of the alcohol he had consumed but as the trip went on he admitted he had been in the building with Mr. Cowie and that he had poured the liquor on the floor at the east end of the main room on the bottom floor of the Legion and lit fire to it. He also admitted taking liquor, beer, snack foods and cigarettes and hiding the stuff. During the stop in Brussels he showed police what the pair had done in the building. He said they drove away from the scene with their lights out. Riddell gets new post Jack Riddell, M.P.P. for Huron has a new job. The former Minister of Agricul­ ture for Ontario was named by Premier David Peterson last week as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Lyn McLeod. The ap­ pointment is for one year. “I’m happy and delighted,” Mr. Riddell said of the appointment. “The preservation and allocation of the valuable resources of our province have long been of interest and concern to me and I look forward with enthusiasm to my new responsibilities.”