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.”