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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2019-10-17, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019. Editorials Opinions President: Keith Roulston • Publisher: Deb Sholdice Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny Scott Advertising Sales: Brenda Nyveld • Heather Fraser The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M 1H0 Ph. 519-523-4792 Fax 519-523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. N0G 1H0 Phone 519-887-9114 E-mail info@northhuron.on.ca Website www.huroncitizen.ca Looking Back Through the Years CCNA Member Member of the Ontario Press Council The Citizen is published 50 times a year in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $38.00/year ($36.19 + $1.81 G.S.T.) in Canada; $180.00/year in U.S.A. and $380/year in other foreign countries. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Mon. 2 p.m. - Brussels; Mon. 4 p.m. - Blyth. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca October 17, 1968 Damage to a highway sign at the intersection of Turnberry and Mill Streets in Brussels had officials thinking that pre-Halloween pranks were already getting started. Twice previously the sign had been uprooted, so after it was securely anchored into the ground, vandals had a harder time trying to take it out again. However, it was estimated that vandals used an axe to cut away large portions of the sign in the wake of being unable to remove it from the ground. Kenneth Scott, principal of Brussels Public School, was the guest speaker at a meeting of the Majestic Women’s Institute in Brussels. He spoke on science and conducted a number of experiments and showed a series of films. Huron-Bruce MPP Murray Gaunt announced that improvements to Boiler Beach near Kincardine would benefit from improvements thanks to a provincial grant in the amount of $1,500. The local township would match the grant amount, paying for the installation of restrooms, change houses and parking facilities. October 17, 1973 Russell Cook was again named the manager of the Blyth Arena after his tender for the position was accepted by Blyth Village Council. The Huron County Board of Education approved a series of healthy raises for its six senior administrative officers, averaging just over $2,000 per year for each official. The fall rally of the Huron Presbyterial of the Women’s Missionary Society was held at Knox Church in Goderich with representatives from Auburn, Seaforth, Belgrave and Hensall churches all in attendance. President Mrs. Alex Enright was in charge of the afternoon’s program. The sixth meeting of the Belgrave 4-H Chefs was held and members were already looking ahead to their achievement day, set for Nov. 17. For their meeting, members prepared Danish sandwiches before bringing the meeting to a close. Members of the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association met to review their 1973 reunion, saying it was the best yet in the organization’s history. October 18, 1995 A 20-year-old Brussels man sat in Walkerton Jail awaiting his next court appearance after being denied bail. He had been charged with numerous acts of vandalism in the Brussels area. While the man was alleged to have been the leader of the vandalism, a number of others were charged as his accomplices, including a 25-year-old Brussels man, an 18-year-old Grey man and a number of young offenders. A letter from Blyth Village Council urged the Huron County Board of Education to budget for a zero per cent increase, but the board pushed back, saying it was under a number of pressures. The board wrote back to council saying there was a continued effort to reduce a further $3 million in spending in addition to the millions that had been cut from the education budget in recent years. Huron County public health nurse Sharon Abel said it was a bad time for local students as lice was returning in many schools. She said it was important for parents to check their children for lice once a week and to take the appropriate steps if lice were found. October 15, 2009 Huron County Council was considering adding its voice to the fight for rural schools after the Community School Alliance presented a resolution to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO). The Alliance asked for a moratorium on the accommodation review process so the provincial government, the school boards and municipalities could work to resolve disputed school closures. “[The resolution] takes the issue to the political side of things,” said Chief Administrative Officer Larry Adams. “There is a groundswell across the province.” Huron East Mayor Joe Seili called the inclusion of two Huron East schools, Brussels and Grey Central Public Schools, unacceptable, adding that both schools had high enrolment, but they were both slated for closure. Morris-Turnberry Mayor Dorothy Kelly said one of her councillors was pushing to tour Brussels Public School and have someone from the Avon Maitland District School Board explain exactly what was wrong with the school. Tim Waechter, a Grade 7 student, served as the page for the Oct. 7 Huron County Council meeting. Serving under Huron County Warden Ken Oke, Waechter was also kept company by his grandfather, Huron East Mayor Joe Seili and his great-grandfather, Howick Reeve Max Demaray. Blyth’s Duncan McGregor was set to produce another play in Goderich, this time it would tell the story of the men, women and children from the Canadian prairies between 1898 and the end of the First World War. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Pay me now, or pay me later Here’s hoping that Jeff Yurek, Ontario’s Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, became a little more enlightened about the importance of Conservation Authorities (CAs) when he met recently with officials from the Maitland Valley Conservation Authorities. Just last spring the provincial government slashed CAs’ funding in half for flood management at a time when severe weather occurrences are making flood prevention more essential than ever before. These issues were the reasons CAs were created under a previous Progressive Conservative government following the deadly flooding during Hurricane Hazel in the 1950s. Over the years CAs had expanded their operations into other activities, which often irked provincial governments and local councils which had no control over the fees they were required to pay. Regular cuts in funding, however, have already forced CAs to shrink their activities back to their original mandate – preventing flooding. It can be difficult for CAs led and run by people who worry about the environment and conservation to make a government understand that we’re already dealing with the consequences of climate change, when that government is led by a Premier who seems, by his actions at least, not to believe that climate change exists. But Premier Ford cannot play a King Canute and order the floods from severe rain events and sudden spring melts to go away. It requires preventative action. Earlier this year Natural Resources and Forestry Minister John Yakabuski said the government was asking CAs to concentrate on their core mandate of which flood control is a part. But controlling floods begins with actions that might not immediately seem to be flood control, such as planting buffers along streams and windbreaks to slow damaging winds and encouraging practices that delay runoff water so it reaches streams over a longer time and doesn’t cause flooding. As the MVCA officials informed the government, there’s an estimated $176 million worth of property located in areas at risk of flooding in the Maitland and Nine Mile River watersheds. If the government has to step in and help people recover from floods, the price tag will be many times the $3-plus million the government saved by cutting the province’s CA funding. It’s just plain false economy not to spend money upfront to try to prevent flood damage. The province should be giving more money for flood prevention, not less. — KR Tolerance needed, on both sides The closing, then re-opening, of a successful Toronto restaurant run by a Syrian refugee family, shows how dangerous it can be when people become so sure their side of an issue is right that they lose sight of basic human rights. While the restaurant’s closing because of death threats got the headlines, the roots of the issue began back at a fundraiser for controversial People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier at Mohawk College in September. Bernier has been accused of stoking the fires of racial division with his proposal to slash immigration numbers in half, and the fact that some of his party’s candidates have disparaged different races. So a group of protesters showed up at the meeting to protest Bernier’s policies, as is their right. But the protesters went further and harassed those attending, even trying to block people from entering the meeting. One of these was an elderly woman. The scene was filmed and Alaa Alsoufi, son of the family that runs the Toronto restaurant, was seen nearby. He wasn’t among the four people arrested for interfering with those attending the meeting, but he was identified through social media posts by anti-immigrant vigilantes. Now it was the right-wingers’ turn to go too far. Suddenly Alsoufi’s family faced a barrage of death threats and hateful messages. Fearing for their lives, the family decided to shut their restaurant down early last week, but it was reopened following a public outcry and the intervention of a food supply company which vowed to help the family. The threats against the Syrian refugee family are sickening and wrong. They wouldn’t have happened, however, if the anti-racist protesters had stuck to protesting instead of attempting to interfere in a lawful meeting. — KR Don’t be Trump’s friend Kurdish fighters who helped Western allies tame the radical Muslim ISIS fighters in Syria are fighting for their own lives this week, thanks to a betrayal by U.S. President Donald Trump. So what else is new? Following a telephone call to Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump withdrew U.S. troops who had been advising the Kurds. Erdogan, who considers the Kurds terrorists, immediately attacked. The Kurds are the latest group to learn that being a U.S. ally can be dangerous. Too often it seems Trump treats America’s enemies better than its friends. — KR &