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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2018-01-18, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2018. Editorials Opinions Time to do your homework President: Keith Roulston • Publisher: Deb Sholdice Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny Scott Advertising Sales: Brenda Nyveld • Heather Fraser 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 + 51.81 G.S.T.) in Canada; $160.00/year in U.S.A. and $205/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. Canada MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON NOG 1HO email: info@northhuron.on.ca Doug McArter, writer of a letter to the editor in this paper last week, provoked much thought when he questioned Huron East Council's handling of funds received for the sale of the former Brussels Public School and councillors' decision not to follow staff advice to put the money in a reserve for the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre. McArter accused the councillors of not acting as if Brussels is an equal partner in the far-flung municipality. Whether McArter is fair toward councillors or not will be up to each reader to judge and will depend on the knowledge each person has of the situation. And that's the real question: in this, a municipal election year, do you have enough information about your municipality (whichever one you live in) to make educated judgements about who should represent your interests and those of your local community for the next four years? Electing high quality people as councillors in our large, amalgamated municipalities is more important than ever. We need representatives who are hardworking enough to study up on all the areas for which they will be making decisions. Councillors from Blyth, for instance, make decisions that will affect the daily lives of residents in East Wawanosh and Wingham, yet unless they're willing to understand the circumstances from the point of view of the people who will live with the consequences of councillors' actions, they can make damaging choices. So we need councillors who will do their homework and to get the right people we need to do homework ourselves so we're knowledgeable about which issues are coming up and where candidates stand on those issues. Start working now for this fall's election. Staying on top of the activities of your municipality as reported in this paper is a good start. Democracy depends on citizen involvement. — KR Don't export our responsibility Looking Back Through the Years We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada. • The Citizen P.O. Box 429, P.O. Box 152, BLYTH, Ont. BRUSSELS, Ont. NOM 1H0 NOG 1 H0 Ph. 519-523-4792 Phone Fax 519-523-9140 519-887-9114 E-mail info@northhuron.on.ca Website www.northhuron.on.ca Member CCNA �ocna Member of the Ontario Press Council CMCA AUDITED We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Halifax for one of his town hall meetings last week, he was confronted by former Somali refugee Fatouma Abdi about Canada's plan to deport her brother Abdoul (who arrived in Canada at the age of seven in 2000) back to his birthplace because of crimes, including aggravated assault, that he committed in his youth. Abdi pointed out special circumstances surrounding her brother's situation. He was shuffled among foster homes and suffered abuse after he was taken by child protection officials from the home of his aunts. They were taking care of the children because their mother died in a refugee camp during a three-year wait for a decision to let the family come to Canada. The children were taken away from their aunts because they weren't in school. They were staying home to avoid the bullying they'd been suffering there. During his years in the "care" of child protection officials, nobody bothered to apply for Canadian citizenship for the boy which meant, when he got in trouble, Canada could wash its hands of him by sending him "home" to a country he doesn't know. While his sister is concerned about the bad treatment and injustice her brother suffers, there's a larger issue beyond the specifics of his case. This certainly isn't the first time Canadian immigration officials have attempted to deport someone who has lived almost all of his life in Canada back to a country he doesn't know because of crimes he committed in Canada. It's shameful that we take advantage of the technicality that this person never became a Canadian citizen, to expect other countries to deal with criminal behaviour someone learned here. It's time we stepped up and took responsibility for people who have grown up as Canadians and not export our problems. — KR We'll take our guy Even those who will never vote for Justin Trudeau must be proud of their country's leader when compared to the raging bull in a china shop in charge of our neighbour to the south. Last week brought a stunning contrast between Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump. Our Prime Minister attended several town hall meetings across eastern Canada at which he answered questions from all comers, including a woman angry over the out-of-court settlement for accused terrorist Omar Kandr for our government's failure to protect his human rights when he was tortured by U.S. authorities. Few could deny Trudeau handled himself well. Meanwhile, Trump exploded with vile remarks about immigrants from African countries that have angered people around the world and damaged the reputation of the country he claims to love. Rather than go out among the people, his preferred communication tool is Twitter, through which he rages against whoever's upset him most recently. Though Trudeau is 25 years younger than Trump, Canadians can be grateful that we have the more mature leader. — KR January 22, 1958 Pollard's Chain Saw Jamboree was scheduled for Jan. 22-23 at the Brussels Town Hall. Speakers from a number of chain saw companies would be on hand for the day, in addition to the showing of films by the Department of Lands and Forests, entertainment by The Kansas Farmer and Clark Johnson and a "Bushwacker's Dance" to end the night. Grey Township Council held its inaugural meeting of the year on Jan. 13. George W. Hutchinson was declared to the reeve position, supported by Archie Mann, Kenneth Bray and Glenn Huether as councillors. Rev. L. Brown of the United Churches in Ethel and Brussels conducted a devotional period to begin the term on the right note. Brussels Town Hall would be the setting of a Smith's Orchestra concert and dance on Jan. 24 just ahead of Robbie Burns Day. January 18, 1978 Black Magic, a step -dancing group from Huron County, was scheduled to appear on The Tommy Hunter Show on Jan. 20. Kim Craig of Blyth, Becky McKinley of Zurich and Pat Stackhouse of Londesborough, were all members of the club who made the trip to Toronto to film the show in December. The team from G. L. Hubbard Limited won two games in the Blyth Industrial Hockey League, besting Bainton's Old Mill by a score of 7-6 and then George Radford Construction 7-2. This came after the Hubbard and Radford teams played to a 2-2 tie and were unable to find a winner of the contest. January 23, 1991 Blyth Festival Artistic Director Peter Smith announced that the first new play of the coming theatre season would be Cornflower Blue, written by Kelly Rebar. After the play was produced in Blyth, after being commissioned by Prairie Theatre Exchange, it was set to tour various towns throughout Ontario in September and October before hitting the stage of the Prairie Theatre Exchange in Winnipeg in November. Peter MacDonald of the Brussels Figure Skating Club and his partner Suzanne Killing of the Tavistock Figure Skating Club had earned the title of 1991 Western Ontario Junior Dance Champions. They were now destined to travel to Saskatchewan in February to compete in the national competition. The Huron County Pork Producers Association held its annual meeting in Varna and producers expressed their concern at the dramatic losses happening in the industry locally. Huron County had lost 16 per cent of its pork producers in 1990. The one common thread, according to provincial director Ron Douglas, was that many of the producers getting out of the business were some of the county's smallest. The Brussels Lions Club welcomed three new members into the club. Doug Kirkby, Dave Moody and Tim Prior were all introduced to the club. The three men were sponsored by Neil McGavin, Murray Siddall and Jim Prior, respectively. January 17, 2008 After a year of working with consultants, Huron County Warden John Bezaire unveiled the county's new logo at the Jan. 9 meeting of Huron County Council. Not only did the county rebrand its image and redesign its logo, but it also relaunched its website. "Huron County is telling the world that this is a community for generations with a bright and prosperous future," said Planner Carol Leeming. She added that she felt the work on the new logo had been "very successful" and that the county now had a "distinctive and captivating brand". Geoff Peach, a Blyth -based water quality expert and the co-founder of the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation, said that it remained to be seen whether the unseasonably warm weather and melting throughout Huron County would affect Lake Huron water levels. Huron County's 4-H organization handed out its annual awards, honouring those who went above and beyond in the organization in the past year. Margaret Vincent of the Belgrave area was presented with the Don Pullen Award, while it was Kayla Bishop of the Bluevale area who claimed the Murray Cardiff Award. Peter Workman, a health department worker from Nunavut, was the guest speaker for the regular meeting of the Majestic Women's Institute. Workman had been employed in Canada's newest territory for a number of years and he spoke about the process of creating a community greenhouse there and the challenges associated with the venture. Huron East Council accepted a tender for what Councillor Les Falconer deemed Mayor Joe Seili's "field of dreams" in Seaforth. Council accepted the tender of Smith Construction in the amount of just under $2 million to build the new Family Health Team building in Seaforth.