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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News Record, 2016-06-08, Page 88 News Record • Wednesday, June 8, 2016 Did you live at an Ontario Institution for People with Developmental Disabilities? St. Lawrence Regional Centre between April 1, 1975 - June 30, 1983 L.S. Penrose Centre between April 1, 1974 - March 31, 1977 D'Arcy Place between Sept. 1, 1963 - Dec. 31, 1996 Oxford Regional Centre between April 1, 1974 - March 31, 1996 or in the "Mental Retardation Unit" or "MR Unit" between Jan. 1, 1969 - March 31, 1974 Midwestern Regional Centre between Sept. 1, 1963 - March 31, 1998 Adult Occupational Centre between Jan. 1, 1966 - March 31, 1999 Durham Centre for the Developmentally Handicapped between April 1, 1974 - Sept. 28, 1986 Muskoka Centre between Aug. 28, 1973 - June 30, 1993 Prince Edward Heights between Jan. 1, 1971 - Dec. 31, 1999 Northwestern Regional Centre between April 1, 1974 - March 31, 1994 Bluewater Centre between April 1, 1976 - Dec. 20, 1983 Pine Ridge between Sept. 1, 1963 - Aug. 31, 1984 A Lawsuit Settlement and You May Be Able There was a lawsuit about 12 Ontario institutions for people with developmental disabilities. The lawsuit is now over and there is money for people who were harmed while living at any of these institutions. Check the dates beside the name of the place where you lived. If you lived there between those dates, then you can now ask for money from the lawsuit. How do I get this money? You must fill in a Claim Form and send it to the claims office. You must send the form by February 28, 2017. The office will check your form to decide whether they can pay you. How much money could I get? You could get up to: • $2,000 if you were harmed or hurt at any of these institutions. • $42,000 if you write about how you were harmed or hurt. How much you get depends on what you write in the form and how many people send in forms. Has Been Approved To Get Some Money. How do I get a Claim Form? You can call the claims office: • Phone 1-866-442-4465 • TTY: 1-877-627-7027 You can also get the form online at www.Schedule1 Facilities.ca Can I get help with the form? Yes. Your family member, support person or someone you trust can fill in the form. You can also call for help: • Phone 1-866-442-4465 • TTY: 1-877-627-7027 Can family members get money? No. But estates of class members who lived at one of these institutions and died after June 16, 2012 can ask for money. Do you know someone who lived at one of these institutions? Please share this information with them or their support person. Margaret Atwood discusses tales, short stories and Alice Munro at Blyth Festival Laura Broadley Postmedia Network With her signature humour and can- didness, Margaret Atwood took the stage at the Blyth Festival on June 2 as a part of the Alice Munro Festival of the Short Story. Atwood read a selection from Reve- nant, a piece of short fiction from her 10th collection, Stone Mattress: Nine Wicked Tales. It is the story of three lives intertwined with a polarization main character. Dancing Girls was Atwood's first col- lection, which was published in 1977 when she was 38 -years -old. By that time she was already established in the publishing world having 10 collections of poetry and three novels on the shelves. Atwood was joined on the Blyth stage by Merilyn Simonds, another cele- brated Canadian author. The two women met 20 years ago on stage at a similar event in Vancouver. Simonds started off by asking Atwood why she decided to publish a collection of short fiction in 1977 when she was already established in so many other genres. "I started with stories," Atwood said. "I've been writing stories since high school." Most publishers wanted a novel writ- ten and published before they would consider investing in a collection of short fiction. Some of the stories in Dancing Girls had been written long before the collection was published, Atwood said. The short story was a popular genre in Canada in the 1960s because it was hard to get novels published unless the publisher was able to get a UI< or US company to co -publish. At that time the publishing houses couldn't justify the expense without a foreign partner because Canadian audiences weren't seen as able to support the collection on its own, Atwood said. Atwood said she credits the CBC Radio show Anthology hosted by Robert Weaver as helping short fiction and poetry gain a wider audience in Canada because he would read them on air. "Robert Weaver knew all the writers in Canada. He was the common link that joined writers across the country," Atwood said. Alice Munro has also given Weaver a lot of credit as he was one of the first to publish her stories. Simonds asked Atwood what the dif- ference between short pieces, short sto- ries and tales as those are the various names of the works in Atwood's collections. Short pieces are not necessarily prose, but can take the form of short plays or narrations. Short stories are realistic pieces of fiction whereas tales have a "fable dimension" to them, Atwood explained. In the early 1970s Atwood and Munro were both gaining a significant follow - Laura Broadley Postmedia Network Margaret Atwood signed books for fans after reading from her short fiction collection, Stone Mattress: Nine Wicked Tales at the Blyth Festival theatre on June 2 as a part of the Alice Munro Festival of the Short Story. ing for their work among Canadians. After World War Two most of the preeminent writers were men. The end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s saw the emergence of more female writers like Lucy Maud Mont- gomery and Gabrielle Roy for Atwood and Munro to lookup to. "Those examples were there for young women writers," Atwood said. "Alice, herself, says that she was inspired early on by Emily of New Moon." The second -wave women's move- ment started in the early 1970s, which gave some women the inspiration to move away from just being housewives. During that time women writers received two types of reviews. "One was, early -wave women's movement people who just decided it was part of that. And the other one were other people who said, `She'll grow up and get over this phase;' Atwood said. Female writers have come along way since the 1970s in terms of the respect they garner in most genres, but there are still sections of writing where the female voice is still stifled, like gaming, Atwood said. One of the last questions Simonds asked Atwood came from the audience, and was about what projects she has coming up. Atwood has contributed to the Hoga- rth Shakespeare project, which has acclaimed authors retell Shakespeare's work. Atwood's novel is a retelling of The Tempest, which comes out in Octo- ber 2016 and is called Hag -seed. Atwood's graphic novel will come out in the fall of 2016. The novel started as a bird conservation project as domesti- cated cats are the biggest killers of migratory songbirds "How do we deal with this without getting death threats from cat owners?" Atwood said. "The solution is obvious. You devise a superhero, which com- bines cat and bird. Therefore it's called Angel Catbird."