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The Citizen, 2015-01-29, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 2015. Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny Scott Advertising Sales: Lori Patterson & Amanda Bergsma 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.northhuron.on.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 $36.00/year ($34.29 + $1.71 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. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca January 25, 1962 A number of classes were to take place at Brussels Public School in the coming months, with registration set to close on Feb. 1. The categories were: Novelty (comedy, magic, sleight-of-hand, acrobatics), square dancing, classical (singing, dancing, instrumental), country or western (singing, instrumental and clog and step dancing) and tap and national dancing. The Morris Federation of Agriculture held its annual meeting, where Richard Procter was elected as president. Ted Fear was subsequently chosen to be first vice- president, while Albert Bacon was voted as second vice-president. The Majestic Women’s Institute was sponsoring a new 4-H Homemaking Club project called Separates for the Summer. January 24, 1979 Many Brussels residents were forced to spend most of the weekend without hydro or water. The ordeal began when a branch fell on a transformer between two homes. The incident resulted in a blown fuse, which then burned the whole switch. The incident also caused the water to be off for a number of hours. In an unrelated event, however, a water main broke at the intersection of Turnberry and Thomas Streets. It was the second broken water main in Brussels in 1979, which was still less than a month old. The Ontario Ministry of Health’s new budget formula meant that many local hospitals would likely be losing beds. The Brussels Post reported that Seaforth Community Hospital would be losing six beds under the new formula, while the Wingham and District Hospital would likely lose 21 beds. January 24, 1990 Plans for a two-site Huronview, including a home in Brussels, appeared to be on track said Tom Cunningham, the Reeve of Hullett Township and a member of the Huronview Board of Management. The initial estimate for the project was $14 million for the two homes. That number increased substantially, however, with more recent figures suggesting that costs could go as high as $24 million for the two new homes. Blyth Village Council was locked in conflict with one of the village’s largest employers over who should pay the cost overrun for renovations at the Radford ball diamond. The issue warranted a special meeting of council, which also included Blyth’s lawyer, George Radford Construction Limited, as well as representatives from the Blyth slo-pitch league and the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association. A new club called the Central Huron Junior Farmers’ Association was formed, taking a number of clubs from the Huron County Junior Farmers that decided to strike out on their own. Clubs from Clinton, Seaforth and South Huron took the initiative to form their own club, saying it was a positive step in strengthening the Junior Farmers organization in Huron County. January 24, 2001 The Blyth Festival’s 2001 season was announced, set to begin on June 15 with what was being called the Festival’s “most exciting venture yet” with Paul Thompson’s sprawling, outdoor epic The Outdoor Donnellys. Festival regular Ted Johns would be back on the stage, as the first play to open on the Memorial Hall stage would be The Passion of Narcisse Mondoux. Rounding out the season would be Cruel Tears by Ken Mitchell and Humphrey and the Dumptrucks, Corner Green by Gordon Pinsent, McGillicuddy by Citizen Publisher Keith Roulston and Sometime by Norah Harding. Members of the Hussey family – Melina, Manny, Micah, Mark and Matthew – were set to release their new CD single and music video entitled “Ruins” at a special release party at The Livery in Goderich. The group performed under the stage name of Silence, and “Ruins” was their first radio single. Amalgamation had brought about an unexpected decision for newly- elected Huron East councillors who now had to discuss police coverage for a varying geographic area including one larger urban centre, one village and three rural wards. Councillors found themselves torn between two different levels of service, both coming with their own costs. Brussels’ Tim and Donna Prior were recognized provincially for their impact on grazing methods. The Priors’ big win was announced at the Huron County Beef Producers’ annual meeting in Brussels. The Priors earned a $750 first prize in a pasture competition supported by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), Pickseed, the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association and the Association of Community Pastures. The farm was honoured for a unique system that had animals rotating through 30 semi-permanent paddocks on a daily basis, which allowed other fields time to recover. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Don’t reward the laggards It’s great to co-operate with your neighbours but Huron County Council would be serving the best interests of the county if it’s not quick to support the Southwest Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) initiative to expand high speed internet access by hooking more homes to fibre optic cable. It’s not that we can’t use more fibre optic connections in Huron and the federal and provincial money being sought could make that happen faster but what’s good for the other counties in Southwestern Ontario may harm valuable businesses here in Huron. Even proponents of SWIFT acknowledge that Huron County is much more advanced in providing fibre optic connections than most other areas. This is because locally-owned co-ops such as Tuckersmith Communications or HuronTel and innovative private companies like Wightman Telecom have been working away for years, with no government funding, to connect county homes. Most of the urban areas are now connected and the companies are now laying cable in rural areas. They’ve been doing this at a time when the big telecoms like Bell weren’t providing high speed internet service, even in urban areas where they already were providing telephone service like Blyth and Brussels. The problem is that much of Southwestern Ontario doesn’t have innovative and aggressive service providers like Huron does. These areas want to catch up. They want to award contracts to big players who can lay cable in the entire region and they want money from the federal and provincial governments to help them do it. Huron County’s five telecoms have pointed out to county councillors that they could now be in the position of competing against major companies like Bell which are being subsidized by the federal and provincial governments. The argument in telecommunications – certainly from the big telecoms – has often been that you have to be big to provide state-of-the- art service, but in Huron County it’s been the opposite. The little companies have provided the service while the big telecoms invested where the biggest profit could be made – in dense urban areas. It would be a travesty if these big companies were now subsidized to compete with the local companies. If SWIFT can be flexible enough to provide the existing Huron telecoms, which have already done so much to improve internet connectivity, with funding to finish the job by expanding in rural areas, then great. But Huron County should not help finance an initiative that’s going to reward the laggard big guys with government subsidies while hurting local companies that have made Huron County a leader. –KR Justice takes time, cool heads Whether in the long run he’s proven truthful or not, the claim last week by one of the suspended Dalhousie University dentistry students that he was not an offender in the publishing of misogynistic comments on a Facebook group but actually the one who brought the comments to public notice, shows how dangerous it is to rush to judgement. The lawyer for Ryan Millet, a 29-year-old student who is married with three children, says Millet has unfairly been suspended along with the other 12 students who were part of the group that caused an uproar across Canada because of posts such as about with which of their female classmates they’d most like to have “hate sex”. In reality, the lawyer said, it was Millet who made one of the women aware of the comments and gave her access to his account so she could gather evidence in order to make a complaint. Nevertheless he was suspended from clinical activities and from attending classes with female students. He’s actually lucky it’s not worse. The uproar became so vicious that the university’s president was excoriated for not immediately kicking all 13 students out of the school and making sure none of them could ever practice dentistry. Many of the protesters gave the impression that nothing short of capital punishment would be enough for the men. Mob justice is never right. Whether we’re sure we know the full story and therefore have the right to proceed with instant justice or not, true justice takes time and investigation. Even in the best of causes, proper investigation and sober second thought is required. –KR & Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. 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