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The Citizen, 2019-02-28, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 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.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 $38.00/year ($36.19 + $1.81 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. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca February 29, 1968 The Brussels PeeWee hockey team swept their best-of-five series in three straight games, eliminating Paisley and capturing the Western Ontario Athletic Association E championship. Brussels won the first two games in convincing fashion by scores of 10-4 and 10-1. They then finished the series with a 9-3 win thanks in part to a strong performance by goaltender Hugh Nichol and goals by Rick McDonald. Two Brussels girls were crowned top orators in their secondary school public speaking categories at the Huron County Royal Canadian Legion speaking contest, which was held in Wingham. Dorothy Elliott, a local Grade 11 student, won the competition’s Senior division, while Linda Wilson won the Junior Division. Both girls attended Wingham Secondary School. They would then move on to the zone competition on March 2 in Brussels. February 28, 1973 The official Huron County Plan, which had been in development since 1969, was finally given approval by Huron County Council on Feb. 23. It was reported that the plan would provide an overall outline for planning throughout the county, but would leave certain issues up to the lower-tier municipalities as well. John D. Gaunt of Belgrave’s Treasure Valley Farm was awarded a Nuffield Scholarship, presented by the Nuffield Foundation of Great Britain to promote young farmers from the members of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Six young men from Canada, Australia and New Zealand had been chosen as winners for 1973. Fourteen-year-old Donald Malcolm Scott of Belgrave was killed in a snowmobile accident just west of Blyth. A graduate of East Wawanosh Public School and an F.E. Madill Secondary School student, Scott was killed when his snowmobile collided with a car. Despite significant opposition to the contrary, Huron County councillors voted 41-10 to give themselves a raise, bringing their per diem rates from $28.50 to $32. Casting was set for March 5 for Mystery at Green Fingers, the first production of the Blyth Little Theatre. Gail Falconer, president of the theatre, said they were looking for 10 actors between the ages of 20 and 60, six women and four men. March 1, 1995 Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers from the Goderich detachment were busy investigating a shooting near Egmondville. The incident began just after midnight on Feb. 28 when occupants of the house were awoken by a loud noise, only to find that a 14-year-old girl had sustained a suspected bullet wound to her right leg as she lay sleeping in her bed. Though the investigation was in its early stages, police revealed a number of apparent bullet holes in the front wall of the house. The girl was transported to Victoria Hospital in London, though it was believed that her injuries were not life-threatening. For the first time in the team’s history, the Brussels Junior C Bulls had beaten the Hanover Barons in a playoff series. It was a breakaway goal by Sheldon Mustard in overtime that gave the Bulls a 6-5 victory to seal the series victory. The Bulls took the series three games to one. Blyth Lions Club members Harold Cook and Charlie Shaw were both presented with Melvin Jones Fellowship Awards. The award is the highest honour presented by the Lions Club, honouring members for outstanding and ongoing service to the organization. Joe Chatterton of Blyth was celebrating a $10,000 Wintario lottery win, but it was a feeling he knew well because he had won $50,000 in the provincial lottery draw 15 years earlier The 68-year-old retiree and father of three said that he and his wife, Lucy, had been playing Wintario since it began in 1975. March 5, 2009 In the wake of a “super school” being proposed by community members in Blyth, Belgrave and Wingham by the name of the North Maitland Educational Centre for Excellence, officials were quick to remind the public that the centre was just a concept at that point. Colleen Schenk, the local representative on the Avon Maitland District School Board, said she had begun receiving phone calls offering her land for the centre. “I have had phone calls from people trying to sell me land,” Schenk said. “This is a board decision and the trustees have not seen this presentation. It’s a long way away. It may be an excellent concept, but that’s just what it is at this stage, an idea.” In the early stages of the concept being presented, the centre was estimated to cost between $14 million and $16.6 million. Nancy Rennick was named the acting director of the Huron County Health Unit, replacing Omid Pour- ahmadi, effective Feb. 27. Rennick was the county’s deputy-treasurer. 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 Let’s bring them home Last week’s Citizen contained, as the paper often does, stories of several outstanding young people, beginning with Mikayla Ansley’s capturing of top place in Lions Clubs International’s essay competition. Stories like these bring to life the amazing number of talented young people who grow up in our communities – and the sad knowledge that many of these young people will leave to further their education and never return because there aren’t opportunities to use their talents. There’s a long-held preception that this is the natural course of events – that young people can’t wait to head to the city for more exciting possibilities in their professional, social and cultural lives. What is often overlooked is that, sooner or later, many of these people begin to recognize there were real advantages to growing up in a rural area and they long to give their own children the experience they recall so fondly. What’s missing is the opportunity for them to find work that makes use of the education and experience they have gained. Despite large, high-profile job losses such as the Volvo plant closing or the closing of one of Wescast’s plants, many new jobs have been created in the area through new openings such as Blyth Cowbell Brewing Company and the expansion of dozens of small businesses whose growth we often don’t even see. Still, young people wanting to return might not readily find a match for their skills. Perhaps we need better ways to link former residents to potential job openings. Many young people who want to come home may need to be inventive in creating their own jobs. Often that can seem too frightening for some. Huron County has many programs that help people start their own businesses. We need to make it as easy as possible for home-sick former residents to connect with the programs designed to assist people to branch out on their own. These exciting young minds are too precious for us to lose. — KR Enough with the speculation! The title of the department at Canada’s main television networks that was formerly called the “news” department, should rightfully be changed to the “speculation” department. That seems to be the main purpose lately of what were formerly known as newscasts. Things really went off the rails a few weeks back when the Globe and Mail newspaper broke a story based on confidential sources, that claimed the Prime Minister’s Office had exerted pressure on Jody Wilson- Raybould, the justice minister at the time, to choose a non-criminal trial route to prosecute Montreal-based engineering giant SNC-Lavalin rather than criminal proceedings on charges of bribery and fraud while doing business with the Libyan government. Since then very few hard facts have surfaced about what happened behind the government’s closed doors, but the issue has dominated newscasts night after night, week after week, especially on CBC. A new snippet of information that might deserve five minutes or so of coverage, is followed by half an hour of talking heads speculating on what might have taken place and who might have said what to whom. Were there not other newsworthy stories taking place somewhere in the world that day? Not in the opinion of the people deciding what would get air time. The trend spread. On Monday morning this week, CBC’s news network decided that the only stories worth covering were by-elections coming up later in the day in three ridings across the country. The storm hammering eastern Canada at the time? Give it a minute or so each hour. The Academy Awards results from the previous evening? Even less. The other 50-55 minutes of each hour would be devoted to guests speculating about what the election results might be. The majority of journalists are political junkies who can never get enough. The majority of viewers are not. They want well-rounded coverage of what’s going on in the world. By indulging in political gossip and speculation, the news editors and reporters risk driving away the very audience they want to convince that network news coverage still matters. To paraphrase the decades-old Joe Friday line from Dragnet, just give us the facts guys, save the speculation. — KR Please don’t help us In what is surely one of history’s strangest strategies to gain public support, Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro has been using his army to prevent humanitarian aid from entering his country – even to the point of shooting Venezuelans trying to get the aid across the border. Maduro claims the aid isn’t needed in his country, even though there are shortages of food and medicine. If the aid was allowed in, it might win support for his rival, Juan Guaido, recognized by most of the neighbouring countries as the legitimate president of Venezuela. And so the farce must be kept up that “we’re alright” even as people suffer. If ever there was proof it’s time for Maduro to go, it’s the knowledge that his own political survival means more to him than his peoples’ suffering. — KR &