The Citizen, 2019-06-27, Page 1CitizenTh
e
$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, June 27, 2019
Volume 35 No. 26
BLOOD DRIVE - Pg. 17
Deputy-Mayors issue wager
over neighbouring drives
FESTIVAL - Pg. 19
‘Cakewalk’ returns to
Blyth Festival stage
ARENA - Pg. 3
Study determines potential
for renovation project
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INSIDE
THIS WEEK:
Thompson out as Ontario’s Minister of Education
Three die
in crash
Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thomp-
son is now the Minister of Govern-
ment and Consumer Services after a
large-scale cabinet shuffle by
Premier Doug Ford last Thursday.
Thompson spent just under a year
as the province’s Minister of
Education after being sworn into the
more-senior position on June 29,
2018. Stephen Lecce, the 32-year-
old first-time MPP for King-
Vaughan in the north end of the
greater Toronto area, has been
named as Thompson’s replacement.
Thompson’s tenure as Minister of
Education was marred with
controversy from its very early days.
Almost immediately after being
sworn into the position last year,
Thompson announced that the
provincial sexual education curri-
culum would revert back to one from
the late 1990s, replacing the Liberal
Party’s controversial 2015 update.
Thompson subsequently oversaw
the large-scale consultation over the
sexual education curriculum that
saw the vast majority of respondents
disagree with the government.
She would go on to scrap elements
of Indigenous education and cancel a
school repair fund in excess of $100
million before making poorly-
received changes to class sizes.
Her Blyth office was a frequent
site for protests, including one
education protest that brought
between 300 and 400 teachers and
their supporters to the village.
As for her new position,
Thompson called the Ministry of
Government and Consumer Services
the “backbone of government” in a
press release. Under the ministry’s
purview is Service Ontario and
Consumer Protection Ontario.
According to the ministry’s
website, the ministry focuses on
“delivering vital programs, services
and products – ranging from health
cards, driver’s licences and birth
certificates to consumer protection
and public safety – to help create a
better quality of life for Ontario’s
families.”
In addition, Thompson is now in
charge of the Great Seal of Ontario,
used to authenticate documents.
The exact same seal has been used
since Jan. 1, 1870, coming to the
province by way of a Royal Warrant
from Queen Victoria. It is
technically in the care of the
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, but
Thompson will now maintain day-
to-day custody of it.
In an interview with The Citizen
the day of the cabinet shuffle,
Thompson said she was very proud
of all she accomplished as Minister
of Education, but was eager to take
on a new challenge as the Minister
of Government and Consumer
Services.
“It goes without saying that I’m
very proud and honoured to be
serving under Premier Ford at his
cabinet table and I look forward to
this new chapter, building on the
successes we’ve had in the previous
year in [the Ministry of Education]
and that’s quite an extensive list,”
Thompson said. “I’m going to take
that and build on it as Minister of
Government and Consumer
Services.”
Thompson said that one of the real
feathers in her cap was the extensive
education consultation she oversaw,
which she feels will retain its
importance for generations.
“I facilitated the largest
consultation in education history and
that information and that data we
received through the consultation is
going to inform policy for years to
come in [the Ministry of
Education],” she said. “Over and
above that, we have a mass strategy
that is going to see students get back
to the fundamentals when it comes
to learning what’s important... and
parents will have confidence in
what’s being taught.”
Thompson also pointed to
initiatives she attempted to move
forward before her party was in
power, saying that it took her being
involved in the ministry to see them
come to fruition.
In 2015, she said, she received
unanimous support to teach more
about agri-food careers, but it wasn’t
officially implemented until she was
Minister of Education.
She also said she’s very proud of
the Safe and Supportive Classrooms
Act, which she said was one of 20
pieces of legislation that made
history in the last year.
Thompson added that she
approached all of her work in the
Ministry of Education with a rural
lens, ensuring that her riding of
Huron-Bruce and all of rural Ontario
was represented when decisions
about education were being made.
In regards to her cabinet move,
Thompson chose to view the change
in a positive light in the wake of
many news outlets reporting it as a
clear demotion, saying she’s taking
her experience as a minister and now
applying it to a different area of
governance.
“It’s time to shift, it’s time to make
sure that we take our experience and
build on it in a new environment,”
she said.
Thompson insists that she’ll be
working closely with Lecce as he
A fatal crash claimed three lives
last Friday northwest of Listowel
and it remains under investigation
by members of the Huron County
Ontario Provincial Police (OPP)
Detachment and investigators from
the West Region OPP Technical
Collision Investigation (TCI) Team.
On June 21 at 6:34 p.m. OPP
officers from Huron, Perth and
Wellington County Detachments,
along with area paramedics and
firefighters, responded to the scene
of a two-vehicle crash northwest of
Listowel located at the intersection
of Perth Road 178 & Perth Line
88/Fordwich Line.
Upon arrival, first responders
located a heavily damaged sport
utility vehicle and a tractor-trailer
just east of the intersection. The
driver and two passengers in the
sport utility vehicle were
pronounced dead at the scene. A
fourth occupant in the sport utility
vehicle, a two-year-old boy, was
transported from the scene to an area
hospital. He remains in hospital with
non-life threatening injuries.
The driver of the tractor-trailer
was uninjured.
The deceased, all residents of
London, are: Walter Yetman, 60;
Donna Yetman, 58 and Stephanie
Roloson, 28.
The preliminary police inves-
tigation has determined the sport
utility vehicle was northbound on
Perth Line 88/Fordwich Line when
it collided with the tractor-trailer as
it was crossing eastbound through
the intersection.
A taste of the world
The Huron Multicultural Festival took over Goderich’s
Courthouse Square on Sunday, featuring musical acts,
dancing groups and other performers from all over the
world to Huron County. Above, the Kirezi Rwandan
Performing Group took to the stage, impressing those in
attendance with their carefully choreographed moves. While there
was plenty to see and enjoy happening on stage, there were also
plenty of food options from all over the world, including Ethiopian
and Syrian food and more. The event was free for all, carried out
by the Huron Arts and Heritage Network. (Hannah Dickie photo)
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 2