Loading...
The Citizen, 2019-08-15, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 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.huroncitizen.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; $180.00/year in U.S.A. and $380/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 August 8, 1973 A preliminary report prepared by local engineers stated that repairs to the Memorial Hall roof could cost as much as $12,000. Ken Dunn of B.M. Ross said they were put on the job after the roof was observed to be sagging between eight and nine inches. Upon further investigation, however, even greater problems were discovered. Dunn said the understructure of the whole roof was weak and that the rafters had skidded outward and many of them were now bowed. A team of young athletes from Blyth returned to the village victorious after an outstanding performance at the Lake Huron Zone Annual Track and Field Meet. The team from Blyth triumphed over teams from much larger city centres, including the stiffest competition from an Owen Sound- based team, to top the meet. After Blyth Village Council doubled the cost of Auburn using the Blyth and Hullett dump, Auburn Council notified Blyth staff that the community would no longer be using the dump and would find another, cheaper alternative. While the changes came as a result of Blyth Village Council feeling that Auburn wasn’t paying its fair share to use the dump, Auburn Council disagreed and opted to bring its waste to the East Wawanosh dump. August 16, 1995 Trinity Anglican Church in Blyth fell victim to vandals who painted graffiti on the north and west sides of the building with the words “Christians suck” and “I love Satan, God ignores me” scrawled on the church. Lifelong Blyth resident Karen Stewart was appointed to the post of acting general manager for the Blyth Festival for the remainder of the 1995 season. Stewart, an eight-year veteran of community theatre, took over for Susan Moffat after she was released from her duties over two weeks earlier. The new Brussels Fire Hall would officially open to the public on Sept. 16. The opening ceremony had to be postponed in June due to the provincial election. August 13, 2009 Four young women were set to vie for the title of Brussels Fall Fair Ambassador. Felicia Souch, Brittany Thyssen, Jolanda Smith and Tia Delauria had all let their names stand for the prestigious position. The winner would be crowned at the Brussels Legion on Aug. 16. As Walton prepared for the annual TransCan Grand National Championship, 30,000 people, whether they be riders or spectators, were expected to flock to the small community of Walton. Michael and Angela Oh had moved to Blyth from Kitchener to take over ownership of Blyth Variety. The South Korean natives said they found Blyth welcoming. Blyth Festival favourites Gil Garratt and Catherine Fitch starred in The Nuttalls, the latest offering from Michael Healey, who was no stranger to Blyth Festival audiences. The Blyth U18 Girls team was crowned the contest’s champion at a recent tournament held on the team’s home fields in Blyth. Coach Herb Van Amersfoort and team captain Danielle Bean were among those pictured celebrating the win in The Citizen. August 16, 2018 Amanda Morrison was crowned the Brussels Fall Fair Ambassador for 2018/2019. She was joined by Little Ambassador Kaleigh McCallum and Junior Ambassador Maddy Bernard. Artistic Director Gil Garratt said that the 44th season of the Blyth Festival was looking to be one for the history books with over 23,000 tickets sold. Thanks in part to the success of a remount of The Pigeon King, the Festival has sold more tickets than in any season since the success of Innocence Lost: A Play About Steven Truscott was on the Memorial Hall stage, one of the most successful productions in the Festival’s history, which would go on to be produced all over the country. In terms of sheer revenue, Garratt said the Festival hadn’t seen numbers like those happening in 2018 since 2002, attributing the success to crowd pleasers like Wing Night at the Boot and The New Canadian Curling Club. Huron County’s first-ever female warden, Leona Armstrong, the former reeve of Grey Township, passed away at the age of 84. Leona was married to Jim for 64 years and spent nearly 25 years serving her community through municipal politics. Belgrave-area athlete Ryan Jacklin earned three medals (two gold and one bronze) at the Royal Canadian Legion’s National Youth Track and Field Championships held in Brandon, Manitoba. Local artist Gemma James Smith was set to see her puppet creations on display at the Blyth Festival Art Gallery for her first professional show, “We’ve Been Here For So Long: The Huron County Show”. Well-known Blyth artist Kelly Stevenson was set to curate the exhibit. 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 Time to celebrate Sports can sometimes seem a distraction from more serious news, but it can also offer moments of sheer joy that bring people together. Moments such as the Rogers Cup Canadian championship win by Mississauga teenager Bianca Andreescu on Sunday or the triumphal return of Stanley Cup champion Ryan O’Reilly to his Huron County roots can push other news out of the headlines. Suddenly, instead of worrying, people can have a short period to celebrate and feel good. While serious news often divides people, a sports achievement brings people together – at least people who supported the winning side. Probably the greatest recent example of these celebrations was the mind-boggling party Toronto held after the Raptors won the NBA championship in June, with crowds at the parade estimated as high as two million people. During the long playoff marathon, interest in the team built across the country so that by the time the championship-clinching game actually ended, it seemed the whole country had won. A championship doesn’t change the world, of course. Wars still go on. People still live in poverty. Yet, for a few hours or days, sports gives us a chance to see humans at their best, not worst. — KR Seeing what you want to see When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its report entitled Climate Change and Land last week there were two messages: that climate change threatens our food production and that land uses such as farming can affect climate change. Typically in a world where urban mindsets decide which news gets emphasized, it was the latter aspect of the report that got the most coverage in the media. When a storyline gets established in the media, it seems to shape coverage of everything that’s in any way related. There was a perfect example when one of Canada’s major television networks invited former Ontario Environmental Commissioner Dianne Saxe to discuss the report. The interviewer pulled up a pie-chart Saxe had released in the days before her job was eliminated by the government of Premier Doug Ford. The chart showed a thin wedge that beef production contributed to global warming beside a massive contribution by air travel. The interviewer then led a discussion about the need to stop eating meat and never mentioned the contribution urbanites make by flying so much. Because they manage so much of the earth’s surface, farmers have a huge role to play in the current crisis. Unlike urbanites, who can only hope to reduce their contribution to carbon emissions, farmers can actually be part of the solution by managing their land. They can take carbon out of the air by planting trees in windbreaks and in areas where the soil has low productivity. They can grow fuel crops that replace oil and coal. They can harvest the wind and sun for electrical production. Right now the urban emphasis is on rejecting meat eating and turning to eating plants alone. Beef in particular keeps taking a beating, probably partly because it’s the most popular meat and also because of scientific reports that blame cattle beasts’ digestive process for producing methane, which is even more destructive than carbon dioxide in causing climate change. But we had cattle on the earth long before climate change became a problem. Though the cattle population has grown 40 per cent since 1961, the vast majority of the increased emissions that have caused global warming have come from man-made activities, such as more air travel, than from cattle. Climate change will only be reversed if everyone plays a part. Farmers must try to limit their emissions and use their land management to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Non-farmers need to examine how their lifestyles impact the earth – and that includes a lot more critical ways than just quitting eating meat. — KR When leaders lead Great leaders inspire their people. Most often, leaders don’t inspire but at least say the appropriate things at the appropriate times. And then we have some of the leaders of today. You don’t have to be a Winston Churchill (“We have not begun to fight!”) or Franklin Roosevelt (“We have nothing to fear but fear itself”) to lead well, but at least one might expect leaders not to lower the tone and divide people like U.S. President Donald Trump and Ontario Premier Doug Ford are doing. President Trump, who regularly seems to reach new lows in unpresidential behaviour, topped himself last week when the re-tweeted speculation by a supporter that the suicide of convicted sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein in a New York jail cell was really a murder because he knew too much about former president Bill Clinton and his wife, former presidential candidate Hillary. Meanwhile, Premier Ford called a man found not guilty of murder because he was mentally ill an “animal”. Perhaps these leaders’ parents didn’t take them to see the movie Bambi where Thumper the rabbit advises: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” If they did, it didn’t stick. — KR &