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Zurich Citizens News, 1977-12-08, Page 6Page 6 Citizens News, December 8, 1977 AT BEAN MEETING — A portion of the large crowd at Friday's annual meeting for the Huron District of the Ontario Bean Producers' Marketing Board at Hensall is shown in the above picture. By JACK RIDDELL MPP Huron -Middlesex In recent years farmers have been exhibiting a growing con- cern for property rights for the owners of private land. This concern prompted a bill to be introduced in the Legislature by Robert Eaton (PC — Middlesex), to deal with petty trespassing. An Act to Amend the Petty Trespass Act was given approval in principal in the Legislature this week and will now go to Committee where any amend- ments to the Bill can be made. The purpose of the Bill is to remove requirements from the Act that land be enclosed or that land must be pc'sted before one can be considered a trespasser. It places the onus on persons to ask permission to enter another person's land and increases the maximum fine to $1,000 from the present $100. It removes liability from a property owner for trespassers unless deliberate intent to do harm to the trespasser is involved. It is gratifying to know that some of our curiously archaic laws are being amended. As the situation is now, the provinces rural community is virtually powerless to stop trespassers. All farmers have horror stories of trespassers making free with their property. Domestic ducks and geese are shot. Cattle and other livestock are wounded or killed, fences are cut. Gates are left open and garbage is strewn around fields including bottles which play havoc with the tires of FOR YOUR CHRISTMAS PLANTS POINSETTIAS POT MUMS CHRISTMAS CACTI ALSO A VARIETY OF HOUSE PLANTS HURON RIDGE ACRES David Steckle Ph. 565-2122 Trespassing the farm vehicles passing over the land. When the Act was drafted, no doubt most of Ontario was unoccupied land and an im- portant source of food supply. Now virtually all the province is under ownership and the forest is no longer a source of food,. yet this outdated law still dominates rural areas of Ontario. I'm a little surprised that a Private Member's Bill had to be introduced to amend the Act. As far back as December 1976, I wrote a letter and directed it to the Attorney General's office asking that the Act be brought under review and amended. The letter and material for- warded eventually ended up in the hands- of Counsel, Policy Development Division of the Ministry • of the Attorney General, who 'advised that an intensive examination of the law and issues related t� both the liability of occupiers of land to entrance onto their premises and the rights of occupiers against trespassers is underway in the Ministry. He was hoping that some relevant legal reform. will result. I do not know why the Attorney General did not in- troduce any amendments to the Act and why he waited for a Private Member's bill to be in- troduced. Nevertheless, the amendments to the Petty Trespass Act are supportable, although some of the anglers and hunters feel that the clause which would require that every person who unlawfully enters or in any other way trespasses upon another person's land must obtain written per- mission, is unduly harsh, par- ticularly, in the northern part of the Province where boundaries are obscure and where the owners of such property cannot be located. This concern will be examined at the Committee stage. I have supported the bill and -I feel the time is long since passed when rural Ontario should provide a playground for the Province. An independent commissioner and review board will be established toi hear citizen complaints against policemen. The new seven -member Citizens' Complaints and Police Discipline Review Board would be ap- pointed for a three-year term, and would have power to dismiss, demote, fine or reprimand police. The commissioner would have over-all responsibility for han- dling complaints against local police forces and the Ontario Provincial Police, although police forces would carry out initial investigations. If a citizen is not satisfied, or the charge is serious, the com- missioner would continue the investigation. His powers would be comparable to those of the Ombudsman, including the right to enter offices to examine T -A photo documents. He would have his own research staff, and the right to order hearings by the review board if there is evidence of misconduct or unsatisfactory performance by police. The Provincial Ombudsman has expressed the view that his office's operations in Northern Ontario will have to be ter- minated because the Legislature's Board of Internal Economy has slashed his request for $1.1 million in supplementary financing back to $600,000. "I really feel we have been emasculated by this", he said "We'll almost have to close up shop, except to carry on the office and do work around Toronto." The area from Parry Sound north produced just under 30 percent of the 4,989 cases brought to com- pletion by the Ombudsman's office in the period from July 1976 to March, 1977. Under amendments to the Highway Traffic Act, the Ontario Government will give police the power to confiscate radar war- ning devices, called Fuzzbusters by one manufacturer. The bill will allow police to seize the devices from cars, although it will not make their possession illegal if they are not in a vehicle. The owner of the car with one of the warning devices would be subject to a fine of from $50 to $500. The Minister has acknowledged that enforcement of the ban might be difficult but said "most citizens are law- abiding" and he hoped they would stop buying the devices. Eliminate problem before it happens The Huron County Board of Education considered what may happen if no trustee wanted to chair the board itself or board committees in 1978 and established a policy at its Mon- day meeting that would eliminate that problem before it occurred. Director of education John Cochrane told the board that there is no board by-law outlining the procedure to be followed if no candiate stands for election in a new year, to any of the board offices. Cochrane said the board seems to operate on the assumption that at least one, and hopefully several, trustees will seek a chairmanship and that the situation would never occur. He P Y indicatedthat the possibility was remote when the board had only to elect a chairman and vice- chairman but that the possibility becomes greater when six positions are to be filled. Board Chairman Herb Turkheim suggested to the board that any year that situation arises the outgoing advisory committee or executive com- mittee of the board be given the power to appoint trustees to chairmanships. Separate school trustee Eugene Frayne reminded the board that in a non -election year that situation would be fine but pointed out that in an election year there would be no guarantee that members of the executive committee would seek re-election or that they would be re-elected by voters. "The executive committee wouldn't be able to make ap- pointments until January and there is a possibility of trustees not returning to the board," said Frayne. Turkheim Said that if the matter was "referred" to the executive committee it would alleviate the situation of trustees not returning to the board. He said that if trustees failed to secure a seat on the board the new executive committee established at the board's inaugural meeting would be given the responsibility to ap- point people to chairmanships if no trustee new or returning, volunteered for the position. Colborne-Goderich township trustee Shirley Hazlitt said it would be a "sorry day for the Huron County Board of Education when not enough people on the board were in- terested enough in education to serve as a committee chairman." Turkheim reminded the board that no one is saying that there is not enoughinterest from trustees to serve. He said what is being pointed out is that if the situation arises in any year the board has no policy to handle it. Later in the agenda board members were given an op- portunity p- Poton t to announce intentions r z Y to seek chairmanships for the coming year. Board policy is . such that at the last meeting of the year trustees are given an opportunity to declare candidacy for board offices for the coming year. The election of the officers takes place at the board's inaugural meeting in the next year and before those elections the trustees are given a second opportunity to declare can- didacy. R.J. Elliott, Blyth, indicated he plans to seek the position of board chairman. Alex Corrigan, Wingham, will •seek the post of vice-chairman. Jack Alexander, Wingham, and John Henderson, Seaforth, will seek chairmanship of the fiscal and property policy committee. Colborne-Goderich township trustee Shirley Hazlitt, plans to be candidate for the instructional staff and personal policy committee. Dorothy Wallace of Goderich is willing to chair the school program policy committee and no trustee in- dicated a desire to chair the student policy committee. An opportunity will be made at the inaugural meeting January 3, 1978 at 2:00 p.m. for trustees to announce intentions to seek of- fice. The board's first business meeting of the new year will be January 9, 1978 at 1:00 p.m. SENIOR MIXED BOWLING LEAGUE HIGH WEEK'S TRIPLE POINTS TEAMS Hi -Hopes Hawkeyes Ramblers Newcomers Whippoorwills C. Geiger 480 D. Jantzi 527 L. Jacobi 552 D. Goldsmith 601 Geiger 631 High Single — Geiger — 331 High Triple — C. Geiger — 711 0 7 2 5 7 TOTAL POINTS 17 33 43 44 59 AREA FARMERS AT CONVENTION — Gerry Thiel, Glen Thiel and Richard Grenier attended the Annual Convention of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture held in Hamilton recently.