30 activists occupied the offices of Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston MP Scott Reid in Perth on Friday afternoon (February 14), between noon and 4pm. The activists were hoping that Reid’s staff would be able to arrange for a phone call with Reid from his office at Parliament Hill.

Reid was not in his office, however. He was in British Columbia for family reasons and was not available, so the protestors stayed until 4pm. They did meet with Lanark Frontenac Kingston MPP Randy Hillier, who shares office space with Reid, when he arrived at 3pm.

The protest was instigated by Anna Stewart, who said she decided to heed “the call out from the Wet’suwet’en for solidarity actions.”

She contacted her friend, Satinka Shilling, who was the NDP candidate in the most recent Federal election, and they began a Facebook thread to plan a peaceful occupation of Reid’s office.

“We know that Scott Reid is pro-pipeline, but we wanted to ask him if he feels he can justify the actions of the RCMP when the supreme court has said that the hereditary chiefs have jurisdiction over the land that the RCMP is seeking to remove them from. We did not get to ask him about that last week, but we will tomorrow,” she said, in a phone interview on Tuesday night (February 18th).

“My ask will be that he take a stand. I don’t see how he can argue that he is against Indigenous rights.”

Stewart did end up engaging with Randy Hillier last Friday, “even though I told him that we were not actually there to engage with him on this, because it is a federal matter. ”

On Monday, Hillier published a statement on his website and publicised it on twitter. The statement calls for an end to the Indian Act, which many indigenous people and their supporters agree with, but he also said some other things.

He said that “small groups of radical, privileged and dishonest idealogues are attempting to derail Canadian society.”

Stewart does not know if Hillier was referring to her, or to the other members of the group that occupied Hillier’s office on Friday.

She said that her motivation for action in this matter comes from her convictions about the rule of law.

“What’s driving us to act is our engagement with the issues. We all occupy the land that we inhabit, and we see what is going on in the ancestral Wet’suwet’en lands and we know that it is illegal to ask a police force to remove people from land that they have the legal right to occupy. This is not about our privilege,” she said, “it is about respect for the legal rights.”

In his posting, Hillier took exception to the groups that he says have “successfully stifled our freedom of speech through coercive political correctness, distorted our education, rewritten our history, abused freedom of assembly,”.

He also challenged the idea that Indigenous peoples in Canada have been victimised by European settlers.

“Neither I, any of my ancestors, nor the vast majority of my fellow Canadians have oppressed the Indigenous peoples of Canada. My ancestors and the history of Canada demonstrates beyond any doubt that consensus, not conquest, was the relationship between the European settlers and the native Canadians. Just as new Canadians arriving today, the first European settlers came here to flee injustice, religious persecution, and poverty in their own countries; and through these struggles, mistakes, and corrections, we have this great nation. We are all Canadians and no one deserves a pejorative label regardless if they have been here two days or two hundred years.

Anna Stewart said that after reading Hillier’s statement she is concerned about the fact that Hillier glossed over the actions of successive governments.

“I worry that people will see what he wrote and become emboldened by it. I worry that people will say this is about a small group of radicals, even though 10,000 people protested in Toronto on Monday. This is really about the Wet’suwet’en and their struggle to assert their rights. That is what we are focussing on.”

Members of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Community Street Crime Units (CSCU) from Ottawa, Leeds-Grenville & Lanark Detachments with the assistance of The Tactics and Rescue Unit (TRU), Emergency Responsive Team (ERT) & Canine Unit (K9), in collaboration with Kingston Police executed a search warrant at a property located on Christie Lake North Shore Road in Tay Valley Township.

Officers recovered a large quantity of stolen items at the location including:

• Several firearms
• Ammunition
• All-Terrain Vehicles (ATV) and Utility-Terrain Vehicles (UTV -side-by-side)
• A 16', double-axle, enclosed trailer
• Snow machine
• Snow plow blade
• chainsaws

The estimated, total street value of all recovered items is over $125,000.

Two residents of the property are each being charged with:

Unauthorized Possession of a Firearm - S.91 Criminal Code (CC)

Careless Storage of a Firearm - S.86 CC  (two counts)

Possession of Property Obtained by Crime Over $5,000 - S. 354(1)(a) CC (four counts)

Possession of Property Obtained by Crime Under $5,000 -  S.354(1)(a) CC

Both accused were released from custody on Undertakings to appear at a scheduled court date of February 26, 2020 at the Ontario Court of Justice in Perth. Names of the accused cannot be released until the charges have been processed.

The Lanark County Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) has now laid additional charges in connection with an ongoing sexual assault investigation. In October 2019, an individual reported an historical sexual assault. Officers from the Lanark OPP Crime Unit began an investigation into the matter and on November 7, 2019, Jeffrey PETERS, age 43 of Perth, Ontario was charged with two counts of Sexual Assault and four counts of Sexual Exploitation in relation to two victims between 2013-2015.

As a result of the continuing investigation, officers have identified another victim in relation to alleged incidents in 2019. On November 26, 2019 the accused was further charged with one more count each of Sexual Assault and Sexual Exploitation. The accused was released on conditions and is scheduled to appear at the Ontario Court of Justice in Perth on December 16, 2019.

Victims of sexual assault are not alone. If you need support or know someone that does, there are local resources available to help. You can visit the Victim Services of Lanark County website at www.victimserviceslanark.ca for assistance. If you are in an immediate crisis, dial 9-1-1.

Anyone who may have further information helpful to this investigation is asked to contact the Lanark County O PP at 1-888-310-1122 or if you wish to remain anonymous you can contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).

Contact: Provincial Constable Lori LOBINOWICH 613-264-7233 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

She’s well-spoken, knowledgeable and elegant.

Many years ago, in a previous life, while raising her family Susan Mactaggart worked in administration with the Art Gallery of Ontario helping organize some of the smaller exhibitions, and eventually ending up as co-ordinator of the Gallery volunteers.

Today, at 75, her 12-week old Cairn Terrier, Morgan, keeps her busy, as does her volunteer work around Green Bay on Bob’s Lake; she gardens, looks after the old 1928 family homestead, walks, and boxes.

She also has Parkinson’s Disease.

This is not something she hides. “What you see is what you get,” she says with a huge smile and a straight-on look. “Age sneaks up on you. At 70, you start to think about how much track you have left,” she reflects, “and the advent of Parkinson’s has made me think even more.”

So although Parkinson’s is a dominant part of her life, she still does everything she wants — admittedly…a bit slower. She left Toronto 20 years ago, her heart tugging her back to her roots at the country property; eight years ago, when she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, it dumbfounded her. Within 10 minutes, what she thought might have been a pinched nerve in her left hand, and a slight drag with her left foot, became a Parkinson’s diagnosis. She says matter-of-factly “my brain was telling me what to do and it wasn’t working. That’s about the essence of Parkinson’s.”

Susan takes time now to reflect on her present life and what the future holds. She has a few things to say…

The first is there should be a Parkinson’s 101 course for General Practitioners. “So many people are being diagnosed now…it’s almost an epidemic.“ Susan spent a while going back and forth to her GP before seeing a neurologist who diagnosed her within 10 short minutes.

A second is that living in the country is “probably the best antidote for Parkinson’s — peace, calm, lack of tension. Tension is the worst enemy for Parkinson’s” she adds, describing some of her daily activities like gardening, piling wood, bringing it in. “It’s a healthy lifestyle, not sedentary.”

She, like most other people with Parkinson’s, went back in her life scanning events, circumstances to see if she could find what precipitated the disease. In certain respects she led a stressful life but can’t put her finger on any one thing. Most Parkinson people say the same, and doctors don’t have a definitive cause either.

Susan doesn’t hide her Parkinson’s. “I’ve never kept it a secret.

A third is “it’s a fact of life, not unlike cancer. It’s not catching. When I tell people I have Parkinson’s and they immediately say ‘Oh, my goodness!’, I tell them it’s alright, quite alright.”

And Susan goes on…

For her, tiredness is the main manifestation of Parkinson’s. Always a doer she says she used to do ten times what she does now. So “it’s most important to recognize what you have, and mentally come to terms with it. There’s only so much I can do during the day even though my heart wants to do a lot of other things. That might mean at the end of a very busy day I won’t be able to go out for dinner because I’m just tired right out.”

Susan takes a combination of L-Dopa and Carbidopa, a fairly routine mixture, two pills five times a day. Sometimes, she says, it’s awkward pulling out a pill box, “being the odd (wo)man out.”

And she boxes twice a week. Exercise is becoming a turning point for people with Parkinson’s. It opens up small movements, it helps focus, stability and balance, it works on voice (at boxing they yell), and it grows a community of friends.

Saying that, Susan has another thought. As people with Parkinson’s grow older, they’re going to need help — from the extreme of total care to perhaps just someone to run errands. Here is a place for community service groups, she suggests, a way to jump in and help out.

And keep your friends and family close. “I talk to people every day; I have a wonderful lady who comes in and helps me around the house.”

So those are her thoughts about Parkinson’s disease and how to manage. She’s a local hero. There are lots of them around…we just don’t see, or notice them often.

On September 7, come out for the Parkinson SuperWalk at Conlon Farm in Perth; those with Parkinson’s (and their families) are walking as well as many caregivers, friends and supporters. Funds raised go to Parkinson’s Canada. For information, go to http://donate.parkinson.ca/lanarknorthleeds. Come and join the fight against Parkinson’s and get the word out.

“The more it’s talked about in the community, the less people make of it. There’s nothing to be afraid of. We are going to conquer this.”

(Editors note: The following was forwarded by Emma Cronk’s mother, Leslie, who lives on the Cronk farm near Parham. It was written in response to media reports about a dearth of primary care physicians in the Town of Perth, but it applies as much to her home communities in Frontenac County. She attended the former Hinchinbrook Public School and Sydenham High School, where she began her basketball career as a Golden Eagle)

Dear Perth Residents,

I am sorry.

My name is Emma Cronk, and I was raised on my parents 2,000-acre ranch in Parham, Ontario and I am currently a family medicine resident physician in Atlanta, Georgia at Emory University.

I tried for two application cycles for medical school in Canada, and even applying broadly in addition to Ontario medical schools, from the East Coast of Memorial University to West Coast of University of British Columbia. After two years filled with rejection letters, I decided to apply internationally at Ross University School of Medicine in the Caribbean. I had come to realize that a lot of Canadian students were following this same path.

I was a NCAA D1 collegiate athlete in undergrad, where I played on a full basketball scholarship while simultaneously completing my BSc in Biology. I also was part of the Center for Performance training camps, where the top athletes in Canada would come together to train on weekends throughout the year in Toronto. Furthermore, I played for Team Ontario and competed at the Canada Summer Games in Regina, Saskatchewan, the second largest sporting event in the world, besides the Olympics. Our team even brought home a gold medal, and we were awarded at Parliament for our efforts and our accomplishments.

Even after my travels with basketball, my end goal was to be a rural primary care physician near my hometown, as I wanted to give back to my community. I understand the hardships that come from living an hour away from the nearest city and the importance of establishing care with a rural physician that has not only provided care to you, but to your entire family. I understand the struggle with transportation to get to appointments, to potentially reschedule, to have options for home visits, and let me tell you: I so desperately wanted to be that doctor for you.

After learning about how seats are saved for international students at our medical schools in Ontario, I was livid. I represented not only our province, but our country on an athletic level. I had competitive grades, I had numerous hours of volunteer work at KGH in the ICU, I balanced a heavy basketball commitment at fifty hours a week in addition to completing a demanding science degree, I have strong leadership capabilities along with time management skills, and was raised on family values with a farm work ethic. I was wanting to graduate and work in rural primary care, where doctors are needed the most. Instead, we take international students, who pay triple the price and who graduate and then go back to their home country. Furthermore, we have saved physician visa jobs for Saudi Arabians, who after they finish their training in Canada, leave to go back home, taking potential spots for Canadian students, and this still leaves us with physician shortages and it is not fixing the underlying problem.

Canadians NEED doctors, and especially in primary care. So here I am, a small-town country girl who struggled to get a loan to attend medical school internationally, while Canada receives payment from international students to study medicine in my own country. Something is wrong here. Something needs to change. In order to facilitate this change, I would encourage every Canadian to petition their MP in regards to this problem.

I am sorry that our healthcare system failed you, Perth. I am sorry that 2,300 residents are now without a primary care physician. I wanted to be that physician. I wanted to be your doctor. I wanted to practice rural medicine. I am a damn good physician and unfortunately, Canada is losing quality doctors every single year to the United States.

I hope that this piece helps open up the much-needed conversation that change needs to happen. I hope that if only one person reading this feels the frustration that I feel, then that change will eventually come. And if anyone sees my mother at the local grocery store or in town, give her a hug, as I know she misses her daughter in Parham.

Written by Emma Cronk, MD
Emory University School of Medicine Family Medicine Resident
Her parents and sisters still reside in Parham, Ontario

On Saturday May 25, 2019 shortly before 12:00pm, a Frontenac Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer was conducting speed enforcement on Highway 15 near Washburn Road. The officer stopped a vehicle travelling at 54 kilometers over the speed limit.

The driver, a 21-year-old from Amherstview Ontario, was charged with stunt driving which resulted in the licence and vehicle being seized for seven days and the driver was given a summons to appear in Provincial Offences Court in Kingston at a future date to answer to the charge.

On Sunday, May 26, 2019 shortly after 7:00pm, a Frontenac Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer was conducting speed enforcement on Perth Road near Davidson Side Road. The officer stopped a vehicle travelling at 30 kilometers over the speed limit.

As a result of the investigation, the 20-year-old driver, was charged with speeding, no insurance, cannabis accessible to the driver and a three-day licence suspension after registering a warning on the roadside alcohol screening device. The driver was given a summons to appear in Provincial Offences Court in Kingston at a future date to answer to the charges.

On Saturday May 25, 2019 just after 4:30pm, a Frontenac Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer was conducting speed enforcement on Highway 401 near Sydenham Road. The officer stopped a vehicle travelling at 38 kilometers over the speed limit.

As a result of the investigation, the 34-year-old driver from Glenburnie was charged with speeding and driving with a suspended licence.

On Sunday May 26, 2019 shortly after 3:00pm, the same officer was near the area of Highway 401 and Montreal Street and observed the same driver, operating the same vehicle as the day before.

As a result of the investigation, Lawrence Mc Ewen was charged with breach of probation, breach of a weapons prohibition, fail to comply with probation order, possession of a prohibited device and suspended driving. The accused was held for a bail hearing at the Ontario Court of Justice in Kingston.

Arrest results in weapons charges

On Saturday, May 25, 2019 shortly after 9:00pm, Frontenac Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers were patrolling the Kingston and Pembroke trail. The officers saw an All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) and spoke to the driver.
As a result of the investigation, the 21-year-old driver, John Badour of Central Frontenac Township, was arrested on warrants that had been issued by the Ontario Court of Justice. The accused was held for a bail hearing and was charged with possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and carrying a concealed weapon.

Leslie Gauer and her husband, Bruce, decided to move to Sharbot Lake from the Hamilton area to open up a bed and breakfast.

They opened The Cottages at Windrush on Sharbot Lake a year ago and have been surprised by the number of visitors they have welcomed who are from far flung corners of the globe.

“We were also surprised how busy we were this past winter,” said Leslie.

Working with other local business owners, Lesley and Bruce have been taken with the energy and range of businesses in Frontenac County and are supporters of the Infrontenac branding initiative as well.

All of this, and the fact that Leslie has always liked the idea of running a small craft store with a good selection of exceptional items, led her to consider opening a gift store with a focus on locally made artisan items for both the local and tourist traffic.

When a small space became available at the high traffic corner of Hwy, 7 and road 38 she grabbed it and Windfall Fine Gifts began to take shape.

Even though it has just opened, the store already has a curated feel to it.

Some of the featured artists are Dave Travers from Hartington, who makes finely crafted folk-art inspired bird houses, and wood worker James Hanley whose small tables and other items are carried. Cards and smaller Batiks from Sarah Hale are available, as well as original work by Judith Versavel. Signs from Backwoods Country Creations, local honey and maple syrup, Perth Soap products and more are available at the store.

Free coffee is in the pot these days as Leslie encourages everyone to check out this new store in Sharbot Lake.

The store is open from Thursday to Sunday at the moment. Summer hours will be coming soon. Contact - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Fire extinguishers aren’t for putting out fires, per se, said Glenna Shanks of Perth Fire Protection.

“They’re for use upon exit and to get people to safety,” she said. “They’re not used to play the hero.”

Shanks was at the Ompah Fire Hall Saturday to certify extinguishers as well as inform the public. The fire department also had a demonstration set up where people could ‘use’ an extinguisher to ‘put out’ an electronic fire, to get the hang of using one.

“To use an extinguisher, it’s PASS,” she said. “You Pull the pin, Aim, Squeeze the trigger and Sweep the base of the fire.”

She estimated that about 95 per cent of homes have extinguishers.

“This is important in areas like this one because of all the cottages where your fire protection options aren’t as extensive as more urban areas.”

She said the reason they do these clinics is that many people keep their extinguishers in cupboards and don’t realize they have to be certified every six and 12 years.

“Every six years they have to be emptied and tested inside and every 12 years, the hydrostatics have to be tested,” she said. “The first year we did this, many people thought their extinguisher was fine but then we had them go out and test it on a real fire.

“A lot of them didn’t work — it does make a difference to keep them updated.”

Shanks should know, she’s been involved with fire extinguishers since she was three years old.

“It was dad’s (Reg) hobby,” she said. “Then he started the company and I bought him out eight years ago.”

She recommends a five-pound ABC extinguisher, all metal.

“They’re pretty much multi-use,” she said. “And the government won’t let us certify anything that’s plastic.

“In a five-pound, you have five to 10 seconds of powder at 585 psi.”

But they have to be kept in good working order, through certification.

“You’d be amazed what it does, when you need it,” she said.

It isn’t as if too many people will get lost if they go to the former Arden Batik location on Elm Tree Road in Arden. The new location will be in sight and only a few steps away in the converted hotel where Sarah Hale has lived for over 45 years. But for Sarah Hale, the change of location will bring her batik business back to where it started.

It will also allow her access to a full-size studio on a year-round basis, and more wall space to show the larger, framed batiks that she is most interested in creating.

Sarah dates her career as a professional batik artist to the first larger craft show that she attended in 1977. She remembers the day well, because after packing up for the day she drove to Perth hospital to give birth to her daughter Julia. For the next 20 years she travelled to craft shows, large and small, across the province, selling larger and smaller framed and unframed pieces, famous Arden Batik name cards, and more.

Gradually, first at a shop located next to the Arden post office, and since 2001 from the former café at the bottom of the hill, Arden Batik has been open throughout the summer and by chance or appointment in the shoulder seasons.

Now, the same basic selling hours will be maintained in the hotel, with half of the bottom floor setup as a shop and a studio. Sarah will not be attending any shows or studio tours this year “in order to focus on the store,” she said.

She said that at this point she is not really interested in “growing my business just maturing it, and having the freedom to explore some more challenging work.”

After over 40 years using the wax resist batik method to capture the feel of the Canadian shield landscape in her work, it will be interesting for her fans and admirers from near and far to see where her work goes in this new/old space.

Arden batik will be open on Saturday and Sunday afternoon this weekend, and by chance or appointment until mid-June when it will be open for regular summer hours.

“We are making excellent progress, people are starting from a more informed place,” said Maureen Bostock, spokesperson for the Lanark County Neighbours for Truth and Reconciliation.

Bostock was commenting on feedback garnered from the organization’s booth at last weekend’s Festival of the Maples in Perth where they shared a booth with indigenous maple syrup producer Richard Lalande and Mark Marsolais-Nahwegahbow, founder of Birch Bark Coffee Co.

“We were pleased to have Mark there as his company raises funds for water systems in First Nations communities and he made several contacts to sell coffee with local outlets,” she said. “We were pleased to introduce him to our community.”

One of the things the Lanark County Neighbours for Truth and Reconciliation are particularly interested in is the history of First Nations as it pertains to this area. In particular, there is the instance of Chief Pierre Shawinipinessi, who was born in 1790at Lac des Deux Montagnes, a mission set up by the Sulpice missionaries at what is now known as Kanesatake. In 1837, purchases made by Shawinipinessi started showing up in the log book kept by Benjamin Tett, a magistrate and business person who operated a mill store near Bob’s Lake.

Shawinipinessi settled on an island in the Long Bay area of Bobs Lake’s (Lot 31, Concession 9) Eastern Basin. Other Algonquin people started arriving at the north end of Bobs Lake and on July 17, 1842, Chief Shawinipinessi petitioned in Canada West for a land tract of 2,000 acres straddling the Townships of Oso, Bedford and South Sherbrooke. He argued that a land tract for agricultural purposes would enable his people to sustain themselves given the depletion of game from hunting and loss of habitat due to logging and forestry.

On March 21, 1844, an Order in Council from the government of the Province of Canada approved the application for 2,000 avres to be set aside under a license of occupation in Bedford, Oso and South Sherbrooke.

However, logging activities (timber cutting, shanty building and trespass) continued on the tract, resulting in ongoing conflict similar to that in other logging –related incursions across unceded Algonquin territory. Shawinipinessi wrote a number of letters complaining to the Department of Indian Affairs trying to convince the government to intercede with loggers and trespassers on their behalf.

Although the government did intervene, confiscating timber harvested from the tract, proceeds were retained “as part of the hereditary revenues of the Crown,” rather than being used for the benefit of the indigenous group whose land had been trespassed upon at the discretion of the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province.

Efforts by Shawinipinessi and other chiefs on the Bedford, Oso, and South Sherbrooke tracts to retain rights to the timber and even build a mill continued unsuccessfully for many years and many had moved away by 1851.

Shawinipinessi himself moved to the Piwakanagan community (as evidenced by the census of 1881 and 1882) where he lived with his daughter until his death at the age of 101.

The land that was once the Bedford tract is now the site of cottages on Bobs Lake and little remains in the area to remind visitors of its history as an Algonquin community.

However, Bostock and her organization are working to change that.

“What we’re really focusing on is permanent installations for First Nations History,” she said. “A proposal for a plaque and monument similar to others depicting exploration has been submitted to the (Tay Valley) township and a location will be determined when approved by the Heritage committee.

“It’s so gratifying to see people are becoming aware (and) reconciliation is the single-most important issue for Canada.”