Feature Article - June 12, 2008

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Feature Article - June 12, 2008 Central Frontenac Council – June 9/08By Jeff Green

Central Frontenac Council resolves planning bottleneck

There’s nothing like a muggy summer night, a non-air conditioned hall, and a host of contentious planning matters to make for a pleasant evening for a township council.

All of those elements were in play in Mountain Grove on Monday night as Central Frontenac Council met to discuss a subdivision on Eagle Lake, a controversial “dry dock” on the Bell Line Road, and a retirement home on Road 38 south of Parham.

The first issue on the council agenda was a proposed subdivision on Bridgens Island on Eagle Lake.

As explained by the township planner Glenn Tunnock and a representative from the consulting firm McIntosh Perry, the proposal is an attempt to take a 30-year-old co-operative arrangement between 14 lot owners on the island and give each of the lot owners a deed to their lot.

Of the 14 proposed lots, ten are currently occupied by seasonal dwellings, and the four remaining lots would require setbacks of 40 metres from the high water mark for any building to take place.

The advocates for the subdivision, which will require county approval if it is to proceed, have been aided by an accident of timing.

In the revised Central Frontenac Official Plan, which is on the verge of being approved by the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Eagle Lake has been deemed a “highly sensitive Trout Lake”, severely limiting development. However, the subdivision proposal pre-dated the new official plan, and Tunnock said that according to a legal opinion from the township’s solicitor, the township and the county can proceed in this case under the rules in the Official Plan as it stood at the time the application was filed.

Although most of the speakers on the proposal said it is merely an attempt to recognise what is already in existence and would not lead to any further impacts on the lake, there was a single dissenting voice. A woman who lives on the shoreline of Eagle Lake argues that there is much boat traffic and she feared the traffic would increase.

No decision was made on the application, which will continue its bureaucratic path.

BOOMGARDT REZONING: Council finally dispensed with an unusual rezoning application, although the matter will most likely end up before the Ontario Municipal Board.

Mr. Boomgardt was applying for a change in zoning to permit him to build a parking lot and a dock on a piece of property which has 19 metres of frontage on Warren’s Lake. The dock and parking lot are intended for the exclusive use of people who purchase four building lots that Mr. Boomgardt has created out of a 65 acre piece of land that he owns.

Objections were registered by adjacent landowners, who raised a series of technical arguments, and pointed to a report by the fire chief that raised concerns about a three metre wide road that is also planned. They argued that the lake will be endangered for no other reason than to allow Mr. Boomgardt to offer questionable waterfront access to properties that would otherwise be less valuable.

There was much discussion about whether the proposed dock would even reach the water or would only make it to a muddy wetland some distance from the shallow lake.

“The dock will reach the water during certain times of the year,” said Mr. Boomgardt’s consultant.

The zoning was approved in spite of objecting votes by Normand Guntensperger, John Purdon, and an abstention by Gary Smith.

CLOW REZONING - Another zoning matter that has been before council for a time was resolved when Glenn Tunnock recommended a zoning amendment to permit a retirement home expansion by Jennifer Clow of Hinchinbrooke.

Water issues on the site will need to be resolved before a building permit can be issued, and fire regulations will need to be satisfied before an occupancy permit can be issued, but the zoning hurdle has been cleared.

PUBLIC WORKS MATTERS – Public Works Manager John Simcock reported that tenders have been received for the surface treatment of Highway 509, Ardoch Road and Zealand Road. The winning bid came from Smiths Paving at $520,000, which is $2,000 over the budget estimate for the job. Greenwood Paving was the only other bidder at $550,000.

The roadside mowing tender was awarded to Scott’s Snowplowing and Grass Cutting for $13,500.

2ND LAKE ROAD – The washed out Second Lake Road repair is being addressed. A trench box culvert, costed at $63,000, from Anchor Concrete, has been purchased and a crane hired to lower it into place. John Simcock said there needs to be a “three-day weather window” to complete the work.

MOUNTAIN GROVE FIRE HALL NEAR COMPLETION – Simcock reported he has done a walk-through of the new firehall and a few safety concerns are being addressed.

BLEACHER COMING – In response to a question from Councilor Frances Smith, John Simcock said the second bleacher is coming for the Oso ballfield in Sharbot Lake.

“Good,” said Smith, “I’ll know what to say when people call me.”

SAFETY CONCERN OVER BEARS - Finally, Simcock took the opportunity to report that many people have been congregating at the Olden dump during off hours to view the bears that have taken up residence there.

“Many of the bears are female and when their cubs are born the situation will become even more dangerous than it is - and it is already dangerous,” said Simcock.

People are advised to stay away from bears, and never to approach them.

“On some nights, you would think it was a drive–in movie theatre there with the number of cars,” Simcock said.

The matter will also be raised with the Ontario Provincial Police.

Letters - June 12, 2008

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Letters - June 12, 2008 Letters: June 12

Stop When Lights are Flashing, Gordon McGraw

Relay for Life, Jim Beam

Injunction Unjustified, Donna Dillman

Theft of Lumber, Leslie Cronk

Stop When Lights are Flashing

Highway 38 is my route to and from my house. On June 5, I was fortunate to get stuck behind a school bus. No, I’m not being sarcastic but I was reminded how precious our little children and grandchildren are.

When the bus stopped at two locations, it was wonderful to watch the kids run and bounce off the bus, glad their day was done and they could enjoy the heat wave, as summer seems to have arrived. Safe in the knowledge of the flashing red school bus lights being their protector, they were all laughing and literally bouncing home.

Just past Murvale Creek, the joy was interrupted by a blaring horn. Imagine my surprise to discover it was the bus driver and I couldn’t believe my eyes as a car heading north failed to stop. Stunned by this event I was still observant enough to jot down the license plate of the perpetrator of this disgraceful act. “Well done,” you say, but worse was to come. Two more stops later, and the horn was really blaring, even more than the red lights were flashing. You had to see it to believe it; not one, but two cars refusing to stop. Luckily one had a personalized number plate, easy to jot down and it gave me time to catch the third person’s plate too.

How can this be allowed to happen on our road? Hasn’t anyone told them our children are our future? No crystal ball is required now though to predict a knock on these people’s doors as I duly reported them, complete with license plates to our helpful OPP, and they will be dealt with. I would like to let the school bus drivers know we are on their side and will always report offenders to the OPP because I like my Highway 38 - as long as it doesn’t become a Highway to Heaven for our children.

Gordon McGaw

Relay for Life

The Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life held at Parham last weekend thanksNorth Frontenac Township and Lookout Home Hardware of Plevna for each entering teams this year. Every dollar raised goes to support patient services, research and transportation. Without the dedicated efforts of our local folks, we would not be on the way to finding cures for this dreaded disease.

Special thanks to North Frontenac staff who worked all day and walked all night, and the Lookout staff who also worked all day and then traveled to Parham, walked all night, returned to Lookoutand then donated space to Clarendon Central School for their yard sale throughout the day.

Well done to all participants!

Jim Beam

Injunction Unjustified

I continue to find it maddening that the OPP is maintaining a fairly constant presence at the uranium exploration site on Hwy 509 at Robertsville. What is it about the interlocutory injunction that continues to give Frontenac Ventures free round-the-clock police protection when the ongoing protest presence at the site ended months ago, and when there has never, ever, been any kind of threat to personnel at the site. What is this costing the public?

Compare that to someone who has gone through the court system to obtain a peace bond or restraining order because their life has actually been threatened. Even though such a court order may require that the named individual maintain a certain distance, just as is the case with the interlocutory injunction, no police officer stands on guard 24/7 to guarantee compliance. If such were the case, I know of people who would still be alive today. What's with the double standard?

Donna Dillman

Theft of Lumber

Sometime between the hours of noon on Friday, May 23, and noon on Sunday, May 25, somebody came onto my property and stole our pressure treated wood that had just been purchased for a cottage deck. I am so glad that I called all over the country to get the best price as I now have to buy it twice.

Lynn and I work very hard trying to make a living. We have three daughters in university this September. Every dollar matters at this point. We are very disappointed in the fact that there are people who don't work hard, who "scout" around to try to take from people who do. We have contacted the police, but are not too hopeful that it will ever come to anything. I am sure by this point, that you are sitting somewhere on OUR pressure treated "deck".

My only hope is that you got a mittful of slivers while you hastily loaded it onto your boat. To the people of Long Lake and vicinity, be careful with what is yours as there are people on our lake who don't care.

Pretty sad.

Leslie Cronk

Legalese - July 24, 2008

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Legalese - July 24, 2008 Do-It-Yourself Will KitsSusan Irwin, Lawyer/Executive Director, Rural Legal Services

Some years ago my husband, armed with a self-help book, tried his hand at some electrical wiring. On the plus side, the house didn’t burn down. On the negative side, he had to endure the laughter of an amused electrician and friend who found it hysterically funny that anyone could “forget” about something as basic as a ground wire.

The error was easily fixed. The joke so good that no bill was ever forthcoming.

People who plunge into the task of organizing their affairs with a “lawyer approved” Will kit remind me of my husband’s attempt at being an electrician. Unfortunately, if the tricky task of drafting a Will is not handled properly, there may be no second chance. When family members and executors attempt to interpret such Wills, the author is not around to clear up any confusion. Where legal requirements have not been met, or if the confusion ends up in a family feud, the legal fees are likely to be significant and in many cases can eat up a large portion of any inheritance.

Unlike our electrician friend, lawyers tend not to have any sense of humour about do-it-yourself projects gone awry.

This is not to say that some people cannot successfully use one of the several Will kits now available. But as in the case of any other highly specialized task, people ought to think carefully about seeking professional advice before striking out on their own.

Wills are tremendously important documents and they are also extremely complicated. Making even a “simple” Will is not really a very simple task: the law has strict requirements when dealing with such testamentary documents regardless of the size of the estate. In Ontario only lawyers and not paralegals are authorized to prepare Wills for the public.

The technical legal requirements must be met. A kit should explain the necessity for two witnesses who must sign the Will in the presence of each other and the person making the Will. It should also explain that some people may not legally act as witnesses, such as a beneficiary.

The self-help kit may not point out the importance of those witnesses if the Will must be probated (a necessity if certain large assets, including real estate, make up part of the Estate). Probate is a general term describing an application to the Court requesting that a Judge find that the Will is indeed valid and that the named Executor(s) have the authority to deal with the assets. One essential piece of evidence will be an Affidavit given by one of the witnesses confirming that he or she witnessed the signing of the Will and that it was signed in the presence of the Testator with both witnesses present. The Affidavit must be sworn before a Commissioner for Taking Oaths (such as a lawyer) or a Notary Public.

If this Affidavit is not properly completed and sworn at the time of the execution of the Will, the Executor(s) may be faced with the impossible task of finding one of the witnesses many years later. If the witnesses have died, or cannot be found, it may be very difficult, and certainly very expensive, to convince a Judge as to the validity of the Will. The task will be even more difficult and expensive if a beneficiary or family member also questions its validity.

It is standard practice for lawyers to prepare the necessary Affidavit when a Will is signed and attach it to the original document, thus avoiding the problem of the missing witnesses.

This is just one potential pitfall for the unwary. There are many others that arise out of the substance of the Will. Setting up trusts for children, or designating alternative beneficiaries (in case one or more die before the person making the Will), can easily be done improperly or not at all.

Whether a problem exists with the legal technicalities, or in the actual instructions as to how to distribute the estate, the end result is the same: the wishes of the deceased may not be carried out as he or she intended when drafting the Will.

There is also the problem of how to deal with potential income tax liabilities when drafting a Will, depending upon the nature of the assets and how they are to be distributed.

Lawyers look at a Will as only one part of an “Estate Plan”. Fees for this type of work are usually very reasonable, given the importance of the task, but will certainly increase with the complexity of the estate. A few telephone calls inquiring as to fees for straight-forward Wills would be a good idea before deciding that a do-it-yourself kit is the route to follow. What you save by using a kit will certainly be lost – and then some – if the Will is not drafted or signed properly.

For those people who meet Legal Aid Ontario’s financial eligibility requirements, Rural Legal Services is able to draft Wills (and Powers of Attorney) without charge. As well, all residents of northern Frontenac and northern Lennox & Addington Counties are, welcome to call us to discuss any questions they may have about Wills and how to find a lawyer to help them if they do not qualify for further assistance from our office.

Legalese is a column of general information and opinion on legal topics by the lawyers of Rural Legal Services, Box 359, Sharbot Lake, ON, K0H2P0, 613-279-3252, or 1-888-777-8916. This column is not intended to provide legal advice. You should contact a lawyer to determine your legal rights and obligations.

Editorial - July 31, 2008

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Editorial - July 31, 2008 Democracy in Action - Part 2Editorial by Jeff Green

Last Saturday the Bedford Mining Alert (BMA) held its annual meeting.

The nine year old group was founded by people who were unlucky enough to be part of the 2% of landowners in Ontario who do not own their own mining rights and happened to have found their land staked and claimed by a graphite exploration company called Graphite Mountain. This shattered the peace they had been seeking when they purchased their rural properties and turned them into political activists.

The threat to their well being from Graphite Mountain has abated, although their properties are still available for staking. There is currently no way for this to be changed, under the Mining Act of Ontario.

The Mining Act has been the target of the Bedford Mining Alert since the group came into being, and the government of Ontario has been the main target of the group’s political activism.

At their latest annual meeting, there were politicians from two of the three major parties in Ontario in attendance. Local MPP Randy Hillier was there, as was Peter Tabuns, MPP and Energy Critic for the NDP.

In the audience were several people with a lot of experience in dealing with the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines and with Mining Act reform.

It was a lively political gathering, with much debate, and disagreement between parties and individuals. You might say it was democracy in action.

The one thing missing from the meeting was a representative from the one political party that has the power to act.

Minister Gravelle of the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines was not available to attend the meeting, and he sent his regrets.

He did not send a representative, or a replacement; he just turned down the invitation. It would have been helpful for the government to send someone, not necessarily to debate with the others, but simply to explain where they are headed on this file.

However I noticed a young man sitting in the second row. He had a small digital camera, with a large memory card or perhaps several cards. He recorded the entire 2 hour meeting. He was not hiding himself in any way, and it appeared to me that he was a reporter (I thought perhaps there was another new newspaper coming into our region).

It turned out the man was not a reporter. He was recording the meeting for the “Liberal Caucus”. How the caucus is distinct from the government I don't quite know.

The point is, our government does not think that it is important to explain their policy directions in open forums, they do not want to submit themselves to public scrutiny, even in the context of a meeting like the AGM of the Bedford Mining Alert, which is not exactly a mob scene.

But they do want to know what is being said about them, and they do want to monitor the proceedings.

Democracy in action indeed.

Feature Article - July 24, 2008

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Feature Article - July 24, 2008 Bob Lovelace returns to Robertsville to deliver a teachingBy Jeff Green

Bob Lovelace, delivers a traditional teaching at Robertsville Mine.

Almost two months after his release from prison after serving over 100 days for refusing to promise not to go there, Bob Lovelace returned to the gate of the Robertsville mine on Monday morning.

He was accompanied by two of his young children, some members of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation and a number of non-aboriginal activists; a total of about 25 people.

The group met at the Robertsville village sign, located about 200 metres from the gate of the mine, and parked their vehicles. They then walked in a slow procession towards the gate and gathered in a circle on the passageway between road 509 and the closed gate. Two workers stood behind the gate, one of them holding a video-camera. There were no uniformed police officers present, although an unmarked van arrived parked on the side of the road across from the gate. Two occupants remained inside the van.

A man wearing shorts and a T-shirt was on site, carrying a digital camera with which he was taking video. He was communicating with someone through a two way radio.

Mitch Shewel of the Ardoch Algonquins greeted everyone and Bob Lovelace then told the story of the great bow, which, in the interpretation he offered after tellling the story, is an allegory for the political struggle that the people who were in attendance have been involved in for the past year.

After about 45 minutes, the gathering broke up, and everyone returned to their vehicles and left without incident.

The mere fact of holding the teaching at the gate of the Robertsville mine, which may lead to further court actions, was clear to all of the participants, including those who were recording the event.

The last time a public gathering took place in the vicinity of the mine gate, which was in late February, several people received summonses from the OPP to attend Kingston Court. Frontenac Ventures lawyers, acting as a sort of prosecution team, decided not to seek any remedy from the court against those people and they were never charged.

In August of last year, Justice Thomson of the Kingston Superior Court delivered an interim injunction ordering protesters to leave the Robertsville mine site. At that time an ongoing occupation of the mine site by the Ardoch Algonquin and Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nations was two months old.

In September Justice Cunningham of the Superior Court endorsed Thomson’s injunction, which established a prohibition against any protest within 200 metres of the worksite of any member of Frontenac Ventures Corporation, the company that has leased the mine site in order to access property they have staked for uranium exploration.

In court in February Lovelace pled guilty to violating that order, citing that his commitment to Algonquin Law superseded his obligations under Canadian Law. He also refused to undertake not to defy the injunction in the future and for that he was fined $25,000 and sentenced to six months in prison.

In late May, an appeal court commuted the sentence to time served and repealed the fine.

The Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation, who joined with the Ardoch Alfgonquins in occupying the Robertsville mine last year, are now in ongoing consultations with the Ontrio Governemnt and Fronenac Ventures Corporation over how the exploration project can proceed.

The Ardoch Algonquins have rejected that process saying that it came with too many pre-conditions.

Late on Monday, the Shabot Obaadjiwan put out a press release in support of the Provinces’ just announced intitiative to review the Ontario Mining Act in light of aboriginal concerns.

“It is easy to criticise and grandstand. It is a lot tougher to do the serious work that leads to progress,” said Shabot Chief Doreen Davis. “The announcement last week is yet another confirmation of the wisdom of the approach we have adopted and the value of our ongoing discussions with the Province of Ontario.”

Feature Article - July 24, 2008

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Feature Article - July 24, 2008 Northbrook Cemetery Hit by VandalsBy Jeff Green

Vandals damaged 88 grave sites sometime overnight, July 17, 2008.

Police are asking for assistance from the public in trying to determine who knocked over 88 grave markers in the Northbrook United Church Cemetary last Thursday night.

The damage came to light on Friday morning, to the dismay of those whose family members are buried in the cemetery.

The cemetery is located in the middle of the village, beside busy highway 41 and the commercial centre of the village, but within a few metres of the gate, there is a sense of calm and peace about the place. There is a sheer rock face at the back.

Throughout the weekend and on Monday descendents of the people buried in the cemetery came to visit and survey the damage. They stood in silence in front of the graves.

“That’s my mother over there … that’s my cousin over there,” said one man as he looked at one corner of the cemetery that was the hardest hit area. Isn’t this a terrible thing. Whoever did this …”

The question of whodunit has haunted the village since Friday morning, which is something that concerns United Church Minister Judith Evenden, in whose pastoral charge the cemetery is located.

She has spent a lot of time on the weekend talking to people as they surveyed the damage to their family gravesites and discussed the situation in Church on Sunday,

“I’m not sure it is in the communities interest to know who did this, if it means simply condemning them. If they are found, then it would be best to find out what motivated them, how it is that they crossed this line and did this kind of thing in sacred place, and how the community can bring them back,” she said.

One set of rumours on Friday morning ended up demonstrating the ugly side of vengeance.

Some of the Councilors from Camp Gesher, a jewish camp that has been located on the Skootamatta Road for the past 45 years, were at the Northbrook Hotel on Thursday night.

Even though they were picked up and taken back to the camp at 11:30 pm by Camp Director Shaul Zobary, the rumour went around Northbrook on Friday that the Councilors were responsible.

This led to an incident on Friday night at the camp, when vandals did significant damage to camp property and scared the campers.

Jacqueline Perry from the Napanee OPP detachment said that “it appears there was more than one culprit involved in the incident at the camp and that they were using ATV’s. A lot of things were knocked over.”

Shaul Zobary has a theory of his own.

“I believe that the same people that did the cemetery damage also did the camp. How can people do that kind of stupid and very low level thing?”

Zonary said that since Thursday camp staff have also been the subject of “anti-semitic comments in town,” comments that they have not been subject to in the ten years’ that Zobary has been the camp director.

“It is quite upsetting for us, because for 45 years we have been proud members of the community. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars here each year and we contribute in any way we can.”

As time passes since the cemetery vandalism and word of what happened at Camp Gesher, Shaul Zobary believes the “wind is shifting” as he reality of everything that has happened sinks in.

Zobary said he has already been talking to Judith Evenden, who expressed her concerns about what has happened at Camp Gesher as well as the cemetery.

Plans are starting to come together to restore the cemetery, and he expectation it will be a project that will be designed not only to put the cemetery back together but the community as well.

Anyone with information about the events is asked to call Napanee OPP at 354-3369 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Letters - July 24, 2008

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Letters - July 24, 2008 Letters: July 24

Re: Taxes Well Managed, Leo Ladouceur

What Happended to Customer Satisfaction, Bill Deacon

Re: Democracy Iin Action, Inie Platenius

Hoops and Nests, Edward Kennedy

Vandalism & Discrimination in Northbrook, Sonja Alcock

Re: Taxes well managed

Mr. Bill Deacon’s wrote a very nice complimentary Letter to the editor and I am certain Township Councillors appreciated his praise for the smooth well maintained roads in Ward 1. His comments did have some ratepayers slightly confused since we all wished we lived in a township where taxes are so wisely managed and roads are so well maintained. Towards the end of his letter we were surprised to find out that the much envied township Bill was referring to “was us” -- North Frontenac. Residents of Wards 2 and 3 would like to know where this smooth paved country road is so they could just for once enjoy a peaceful bump free ride. Contrary to what Mr. Deacon may have experienced in Ward 1, so-called “paved” roads in most of the Township are both rough and full of potholes. It would be unthinkable to drive over them at normal highway speeds. Personnel in the Road’s Department are not to blame. They do there best with whatever Council provides in money and resources. As an example, the Township follows a simple annual maintenance cycle for Canonto and River Roads. It fills the potholes twice a year with layers of cold patch so that drivers can experience the amusement park excitement of maneuvering over the tall speed bumps. When the cold patch disintegrates the speed bumps become even bigger and deeper pot holes than those we started with. If ratepayers complain the Township will simply tear off the pavement and return the road to gravel. Simple and cheap.Thanks Bill for telling us about this. The next time we hear that often asked question “I wonder what the Township does with all the tax money it collects?” we can reply “It spends some on a mystical well maintained road somewhere in Ward 1”.Leo L. Ladouceur

What Happened to Customer Satisfaction

I have discovered something not familiar to other Townships that I have lived in. I don't know if it is just me or is there a different method of communicating in Central Frontenac. Apparently if you phone contractors /service people in this Township to perform repairs and/or do some work; a number of things happen. The first: they won't or don't call you back! Second: when they do work they leave you hanging on for months, when the job should only take a few weeks.

Plus the work performed is substandard by any stretch of your or my mind.

Everyone that I have spoken with in the Township has experienced the same phenomena.

Before I retired I coordinated several contractors on several projects and the contractors were fighting to get and complete the work required.

But I guess it must just be me!

I will admit that a few good contractors/service people have stepped up to the plate and successful completed the work and left no stone unturned to satisfy the customer.

I believe that is my RANT, what ever happened to customer satisfaction? If you have a similar RANT, please write to the Editor.

Ian Whillans

Re: Democracy Iin Action

Congratulations on a terrific issue (July 17) particularly the editorial about transparency in our local councils. You highlighted a very important piece of the democratic process when you pointed out that if councillors thrash through the issues in public, we voters get valuable information. It’s a point that we all too readily ignore because we want things to be neatly packaged and certain, and we are more and more conditioned to think that’s normal. But that’s not how we come to make informed decisions nor how we gain good information about either our representatives or the issues they face.

Another aspect to your argument is that we have somehow been conditioned to think that it’s a terrible thing for a representative to change his mind (I can safely say HIS mind because I live in South Frontenac). I would much sooner vote for a person who listens to many sides of an argument and, after careful weighing of what he hears, changes his vote than one who stubbornly holds to a position in the face of all evidence. Keep up the insightful reporting.

Inie Platenius

Hoops & Nests

Your July 17/08 issue (Central Frontenac Council) chronicled the apparent struggle of a propertyowner to acquire a severance and the many hoops he has had to jump through.For the record I am opposed to any more development on St. Andrews Lake as it is a small lake, and has more than enough, but the description of the continuing saga is irritating and engenders anger in many.

I would focus on the Species at Risk Act, and the latest nonsense this individual has to not only abide, but also legally has to fund as well as comply with. The Eastern Black Rat Snake is reported to be in the area of the proposed development, and as such, takes precedence over the right to build a house.

I am very familiar with the area in question and I wonder if in fact, this snake has "nesting habitat" in that specific locale. I have seen this snake in a variety of areas, including marsh, swamp, highland, and flat areas. It appears to be adaptable to any/all of such areas, and to have a biologist come in to determine if there is any "nesting habitat" there, is downright ridiculous.

Imagine that a Loggerhead shrike is found on the edge of a field a farmer has just tilled, making ready for seeding. If a Loggerhead shrike nest is discovered in the vicinity, the farmer is subject to the following penalties for not giving the bird an area of non interference for a distance of 400 meters, or 1230 feet circumference. This includes, but is not limited to seeding his field

Edward Kennedy

Vandalism & Discrimination in Northbrook

Sometime last Thursday night (July 17) some mindless vandals thjough it would be a fun thing to desecrate what our society considers sacred ground…our local burial site. Northbrook awoke to approximately 88 tombstones pushed over in the United Church Cemetery. This is not just a “fun prank” it is something that does not sit right with anyone in the deepest core of our beings. Who in their right mind would do such a thing? And then the blame game begins. Some say, “Oh it’s those kids who have been seen running around town at all hours of the night.” Others say, “Has to be so-in-so. Just the thing they would do.” And then there are some who take matters in their own hands and decide they know exactly who did it and why, and that is the reason I am writing today.

On Friday night, some mindless vandals decided to teach those at Camp Gesher a lesson. They thought it would be fun to show up and scare young children, who have come to the camp for the summer vacation, and their counselors! Mindless, drunk and vengeful youth on ATV’s thinking they are going to do “justice for all” but in reality they have put shame on our community. And why… because some one said, “Oh it was those drunk Jewish Camp Gesher people who were at the hotel the other night, who vandalized our cemetery.” No proof, just accusation.

It is important to know something about Jewish culture before one begins to accuse them of such a disgusting crime as to desecrate a burial site. Jews honour the dead. It is against their beliefs to even think of doing anything of this sort. Yet, they have been blamed.

We have a Police Department. Let them do their jobs. They did regarding the Camp Gesher incident, and cleared them from any involvement with the crimes committed to our cemetery. And the Police did even more, they apologized to the leadership of the camp for the shameful acts of discrimination that was shown towards them! We have a group of children who are scared out of their wits because of this. We have concerned leaders at the camp scared of what will happen next to their camp, or to them. We have scared innocent people living amongst us because someone thought they were right in the blame game!

I am appalled that our cemetery was desecrated, but I am ashamed of the behaviour of some in our community who would attack innocent people because of their religious beliefs, the colour of their skin, or that they are different from us in any way shape or form. We are supposed to be a peaceful, loving and accepting country. Maybe it’s time we act it.Sonja Alcock

Feature Article - July 17, 2008

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Feature Article - July 17, 2008 What is Rural Life? Part 1

This is the first article in our summer seriesabout the idea of “rural” as it applies to our region. To kick off the series, we talked to Gray Merriam.

by Jeff Green

Gray Merriam lives just north of Arden at the foot of Kennebec Lake, at the headwaters of the Salmon River, which drains into the Bay of Quinte at Shannonville.

With his wife Aileen, Gray has been a full-time resident since he retired from Carleton University in 1997.

During his distinguished academic career, he was one of a group of people who developed the concept of landscape ecology, and he ran the first landscape ecology laboratory in Canada.

Broadly speaking, landscape ecology looks at ecological systems from a wider perspective. Instead of looking only at trees, it looks at the forest. Instead of looking only at lakes, it looks at watersheds.

Gray was also the chair of the Department of Biology at Carleton. Since 1997, he has been active locally, putting his background into practice. He was the founder of the Friends of the Salmon River and has been very active with the Frontenac Stewardship Council, of which he is the current chair.

We started our conversation by talking about the history of Frontenac County and the former Kennebec Township, in terms of the impact of the landscape on the lives of the people who have settled there in the past 150 years.

Gray Merriam looks at Frontenac County as two distinct geological regions: the fractured Limestone region to the south, and the Canadian Shield region to the north. The pattern of settlement in the north was set up as a mirror of what had been successful in the south, but things didn’t quite work out as planned.

“Settlers were brought into what they thought was going to be a very profitable area. They dumped people off in the fall and they had to survive until spring. A government scout put a shovel in the ground and it looked pretty good. He might not even have been aware that there is no dirt north of Verona,” Merriam said about the land granting programs of the late 19th Century in the area that came to be known as North Frontenac in the 1970s - what is now Central and North Frontenac, as well as Bedford District and parts of Portland District in South Frontenac.

This geological reality had an impact on the way Frontenac County communities developed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when agriculture was the mainstay of the rural economy.

In the book “The Salmon River Watershed – Jewel of Eastern Ontario”, census figures are quoted to demonstrate how difficult scratching out a living by farming on the Canadian Shield can be.

“The 1861 Census showed just under 2,000 people in the Frontenac townships within the Salmon River Watershed (Kennebec, Olden, and Oso) of whom 70% called themselves farmers. They meant subsistence farmers: less than 2863 hectares (7,000 acres) were farmed in these townships and over 12,441 hectares (70,000 acres) were ‘wooden and wildland’. By 1961 the total population of the three townships was only 1545 and only 10% to 50% of the occupied land was being farmed, mostly as pasture. In the L&A townships of Kaladar and Anglesea, just over 1200 watershed residents were cultivating only 594 hectres - (1467 acres) of cropland in 1861. By 1901 the population had dropped to 1,000 and it stood at less than 1,300 in 1961. Here too, little of the occupied land was being farmed – less than 30%”

Another factor was logging.

“People were given the logging rights to entire townships and more. The greatest local example, certainly in Kennebec and Lennox and Addington, was the Rathburn family.”

Hugo Burghardt Rathburn and his son Edward logged the Salmon and Napanee valleys and all of the Depot Lake area. Although most of their timber was floated down to be milled in Deseronto, they also fed three mills in Arden.

At one point the Rathburns employed 5,000 people in their expansive enterprises. Among these was a 2,800 acre farm near Hungry Lake, north of Kennebec Lake.

But the kind of farming that a lumbering company would have engaged in, and the subsistence farming of the settlers, would have been completely different.

“There is a great difference in how a farmer relates to their land and the way a lumber company would have related to the land. Farmers had to learn how to farm the land. Other groups were paying no attention to the land itself; they were all about taking resources off the land, and once the resources were gone, they left.”

But they did not leave the land as they had found it.

“In 1932 Clint Barnett painted a view across the Kennebec Lake bridge,” Gray Merriam recalls, “and it provides a example of the landscape impacts of logging. In the painting, the hills were entirely grass covered. Where there were big, bald grassy hills then, is now all forest. But the forest there now is not the same as the forest that was removed when the land was cleared. It probably also moved some soil from high to low ground.”

The logging in this region virtually eliminated the Red Pine, which was abundant at one time.

In addition to logging, mining was also important, and in some cases the location of mines determined the location of railway lines. One railline that went through Tichborne was sited especially to bring out the feldspar.

The use of the region for recreational purposes has developed as the mining, logging, and farming has waned, and this has led to what is now the major economic engine for much of Frontenac County: seasonal residences.

“In the 1920s when people started to arrive by train from Toronto and build cottages, it introduced a whole new land use. Their way of looking at the land was entirely different, looking at the land as a recreational resouce raher than as something that they would make a living from. This kind of land use is dependent on good quality water in the rivers and in the lakes, as fishing was something that brought them there. A different set of attitudes began to develop, and it has spread since then,” said Gray Merriam.

In recent years, the local poltical landscape has changed. Provincial regulations have put a focus on water quality, the provincial policy statement has had an effect on lot sizes and setbacks on lakes, and lake associations have been developing lake plans.

“Over the past 15 years, these concerns have been brought front and centre to municipal councils, and the makeup of councils has changed as well,” Merriam said, “with retirees who have moved to the area, often living on water, taking on more of a role.”

Looking to the future Merriam thinks it is time for innovation.

“Our future will be determined by how we use our resources, just as it always has. Toronto is expected to grow by 4 million people in the next 20 years. Where are those people going to go to get away from the city, when they decide to retire?”

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

Feature Article - June 26, 2008

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Feature Article - June 26, 2008 The truth about snake bitesBy Matt Ellerbeck

There are few animals in this world that are as feared, hated, and misunderstood as the snake. Some people hate snakes so much that they will kill them on sight. However, people truly have nothing to fear from these animals. Snakes are generally docile and timid creatures that try to avoid conflict whenever possible.

When a person comes in contact with a snake, the snake's first instinct will be to flee. If the snake doesn't do this, it may just stay perfectly still to try to blend in with the surroundings. If the snake is captured, it may still not resort to biting - proof of its gentle demeanor. The snake has several harmless tactics it can resort to as an alternative to biting. The snake may hiss, make mock strikes with a closed mouth, or flail around. An account of the true nature of snakes can be found in a study by University of Georgia Professor Dr. Whit Gibbons. The following excerpt speaks for itself: “All the snake species tested have had the same initial response to human presence. If given the opportunity, they escape--down a hole, under a ledge, or in the case of cottonmouth snakes, into the water. Escape is even the standard behaviour of enormous diamondback rattlesnakes, which will immediately disappear if they have enough warning before they think a person can reach them.Most rattlesnakes vibrate their tails and most cottonmouths sit with mouth open when a human comes near. Even some non-venomous snakes vibrate their tails. These displays are merely warnings not to tread on them. They are not aggressive attack measures. The snakes just want us to leave them alone”.

Snakes bites on humans usually only happen when someone is severely agitating and harassing the snake. According to NC State University, almost 80% of snake bites happen when someone is trying to capture or kill the snake. All these facts show that snakes are not aggressive or evil animals. If you provoke and capture a wild animal, what can you expect but to be bitten? If you grabbed a “cute and cuddly” little chipmunk it would certainly bite and scratch you. Snakes are no different.

The other percent of people bitten by snakes are those who accidentally step on a snake in the wild. These bites may have been avoided if care was taken to be as aware as possible when hiking. Never stick your hands or feet under rocks, crevices, boards, wood piles or anything else that might act as cover for snakes.

It is important to remember that most snakes are completely harmless; only around 13% of all snake species are venomous. Of this small number, even fewer are equipped with venom that is strong enough to seriously harm a human being.

Even if a venomous snake does bite a person, there is a good chance that the snake did not inject venom. Snakes have venom first and foremost to subdue their prey, since they do not have arms to hold their prey. The venom also helps the snake digest its meal - it helps to break the prey down for the snake since snakes do not chew their food but swallow it whole. As humans are too big for snakes to eat, they will not want to waste their venom on us.

Even if the snake does inject venom, proper medical treatment and anti-venom can usually save the person's life. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, only about 0.2% of people bitten by snakes in United States die from the bite. Similar statistics apply to Australia, which is home to over 60 kinds of potently venomous snakes. Fatal bites are estimated to be even rarer than this in Europe.

It is a common misconception that Ontario is home to Copperhead Vipers, Water Moccasins, and Puff Adders. This is not true. These are all cases of mistaken identity. Ontario is home to only one species of venomous snake, the Massasauga rattlesnake. There are four recognized Massasauga populations in Ontario. Two are found around Georgian bay. The other populations are found in the Wainfleet bog near Welland and within the city limits of Windsor/LaSalle. This shy snake has only been linked to two fatal snakebites in Ontario. In both cases, the victims did not receive the proper treatment that would have almost certainly saved their lives.

It is very easy to co-exist with these reptiles, especially since snakes do many useful things for people. First of all, snakes are great controllers of rodents like rats and mice. Without snakes, rodents and some insect populations would sky-rocket and these creatures would destroy crops, affecting our food supply. Rodents also spread diseases which could seriously affect our health. Snakes are great at hunting rodents because they can crawl into small burrows and other areas.

Furthermore, snakes are saving the lives of millions of people every year. Snake venom is being used in the medical field to treat all sorts of serious ailments like heart and stroke disease, cancer, Parkinson's, blood clots, and many more.

Despite these benefits, countless snakes are brutally killed every year by people! Hundreds of snake species are now in need of conservation. Many have been listed as a threatened or endangered species. Over half of all Canadian snake species are listed as a Species At Risk. Two other species have been completely exterminated from the country. The majority of snake species in Ontario are listed as Specially Protected Reptiles under the Ontario Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act. This makes it illegal for them to be killed, trapped, held in captivity, or traded without a permit. Many other snakes also receive protection under the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA). Despite this protection, snakes are still being persecuted by humans at an alarming rate.

We must look past our fear and ignorance and see snakes for what they really are - interesting creatures that play very important roles in the eco-system. We must learn not to pass our irrational fears on to our children. It is an awful thing to live in fear. When we look past our fear we can then see the snake as a friend, not a foe. So please remember, live and let the snakes live!

Editorial - July 10, 2008

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Editorial - July 10, 2008 What is rural life?Editorial by Jeff Green

We often talk, in these pages, about rural life, about its stresses and joys, about the pressures faced by small municipalities, and about how people in the cities just don’t understand us.

A couple of years ago, a background policy report was prepared for the Ontario Government. Entitled “Small, Rural, and Remote Communities: The Anatomy of Risk”, it outlined potential difficulties that rural communities will likely face in the coming years.

One of the authors of the report, Larry Bourne, told the News at the time that “the message of the report is that smaller and more specialized communities are at greater risk from economic downturns.”

“Lack of diversity can be a handicap,” he added. “This is particularly true of remote communities,” which he defined as those communities that are more than one hour’s drive from a major centre such as Ottawa.

Since that conversation took place, an “economic downturn” has come, as Bourne said might happen, but as well the price of fuel has increased dramatically, which he did not predict.

The assumption built into the one-hour drive that Bourne talked about was that people are willing to commute up to one hour for work. With current fuel prices, that may no longer be the case. That one-hour commute might be coming down to 30 minutes, because it is no longer only the time it takes to commute that concerns people, it is the cost.

This reality is borne out by the 2006 census. The only real increase in the Frontenac County population has been in South Frontenac, and most of that increase has been due to subdivision developments in the rim of Kingston.

Bourne talked about “lack of diversity” in some rural economies, and in this region we tend to be more dependent upon tourism than we probably should be.

As we head into prime summer tourist and cottaging season, the looks in the eyes of many local business people tell me that they need a good two months of business, perhaps more than in other years, and fuel prices and the overall drop in American visitors have left them more than a little bit nervous that the people will not come this year.

Save for housing costs, it is probably more expensive to live in Frontenac County than in cities such as Ottawa or Kingston.

Even with an increase that comes into effect today, the monthly fare for an adult to ride all of the Ottawa buses and trains, the “adult rural express pass” will cost $126 per month. For that price, it is possible to access services, shopping, etc. such as we will never see, and there are few among us who are paying less than double that to get around each month.

The truth is that these stresses are not new. Our communities have been stressed for at least 40 years now, and in spite of it all people continue to live around here, raise their families and enjoy a good life. It may be hard to make a living in this region, but life is certainly easier than it was 50 or 100 years ago.

We are no longer tied to the land in the way people once were. Few of us spend most of our time hewing wood and hauling water, as people in this region did in the past. Farming the rocky, shallow land that predominates north of Verona was never an easy way to make a living.

Now, we have people who run internet-based businesses, who have retired to the lake, and many who work in town, and commute back home every day.

The traditional ways of making a living are becoming part-time enterprises or hobbies.

The rural lifestyle is more diverse, more technology based; in short, less rural.

So is there more to rural life these days than simply driving further to the city, and paying lower mortgage costs and higher internet costs?

Over the summer we would like to explore what rural means in modern eastern Ontario, and what it might mean in another 10 years as we enter the era of high energy costs.

We will do this in an occasional series of articles throughout July and August. -JG