World hockey champion Nicole Kelly has been recognized by administrators at the Grand Erie District School Board.

The Grade 12 student at Brantford Collegiate Institute was named to Canada’s Under-18 women’s hockey team in January to compete at the International Ice Hockey Federation’s Under-18 Women’s World Championship in Japan. Canada earned gold by defeating the United States 3-2 in overtime.

“During her secondary school career, Nicole has balanced the gruelling training schedule required of an international-calibre athlete, while earning a reputation for her sense of integrity, responsibility, respect and co-operation,” said Brenda Blancher, director of education, who presented Kelly with a student recognition award.

The awards program recognizes students who have excelled in academics, arts, athletics or community involvement.

Learn about trades and tech

North Park Collegiate is bringing together local employers, representatives from college programs and community organizations at an event aimed at informing students and parents about careers in technology and trades.

What’s Your Plan? will be held on Thursday, April 4, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the school.

“Careers in the trades and technology are in demand and often well paid,” said Liz Moruzi, head of guidance at North Park. “This event gives students and parents the chance to meet people involved in these industries, ask questions, and determine the steps they can begin taking now to pursue a fulfilling career in these fields.”

The event is aimed at those in Grades 8 to 12 and will feature information booths and two panel discussions.

One panel will include employers Hermatite, Stelco, Tigercat Industries, and Bowman Precision Tooling discussing industry needs and trends.

The second panel will include representatives from Fanshawe, Conestoga, Mohawk and Niagara colleges discussing post-secondary program options.

There also will be short presentations covering secondary school programs, including co-op, dual credit, and Specialist High Skills Major.

Also on hand will be representatives from the Workforce Planning Board of Grand Erie, the Brant Resource Enterprise Centre, and St. Leonard’s Community Services offering information on employment services, apprenticeships and summer employment, along with information booths from the Ironworkers Union and local fabricators, Brooks Signs.

Brant United Way has partnered with Laurier University to help the agency determine how to distribute money to local charities.

Laurier will provide research guidance and leadership to the United Way’s new community impact committee.

The committee is made up of a range of community partners who will review the needs in Brant and assess how the Brant United Way can best respond to those needs.

“In working with the team from Laurier, we will have access to the most respected subject matter experts in our community,” said Dan Rankin, executive director of Brant United Way.

Taking the lead for Laurier is Anh Ngo, a professor in the faculty of social work. Ngo has a special interest in social change through community action.

“The community impact review will shape the funding priorities of Brant United Way for years to come and represents our single greatest stewardship activity in over two decades. We have an obligation to make sure we continue to deserve the trust our donors and supporters have placed upon us.”

The Brant United Way allocates $1 million a year to local charities and charities with a local presence in Brantford, Brant County and Six Nations.

Brant County councillors are supporting the location of billboard installed on Cockshutt Road over the objections from a couple that raised safety concerns.

Rick and Jennifer Esselment say the billboard will be a distraction to motorists travelling along a busy section of the road.

“You can’t see the billboard until you are within 100 feet of it,” Rick Esselment told councillors this week.

The billboard is at 524 Cockshutt Rd. across from the end of the driveway of the Esselment property at 521 Cockshutt Rd.

The couple’s two children get picked up by a school bus in the morning and dropped off in the afternoon at a spot close to their driveway.

The couple said they believe the billboard also fails to comply with municipal regulations with respect to a minimum setback or distance from the road.

Esselment noted that they are the only residential property owners within 500 feet of the billboard.

The couple also provided councillors with a letter from a school bus driver, who supported their safety concerns.

Esselment offered to cover the cost of moving the sign to a different location.

However, councillors also received a petition, as well as correspondence, from other residents in the area who support the billboard.

Councillors heard from Ted and Dianne Westbrook, the owners of the property on which the billboard stands. They were joined by their son, Dan, during their presentation.

“We looked at this for 4 1/2 years and determined that this is the best location for the billboard,” Ted Westbrook told councillors.

Councillors were told that the billboard is the proper size and the proper distance from the road. It will be used to support Ohsweken Speedway, which hosts a fundraiser with proceeds used to support students in local schools, Westbrook said.

County’s planning advisory committee recommended approval of the billboard, noting that the structure creates no safety concerns for pedestrians or motorists.

Councillors voted in favour of the committee’s recommendation with no discussion.

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Brant County councillors heard another plea for help from residents worried about speeding.

Victoria Neil told councillors speeding on a stretch of Paris Road, between Dundas Street-Governor’s Road to Oak Park Road, has become a huge concern.

“We have cars going in excess of 100 km/h on that section of Paris Road and the speed limit is 60,” Neil said at Tuesday’s meeting of county council. “It (the speed limit) is not being adhered to.

“We all have grandchildren, children and pets and we’re concerned about their safety.”

There are 29 homes along that section of Paris Road, as well as some businesses, said Neil, who was speaking on behalf of herself and her neighbours, Robert and Marilyn Purvis.

At one time, the speed limit in that area was 80 km/h.

Neil said it may be time to consider to further reducing the limit to 50 km/h.

“But I’m not even sure that would have any effect.”

She said many motorists pay no attention to the yield sign at the intersection that connects Dundas Street to Paris Road. Motorists cut off other motorists causing other dangers, she said.

The county has a flashing sign that reminds motorists to slow down.  and she wonders if that would help bring down speed on Paris Road.

Speeding has been an ongoing issue for Brant County.

In February, during 2019 budget deliberations, councillors voted to spend $150,000 on speed control measures throughout the municipality.

Following Neil’s presentation, Ward 2 Coun. Steve Howes noted that county officials are looking for solutions to the speeding problem, including how education, engineering and enforcement can be used to get motorists to slow down.

Howes asked that the information presented by Neil be accepted by council and passed on for review to both the Brant provincial police and police services board.

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Distressed by a recent spate of thefts of heritage artifacts, city council has implemented a $5,000 reward system to help track and prosecute the thieves.

At a meeting on Tuesday, council directed city staff to work with the police services board and Crime Stoppers to create the reward process.

Councillors also asked staff to investigate how plaques and other heritage property can be protected from theft.

The move came a day after the mysterious return of a 101-year-old bronze plaque ripped from the Bell Memorial last week. The marker, dated 1917, which recognizes the work of Canadian sculptor Walter S. Allward who designed the memorial in honour of telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell, was found on Marlborough Street after Brantford police got an anonymous tip. Allward went on to design the Vimy Memorial but the Bell Memorial is considered one of the finest examples of his early work.

The theft of the plaque is the latest in a string of similar crimes that appear to have a connection to metal recycling.

“These (thieves) are the lowest of the low people on the planet,” said McCreary at Tuesday’s meeting. “They make a few dollars from stealing from us what is irreplaceable.”

Coun. John Sless, citing the recent theft of a plaque from Lincoln Square Park on Lincoln Avenue, said the city also needs to compile a list of locations of all city markers that includes documentation of what’s said on them.

“If we don’t get them back, then we’re not trying to figure out how to replace them,” said Sless.

The Ward 2 councillor said he hopes the public will begin to pay attention to items of historical significance and be “keen-eyed” in their protection.

“I just don’t get it,” Sless said of the thefts. “It must be someone in desperate need of money.”

Coun. Joshua Wall, who called the incidents “an attack on our culture and history,” agreed that people resorting to this kind of crime is “indicative of a much larger problem.”

Steve Clark, the yard supervisor at Brantford Metal Recycling, told The Expositor the trade in stolen metal has been an increasing local problem in the last few months. He said the business was even robbed of items which were taken to one of its competitors for sale.

Clark said his business tries to ensure it doesn’t deal in stolen property. Brantford Metal Recycling uses video surveillance and insists on getting identification and a signature from those selling metal. Clark said he regularly works with police.

When asked about how much the historic Bell Memorial plaque would have fetched at a scrap metal business, Clark said about $2.50 a pound, or $125.

Coun. Richard Carpenter suggested local metal recyclers be made aware of the new $5,000 reward.

Maria Visocchi, the city’s director of communications, said the plaque theft struck a chord with the public. She said a Facebook post about the crime generated 86,000 views and 13,000 shares.

“We’re getting a similar response to it getting returned,” Visocchi told councillors on Tuesday.

Other similar thefts include:

• A large plaque was taken sometime over the past week from a rock at Lincoln Square Park on Lincoln Avenue.

• In February, a plaque honouring Arthur Sturgis Hardy was cut from a post in front of the Brant County Museum. It was returned.

• In 2018, the 130-year-old signs on the gates of Glenhyrst Gallery were stolen. They are still missing.

• In 2017, two men stole 10 memorial plaques from graves at Oakhill Cemetery. Brantford police retrieved the plaques from a metal recycler.

• A brass plaque commemorating Bunnell’s Landing: Early Black Settlement was taken from the Cainsville area several years ago. It is still missing.

Coun. Jan Vanderstelt asked city staff to make recommendations on how the city’s heritage artifacts can be protected.

“It actually hurts,” he said of the crimes.

“This is who we are. We are just standing on shoulders.”

With files from Susan Gamble

Brantford police said Wednesday that Isaiah Castillo, 19, is not a suspect in a shooting last Friday in the area of Colborne Street and Park Avenue.

Police initially identified Castillo as one of two suspects.

The other suspect is identified as Keyshawn Commissiong, 19. He is described as five-foot-11 and 165 pounds, with black hair in dreadlocks. He was last seen wearing a black jacket, black pants with :Champion” in white lettering and brown boots.

Police said they are seeking the identify of the second suspect, who is five-foot-seven to five-foot-nine, with a medium build and a mustache. He was last scene wearing a black jacket with pink, a dark hoodie, dark baseball hat, blue jeans and black running shoes with white soles.

An operating budget that calls for spending of $188 million for the 2019-20 fiscal year has been approved by the Brant Community Healthcare System’s board of directors.

The board passed the budget, which includes an operating deficit of about $1.8 million, at a meeting Wednesday. The BCHS’s fiscal year begins April 1.

“We’re in a much better financial position now than we were last March,” David McNeil, BCHS’s president and CEO, said following Wednesday’s meeting.

“We’re moving closer to having a balanced budget.”

Officials also embarked on cost-saving initiatives throughout the past year to help improve BCHS’s financial position and will be looking for efficiencies to help further reduce the deficit, McNeil added.

The BCHS, which operates Brantford General Hospital and the Willett Urgent Care Clinic in Paris, faced a $7.4-million deficit during the last fiscal year.

The improved financial position is largely the result of an increase in BCHS’s base funding from the provincial Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. The extra funding was secured by provincially appointed supervisor Bonnie Adamson, McNeil said.

Adamson was appointed supervisor by the province in September 2017 after a review of the BCHS found an “unacceptable failure on both governance and leadership at BCHS. Following her appointment, Jim Hornell, the then-president and CEO was relieved of his duties and the board of directors was dissolved.

In 2018, Hornell was paid $342,000, plus $1,728 in taxable benefits, according to the so-called Sunshine List, an annual report of provincial employees earning more than $100,000 per year in salary, bonuses and overtime.

Under Adamson’s direction, a new board of directors was formed and McNeil was hired as the new president and CEO effective last December.

Wednesday’s meeting was the first public session of the new board of directors led by Paul Emerson, former Brant County CAO.

In addition to operating budget, the board also approved a quality improvement plan, which the province requires all hospitals to have.

The plan includes efforts to improve patient flow to alleviate backlogs in the emergency room, which has seen an increase in the number of patients, and the need for hallway medicine.

Plans to expand and improve the emergency room have been developed and are working their way through the Health Ministry’s approval process.

BCHS officials also want to improve their handling of complaints. Part of their plan is to respond to issues within 48 hours.

McNeil said the board also approved a strategic planning process.

“We’re really quite excited about this,” he said.

“We’re looking to engage with people within the healthcare system and in the community in a lot of different ways. It will help us determine what the Brant Community Healthcare System should look like in five to 10 years.”

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An off-duty Brant OPP officer who used her own car to block a transport truck travelling the wrong way on a county road is among the recipients of a Safe Streets, Save Lives Award.

Const. Jen Kivell was presented with the civilian award at a city council meeting this week.

Kivell was heading home after work on Sept. 30, 2018, at about 7 p.m. when a truck came at her head-on on Highway 403. When the truck veered onto a county road, again travelling in the wrong direction, Kivell followed it.  Unable to get the driver’s attention when she pulled up beside the truck, she instead pulled in front to block it, stopping the vehicle without damage or injury.

The driver was charged with impaired.

The awards are presented by the Brant, Brantford, Six Nations Impaired and Distracted Driving Committee.

The other recipients of the 2017-18 awards are Const. Jesse Miller of Six Nations police, Const. Jason Jewkes and Sgt. Brennan Brown of Brant OPP, and Const. Shannon Parks of Brantford police.

Six Nations police Chief Glen Lickers said Miller “leads the service in the number of impaired drivers taken off our roads, making the community safer.”

Jewkes, a drug recognition officer who served as a police officer in British Columbia, joined the Brant OPP in 2017.

Brown is one of the highest enforcers of impaired driving in the Brant OPP detachment.

Parks helped remove 17 impaired drivers from city roads last year, said Brantford police Insp. Jason Saunders.

City to push recycling at Canada Day party

The city is buying 120 wire recycling containers in the hope of diverting mountains of material from Lions Park on Canada Day.

Councillors agreed at a this week’s meeting to purchase the containers from Busch Systems using $5,000 from the council priorities reserve.

The containers are reusable but will get their first use at the Canada Day celebration, which attracts more than 20,000 people who generate a lot of waste.

A motion to buy the bins, introduced by Coun. Cheryl Antoski, says a waste audit done at last year’s event indicated more than half of the garbage was recyclable.

Busch Systems will have staff at Lions Park on Canada Day to help festival-goers properly use the bins. The containers have a wire frame to which a bag is attached. They have a plastic top that is colour-coded for different recycling material.

Brian Hughes, the city’s director of parks services, said the new containers have half the volume of those the city uses now. He said there has to be a team of volunteers to man the containers because there isn’t sufficient city staff to do it.

Antoski said volunteers will help educate the public about what waste goes where.

Coun. Dan McCreary, who didn’t support the container purchase, said he had several concerns, including what he considers a flimsy design. McCreary also felt the system would be “flush with volunteers” at the start and then fall to city staff to manage.

“It’s not a robust design,” said McCreary. “They will be susceptible to wind and we’ll be chasing them all over town. We will use it two or three times before it goes to landfill.”

Coun. Joshua Wall said he’s been a volunteer at the Canada Day event for several years and noticed that “at some point all the rules go out the window.”

“All the recyclables are going into garbage bins and garbage is going into recycling bins. There is a tremendous amount of litter and recyclables left on the ground.”

Coun. John Utley said that while the containers “may not be perfect, we need to take small steps to educate the public.”

“This is an opportunity to try and change habits,” agreed Coun. John Sless. “It’s a step in the right direction.”

Volunteers wanted

The city is looking for volunteers to serve on a number of committees.

They include the brownfields community advisory committee, control of vicious dogs committee, council remuneration citizen review committee, cultural and built heritage grant program advisory committee, economic development advisory committee, and the tourism advisory committee.

More information about the appointments and application forms are at www.brantford.ca, in the city clerk’s office at city hall, or by calling 519-759-4150. The application deadline is April 5 at 4:30 p.m.

PARIS — There were a lot of smiles on the faces of those who gathered for Thursday’s ground-breaking ceremony for the new Brant County OPP detachment.

But one of the biggest smiles belonged to Ward 5 Brant County Coun. Joan Gatward.

“I’ve waited more than 10 years for this day and it’s finally here,” Gatward said after participating in the ceremony to mark construction of the $9.3-million detachment being built at Bethel and Rest Acres roads.

“This project, the ceremony today, represents a lot of work by a lot of people,” she said.

“I’m just so happy that after all that time and all those meetings construction is underway and we’ll soon have a new building.”

The building is expected to be completed by the spring of 2020.

Although some have said efforts to build a new detachment began in 2011, others say it dates back to 2008 and even 2004. Regardless, the project has been a long time coming. About 60 people attended the ceremony.

Gatward, now chair of the Brant County police services board, was one of several people to speak at the ceremony.

“This is a momentous day in the history of the County of Brant,” Gatward said in her formal remarks. “Since the five townships amalgamated with the Town of Paris 20 years ago, our beautiful County of Brant has continued to grow by leaps and bounds.

“The Brant County detachment has served and protected our community very well and our citizens continue to enjoy the safety and security all our officers provide.”

She said the county’s residents will be well-served by a modern detachment for decades to come.

The new building will include four cells, storage rooms, a secure weapons room, separate offices for sergeants and a room that can be used for lectures. As well, it will have locker and fitness rooms and a dispatch office.

At present, the Brant OPP detachment is housed in an aging building at Mechanic Street and Broadway Street West in Paris. The building is cramped, prone to leaks and obsolete.

Other speakers at the event included: Brant Mayor David Bailey;  Insp. Lisa Anderson, Brant OPP detachment commander; OPP acting Chief Supt. Catherine Yeandle-Slater; Milan Novakovic, representing Brantford-Brant MPP Will Bouma; Rev. David Ralph, and Neil Aitchison, of Melloul-Blamey Construction Inc., the company that is building the detachment.

“The County of Brant and OPP have shared a strong and valued partnership for decades,” Bailey said. “The dedicated and professional OPP officers and staff have played a key role in supporting a prosperous Brant Community.

“This building is a testament of the county’s support and appreciation for the work the OPP do every day in Brant.”

He said the county is grateful for the role the OPP play in the community and the skills and services offered.

Anderson recognized the work done on the project by her predecessors. And she said everyone at the Brant detachment is looking forward to moving into a new home.

“I look forward to the new improved building helping us to continue our high level of service to the residents of Brant County.”

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A 34-year-old Brantford man, who used an online credit card hacking application to scam stores out of more than $15,000, has spent most of the last year in jail getting sober.

Daniel Brent Tenant, 33, was a “one-man crime spree,” said Justice Kathleen Baker as she sentenced Tenant to time served, giving him credit for spending the equivalent of 411 days in jail.

“It was a brazen undertaking and the amounts involved were not minuscule” Baker said recently in Brantford’s Ontario Court. “The circumstances are quite aggravating.”

Tenant operated with impunity for more than a year, repeatedly visiting stores in Cambridge, Guelph, Orangeville and Kitchener, until he was snagged speeding in Simcoe.

It took almost 10 minutes in court to read out the 20 charges to which Tenant pleaded guilty.  And those were whittled down from more than 70 charges he originally faced.

“I feel like an idiot,” Tenant told the judge.

“I had eight years without getting into trouble. I’ve been sober for nine months now and feel great. I don’t want to fall back into that pattern.”

Tenant’s credit card crimes began in January 2017 in a convenience store in Renton, east of Simcoe, where he got snacks, drinks, prepaid gift cards and lottery tickets. He told the clerk he didn’t have a physical credit card but knew the number and entered it into the system.

He was able to walk out with $1,394 worth of goods. He later sent his friends to play the same scam, bilking the store out of more than $4,500.

Three weeks later, the store owner was told by Visa that the credit card numbers were stolen and the store was charged for the purchases.

Tenant used his system again in December 2017. He visited a video gaming store in Guelph four times on Dec. 14, four times on Dec. 18 and three times on Dec. 20, charging amounts of $200 to $1,100 to fraudulent credit card numbers.

He did the same thing in Georgetown on Boxing Day.

In February 2018, Tenant defrauded a variety store in Cambridge of $2,680. The following month, still in Cambridge, he  bilked a pawn shop for more than $2,000, a high-end bike store for almost $1,000, a clothing store for more than $1,500 and a pizza shop for $150.

In Kitchener, Tenant defrauded a convenience store of several thousand dollars.

Tenant occasionally was stymied by suspicious store clerks.

At a Cambridge hardware store, he tried to pay for $857 worth of tools but left when pressed for identification. At another store, the card number he used was declined.

He was identified through photos and surveillance videos at most of the stores.

On March 7 last year, Tenant and a female accomplice were caught on video breaking into the compound of Aecon Mining and Construction on Elgin Street in Brantford, setting off a silent alarm.

Officers followed the pair toward nearby train tracks and, while the woman ran away, Tenant stopped and co-operated with police. He had a stolen grinder in his backpack and eight spools of wire stacked by a hole in the fence.

Released on bail, Tenant and a friend used a stolen credit card number to buy items at an Orangeville clothing store.

On April 21,  Norfolk provincial police caught Tenant speeding on Queensway East in Simcoe. Police discovered that Tenant was unlicensed, his vehicle tag had expired and there was an outstanding warrant for him.

During a search, the officers found cash, gift cards, a gas-powered BB gun under the driver’s seat, cellphones, lottery tickets, two prohibited knives, brass knuckles and drugs, including methamphetamine, a few hydromorphone pills and powdered and liquid fentanyl.

After that, Tenant stayed in jail and waited as the justice system gathered together his crimes from the various jurisdictions.

“He stayed in jail because he wanted to clean up his act,” said his lawyer, Dale Henderson.

Henderson said Tenant was a successful concrete finisher but, after two back surgeries, became addicted to his prescribed painkiller, Oxycontin.

In court, Tenant pleaded guilty to 13 counts of fraud, break and enter, possession of break-in instruments, failure to appear in court, possession of a dangerous weapon, driving while suspended, and possession of fentanyl and hydromorphone.

Henderson, assistant Crown attorney Michael Dean and federal prosecutor Kevin McGilly all agreed Tenant had saved the court multiple long trials by pleading guilty. They said an appropriate sentence was his time served.

“On the flip side, many of these businesses are at a significant loss,” said Dean. “And it’s concerning the seeming ease with which Mr. Tenant carried out these operations, going back to the same stores multiple times each day.”

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Hope Memorial Spiritual Church celebrated its 70th anniversary last Sunday with a gala event at Moose Lodge.

Brantford Coun. Richard Carpenter, acting mayor, presented a certificate of congratulations from the city to Rev. Florence Edwards, head pastor at the church at 192 Darling St.

Also present was the pastor’s sister, 97-year-old Marjorie Brown, who is the sole remaining member of the original church, which was started in a house on Chatham Street by their parents Gertrude and Leslie Leivers, along with William Richardson.

Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King was instrumental in helping to gain permission from the government to use the house as a church.  Hope Memorial still has four chairs that belonged to King.

About 65 people attended the event, which included a service and speeches made by Brown and other longstanding members Elaine Murray and Eleanor Hill.

Hope Memorial has long been known as a healing church and continues its healing service on Wednesdays from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday service is at 11 a.m.

“We fully expect Hope Memorial Spiritual Church will be around for another 70 years,” said assistant pastor Cheryl Tuck.

Andrew Poirier has learned a great deal about the First World War in recent months and he’s about to learn a whole lot more.

The 14-year-old Grade 9 student at Assumption College is one of only 20 students from across Canada to receive a 2019 Vimy Pilgrimage Award. He and David Pugh, of Brantford Collegiate Institute, will join the other students on a fully-funded educational program in Belgium and France from April 2 to 10. The program is sponsored by the Vimy Foundation.

“I didn’t really know a lot about the First World War,” said Poirier.

“But, when I read about the Vimy Foundation on social media, I became curious and wanted to learn more,” said Poirier, who lives in York in Haldimand County. “As part of the application process, I started researching a local soldier, Pte. Percy Giles, of Hagersville, and wrote a biography of him.”

The biography and Poirier’s fundraising efforts for Wounded Warriors Canada helped him earn his Vimy award. But it was just the start of this Great War education.

“I needed to do more to prepare for the trip and that included researching another First World War soldier,” Poirier said. “I had a couple of choices but picked Pte. Peter Knockwood.

“He was an Indigenous soldier and I wanted to learn more about their contributions.”

Born in 1888, in Richibucto, N.B.,, Knockwood was a Mi’kmaq from Prince Edward Island. Married with six children, Knockwood, a fisherman before enlistment, was killed by gunshot wounds on Easter Monday 1917.

Knockwood is buried in the Bruay Communal Cemetery Extension in Pas de Calais in France. Poirier will visit his grave during his trip.

“There wasn’t a lot written about him but when I started my research I came across a Mi’kmaq Elder who helped me connect with Sheila Carlisle, the granddaughter of Peter Knockwood.

“It was quite an honour for me to speak with her and I learned a great deal about her grandfather and her family.”

Carlisle, who lives in Brandon, Man., sent Poirier a book of Mi’kmaq legends, some sweet grass and a medicine bag. Poirier will place a memento from his trip in the medicine bag for Carlisle and will place some of the sweet grass at her grandfather’s grave.

As well, he will offer a gift of tobacco, recite a traditional Mi’kmaq prayer and read a passage from the Bible, which talks about doing the right thing and fighting for good.

During the pilgrimage, students will visit museums, cemeteries and historical battlefields. They also will participate in the Vimy Day commemoration ceremony at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.

“I’m really looking forward to meeting the other students,” Poirier said. “We all have such diverse backgrounds and we’re going to be together for a week.

“It will be a really great learning experience.”

Poirier is grateful for the guidance he received from Dean Nagler, a teacher at Assumption, and Karen Richardson, curator of the Haldimand County Museum, who helped him learn more about Giles.

In addition to other activities, Poirier has been raising money for Wounded Warriors Canada since he was nine. He helps build and sell birdhouses, with the proceeds – more than $8,000 so far – used to purchase therapy dogs for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Poirier is the third local high school student to be selected for the program in the past two years.

Jerianne Hsiao, a BCI graduate currently in her first year at the University of Waterloo, participated in the 2018 pilgrimage.

Founded in 2006, the Vimy Foundation aims to preserve and promote the Canadian contribution to the First World War.

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Police have laid accessory to murder charges against a third person in the slaying of three SixNations residents, whose bodies were found southwest of London last November.

The OPP and Six Nations police arrested Vernon Shipman, 33, of Six Nations on Thursday, charging him with three counts of accessory after the fact to murder.

Shipman was held in custody after appearing in Brantford court on Friday morning.

He is the sixth person arrested in the case.

The bodies of Melissa Trudi Miller, 37, who was seven months pregnant, Alan Porter, 33, and Michael Jamieson, 32, were found Nov. 4 near a stolen pickup truck near London.

Two men, 36-year-old Nicholas Shipman and 30-year-old Thomas Bomberry, and a woman, 32-year-old Jamie Beaver, all of SixNations, were charged earlier this month with second-degree murder. Shipman faces three counts, while Bomberry is charged with two, and Beaver is charged with one. Nicholas and Vernon are brothers.

The three are to return to court on May 9.

In August 2017, the body of Miller’s common-law husband, Douglas Hill, 47, who had been missing from Brantford for eight weeks, was found in a shallow grave in the same area where the three bodies were found.

Nicholas Shipman had been charged as an accessory in the death of Hill but his charges, and those of two other women and a female youth, were withdrawn after a preliminary hearing last fall.

In November, Kirsten Bomberry, 36, of Six Nations was charged with three counts of being an accessory to murder in the triple homicide. She was denied bail in February.

Earlier this week, Roland Sturgeon, 21, of the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation was charged with three counts of accessory to murder. He also is custody after appearing in a Brantford court.

The police have declined to say what the connection is among the accused.

Anyone with additional information is asked to contact a dedicated police tip line at 1-844-677-5050 or Six Nations police at 519-445-2811.

To remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), where you may be eligible to receive a cash reward of up to $2,000.

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@EXPSGamble

Local political leaders are supporting a Brant County proposal for a new Highway 403 interchange at Bishopsgate Road.

Ava Hill, chief of the Six Nations elected council, Brantford-Brant MPP Will Bouma and Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett all have written letters in support of the proposal to Ontario Transportation Minister Jeff Yurek.

“As a neighbouring community to the County of Brant, we are all interconnected in the challenges as well as the solutions that we can come up with – and this interchange is certainly one of them,” Hill said in her letter sent on behalf of the elected council.

“Adding to the government’s mandate “Ontario is Open for Business,’ this new interchange would better enable residents and businesses not only of the County of Brant but also The Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, better and safer access to Highway 403.”

Brant officials have been working for several years to get approval for the interchange project, which is included in its transportation master plan. The estimated cost of the project is about $14 million.

The county says the new interchange is needed to handle an increase in traffic from aggregate operations, as well as residential development in the Burford area. It also would help alleviate traffic pressure from Rest Acres Road.

“This new interchange will also reduce the space between interchanges along Highway 403 since the closest interchange west of Rest Acres Road is over 11 kilometres away – which is not ideal,” Bouma said in his letter of support.

Bouma said the new interchange also would make it easier for first responders to access the 403.

He noted that the county has obtained full environmental assessment approvals from the province.

Barrett, meanwhile, said he has constituents who travel to and from Highway 403 daily using Highway 24.

“However, there are congestion issues on Rest Acres Road at that interchange,” Barrett said. “Diverting traffic to Bishopsgate Road would alleviate this congestion.”

The letters of support were accepted as information by county councillors at this week’s county council meeting.

Vball@postmedia.com

Brantford Mayor Kevin Davis has been appointed to the board of directors for the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, Large Urban Caucus.

The mayor’s appointment was supported by city council this week.

“I am excited to join the AMO board where in this role I will have the opportunity to champion and advance issues that matter most to residents of Brantford, including lobbying for more input and local control over cannabis retail outlet locations and expanded provincial programming and funding for affordable housing and implementation of our community drug strategy,” Davis said in a news release.

AMO is a non-profit organization representing almost all of Ontario’s 444 municipal governments. It seeks to promote municipal government as an essential component of Ontario and Canada’s political system.

Davis also plans to push for improved administration of post-traumatic stress disorder claims by Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, including more effective treatment and return-to-work programs, as well as allowing for greater municipal input regarding changes to planning and development processes.

The city had been grappling with more than $2 million in WSIB premium costs for first responders. A surge in claims from police began a couple of years ago when the Ontario government passed legislation recognizing post-traumatic stress disorder as a work-related illness for police, firefighters and paramedics.

Davis will attend the AMO board governance and committee of the whole meeting on April 4, executive committee meetings on April 25 and May 23 and the annual AMO conference in Ottawa on Aug. 17 and 18.

NANTICOKE – Demolition of the former Nanticoke Generating Station has been underway for more than a year and will continue through the summer and beyond.

“I’ve been told this is the largest demolition project in all of North America,” Joe Mateus, Ontario Power Generation’s demolition manager, said during a site visit Friday.

The massive powerhouse — the largest coal-fired generating station in North America at one time  — will be levelled sometime in September. But OPG won’t let the site sit dormant.

In early March, the utility flipped the switch on a 44-megawatt solar installation. It consists of 192,000 solar panels spread over 260 acres.

Unlike the hydro generated when coal was king, the power out of Nanticoke today is clean and renewable. And, like most solar farms, it takes only a handful of people to operate, a far cry from the as many as 1,000 full-time employees who once worked at Nanticoke.

Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett and many others tried to save the Nanticoke station after the McGuinty Liberals phased out coal in 2014.

For a time, converting the plant’s eight boilers to biomass fuel was the most promising alternative.

Farmers in Norfolk and Haldimand counties mobilized in case the call went out for fast-growing hemp, miscanthus grass or willow as new fuels of choice. But the business case for biomass was weak.

During Friday’s tour, Mike Martelli, OPG’s president of renewable generation, said the cost of converting the utility’s Atikokan station in northwestern Ontario to biomass has been steep.

Basic biomass needs to be sheltered to keep it from getting wet, which is expensive, said Martelli.

Some firms have come up with methods for processing biomass that doesn’t require sheltering from the elements. But these companies are in Scandinavia and Texas.

“Biomass isn’t cheap,” Martelli said. “It’s an expensive conversion. Transporting fuel is too expensive.”

Solar power isn’t cheap either.

For all its faults, the Nanticoke station’s saving grace was the three cents per kilowatt hour cost of producing electricity. Coal kept hydro bills down while serving as a draw for Ontario’s manufacturing sector.

But the days of cheap electricity are gone thanks to the Green Energy Act. In a recent report, the Fraser Institute said solar providers in Ontario today receive about 48 cents per kilowatt hour.

This compares with seven cents per kilowatt hour for nuclear, six cents a kilowatt hour for hydro-electric power, and 14 cents a kilowatt hour for wind.

Advocates of renewable energy say technological advances are driving down the cost of renewables.

However, officials weren’t willing to put that assertion to the test during Friday’s tour in Nanticoke. OPG officials said the price Ontario is now paying for Nanticoke’s electricity is a secret.

“Because of our contract, that is confidential,” said OPG spokesperson Neal Kelly. “That is proprietary information.”

The Six Nations Development Corp. and the Mississauga First Nation have invested in the Nanticoke solar farm. They will reap the benefits for the next 20 years.

“I was pushing for partnerships and I was pushing for access to capital through the 1990s,” said Larry Sault, former chief of the Mississaugas, near Hagersville.

“This to me is all I’ve been pushing for over the last 30 years. We’ve come from the dream to the reality. This is a serious project for us and our future.”

This is also a serious project for Six Nations but by no means the biggest of its kind.

Spokesperson Tabitha Curley pointed out that Six Nations’ investment wing also has stakes in the 100-megawatt Grand Renewable Solar project near Cayuga, the 230-megawatt Niagara Regional Wind Farm, and 11 other renewable energy projects.

MSonnenberg@postmedia.com

Eleanor Joseph and Melissa Jackson of Ohsweken are celebrating after winning a $100,000 prize with Instant Bingo Doubler.

The winning ticket was purchased at Ohsweken Gas, Grub and Goodies on Chiefswood Road in Ohsweken.

The cost of municipal government in Brant County dropped in 2018, according to a report presented to councillors.

County taxpayers paid $346,405.22 for their elected council representatives in 2018. That’s $9,615 less than the 2017 bill of $356,020, says the report prepared by municipal staff.

One reason for the decrease that the Ward 1 seat vacated by Will Bouma, after he was elected MPP for Brantford-Brant last June, remained empty before being filled by Steve Schmitt in July.

As well, Murray Powell was hospitalized  last fall for several weeks and died Sept. 30.

According to the report, former mayor Ron Eddy received $65,080 in honorarium, $3,582 in benefits and claimed $3,856 in expenses for a total remuneration of $72,519.

That’s up from a total of $67,881 in 2017.  Eddy was docked a week’s pay that year in accordance with a recommendation by an integrity commissioner who found he had violated the code of conduct for council members.

Mayor David Bailey, who defeated Eddy in the Oct. 22 municipal election and took office in December, received $5,760 in honorarium, $413 in benefits and claimed $999 in expenses for a total of $7,173.

The municipal vote saw the election of new councillors John MacAlpine in Ward 1, Marc Laferriere and Steve Howes in Ward 2 and John Bell in Ward 3. Veteran Shirley Simons lost in Ward 2, while her wardmate, Don Cardy, ran for the mayor’s job.

Following is a breakdown of the honorarium, benefits and expenses paid to councillors:

• Ward 1: John Wheat, $25,818 ($22,905 honorarium, $323 benefits, $2,589 expenses);  Bouma, $13,097 ($10,931 honorarium, $388 benefits, $1.777 expenses); Schmitt, $7,744 ( $7,412 honorarium, $332 benefits); John MacAlpine,  $2,049 ($1,879 honorarium, $128 benefits, $41 in expenses).

• Ward 2: Don Cardy, $25,326 ($20,850 honorarium, $3,557 benefits, $898 expenses); Shirley Simons, $24,604 ($21,026 honorarium, $1,045 benefits,$2,532). Marc Laferriere, $2,008 ($1,879 honorarium, $128): Steve Howes, $2,008 ($1879 honorarium, $128 benefits).

• Ward 3: John Peirce, $25,669 ($22,905 honorarium, $924 benefits and $1,839 expenses); Murray Powell, $19,667 ($16,305 honorarium, $161 benefits, $3,200 expenses); John Bell, $2,013 ($1879 honorarium, $133 benefits).

• Ward 4: Robert Chambers, $29,491 ($22,905 honorarium, $924 benefits, $5,661 expenses); David Miller, $28,543 ($23,676 honorarium, $924 benefits, $3,942 expenses).

* Ward 5: Brian Coleman, $29,204 ($22,095 honorarium, $1,789 benefits and $4,509 expenses); Joan Gatward,  $29,467 ($22,905 honorarium, $3,766 in benefits, $3,334 expenses).

The report also included the honoraria and expenses paid to members of the Brant police services board in 2018. Each of the three county members – Bailey, John Burroughs and David Maxwell — received $2,978.

Meanwhile, each member of the committee of adjustment, except Schmitt, received $2,978 in honorarium. Other committee members are Robert Hamilton, Mary Jane Brown, Joseph Kloepfer, Art Lefebvre, John Bell and John Vamos. Schmitt received $2,198. In addition, Hamilton received $634 in expenses, Brown $336 and Vamos $371.

Vball@postmedia.com

twitter.com/EXPVBall

Justice Robert Gee said he believes that a Brantford woman was assaulted when she was a child.

And he believes the accused “most likely” did it.

But Gee dismissed charges against the man, referred to as K.S. in the ruling, in Brantford’s Ontario Court in February, saying it was a case that left him with reasonable doubt.

“I realize this judgment will likely satisfy no one,” said the judge.

“It took a lot of courage and bravery for the complainant to come forward after all this time.”

The woman, who was a six years old in the summer of 2000, said K.S. was then the 14-year-old best friend of her older brother.

She told court K.S. sexually assaulted her three or four times in the basement of her home.

K.S. was arrested in 2018 and charged with sexual assault, sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching.

During the four-day trial that began last June and ended in January, both the woman now 24, and the accused, 32, testified.

She said the assaults progressed from fondling to oral sex.

K.S. denied the assaults took place and said he was never left alone with her.

The young woman’s parents testified they sometimes left their son and K.S. alone in the house with their daughter.

Gee said the woman’s testimony was “compelling” but so was that of the accused.

He said he can’t simply choose the “more believable version” of a story.

“The side that tells the better or more believable version is not, by that fact alone, entitled to win …,” the judge said.

“I have to be convinced of the accused’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, based on the evidence I do accept.”

Gee said that a judge must be positive about a person’s guilty before taking away someone’s liberty.

“Some may say results such as this (ruling) are indicative of a flawed system. I would beg to differ,” said Gee.

“I would say that results like this are indicative of a justice system working as it should. History has shown, when lesser burdens than the heavy one here, are placed on the prosecution, injustices and wrongful convictions are inevitable.”

The judge called the woman brave and strong.

“She leaves with a judge telling her he almost assuredly believes her but without whatever healing or closure that might come from a conviction,” Gee said.

“On the other hand, the accused is found not guilty but has had a public declaration by a judge that he most likely did what he is accused of doing.”

SGamble@postmedia.com

@EXPSGamble

Brant County Mayor David Bailey completed a diversity training course and received a perfect score on a subsequent test, according to correspondence from the Ontario Civilian Police Commission.

The commission, in a letter dated March 25, acknowledged completion of the course and the test result. As a result the commission “has closed its file on this matter,” the letter states.

The commission had recommended Bailey take diversity training following a preliminary review into his conduct while a member the Brant County police services board, before he became mayor last year.

The review was prompted by a complaint filed by St. George resident Dave Thomson, which has its roots in a 2012-13 dispute over lettering on a headstone in the St. George Cemetery.

After being told of certain restrictions about what can be put on a headstone, members of the Bailey family pointed out that a headstone for the Choi family had more detailed information in Korean than what was apparently allowed by the county. The two headstones were near each other in the cemetery.

The dispute made its way through various county committees and, at one point, it appeared the Choi family would be forced to remove the lettering.

The dispute was eventually resolved in November 2013 when then-Mayor Ron Eddy apologized to the Choi family and the lettering was allowed to remain in place.

Thomson was connected to the dispute because he is related to the Choi family by marriage. He publicly accepted Eddy’s apology and, at that time, said: “We consider the matter closed.”

The only public comment made by Bailey during the dispute appeared in The Expositor on Feb. 21, 2013, when he said he told the Choi family that he thought the monument tasteful.

Although some members of his family wanted the lettering removed, Bailey said he had no opposition to it.

He went on to say that he found the whole dispute “very tacky. It’s just awful. I’m mortified.’

However, Thomson, in his complaint to the civilian police commission, which was filed in the summer of 2017, claimed that Bailey violated the police commission code of conduct because he referred to the lettering on the Choi headstone as looking like “a Chinese food menu.”

Thomson said he considered Bailey’s comment racist and insulting.

Bailey, however, has said that his comment was never meant to be offensive. Rather, it was his way of saying he didn’t understand the lettering. It’s no different than saying “it’s all Greek to me,” Bailey has said.

The issue was brought to the fore again when Bailey spoke about the civilian police commission at last week’s county council meeting.

After speaking with civilian police commission representatives for two hours, Bailey said they decided to take no further steps on Thomson’s complaint and recommended the diversity training.

He described the course as excellent and recommended it to all councillors, as well as senior municipal staff.

Thomson, meanwhile, sent a letter to council asking that local taxpayers not be required to pay for Bailey’s diversity training.

Bailey said there was no cost to the program and that he completed it on his own time.

Thomson said he thinks the commission took the most appropriate action on his complaint.

Vball@postmedia.com

twitter.com/EXPVBall