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BEST AVAILABLE COPY Home Newspaper of Hills Established A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited Guelph Street Georgetown 3Z6 Ontario DAVID A BEATTIE Publisher and General Manager Property rights are in danger BRIAN Editor Phone 8772201 DAN TAYLOR Advertising Manager Mail Page THE HERALD August Were Game It looks like there will indeed be a Highland Games Georgetown next year Highland games organizers and town councillors muddl ed over and hopefully resolved their problems at last weeks council meeting Were glad to see the town put its support in writing Following the highland games in June there were some nasty feelings between organizers and the town because of mixups in supplying utilities and the disallowing of over night camping for participants at the Georgetown Fairgrounds Some councillors present at the games said they felt an antitown sentiment during the day Coun Norm Elliott said he was disheartened to hear some of the comments just sitting as a spectator at the stands There has never been in the last few years at this council table a feeling that the Highland Games werent welcome Coun Elliott told his colleagues last week That the two sides were able to discuss their problems rationally and clear the air quickly demonstrates honest goodwill intentions on the part of council and by organizers of the highland games Highland games president Ewen MacDonald can now take that written guarantee frame it and make next years Scottish fling a hit Scrutinizing NEC Editors Notebook Brian MacLeod Herald Editor It is rare that I feel a need to res pond to a letter to the ltor I firm believe hat as reader you should have your say on matters without snide remarks like those adorning the bottom of letters in publications like the Toronto Sun Nevertheless our Ward 2 Regional Councillor Joe Hewitt has penned a letter which appears in our letters to the editor section this week which begs a response Hewitt is replying to an ar tide in which he was named by the environmental group CONE as one of the members of the Niagara Escarpment Commission who vote against the Niagara Escarpment Plan most of the time CONE Coalition on the Niagara Escarpment wants the province to change the method of choosing NEC members Wins letter appearing on page this week Coun Hewitt said Once again your reporting was out to malign me rather than form the public when you covered the recent news release by CONE Malign On the contrary rather than sit idly by and let CONE distribute in we telephoned Coun Hewitt got his reaction and printed it Never has there been any at tempt by the Herald to malign Coun Hewitt or anyone else We simply reported what the two sides said It the third paragraph of his Hewitt says Your arti Mb mention that CONE in Queens Park Derek Nelson Thornton Service ProperU rights in Ontario are being flipped on their head by a law currently being considered here And a multitude of those who 11 be affected owners and operators of corner stores buses super markets shopping malls hospitals libraries arenas parks or any other area normally used by the public are increasingly anx ious about what it will mean to them BUI which contains the amendments to the trespass act that are causing all the trepida tion changes the very nature of trespass law as it applies to com and public areas If someone is acting suspicious on your lawn at home or hanging around the back door of your fac tory you will still be able to order him off the property and tell him not to come back No fuss No bother No questions asked Everyone knows the rules And if he gives you trouble the police will come and enforce the law for you But if Bill passes fuss and bother will be the name of the game for store owners For instance a store owner won t be able to throw out someone for what the store owner deems to be suspicious activity Under Bill ejection can only take place for to quote the law conduct not compatible with the publics use of the premises or contravening reasonable rules What those phrases really mean is something well only know once the courts rule on a few cases But suspicious activity by its very nature isnt something that a rule can be written to cover So whats the solution from the attorney general s ministry for the mall owner faced with a predica ment He can just throw the person out like in the old days The attorney generals ministry suggests in a report that suspicious behavior can be as ef fectively controlled by the use of rules governing peddling and the length of time being spent by any person in a common area of a mall COMPLICATED Aside from telling people it is okay to twist the law you re be ing ejected mac because you ex our time limits for lounging against this railing when he is really being ejected because a trained eye knows suspicious behavior when it sees it the pro cess itself is complicated First the person must be given a reason for being asked to leave and the reason must be given in a prescribed form Lots of small store owners are just going to love that wrinkle It can be done orally although it is hard to understand how that will work in practice when a merchant is confronted with a dozen skinheads The person or persons ejected can fight the ban of course They can deny in writing that they broke the rule in question whatever it may be and try to re enter Should the store owner still want the person banned then the owner will have to prove at trial that there was cause for the ban In the interim the ban will ap parently continue to apply for up to 30 days although that originally wasnt clear in the legislation In short the nature of the trespassing offence has been total ly inverted Instead of someone being kept off property having to prove it was for an illegal reason such as discrimination under the Human Rights Code the trespasser would be considered to have an inherent right to be present unless the owner can prove otherwise It would in essence set up a new class of properly quasi public in nature alongside existing public and pnvate property The Toronto Board of Trade zeroed in on the point in its submis to the ministry The bill changes the status of a third party from that of an invitee to that of a person with the right to be in the premises of a small business For mischievous minds an unknown category to the attorney generals ministry the possibilities for mischief will be endless fact places eight of the 15 members of the NEC as being op posed to the plan most of the time and two some of the time In fact our article said There are eight names on CONEs list of NEC members who oppose the Niagara Escarpment Plan most of the time On top of that an adjoining cle names how CONE rates each of the NECs members The headline on the article reads Eight members oppose plan It couldnt have been clearer Coun Hewitt then goes on to ex plain why he CONE is incor rect and why the groups criticism is invalid Thats exactly what the letters to the editor section of dur newspaper is for To offer you a chance to ex ert your opinion and response on key issues The Niagara Escarpment Plan is coming under intense scrutiny right now due to landfill and quarry operations and there are applications to operate more of these type of businesses on the land It is not only relevant but necessary to publish such articles in the wake of the public debate on the NEC In his last paragraph Coun Hewitt says And if I have any ad vice for the Herald it is be fair im partial and balanced We talked to CONE We talked to Coun Hewitt and told him what CONE said He had every op portunity to tell us then what he totdus in his letter Fair Yes Impartial Absolutely We dont agree with every environmental group or councillor butwe print their views Balanced Of course Coun Hewitt and anyone else will always have the opportunity to ex press their views in the Herald Its what were here for LETTERS I Reader sees recreation in developers garbage dump Dear Sir Re Taxpayers should be angry overland Al Pilutti says I went for a walk in the six acre property near Hall Road this evening I didnt have far to go its right behind my house In fact I go there often But this evening as I walked I marvelled at the powers of the human mind when the point of view is self serving and the motivation is only profit Mr Pilutti has walked this land and seen a garbage dump where three or four people walk their dogs I have walked this property and seen children flying their kites children playing soccer young people playing volleyball and badminton children exploring and hunting for insects and snakes and yes even people walking their dogs These activities of course do not make a profit but there are those of us who believe that they have significant value Mr has walked this land and observed tfcat the property is not kept up by the town and has stray weeds and grass I have walked this property for years and have observed that in fact it is kept up by the town somewhat more conscientiously than it was kept up by the previous owner who relied on the town to cut the weeds when the homeowners re quested it Where was the concern for the care of the land then Who was that previous owner Was not his name also Mr has walked this land and seen just a piece of land with weeds I have walked this proper ty and seen one entire side of the ravine which is cut regularly with lawnmowers by the homeowner whose property adjoins it I think it looks rather good I think it has been worth the time that I and my neighbors doing it for the past years on behalf of the town who owns it now and the previous owner who still has not noticed that we kept up his pro perty for him I have also noticed the three or four dozen trees of various sizes that the homeowners have planted to improve the pro perty that they value as parkland Mr Pilutti has walked this land and seen a liability to the town because of the danger to the children in the future because of the open drainage ditch I have walked this property and observed how odd it is that there is suddenly now a danger to the children in the future from a ditch that in re cent years has had virtually no water in it when there was never any apparent concern shown by the previous owner about the danger to the children in the past from a ditch that then had much more water in it Why is there more concern about the liability to the town than there was about the responsibility of the previous owner Was not his name also Mr Pilutti has walked this land and observed that it is an eyesore with no aesthetic value I have walked this property and noted that the one real eyesore detrac ting from an aesthetically pleasing view Is the giant rent in the earth caused by a bulldozer which removed the vegetation and top- soil for no apparent reason from the one corner of the property not belonging to the town Are we to believe that the landowner who directed that action has as a primary concern aesthetics And who is that landowner Is not his name Pilutti also Mr has walked this land observed that it is unfair of mutinied on Page