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Coming away with a good first impression M.P. Mark MacGuigan emerges from the Oak Ridge section of the Mental Health Centre Friday afternoon, after he took part in a tour and discussion of the maximum Levy will drop 16 percent security institution. MacGuigan is*the chairman of the parliamentary Sub- Committee on the Penintentiary System in Canada. Staff photo Sub-committee on federal prisons M.P.s take tour of Oak Ridge by David Ross A group of patients at the maximum security Oak Ridge section of the Mental Health Centre in Penetanguishene, got a chance last Friday to present their views to the Parliamentary Sub-Committee on the Penitentiary System in Canada. The Sub-Committee, chaired by Liberal M.P. Mark MacGuigan, from Windsor- Walkerville, consists of 13 members of parliament, but not all of them were at the MHC Friday. The group was accompanied, however, by a number of staff, and by a small group of students from Toronto. The group arrived at Oak Ridge at about 11:30 Friday morning, and was given a short talk on the institution by Medical Director Dr. Barry Boyd, before lunch. Boyd gave them a rundown on the history of Oak Ridge, telling them the first half of the institution was opened in 1933, and the second half was opened in 1958. The group, which is interested in reforming the prison system in Canada, was told the maximum security mental hospital has had only two escapes in 25 years. Boyd told them the suicide rate was only. one every three years. He told them the record of Oak Ridge was better than that of other prisons in Canada, and said there were no riots or hostage taking incidents at the hospital because of the ad- vanced treatment program, and the high morale among staff and patients. Boyd told the committee the treatment program in use at Oak Ridge, which makes use of "social therapy units", had been pioneered in Denmark and Great Britain, before being adopted at Oak Ridge. ~ He said the approach taken at Oak Ridge was different from that taken at other maximum security institutions, in that there were no guards as such, and that the staff responsible for security were all trained attendants. No guns or other weapons are used at Oak Ridge. Boyd said the therapy in use at Oak Ridge made use of patients as therapists, and he said some of the patients who had been through the social therapy program were now doing jobs normally done by staff at other maximum security institutions. He said this led to a trusting relationship bet- ween staff and patients, and this in turn led to the high morale in evidence at the institution. With regard to the relationship between Oak Ridge and the federal penitentiary system, Boyd said almost half of the patients at Oak Ridge were people who had been found not guilty of serious crimes, by reason of insanity. Of the others, some had been transferred there from other institutions, some were there for psychiatric evaluation to find out if they were fit to stand trial, and still others had not actually committed a crime, but were considered dangerous to the general public. Boyd said that of the group which had been found not guilty by reason of insanity, and had been subsequently released by Oak Ridge, there was only a nine per cent failure rate. Treatment is considered to have failed if the patient is returned to Oak Ridge, or commits another offense. Boyd painted a picture of the patients at Oak Ridge for the committee members, saying most were sent to the institution either by the courts, by the penitentiary system, or by other mental health in- stitutions. He said most were young, and many were quite intelligent, although most did not do well in school. Patients become teachers Boyd said the type of treatment used in Oak Ridge consisted mostly of forcing the patients to interact with each other. Within the system, the patients are encouraged to trust one another, and as they progress through the system, they are given a certain amount of responsibility for each other. Patients who have been through the system become leaders and teachers in the therapy Area board approves 'good news' budget Member municipalities of the Tiny-Tay Planning Board can expect an approximate 16 per cent decrease in their 1977 levy from the area board. The "'good news" budget, presented at the planning board's meeting last Thursday, showed a $6,389 surplus for the TTPPB as of December 31, 1976. Unaudited statements for the year showed the board spent $41,411 of the $47,800 budgeted for operating costs. Budget projections put operating expenses for 1977 at approximately $46,405. The 1976 budget was for an 8 month period only, starting May 1976. "Board members had no problem in ap- proving the new budget and unanimously agreed with Penetang member Gil Robillard's praise of the budget projections: "T think it's a good budget and we should go right ahead and approve it,"' Robillard said in lieu of any discussions. The Town of Midland's projected levy has been decreased, almost $3,000 from $17,686 to $14,806. Penetanguishene may be paying $3,569.49, down just over $694 from $4,264. Tiny Township's share of the 1977 TTPPB budget is $12,557 instead of $15,000; Tay could be contributing $6,562 down $1277 from the 1976 contribution of $7,839, Port McNicoll's share is down to $1,616 from $1,931 and ee Harbour's portion of the budget may and at $904, down $176 from $1080. Levies for the member municipalities are based on 1976 equalized»assessment figures obtained from the Simcoe County finance offices. The actual amount of the 1977 levies will not be known until new assessment figures are released but out-going Finance Novice Men's champ Brian Orser is the new Canadian Novice Men's Champion. Here he demonstrates the form which carried him through the Ontario championships to a victory in the nationals held in Calgary over the weekend. Brian says he was hoping he would be able to place in the top five in the competition. Orser wins in Nationals Penetanguishene's own 15-year-old Brian Orser took a clean sweep in Novice Division of the Canadian Figure Skating Championships held in Calgary over the weekend. ' Leading after the compulsary figures, Brian came through in the freestyle event with scores ranging from 4.0 to 4.9, to edge out his closest competitor, John Thomas of St. Catharines. Thomas picked up. the silver medal and Campbell Sinclair of Ottawa took the bronze. Brian, who returned to his home in Penetanguishene Monday afternoon, said he was excited about the win. "I was hoping to be in the top five," he said Monday evening. He said he took the week before the, championships off school and practised his figures for about two hours a day in Elmvale. He practises an average of about 22 hours a week. The Canadian championships represent "'the end of the line"' in novice competition, according to Brian, and he said he'll now be practising different figures for his entry into the junior division next year. Skaters must be 16 or under to qualify for the junior competition. As a junior, Brian could be picked to go to the junior worlds, if he does as well next year as he has this year. Asked if he is looking for a spot at the 1980 Olympics, Brian said, "'I hope to be Trial: Brian was not the only area skater to do well in Calgary. Elmvale's Michelle Simpson took third spot in the novice women's competition. Committee Chairman Harry Cox told members he did not expect figures to change substantially. Comparisons difficult Planning coordinator Mike Ufford pointed out that comparisons with the previous year's budget were difficult because figures for 1976 covered an eight month period only, and included $11,960 for termination costs of the five planning board members whose employment with the TTPPB was ter- minated when the board was re-organized in May 1976. "Tt's a very lean budget," Ufford admitted, "There are no frills in it-at-all."' The largest single increase in costs is in the salaries and fringe benefits of the planning board's two salaried staff. Staff salary totals jumped $12,000 from $20,038 to $32,520, again Lost girl recovering Nine year old Tonya Plummer, the spunky little heroine of a group lost for four days on Georgian Bay last week, is home and well on the way to recovering from her chilling experience. "Her spirits are really super great," Tonya's mother Anne said in an interview on Monday. "She'd love to go _ back snowmobiling, and she wants to go back to Beckwith and see it again in the summer. "She's game to try anything,' Anne Plummer continued proudly. Although the four days in a hollow dug out of the snow by her father Gordon and two other companions, Don Nichol and his 13 year old son Ken, have in no way affected Tonya's vivaciousness, the biting cold did take its toll in frostbite. Both of Tonya's hands are in splints because of rather severe frostbite and doctors at Toronto's Sick Children's Hospital expect it may be six to eight months before they can assess the extent of damage to the nerves and tissue of her hands. "She can use them a bit but they are very sore," Mrs. Plummer admitted. Because she cannot yet hold a pencil or write, the Plummers have decided to let their "A'"' student daughter some time off to recuperate at home and will deal with the problem of school according to developments in Tonya's condition. "She did manage to phone Don Nichol the other day though," Anne Plummer laughed, "and told him he still owed her a dozen donuts."' During one of the days in their make-shift home, Nichol had apparently awakened Tonya to tell her she'd slept long enough, just as the little girl was dreaming of biting into a juicy chocolate donut. Don Nichol brought around the donuts the next day. OPP, rescue workers praised Mrs. Plummer also had high words of praise for the Midland OPP, the staff at the Huronia District Hospital, the Maple Valley Snowmobile Club and the Georgian Bay C.B. Club, all of who worked hard and long to bring the search for the mising four-some to a happy ending. "The OPP were just out of this world,' Anne Plummer enthused. "They really risked their lives heading out in that storm (on Monday, January 31). And we turned that hospital upside down and they were just marvellous," Mrs. Plummer continued. Many of Midland's OPP finest worked all day Monday, and through the night; off-duty officers volunteered their services to go over the snowmobiles before they headed out again to take part in the search; the helicopter went up despite adverse weather conditions. '"You couldn't ask for more than they did,"' she said. largely because the 1977 budget covers a 12 month period while the previous year's budget was a %4 year budget only. Both board employees, Mike Ufford and Marg Boucher, will receive eight per cent salary increases according to Anti-Inflation Board guidelines. Ufford's increase though will not come until April, 1977 instead of at the beginning of the year because he received a salary ad- justment in mid November 1976. Board sets up reserve fund Members of the Tiny-Tay Planning Board agreed Thursday to establish a_ special reserve fund to meet future proauction costs of the area board's official plan: Members agreed to allocate an initial $2,000 in 1977 to this reserve fund with future allocations to be decided at budget times. sometimes got into some pretty far-out areas of psycho-analysis, such as trying to get other patients to remember their trip through the birth canal, and using some of the eastern philosophies in their sessions. He said he was a little sceptical about some of these techniques, but he did not try to discourage their use, since the important thing was that the patients were interacting, and were assuming responsibility. Asked by committee members if he could use his system ata federal penitentiary such as Millhaven, Boyd said he did not think he could, but he thought perhaps small units based on the philosophy in use at Oak Ridge might be set up in federal penitentiaries, for those prisoners who were interested. The group also asked Dr. Boyd what changes he would like to see in the law, to make his job easier or more effective. He told them he would like to see information which passes between patient and therapist treated as privileged. He said some of his staff had been sub-- poenaed to testify: against a patient in a 42 pages _ judge Penetanguishene citizen Wednesday, February 9, 1977 murder trial in Thunder Bay. They had managed in a voir dire, to make use of such terms as "'interrogation", to convince the that any information they had acquired, had been obtained while the patient was under duress, and was therefore inad- missable as evidence. However, he said, their luck might not hold on another oc- casion, and they might legally be forced to testify against a patient. This should not be allowed, he said, if the therapists were to retain the trust of the patients. Went on tour After lunch, the group went on a guided tour of the hospital, and saw the various wards where the patients live and work. In some of the wards, the legislators saw ward meetings, and therapy sessions in progress. The group was divided into smaller groups for the tour, and each smaller group was accompanied by staff members, and patients, who answered any questions put to them. Cont'd on p. 3 of Colour Comics Vol. 10, No.6 20 cents CNR petition complete Three leeal---citizens' are~ now awaiting reaction to a petition they assembled requesting that the abandoned CNR right-of- way which runs through Simcoe County be used for recreational purposes. New NIP chairman chosen Bill Stevens is the new chairman of the Neighbourhood Improvement Program (NIP) Steering Committee. He replaces former chairman Ray Baker, who was forced to give up his spot on the committee when he was elected to Town Council. Baker was the Penetanguishene Planning Board representative on the committee. The new Planning Board represen- tative on the committee is Willard Duquette, a veteran of the Planning Board. The appointment of Stevens as chairman was made. at a committee meeting held Monday night. The committee also decided at Monday night's meeting to set Winterama update February 24 as the tentative date for the next public meeting in the new East End NIP area. Slated for discussion at that meeting will be the finalized list of projects to be undertaken under the NIP program, with a breakdown of the costs of the program. NIP co-ordinator Steve Fournier said Tuesday morning that a list of the total costs would be available by that date, as well as a breakdown of how much would be picked up by the senior levels of government under the NIP financing scheme, how much would be paid by the municipality, and where the municipality might be able to recover some of these costs. Dave Brooks, Alan MacLeod and Benyse Ashby began circulating the petition last fall, after they learned that the land, which runs from Penetanguishene south through Simcoe County, might be sold by the railroad to abutting land-owners. They knew the Tiny Tay Peninsula Planning Board was_in- terested in seeing that the land was retained in public ownership, and they decided the land should be used as a linear park. The three presented the petition, which contains about 240 signatures, according to Brooks, to the councils and planning bodies of the municipalities involved and the county, and to different departments in the provincial government, last month. Brooks said last week the group has _ received even more signatures since the petitions were sent out, but financial restraints prevented them from forwarding copies of those to the various government bodies. He pointed out that "we're operating outof our own pockets, so we weren't too anxious to send out the rest". He said if they are approached for more information about the petition by any of the people they sent it to, they will pass on the extra signatures. Brooks said the three did not have any plan yet for a follow-up to the petition. He said they would just wait to see what is going to Basketball tournament will be held The Penetanguishene Winterama organizers have announced the finalization of plans for a Winterama Basketball tour- nament to be held on Saturday, February 19 at Penetanguishene Secondary School. The tournament, which will be open to Jennifer Gilbert is a 15-year-old grade 10 student at Penetanguishene Secondary School. She says she wants to become an elementary school teacher, and she entered the Winterama Queen contest for the ex- perience of being Winterama Queen for a year. Staff photo players under the age of 20 as of September 1, 1976, will begin at 9:30 a.m. The tournament has been held for the past four years, and Penetanguishene has yet to win it. In 1972, a team from Base Borden walked away with the top honours, and in 1973 it was Midland. Banting was the big : z * 'a a Th ree Winterama Queen contesta nts Denyse Meredith, 15, is an English student, in grade nine at P.S.S., and she says she wants to be a social worker. Asked why she entered the Winterama Queen contest, she said, 'I thought it would be an adventure. I'd meet a lot of people." staff photo winner in both 1975 and 1976. The defending champion Banting squad will not be back this year, but teams from Midland Secondary School, St. Theresa's, Penetanguishene Secondary School, Barrie Central, Barrie North, Base Borden, Gravenhurst and Orillia will take part. Shelley Smith, 19, is a grade 12 business student at Midland Secondary School. She has yet to decide what she wants to do when she gets out of school. She entered the contest on the advice of an M.S.S. staff member. Staff photo Pictures of the other contestants will appear next week