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iln j jfffh5i economist suntribune tuesday nov30 1999 stouff a metroland community newspaper 37 sandifdrd dr suite 306 stoufiville ont l4a 7x5 publisher ian proudjbot general manager alvin brouwer editor in chief brenda larson director of advertising debra wetter deputy editor debora kelly classified manager ann campbell editor alshackleton retail sales manager stephen mathieu production director cherikay inside sales manager stacy allen distribution director barry goodyear business manager margaret fleming online publishing manager brian kxrlik office manager vivianoneil letters lawsuit over dog bite death wont bring courtney back any action of the trempe family now will not bring their daughter courtney back when will they wake up from their night- mare and realize that they act as if the pregnant woman who let her dog out of theliouse to play did it knowing the dog would attack and kill courtney where do they think this young family will get 3 million they want them to pay for the rest of their lives what will that do for the young children of this family for the financial stress com pounded with the already emotional stress do they not open their newspapers and see that dog attacks are rare do they not realize that people are killing people every day in this province the threat against people is from people not dogs clearly proven in their lawsuit against the dog owner the money they have spent on this vendet ta to have closure with their daughters death may be better spent with counselors to help them put this behind them and start living not dwelling on something they cannot change j the police officers the hospital staff the court staff the community and the humane society staff have done everything they could do to help to make this very unfortunate acci dent never happen again laurie vanzeeland stouffville adults must take responsibility for teaching children dog safety lets teach children the safety procedures to follow when encountering strange dogs lets teach them the proper way to be intro duced to strange or familiar dogs lets teach them which actions and reac tions provoke attacks lets remind children never to approach a dog with new puppies a dog that is eating a dog that is growling a dog that is sleeping in toronto an education officer with the humane society does such a job statistics show more than half of all attacks involve a person familiar to the dog opinion but what if there was never an introduc tion what if the child is not known to the dog what if the attack was in no way provoked what if the child had dog safety training what if the dog had ahistoiy of viciousnesswhat if the dog was not muzzled or restrained these are all relevant facts concerning the dog attack that took the life of courtney trempe the children did not climb a fence to enter the reybroeks yard they were invited the dog owner let courtney make a deci sion about her own well being around a dog she was unfamiliar with was this fatal attack in any way the respon sibility of courtney and the other children pre sent of course not the dog owner made the worst judgement call imaginable there should be no argument about that adults are responsible for the safety of chil dren if a child found a loaded gun and killed someone the minimum charge the gun owner would receive is unsafe storage of a weapon whether the owner thought the gun was unloaded is irrelevant lest we forget that a little girls life was sac rificed due to the remiss conduct of a dog owner my fiveyearold son was a witness to the horrific attack and our lives have been forever affected we shall never forget roxannemccoy beetonont former stouffville resident columnist on the mark with agricultural predictions i read with interest joan ransberrys col umn i am a richmond hill resident and i live in a ticky tacky house that sits on former prime foodproducing land the subject of the column is one that has concerned me for many years and caused me to worry about the future of the residents of this country the really frightening part of the development described is that the loss of the foodproducing land is final and permanent unlike other bad management practices that affect renewable resources such as the clearcutting of forests and over fishing there is no possibility of the recovery of lands lost to urban development i read recently that canada currently imports around 80 per cent of its food while i am sure this figure if accurate includes things like belgian chocolate caviar and tropical pro duce it is still alarming the possibility for future disaster is frightening it is also puzzling why when canada has such an abundance of nonarable land where almost any economic development would be beneficial there has been no impetus to devel op towns commerce and industry in such places to alleviate pressures on food lands by development i shall look forward to ransberrys future columns and thank you for drawing attention to this matter robert niddery richmond hill letters policy stouflvihetribune welcomes your letters all z submissions must be less than r 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the newspaper reserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space write letters to the editor 37 sandiford dr suite 306 ifemeikfi stouffvifle tribune serving the community since 1888 cesasff canadian clrculatlorss audit board member ontario press council i canadian publications mai product sales agreement m403419 subscription rates by mall 1 year 6955 tuesdays only stouflvibe tribune published every tuesday thursday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publishing and distributing ud group of newspapers which includes the ajavpiekering news advertiser alliston heraldcourier barrie advance barrys bay this week bolton enterprise brampton guardian burlington shopping news burlington post city parent colfingwoodvvasags connection east vbrk mirror erin advocatecountry routes etobicoke guardian 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never be able to match him he added julian fantino did not serve york region for long but it certainly was long enough to gain the deep respect and loy alty of the men and women he led and thanks to him the community has regained pride and confidence in a force that was in tatters fantino dusted them off stood them up and went about the business of restoring the force establishing core units increasing staffing investing in technology they dont want to lose their saviour yet it would appear they dont feel betrayed by his departure on learning fantino was breaking his contract even police services board chairperson margaret black only had congratulations the only tarnish on his golden glow wouldseemto be me subterfuge leading up to sundays announcement why the mystery when it was clear to everyone except yorks political leaders that he was leaving according to dave kingston head of the police union fantino told him he was staying what was that about the- only statement fantino did make was that he would not apply for the job he wanted to be courted some say because he lost out to retiring chief dave boothby that may be so yet who was he kidding other than yorks political leaders he went so far as to arrange meetings with people opposed to his candidacy heck lefs call it what it is coronation including torontos gay community and toronto police union boss craig bromell i yet as late as friday both york region chairperson bill fisch and black reiterat ed their belief fantino would not jump ship in fact black said the board had not even questioned him on his inten tions why not his departure leaves a vacuum when the force is still in need of strong leader ship to those who knew the man the move was not unexpected his ambi tions and loyalty to toronto where he began his career are transparent those who felt he had pledged undying loyalty to york may have misinterpreted his comments kalinski feels fantino remains the golden boy of policing a skilled arid reflective leader able to win over both the rank and file and political leaders his integrity untar- nishedyetrambiti