Hometown News - Lanark, North Leeds and Grenville August 2018

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Vol. 5

No. 8

YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL NEWSPAPER - LANARK, NORTH LEEDS & GRENVILLE

AUGUST 2018

Smiths Falls takes pride in its diversity Aug. 18 Smiths Falls - Stacey Roy editorial@pd gmedia.ca The Smiths Falls community will be wrapped in the rainbow colours of the LGBT Plus community Aug. 18 so that it can symbolically embrace local citizens who identify as part of both the LGBT Plus and Smiths Falls communities. The rainbow flag will begin to fly in Smiths Falls on Monday, Aug. 13, 2018 when town council raises the LGBT Plus symbol up their flag pole as a show of support for that weekend’s firsttime event. James AE Perkins, chair of the Smiths Falls Pride and life-long resident of the town presented the flag to local politicians during their July 16 council session. However, it will not be the most visible flag to be seen that August weekend. Organizers were so pleased to hear that they would be loaned the eight-foot rainbow flag from the Cornwall Pride Committee for the Aug. 18 event. “I’m so surprised every day with the community support,” Perkins said. Council John Maloney has taken his support one step further and asked to walk with Perkins in the upcoming parade. “That makes a big difference”, Perkins said. The Smiths Falls father and local business owner remembers some hard years growing up in town with kids yelling in his face and bullying taking place during his teenage years.

“I never would have had the nerve or strength to go” to a pride parade, Perkins added of his teenage self. “But I would have felt so good knowing that I wasn’t the only one.” Breaking into the isolation that many who identify in the LGBT Plus community feel is something Perkins hopes this parade can do for the younger generation. Participants will begin to gather at 5 p.m. at the park beside Town Hall. They will leave at 5:30 p.m. down Market Street turning onto Russell Street and from there onto Beckwith Street where it will turn right onto Main and end up under the water tower by way of Old Mill Road. Support has come from Pride Committees from across eastern Ontario, including their sister committee in Perth who has hosted a Lanark County Pride Parade for the last five years. In fact, it was a discussion around hosting a Smiths Falls pride dance in support of Lanark County Pride that eventually evolved into hosting the Aug. 18 community event. Organizers see it as an enhancement to what is already available in the county. “The whole idea is for the entire community to come together in a family-friendly event”, added Heather Currie-Whiting, Smiths Falls Pride committee member. “We wanted a presence in Smiths Falls”. A community pot luck will be held under the water tower following the parade with a dance featuring music from the band

StarFire beginning at 7 p.m. Organizers ask those attending the potluck to please be mindful of allergies. The parade is rain or shine, but the dinner and dance will be held at the Ivy on William (William Street) if there is rain. Plans are still being made for a morning brunch to be held Aug. 19 at a time and location as yet to be determined. Since launching the Aug. 18 events, Perkins has been asked by some residents why the LGBT Plus community needs such a public event if society as a whole has accepted them. Perkins response is that it was only in 1992 that the World Health Organization removed homosexuality as being a disease. Also, Perkins notes the public celebration of an anniversary is still more comfortably accepted for heterosexual couples then homosexual couples. “Until heterosexuals stop asking this we’re going to keep needing a parade”, Perkins said. His hope is that Aug. 18 will not serve as a political statement, but as a supportive one to those who continue to not feel safe to be their authentic selves in their own community. “My job is not to convince people that something is right or wrong,” Perkins added. “Smiths Falls Pride is not mandatory”. He hopes next year’s pride event will be able to incorporate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots that took place at a night club in New York on June

James AE Perkins is chair of the Smiths Falls Pride Parade and a life-long resident of town. He encourages families who support the LGBT Plus community to come out Aug. 18 at 5 p.m. to let those living in silence know they are not alone. The town’s first pride parade will include a pot luck dinner under the water tower and dance featuring the band Starfire following the parade. Photo credit: Stacey Roy

28, 1969. At that time gays were being arrested if caught living their lifestyle and on this night the gay community of New York fought back. It was the following

year, 1970, that the first pride parades took place in New York and other notable American cities to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

Municipal election race gears up as candidates are confirmed across county Regional - Stacey Roy editorial@pd gmedia.ca The players have been confirmed and the race is on for this year’s fall municipal election season! The unofficial candidate lists were published across Ontario as of 2 p.m. Friday, July 27, 2018. This gives the voting public a full three months to vet their potential community leaders and decide who will earn their vote on election day, Monday Oct. 22, 2018. While this is the official

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election day for Ontarians, advanced voting will be opening up in communities from Oct. 15-22, 2018. The newly minted Councils for communities across the region will then be officially sworn in during a special ceremony to be held Dec. 1, 2018. Below is a quick list of confirmed candidates who are vying for a council seat across Lanark and parts of Leeds-Grenville. The list is presented in alphabetical order. Beckwith Township Mayoral candidates: Richard

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Kidd Deputy Mayor: Sharon Mousseau Councillor candidates: C. Faye Campbell, Evelyn Campbell, Tim Campbell, Brian Dowdall, Joe Dowdall, Kerri Nicholson-Watson Town of Carleton Place Mayoral candidates: Louis Antonakos, Douglas Black, Thomas Doiron, Ralph Lee, Roland Wutherich Deputy Mayor: Rae Dulmage, Sean Redmond, Craig Rogers

Councillor candidates: Jeff Atkinson, Jamie DeBaie, Theresa Fritz, Carolyn Gerbac, Tracy Kwissa, Kyle McCulloch, Wes Parsons, Mark Piper, Edward (Toby) Randell, Jennifer Rogers, Linda Seccaspina, Andrew Tennant, Paolo Villa Drummond North-Elmsley Township Reeve candidates: Stephen M. Fournier Councillor candidates: Ward 1: Paul Lambert Kehoe, Sean Kennedy, John Matheson,

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Quentin Norwood Ward 2: Susan Brandum, Cindy Laprade, George W. Sachs, Ray Scissons Lanark Highlands Township Mayoral candidates: Terry Donaldson, Peter McLaren, Brian Stewart Deputy Mayor: John Hall, Bob Mingie, Bill Neilson Councillor candidates: Ward 1: Susan Berlin, Ronald Closs, Linda Hansen Ward 2: Steve Roberts continues on page 3

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