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Delayed a year, Pelham Soccer kicks off season
Pelham Soccer Club player Leila takes aim during a practice session last week on E. L. Crossley's artificial turf. BY DON RICKERS Voice Correspondent After the Covid-19 pandemic cancelled all summer sports in 2020, the Pelham Soccer Club is champing at the bit to get back into competition in 2021. Erin Pasma, the association’s president, told the Voice that practises are well underway at natural
grass playing fields located at Glynn A. Green Public School, Centennial Park, and Harold Black Park, and also on the synthetic turf field at E.L. Crossley. “We started in March when the provincial government and Ontario Soccer allowed it, but then got shut down in April,” she said. “With a soggy spring, it was nice to have the artificial field at Crossley.”
Pelham Soccer offers seven divisions for children ages three through 17. Some are single-sex, others co-ed. There is a house league, as well as competitive travel teams which play in the Niagara soccer League against squads from surrounding municipalities. Some teams have made it to the Ontario championship tournament. Typically, about 600 kids are in-
DON RICKERS
volved, making it the largest sports group in Pelham. Dave Hominuk, a chiropractor from Smithville, coaches an Under-11 girls competitive team, drawn mainly from Pelham, but with a few girls from outside the municipality. “In the first phase of return-tosports, social distancing is mandatory, and there's no competing for the ball,” said Hominuk. It’s all
about skill development…we make up games to keep it fun and entertaining.” Hominuk has two daughters who play, and serves as convenor for the younger age groups. “It's a small community organization, but doesn’t run well without people like Erin and countless other volunteers,” he said. Those interested may register at pelhamsoccer.ca.
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The Voice
A June 23 2021
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca COOKIN' WITH GAS
PUBLISHER’S CORNER
Bob MacNeil, of Niagara-on-the-Lake, was the lucky winner of the Fonthill Lions Club’s “Win a Grillfriend” Raffle, drawn on June 13, which saw him take home a Louisiana Grill valued at $750. “We are extremely grateful for the ongoing community support,” said club President Steven Pellerin. SUPPLIED
by Dave Burket
Another jam-packed issue: There’s no shortage of good reading this week, including some of the more interesting letters you’ll find in any publication. (More, please, from Mike Breaton and J. Anderson!) We also finally heard from a Pelham Car Wash supporter (p.4). As I write this, work has started at the car wash to erect the promised sound barrier, whose construction was permitted through a variance granted by Pelham Town Council. Meanwhile, on p.6, we hear from a resident who says he has confirmed that the air dryers in the facility are in fact a decade old...Enough to turn us into tree-huggers: John Swart’s column this week (p.18) takes us into the forest, and what he finds out about trees might just get you straight out into your local woods for a dose of goodness. For our part, we’re paranoid about ticks, but we’re hoping judiciously applied insect repellent will keep them at bay...Bugging us to no end: On the topic of undesirable crawly things, out of the corner of my eye the other morning I noticed what I thought was something on the kitchen ceiling. This is not uncommon, as my eyes seem to be attracting more “swimmers” these days than a Tokyo pool prepping for the Covid Olympics. It turned out, though, that there actually was something on the ceiling, and it was, bizarrely, a gypsy moth caterpillar. Sure, we all see them around, hanging by threads from branches, apparently hoping to use passing pedestrians as Ubers. We could understand unknowingly bringing one home with us on our clothes, but how in the heck did he make it onto the ceiling?... Clear as crystal: If you’ve wondered what all the noise is about related to Doug Ford invoking the Notwithstanding Clause, Political Science Emeritus Professor David Siegel lays it out so clearly that even I get it, p.10...Let’s not jump the gun: Before we prematurely declare victory over Covid, let’s bear in mind that the Delta variant—more contagious, more deadly—is here, and while numbers may be low now, we don’t know for certain how many cases may be going undetected. Please get vaccinated as soon as you can— and send us the selfie! On Monday, the Region added more vaccination clinic days. Anyone who received their first Pfizer/Moderna shot or before May 9 is now eligible for the second. Book it at Ontario.ca/bookvaccine or by calling the provincial booking system at 1-833-943-3900...Need some exercise? The route takes you pavement bathing rather than forest bathing—we’ve filled our open Fenwick carrier route, and now we need to do the same in Fonthill. See the ad, p.15...On the grill at the Grille: Please save some for us—the Pelham Street Grille is doing a half-rack of beef ribs special on Friday (p.13). We’re in...And just like that: Summer is officially here, yet this also means that as of Monday the days started getting shorter again. Yikes...As ever: Keep your masks tight and spirits up. See you next week. ◆
What's That
SIREN Pelham Fire Department Weekly Calls
The Pelham Fire department responded to seven calls for assistance from June 11 to June 18 Saturday, June 12 Medical assistance, Fonthill. Sunday, June 13 Medical assistance, Fenwick. Monday, June 14 Medical assistance, Fonthill. Tuesday, June 15 Medical assistance, Fonthill. Wednesday, June 16 Odour investigation, Metler Rd., Fonthill.
STROKE OF LUCK What started as a normal round for Katie Friesen and her golf partners Alicia Marshall and Anne-Marie Piazza turned into something special last Tuesday, when Friesen managed a holein-one. “The fact that the hole was also ‘Closest to the pin’ just sweetened the deal,” Marshall told the Voice. SUPPLIED
Voice
Thursday, June 17 Medical assistance, Fenwick. Motor vehicle collision, Victoria Ave, Short Hills.
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Vol.20 No.48
CELEBRATING OUR 20TH YEAR
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
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The Comfort Maple myth
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Column Six
Growing up British
Vol.20 No.32
Wednesday October 12, 2016
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Apple Day comes to Fonthill
BY JULIE MANNELL
Special to the VOICE
W
BALLOONING INTEREST Grade 6 student Jinja Shepherd explains her experiment on static electricity at the Glynn A. Green NATE SMELLE PHOTO Public School's annual science fair last Friday. See story, page 3.
Public meeting tonight on school issues BY VOICE STAFF As questions continue to mount regarding an email that Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn quietly sent to a District School Board of Niagara trustee last summer, Augustyn has agreed to address the issue at a public meeting scheduled for this evening, Wednesday, Feb. 8, in Fenwick. Nancy Beamer, speaking for “Names Matter,” a Pelham citizens group lobbying the DSBN to reverse its decision to rename a local public school, confirms that the meeting will be held at Fire Station #2, known locally as the Fenwick Fire Hall, starting at 7:00 PM. While the Mayor has agreed to ap-
Under pressure, Mayor to address email revelation, other E. W. Farr matters pear, says Beamer, DSBN officials associated with the school-naming process have either declined to attend or have not yet responded to the group’s invitation. DSBN Chair, Dale Robinson, to whom Augustyn’s email was addressed last June, has declined to appear, says Beamer, asserting that she would be
“on holidays.” The Voice was unable to independently confirm Robinsion’s intentions. She did not respond to repeated requests for comment on E.W. Farr-related matters before presstime. Beamer, whose group maintains an email list of some 580 residents, says that all members of the public are invited and encouraged to attend the meeting. “We would especially welcome parents and children who are unhappy with the name change,” she says, referring to the contentious decision by the DSBN to consolidate two Pelham See MEETING back page
HEN I WAS young, my father and I would go for long drives along the rural routes of Pelham. We’d blast George Thurgood and roll down the windows because we loved the smell of the breeze, the sensation of crisp Niagara wind beating our cheeks and tangling our hair against our summer-kissed skin. My father was not a sentimental man. He worked in factories and had a Gordon Lightfoot mustache and never shed tears over injuries. Yet something about the Pelham landscape, the hilly backdrop to his childhood and the childhoods of our ancestors, drew him in. He’d stop by a farm or a gathering of woods and, surrendering his manly veneer, tell me a story about the town. This place is precious. This is the earth that granted us life. Here is the place where we happened upon love or here is a site of devastation. On one particular drive sometime in the late ‘90s we stopped at a tree with a plaque. “This tree looks dead,” I said to my father. “It sure is getting there, Julie.” The Comfort Maple is supposedly Canada’s oldest See COLUMN SIX Page 14
Part 2 of 2: Coronation to embarkation
BY VOICE STAFF
A construction error was discovered following the opening of a traffic calming chicane on Haist Street north of Hwy 20 last Monday that prevented large vehicles from passing through. One resident living in the neighbourhood said he contacted the Town after seeing a small schoolbus get stuck as it tried to get through the new traffic calming measure. Later that day while driving behind a cement truck, he said that he became concerned for the public’s safety when the truck had to turn around because it couldn’t get through. “If a small school bus and a cement truck can’t make it through what about a fire
BY HEATHER McLAREN ROHRER
Special to the VOICE
A
Repair measures underway last week to correct a construction error in the chicane. truck or an ambulance?” he said. While waiting for the contractor to return to fix
the mistake, the Town has taken measures to temporarily allow passage for vehicles through the neigh-
VOICE PHOTO
bourhood in the short-term. Manager of Public Works Ryan Cook said that after discovering the issue with
the chicane the morning it first opened, the Town See CHICANE Page 5
Petition-inspired changes coming to 2017 Summerfest BY NATE SMELLE
The VOICE
Representatives from the Pelham Summerfest committee Candy Ashbee and Bill Gibson presented council with a final report on the 2016 Summerfest at the Council meeting on Monday, Nov. 21. Prompted by a story in the Voice in August about a merchant petition to move Summerfest from Pelham Street, in September Town staff met with various stakeholders to hear their complaints, promising at the time that changes in the way Summerfest was mounted would be con-
sidered. The main concerns identified during the community engagement process were security, parking, ensuring customer can access all businesses in town, and liability for damages. How to get all Pelham Street businesses to participate and finding ways to make it beneficial for them to set up a booth were also determined to be of high priority for the committee as they plan for next year’s event. Gibson told Council that the committee is addressing these concerns in a variety of ways. To improve parking, they intend to create bet-
ter signage for out-of-town visitors to designated parking areas and shuttle services. To make participation in Summerfest more enticing to local businesses, they plan to implement a tiered-charge for booths. Under the new system, Pelham Street business owners will be charged the least, other local businesses will pay a slightly higher fee, and vendors from outside Pelham will pay the most. In response to more specific issues for individual businesses, they will also slightly alter the footprint of the event and make adjustments to security. Another way the committee plans
to improve the 2017 Summerfest is by sponsoring and working with the organizers of the Thursday Night Bandshell Concert series to select the artist performing on the first night of Summefest. They also intend to make more use of the smartphone app they launched in 2016. "We are really going to push it this year," Ashbee said. “It really helps to get people to see what events there are so they can plan out where they are going. We will be able to actually help the merchants and local businesses adSee CHANGES Page 5
FTER LUNCH ON Saturday, Mum and Dad had my afternoon cut out for me. Mum had more brass than anyone I knew, and it had to be cleaned. In addition there was the set of silver fish-knives and forks which were never used, but which had to be cleaned and put back in their velvetlined box. Next was a walk to the newsagents to pay for the daily delivery of the Daily Mirror. As I said, Dad was a printer, but when he was 37 he had been rejected for a job, as being too old, by the printers of the Beano. For that reason, my favourite comic was not allowed in the house, but while I was paying the papers, the newsagent let me have a 'shoofty' at the Beano. I'd explained my predicament and he understood completely. Sundays were different again. Dad would play golf on summer mornings and billiards in winter. Then he'd stop for a 'refresher' at the local and would pick up the prawns, cockles, winkles or whelks we'd be having for tea later. Meanwhile, Mum was roasting the 'joint' and potatoes. I got to make the Yorkshire pud, and mint See COLUMN SIX Page 14
BY VOICE STAFF
While shopping in Fonthill between Friday and Sunday, keep an eye out for Beavers, Cubs and Scouts in front of local stores with bushels of apples. As part of the annual Apple Day campaign, Scouting youth of all ages will be trading apples for donations. The yearly fundraising drive is an important way for young Scouts to connect with the communities they are serving, says Leah Marie of Scouts Canada. “The Apple Day campaign holds a great tradition of being able to have youth interacting within the communities they live in,” she says. “All of the Apple Day donations stay directly within the group that re-
The goal is to have these youth develop into confident and well-rounded individuals
ceives them, enabling youth to have experiences that build character, challenge them, and allow them to try new things. The goal is to have these youth develop into confident and wellrounded individuals, better prepared for success. Apple Day helps to achieve that.”
“Any money raised during Apple Day goes towards improving the Scouting program by providing more outdoor adventures for youth, camping equipment, canoes and paddles, training and many other endeavours that the youth want to experience,” says Marie. Scouts Canada has some 100,000 members across Canada, and carries out programs for boys, girls
The VOICE
Joining their principal, Karen Simpson, at the Sept. 19 Council meeting as part of a delegation from EL Crossley Secondary School, students Abby Loewen and Neenah Williams presented Council with a list of reasons that they should immediately approve the construction of the new sidewalk proposed along Hwy. 20. The asphalt side-
walk/trail is slated to be built between the south side of the road from Timmsdale Crescent to the high school. Because of the large volume of motor vehicle traffic travelling at high speeds through this area, and because of the necessity for students to tread this path on a daily basis, many residents would like to see the sidewalk go in sooner than later. After delivering to Council a petition containing
Many residents would like to see the sidewalk go in sooner than later the names of 450 students calling for a safer walk to school, Simpson handed the
podium over to Loewen and Williams to plead their case. Loewen told Council that because there are a lot of students who have work placements and coop placements during the school year, this is the only route for many of them to travel. As one of the students facing this predicament, Williams said she has had no other option but to walk along the dangerous highway.
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H EATHER AND P ENNY L ANE S ALES R EPRESENTATIVES
BY JOHN SWART
VOICE Correspondent
and youth ages 5-25. This year the 3rd Fonthill Group, which includes Beavers to Ventures (youth ages 5- 25) will be hitting the streets to drum-up support. Over the weekend, Scouts will be set up in Fonthill outside Sobeys, Tim Hortons, Target Gas station, Fonthill Shopping Plaza and the Pioneer Gas station at the corner of Hwys 20 and 24.
Town Council approves sidewalk to serve E. L. Crossley BY NATE SMELLE
Cell 905.933.3049
T
Second year Beaver with the 3rd Fonthill Group, Russell Letford offers a fresh apple to shoppers SUPPLIED PHOTO in Pelham during the 2015 Apple Day campaign. A longtime Canadian tradition, Apple Day began in 1932 in Saint John, New Brunswick, when Scouts handed out 21,000 apples as a way to say thank you to the community. In return for their generosity, many people offered them donations. From then on Scouts have reached out through Apple Day to raise funds for their programs.
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Column Six It doesn’t get better than Autumn
Longtime Scouting tradition dates to 1932
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BY VOICE STAFF The District School Board of Niagara is requesting that the Town of Pelham cede a portion of Cherry Ridge Park for use as a soccer field to serve the students of the new Wellington Heights Public School, formerly the E. W. Farr Memorial Public School, in Fenwick. Currently under renovation and expansion, the new school will combine students and staff from the previous school and Pelham Centre, where classes are being held while construction continues. Two letters, containing virtually identical text but signed by different authorities, were sent last week to nearby residents of the park, as well as to parents of Pelham Centre students. “The DSBN is currently building onto Wellington Heights Public School on Alsop Drive,” states the letter. “The size of the school's addition means the existing small soccer field will be eliminated. The Town and the Board have been discussing the possibility of working together to create a field for both the school and the
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In an effort to bring further attention and deterrence to driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs, the Niagara Regional Police Service reports the names of those people who are charged with an alleged criminal impaired driving offence in the Region. None of the following charges have been proved in court. In addition to being charged, these individuals are also bound by a Ministry of Transportation 90-Day Administrative Driver’s License Suspension and are prohibited from operating a motor vehicle on a roadway. The public is encouraged to contact the Niagara Regional Police Service Traffic Safety Hotline or Crime Stoppers to report those who are driving in contravention of the suspension. The following individuals have been charged criminally with impaired driving by alcohol or drugs, driving with a blood alcohol concentration above 80 mgs of alcohol in 100 ml of blood, or refusing to provide a breath / blood sample. Brayden HICKS, 19, Port Colborne Elizabeth G. DINGA, 55, West Lincoln George A. POLACH, 62, Welland Jules RIVERA-MONTERROSO, 28, St. Catharines Akshay CHOUDHARY, 24, No Fixed Abode Stephen W. DAVIS, 38, Niagara Falls Robert J. GAGNE, 32, Niagara Falls The Niagara Regional Police Service is committed to reducing impaired driving offences through education and the apprehension of offenders through enforcement programs like RIDE. Impaired driving is still the leading cause of criminal deaths in Canada and destroys thousands of lives every year.
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“I start work at 2:30 PM and school lets out at 2:15 PM so I can’t take any other route,” Williams explained. “I have had friends, family, teachers and other community members reach out to me in the past about how this is unsafe and how there should be another alternative for us.” Looking ahead to winter, when she will need to walk this path three or four times See SIDEWALK Page 2
HERE IS NO BETTER time to cycle than Fall. It matters not whether you’re new to the sport, a seasoned recreational cyclist, racer, touring rider or mountain biker; we all have reason to look forward to autumn. Summer’s heat has faded, and the streams of sweat that ran from soggy helmets into our eyes are now just slight perspiration. Fitness is peaking from lots of saddle time, making those tough climbs of Spring a breeze in Autumn. It’s hard to beat the feeling of beginning a crisp, cool Fall ride with a slight shiver, knowing your efforts will soon warm you perfectly. The hues of Autumn are outstanding. A Pelham route as simple as following our southern boundary is one that would make most Toronto cyclists jealous, especially when our forests and fields are ablaze with colour. Begin from Harold Black Park, and zig-zag south along Effingham Rd toward the Welland River. If you’re new to cycling, it’s important to know south is the direction away from any hills. If you avoid the morning and evening weekday rush hours caused by those travelling through Pelham between Wainfleet See AUTUMN Page 3
Indulgence Bakery Mossimo’s Pelham Street Grille Peter Piper’s Pubhouse DeVries Fruit Farm Beamer’s Hardware Pelham Libraries Bob’s Boys Antiques PharmaChoice Pharmacy Fonthill Fitness Fenwick Pie Company McDonald’s Duffin Appleworks Fonthill Legion Semenuk’s Gas Bar Shoppers Drug Mart Tim Horton’s Giant Tiger Fonthill LCBO Zee Lube Express Care Food Basics Minor Bros Stores Avondale Stores A-1 Market Boggio's IDA Sobeys South Pelham Grill on Canboro Shell on Hwy 20 Circle-K
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P D S A W A N M L R O J O J
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A June 23 2021
PRIDE MONTH 2021 | GROWING UP LGBTQ+
A double life BY ANONYMOUS
I
have been terrifically moved to read of the experiences of Mr. Trent Crick and Mr. Tyler Cook over the last weeks, so much so that I fear I have taxed the patience of the editor with my requests to add to and amend the following account of my own life growing up in Pelham, where I in fact still reside. There will be a major difference in my story, however, because I have chosen not to reveal my name except to said editor, who has pledged that it will remain undisclosed. The reason for this relates to my family. I am in an entirely different circumstance to those of the two younger men whose school years were in the 1980s and 1990s. I came of age many years before. I got married, and had children, and our children had their own children. None of them know, and I have to surmise do not even suspect, that for many decades I have lived a double life. I must be prudent in describing the circumstances of my upbringing and working years, as too many details—or “breadcrumbs” in the words of Mr. Cook—could well lead to my being identified. Perhaps you are wondering why occasion to write anything at all if I am not to be fully honest, and my answer to this is that I shall be completely honest, but only up to a point. Through this essay I want to unburden myself of a certain quantity of guilt over my deception, but I also want to explain it, and I want to make it categorically clear that our society’s knowing deceit about homosexual behaviour goes back many decades. ur family like many here lived among farmland, although my parents were not farmers themselves. Both my parents came from large families, and I too had many siblings. Both my parents’ families had resided in Niagara for some few generations. We don’t have roads or bridges named after us but old-timers would recollect our family names. I attended what was for all intents and purposes a one-room school through Grade 8. These were very happy times. I was a cheerful boy, and considered very sociable. I took part in almost every sport I could, in all four seasons, and had the scrapes and sprains to show for it. One of my parent’s siblings did own a working farm to the west, and visiting this uncle and aunt and my cousins was always an adventure, so much so that at weekends I and my siblings would beg our parents to take us on this ride out 20 Highway, which at that time ran almost solely through orchards and farmers’ fields. It was on this farm that I learned about the birds and the bees. Elaboration isn’t necessary—anyone who sees animals mating for the first time likely remembers these images forever. One of my cousins took it upon himself
O
to explain the reproductive basics to me—we were both ten or eleven— which I only half-believed, especially when he claimed that parents did the same thing to make babies. In my turn I took these details to school, and my telling them caused no little amount of shock and denials from my chums, although a couple of the local farm kids confirmed them as bona fide. I remembered these early days many years later and wondered whether they were responsible for my attraction to a certain type of male in general, to what for matters of simplicity I will call “rugged” or “outdoor” men. One particularity of farmers in the summer was how they looked when they took off their shirts, what came to be referred to as the “farmer’s tan,” when the face, neck, and forearms were darker than their chest and torso, because they worked under the sun but kept their T-shirts or work shirts on. I sharply recollect a late summer afternoon as I entered puberty, watching a hand on my uncle’s farm pitching hay into a horse’s stall. He was 19 or 20, not long out of school in any case, and for some reason he had taken off his shirt inside the stable. His back and chest were like pure cream, whilst his neck and lower arms were caramel. My heart beat so fast that I thought I might pass out. This memory is almost as striking today as it was these many decades ago. I don’t mean to say that this was my first inkling of desire, far from the case, but it drilled into my heart in a way that the curious play with boys my own age had not. We need to have a word about this. Any honest male of any age will admit to being curious as a boy to see other boys’ “equipment.” It takes very little to go beyond looking to something more. I don’t remember this as being anything other than normal, a part of growing up. There were a couple of popular swimming holes that drew a goodly number of chums of varying ages, and if there were no girls present we stripped off completely and jumped in. “Equipment” comparison was inevitable, and then relief of the consequent arousal. I stress that at least through public school no one called this out as unusual or deserving of bullying, because we were virtually all doing it. Having said this, it also wasn’t something we talked about, and assuredly not at home. Nothing sexual was ever talked about at home. The first time I had any sense of a taboo was occasioned right around this same stage, perhaps because I was starting to put two and two together. There was a term that kept being repeated on the radio (we did not yet have a television), which was “sex perverts.” This was because of the McCarthy hearings, when US Senator Joseph McCarthy
conducted a witch hunt against various groups, especially so-called communists and the aforesaid perverts. The perverts turned out to be “homosexuals,” another word that was new to me. I realize that now it may be hard to believe that a 12 or 13-year-old would not know what “homosexual” means, but it was a different, much simpler time, and we were after all out in the country. By the time I got to Pelham District High School matters had changed a little bit, but I was still rather naive. At this time I noticed that some boys were labelled “fairies.” For a good year or so I thought that being a fairy just meant being a “pretty boy,” which was another new phrase, and I thought being a pretty boy merely referred to a kid who was better looking than others. It wasn’t until Grade 10 that the penny finally dropped, which brings me to another point. Being a fairy or a pretty boy was bad because this was almost as bad as being a girl. This gets the measure of the male attitude of the 1950s. Fairies and females were the worst things one could be. At its root, homophobia is also a fear and resentment of females, resentment that becomes hatred. Anti-gays are misogynistic as much today as they were then. Gay-haters are woman-haters too. I am ashamed to admit (and have been ashamed for a long time) that on occasion I took part in this bullying. Even as I was having sexual liaisons with other classmates, I did not put myself in the fairy category, since clearly I was not girly, I did not want to act like a girl or be a girl. The phoniness gets worse, because even if we might have taunted a “fairy” at lunch, on many an occasion after school two or three of us were together in the bush or in someone’s garage, looking at a salacious (remember the era) magazine called “Playboy,” which one of our siblings brought over from across the river, and doing what, to us, came naturally. It was a truism that as the moments progressed we were looking less at the magazine pages and more at each other. As puberty hit like a ton of bricks I also became attracted to girls, and they were attracted to me. Unfor-
tunately for a randy teenager, the farthest you got with “nice” girls was kissing, and what back then was called “petting,” and if you really hit the jackpot “heavy petting.” If there were any not-nice girls at PDHS, I was unlucky enough never to go out with them. This tended to leave us males of the species mightily frustrated, with certain orbs turning blue. There was many a double-date when we would say goodbye to our girls and end up behind a barn or the back of a garage, alleviating the pent-up tension. y the last year of high school I started to get a hold on what stronger words like “queer” and “fag” meant. A bit before this time “homosexuals” had been back in the news, and two stories made a particular impression. The first was that the federal government banned homosexuals from immigrating to Canada, and the second was concerning a “ring” of homosexuals in Boise, Idaho that involved dozens of men and teenagers. What was shocking to people is that the men involved were “respectable” members of the community, lawyers and doctors and such. Yet my sexual desire did not diminish, and strikingly (as I look back) I didn’t think that (1) I was a fag, or (2) that there was anything wrong with wanting sex with other males. I must emphasize this. At no time in my life have I ever been ashamed of my sexual attractions, nor have I judged them to be in any sense “unnatural.” It was just the way I was, and I knew if I had these feelings then others did too, a deduction repeatedly proven accurate from puberty onward. In other words, I identified the disparaging labels of fag and fairy and so on with a personality type, not with the sexual activity itself. More on this later. Also at this time I had my first “serious” girlfriend, and later I also started having sexual experiences with older males. This is not going to please some old timers around town, but it is the truth. One of these males was a well known leader in Fonthill, a stereotypical “man’s man,” active in a baker’s dozen ways at once—church, sports teams, citizen committees—and I
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know for a fact that I was not the only one he took a liking to, because I confirmed it with others that he went with. Even though of course he is long dead, I will not name names. I will say however, that some of his other special friends are still very much alive, and they know who they are, and their disgusting anti-gay remarks in recent decades have been shameful. A few years ago I stopped going to the Legion because I couldn’t withstand listening to it any more from old men who as young men had enjoyed every minute of their time with Mr.-----, and carried on beyond that for years with other men, even after they were married. The editor suggests I make it clear that I am not condoning abusive or coercive relationships. I am not. I can only testify to my experience, as a 19-year-old, who freely sought out these affections, plus what’s more it was after I left school, the summer before I went to university. (I was never aware of this man or his friends having relations with anyone who was underage or even still in school. Remember that in those days there was Grade 13, so graduates were either 18 or 19 and considered adults.) [Editor’s note: If you are a young person and you believe that an adult is behaving improperly toward you, you may confidentially contact Kids Help Phone, 800-668-6868, www.kidshelpphone.ca, for help. If you are not sure whether the behaviour is improper, please call anyway to ask about it. This phone number is always on page 4 of every issue of the Voice.] In fact, it was this man (who was married with children) who gave me some counsel that came in very useful. First, he told me that male love was older than the Bible, that it went back to the very start of human civilization. Then he said that I would be surprised over and over to find out who would make a pass at me and that it was impossible to tell every book by its cover. Not everyone was an obvious “Mary” or “nance” or “queen,” all terms that again referred to shuddersome effeminacy. Finally he said that “our See DOUBLE LIFE Page 14
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The Voice
A June 23 2021
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca
OPINION
The opinions expressed in submitted commentary and letters to the editor are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the Voice of Pelham.
The Voice of Pelham is a 1211858 Ontario Limited publication David Burket, Publisher 2-1428 Pelham St., P.O. Box 1489, Fonthill, ON L0S1E0
COMMENTARY / OP-ED Shirley Lazareth
Molly's Meadow revisited
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uring May 2018, after my mother's passing at age 104, I found a wonderful way to utilize the time I no longer spent visiting her at Shorthills Villa, where she resided for 18 years. My time could now be spent creating a memorial not only to honour my mom but a project which kept me busy from May until September. It was the way in which I chose to grieve but in a positive, productive manner. When I told my husband of 65 years my plans to clean up the boulevard beside our Fonthill home, he, being a very practical man, inquired, “You do know that's town property, don't you?” Shades of our wedding vows, I replied, “I do.” “And you plan to do exactly...what?” he smilingly asked. “Well, first I'll weed, then put down soil and seed, and water, of course,” I happily explained. “And who pays for all this?” my doubting mate responded. “You do know it still belongs to the Town!” “I do,” I repeated once again. “I will pay. It will be my way of holding little Molly close to my heart.” So it was settled and the
physical work began. The grass grew. Paul's Lawn Care took over the cutting of the sleek green shoots and Lawrence Lawns handled what remained of the pesky crabgrass and other wandering weeds. Time passed. Molly's Meadow thrived. So did
Perhaps they were surprised to see this old senior marching up and down the boulevard, hose in hand
the water bill. The beautiful long expanse of green velvet that bordered our little home could now give a golf course a run for its money—well, almost! The year 2019 came uneventfully. I continued my weeding and hosing and the lawn looked luscious. Neighbours waved and smiled as they walked or drove by. Many signaled a thumbsup. Everyone appreciated the hard work it takes to
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maintain a cared-for lawn and perhaps they were surprised to see this old senior marching up and down the boulevard, hose in hand, spotting weeds at 20 paces and yanking to her heart’s delight. And so some even honked their horns. Life was good! Then just a few weeks before Christmas, my young sister passed away very suddenly from an unsuspected cancer and in January 2020 I too was diagnosed with colon cancer. Then, Lord help us, Covid struck! My thoughts of lush jade lawns died on the back burner. I barely knew nor cared what grew or survived on the boulevard beside our home. Covid did that to us. In reality I fought to keep our home and we three who dwelt within it free from the virus. Finally, after months of isolation and incredibly long and lonely days, Pfizer and Moderna came to our rescue. We were overjoyed to receive our shots in the arm with the promise it brought of better days to come. My husband and daughter had no serious side effects but strangely I suffered two clots in my right “digging” leg. A month's treatment See MEADOW Page 6
Letters Levay should be commended, not condemned I am writing this letter in support of car wash owner and Pelham citizen Gail Levay. Gail is a proud and enthusiastic resident and business owner in Pelham, with years of being a generous contributor to our community. She has shown a willingness to adjust her operations to satisfy the objections of some of her neighbours, going much further than many of us would have by reversing the traffic flow through her car wash and erecting a noise barrier. I also live in the downtown of Fonthill,
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CONTACT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS Member of Federal Parliament
Electoral District: Niagara West
Dean Allison, MP 4994 King Street Beamsville, ON L0R 1B0 Dean.Allison@parl.gc.ca 877-563-7900 Member of Provincial Parliament
Electoral District: Niagara West
Sam Oosterhoff, MPP 4961 King St. East, Unit M1 Beamsville, ON L0R 1B0 sam.oosterhoffco@pc.ola.org 905-563-1755 Members of Niagara Regional Council Councillor Marvin Junkin mjunkin@pelham.ca 905-658-2987 Councillor Diana Huson diana.huson@niagararegion.ca 905-324-3094 Town of Pelham 20 Pelham Town Square P.O. Box 400 Fonthill, ON L0S 1E0 905-892-2607
next to the same busy roadway where traffic has increased significantly in the 30-plus years since we moved in. I recognize that living near a main thoroughfare and commercial district there will be significant noise relating both to traffic and the operation of business. My only expectation is that a business be operated within Town of Pelham bylaws. When a business goes above and beyond to accommodate neighbouring resSee COMMENDED next page
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The Voice
Page 5
A June 23 2021
OPINION Possum not faking it About the only time you want to hear, “Hello, Possums,” is when greeted by Dame Edna Everage. Alas, my spouse and I were out for our usual daily walk at high noon last Wednesday along Welland Road, near Fern Gate, when we perchance happened upon one of these beady-eyed nocturnal marsupials. He was doing an excellent impression of playing his classic role on the macadam, truly an Academy Award-deserving performance. So life-like was his pretend death that it soon became clear that he had, in fact, sincerely shuffled off this mortal coil. He left a handsome corpse, so it is likely that he was literally bumped-off by a motorist passing in the night. Upside down, his eerie claws up in the air, he was very much visible to passing traffic given that he was no spring chicken possum. His ample girth suggested a long life of omnivorous snacking on worms, fruit, frogs, and pet food foolishly left outside. We paid our respects to his departed spirit and strolled on, confident that our Town’s
crack Public Works crew would spot the fellow and transfer him with all due dignity into the appropriate receptacle in short order. The clever reader will have deduced by now that had this occurred there would have been no reason to write this letter. In fact, as I type these words on Saturday evening, four days later, our dear departed possum has transformed from a handsome corpse into something resembling chunky grape jelly covered in fur and approximately 10,000 swarming maggots. The odour, I can assure you, puts the “ich” in “rich.” How is it possible that a dead animal the size of a Japanese subcompact can go unseen by Town workers on a thoroughfare as busy as Welland Road? Surely residents are not expected to call in every request for gob-smackingly-obvious service, are we? Please, we beseech you, o Public Works, kindly shovel up the puddle formerly known as possum and return our neighbourhood to olfactory peace. J. Anderson Fonthill
Open letter to Mayor Junkin Let me get directly to the point. When you closed your comments in the opinion page of last week’s paper [It’s patio time, but same households only, June 16, p.5], what you probably thought of as humour—“Now, to find the little woman and go find a local patio to support!”— came out as a blatantly sexist remark that is not acceptable coming from the political chief of our municipality. However you choose to refer to your wife as in private is your business, but when you speak as mayor, you speak for all of us, so if you made a racist, homophobic or other similar remark, you would be condemned. Similarly a sexist one. I, for one, am offended by your remark, and, by the way, she is not “the wife” either, but your wife. Joe Bouchard Fonthill
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continued from previous page idents, that should be commended, not condemned. These are trying times for everyone including residents and business in Pelham. People are edgy from months of being
subjected to pandemic-related restrictions and anxieties, things beyond our control. We are all more reactive as a result. I hope we can all move beyond this, be a little more tolerant, and work together to enjoy the summer. Dave Schulz Fonthill
PELHAM AND COVID-19 Mayor Marvin Junkin
Potential Delta spread keeps the eating outdoors for now
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on’t live in fear.” These are the words of Alberta’s Premier Jason Kenney before unveiling that province’s reopening plans, which, to say the least, are bold. After hitting that government’s goal of getting a first vaccine dose into 70 percent of the eligible population, Alberta will become the first Canadian jurisdiction to drop all restrictions just in time for Canada Day. Other than a few restrictions to be kept in place in long-care homes, Albertans will be free to shop, dine, and gather indoors with no provincial indoor mask mandate, and no mandated social distancing. Needless to say, the rest of the country will be watching Alberta’s Covid numbers in the coming weeks. In Niagara Region, daily new Covid cases continue to remain low, being under 20 per day for the most part. Section 22 remains in effect, with most people believing it will be lifted next Friday. The main reason Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr. Hirji insists on keeping this restriction in place is due to the potential spread of a more contagious
variant from India, known as the Delta variant. However for the last three weeks that number remained at three cases, so it isn’t exactly spreading like wildfire in Niagara. With the low Covid numbers occurring also on
Needless to say, the rest of the country will be watching Alberta's Covid numbers the provincial level, the Ontario government is strongly considering moving up the Stage 2 reopening date. here were smiles all around Town Hall last week when it was announced that staff had been awarded yet another award of excellence—this has become an almost weekly occurrence, or so it seems! In the municipal world the E.B. Danby awards are viewed as the premier or most prestigious. Pelham Town staff have been unable to identify any previous win,
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or even a previous nomination for the Town, making this a first for Pelham. The Danbys are given in two categories—for municipalities with over 20,000 residents and for those under 20,000. Pelham’s win came in conjunction with the City of Ottawa, the City of Cambridge and the City of Windsor. The award was based on the Town finding safe, creative ways to bring large numbers of citizens together to vote in a safe fashion during a pandemic. Of course heading the team for overseeing our last by-election was recently retired Clerk Nancy Bozzato. A heartfelt congratulations to Nancy and her team! s were all Pelham residents, I was saddened to hear of the death of longtime resident Gary Accursi. In life he wore many hats, one of those being that of a Town councillor from 2010 to 2018. I had the pleasure of serving on council with Gary for three years, and during that time I got to see first-hand his dedication to the role of councillor and the professional, courteous way he carried out this duty. He was a top-shelf individual and will be missed by all. ◆
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The Voice
A June 23 2021
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca
Letters continued Children yet to be found
Car wash operators “hiding the truth” Contrary to the Town’s apparent position, it is, in fact, possible to enforce the noise bylaw to address faulty equipment. Bylaw Number 3130 (2010) page 4, Prohibitions Section 8 states: No person shall, at any time within the limits of the Municipality, cause or permit to be caused any noise created by any of those acts set out below and which noise is clearly audible at point of reception. Further Section 8(f) specifies: The operation of any mechanical equipment that is not operating or being maintained in accordance with the manufacturer’s specifications including any air conditioner, heat pump, hot tub, pool or spa pump, or filter or the like that is not in proper working order. So, the Town does have the bylaw tool to force an operator to maintain their equipment. Now how do we know the age of the car wash dryers? Well, Spencer Carter, car wash operator, declared “I’ve been all across this country building car washes and I can tell you that our car wash is no different from any other. Our equipment here is not old—we’re talking three, four years max.” After all, he should know, right? He bought it and installed it… his words not mine. First of all, their car wash is different than others because it is less than 100 feet from a residential community. That’s not only a big difference from most other car washes, it is the heart of the dispute between that car wash and our community. Furthermore, it is a situation which the Town itself has created and to which it is now turning a blind eye. So that statement is patently incorrect. Secondly, the equipment is not “three, four years max.” In reality the equipment is nine years and nine months old, having been built on September 9, 2011. As much as this may be a surprise to the owners of the car wash, it is clearly evident from reading the specification plate attached to the dryers. But don’t take my word for it. I called Baldor Electric in Burlington and spoke with two different technicians who both confirmed Sept 9, 2011 as the manufacture date
One of several photos of the car wash interior submitted to the Voice by the writer with his letter, in this case of a specifications badge attached to a blow dryer allegedly indicating that it was manufactured on September 9 2011. The car wash operators did not respond to the newspaper's request for comment. PAT GRAY based on the serial number. In the past ten years equipment advances in sound dampening and design on fan type devices have made enormous strides, spawned by pressure on the airlines industry to silent their jet turbines over cities. So maybe these old dryers are the reason for the high siren-like pitch they produce? After all, it’s a known fact that as dryer blades age they warp to create a higher pitch noise. Listening to two neighbouring car washes in Welland (Woodlawn, and Seaway Mall) those dryers are much quieter, suggesting that there are units performing to acceptable noise standards. Perhaps the Car Wash Guys at 151 Hwy 20 E
should simply consider inspecting their own dryers and repairing them. Maybe the bearings are worn or the blades are warped. Perhaps the Town should require an independent inspection which they can do based on their bylaw, before ignoring the basis of the noise issue—the noisy, old dryers themselves. Money plays an important role in starting any business and although it makes sense to try to get by with as little investment as possible, in most cases a new business owner will find it necessary to make a substantial monetary investment in starting their business. Opening an automatic car wash involves many considerations, location being an important one. But when considering opening one near a residential area, a conscientious entrepreneur would budget for the quietest equipment possible, not only in the spirit of being a good neighbour but also to avoid conflicts with the municipal bylaws and local residents. Less considerate business owners, however, might choose a more coldblooded, profit-oriented approach, which ignores the suffering of fellow human beings and utilizes reclaimed equipment with unknown operational specifications and questionable maintenance records. This strategy of course would rely heavily on the local municipality abdicating its responsibility to its citizens for the financial benefit of the business owner under the guise of promoting small business. What we’re suggesting here is not unreasonable, and is consistent with Councillor Wayne Olson’s approach —problem-solving at the basic level. Car washes and communities can live in harmony but compromise is a two-way street, and both sides must be willing to give a little. Perhaps Robert Louis Stevenson said it best: “Compromise is the best and cheapest lawyer.” So, let’s take a breath. Why must we make this noise issue a fouralarm fire when a bucket of effort against the dryers is all it takes to put out this blaze? Pat Gray Fonthill
Open letter to Dr. Hirji from MPs Allison and Baldinelli
Potential for ticks ticking her off Father's Day was Sunday and it was a most welcome respite to the lockdowns. People got their yards mowed, trimmed and clipped to enjoy a day devoted to the special father that gave them life. If you live beside Centennial Park in Fenwick, however, the fence that divides your special occasion and public land is rife with three-and-a-half-foot-tall weeds and the mosquitoes that come with them (and possibly the ticks) that line the fence. Unfortunately for us, the only shade we can enjoy is along that fence line. I have in the past, and since I moved here, done the Town’s job myself. I could no longer after five years continue. The neighbour has been up to the task and performed the duty a few times. I will admit that if I happen to be home while the park employees are up to their tasks, they are more than willing to cut the weeds. I have been told that it is done every two weeks. This, however, is not the case as the above picture will surely prove. People pay property taxes. Part of my rent goes to pay those taxes. Why should I not expect the same consideration that the rest of the park enjoys, including other property lines that are edged (although I don't know if they are edged because the property owner took it upon themselves to do the job, as I have in the past, because the Town has been delinquent in the chore). This is not my Pelham. I have lived here most of my life and things have surely changed, but bylaws are bylaws and the Town should abide by their own rules! C. Garrard Fenwick
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your leadership and dedication to public health over the past 15 months of this Covid-19 pandemic, and we understand the tireless effort required to balance health restrictions within the community during this challenging time. As we enter the second week of phase one of the provincial government’s reopening plan, we share the concerns of both business owners and patrons across Niagara, who are eager to offer their services to individuals beyond their immediate family members. Despite seeing a renewed sense of hope across Niagara, the enforcement of the Section 22 order, specifically that which limits dining to just four members of the same household, continues to be met with frustration. Niagara is one of the only regions in Ontario that limits dining strictly to individuals within the same household. Phase one of the provincial framework allows for outdoor dining with individuals beyond immediate family members, which not only helps our local restauranteurs, but also begins the process of a return to normalcy, which contributes to improved mental health and emotional well-being. With a decline in new Covid-19 cases across Niagara, we respectfully ask that you consider lifting the Section 22 restrictions for restaurants here in Niagara. Local restaurants have made substantial investments into health and safety protocols so they can reopen carefully and responsibly this month. Expanding the dining limits beyond one household would be a much-needed boost to their revenues and everyone’s mental health and emotion well-being. We thank you once again for your commitment to public health in our community, and we continue to support you in your role as Chief Medical Officer of Health for the Niagara Region. Dean Allison, MP Niagara West Tony Baldinelli, MP Niagara Falls
In lieu of the 215 children now found at the Kamloops Residential School a lot has happened to “shake up” Canada’s mainstream people. As Indigenous people we value and appreciate your support and there is much for you to learn now. We urge you to enlighten yourselves and your families as there is much more here than you know. When Europe showed up in North America, Indigenous people were not nomads, not few, not savage, not impoverished, not recent immigrants, and See CHILDREN next page
MEADOW
continued from Page 4 with anti-coagulant injections worked wonders and once again I am back in the meadow. It is there I quietly water the lawn and reminisce about happy times spent with Molly, my mother and my friend. I recall my mother's last words to me as I stood by her bed and held her hand three years ago. She feared nothing. Her faith was secure. But she did have one important question she asked of me and I will share it with you now. In her sweet voice she asked, “Will I see my mother again?” Through my tears I whispered, "Oh, yes. I'm sure Grandma is there just waiting to see you.” A smile of contentment upon her face she closed her eyes. I too wear a smile of contentment as I wander, hose in hand, up and down the beautiful boulevard I call Molly's Meadow. I feel her presence and know the tribute that I chose has given me the peace of mind we all need when we lose someone we truly love. For after all, life did begin in a garden. ◆
Ambulance response time way too long Last Saturday I was driving to the post office in Fonthill and I saw an elderly citizen who appeared to have collapsed on the sidewalk. I stopped my vehicle and after talking to the senior, who was 82- years-old, I called for an ambulance. I dutifully asked the questions they needed answered of the citizen in distress and was then informed that the ambulance might take "up to two hours" to attend. Is that the best we can do for those in need in our community? You have collapsed, you are 82-years-old, please wait on the sidewalk for up to two hours with a stranger? Fortunately as I was on the call to 911 a police officer was driving by and took over from me, demonstrating the care and compassion that was needed.
I want to be clear that I am not criticizing the fine work done by paramedics in the Niagara region 24/7. My concern is that if they are so severely stressed that this is the window of response, then why aren't funds in place to offer prompt emergency services? During the height of the Covid epidemic this kind of delay would be understandable. However, recent statistics indicate that Covid-related demands have dropped. Given the level of demand that clearly exists on the basis of this 911 call, coupled with the age and vulnerability of many in our community, this issue needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. N. Evans Fonthill
Daily noise now a fact of life Sunday was at one time considered a day of rest—once meaning going to church and doing very little else but, with permission to shop in Ontario being granted in 1992, Sunday became just like any other day, and the day of expecting peace and quiet one day of the week fell by the wayside. Unfortunate, perhaps, but those that abided by Sunday being a day of rest and did their utmost to refrain from noisy outdoor activities, such as grass cutting or leaf blowing, could then spread their chores over the week/weekend which meant we
could all expect some noise to occur any day of the week. There have been many more people at home during the past year or so and while we may be feeling inconvenienced by the restrictions we're under, it has provided opportunities for people and pets to get outside more for exercise and fresh air, to take pride in their yards and gardens with a little more muscle and enthusiasm, or improve the indoor/ outdoor living spaces with a new deck/patio, put in a pool or carry out some interior renovations to See NOISE Page 12
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca
The Voice
A June 23 2021
Letters continued Please bump this to the top of the list It’s a pretty sad situation when you write your Town Council and Mayor about a concern, and they don’t even have the decency to acknowledge your email. I have even contacted the Town’s road department with no response. I ask every year for the speed bumps to be painted on Haist Street, and the one and only time they got painted is when I had contacted the Voice letters to the editor. Speed bumps everywhere are painted whether they are in parking lots or on roads. The paint job the Town did that one year didn’t last very long. I can go into parking lots at Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire and the paint job on the speed bumps lasts more than one or two seasons, and even then when they re-paint the old paint job is still quite visible.
So it is with regret I have to go this route once again to try to resolve this issue. I ask please either paint the speed bumps on Haist Street every year, or do a proper job so that the paint will last longer, for everyone’s sake. Thank you! Mark Barnard Fonthill Editor’s note: We can testify from personal observation that not all drivers notice the road signs indicating a bump ahead, and many careen into them at a speed fast enough to risk damage to their vehicles. Since presumably the goal of speed bumps is to slow down traffic, not take out oil pans or gas tanks, painting the bumps in a high-visibility colour seems like a prudent win-win to us.
The Birdman of Asparagus I was in my local South Pelham Sobeys the other day, mask-slinking through the produce department doing the awkward Covid dance with the other patrons, when a bird —a starling, to be specific —landed on a cardboard display next to my head, trained his beady little eye on me and said, as plain as day: "Help me!" After a second or two of staring at me to be sure that I got the message, he flew off into the rafters to await rescue. Following a day of my mind circling back to that starling every time I heard or saw one of his cousins in my backyard, I felt compelled to phone Sobeys and enquire as to the fate of the bird. What do big boxes do about unwanted avian invaders? Turns out, in this case, it's likely to be a happy ending,
as the Sobeys staff members are actively attempting to live-trap and then release it. Good on ya, Sobeys; now I can stop being neurotic about it. For some reason I'm always affected by birds trapped in big box stores. They clearly have no idea how they got into their predicament and are just as much at a loss as to how to get out of it, and without help they're doomed to a lingering death by hunger and thirst. How ironic that a bird, the very symbol of freedom, should be trapped and starving amidst the bounty of a produce department. Not unlike so many of us at this end of the pandemic, he just wants to see the sky again. I hope he gets his chance. Mike Breaton Pelham
Proud of little brother I’m a week late with this note as Trent didn’t even tell me he was publishing his essay about growing up gay [A traumatic childhood over, but not forgotten, June 9, p.3]. But I couldn’t be more proud. I know I was part of the problem back then and while I realize that I was taught to act the way I did, it is not an excuse. I am now part of the solution and that made it so much easier when my daughter told me she was lesbian. I regret that I wasn’t progressive enough to adjust my beliefs until I went through the learning process with Trent, when he finally came out so many years ago. I understand there is still some resistance in the town to raising the LGBT flag for Pride month but I’ll encourage those of you who feel that way to read all the letters being published and imagine these people to be your brother or your daughter. Do you really think people would go through all the persecution you are reading about if being LGBT was a choice? And if it isn’t a choice, then how can we not love these people for who they really are? I’ve lived in LGBT-friendly California for many years but my heart will forever be in Fonthill. I’m proud of all of you who supported this initiative in the town too! Todd Crick San Diego
Open letter to Pelham Town Council I watched CBC this morning on Covid issues and the talk about opening the borders at the end of July. It now apparent that we will be going into much better phase of this lockdown. Seeing all the talk about opening the borders must mean that our society will be opened up as well. For democracy and transparency, I would like the Town and council to wait until the end of this lockdown to pass or to implement any policy or bylaws. This would allow for real public meetings on major topics that are of importance to the
CHILDREN
continued from previous page were not looking for salvation. Who do you think that this narrative, script, mantra and artificial construct served and why? Yes, Indigenous people had ancestry, currency, commerce, travel, economies, permanency, stewardship, inheritances, territories, languages, artistry, drama, ceremony, mourning, health care, politics, justice, penance, peacekeeping and still do. Every step is important, every person needs to know that in our defense of Indigenous human rights, we
residents of the Town of Pelham, such as second dwelling units, the proposed tree policy, Merritt Road expansion, and the increase in population in the town of Pelham. During the past year I feel that our public meetings by Zoom have not allowed for the people of Pelham to participate in a meaningful way nor can the public show their support for delegates, councillors, or Town employees. Mike Jones Fonthill
defend everyone —we raise the bar up, up, up. Canadian laws and UN law are not the highest moral/ethical/ legal standard; they are in fact the bare minimal standard currently in use. Do not accept the lowest possible standard that laws provide, rather seek to raise those laws to the standard of truth. There is thinking that money will solve all this. This is not about money. It is about realizing all the assets and power we hold and using it now. The “little ones” found at the KIB residential school have no cash to offer you. Their currency
is mobilizing change from a much higher place, and they are using all that they have in their collective divine basket to raise us to a higher bar. Do you as a settler feel overwhelmed by the recent news? Do you feel that you are only one person and cannot change the world? You can change the world. It all starts with you. You can take these simple steps to change our country: www. thevoiceofpelham.ca/simple-steps Bonnie Watts, Eagle Clan Anishinaabe Nation Fonthill
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The Voice
A June 23 2021
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Secondary Dwelling Units step closer to reality BY JOHN CHICK Voice Correspondent Secondary Dwelling Units (SDUs) appear to be on the verge of approval in Pelham following a June 14 Council Committee of the Whole meeting. The virtual gathering wasn’t without critique by councillors of the most recent staff report however, including Ward 2’s John Wink pointing out a potential loophole that could allow landowners to build higher structures than the existing primary dwelling on a given property. “My concern is you’ve got a bungalow, and you can put a two-storey second dwelling unit behind it, and it will detract from the look of the neighbourhood,” Wink said. Such a design could be viewed as optically poor in the “urban zone” of Fonthill. Director of Community Planning and Development Barb Wiens acknowledged that the verbiage of the proposed bylaw could be cleaned up, saying that allowances have been built in to permit someone to construct an SDU over a garage. However, as Wink pointed out, the majority of garages in Fonthill are attached to primary residences, whereas separate garage structures tend to be more common in rural areas on bigger lots. Wink’s fellow Ward 2 Councillor Ron Kore agreed with him. “It just wouldn’t make sense, especially if you walk [Strathcona Drive] where you have these single-level dwellings and all of sudden you come upon in the backyard you see a two-level building,” Kore said. “It just wouldn’t suit
the neighbourhood.” Wiens said she heard the concerns “loud and clear” and would make adjustments. Earlier, however, Kore seemed to almost voice suspicion over the basic idea of SDUs after being told by Wiens that a property owner is not legally required to live on their property that would have an SDU. “So then, we’re just creating duplex and triplex units … so there’s a possibility of entrepreneurs buying these residences and flipping them over to duplex or triplexes?” the longtime businessman asked. Wiens explained that zoning bylaws cannot control who lives in a house. Kore briefly considered tabling an amendment, but then answered his own question. “Could we amend the policy … I’m sorry you answered the question, so we cannot force the principal owner to be a resident?” Correct, Wiens replied. “Through zoning that’s not something we’re able to do,” the director said. “It’s actually a Charter right.” Meanwhile, Ward 3’s Bob Hildebrandt took issue with staff for not including density targets in revised SDU forecasts. “I guess I didn’t make myself clear at the last meeting on February 8th, because I thought I specifically stated that I wanted the SDU counted as density and intensification, and I see there is no comments with regards to that,” he said. Wiens replied that while intensification targets were incorporated in the report, it is virtually impossible to count density tar-
gets because the Town has no way of predicting how many SDUs may be constructed. “If we do allow this to happen … we would then have to calculate the density on a theoretical basis, whereas in the intensification we can track it through the building permits,” she said. “We should include, even if you have to do a calculation,” Hildebrandt retorted. Wiens said staff would “look at it” but again stressed it wasn’t normal. “When we’re developing new subdivisions … it’s not something we have at that point in time,” she said. Wiens later said that staff expected about two to three percent of eligible property owners to apply to build SDUs. “We don’t expect over time that a large number of people would do this,” she said. Still, support remains strong among many residents considering where to house either aging or just-starting-out family members, or even those interested in creating revenue streams by renting out apartments. The only two members of the public to appear at last Monday’s meeting —Tim Nohara (also chair of the Town’s Cannabis Control Committee) and John Cappa (owner of an Emmett Street home illegally turned into a duplex)—both spoke in favour of SDUs. Mayor Marvin Junkin said several of his neighbours have asked him how the SDU matter is progressing. “I think initially we’ll see … quite a few people take advantage of this,” the Mayor said. “I think it’s a great thing for affordable housing, and great for the com-
munity.” Ward 1 Councillor Wayne Olson went a step farther, suggesting that the SDU size allowances in the rural/agricultural area be made bigger. They are currently proposed at a maximum of 1,000 square feet. “I think they could be 1,250 to 1,500,” he said. While it goes without saying that secondary structures could be bigger on larger land lots, Wiens said the proposed cap was related to water and sewage infrastructure. She added that an affordability balance was also trying to be struck. “Once you get to 1,200 to 1,500 square feet, you’re getting another house and it’s not necessarily going to hit an affordable target,” she said. Olson also brought up a program offered through Niagara Regional Housing (NRH), which provides forgivable loans of up to $25,000 for property owners who meet certain criteria to build SDUs. However, according to NRH’s website—which incorrectly lists “Fonthill” in its list of Niagara municipalities — those in the Town who wish to qualify need to have an existing property valued at $737,108, the highest of any in Niagara (Niagara-on-the-Lake lists a qualification value of $686,000, and Welland at $419,563). Ward 3 Councillor Lisa Haun brought up Pelham’s long-awaited parking study, which she previously sought to have released before council made a decision on SDUs. However, Wiens said the ongoing pandemic has delayed the parking study because traffic has
been at lower levels — something she expected to begin changing as restrictions are lifted. Haun said that her concern regarded SDU residents parking on streets, given that the Planning Act requires just one parking space per unit. Wiens said that as matters currently stand, that’s perfectly legal. “On-street parking is something we do allow in the Town of Pelham, except during winter snow events,” she said. Haun suggested that once the study was complete, perhaps parking and non-parking zones could be investigated further. One thing that apparently won’t be permitted is increasing the driveway size of townhomes, which are also set to be allowed to build SDUs under the proposed bylaw. Ward 1 Councillor Marianne Stewart voiced concern about this, saying townhouse yards are “notoriously small … and have inadequate parking to begin with.” Wiens said these aesthetics have been addressed. “We were quite deliberate in putting in the maximum width of driveways,” the director said. “We don’t want to see front yards being taken up and turned into parking lots.” When asked if an applicant could take such a request to the Committee of Adjustment for a variance, Wiens said they could, but would need to adequately demonstrate a hardship and need. Staff is expected to make revisions and bring the report back to Council in July. It’s conceivable the policy could come into effect by the end of summer.
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The Voice
Ben and Seb Goedhart, and Madison Robertson, with their Hope Centre donation.
SUPPLIED
Fonthill trio raises Hope
Bracelet sale revenue goes to Welland charity BY DON RICKERS Voice Correspondent Fonthill 14-year-old Madison Robertson, and her neighbourhood friends Ben and Seb Goedhart, ages 12 and 11, wanted to do something during the pandemic to give back to the community. They decided to make bracelets, or “loom bands,” out of beads and elastics, and solicited local families to purchase the bands and make donations to their chosen charity, the Hope Centre, on King Street in Welland. The trio of Glynn A. Green students earned approximately $400 in cash for their efforts, which they used to purchase food and personal hygiene products, as requested by the Centre. With summer beckoning, the biggest need was for sunscreen. “I’m very proud of myself, Ben, and Seb for helping those who are having a hard time during the pandemic,” said Madison. “Giving makes me feel good,” added Ben,
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A June 23 2021
while Seb noted that “We want to give a big thank you to the Fonthill and Fenwick residents who helped us bring smiles to people’s faces.” For some 40 years, the Hope Centre, located on King Street in Welland, has had a mission to assist the most vulnerable citizens in the community, by providing food and housing stability, along with counseling and training. The Centre advocates for change to the social structures that create poverty and homelessness, along with compromised health. A community lunch program, food bank, and housing stability programs are among their many services. The Centre also works closely with other local agencies, including the United Way, Harvest Kitchen, Salvation Army, and St. Vincent De Paul, District School Board of Niagara (onsite literacy and basic skills program), Canadian Tire Foundation for Families (Jumpstart program), and the YWCA (off-site transitional housing).
WILD KINGDOM Reader Carolyn Botari had a close encounter recently. “This little fawn came through the grass along the roadside
to greet me this morning,” she says. "It came right up to me before it wandered across the road and into the woods. Nothing better than an early morning in Fenwick." Meanwhile, in Fonthill, Bob Loblaw found Canada Post staffer Marcia Boros helping a wayward baby chipmunk to safety. "His mother is around here somewhere," she said, as she took care to give it a ride on her shoe away from the dangerous parking lot. CAROLYN BOTARI / BOB LOBLAW
Engage with the Town of Pelham about the Tree Management Policy and join the conversation:
https://engagingpelham.ca It’s as easy as:
1. Register 2. Engage Proposed Tree Management Policy The Town’s urban tree canopy is a source of civic pride and a major component of Pelham’s environmental health and future sustainability. Not surprisingly, the care and maintenance of municipal trees are a priority throughout the municipality. The existing policy states that the Town of Pelham provides the community with safe and healthy trees on municipal property, maintained and inspected regularly. However, it does not provide specific guidance for staff or direction regarding its application previously found within the Tree Planting, Maintenance and Replacement Guideline approved in 2000.
The 2000 Tree Planting, Maintenance and Replacement Guideline provides several labour and financial challenges to the department. The prescribed inventory development has not been completed, and the five-year inspection cycle is not feasible with the current staff complement. The proposed revision of Policy S802-01 is meant to provide an integrated set of objectives and procedures to form a comprehensive guide for the management of publicly owned trees in a fiscally responsible manner. Review the policy at https://engagingpelham.ca/tree-policy and have your say.
Contact Ryan Cook at 905-892-2607 x362 to provide input if online engagement is not an option.
Page 10
The Voice
A June 23 2021
Cannabis producers take Town of Pelham to LPAT BY DON RICKERS Voice Correspondent A Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT) case management conference has been scheduled for 10 AM on June 29, initiated by cannabis growers CannTrust, Redecan, and Woodstock Biomed (a subsidiary of Leviathan Cannabis), against the Town of Pelham. At issue is Pelham’s cannabis-related Official Plan amendment and zoning bylaw amendment, approved by Town Council last summer. The case management conference will deal with preliminary issues, including the identification of parties involved, matters in dispute that may benefit from mediation, establishment of a start date and duration of the hearings, receiving of motions, and directions for prefiling of witness lists, expert witness statements, and written evidence. Lawyers for the growers and the Town are expected to meet before the conference to consider a draft procedural order. The tribunal will issue a disposition following the event that will set out the directions of the case. A copy of this decision may be obtained from the tribunal’s website (https://olt.gov.on.ca/tribunals/ lpat/e-decisions/) by referencing case number LPAT PL200426. Tim Nohara, Chair of Pelham’s Cannabis Control Committee, told the Voice that the cannabis producers filed with LPAT last summer, after the Town approved the management plan and zoning amendments. “The official plan and bylaw amendments are proactive instruments to better manage future cannabis. It certainly has an impact on expanding cannabis, but the primary impact would be on future cannabis,” said Nohara. Should the cannabis producers take a position that they expect their product to be treated as a typical agricultural crop, Nohara thinks that the Town would welcome that posture,
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca
PEOPLE AND POLITICS
by David Siegel
Election spending and the Notwithstanding Clause
“because agricultural products are managed… we have minimum distance separation, so you're not going to have a giant chicken or pig farm show up within a couple hundred metres of a dense residential area.” The challenge, said Nohara, is that when cannabis was sprung upon municipalities, there wasn't yet provincial or federal efforts to define minimum standards, so cannabis operations appeared anywhere, often very close to urban and rural settlements. “That's the issue. That's why we have coexistence problems,” said Nohara, who estimates that 200 to 300 local jobs have been provided by cannabis producers. “These products require a lot of hands to manage the product,” said Nohara, who acknowledged that many workers were earning low wages. “I don't think anybody is holding their breath, thinking that this is going to be done this year,” said Nohara. “My guess is this will get scheduled a year from now.” In the meantime, it will be business as usual for Redecan and CannTrust. “Essentially, what happens is the interim control bylaw is extended,” said Nohara, “so there's no new development allowed. But operations already in place can continue at the current level, with no expansion.” Nohara noted that this past this spring, the cannabis producers also filed notices to quash Pelham’s odour bylaw. “Hopefully, we'll see convergence towards coexistence, which would be good for everybody,” said Nohara. The tribunal will be held via video-conference. Residents may observe the proceedings at https://global.gotomeeting.com/ join/567785085. Persons who only wish to listen to the event can connect by telephone at 1-888-455-1389 (Toll Free) or 1-647-497-9391. The access code is 567-785-085.
P
remier Ford has drawn a great deal of criticism and some support for invoking the seldom-used notwithstanding clause in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This article discusses the issues at play in this controversy in two steps. First, I will discuss the “Protecting Elections and Defending Democracy Act,” which began the chain of events leading to the controversy. Then I will discuss the notwithstanding clause. Most Canadian jurisdictions have legislation that controls the amount of money that individual candidates, parties, and external third parties can spend during or in the period leading up to an election campaign. The phrase “third parties” refers to individuals or groups who are not affiliated with candidates or political parties, but who want to play a role in the electoral process. These could be corporations, labour unions, interest groups with positions on issues such as abortion or school curriculum, or just any interested individual. There are limits on the amounts that parties and individual candidates can spend during election campaign. This is usually seen as desirable because it prevents campaigns from becoming free-spending extravaganzas with the impression that elections are for sale to the highest spender. It also limits the extent to which parties or candidates will become beholden to wealthy donors. Legislation also limits spending by third parties to prevent evasion of the spending limits imposed on parties and candidates. In the United States, there are limits on the amounts that candidates can spend on their campaigns, but there are no limits on what Politi-
cal Action Committees (PACs) can spend to support or attack candidates. This makes a sham of the spending limits and forces prospective candidates to espouse positions that will attract the greatest amount of financial support. However, the idea of imposing limits on third-party spending is contentious because it clearly does restrict freedom of expression, which is protected by section two of the Charter. However, the freedoms enumerated in the Charter are not absolute. The very first section of the Charter says that these rights are “subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” How you feel about the concept of spending limits on third parties comes down to whether you feel that these limits are “demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” Ontario has imposed limits on third-party spending in the period leading up to an election campaign for some time. The new legislation passed by the Ford government extended the period defined as pre-election from six months to one year, but it did not increase the spending limit beyond the current $637,200. This legislation was challenged in the courts by Working Families, a coalition of three teachers’ unions. The Ontario Superior Court decided that the legislation was a restraint on freedom of expression, which was not “justified in a free and democratic society,” and invalidated the relevant sections of the legislation. This brings us to the notwithstanding
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The Voice
Page 11
A June 23 2021
"Don't call me a hero"
The patient is either unconscious or sedated— you start to understand the true meaning of isolation.
Nurse wants concrete action to improve mental health of front line workers BY HELEN TRAN Voice Correspondent For nurse Annie Mazmanian, the last 17 years of her career have contained many highs and lows. From years of study to become a Registered Nurse (RN), to training and mentoring new nurses, to working in the front lines of the ICU during the Covid-19 pandemic, her dedication to her patients and her job never wavered. What did suffer though, was her mental health and wellbeing. Due to her own work experiences during the pandemic, as well as the experiences of her fellow nurses, Mazmanian believes that the highly stressful and unpredictable working conditions for nurses during the pandemic have “brought some light to what is already a broken system within Canada, especially Ontario.” She hopes that by speaking about the long term issues that nurses face in the profession, they will be seen less like idealized heroes, and more like human beings. From a young age, Mazmanian knew that she wanted to become a nurse. As a child, she became interested in the healthcare profession through her interactions with her father, a surgeon, as well as observing various healthcare workers and her mother taking care of her
grandparents, who lived in the same house. Mazmanian said that after growing up around her elders, it was hard to see the elderly community hit so hard by Covid-19. She describes her lowest and saddest moments during the pandemic in a voice that was both strong yet trembling with emotion. “There’s no visitors allowed during Covid,” said Mazmanian. “As the only nurse in the room, you are holding up an iPad so that family members can say goodbye to their loved one. The patient is usually unconscious or sedated —you start to understand the true meaning of isolation.” For Mazmanian, overcoming her own struggles with mental health issues and work-related anxiety has emphasized the need for greater awareness of mental health struggles, anxiety, exhaustion and burnout in the nursing profession. She also wants to call attention to ways to improve the healthcare system and provide better practical support for nurses. According to the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA), Ontario has one of the lowest nurse-to-patient ratio in Canada. Further worsening the situation, the Ford gov-
ernment passed Bill 124 in 2019. This bill contained legislation that suppressed the wages of Registered Nurses, Nurse Practitioners, and healthcare professionals. Even though wages were increased by 1 percent, this is spread out over three years. The ONA also believes that Bill 124 negatively impacts nurses’ rights to bargain and has launched legal action against this bill, with the hopes of seeing it eventually repealed. The Covid-19 pandemic would rear its deadly head in 2020, further exacerbating the tension created by Bill 124, as well as aggravating existing issues of healthcare staff shortages. Mazmanian referenced a study, published in 2021 by the International Journal of Nursing Studies, titled The “nurse as hero” discourse in the Covid-19 Pandemic, as particularly enlightening regarding the specific language used by the government and hospitals to describe healthcare workers. In this study, main author Shan Mohammed and his team examined media coverage of nurses in 2020 across Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. The study found that the “hero” label used to describe nurses wasn’t simply an
Registered Nurse Annie Mazmanian.
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Letters continued If we don't take action, who will? Whilst we have awakening appreciation of the near-miracle of vaccination, our leaders appear to be less aware of the awesome potential for good of the United Nations Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Yet despite a recent national poll that found 74 percent support this treaty, Canada has not yet joined. At the recent Biden-Putin talks, there was agreement that a nuclear war cannot be won and should never be fought. The destructiveness of these bombs is now almost incomprehensible: some are 150 times more devastating than the non-nuclear explosion in Beirut last August, which caused 300,000 people to become homeless, and killed or injured over 75,000. And in addition, nuclear weapons cause harmful radiation, whilst multiple detonations would fill the sky with prolonged sooty darkness, causing crop failures and famine. In short, they are unique in their indiscriminate destructive power and the threat they raise to the environment and human survival . In Beirut, authorities were warned ten times over six years of the danger in the warehouse; they did nothing. Somehow, 76 years have passed since the first nuclear weapons were invented. It is time to end them before they end us. Deterrence by Mutually Assured Destruction is unacceptable planning for our grandchildren, who have much better uses for the trillions of dollars we are spending. The planners of military security are now confronted by civil society’s recognition that people are more insecure. This is a ray of sunshine. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has failed to deliver on its promise of complete nuclear disarmament. The TPNW prohibits all activities that relate to the development,
NOISE
continued from Page 6 enhance their homes. Yes, the long anticipated season of summer has arrived and the not- so-pleasant sounds of snow blowers and plows have been replaced with the sounds of this season's tools. Not to worry though, they will again be
testing, production, acquisition, possession, stockpiling, transporting, stationing and use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. Signatories also have obligations to assist individuals and communities that have been affected by the testing or use of nuclear weapons, and it sets out steps that nuclear armed nations must follow once they join the treaty. A designated competent international authority will verify and ensure compliance. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN )has organised a worldwide project to enable cities to embrace the TPNW as a way of messaging their national governments which, as ours here in Canada, have not yet joined TPNW. Cities are prime nuclear targets, and the security of their inhabitants is a major concern for city councils. Hundreds have joined this cities appeal, including Toronto and Oakville. I intend soon to ask Pelham Town Council to pass a motion to join the worldwide Cities Appeal, which is promoted by the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). This pledges council to support the TPNW and message the government of Canada with the request that Canada join the Treaty. (This would be building upon an earlier statement about 35 years ago declaring Pelham to be a Nuclear Free Zone). So I need your help. Please contact your councillor (better still, Mayor Junkin and all councillors) to ask them to support this. For more information, try ICANW.org, or me at dnicholson41@cogeco.ca As environmentalist Robert Swan has said, the greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it. Dave Nicholson (Dr.) Fonthill
put in storage and exchanged for the fall and winter collection of noise makers! There is still plenty of time to enjoy a morning coffee, an evening refreshment, a meal, a snack or even an outdoor nap...well, okay...maybe not every day. Sometimes Mother Nature interferes and sometimes our neighbours may cut in to the quiet time
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while they take a few minutes to cut their lawn and yes, sometimes the neighbourhood dogs need to bark at each other as they run off some energy and frolic about, but for the most part there is nothing like summer to enjoy the great outdoors when our backyards become an outdoor living space, an extension of our homes. Flowers bloom, their scent filling the air, and we are reminded of the lazy, hazy days of summer by the sweet smell of fresh cut grass. A day of rest is self-declared so, if someone else's plan doesn't coincide or seems to interfere, adjust your plan but keep in mind that one cannot fix a problem if they aren't aware there is a problem. How lucky we are to be living in the heart of Niagara! Susan Harwood Fonthill
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Page 13
A June 23 2021
Something for everyone on Canada Day in Pelham BY MEGAN METLER Voice Correspondent The Town of Pelham and the Niagara Region are running a large number of events, activities and contests for Pelham residents to engage in on Canada Day and throughout the month of June, leading up to the holiday. With a combination of virtual and socially distanced opportunities, there appears to be something for everyone. “Canada Day in Pelham will be a unique celebration again this year, embracing the day's spirit by adjusting to hybrid, virtual and drive-thru elements,” said a media release from the Town of Pelham. “Last year, events were entirely virtual, and while some virtual components remain in this year's lineup, several additions are interactive and will get residents moving safely throughout the town.” The celebrations include Canada Day charity t-shirts, celebration kits, a drive-thru parade, Pelham’s Great Canadian Talent Showcase, Virtual Mad Science Interactive Workshop, Virtual Interactive Magic Show and St. John Ambulance Virtual 5K and Kids 1K Run. Two online scavenger hunts through the Goosechase app will be running for this occasion— Pelham’s Great Canadian Moose Chase Challenge and the Canada Day The Niagara Way Challenge. The Home Decorating Contest and Celebrate Canada Drive By Tour and the Bike Decorating Contest are coming back this year with the addition of a Youth Colouring Contest as some of the competitive activity options available to participate in. The Niagara Area Artist Installation will also be a part of the Canada Day events.
Charity t-shirts
Limited edition Pelham Canada Day Charity t-shirts are being sold to unite Pelham residents this year and all proceeds will go to supporting Pelham Cares. The shirts can be ordered on the Town’s website and will be available to pick up from the Meridian Community Centre depending on pandemic restrictions.
Canada Day celebration kits
For some extra fun at home this Canada Day, celebration kits are available for Pelham residents. The kits include hand-waving flags, playing cards and more Canada Day-themed items. Registration for a kit and the curbside delivery location is on theTown’s website, although quantities are limited. There is a maximum of one kit per household for all Pelham residents. The goal of these kits is to add a festive element for celebrating the occasion at home.
Canada Day Drive-Thru Parade
The drive-through parade will be similar in format to last December’s
Christmas parade, with a modified “reverse”-style replacing the more traditional parades from the past. Spectators will be driving through the parade route while the floats remain stationary. Local businesses and community organizations will have motionless displays set up along the route. The parade will take place at Centennial Park in Fenwick the morning of Canada Day. Parade passes for 15-minute intervals are free and required for entry. Time slots range from 9:30 AM to 12 noon. Registration is available on the Town website, but availability is limited. Residents of Pelham were able to start registering beginning June 15, while registration for all other areas opens this Thursday, June 25. All Covid-19 precautions will be followed and all attendees must remain in their vehicles.
Pelham’s Great Canadian Talent Showcase
A virtual talent show will be put on this year by Pelham residents to showcase their skills. Talent video should be between 15 to 90 seconds long and must be family-friendly. All ages are being encouraged to submit their talents to be a part of the show. Video submissions need to be sent in before June 28 in order to be considered for inclusion. To submit a video, visit the Town website.
The virtual Mad Science interactive workshop
A virtual Mad Science interactive workshop will be happening at 3 PM on Zoom for a live and interactive youth experience. The show includes participating in experiments from the comfort of home and requires those that attend to collect a handful of items to engage in the interactive portion of the workshop. Registration is free and required for participation. Registration is needed to secure a spot.
Virtual interactive Magic Show
The virtual interactive Magic Show is another free event running for Canada Day aimed at younger children and families. The show will be taking place on July 1 at 1 PM on Zoom with Niagara’s Scoop McCoy for Canadian-inspired magic. For an interactive experience, a downloadable magic kit is available to learn some tricks and be a part of the show at home. Registration is required for the event and the magic kit download.
St. John Ambulance Virtual 5K and Kids Fun Run Virtual 1K
Both adults and kids have the opportunity to participate in the St. John Ambulance Virtual Run for Canada Day. The goal of this event is to encourage Canadians to put their health
and safety first, while raising money to support programs in the community. The five-kilometre run will be taking place from June 26 to July 1. During that time, participants can either run or walk and when completed, send in a confirmation. There is a registration fee of $38 which also includes a race kit. The deadline to register is June 29, 2021, at 11:59 PM. Pelham youth can take part in the Kids Fun Run Virtual 1K, which is free of charge. The setup of the kid’s run is very similar to the 5K run. Participants complete the one-kilometre run or walk and are instructed to send in a confirmation once it is completed. Online registration for the Kids Fun Run Virtual 1K closes June 29, 2021, at 11:59 PM. Participants from both runs are encouraged to join the Pelham team. Registration includes a race kit with a T-shirt, medal and bib which can be picked up either picked up from St. John Ambulance in Niagara Falls on June 24 and June 25, or mailed for an additional fee. Registration information is available on the Town website.
Pelham’s Great Canadian Moose Chase Challenge
Similar to the Goose Chase Scavenger Hunts from Easter and Family Day, a Moose Chase Challenge with Canada Day-inspired missions will be happening on July 1. This event is virtual, where participants will be engaging in the missions from their own homes and socially distanced throughout the community. A Moose Chase Challenge kit will be available for pickup and contains directions for the Goose Chase app and includes Canada Day items, like a stuffed Pelham Canada Day Moose. Registration is required to take part in the activity and to receive the kit that goes with the challenge.
Canada Day The Niagara Way Challenge
An interactive virtual scavenger hunt is being offered for the municipalities of the Niagara Region for Canada Day through the GooseChase app. The goal of this event is for Niagara residents to gather virtually when in-person events are limited at this time. The missions or activities will be focusing on significant locations in different municipalities and will require a check-in or creative photo submissions, plus activities for those participating from home. There will be prizes offered, including a special teaser mission and a chance to win a Canada Day prize pack for those who join the Canada Day the Niagara Way GooseChase game before June 25.
Home Decorating Contest and Celebrate Canada Drive By Tour
Pelham have the
Residents also opportunity to
showcase their pride for Canada through the Home Decorating Contest. Decorate your home in Canada-styled decorations and get your display featured on the Celebrate Canada Drive By Tour. Registration for this event is required and available on the Town website. Entries with attached photos of the display must be submitted by July 1 to qualify. Pelham Bucks Prize winner will be selected through voting from the drive by participants or a draw from the entries and will be notified by email. The Celebrate Canada Drive By Tour is an opportunity for residents to drive along a route, which will be published before June 30, to view the decorated homes from the Home Decorating Contest. All those participating in the tour are encouraged to cast their vote for their favourite Canada Day display to determine the winner. The Drive By Tour is currently pending due to the possible pandemic restrictions in place.
Bike Decorating Contest
Another fun way for kids to get involved in the Canada Day celebrations is the Bike Decorating Contest. Using unique elements to display Canadian pride, Pelham residents aged 14 and under have the op-
portunity to decorate their bikes for a chance to win a prize. A photo of the decorated bike must be emailed in by July 2 at noon to complete the entry. Winners will be drawn the same day at 3 PM and contacted by email. Contest terms and conditions are available on the Town website.
Youth Colouring Contest
Pelham youth, aged 14 and under, can participate in Pelham’s Canada Day Colouring Contest for the chance to win Pelham Bucks. The task is to download the Maple Leaf template from the Pelham website and create a unique image inside it for the celebration of Canada Day. The contest deadline is July 2 at noon. To participate, a photo or scanned image of the drawing must be emailed in and winners will be selected on July 2 at 2 PM and notified by email. To download and print the template or view the terms and conditions visit the Town website.
Niagara Area Artist Installation
The Town of Pelham Canada Day Planning Group and the Pelham Art Advisory Committee have called for temporary outdoor art installations to put on display around Pelham with
the theme: What it means to be Canadian. The art installations will be out on display from June 30 to July 2 and will also be a part of the virtual Moose Chase scavenger hunt. On July 1, Pelham residents are encouraged to take a drive and experience the art themselves. Some art pieces and their locations have already been shared on the Town website. These art installations are a mural/painting by Heather Potts, located at North Pelham Park; a painted bicycle by Els and John Swart, at Harold Black Park; a sculpture of a child taking care of a plant by Manuel (Manolo) Trujillo, located at the Meridian Community Centre; and Wood Burnt Adirondack Chairs made by Peter Shishkov, at Peace Park. For more information on the Canada Day activities or events in Pelham or to register for an event, visit www.pelham.ca/canada-day. For even more fun, tune into the national broadcast for Canada Day and the Tim Hortons Canada Day Virtual Fireworks at 10 PM on July 1. Numerous activities, a celebration kit and a contest are also available on the Government of Canada’s website for Canada Day celebrations.
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continued from Page 3 kind” were everywhere, in every level of society, and if you wanted to find someone all you had to do was go to the nearest public washroom, or changing room, or swimming pool, or anywhere that men opened their flys or changed clothes. I quickly would discover the truthfulness of all this at Crystal Beach, where I worked that summer. Most of the time I was assigned to a ride that allowed riders to determine themselves whether they rode around right-side-up or upside down. (By consequence there was no small amount of vomit to clean.) I soon discovered that the washrooms—most preeminently those that were out-of-the-way, as in the lower level under the dance floor—were hornet’s nests of activity. There were teens, and graybeards, and dads who left the little ones with their wives to go on rides so that he could go out prowling. There were plenty of New Yorkers who came over and they were always in a party mood, oftentimes tight from flasks they nipped from and offered around, and whether ascribable to the booze or to their more forward American nature they didn’t waste any time hiding their interest. At night the neon lit up the midway, and the noise from all of the concessions made it hard to have a normal conversation as you walked along. Like Mr. ----- predicted, I was propositioned by everyone and his uncle, pun intended. Please don’t judge me a braggart when I say that I was easy on the eyes, a strapping country lad with solid muscles and blond hair. A few offered me money which I never took, but I would take a burger and a pop if I was on dinner break. I often heard the same thing—that they were nervous talking to me at first because I didn’t look “that way,” but usually neither did they. These were masculine males like me, just the type I liked. I still remember meeting a somewhat older fellow in a changing room (probably really only 30 or so) and, seeing his white torso but tanned arms, I asked him what he farmed. He looked at me like I was speaking Chinese, so I pointed at his chest and said, “Farmer’s tan.” He scoffed and said, “Golfer’s tan.” went off to university in a large North American city. I spent much
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of those years having relations with both males and females, although my contact with males was almost always brief and anonymous, whilst I formed longer-lasting relationships with girls that I mostly met on campus. I would never “date” another male—it never even occurred to me that such a thing could happen. Workers in the field that I studied were in some demand in the greater Toronto and Hamilton areas, so after graduation I returned home to Niagara and was hired immediately. At an organization party I met a secretary and we got on like a proverbial house on fire. The following year we were married, and on schedule nine months later our first child arrived. By this time we had bought a house in one of the villages that later became Pelham. More kids came. We were a happy, contented brood. All the same, my “switch-hitting” appetite was as strong as ever. In university I took a psychology course where I first learned about the “Kinsey Scale” and the range of sexual behaviour in humans. I realized that in terms of desire I was spot-on in the centre of this scale, equally attracted to both sexes. In terms of experience (or maybe “opportunity” is better), I calculate that in those years, before marriage, I had at least 20 to 30 contacts with males for every one contact with a female. s anyone with eyes must agree, males are built to rut. They are ready, willing, and able to go anytime, and given the opportunity they will. It is a biological curse, you could say. All a fellow had to know was where to look. Washrooms were always a sure bet, as were YMCAs, and closer to home a particular area of bush not far from where the 406 highway would be built, where there was a convenient parking lot next to a historical marker. Usually every few months in these places I would spy someone I knew from town, and often I was as surprised to see them as they were to see me. Remember the Cold War policy that kept the USSR and the US in line, known as MAD, or “mutually assured destruction”? We fellow travelers in the brotherhood observed the same policy—no one ratted out anyone else, because to do so would destroy us all. Once again the cross section of society was there— tradesmen, managers, service club members, mechanics. In fact, the
A
This was my attitude through the 1970s. I don’t remember where I first heard the expression, but it was said around that time that “the love that dare not speak its name now won’t shut up.” Gay parades with flouncing, half-naked men on floats? Men dressed up as women? It made me cringe, made me angry, in fact, at such brazen militancy. (I was given to understand later that this was what the head shrinkers called “internalized homophobia.”) This shameful, selfish outlook of mine started to change in the 1980s, as AIDS, the “gay plague,” swept around the world. You may ask how I protected myself before this deadly threat arrived, after all, there were other insidious, sexually transmitted diseases before this. Indeed, my biggest concern over the years was accidentally bringing something home to my wife, which would have torn me apart with guilt. My approach was to become increasingly selective about who I went with, and if I ever had a nagging suspicion that something wasn’t right I headed over the river to get tested by a doctor, whom I had met at a bar in Buffalo and with whom I became lifelong friends, or go to one of the free clinics. On the matter of HIV, without being too descriptive I was at very low risk considering that I did not ever favour the activities that were most linked to becoming infected. Nonetheless, until the late 1990s I would get an HIV test about every two months, just to ensure that I was clean. What began to soften my attitude toward the “gay” identity (as opposed to the simpler physical connection with men, which was not a political statement) was seeing how atrociously AIDS patients were being treated, how Canadian and American politicians failed these men, how the hysteria around the virus was allowed to run riot for so long. Some may remember that there were serious if half-witted politicians talking openly about quarantining AIDS patients in special camps. (A pointless effort anyway, since this was a disease that took years after exposure to reveal itself.) In the early 1990s I also met some younger male couples that challenged my views about what a relationship between two men could be, that it could go beyond the sexual in the same way as the love between a man and a woman. For their part they could not understand how I
could have been happily married to a woman for so many years, and asked me, if times had been different when I was young, whether I could have settled down with a man. I believe the answer to that, for me personally, is no. I always wanted a family, I never for a moment regretted getting married, and I have been lucky to have lived a long and happy life with my wife. Perhaps this is a generational perspective, because among the men that I knew who were in the same situation, and of roughly the same age as myself, none of us would have wanted to move in with other men. This may be seen as a lack of courage, but again, I can only speak for myself when I say it was a lack of interest. That being noted, I heartily support the right of others to live their own lives, and fervently believe, as a photograph in this paper showed recently, that “love is love.” s for my randy ways, age has a way of turning that flame down, bit by bit, until all the heat is gone. There was a gay sauna in Fort Erie to which I gave my business for a few years, but the modern ways that men connect with their phones for casual fun left the writing on the wall, and it shuttered its doors some years ago. Now the nearest such facility is in Hamilton, but the notion of bundling my arthritis into the car for that long of a drive puts the damper on desire, and even if I did get into the place, such venues are for the young and not very hospitable for we elders in the brotherhood. I remember Trent and his wild hair, as he would sometimes come through Keith’s when we ate there. I had no notion of his sexual identity, and regret that he suffered so much pain on account of it. Let me say that any elected official in Pelham—or anywhere else—who read the stories of Trent Crick and Tyler Cook and still has anti-gay sentiments in their heart is undeserving of the public trust. There is still homophobia and bullying in Pelham and Niagara and Canada, and the religious zealots who fan these flames are lower than dirt. I sadly have no doubt that the new Pride benches to be installed in town will be vandalized. It takes all kinds in this world, and we would all be so much better off if the bigots and haters and racists would truly learn to live and let live. ◆
A
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more machismo a man put on, the more likely it seemed to me that he would have a taste for going “that way,” at least on the side. As I moved up the ladder I was given more responsibility. Starting in the late 1960s I was traveling to locations across North America and overseas. I had a regular enough itinerary that I began to make particular male friends in different cities, and this is where my real double life took off. By this time the sexual revolution was in full swing and homosexual—or using the new term, “gay”—bars were everywhere. Any larger city anywhere in the world had at least a half dozen such establishments. There were also “Turkish saunas” that were a sure bet. I became a regular in a favourite spot in each city—my accent giving me away as Canadian in the States, but being assumed to be American (and “rich”) elsewhere abroad. One summer Sunday I flew to New York City and that night headed to what was my preferred bar at the time, a friendly spot called either Ashes or Ashor’s. Somehow or another I had been too busy over the week prior to have heard anything about the so-called “homosexual riots” that had happened a few days earlier, up the street a few blocks, at a bar called The Stonewall. This name would become synonymous with the start of the gay rights movement, but on that night in our bar we were all in agreement: this was making everyone look bad. The Stonewall was a notorious dive, a hangout for drug addicts and male prostitutes. In fact, the consensus among us proper, respectable middle-class men with mortgages and in many cases wives, was that these low-class fairy boys were ruining a good thing. What do I mean? Yes, it’s true at that time that you could be charged by the police if you were caught with another male—usually this was for “indecency” or another morals-based charge. I do not deny that this could be the ruination of a man’s life in certain circumstances, most especially in small towns where lived small minds. However, in my world, and the world of the men I knew, these were extremely rare events. We were discreet. We weren’t flaunting anything and passed for 100 percent “straight.” There was a thrill in the secrecy of it, in the hidden life. The covertness was exciting, like we were spies undercover but also in plain sight.
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SIEGEL
continued from Page 10 clause. The final section of the Canadian Charter of Rights of Freedoms contains this clause, which allows the federal parliament or a provincial legislature to override a judicial decision by a simple majority vote. In effect, a provincial legislature can say something like: notwithstanding the fact that a court has determined that this legislation violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we still want to go ahead and make this legislation binding. There has been some controversy about this clause from its inception. It addresses a perennial issue in democratic governance. The Canadian system of government has three branches—executive, legislation, and judicial— and we say that all three are equal. However, there is concern that without a notwithstanding clause, the judicial branch will have the final say on the validity of legislation. The concern about this is that while the judicial branch is a fine institution composed of learned and well-meaning people, they are not elected. The idea of the notwithstanding clause is that it gives the elected legislature the final say. However, it is structured in such a way as to discourage legislatures from using it except in ex-
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FONTHILL BANDSHELL PRESENTS DE TEMPS ANTAN of Pelham and Central Niagara Burke’s Masonry 2003, Éric Beaudry, André Brunet and Pierre-Luc Dupuis have THE VOICE Since IS 100 PERCENT been exploring and performing time-honoured melodies from OF the PUBLICATION stomp- Bricklaying, tuckpointing, COMMUNITY-OWNED CELEBRATING 25 YEARS step repair, granite ing grounds of Quebec’s musical past. Using fiddle, accordion, harmonica, coatings, brick slices guitar, bouzouki and a number of other instruments, our three virtuosos 905-682-7061. blend energy with the unmistakable joieREPAIR de vivre found only in This is a boundless complex issue MASONRY FLOORINGP18-28 because election finance traditional Quebec music. Show runs from 7-9 p.m. ALLTYPE MASONRY legislation is by its nature a
Election finance legislation is by its very nature a restraint on freedom of expression
traordinary circumstances. If the legislature overrides a decision made by learned judges, this will attract a great deal of public attention and debate about the advisability of this extraordinary action (as it has in this case). An additional restraint is that the legislative override only has effect for five years; it will need to be renewed by a new legislature possibly with a different party in power, and possibly after an election campaign has been fought over the issue.
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Brick, Block, Stone and Chimney repairs. restraint on freedom of exWet and damaged basement repairs. pression, but is it a reasonPELHAM LIBRARY CARD MAKING WORKSHOP Phone Tom Deamude at 289-241-4767. able restraint necessary in a 35 years of experience. Materials Make six cards with a construction variety of techniques. democracy? Who should be fall themes, learning the arbiter of this difficult are provided. At time of registration, please enquire about tools needed. issue? The courts are very CUSTOM MILL Sept.clear 16 10 – 12:30. $10. Please register ahead. Visit www.pelhamgood Tues., at applying legsawmill service. islation to specific cases, but905-892-6443 for Portable library.on.ca or call more details. I will come to your home or farm and custom mill your logs. are the courts the best body Firewood & lumber also available. Call Rob Patterson, for balancing conflicting rights, as is the caseFENWICK here? FABULOUS LIONS FISH FRY905-401-4948, riverwood@primus.ca When the provincial pretreatsthen-Prewith funds heading straight back into the community. Haddock, miersTasty (especially mier french Davis of Ontario) in- more. Runs Sept. 9 from 4-7 p.m. fries and much TO A GOOD HOME sisted on the inclusion of the notwithstanding as a Male and Female 10-Speed Bikes, good condition. condition of acceptance PELHAM MINOR of HOCKEY 2EQUIPMENT SALE Phone 289-969-802 the Charter, they felt that Buy, sell or trade used equipment at the Pelham Arena. Aimed to provide it was important to give the cheaper options for players in this upcoming elected legislature the last FORseason. SALE Runs Sept. 6 from word. That is what has hap9-12 in the morning. Golf lessons offered by World Golf Teachers Federation top 100 pened in this case. The pubteacher. All ages and all skill levels. Lessons held at Brock Golf lic will now be able to make Course. Call Doug at 905-327-1492. its judgment on the actions PELHAM MUDFEST of the government in the and◆ women will be back in the mud as the second run on the year is next Men election.
held at Bissil’s Hideaway.
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On Haist Street. Change Purse. Phone 905-892-4721.
NIAGARA REGIONAL EXHIBITION FOUND Rodeo, games and live entertainment headline this years exciting event. It Found: a pair of prescription sunglasses in black case. These runs from Sept. 11-14 at the Welland Fairgrounds. were found on grass boulevard at corner of Haist and Canboro on
Thursday, June 10th. Call 289-897-9398 to claim. Great for students, BIG MOVE CANCER RIDE children, seniors, CLEANINGride SERVICE Theadults, Big Move Cancer Ride is a non-competitive taking place on Sept. 7. Proceeds for the Big Move stay in Niagara and support theFonthill Walker and everyone who likes Cleaning lady looking to clean homes in the area.FamCall References are available. Call Liliana 416-879-4932 ily Cancer Centre. or 905-920-6536. (905) 892-8690 fresh air and exercise.
WALKING CLUB FOUND Interested in walking in Pelham? Join them Tuesdays at the Pelham 1 Gold Earring, was found on Steve Bauer Trail. Arena from 9-10 am and Thursdays at FonthillPhone Bandshell for 9-10:30 am. There 289-820-6848. is no fee for this program. For more information, please contact jcook@ pelham.ca or call 905 892-2607, ext 329.
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A June 23 2021
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PLACES OF WORSHIP
2
Bethany Christian Reformed Church www.bethanycrc.ca
First Presbyterian Church 602 Metler Rd., North Pelham
Holy Trinity Anglican Church holytrinityfonthill.org
Pelham Evangelical Friends Church www.pelhamfriends.ca
Concordia Lutheran Church 105 Welland Rd., Fonthill
Fonthill Baptist Church www.fonthillbaptistchurch.ca
Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses 1369 Rice Rd., Fonthill
Ridgeville Bible Chapel ridgevillebiblechapel.com
Fenwick Church of Christ www.fenwickchurchofchrist.ca
Fonthill United Church www.fonthillunited.com
Kirk on the Hill Presbyterian Church 1344 Haist St., Fonthill
St. Alexander Roman Catholic Church www.stalexander.on.ca
Fenwick United Church www.fenwickunited.com
Glad Tidings Church of God www.gladtidingschurchofgod.com
Pelham Community Church (United Church) www.pelham.cc
St. Ann Roman Catholic Church www.stannfenwick.com
FAITH LIFT
continued from Page 19
Loneliness
If hopelessness is the emotion that plagues many youth today, loneliness is its counterpart for seniors (especially during a pandemic lockdown). Older people don’t have a monopoly on this emotion either. People of all ages can feel lonely (sometimes even in a crowd). But often it is our seniors who seem to be most prone. Over the years, I have visited many “senior saints” from my church in nursing or retirement homes. I often would glance into rooms as I walked by and see someone staring blankly at a wall, at a TV screen or at the ceiling if they were in bed. Lonely and deprived of mental and social stimuli, their minds atrophy quickly along with their bodies. The Bible also has a lot to say about loneliness. Many times in
scripture, God promised His people, “I will never leave you or forsake you” (see Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:5 and Hebrews 13:5 for starters). These verses remind us that God’s spirit is always present for His children. Even if someone is physically alone or isolated for most of the day, they can still commune with, communicate with, pray to, and enjoy the presence of the living God. Listening to worship music and good Bible teaching (from tapes, CDs, DVDs, radio or TV) can help draw us to the Lord who is always there for us. So, whether it’s hopelessness, loneliness or some other negative emotion afflicting us, there is an answer. The answer is not a selfhelp book. The answer is not even religion. The answer is a relationship. A relationship with the One who said, “I have come to give life, and life to the full.” (John 10:10) ◆ Rob Weatherby is a retired pastor.
NEW ADMINISTRATION IN THE DEN On June 16, Fabulous Fenwick Lions outgoing President Ron Acaster turned over the gong and gavel to incoming President Jeff Pickup. The club faced unprecedented challenges under Covid restrictions and in a statement thanked Acaster for his service, and wished Pickup a successful two-year term. SUPPLIED
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The Voice
Page 17
A June 23 2021
Fonthill Rotary scholarships E. L. Crossley 2021 graduates Parker Triano and Isabel Song are this year’s Fonthill Rotary Scholarship recipients. At their graduation this year, they will receive a Rotary medallion and a scholarship cheque for $1000. As an elementary student at A.K. Wigg, Triano participated in the Early Act Club—an elementary school version of Rotary. At Crossley, he was selected to participate in Rotary’s SLAPSHOT leadership training which encouraged him to then join Crossley’s Interact Club —the secondary school version of Rotary. Parker has also been active in volunteering with the Pelham Mayor’s Youth Advisory Club, Crossley’s Link Crew, Student’s Council and the Pelham Library Teen
BALANCED LIFE
continued from Page 18 virus-infected cells in our bodies. Researchers from the Nippon Medical School in Tokyo found that blood analysis after volunteers did a threeday, two-night forest expedition “showed a remarkable increase in the NK cell activity which also lasted for a month afterwards. Even a one day forest trip showed an increase in these cells.” The United States National Forest Foundation agrees. They claim the reduction in stress that forests provide us is linked to lower levels of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline, which is also linked to quicker recovery and rehabilitation in those suffering illness and injury. The arrival from Asia of the Emerald Ash Borer devastated ash tree populations in Niagara and throughout North America. By doing so, the EAB provided a natural experiment which proved the value of our tree cover to human health. A 2013 study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine concluded that across 15 states, tree cover destruction attributable to the Emerald Ash Borer was associated with an additional 6,113 deaths related to lung disease and 15,080 heart-disease-related deaths. Walking amongst trees affects blood
Voice
4
Buttermilk-Battered Okra Fries Country cooking elicits visions of straight-from-the-garden vegetables and farm-fresh meats and dairy. Buttermilk-infused recipes are part of any country cook’s repertoire, as are crispy, fried foods.
Parker Triano and Isabel Song are the recipients of this year's Rotary Scholaships.
families in her community. Her volunteer work has led her to decide to pursue a post-secondary education that will allow her to work in a service field.
pressure too. In 2011 a team of Japanese researchers studied 16 male subjects, average age 57 years old, as they walked for two hours in a tree-filled urban park in Tokyo, then for a similar duration in an urban area void of vegetation. They found, “The day trip to the forest park significantly reduced blood pressure and urinary noradrenaline and dopamine levels.” The mental health benefit of spending time in nature has also been the subject of many research studies. The POMS (Profile of Moods State) test is a self-administered quiz of 65 questions that is frequently used to evaluate workplace environments for employee satisfaction. When the POMS test was administered to those engaged in forest trips, subjects showed significant decreases in depression, anxiety, anger, fatigue, and confusion. Since these types of stress inhibit immune system function, it appears the mental benefits of time spent in nature also generate physical benefits. A two-year study by researchers in London (UK) published in the Journal of Landscape and Urban Planning discovered that locales in London “with the greatest density of trees had the lowest rates of antidepressant prescriptions. Researchers went as far as to discover that each additional tree per square kilometer resulted in approximately 1.38 less antidepressant prescriptions.” The indirect environmental and cli-
mate change prevention benefits that trees and forests provide to humans are well known, but bear repeating to complete this picture. Trees are second only to ocean phytoplankton as the largest producers of the oxygen we breathe. Forests purify water for thousands of communities across North America that source their drinking water from treed watersheds. Tree roots assist in soil conservation and prevent significant amounts of sediment from reaching our rivers and streams. That trees absorb carbon dioxide to produce oxygen during photosynthesis is well known. The ability of trees to store this greenhouse gas in their wood and leaves is less recognized, as is the fact that trees transport atmospheric CO2, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide into the soil, thus reducing greenhouse gasses and pollution. I’m convinced. No more bike trainer or treadmill in the basement between April and November for me, and regardless of the many shade trees lining Haist Street and Pancake Lane, in future I’ll choose the Steve Bauer or Jerry Berkhout trails. The climate-controlled walking track at MCC is great for January, but as long as there are leaves on the trees, the science says outside is where most of us should get our 10,000 steps in each day. It’s all about the trees. ◆
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Buttermilk-Battered Okra Fries With Comeback Sauce Serves 6 (About six fries each; makes 2 cups sauce) Comeback Sauce 1 cup mayonnaise 1⁄4 cup chili sauce 1⁄4 cup ketchup 1⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 2 garlic cloves, minced, or 1⁄4 teaspoon garlic powder 2 tablespoons finely grated sweet or white onion or 1⁄4 teaspoon onion powder 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 teaspoon Dijon or yellow mustard 1 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 teaspoon hot sauce 1⁄4 teaspoon hot or smoked paprika Salt (optional) Okra Fries Canola or corn oil for frying 8 ounces small to medium okra pods, stemmed and halved lengthwise 1 cup buttermilk (or enough to cover okra) 1 cup all-purpose flour 3⁄4 cup cornstarch Salt 1⁄2 teaspoon ground black pepper 1⁄2 teaspoon garlic powder 1⁄4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional) To make the sauce: In a food processor, purée the mayonnaise, chili sauce, ketchup, olive oil, garlic, onion, Worcestershire, lemon juice, mustard, black pepper, hot sauce, and paprika. (Or use a medium bowl and whisk to combine all the ingredients.) Season with salt, if needed, cover tightly, and let the sauce sit overnight in the refrigerator before serving. To make the okra: Place several layers of paper towels atop a paper bag or platter. Keep it close to where you’ll be frying. In an electric fryer, Dutch oven, or heavy cast-iron skillet, add canola oil to a depth of 2 to 4 inches. Heat to 350 F. (If you’re not using an electric fryer, use a fry/candy thermometer to ensure the temperature stays consistent.) In a medium bowl, soak the sliced okra in the buttermilk and set aside. In a large paper bag or large plastic zip-top bag, combine the flour, cornstarch, 1⁄2 teaspoon salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne (if using). Drain the buttermilk-soaked okra and dredge it in the flour mixture. Carefully shake off any excess flour. Fry in batches of seven or eight pieces for 2 to 3 minutes or until crispy and light golden brown, turning them carefully midway through. Use a fry basket or slotted spoon to remove the okra to drain on the paper towels. While still hot, season the okra with additional salt, if desired. Serve the okra fries immediately with the sauce.
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Page 18
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A June 23 2021
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca
THE BALANCED LIFE by John Swart
Wait, our trees can do all that?
L
ast week our kayak club launched from Henley Island in Martindale Pond, Port Dalhousie. First we crossed the “pond” just north of what will be the rower’s finish line area during the Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games. We paddled into the mouth of the third Welland Canal’s Lock 2 for some local history, and then followed the east shore of the pond to the Royal Canadian Henley Rowing Centre starting gates. The sun was shining, a gentle breeze provided cooling air, and we were able to troll the spectacular back yards of many luxu-
rious homes from our water-level vantage points. Yet it was when we entered Richardson Creek, a narrow ribbon of meandering Kahlua-brown water surrounded by and overhung with beautiful indigenous trees, that a tranquil hush settled over the paddlers. Our attention was captured by the nature around us. Birdsong was everywhere, sunning turtles plopped into the water as we approached, and the fragrance of wild lilac filled the air. Why do forests and natural environments captivate so many of us, and are the benefits of being surrounded by trees as significant
as claimed by countless health professionals and advocates? The Richardson Creek kayaking experience and coincidental receipt of a May 2021 Statistics Canada Health Report caused me to ask these questions. The Stats Can report stated, “Living in a home surrounded by trees, gardens and natural vegetation (i.e., greenspace, or greenness) may confer numerous health benefits. Notably, studies in Canada, the United States and Europe have found inverse associations between residential greenness and all-cause or non-accidental, respiratory and cardiovascular mortality.” For the record, the purpose of the Stats Can report was to quantify and draw attention to the fact that ethnocultural and socioeconomic disparities in exposure to residential
Members of the Peninsula Paddlers forest bathe in Richardsons Creek, Port Dalhousie. greenness within Canadian urban communities needed to be remedied. Pelham and Niagara are blessed with a surfeit of green compared to the inner-city communities studied by the report; consequently this column is not intended to engage in a political and urban planning debate. The result of further investigation into the mental and physical health benefits of a green environment, and specifically trees, was eye-opening. There is no end to the number of published and peer-reviewed studies supporting those
claiming benefits. In June 2020, Kathleen L. Wolf published an overview for the American National Centre for Biotechnology Information on “Urban Trees and Human Health” to facilitate further research. The preamble to her report states, “Following screening and appraisal of several thousand articles, 201 studies were chosen.” This suggests the positive health claims are scientifically factual rather than the work of tree-hugging advocates. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation states that,
JOHN SWART
“Exposure to forests boosts our immune system. While breathing in fresh forest air, we inhale phytoncides, airborne chemicals that plants, especially pine, cedar, fir and cyprus trees, give off to protect themselves from insects. These phytoncides have antibacterial and antifungal qualities which help plants fight disease.” Our bodies respond to these chemicals by increasing the number and activity of our white blood cells called natural killer cells or NK, which attack tumor and See BALANCED LIFE Page 17
V oice HOROSCOPE ARIES – Mar 21/Apr 20 A setback of some kind may occur this week, Aries. Do not get too worried about it just yet. Adversity can be an excellent avenue toward personal growth. TAURUS – Apr 21/May 21 Taurus, you may need to postpone a project you were hoping to begin this week. As long as it does not get pushed any further, you should be fine. GEMINI – May 22/Jun 21 It is easy to get carried away with an idea, Gemini. Just do not mistake obsession for focus. You need to pace yourself if you are going to be effective. CANCER – Jun 22/Jul 22 Cancer, you are on the move this week, but it is ideal to have a plan and not leave things to chance. Look ahead and see if you can pinpoint potential pitfalls. LEO – Jul 23/Aug 23 It’s possible to achieve great things this week, Leo. Your accomplishments will ultimately depend on how much you are able to focus on the tasks at hand. VIRGO – Aug 24/Sept 22 A financial windfall or a new job opportunity may be coming your way, Virgo. This will be the breakthrough you need right now after a series of setbacks. LIBRA – Sept 23/Oct 23 When someone asks for your help drawing up a travel itinerary, you have plenty of ideas at the ready. Put all of your effort into the task and enjoy the fun. SCORPIO – Oct 24/Nov 22 Responsibilities will be easier to handle very soon, Scorpio. The tasks won’t become less difficult, but there are plenty of helping hands.
SAGITTARIUS – Nov 23/Dec 21 You could find yourself in a position where you can take on a leadership role, Sagittarius. Do not hesitate to accept this promotion because it can be great for your career. CAPRICORN – Dec 22/Jan 20 Capricorn, you may be easily swayed this week by a smoothtalking stranger. Figure out if this person can be trusted by offering opportunities to prove his or her trustworthiness. AQUARIUS – Jan 21/Feb 18 You may think that an opportunity has passed you by, Aquarius. But don’t get too worried just yet. It’s possible to regain your momentum quite quickly. PISCES – Feb 19/Mar 20 You may have to admit that the plan you put in place has a few kinks to be worked out, Pisces. These modifications are relatively simple. FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS JUNE 20 Nia Sioux, Dancer (20) JUNE 21 Lana Del Rey, Singer (36) JUNE 22 Meryl Streep, Actress (72) JUNE 23 Jason Mraz, Singer (44) JUNE 24 Mindy Kaling, Actress (42) JUNE 25 La La Anthony, Actress (40) JUNE 26 Nick Offerman, Actor (51)
SOLUTIONS DOWN 1. SOLS 2. AREA 3. SELF 4. HOYAS 5. BCD 6. ORATED 7. SALON 8. OPERATIC 9. NEY 10. SAGAS 11. ARAB 12. MAGI 13. AKAN 21. REDES 23. SEA 25. RAD 26. DEC 27. OSSET 28. PATNA 29. SCOOP 32. SITKA 33. IVIED 34. SANDS 36. KAW 37. SAE 38. VAC 40. SUBTOTAL 41. SORAS 43. SIT 44. PAH 46. SOD 47. ENSILE 49. TENET 50. EARLS 51. MATCH 52. SCAB 53. AARE 54. TENS 57. BREA 58. EACH 59. RYAN 61. AGO 62. PAN
CROSSWORD ANSWERS
SOLUTIONS ACROSS 1. SASH 5. BOSON 10. SAMA 14. OREO 15. CRAPE 16. ARAK 17. LELY 18. DALEY 19. GAGA 20. SAFAR 22. TOR 23. SABIN 24. SERENADES 27. OPS 30. DAD 31. TEA 32. SIS 35. SACKED 37. SIC 38. VIVA 39. STOAS 40. SAC 41. SATIN 42. ENOW 43. SUE 44. POCKED 45. TAP 46. SIB 47. EAR 48. ADS 49. TOTTENHAM 52. SATED 55. OAS 56. SABER 60. CAEN 61. ATRIP 63. TRAY 64. ARNE 65. GALLA 66. CECA 67. BEST 68. OLSEN 69. HAHN
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The Voice
Page 19
A June 23 2021
FAITH LIFT
by Pastor Rob Weatherby
Are you feeling hopeless or lonely?
R
ecently I read an article that caused me to pause. The writer, Bruce Clemenger, asked this question: “How many youth are struggling with hopelessness just as seniors are with loneliness?” These are two powerful human emotions. How do we (and how should we) deal with them?
Hopelessness
These feelings are not confined to youth. They can affect (and afflict) people of all ages. But, ironically, youth seem to be the most vulnerable. I say “ironically” because one would think that youth should be the most hopeful about the future. After all, they usually have more strength, health, and vigor than older people. So why is it that some youth feel hopeless? Well, something (or someone) dashes those hopes. It could be a broken relationship which leaves them feeling rejected and depressed. It could be a lost job which leaves them with the same mind-numbing emotions. Or it could be a health issue such as Covid which affects them directly through illness or indirectly by limiting their social activities as well as their school and job opportunities. Hopelessness can lead to depression and even take away a young person’s will to live. It shocks and hurts us all when we hear of a young person who becomes so hopeless, depressed and desperate that they take their own life. God’s Word (the Bible) has a lot to say about hope. In the Old Testament, God assured His people through his prophet Jeremiah, “For I know the plans I have for you… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans
to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11) And through the prophet Isaiah, God declared, “… but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:31) In the New Testament we read, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:5) A few chapters later Paul is inspired to write, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and
peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13) As you can see, scripture is brimming with hope. But God-infused hope is conditional. It begins with your choice to seek a relationship with the living God who made you, who loves you, who sent His Son to die for your sins, and who has a good and hope-filled plan for your life. That relationship begins with a sincere prayer of faith and repentance. See FAITH LIFT Page 16
Here’s How It Works: Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken down into nine 3x3 boxes. To solve a sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes. The more numbers you name, the easier it gets to solve the puzzle!
Word Search: Safety
Find the words hidden vertically, horizontally, diagonally, and backwards. ACCIDENT BODY CRITICAL DANGEROUS DATA EGRESS
GEAR HAZARDOUS HEALTH HELMET HOOD ILLNESS
INGRESS INJURY LIFT LOCKOUT MACHINE MANUAL
MONITORING NIOSH OCCUPATIONAL OSHA RISK
Voice
CROSSWORD
ANSWERS ON PAGE 18
PETER PIPERS 111 HWY 20 E, FONTHILL
Curbside Pickup Homemade Pizza 905-892-0782
Page 20
SUPPORT
continued from Page 11 expression of appreciation, but also a “tool employed to accomplish… the normalization of nurses’ exposure to risk, the enforcement of model citizenship, and the preservation of existing power relationships…. Politicians have been able to hold nurses up as an example for the public.... But this kind of moralism obscures the real issues at stake within nursing.” Mazmanian pointed out the irony of the Ford government publicly praising nurses and frontline healthcare workers as “heroes,” yet not providing enough funding for healthcare staff to have proper personal protective equipment (PPE). Another piece of legislation, Bill 195, which was passed at the beginning of the pandemic, also contributed to an even more stressful working environments for nurses and healthcare workers, said Mazmanian. This bill allowed employers to re-deploy employees to different units depending on need (for example, to help with understaffing). However, according to
The Voice Mazmanian, employees would be pulled from existing units that were already greatly understaffed. “The Ford government gave employers free rein to do whatever they want. Before Covid, there was already a system-wide nursing shortage. Covid is being used as an excuse, sort of like an umbrella, to move staff from already understaffed units to other understaffed units to help with the staffing issue. They really need to fix the underlying issue of staffing.” She went on to explain that this redeployment created stressful conditions in which employees were placed in unpredictable situations, unfamiliar units, and healthcare departments they were not specifically trained for, often with minimal orientation. More experienced staff were forced to split their already heavy duties between caring for existing patients, and essentially “training” new staff who had been added to the team to support them. For staff, this would often lead to extreme work-related anxiety, depression, depersonalization, and burnout. The short staffing also led to situations in which nurses felt pressured to not call in sick, or they
A June 23 2021
were simply unable to take time off from work. For Mazmanian, it was through the support of various figures in her union and the healthcare system who told her that her feelings of anxiety, depression and PTSD were valid and real, as well as friends who noticed that she was no longer herself. After much soul searching, and despite guilt about temporarily leaving the profession and her patients, she deemed that it was necessary to take time off to take care of her own mental health. According to Mazmanian, it was also her many years of experience as a nurse that allowed her to put words to what she was feeling, and to stand up for herself and take some necessary time off to rest, heal, undergo professional counselling, and work on her master’s degress in psychology. She went on to explain that it is important not only to advocate for yourself, but also for others, particularly new nurses who don’t have the experience or the confidence to speak up for themselves, due to the pressures of starting a new job just after graduating. “As nurses, we try so hard to smile and be positive, but really at
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca the end of a 12-hour shift, we are defeated and exhausted. Working conditions during Covid meant that none of us knew what we would face, every day. We felt like puppets.” Mazmanian said that there was an exodus of nurses during each successive wave of Covid, as the burnout and depression increased amongst staff, and that this burnout went largely unnoticed by the general public. “We need people to listen to us, particularly politicians. We are the ones at the bedside, 24 hours a day, so we know what we are talking about. We need to have more staff, more active leadership, and we need the government to get to the root of the problem in the healthcare system, not slap a band-aid on it. It’s like surgery, that has to begin from the inside.” Mazmanian hopes to return to nursing soon, and once she finishes her master’s degree, and wishes to help other nurses to advocate for themselves in an often female-dominated profession. She has created the Facebook group Niagara Nurses Helping Nurses to create a community of support for nurses who have faced trauma
and experienced anxiety related to their job. She also expressed a desire for the general public to become more aware of the issues that nurses face, and to speak up against Bill 124 and 195. “There’s lots of [nurses] still out there who are still struggling. Be gentle with us, be kind to us. We understand that you are struggling too because you are isolated due to Covid and can’t see your family. Nurses need a break too. They don’t get into the profession for the glamour of it—they know what they are getting into. We are at the forefront. We need the government and our employers to be clear and transparent with the public, and to follow through with the extra help and support that they promised to us.” “When you actually think about it,” said Mazmanian, “heroes in stories are never like the King or Queen who don’t fight on the battlefield. Heroes are like soldiers, sent into a battlefield from the bottom of the barrel. And I have never felt more like a bottom of the barrel person in the past year and a half. It’s really disheartening. I don’t want to just be called a hero, I want real change to happen.”
Just in time for
CANADA DAY!