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Sunday Reads
Explore unsolved mysteries and read new work by Canadian authors. yorkregion.com/sundayreads Mike Barrett/Metroland
Emergency Response Unit officer Matt Ready demonstrates rappelling techniques at the grand opening of the new state-of-the-art York Regional Police training facility in East Gwillimbury July 12. See story, p/7
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ONTARIO
Provincial Tories express anger over leadership KIM ZARZOUR kzarzour@yrmg.com Is the Ontario Progressive Conservative party imploding? With a strong lead in the polls, PC Leader Patrick Brown appeared to be cruising to an easy victory in the next provincial election. Now some say the party is in danger of collapse. Disgruntled and disillusioned PC supporters are reportedly dropping out in droves following months of allegations of improprieties, intimidation, ballotstuffing and fraud by Brown’s supporters during local votes to nominate PC candidates. PC Party president Rick Dykstra seems undeterred by the loss
of supporters, saying the party has grown from 10,000 members to more than 100,000 in the past two years since Brown became leader. "We are gaining new members daily and we will continue to work with all of our current members as well," Dykstra said. But longstanding, card-carrying members of the party, expressing their disappointment and "disgust" with the party’s tactics under Brown, are vowing to withhold their votes or marshalling forces to defeat their leader. Several splinter parties and organizations have mobilized, hoping to derail the PCs in the next provincial election. Brown has said the controversy is evidence of the party’s
"The party absolutely is imploding. I’ve never seen anything like this.... [Brown] can’t win at the rate he is going - he’s losing support of the people the party has always had." – Marie Leone, member of Newmarket-Aurora Ontario PC association strong momentum and, based on an internal memo obtained by Metroland, it appears he wants to "bring closure and move forward". In the memo, Dykstra announced that all 64 candidates selected to date would be endorsed by the leader and further appeals for reconsideration would be ren-
dered moot. "Rather than constantly looking in the rear-view mirror, we simply need to move forward," he said. But not everyone is prepared to ignore the rear view, and the fallout continues among longtime members of the party.
"We can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as we ever have seen it," Tim Broschuk, president, Dr. Richard Bonato, VP, Carl Arsenault, CFO, and Vel Velauthanillai wrote in their letter of resignation from the executive of the Kanata Carleton riding association June 11. The executive quit en masse; the executive board of nearby riding of Ottawa West-Nepean executive board quit days later. "The party has veered so far from the place we joined that we can no longer in good conscience say that we identify with what it stands for." A similarly worded statement l See DISILLUSIONED, page 3
ENVIRONMENT
Residents fight to save little piece of ’green paradise’ TERESA LATCHFORD tlatchford@yrmg.com Aurora residents hope to save a little piece of paradise. Peering out the window of a McClenny Drive home at the seven acres of dense forest just north of Henderson Drive, it’s not a stretch to believe wildlife would find safe haven among the trees, bush and stream that runs through it. It houses brown myotis and little brown myotis bats, red-headed woodpeckers and snapping turtles, all listed as "at risk" or of "special concern" under the Ontario Endangered Species Act and federal Species at Risk Act. The properties also contain 71 varieties of trees, plants and vegetation including the rare black walnut and long fruited anemone as well as a stream feeding into Salamander Pond located in the
Case Woodlot on the south side of Henderson Drive. When the local residents received notice from the land owner and the town informing them of a minor variance application to build two homes that could potentially require clearing and reshaping 34,000 square feet of the properties, they knew they had to take action. "Destroying all of this for two homes seems absurd," resident Steve DAngeli said during a house meeting of the Save the Henderson Drive Forest community group. "This isn’t about views or property values. This is a mature, healthy forest and once it’s gone it’s not coming back." While the property is zoned rural residential, it also is protected in the Oak Ridges Moraine key natural heritage features, minimum vegetation protection zone and significant woodland protec-
tion bylaws that would have to be waived to allow for construction of the two proposed detached dwellings and the driveways, according to the May 11, 2017, committee of adjustment reports. Beyond the environmental impact concerns shared by residents, a proposed 922-square-metre driveway exiting onto Henderson could pose a safety risk. "It looks like it makes sense on paper, but when you are standing on the sidewalk it doesn’t," DAngeli said. "Anyone who has tried to come down the hill on Henderson in the winter will know this proposed driveway would be a death trap for someone trying to exit it." Longtime residents pointed out that previous development disturbed the watercourse and a number of residents experienced l See FOREST, page 2
Mike Barrett/Metroland
Mary Walker (left), Rod Leonard and a group of residents have come together to try to save the Henderson Drive forest.
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