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AGRICULTURE
Farmers feeling better after Tuesday’s rain BY LISA QUEEN
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Tuesday’s steady rain came as welcome relief in a summer marked by weather extremes. Most of the summer has been plagued by drought, interrupted by a couple of severe storms, including a hailstorm July 8 that caused serious damage to crops in the Holland Marsh and one last Saturday in Georgina that saw an F1 tornado touch down near Sunset Beach on the southeast shore of Lake Simcoe. Even Tuesday’s rain came with a severe thunderstorm watch and a severe rainfall warning in York Region from Environment Canada, which also cautioned about severe weather in other parts on southern Ontario. You won’t find Markham farmer Jay Reesor or Holland Marsh farmer Avia Eek complaining about the rain since Saturday. “We had a long period of drought but we had two inches of rain on Saturday, I guess it was, and we’re grateful for that,” said Reesor, who has a farm at 9th Line and Elgin Mills Road. “And we’re grateful for any more rain that comes our way. There’s not been too much rain at all at this point. It’s been really, really, really dry all spring and summer. The ground needs more rain. We really welcome that rain. Obviously (Saturday’s rain), we would have liked it to
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have come down a bit slower and gentler over two days but it came down over a period of an hour or whatever. But we’re very grateful.” Eek, a King Township councillor, is ecstatic about the rain. “If I could do a happy dance, I would,” said Eek, who has an 85-acre carrot and onion farm in the Holland Marsh. “(The summer has been) brutal, awful, challenging. It’s been incredibly challenging.” Pointing to a wet spring with threats of frost, two days of severe winds about three months ago, the hailstorm in July and the ongoing drought, Eek has spent $14,000 on additional labour this season and an extra $3,000 a month on additional irrigation costs. “Our farmers, God bless them, if I hear anybody complain about the price of food, I’ll have some choice words for them because I know what our farmers have been going through,” she said. “They have been working like 19 hours
Mike Barrett/Metroland
Avia and Bill Eek are happy rain has finally arrived. The Holland Marsh farmers grow carrots and onions on their 85-acre farm and have suffered losses this season.
See page A12.
COMMUNITY
‘Diefenbunker’: Aurora house with Cold War era bunker hits market Asking price for 3-bedroom home on Old Yonge Street is $1.6M BY SIMON MARTIN
smartin@yrmg.com
Metroland file photo
The home at 220 Old Yonge St. comes with a ColdWarera bunker.
Have you ever wanted to buy a house with a Cold War era bunker? Now’s your chance. The commonly referred to ‘Diefenbunker’ on 220 Old Yonge St. in Aurora is up for sale for a cool $1,595,000. The 19th-century Victorian farmhouse has a secret in the back yard. Buried 18 inches below the ground is something long discussed, but seen
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CHECK IT OUT: The ‘Diefenbunker’ is at 220 Old Yonge St. in Aurora.
rarely, in Aurora — A 35-by-60-foot Cold War bunker. The cinderblock and steel room contains three massive clear plastic boards bearing hand-drawn maps of the GTA and Lake Simcoe.
Boards intended to count radiation doses and civilian casualties are mounted along the side of the frigidly cold room. Two emergency water containers that held 400 gallons and 100 telephone connections are in adjoining rooms. Historians believe the bunker, which was designed as a nuclear conSee page A12.
METROLAND IMPACT SERIES
Impaired driving: the grey area of pharmaceuticals W BY SAMANTHA BEATTIE
sbeattie@metroland.com
hen Robert Phillips got into his car one Tuesday last May he felt fine. Within a few hours, though, he’d come close to falling asleep at the wheel as he swerved into oncoming traffic and forced transport trucks onto the highway’s shoulder, said Crown attorney Ted Carlton in a Muskoka courthouse Dec. 22, 2015. Police eventually stopped the Parry Sound resident in Bracebridge. “The officer found Mr. Phillips had no odour of alcohol on his breath, but a slight slur in his speech,” said Carlton. “He stated he’d taken his medications that morning and simply felt tired.” Later that day, May 6, 2015, a urine test revealed Phillips, then 43, had a number of drugs in his system, including oxycodone – an opioid pain medication. His family doctor had prescribed the drug cocktail after Phillips suffered four concussions in five years, said defence lawyer Peter Ward. Immediately following the incident Phillips went to his family doctor who adjusted his medications and found a solution. Phillips was initially charged with impaired by alcohol, but it was withdrawn. Phillips did
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Impaired driving by drugs happens almost as frequently as impaired driving by alcohol, according to the OPP. plead guilty to another charge – careless driving. “I had just started a new blood pressure pill and I think that’s why this happened,” Phillips told the court. At the time of the incident, he had no criminal record and a
very small number of Highway Traffic Act infractions. “It scared me as much as anyone else.” Phillips was sentenced to 12 months probation, a $750 fine and a 45-day licence suspension. He did not respond to multiple
requests for comment. Cases like Phillips’ are becoming more common across Ontario. Impaired driving by drugs happens almost as frequently as impaired driving by alcohol, said OPP Sgt. Dave Wallbank of the Highway Safety Division. Marijuana is the leading drug of choice, followed closely by pharmaceuticals, he said. The OPP are currently not tracking the number of pharmaceutical-related cases, but it’s “not rare for traffic officers to encounter drugs from the prescription world,” said Wallbank. Prescribed opioids like oxycodone (as Phillips was taking), sedatives like Valium and even stimulants like Ritalin can impact a person’s ability to drive, according to the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse. Research shows opioids and sedatives can cause drowsiness, impair co-ordination, reduce ability to multitask and increase errors. “Studies of traffic crashes reveal that drivers who test positive for the use of sedatives are two to eight times more likely than alcohol-free and drug-free drivers to be involved in a fatal traffic crash,” said the CCSA’s report. That statistic applies to opioid use as well. “The driving behaviour of someone who See page A7.
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