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Volume 43 No. 7
May 27, 2014
Beach Green candidate adds voice to mix
Funky Monkey shows agility abilities
By Andrew Hudson
ONTARIO ELECTION candidate Debra Scott hopes she has the winning recipe for Green Party votes here in Beaches-East York: clean water and local food. Scott, 44, is a former teacher who taught English in France, Japan, and the UK. The mother of two moved to the Beach from Davisville five years ago, in part to bring her young family close to the lake and ravine parks where they were already spending their weekends. “I like the Beach because I can be a small-town girl,” she said, adding that she grew up in Yellowknife when the city had just 16,000 people. “I can say hi to people I don’t know, and they say hi back.” Asked about the key issue in the riding, Scott said too often, Ontario governments fail to factor in long-term environmental costs when they make development decisions. “Why do clean drinking water and places to grow food keep taking a backseat to development?” she said. “Yes, we absolutely want to have a good economic plan for the city, for the province. But not at the expense of the environment.” Scott also said Ontario loses an average 365 acres of farmland a day because the Ontario Municipal Board is too willing to allow development on what should be protected agricultural land. “It’s time to close those loopholes,” she said, adding that she would like to see the OMB dissolved. Here in the Beach, Scott said recent OMB battles over new condos on Queen Street are not about residents’ knee-jerk opposition to development so much as opposition to “buildings that are greedy.” Regarding the Greens’ plan to unite Ontario’s public and Catholic school boards into one system with English and French schools, Scott said she supports it for two reasons: funding and human rights. “I have friends whose kids are over at the Catholic school, and they talk about fundraisers just as much,” she said. “Everyone is tapped out.” Scott said her party estimates the move would save $1.2 to $1.6 billion a year. She also said a system that privileges one religion over others is at odds with multicultural Canada. If the school boards were united, she said, Catholic parents could still organize private religious schools, as parents of other faiths do now. “I know it’s grandfathered in, I know people just accept it,” she said. “But if you stood back for a minute and looked at it, is it okay?”
Funky Monkey, a mixed breed dog from the McCann Professional Dog Trainers school, leaps through the ring during a timed agility contest on Sunday, May 25 at Woodbine Park. For the first time Woofstock, the largest dog festival on the continent, moved east to Woodbine Park from its former home in the St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood. Thousands of canine lovers converged on the park for dog-centric entertainment, contests and a marketplace focused on four-legged friends. PHOTO: JON MULDOON
Teen back in the game INSIDE By Jon Muldoon
LEIGH ANNE Jacques says doctors still don’t really know fully what happened to her daughter Jilly, 13. What both Jilly and her mother know, however, is how thankful they are that Jilly is healthy and happy, and finally back at lacrosse after two years away, due to multiple brain surgeries and several long hospital stays. In May 2012, “she was a regular kid in Grade 6,” said Leigh Anne. Jilly had gone to tryouts for a field lacrosse team and was looking forward to cross country finals the next day with her teammates at St. John’s Catholic School. But she had a headache she just couldn’t seem to get rid of. “I went to the first practice just before I got sick,” said Jilly. The next morning, Frank, the father of the family, took Jilly to Sick Kids Hospital. She was told she had a sinus infection and sent home, but
a day later, her nose had swollen to twice its normal size, and her parents rushed her back. Doctors removed an abscess from her septum – which is usually only caused by trauma – and thought they had solved the problem. Jilly was in bed with her younger brother and father in the room, while Leigh Anne and Jilly’s older sister were having tea in the cafeteria. Jilly said she must have been very confused while talking with her brother, at least according to what she’s been told. “He was talking to me and asking me something, and I said I really wanted ice cream, then the doctor came and opened my eyes,” she said. Leigh Anne said Jilly’s eyes were pointing different directions, and the team at the hospital leapt into action. “One of the fellows said, ‘this isn’t right,’” said Leigh Anne, and the ensuing rush was described to her as being like a scene from a TV show. Emergency surgery, cont’d. on Page 3
Summer rush of events in Beach ...See Pages 16-17
PLUS
Police Beat.....................7 Community Calendar.....10 BMN’s Neighbourhood...11 Pet of the Month...........14 Garden Views................15 Deja Views....................18 Open Doors...................18 Food and Drink..............19 Write on Health.............21 Beach Memories...........22 Sports........................25
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