 By Staff
July 26th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The Burlington Herd took advantage of 13 walks in a 9-4 win over the Hamilton Cardinals Tuesday night.
Burlington collected eight hits but used the free passes to build a 5-0 lead after three innings and a 9-1 advantage in the seventh.
 Giving that incoming ball a close look. John Whaley drove in a pair of runs, and Justin Gideon scored twice and swiped a pair of bases. He also had an RBI.
Ryan Freemantle, Matt McCue and Nolan Pettipiece each singled, scored and had an RBI, while Andrew Mercier drove in a run. Ethan Cummins singled and scored twice.
Rich Corrente (2-3) went six innings and allowed a run on four hits with two walks and three strikeouts.
Mike Hart singled twice and had an RBI and run for the Cardinals. TJ Baker had a pair of singles, and Connor Bowie went 2-for-2 with an RBI. Luke Tevlin drove in a run and scored once.
Jackson Jones (0-3) took the loss, giving up five runs (two earned) on three hits with eight walks and two strikeouts in five innings.
Future games
Thursday, July 27
Toronto at Burlington, 7:15 p.m.
Standings
Barrie Baycats 30-1
Kitchener Panthers 27-6
London Majors 22-9
Toronto Maple Leafs 15-17
Brantford Red Sox 14-18
Burlington Herd 13-20
Hamilton Cardinals 8-24
* Guelph Royals 1-35
* – Ceased operations
 By Pepper Parr
July 25th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
School is out and not for just the students.
Much of the staff at the Board of Education are taking their vacations, however there is work that has to be done – one of those tasks is responding to the requests for an Administrative Review made by parents from both Lester B. Pearson and Bateman high school.
 It took Bateman some time to organize themselves – were demonstrations like this effective? Each parent group is preparing their requests separately and when completed they file the request with the Ministry of Education. That was dine early in July.
The Ministry sends a copy to the Board of Education and gives them 30 days to prepare the Board staff response to the parent request for the review.
Board communications people advise use that the task of responding was assigned to a number of senior staff.
That document is due in the hands on the Ministry during the first half of August.
When the Ministry has both sets of documents they sit down and do a review to determine if they, the Ministry, should appoint a facilitator who will be given the task of reviewing the documents and making a decision.
The facilitator can decide that there was nothing wrong with the Program Accommodation Review that took place or he can decide that there were flaws and order the Board to hold another Review. There is a considerable amount of latitude for the facilitator.
Halton District School Board has been told in the past that the process they used to decide to close a school was not acceptable.
Sometime in September the public should learn what is come to come out of the request for the Reviews.
The Gazette recently published the request that was made by the parents at Lester B. Pearson. It is a strong document and has merit.
We were not as fortunate with our request for a copy of the document prepared by the Bateman high school parents.
Responding to our request, Lisa Bull, a Bateman parent and a member of the Program Accommodation Review committee, who was a strong and very vocal advocate for more innovation in the thinking from the Board staff, said the following:
You continue to call out/blame the parents of Bateman for not getting into the ‘fight’ soon enough. This is problematic for several reasons. First, it ignores the fact that few parents from any schools other than Central and Pearson attended the first public meeting. How about blaming the HDSB for not adequately or competently explaining WHAT the PSR process was and how it could potentially impact schools and communities? I am an engaged and informed parent and I wasn’t at that first meeting. I did not understand, at that point in time, what PAR was about or why I should care. As you know, the more I learned the more active I became as was the case with many in our community. I blame the HDSB for their lack of competence in community engagement. Not the parents who have proven that they can and will show up when needed.
Ward 5 school board trustee Amy Collard told the Gazette that “communications to parents come directly from the HDSB. All Burlington parents with an email address in our system would have gotten the emails through our synrevoice email system.
Ms Bull, the excuse you give just doesn’t hold water.
For many of the parents of special needs students at Bateman, getting to additional meetings is incredibly difficult. Many of these parents are exhausted by the daily challenges of caring for their kids. To blame them for not getting into this sooner is victim blaming and is behavior that is just as shameful as that of the HDSB.
I know that you believe that our Admin Review document should be made public and that this should be done via the Gazette. This is your opinion and desire but is not a requirement. Given the position that you have taken and the opinions you have published about the Bateman community, our Committee will not be sending our report at this time.
Responses like this are often described as “shooting the messenger”
Bateman parents have struggled with getting their response out which is unfortunate – they have a very strong case but instead of making their case they fell back on emotional arguments and claimed that the Central parents had ‘thrown them under the bus’.
 Sharon Picken, a PARC member – never gave as much as an inch in her argument to keep Bateman open. The Central parents fully understood the risk and pulled together as a team, raised $14,000 in a silent auction to ensure they had any funds they might need and then dug deep and pulled out all kinds facts that the Board staff had missed.
The Central case was so compelling that the Director, with the support of his staff, decided to change the recommendation and ask the trustees to close Bateman and send some of the students to Central and others to Bateman.
Bateman parents weren’t prepared to accept that the Director of Education did what any intelligent person would do – review new information and if the information was valid and relevant change the decision.
The Bateman parents had only to look at the map that showed the distance between Nelson and Bateman to realize that they were at risk for closure.
When the Director of Education revised his decision the Bateman parents began to say that it was because Ward 2 city Councillor Marianne Meed Ward, who had a child at Central high school and was made one of the Central high school representatives on the PARC, had undue influence with the Director.
They alluded to meetings Meed Ward had with the Director of Education and all the communications tools she had as a city Councillor.
What Meed Ward had going for her was her skill as a community organizer. She worked hard with a dedicated team that was focused and supported by a community that was going to do whatever it took.
 PARC member Lisa Bull who was one of the better thinkers on that committee. Bateman had skills of its own. Lisa Bull was also a member of the PARC and she was consistent in her drive to get the Board staff and the trustees to look at the problem the Board faced with fresh eyes and not take a simple solution: – too many schools – close a school or two and the problem is solved.
The Bateman parents know it is n’t quite that simple and the tragedy for this city is that the trustees were not able to see a solution within the more than 50 delegations made.
Bateman was fortunate in that they had the best trustee there is on the Board. Amy Collard bust her buns to sway her fellow trustees and gave the Director of Education more than one uncomfortable moment when she did her level best to get her motion on the table and ensure that it was properly and fully debated.
Collard, serving her second term as a trustee, was acclaimed on both occasions. She should be acclaimed a third time.
When Bateman realized it had a fight on its hands they did some superb community grass roots work. They got excellent television coverage but they were not able to catch the ears of a majority of the trustees.
It was at this point that the public began to get a glimpse of just what the Community Pathways Program was really about and how unfortunate the impact was going to be on the parents who had children in those programs.
We don’t know what the Bateman parents chose to say in their request for an Administrative Review. The document is public and the Gazette will use the provincial Freedom of Information process to get a copy and publish the details.
 Ward 5 school board trustee Amy Collard. The tragedy in all this is that there are several hundred students who will experience significant upset and turmoil in their lives. There are parents who believed they had finally found a school that met the needs of their children. All that is at risk.
The Board staff has said they will provide the Bateman parents and their children with facilities and a level of service that will be better than what they currently have.
The saving grace in all this is that the Bateman parents have a trustee who will be watching very closely to ensure that the students don’t go without.
What Collard is not going to be able to change is the social environment in the school they are being transferred to – that is the real challenge for everyone.
 By Staff
July 25th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Ken Hall has been selected by a community jury, with input from public engagement, for the Spirit of Sport public art project.
Born in Toronto, and educated at the University of Waterloo in Mechanical Engineering and Fine Arts, Ken’s work is characterized by his ability to exploit a wide range of media, allowing him to seek out the fundamental form of expression for each piece; ranging from public sculpture to interactive digital artwork.
 Ken Hall explaining a piece of his work to students The project is part of the City’s ongoing Public Art program.
Online and in-person public engagement took place in February and gathered feedback from 135 residents, which helped inform the jury’s decision.
The Spirit of Sport public art project aims to celebrate Burlington’s long history of sports excellence, on both an amateur and professional level. A series of three small to medium-scale, exterior public artworks will be installed at the following: Mainway Recreation Centre, Brant Hills Community Centre and Nelson Recreation Centre.
 The front of the Brant Hills sports complex with its red ribbon These locations were selected as they represent a broad range of types of sport as well as different levels of play, ranging from children/youth to competitive play.
The artwork is being created over the summer and will be installed in fall 2018.
Artwork Concept
To honour this Spirit of Sport, red ribbon-like sculptures will celebrate active living and inclusive community participation, while engaging and welcoming the public to the recreation centres.
 A free standing sculpture that will be part of the Mainway Recreation Centre The red ribbons reflect key components of many activities, such as the flowing rhythm of gymnastics; the curved, red stitching on a baseball; the goal line in hockey; and the finish line in track and field, among others.
The fluttering ribbon is a perfect form for these sculptures, having long been associated with sporting excellence; whether being used to support medals won at competitive events, or as a means of celebrating participation in community activities, such as awareness walks for issues like breast cancer.
The association with medals is particularly relevant given the City of Burlington’s rich history of sporting innovation, which includes: Dr. Frank Hayden, founder of the International Special Olympics Movement; Melville Marks Robinson, founder of the Commonwealth Games; along with numerous Olympic athletes and coaches, including Melanie Booth (soccer) and Angela Coughlan (swimming).
The rolling ribbon also celebrates a heart-healthy, active lifestyle, calling to mind the visualization of a heartbeat on an ECG machine. The red colour represents the circulation of oxygenated blood, reminding us that regardless of age, ethnicity or gender, we all benefit from active physical and social participation.
 By Staff
July 25, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The Councillor got that one right – this “clearly is a major redevelopment proposal.”
 The all rental community is about to undergo a very significant change. Georgian Court Estates, in east Aldershot, has disclosed the details of its redevelopment plan for this 20 acre site. The plan has not been submitted to the City yet, but was shared with existing tenants of the rental complex.
The owner is proposing major intensification, specifically replacement of the current 288 townhouses with 1,450 new rental units including townhouses and apartments.
The plan calls for one 23 storey building, one 18 storey building, one 15 storey building, eight 8 storey buildings, six 6 storey buildings, five 4 storey buildings and a series of 3 storey townhouses.
 Architects rendering of re-development plans for the Georgian Court Estates – originally developed 50 years ago the plan is to demolish everything and create a new community with considerably more density. The plan also includes a central public park and a variety of amenities. Further it proposes to extend Sunset Road north to Surrey Lane. Spokespeople for the owner say the entire project, if approved, will take about ten years to build.
Ward 1 Councillor Rick Craven is working with the Warwick Surrey Community Association to establish a Neighbourhood Advisory Committee to examine this plan in detail and ensure existing tenants are protected.
When the city receives the application, perhaps in July, a full, formal consultation process will begin.
Craven explains the plan in a short video
 By Staff
July 24th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
They have been bringing Broadway to Burlington since 1978.
This week they will be bringing you Hairspray!
 Burlington Student Theatre, where children and youth can participate in a range of performing arts opportunities.
The programs focus on the wellness and development of our young people, fostering empathy, courage and critical thinking within a safe and nurturing environment. Participants practice the tools and transferrable skills they need to feel good about themselves and act with confidence in their everyday lives.
Student Theatre brings out the best in youth through experiences in the performing arts, building confidence and developing the tools and transferrable skills to help youth feel good about themselves, while empowering them to create their own lives. With your support, youth are empowered to create a better world.
Later this week – on Thursday, the students will perfrom HairSpray, the story of a 1960s Baltimore, dance-loving teen Tracy Turnblad auditions for a spot on “The Corny Collins Show” …and wins! She becomes an overnight celebrity, a trendsetter in dance, fun and fashion. Perhaps her new status as a teen sensation is enough to topple Corny’s reigning dance queen and lead society into a new age!
Tickets: Adult $18 Youth $15 Click to get to the box office
 By Staff
July 24, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The Halton Regional Police Service (HRPS) has partnered with officers from the O.P.P., Toronto Police Service, Peel Regional Police, York Regional Police, Ministry of the Environment (Vehicle Emissions Enforcement Unit) and Ministry of Transportation Halton Enforcement Team to combat street racing and aggressive driving in Halton. During the crackdown a Ferrari was seized.
 A Lamborghini Huracan valued at approximately $230,000.00 and a McLaren Spider valued at approximately $260,000.00 were stopped by Police at Guelph Line and Colling Road in Burlington during a May 2016 crackdown. Officers from participating services were supported by uniform Halton members as they patrolled the Towns of Milton and Halton Hills, Oakville and the City of Burlington from 8:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. on the 21st of July.
This joint effort to combat street racing and aggressive driving (dubbed Project ERASE) is part of a commitment by GTA policing partners to work together in 2017 and beyond.
Friday’s enforcement blitz was one of three planned GTA-wide joint operations that will take place this year to deter, disrupt and detect illegal racing activities that place all road users at risk.
More than one hundred charges were laid over the course of the six-hour initiative. One stunting charge resulted in a Ferrari being seized and the driver receiving a seven-day licence suspension.
A breakdown of the most significant charges laid is as follows:
• 48 Speeding
• 5 Distracted driving
• 2 Careless driving
• 1 Suspended driving
• 8 vehicles inspected with one being taken out of service
• 1 driver received a roadside suspension for providing a “warn” range BAC sample into an approved screening device
Members of the public are encouraged to call 9-1-1 if to report vehicles racing or driving aggressively.
Motorists are reminded that community safety is a shared responsibility and road users need to eliminate distractions, obey traffic control signals and speed limits and drive according to traffic, road and weather conditions.
Citizen wishing to report a traffic concern can do so by visiting www.haltonpolice.ca and submitting an online Traffic Complaint.
Project ERASE reflects HRPS’ Community First policing philosophy that focuses on incorporating the four pillars of (community) safety and well-being into Service priorities: Emergency Response, Risk Intervention, Prevention, and Social Development. More information can be found at www.haltonpolice.ca under Community or by following @HaltonPolice on Twitter or Facebook.
 By Staff
July 24th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Blathwayte Lane from Elgin Street to Ontario Street will be closed daily from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. for two weeks beginning Monday July 31, 2017
Local access will be maintained from Ontario Street.
 Construction adjacent to Blathwayte Lane
 By Pepper Parr
July 24, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The first ever Halton Everesting challenge Saturday along Kerns Road didn’t end the way organizers had hoped.
After beginning the one-day vertical ‘climb’ of Mount Everest at 4:30 a.m. Saturday, remaining riders George Orfanogiannis and Matt Zielinski had to call the event at lap 69 (just short of 73 laps of the 4.9-kilometre loop)) due to malfunctioning measuring equipment.
What are a bunch of cyclists doing on Kerns Road pretending they are climbing Mount Everest? They were “Everesting”.
George Orfanogiannis’s eight year old son Joey was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in January of 2016 and has been battling the disease since then.
Joey is currently at a point where the disease is being maintained. His doctors hope to be able to say it is in remission if his current maintenance program goes well through to 2019.
 Joey – ready to take on whatever comes his way. Joey is now on daily chemotherapy medication and monthly visits to the hospital. He had to be homeschooled for a year but has returned to his school and is looking forward to getting back to class in September.
The “Everesting” was to raise funds and awareness of the cancer that has invaded Joey’s young body.
George was a cyclist with the Oakville Morning Glory cycling club; they took up the challenge of driving up and down Kerns Road in Burlington until they had ridden the equivalent of 29,029 feet in elevation – which is the height of Mount Everest from its base camp.
They did all the paper work and set up stuff with the Everest organization – they are the people who oversee the challenge for any group that wants to create a target they can work towards achieving.
The day of the “climb” turned out to be less than stellar, drizzly rain was an on and off thing throughout the day but that didn’t deter Joey for as much a minute. He was running all over the place serving people lemonade. His day took a huge surge when a Burlington Fire department truck rolled into the parking lot and Joey was made an honorary fire fighter and got to wear fire fighters clothing and have his picture taken. Big moment for Joey Orfanogiannis.
 Non the worse for a stern lecture from a police officer fr blowing through stop signs one of the cyclists checks in with the family. Half an hour earlier a police cruiser slide into the parking lot. The officer had pulled over a couple of the cyclists who were blowing through stop signs at speeds in the 60km range – on the downhill portion of Kern Road. No tickets – but stern warnings. All was forgiven when the police officer bought himself a tall lemonade.
Things weren’t going as smoothly for the “climb”
At the approximately 315-kilometres point, the cyclists were “feeling good and ready to go the distance” said Orfanogiannis.
But something didn’t seem right, the riders “did a quick recalculation” and found that the device that measured altitude had been affected by the day’s air pressure, and had “robbed us of 60’ for every climb we did.”
“That would have taken the ride to 88 laps and pushed us to 6 a.m. We were ready to go to 6 a.m., but the issue became was going to rain again and we thought if we get to 6 a.m., what happens if the rain robs us of more laps; does it become too dangerous to finish?”
“We stopped just short of what should have been 27,064’ but on the device doing the actual measurement was reading 23,000’ (Everest is 29,029’) The ride doesn’t count unless it is measured on by the software that takes all the data and calculates just how many feel of elevation the cyclists have completed.
What no one told the riders from Morning Glory was that atmospheric conditions were part of the calculation – lots of clouds meant a different barometric pressure reading on the measurement device.
But these riders wouldn’t be considered hard-core cyclists if they gave up after their first attempt.
“We gotta get up it. I won’t stop until I get it and neither will Matt,” said George
Orfanogiannis came up with Halton’s first Everesting attempt, not just as a challenge for himself, but to raise funds and awareness in support of research into pediatric oncology; his son Joey, 7, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in January of 2016.
 George Orfanogiannis “When my son was going through treatment I always told him I wouldn’t ask him to do what I wouldn’t do. I asked him to climb a mountain so I owe him a mountain,” said Dad.
Orfanogiannis said the event was incredible nonetheless based on the hundreds of people who came out to support the cyclists, not just fellow riders but members of the community and those touched by cancer. Two thousand dollars was also raised.
“Four young children came down at midnight with their parents to donate their allowance money,” said Orfanogiannis, a selfless act that moved him to tears.
The next day a small group of girls had set up their lemonade stand on Kerns Road, raised $130 and donated that to the cause as well.
The residents along Kerns Road were so moved by the effort that they said they will ask the city to close the road next year and make it a much bigger event.
Orfanogiannis and his team “knew what we were in for physically and emotionally, it was devastating when we realized we came this far only to be robbed by technology.”
 Lap chart at 2:00 pm on a rainy Saturday afternoon. The challenge began at 4:30 am. They made it to lap 69 George Orfanogiannis isn’t all that good at giving up. He reports that “there is currently open dialogue with Strava the software that manages the data for rides and there may be a chance the realize the error in the technology and be willing to correct it – if that is the case I would need to climb the hill eight more times which I am prepared to do.”
By Staff
July 24th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Clublink Corporation ULC, a corporation that owns and operates the Rattle Snake Point Golf Club in Milton was fined $50,000 after a young worker was injured by a wood chipper.
On May 27, 2015, two Clublink workers were operating a wood chipper at the golf club. The first worker started the chipper and began feeding wood while the second looked for a place to put down a coffee cup. Placing the cup near a vent on the back of the chipper, the second worker tried to feel if air was coming out of the vent that would knock the cup over. The second worker’s hand was pulled into the vent and injured.
 Rattle snake point golf course club house. A Ministry of Labour investigation determined that a guard that should have prevented access to the vent was not in place at the time of the incident. This was in violation of section 25(1)(b) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Clublink Corporation ULC was fined $50,000 by Justice of the Peace Margot McLeod. The court also imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
 By Staff
July 24th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
When the weather works for us this time of year the days get described as those lazy hazy days of summer. The evenings still have warmth in the air and a bit of a breeze makes being outside pleasant. Being in the country gathered with friends and enjoying a play and then talking about it with people around a camp fire is about as Canadian as you can get.
That’s what it is going to be like in Lowville on August 2nd – when those who were taken enough with the Driftwood production of Shakespeare’s Othello gather with the director to talk about why he produced the play he did.
 Bring a lawn chair or a blanket and settle in for an evening of Shakespeare’s Othello as done by the Driftwood Theatre. It is usually a small group that gathers around the pit in which a nice fire glows. Deep seated Muskoka chairs are pulled into the circle and the conversation goes on late into the evening.
Othello is being produced by Driftwood Theatre and put on in more than 20 locales around the province this summer.
Debra Pickfield of Thinkspot has brought the travelling troupe into the hamlet of Lowville for the past three years.
Pickfield believes that it is the sense of community we have that helps us survive as a society and that community happens when people come together to listen to each other, take part in a social event. Bringing people together is the vision and mission of Thinkspot – it made sense to extend that vision more deeply into the community.
People drift into the open space yards away from the fire pit bounded by trees on three of the four sides, set up their lawn chair or spread out a blanket and settle in for an evening of Shakespeare.
 Othello – at Thinkspot in Lowville – one night only. august 2nd – actors take to the stage at 7:30 pm. Driftwood is known for the interpretations they do of whichever Shakespearian production taken on.
Othello, a searing tale of race, jealousy and revenge, is being done against the backdrop of the 1974 Canadian Peacekeeping initiative in Cyprus where our Armed Forces were caught in a life and death struggle on that small island in the Mediterranean.
The production is one of those Pay what you can events with $20 suggested.
The actors take to the stage at 7:30 pm
By Staff
July 24th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The Halton Regional Police Services Board passed a resolution at its February 23, 2017 meeting that the Board undertake a review of how sexual assault cases are handled by the Halton Regional Police Service, including policies and procedures and the classification of sexual assault occurrences.
 The resolution further set out that the Board undertake this work in collaboration with local community and justice partners. The ultimate goal of the review is to ensure victims of sexual assault are provided a timely and dignified response, the best support possible from the police service, and that the process is comprehensive, fair and respectful.
As part of the review, the team is seeking comments from sexual assault survivors on the treatment their cases received. This information is crucial to the work of the review team and will help inform its findings. It is the intent of the review team to submit a supplementary report to the Halton Regional Police Services Board by the end of fall 2017 that captures survivor feedback – individual input will remain anonymous in the report.
Specifically, the review team is seeking answers to the following two questions:
1. If you are a survivor of sexual assault and reported the crime to the Halton Regional Police Service, what was your experience?
2. If you are a survivor of sexual assault and chose not to report the incident to the Halton Regional Police Service, what were the reasons why?
Individuals are invited to provide input directly to Julie Moscato, Executive Director of the Halton Regional Police Services Board by July 31, 2017.
This input can be provided by phone (905-825-4747 Ext. 5014), by email (Julie.Moscato@haltonpolice.ca), by letter (addressed to 1151 Bronte Road, Oakville, ON, L6M 3L1), or in person, by appointment, with Julie Moscato.
Feedback can also be submitted through an anonymous online form by clicking here or copying the link into your browser: https://www.haltonpolice.ca/about/psb/sexualassaultreview.php .
If individuals would like support while providing input, they may wish to contact any of the agencies listed below, who are also a part of the Sexual Assault Case Handling Review Team. These agencies will also accept input into the review.
Nina’s Place, The Regional Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Care Centre, Joseph Brant Hospital –
905-681-4880,
Thrive Counselling – 905 845-3811 Ext.117,
Halton Women’s Place – 905-332-7892 or 905-878-8970, or
The Victim Services Unit of the Halton Regional Police Service – 905-825-4810.
If individuals are unable to provide input by July 31, 2017, input will be accepted on an ongoing basis as part of a continued commitment to ensuring the voices of survivors are heard.
 By Staff
July 24, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
It started out looking like a pretty good game for the Burlington Herd – they were ahead 7 – 0 but the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied for an 18-7 win Sunday afternoon at Christie Pits in Toronto.
 Burlington leadoff batter Justin Gideon had two hits, including his seventh home run, two RBI and two runs.
John Whaley singled, homered and drove in three, and Ryan Freemantle drove in a run and scored once.
The Leafs got their 18 runs this way: Christian Hauck (2-2) gave up 10 runs on 10 hits in four innings. He walked four and struck out two. Ryan White went 5-for-5 with a home run and two RBI to lead the Leafs. Grant Tamane singled, homered and drove in four, while Dan Marra had four hits, including his first home run of the season, and six RBI.
Damon Topolie had three hits, three RBI and two runs, Adam Odd singled twice and had an RBI and a run, Julian Johnson went 2-for-4 with three runs, and Daniel Szpik singled, doubled and drove in a run while scoring twice.
Trevor Caughey (2-0) earned the win, allowing seven runs (six earned) on eight hits with five strikeouts over seven innings.
Future games
Tuesday, July 25
Burlington at Hamilton, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday July 27
Toronto Maple Leafs at Burlington, 7:15 pm
Standings
Barrie Baycats 30-1
Kitchener Panthers 25-6
London Majors 21-9
Toronto Maple Leafs 15-16
Brantford Red Sox 13-17
Burlington Herd 11-20
By Staff
July 23, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The Splash Pad at Nelson Pool will be temporarily out of service from 10:30am to 2:00 pm, Monday July 24, 2017 for maintenance.
The pool will remain open for all scheduled swims. Service to the splash pad will resume at 2pm.
By Staff
July 23, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The Burlington Herd got buried by the Kitchener Panther’s on a Saturday afternoon 13-4 drubbing at Nelson Park.
Ryan Freemantle singled, doubled and had two RBI for the Herd.
Justin Gideon had a two-run double, and Nolan Pettipiece went 2-for-2 with a run.
Jack Caswell (0-1) took the loss, giving up six runs (four earned) on three hits with five walks and three strikeouts over 4.1 innings.
It was the Panthers’ 11th consecutive victory.
Interisano singled twice, doubled and also scored twice. La Rosa and Andrulis had three singles apiece. La Rosa plated three runs and stole his first base of the season, while Andrulis swiped a pair of bases.
Yorbis Borroto had two hits, two RBI and a run, Mike Gordner drove in a pair, Tanner Nivins scored twice and had an RBI, and Zarley Cina had an RBI and scored once.
Matt McGovern (3-1) tossed six innings of one-run ball for the win. He scattered six hits and walked one with four strikeouts.
Future games
Sunday, July 23
Burlington at Toronto, 2 p.m.
Thursday July 27th
Toronto at Burlington 7:15 pm
Standings
Barrie Baycats 29-1
Kitchener Panthers 24-6
London Majors 20-9
Toronto Maple Leafs 14-16
Brantford Red Sox 13-16
Burlington Herd 11-19
Hamilton Cardinals 8-22
* Guelph Royals 1-31: Ceased operations for the season
By Staff
July 23, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
 The Burlington Canal Lift Bridge will be closed in the evenings to vehicular and pedestrian traffic in both directions between 8 pm and 5 am from Monday, July 24, to the morning of Saturday, July 29
Marine traffic will not be affected.
The closures are required as part of the project to replace the bridge’s controls, drives and cables.
 By Staff
July 22, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Got this from a specialty coffee marketer who has inventory she is not going to be able to use. The product is rare and pricey. She wants to give the coffee away but it has to go to someone who in turn is either going to give it away or use it as a fund raiser.
I would like to donate 12 gift-tins of rare & prized CIVET COFFEE for silent auction or other prize uses, for charities having events within the next month.
The retail value of this rare coffee is $50 each, so hopefully they can help raise $600 out in the community.
The reason I am donating them is that they are ‘best before’ the end of August 2017. That does not mean they will be ‘bad’ after that, but they cannot be sold and will not be good as prizes after that.
Please share this with anyone you know having an event (or who could have some other use for them – such as volunteer appreciation for a volunteer who is a specialty-coffee lover?)
Have them contact me at this email address: cj@cjscoffeefundraising.com
 Civets is eating coffee during the production of Civet coffee, the world’s most expensive coffee. A civet (a small squirrel-like arboreal mammal) which eats the coffee berries or red coffee cherries, the beans inside which pass through its digestive tract, expelling them undigested as faeces. The faeces are then cleaned, dried and lightly roasted to make the coffee. What is Civet Coffee? It is certainly a different gift or fund raising item – different enough to actually work.
Kudos to the coffee merchant for coming up with a way to manage her inventory and give back to her community.
 By Staff
July 22, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The Halton Regional Police Child Abuse and Sexual Assault Unit have concluded an investigation into an incident of sexual assault.
The assault took place at Mall in Burlington on July 4, 2017. At approximately 7:00 p.m. on that date, an adult female was shopping in the mall when she was approached by a male. A short conversation ensued in the mall, followed by the accused sexually assaulting the female.
The accused fled on foot once a passersby was alerted by the female. As a result of an investigation, police identified Ramesh Kukreja, 51 years, of Burlington.
Kukreja was arrested on July 20, 2017 and is charged with one count of sexual assault.
Anyone with information relating to this incident, or other incidents of sexual assault are encouraged to contact Detective Constable Adam Groulx at 905-465-8976 of the Halton Regional Police Child Abuse and Sexual Assault Unit, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), or through the web at www.haltoncrimestoppers.com, or by texting “Tip201” with your message to 274637 (crimes).
 By Staff
July 22, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
An event next Thursday is going to pull together a number of interests in the city and give people an opportunity to get outside and do some fixing up of a facility that has been home to baseball since it came to the city six years ago.
The Nelson Baseball Park Neighbourhood Group wants to celebrate the completion of the Nelson Baseball Park beautification and fencing improvements project at the Burlington Herd baseball game on Thursday, July 27.
The Herd will be playing the Toronto Maple Leafs – the team that broke the 25 game winning streak the Barrie Baycats had achieved – those guys play some serious baseball.
The pre-game ceremony begins at 7 p.m. and attendees are encouraged to come early to get a seat and participate in some of the pre-game fun.
Entrance to the ball game will be free, a 50/50 draw and a BBQ in support of the Terry Fox Foundation.
The beautification and fencing improvements were done with the support of community volunteers and funding from the City of Burlington’s Neighbourhood Community Matching Fund program.
That fund is a favourite of the Mayors and was part of an initiative that the Parks and Recreation department dove into a number of years ago when they brought in Jim Diers who had done some incredible work in Seattle to juice up the thinking at Parks and Recreation.
Burlington was not able to get community responses that were as involving as those in Seattle but the program has begun to take hold.
The work being done at Nelson Park is a good example. It is similar to what a bunch of elementary students did with their ball diamond at Lakeshore Road elementary public school.
 Site lines and picnic tables have been improved. If you know Casey Cosgrove then you know that there isn’t a baseball game he can avoid. All it takes is the crack of a bat to shift his focus. When his community of “baseball enthusiasts” heard about this baseball ‘gem’ we have in our neighbourhood park and learned that the sight lines were in need of improvement so that a baseball game could be viewed clearly, without obstruction they gathered to tackle this project together.
The City of Burlington’s Neighbourhood Community Matching Fund provided much of the financing and they have been able to improve the fencing and freshen up the baseball buildings, stands and picnic tables in Fenway green, a famous baseball colour, to make the neighbourhood baseball park a first- class facility for players and spectators.”
Will someone be throwing the ceremonial opening pitch? Don’t let the Mayor near the ball. When he took on that task back in the days when the team was known as the Burlington Twins he let fly and the ball dug into the ground a couple of yards before the plate.
Nelson Stadium, part of Nelson high school facilities, which is adjacent to Nelson Park, has plans of its own to improve those grounds.
 By Ray Rivers
July 21, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Canada’s aboriginal leaders have once again demonstrated how they sometimes don’t do themselves any favours. Last week, having been invited to attend the Council of the Federation where the provincial and territorial leaders meet biannually to discuss national issues – they staged a perfect no-show. Their boycott was put down to their offence at not being given a voice at the ‘Table’ equivalent to that of the premiers.
Unlike the premiers, charged with managing Canada’s sub-national governments, aboriginal self-governance, at best, approximates the authority given to municipalities. So it is unfortunate and dysfunctional when indigenous leaders take their adopted First Nations misnomer to heart. In a united Canada, these First Nations, comprising a million and half people, about 4% of our population and widely dispersed throughout the country, will never be more than a notional nation, as important as they were to our past and should be to our future.
 First Nations’ authority comes from a patchwork of treaties signed with the Crown over a century ago and the Indian Act, an even more inappropriate misnomer. Although there are some very successful reserves operating, as for example Walpole Island and our neighbours in the Six Nations, many are poorly managed and dependent on federal largesse for their survival, especially those in remote northern locations.
Back in 1969 Pierre Trudeau tabled a white paper proposing to repeal the Indian Act and scrap all of the historic treaties. He would have given the reserves to the individual band members and closed down the Department of Indian Affairs realigning health care, education and welfare to the appropriate provincial authorities. His proposal, a response to the failure of aboriginal policy and the Indian Act over the previous century was widely opposed by the aboriginal community itself, and he dropped the idea.
Canada’s earliest parliamentarians considered the native population uncivilized. The real purpose, arguably, of the Indian Act, which received royal ascent sometime between Louis Riel’s rebellions in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, was to civilize them. It was racist and sexist and designed to promote assimilation of the native population, though officially its purpose was to oversee and administer the welfare of the 600 or so native tribes and bands, and attending to the requirements of the treaties they signed with the Crown.
The Fathers of Confederation envisioned a future where aboriginals would eventually be integrated into mainstream Canadian society, they called it enfranchisement. That would eventually negate the need for an Indian Act – once there are no longer any ‘Status Indians’ -those covered by the Act. Bribes were offered for band members to relinquish their status. Anyone attending a post-secondary institution, serving in the military, joining the priesthood or just wanting to have the right to vote had to surrender their Indian status.
 Women who married off the reserve would lose status, but men didn’t. And then some rocket scientist figured that snatching children from their parents and placing them miles away in ‘residential schools’ was the ultimate approach to achieve assimilation – though admittedly no one could have imagined the sexual and other physical abuse the children would be exposed to in schools operated by religious orders.
Canada’s First Nations’ development has not been a happy story. We hear all too often about how they generally experience lower income levels, poorer health, higher incarceration rates and shorter life expectancies. We cringe when hearing the horror stories of life at Attawapiskat and Davis Inlet. We find it hard to fathom this whole ugly matter of the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls (MMIWG), currently the subject of a national inquiry.
There is a long laundry list of recommendations coming out of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the residential school program, though interestingly none of the recommendations effectively deal with what inspired that program in the first place, the Indian Act. The Commission referenced the need to pay attention, if not adopt, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Canada was one of only four or five nations which voted against it and we had little choice given the blatant conflict with our current policies under the Indian Act.
Over the years, subsequent governments, including that of Stephan Harper have attempted to make the Act less sexist and more focused on self-help and self-government. But the Indian Act remained a source of discrimination between those with status, primarily those living on reserves and eligible for various federal subsidies, and those without. In a landmark decision last year the Supreme Court struck down that discrimination, now ensuing that all First Nations, Inuit and Metis are subject to the Indian Act.
 Indigenous games – 2017 This decision will be expensive for the government to implement unless we re-invent how we manage our relationship with Canada’s first inhabitants. And it does provide both the indigenous community and the rest of us with a unique opportunity to reset how we live with each other. Perhaps our current PM would benefit from a review of his father’s old White Paper. And what better time to initiate such a dialogue, as we congratulate our indigenous athletes for their participation in the half-century old North America Indigenous games held in Toronto this year.
 Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington in 1995. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Tweet @rayzrivers
Background links:
First Nations – More First Nations – Canada Day Protests –
Premiers’ Meeting – Truth and Reconciliation – Indian Act –
Status for All – Beyond Indian Act – Trudeau’s Proposal –
Missing and Murdered – Status Indians –
By Staff
July 20th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Nelson Pool Service Interruption – Lap Swim Cancelled Friday July 21, 2017
 The lap swim at Nelson Pool will be cancelled from 8:30am-10am on Friday July 21, 2017 due to unexpected preventative maintenance.
The pool will be open for regular service at 10:30am.
Hold on – isn’t this a brand new swimming pool that has been operating since July 8th and is getting ready for its official opening in August – with the Mayor and the Ward Councillor in attendance?
What is it this time?
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