Project to Save our Schools & Communities

To-day, May 12, hundreds of campaigners who have been engaged in attempting to save their local schools from unjustified closure, joined in an campaign to flood the offices of Ontario legislators and others with letters, emails, appeals, articles of all kinds.

This we hope will draw attention to the plight of many communities and to the draconian actions of rogue school boards who in this one instance are able to close any school they wish with no fear of appeal from any person or group except by very expensive and cumbersome legal procedures. All of this is a serious glitch in our democratic principles.

We are anxiously awaiting word of reactions to our efforts. I have no idea at this point how many people actually participated or how many messages they sent.

I hope the result will be a dramatic response in Queen's Park.

Picture about our Family Business

We never know what is going to arrive in our post office mail box, our email box, or at our front door. There are very few weeks in which we fail to receive at least one surprise - a contribution to our collection of Blyth memorabilia. This week was no exception.

The above picture of a wedding cake came this week by surface mail. At first I ignored the cake and was trying to identify the people. I soon realized that the cake was the main feature since I did not recognize the ladies behind it.

This cake came from Vodden's Home Bakery in Blyth for a wedding taking place in 1947. That was my family's first business up to 1953. My parents were Harold and Myrtle Vodden. Their bakery in 1947 was located in the building now occupied by Sharon's Miniature Museum on Queen Street.

The picture was sent to us by the bride of that wedding that took place 64 years ago. What a kind and thoughtful gesture!

She sent the following note with the parcel:

"Dear Brock and Janis:

I am slow to mail this picture.

Your Mom was sick with an infected tooth at this time, but she did a great job."

My mother did all the cake decorating for their business as well as most of the pastries. 

DEBATE WITH STEVE HOWE

MY DEBATE WITH STEVE HOWE, Director of Communications, AMDSB

On March 27, 2012 I was invited to be interviewed on the CKNX Talk Show about the replacement of our Blyth Public School and  the new Maitland River School at Wingham.

I indicated that Blyth was not properly represented in the meetings of the Accommodation Review Committee and the meeting were not properly advertised. The Communications Director of Avon Maitland District School Board came on afterwards and stated that there was no truth in what I had said. He went on at great length saying that all the communities were fully involved and consulted according to the Guidelines that the ministry required the board to follow. He said that every meeting was fully advertised in all the local papers (He mentioned The Citizen in particular.)

The truth is very different. Only one advertisement appeared in The Citizen through the entire ARC process. A small ad appeared in the December 4, 2008 Citizen,  the week before the second ARC meeting.  None of the other ARC meetings were advertised in The Citizen – not even the first meeting.  As the guy who places the ads, I guess Steve was assuming that no one would go back to check on the“facts” at the source fro 2008 an 2009.

I did!

The Ministry of Education Guidelines state that the board is responsible for recruiting a representative cross section of the community to the ARC meetings. Obviously they failed miserably at this task. Placing a tiny ad in one issue and hoping for the best does not constitute "recruitment".

One would almost think that they wanted to avoid involving people who might see what damage would come to a community losing its only school. A sort of “Mis-Direction of Communication” function.

Steve Howe said that all the meetings were reviewed in the press. Actually very few reports appeared in the Citizen. Most of the reports came from parents in letters to the editor.

Steve Howe said that the board followed all the Guidelines. The guidelines state that the community consultation must include representation by parents, educators, and business and municipal leaders from the community.  There were no Blyth business people or municipal councillors in attendance at the meetings, and the minutes of the ARC committees contain no presentations or comments by either of these groups.

Steve Howe said that there was a large attendance at all of the meetings. A parent’s letter to the editor of The Citizen on December 4, 2008 asked the question “Why aren’t people coming out to show support for their schools?” Poor attendance was consistently reported by concerned citizens.

Steve Howe said that in his opinion loss of the school may be “inconvenient” but should not create any serious problems for the communities. He further indicated that there are many communities in Huron County which are thriving despite the fact that they have never had a school. I would ask Steve to name a few of these communities.  How about Jamestown, Belfast, Bluevale, Bodmin, to name just a few?

Steve Howe said that the board adopted all of the ARC’s recommendations except the move of Grades 7 and 8 to Madill High School and the K to 6 school instead of K to 8. He forgot to mention the placement of the school in Wingham instead East Wawanosh. Also the Maitland River Elementary School is not even remotely the same as the envisioned Center of Excellence.

Steve Howe said that the new school will have many special programs with specialized teachers which would not be possible in our current schools. I would like Steve Howe to be a little more specific: Tell us what specialized programs and what specialist teachers are going to be hired, and what current teachers are going to be replaced by these new hires?

Avon Maitland has had a program for many years aimed at instilling values in all the students, values such as honesty, truthfulness, respect for others, dependability, etc.

Perhaps the Avon Maitland board and staff could acquire some of these values by joining the kids as learners!

Brock Vodden  

April 24, 2012

EMPLOYEES AT WORK

Some time ago I was shopping at a retail outlet in this area. One of the employees in that store who knows that I am a councillor, came over to me to tell me about one day when he called in at our office in Wingham. As he was being looked after at the wicket, he noticed two other employees standing off to one side having a conversation. He reported that this conversation went on for several minutes, two employees standing there not doing any work at all. Imagine how much that is costing the tax payers! I asked what they were talking about. He said that he couldn't hear what they were saying. I suggested that they might have been discussing township business. "Oh, no. One of them was laughing about something." Then I asked if both of the people were employees. Could it be that one of them was a resident getting help from a staff member? He said he had no idea whether that was the case, but it looked to him as if they were enjoying the conversation - not doing business.

Finally, I suggested that the situation he was telling me about was quite similar to the situation he and I were in. "You are hired to work in this store, but you have taken some time off to tell me abut something completely unrelated to your job. what's the difference in this case?"

I guess he had never thought about the fact that when we point a finger at someone else, there are three other fingers on the same hand pointing back at us!

SAVING BLYTH PUBLIC SCHOOL

We are coming down to the wire. Our only school in Blyth is slated to close at the end of June 2012. Most people are sure that nothing can stop this terrible event. They may be right. But I am not prepared to give up yet.

We still have two possible stoppers. Our petition with 631 signatures has been presented several times to the Ontario Legislature. It calls for a moratorium on ALL contested school closures in Ontario as well as legislative changes which will prevent rogue school boards like Avon Maitland DSB from indiscriminate closing of schools, and force school boards to adhere to the community planning principles that protect us from such destructive groups. The Ontario government must answer to us and to the legislature by early June.

The other iron we have in the fire is an appeal to the Auditor General of Ontario to review the joint and separate actions of Avon Maitland District School Board and the Ministry of Education for Ontario in the Accommodation Review process which has led to school closures and school consolidation plans in North Huron. This appeal points to the many wasteful expenditures by both bodies to support ineffective processes, the construction of a new school for which there is no educational justification, for the economic and social damage being inflicted on the community of Blyth, for the board's improper conduct of the Accommodation Review in violation of the Ministry guidelines, and the lack of vigilance of the Ministry of Education by not enforcing its own guidelines.

The collusion of the AMDSB and the Ministry left our community utterly defenceless, and both of those bodies continue to use falsified documents to justify their actions and positions. The most egregious example of this is the report prepared by the independent facilitator, Margaret Wilson and edited by the Ministry, claiming that the school board's process in the accommodation review was beyond reproach. We in Blyth know that that is absolutely false yet that is the weapon being used by the board and the ministry to beat us down. This false defence cost thousands of dollars to construct and that in my mind is not an example of positive value for dollars spent.

This kind of duplicity has been occurring in many jurisdictions across Ontario. It is a "can of worms" that I believe needs to be opened wide. We need to get back to the principle that our elected bodies such as councils and boards are to serve the best interests of those who elect them. They are not there to be co-opted by the provincial or federal government to deceive us, to beat us down, to tell us what to do or how to behave.

We citizens of Blyth have been denied our democratic rights. We are subjected to taxation without representation. Our school is about to be taken away from us. We are left without the right to appeal the decision to those who have made the decision. To add to the disgrace is the fact that our elected bodies, the school board and the provincial government are both using false and misleading information to justify what they are doing.

I do not know whether the Auditor General for Ontario will take on our case and give us some justice. I will be disappointed if such is not the case.

However I would be even more disturbed if the AGO looks at our situation and decides that no action is required. That would mean that public servants don’t have to be honest. school boards don’t need to be accountable to the public, small rural communities don’t matter. It would be saying that it’s OK to hold expensive public consultations that will never be listened to. It would mean that the Ministry of Education is within its rights to send people out to investigate school board procedures knowing that these people will always find the board blameless and the community at fault regardless of what the reality is.

That would be a hard pill to swallow.

Brock Vodden

WINGHAM FREE PRESS APOLOGIZES FOR LYING

This is the headline that we are all waiting to see in the Wingham Free Press.

It would be a positive sign that they have realized the errors of their ways, no longer acting like spoiled children, taking some responsibility for their community instead of making false accusations that make all of us look bad.

Perhaps it would be a sign that they have taken a course in Journalistic Ethics and now realize how they have been a largely negative force in North Huron.

They may also recognize that they have been successful in attracting only a few correspondents who are functionally literate.

Having attracted a group of people who missed school on the days that they taught spelling and civics , they could have explained to them that the school board and North Huron Council are two different bodies that do not share the "Town Hall". They could have been careful to help them understand that the consultant hired by Huron County Council was not hired by North Huron Council. They might have even got these poor souls to recognize that North Huron Council does not control the North Huron Police Force. Of course before they could get some of these finer points across to their correspondents, they would have to brush up on these matters themselves.

Well we can always hope that there will be brighter days ahead.

Brock Vodden

April 12 Comment of the day

Wingham Free Press and some of its correspondents continue to rant about Wingham being shunned by potential home buyers and the dearth of businesses willing to come here.

Our taxes are fairly high here, and all members of council agree with this. To reduce taxes some programs and services would need to be cut back. The problem is identifying those services that the population as a whole are willing to give up. The key phrase there is "population as a whole".

In the Citizen Survey that was conducted late last year, we learned that while there are many people hoping for reduced tax rates in all wards, there are many who want services and programs increased, and many who say that they moved to Wingham because of the services offered.

The vast majority of people responding on the survey approve strongly of nearly all of the services offered by North Huron. This includes some of the areas that some WFP correspondents want to cut.

While there may be some who stay away because of the tax rate, the present status is actually attracting people. One of the attractions is the low initial cost of the housing. Low assessment base is the result of that, and that also contributes to higher taxes.

Reducing taxes is not an easy process.

There are some very positive signs for future growth and when they occur, the tax rate could be modified considerably

I believe that the trash talk of WFP contribute more to driving people away than high taxes.

Brock Vodden

Second Comment ---- April 11

Wingham Free Press criticisms of North Huron council this week are completely unfounded.

They are saying that we have "abandoned fire contract negotiation". How can this be? There are no such negotiations going on. We have almost two years remaining on our current contract. There are no negotiations to abandon.

WFP saya that NH actions "guarantee that no compromise will be reached". To make a compromise you have to have two sides each with their own position and both sides have to search for a blending of the two positions to reach a situation  agreeable to both. Morris-Turnberry keeps changing its position so that NH has no idea where M-T stands.

NH council was offended by the Mayor's criticism of us at the County Council meeting, but that is not why we cancelled the meeting (at least in my estimation). The Mayor is launching a campaign to develop a county-wide fire service, and although I think that is a very good idea, it is not something that we and M-T need to discuss.
Separate fire department, new fire board, county fire department? What are we discussing?

Wingham Free Press, why don't you present the whole picture instead of criticizing NH for issues manufactured by others?


WFP accuses North Huron of fabricating and denying facts. WFP is constantly making up things and we could never hope to keep up denying those so-called "facts".  That's the kind of problem that gutter journalism creates.

Brock Vodden

Wed. April 11 Comment

WFP criticizes  North Huron for cancelling the  meeting with Morris-Turnberry.

We agreed to meet with Morris-Turnberry, then later at County Council we hear Mayor Gowing coming up with a completely different scenario: He called for a county-wide fire service. In proposing this he states that they cannot get North Huron to negotiate.

We think there is no point in holding a meeting if we have no idea what  M-T wants to discuss.

Back in February we got  together to coordinate all of our many areas of cooperation most of which are functioning quite well. They said they weren't prepared to go along with a joint Economic Development process.

Next day, M-T announces they are going to create their own fire department by 2014. That told  us that they don't want to negotiate; they are going on their own. We thought, that's fine! Good Luck! They have every right to do that!

Then out of the blue they sent us a letter giving us three options. The letter says that this is their last effort at trying to negotiate with us. (We had not received any indication that they had asked to negotiate. We already have an agreement which runs for two years.)

The options amount to going back to a form of the old fire board system which NH pulled out of because it was failing to provide consistent and compliant fire service. In my view none of the options were acceptable.
Fire boards are no longer recognized by emergency authorities except for "grandfathered" boards.

Their plan would leave North Huron with high standard of service out of Blyth station for Blyth and M-T offered by FD of North Huron ; and a limited service out of the proposed Turnberry station to cover the Wingham and Turnberry areas provided by M-T Fire Dept. North Huron will never accept again two different level of service for our citizens.

We were prepared to meet with them to discuss matters at that point, although some councillors were skeptical about the value of discussing a set of really bad ideas. I think the main reason we thought that meeting should be a closed meeting was that we needed to sort out the question of what M-T really wanted to talk about. We all favoured an open meeting once we clarified the questions on which we could negotiate.

Then we heard the Mayor saying that he can't deal with us and that he wants to take another completely different tack: a county-wide fire service.

It just made no sense to have that meeting when we don't know what Morris-Turnberry wants to talk about and they don't seem to know either!

The Ongoing Attack on Rural Ontario

Attack seems like a strong word, but it helps to describe the situation we in rural Ontario find ourselves.

It's a war. We have propaganda coming out of the mouths of Ministers of the Crown. We have fifth columnists in the guise of school boards sinking ships with their overworked lips. We have weapons used against us such as the hated and feared funding formula. We have traitorous groups made up of Mayors, Reeves, Councillors whose municipalities are getting fancy new schools to replace the perfectly good but about-to-be-closed schools of their neighbours. We have secret war plans worked out by sleazy school board administrators which suddenly explode onto the scene creating havoc in the community. We have local propaganda in voice and print spewing from communication officers to mislead and abuse the local people who elected their boards.

And we have victims. Children dragged away to another community like displaced persons. Local school bus businesses deprived of their livelihood by foreign infiltrators. Home owners whose property values began to subside as soon as the school closure was announced. Children losing the exercise they used to get from walking to school.

Perhaps the biggest loser in all this is the social contract which we have enjoyed in this country: the contract by which we have the opportunity to choose who will be our representatives in all levels of government and boards that do their best to represent the people they serve.

Complaints about politicians have always been a normal part of life, but in rural Ontario it seems that everything the government is doing is contrary to our common interests. Few of us feel that we have any influence on any government policy or actions.

The McGuinty government has brought about this change. It seems that everything that we in rural Ontario want from them is denied; everything that we absolutely do not want is being forced on us. Our rural way of life is being laid waste. Our communities' best features are being held against us. Our greatest achievements are being treated as failures. Our major vital contributions to the society at large are treated with scorn or ignored.

Nearly all the ministers in the McGuinty cabinet have taken to denying that there is a rural-urban divide in Ontario. They are saying that we are all the same, working together, even though at the same time they are conspiring against us just as if they were laying land mines on out pathways.

 Even our own local school board has been co-opted to undermine us. A spokesperson for the Avon Maitland District School Board proclaimed that the Accommodation Review process conducted in this area of North Huron was conducted in complete and total compliance with the Ministry Guidelines and the board's policy. Everyone in this village of Blyth knows that is completely false, and yet that false position is what is held by the Ministry of Education to be true and accurate. A lie becomes the official position about our community!

The social contract is so important but a very fragile thing. It depends on trust, goodwill, integrity, transparency, competence. When any of those qualities are missing, the social contract collapses. The Avon Maitland District School Board lacks all of those qualities just as the Ministry of Education lacks them. The social contract is in really jeopardy.

Surely there are some trustees who have the character and fortitude to stand up for a higher standard of leadership than we have seen from this board.

Brock Vodden

Is the Province about to pull the plug on the new school?

ARE THE MINISTRY AND THE SCHOOL BOARD CONSPIRING?

Sunday March 25, 2012

It has come to my attention from undisclosed sources that the Avon Maitland District School Board was advised some time ago that the Ministry of Education intends to quash the plan to build the Maitland River Elementary School (MRES) in Wingham. It is no secret that the province is close to bankruptcy and needs to cut back on many multi-million dollar projects. Apparently MRES is one of them.

It also appears that the Ministry and Avon Maitland are coordinating their timing to give the school board the chance to get rid of the Blyth, Brussels, and East Wawanosh schools before the axe comes down on the new school that was supposed to replace them. In this way, the “ temporary” arrangement for the transitioning will become a longer term accommodation until some future time when they can afford to build a new facility – much later, maybe never.

This leaked information answers many questions many of us have been asking:

• Why not leave the children in their present schools (Blyth PS, East Wawanosh PS, and Brussels PS) until the new school is ready?
• Why did Trustee Colleen Schenk and Mike Ash come to meet with North Huron Council to explain how the students are going to be accommodated during the construction, when they have never provided any information of this type to council before?
• What was behind Trustee Schenk’s pseudo-psychological explanation of the transition process as a means of helping children to “build a culture where people would get to know each other and hopefully negate some of the culture shock that would come with moving all the students mid-year”? When we are exposed to a speech like this, one must ask what the speaker is trying to hide. If moves are so disruptive, why have two moves when one move would have sufficed? Now I think we know what they were hiding.
• Why adopt such a convoluted plan of moving children here and there in such a crazy quilt pattern, and renaming Turnberry Public School and Wingham Public School as “campuses”?

Now we are beginning to see how it all fits together. If this new information is correct, the plan is to get the doomed schools closed and sold, move the children into one of the schools in Wingham (all of which will have a new lease on life), announce the cancellation of the new school build (with great sadness), save a few million dollars on construction, and gain a few more dollars from the sale of our schools.

It is difficult to believe that a plot like this is happening in our community, but it is undeniable that it matches the pattern of deceit that has characterized Avon Maitland’s past treatment of Huron County communities. And they could not have gotten away with these behaviours without the complicity of the Ontario Ministry of Education.

I firmly believe that this kind of subterfuge on the part of the school board and the government, now exposed, should convince the opposition parties in the legislature that it is time to use their new influence and force the government to be accountable for treating their citizens in this manner.

More Blyth History Coming Your Way

Today, Jan and I received two DVD disks containing many hundreds of issues of the Blyth Standard, our weekly newspaper. These are dated from 1906 to 1980. I just now counted the number of issues, an amazing 1,686 separate issues - ranging from 8 to 12 pages each.

We already had the 1906, 1907, 1925, and 1930 issues, but this new collection will fill up our collection to the end of the life of that publication.

We have already begun to lay plans for getting this "new" information from the past out to the many people who are interested in Blyth. One idea that I am thinking about and plan to pursue is publishing some decade summaries in book form of what happened in the old home town. The first I intend to work on is the 1940s.

The other process that this collection will allow us to do is rapidly search through the old papers for tne occurrences of a particular name. We have many people contacting us and making appointments to visit the colection for family information.This newspaper collection will provide us with another rich area to search for "Smith", "Jones", or "Brockest" in any article of any issue of the paper, select the article, and print it for the guest if it appears to be relevant to their search.

We know that not everyone is as excited as we are about old newspapers, but from a lot of experience we can assert that when we find an item related to the ancestor of those indifferent people, many of them become quite engaged.

We are excited!

Brock Vodden
Blyth,  Wednesday March 7, 2012

The McGuinty Code

The McGuinty Code

I just spent three days at a municipal conference in Toronto. While there were numerous  beneficial presentations and discussions, there were many provincial cabinet ministers there responding to questions, giving speeches, and holding fifteen minute audiences for delegations  from all over Ontario.

Each time I attend meetings like this, I find it interesting to watch for themes that emerge from members of the government. This year the common theme, expressed in various ways is this:

"THERE IS NO RURAL-URBAN DIVIDE. WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER. WE JUST NEED TO WORK TOGETHER AND EVERYTHING WILL BE OK."

This annual conference is jointly sponsored by the Rural Ontario Municipal Association and the Ontario Good Roads Association, both of these are organizations that are very well aware of the increasing number and advancing seriousness of issues facing the rural and small town communities throughout this province. Many of the emerging problems we face are caused by or aggravated by the current Ontario Liberal government.

Even the Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs espoused this myopic viewpoint, despite the fact that he is in the position most likely to make the rural-urban divide most obvious.

That minister, Ted McMeekin, does not strike one as the most insightful politician in the pack, can hardly ignore the cries for help coming from all over the rural areas of Ontario.

Another common element is showing up amongst the government officials. I have been encountering this right here in Huron County. It is not a theme, but a code. It’s a code made up of a very ordinary string of words. Those who are not aware of the fact that this word string is actually a code for something else, will end up with a very wrong interpretation.

Here is the code:  “IT’S ALL ABOUT THE .......” .   Now this code can be completed with any number of nouns and adjectives. To fully and accurately understand what the speaker is saying about those things, you must convert the code part to its literal meaning.

What does “IT’S ALL ABOUT THE .......” stand for? I’ll provide you with some very frequently used examples by members of the McGuinty government, and Ontario school board officials.

“It’s all about the children.”  Spoken by the Avon Maitland School Board officials over the past two or three years, in reference to the closing of certain schools and the building of huge new schools, actually means:  “It has absolutely nothing to do with the children.”

“It’s all about the safety of the children.” Spoken by Laurel Broten, Ontario Minister of Education at the ROMA/AGRO Conference in Toronto, February 27, 2012 in reference to the ministry giving out huge contracts to U.S. firms to provide school bus services for some Ontario Counties, and thereby putting many Ontario transportation companies out of business.  What she actually was saying is “It has absolutely nothing to do with safety of the children”. Local companies have been providing safe transportation for hundreds of thousands of Ontario children for many decades. Ms.  Broten is struggling to get the hang of using The McGuinty Code in a convincing manner. She has a way to go still.

“It’s all about the declining enrolment in our schools and the need to save money.” This has been said by senior administrators for Avon Maitland many times trying to justify the closing of Blyth Public School and other schools. We have to apply the key to The McGuinty Code to find out the real meaning of the statement. Translation: “It has absolutely nothing to do with declining enrolment or saving money”. What the board is actually doing is using up some available economic stimulus funding to match the new school opened in Perth County last year. Spending $10 million dollars, give or take a few million, on an unnecessary school is an unusual way to save money.

Look out for The McGuinty Code.

Blyth, Weenusk, and Other Small Towns

Blyth Public School 1896 - 1965

Several people, including my wife Janis Vodden, have suggested that there is a parallel between the current closure of small rural schools and the infamous Residential School Scandal that has been the subject of police investigation, parliamentary investigations, criminal charges, law suits, and truth and reconciliation hearings for the past two decades.

I must admit that when Janis first mentioned this to me, I didn’t pay close attention. I was too much involved in our local fight with Avon Maitland School Board over their attack on our community of Blyth by threatening to close our only school, Blyth Public School.

That fight has reached a milestone two days ago, February 23, 2012 when I delivered our stack of 631 signatures on a petition to the office of our MPP, Lisa Thompson. It is a petition to stop all of these inappropriate closures of schools all across Ontario by school boards that have been granted the absolute right to close any school of their choice and no one has the right to appeal that decision – no person or group in the entire world!

The school board says to us “Your school is closing as of June 30, 2012 and your children are going to be bused to another community for a year or two until we get a new school built and then your children will be bused to either that new school or maybe another school.” And this line is issued with the understood implication “and there is nothing you or anyone else can do about it!”

Parents in our community hate this arrangement. They want their children to continue to walk to their school just down the street. Many of them have voiced their opinions and complaints, but no one listens to them.

Now that the petition is on its way and I have a little more time to think about things, I am realizing that Janis is absolutely right.

We are being treated by our school board in exactly the same way as the First Nation communities throughout Canada were treated when their children were wrenched from their arms (sometimes literally) by the RCMP, and taken to a residential school not just for the day but for the entire term. The school to which they were taken could be just a few miles away or, in many cases, several  hundred  miles away.

For example, all the school age children from Weenusk near Hudson Bay were taken to Horden Hall, the Anglican residential school on Moose Factory Island, at the southern tip of James Bay near Moosonee. This is a distance of over 500 miles as the crow or the airplane flies. No chance for parents to drop in for an occasional visit, no chance to meet with the teachers to discuss the children’s progress, and no opportunity for the teachers or principal to get to know the communities from which the children came or the way of life in those communities.

Well, the teachers in the residential schools, were not concerned about their lack of understanding of the background of their charges. Their job was to replace those backgrounds with a strict religious doctrine, a different language (English or French), and a completely different way of life. The goal was to stamp out all vestiges of the aboriginal culture. By the same token, the time away from their home communities prevented the children from learning the ways of the hunter, fisherman, and trapper which was how their home communities supported themselves. They also did not learn the stories of their people, the customs by which their communities operated, and the centuries-old cultural and religious tenets that had sustained their people for centuries. The main goal of most of the residential schools was to teach the children to disrespect everything about their first language, their customs, their community, and their parents.

As generations of First Nation people were exposed to this systematic cultural deprivation, many children grew up in a kind of wasteland between two cultures, in many cases with no practical parenting skills, torn as they were between the role model of natural parents whom they were taught to disrespect, and institutional staff who were more like jailers than parents.

And of course, in some instances, there were many forms of abuse as part of the “educational experience”.

What does all that have to do with the closures of schools in Ontario?

First of all as in the issue of residential schools, the closure process is very widespread.

Here is a list of schools that are< have been  or will soon be under threat in Ontario:  Blyth, Brussels, Moonstone, Peterborough, Thorold, Colborne Central, East Wawanosh, Cobalt, Welland, Niagara district, Sudbury District, Crowland, Bruce Mines, Echo Bay, Grandview Sault Ste Marie, Central Algoma, Johnston Tarbut Central  PS, St. Mary's Kingston, Listowel Central, Turnberry, Usborne Central, Wallace PS, Zurich PS, Downview Hanover, Elgin Market Kincardine, Chesley, Milton, Kanata, East Guillimbury, Foleyet, Gogama, Dunville, Haldimand, Port Dover, Harrow, Sudbury south, -----to name just a few. There are many others.

Your first thoughts may jump to the differences between the two situations. In our present battle there are no residential schools involved, they are not federally operated schools, the children are not all aboriginal, the times away from home are not of term duration but daily only, and the distances from home to the “foreign” school are much  shorter.

But there are strong similarities between the two situations:

•    The decisions to close are contrary to the wishes of either community
•     The decision of the school board was arbitrary and did not require approval from the parents or the  community, just like the federal government’s decision of where aboriginal students would  be educated
•     No person in either community has the right to appeal the decision.
•     Should a parent in our present case refuse to allow their children to go to the new school, the RCMP will not come and drag their children away, but there would be legal steps taken to force the parents to comply.
•  The children are being moved out of their own community to be educated in a different community which will offer a different cultural environment than that of the children’s and their parents', same as in the aboriginal communities.
•  The children will have less chance to learn informally about their home community.
•   The teachers in the new school community will by and large have no knowledge of or interest in the idiosyncratic characteristics of the displaced children’s community, same as in residential schools.
• The economy and the social fabric of the community deprived of its only school, will suffer in many ways: unable to attract or retain young families, less able to attract business investment, loss of business, loss of a major employer ( the school), and loss of identity. The aboriginal communities suffered from their children not being able to learn the life skills needed in their environment.
•  Small towns, like First Nation communities, depend on each new generation to learn how the community functions and to learn a role by which they can contribute to that community. Stealing hundreds of hours and days out of the time of our children, robs our community of much of the potential spirit, wisdom, and dedication which we will require of them when they come of age to lead and sustain the unique character of our home town.
•   Finally, this is probably the most powerful connection between the Residential School scenario and the current school closing phenomenon. Some explanation is required:

o   The residential school movement was conducted under a regime intended to give it legitimacy and to mask its evil intent. That regime was, in almost every case, a church or other religious entity. To the outside world these “educators” were seen as sacrificing their lives and talents to a noble cause, as proven by the fact that they were hired and paid for by the federal government and trusted explicitly because of their impeccable sanctimonious credentials.

o   The current behaviour of school boards which are closing schools for no good reason do so under a regime of legitimacy stated in the current Education Act which gives them the untrammelled right to close any school. In former times we thought of our school trustees as our representatives, people we could trust to oversee our children’s education.  In recent times the school boards have been co-opted by the Ministry to force upon us an unproven fantasy that bigger schools provide better education, that smaller schools are too expensive.

o   The result of this is that our communities are completely cut off from the school system, completely unrepresented, just as much as the people of Weenusk were cut off from the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs who paid the Anglican church to teach their children that their community was worthless, their parents not worthy of trust to make educational decisions for their children.

o   This is a fundamental change to our education system. Our school boards do not represent the community in any sense and to any degree. They have been taken over by the Ministry of Education which remains impervious to community appeal, shielded by their school boards who cannot be held accountable for anything.

The only avenue open to us who are trying desperately to retain our only school and to maintain the viability and vibrancy of our small rural communities is to appeal to the Ontario Legislature which is over and above the government, in the hope that the members of all parties will recognize the flaws in the current closure policy and will recognize the justice of our pleas and will make the changes so desperately needed.

Brock Vodden

Rogue School Board: Avon Maitland DSB

Avon Maitland District School Board has decided to close the only school in our community of Blyth.

So what, you may say! That’s happening to many communities!

This is the community that I know well, and I just want to use it to illustrate how these closures can affect any small rural community. You have to understand the Ground Zero realities before you can grasp the enormity of what is occurring across Ontario.

We have been told by the school board that rules over our Huron-Perth education system, that they can no longer afford to operate our school. Our elementary students, almost all of them, will have to be bussed to a different municipality for their schooling, Central Huron. It is, they say, a simple matter of saving money by reducing the number of school sites.

Well, sometimes they say it is not entirely a matter of saving money; it is a question of improving education quality. To achieve this, they are building a large 24 classroom school in Wingham. This, some say, is a great step forward. The vice chair of the school board stated at the sod-turning ceremony that it was impossible to provide quality education in those old school buildings. The new school will, he said, open doors for the children that we can barely imagine today.

The Director of Education in 2009 gave a different explanation. He told an ARC meeting that the new school construction is being funded under the economic stimulus program, so we had better get busy and make our decisions quickly to please the Ministry and get this money working. So it’s not to save money; it’s not to improve education; in fact it is not an educational program at all; it’s just a project to spend a few million dollars to build a school – somewhere – to help out the economy.

That turns out to be the most plausible explanation for this school. But anyway, lucky Wingham! They are getting stimulated. Too bad for Blyth, however. Their school is going to be sacrificed to make the new school appear to be serving a real educational purpose!

To add insult to injury, only a handful of our Blyth children will ever get a chance to attend this Nirvana of educational bliss. Instead most of our children will be riding a bus down the road south to Londesborough to another of those old school which like Blyth Public School lacks the ambiance required to deliver excellent education. Here I thought teachers did the educating – not bricks and mortar.

So in return for giving up our only school, what are we in Blyth getting in return?

No joy, that’s for sure; just a long list of losses and a very bleak future for the community of Blyth.

· No children able to walk to school,

· No school board employees living or working in the community,

· No ability to attract or retain young families to the community

· 10% to 20% drop in residential property values (this decline is already in evidence)as a community which has no school

· Reduced business investment in the community

· Reduced patronage of existing businesses

· Loss of connection with the community culture and spirit

· Reduced connection between parents and school

· Loss of community identity in the present and in the future

· Loss of a major community meeting place

· Local taxpayers having to pay for development costs for a new school in another community

One wonders why our own elected officials would do this to us. 


I sent some questions to the Director of Education, Ted Doherty, to help me understand the thinking behind the Blyth decision. He provided no answer to any of my questions. He wrote: “I have read your letter numerous times. The only thing I can say is that I am sorry you feel as you do, but the proper processes were followed. The school board has to make difficult decisions.” That was the whole letter. If that is not a sign of a fortress mentality, I don't know what is.

The really scary part of this is that similar scenarios are playing out all over Ontario.

One of our very attractive houses in Blyth has dropped in value by fifteen percent, $32,000, in the past year, solely because of the school closure. Imagine the loss across our entire community. Several million dollars for sure! Then think about what that means for property values across the length and breadth of Ontario where other rogue boards are behaving almost as irrationally as AMDSB.

My goal is to find some way either to force the school boards (including AMDSB) to change their deplorable decisions, or to convince the opposition parties and rural backbenchers to find a political solution which will force the weakened Liberal government to find a way to end this madness and do the right thing.

We need lots of support from small rural communities. We are all being affected.

Madame Minister: You Make me Angry!

I received a letter today from Ontario's Minister of Education, Leona Dombrowsky. I waited for seven weeks for this letter. I had no great expectations that this letter would contain good news or any nice surprises. My modest expectations turned out to be appropriate. There was nothing good in the letter. Still it has had a dramatic effect on me.

I AM ANGRY? DEEPLY ANGRY!

Actually the anger that I feel surprises me. I have been in this fight on the closing of our Blyth Public School for years. I am fully aware that the chances are slim to nil that the decision will be reversed.

So I am asking myself why am I suddenly so bitterly angry at Leona Dombrowsky.

Perhaps it is in part because of the experience we've been through during the past week with the death of Jack Layton and the outpouring of emotion we have been feeling. Yes, that is really part of it. Here I am reading a letter from an Ontario Cabinet Minister who is presiding over a slimy government ploy, a kind of tag team game with Avon Maitland DSB, closing schools for no good reason, pretending that they have consulted us, telling us lies and manufacturing stories to make un-involved people think that they are "doing the right things".

Yes, this is one reason why the anger boils over. We have marvelled at the stories of Jack, this very courageous man, we've been moved by his letter to Canadians, we've shed a few tears seeing the deep sorrow of his wife, Olivia, and noting her personal strength. Even though I have never voted for his party, I have been thinking how great it would be to find another provincial or federal leader with that kind of character and moral fiber. None come to mind at the present.

And here I am instead reading a letter from a political hack, covering up her tracks, trying to justify the actions of school boards who are tearing the heart and soul out of community after community by closing their only schools. There is no right of appeal. They do not need to explain their reasoning to anyone. They don't even need to apologize. And the Minister just turns a blind eye to the carnage these boards like AMDSB are inflicting on their neighbours' communities. And she writes letters to us, as if we are just having a minor disagreement of opinion. Then she has the nerve to suggest that concerned people like me "work with their local school board and assist in the transition of students to their new accommodations..."

How do we deal with people whom we cannot believe? How can we trust our local school board once they have stabbed our community in the back? The big shock came about a few weeks ago when I came to the realization that this is not just a local scam perpetrated by our school board; it is being done in collusion with our provincial Liberal government who issued what appear to be very strict rules for boards to be open, consultative, fair, community-sensitive, and then do absolutely nothing to enforce those rules.

I have no idea which party I will vote for on October 6, but it will definitely not be the Ontario Liberal Party!

Brock Vodden

The Truth About Accommodation Review in North Huron

There is no doubt that the Avon Maitland District School Board cheated in its conduct of the Pupil Accommodation Review for North Huron. The Ministry on its website describes both the authority of school boards to make decisions about closing, consolidating and building new schools,  and the mandatory requirements which the boards MUST meet in making and implementing these decisions.

The Ministry's requirements are presented in bold below with comments on how the AMDSB failed to meet each of these requirements. Key words are italicized for emphasis by the blog author:

This process must follow the school board's policy that governs accommodation reviews.
Boards are required to ensure their own accommodation review policy (also known as a school closure policy) is compliant with the ministry's revised guideline.


The board failed to follow its own policies and ignored many of the ministry's guidelines. The most critical oversight was the board's failure to complete a valuation of the school to the local economy. Had this criterion been completed honestly, it would have been impossible for the board to close the BPS.

The ministry has issued a Pupil Accommodation Review Guideline that outlines the minimum requirements for school boards. 
This statement means that the ministry's guidelines are mandatory, since they are minimum requirements. Approximately half of those guidelines were violated in the board's actual procedures.

The heart of this process is community consultation through representation on the ARC and through public meetings.
The representation on the ARC was not even close to a reflection of the Blyth community. There was no representation from Blyth business, Blyth Ward  councillors, members at large from the community. Invitation were sent home with pupils for their parents; consequently the participants were mostly from the school community.

The ministry encourages students, parents and community members to get involved in the accommodation review process.
The entire ARC process in North Huron was a farce in that the board had already made its decisions. The community involvement turned out to be irrelevant. In fact, the ARC served the board as a diversion to keep the the school community busy while it carried out the administration's plans.

This document provides school boards and their communities with a tool to ensure transparency and accountability in an accommodation review process.
The boards decisions were all made in secret since they bear no relationship to the discussions that took place in the community forums. There was no transparency. Since neither the ministry, the Minister, the facilitator, and the community could not change the decision or appeal it, there was no accountability

Since the Ministry has made no effort to enforce its guidelines, has presented no sanctions for boards' deviations from the spirit and the words of their policy, the Ministry itself is at fault for the damage being done to communities such as Blyth by its becoming a community with no school.

Boards are required to ensure their own accommodation review policy (also known as a school closure policy) is compliant with the ministry's revised guideline.
As mentioned above, many of the ministry's guidelines were ignored by AMDSB, but also the ministry-appointed "independent" facilitator made no mention of those oversights in her review of the petition.

It appears that much of the boards decision-making took place in secrecy, taking illegal advantage of in camera meetings with no public scrutiny and no transparency.

Canadian Democracy Threatened

Our Member of parliament in this riding of Huron-Bruce is Mr. Ben Lobb, a member of the Conservative Party of Canada. Ben is running for re-election in the big event which takes place May 2, 2011.

I like Ben. I've met him several times, and each time he has been doing something or presenting something which is good for this area, and he speaks well and sincerely about the meaning of the task he is performing. A couple of times Ben has gone to bat for the Huron County organization when the government of which he is a part has been doing something which is clearly harmful to the good efforts of our County. He has been successful in one of these attempts, which is no small achievement for  a rookie MP.

Every time I see Ben, and even when I see his campaign signs - hundreds of them - I feel sad. I am sad that this fine young man is part of this dreadful Conservative Party of Canada and the government headed by the most dangerous prime minister Canada has ever had.

I was especially sad the other day when I learned that Ben had told a lie in an interview. It was no a slip of the tongue. It was a deliberate pre-programmed lie. He said that the opposition parties had brought the government down by voting against the Conservative budget. Of course that is not true. Mr. Harper's government was found in contempt of parliament, and was defeated by a vote of no confidence. That means that the majority of the members of parliament have no confidence in the government. That situation obliges the government to resign.

Why am I so concerned about this "one small fib"? It is because this little fib is part of a culture of lies, deceptions, ethical lapses, dishonourable  actions, unparliamentary gaffs, anti-democratic ploys that have been deliberately and methodically perpetrated by Prime Minister Steven Harper and spread by members of his robotic cabinet and his faithful backbenchers. I have always respected the office of prime minister, even when I did not completely agree with his/her policies and principles. Until now!

The only political party I have ever joined was the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. When Peter McKay sold out that party to the Reform and Alliance gangs to form the Conservative Party of Canada, and elected Harper as leader, they sent me a membership card for the new party. I tore it up right away.

There are former Progressive Conservatives in the Tory caucus, but we don;t hear much from. Peter McKay has remained in cabinet in a major post, but I suspect this is his payment for betraying his original party. However there is no vestige of the values and principles that drew me to the PC party in the past.

The big lie, unfortunately. seems to have worked for Harper, although I am sure that a large part of the creidit for the last minute surge in the NDP camp is the result of people deciding they have had enough of Stevie's lies.

My new motto "ANYBODY BUT HARPER".

Memories of Blyth Fire Brigade

Memories of Blyth’s Fire Department

By Brock Vodden

The Blyth Fire Brigade has always been an important part of our community. This is as true today as it was in earlier days; however, the social aspects of their roles have changed to fit the times.

I’d like to share a few memories and impressions I have of the brigade when I was growing up in the 1930s and 1940s.

I mention both “memories” and “impressions” to distinguish between accurate recollections and childhood impressions of what went on in those days.

THE FIREMEN’S DANCE

The dominant memory I have is that of the annual Firemen’s Dance. It seems to me that almost everyone in the community came out to this event – and not just the adults – it was an event for men women and children of all ages. There were no babysitters in this era. No one left their children at home with babysitters. Young people of babysitting age, would have been at the dance; they would not think of missing that dance!

The babes came to the dance, too. The event always took place in the winter time. Winter coats, all of them, were piled on two long tables in the kitchen area of the lower floor of Memorial Hall. The piles of coats served as a very comfortable bed for the infants who mostly slept their way through the evening wrapped in their baby blankets.  Children who were mobile joined in the dances or played the usual children’s games as long as they could stay awake, but some of them would be deposited on the “coat bed” as well when they became victims of the late hours.

The music would be provided by one of the local orchestras playing all the familiar tunes of the era. “Watt’s Orchestra” is the main one that I recall. It consisted of Bob Watt who played the mandolin and banjo and saxophone. He also played the big sousaphone in the local brass band, and his day job was coal dealer. Mrs. Watt played the piano, and there was a violinist as well, but I can’t recall his name.

The dance styles included waltzes, schottisches, square dances, fox trot, and polka.  When I was really young, a new dance style arrived from England known as the Lambeth Walk. It was one of those dance crazes that was exclusively applied to one piece of music. In this case a piece called The Lambeth Walk.

My aunt, Jean Turvey Cook, was living with us while she attended Clinton Collegiate. She was caught up in the Lambeth Walk fad and recruited me to perform this with her. At one of the firemen’s dances the orchestra played the piece while my aunt and I performed the dance, I am sure to the delight of all present.  I can't remember any of the moves in this dance; all I can recall is the last line of the chorus: “Doin’ the Lambeth Walk! OY!” It seems to me that we shouted out the final “OY!” and at the same time threw up our hands. As the piece went on, the audience joined in the “OY”! This part of my story is more impressionistic than factual. I think I was possibly four or five years of age at the time.

The mood of these events was uninterruptedly happy. Everyone seemed to be absolutely delighted to be there and to be in the company of all the others, and to be listening to that very familiar music, and to perform all those familiar dances. Even a young kid could sense that atmosphere.  There was no need for security. We were just one big happy, friendly community family.

I think the lunch that was always provided by the firemen (or perhaps by their wives, to be exact) was one of the many highlights of these evenings. The quantity and quality of the food and the coffee was amazing. Lunch was announced. The members of the orchestra put down their instruments and came of their platform to join us.  We all found chairs around the four walls of the hall. There were enough chairs for everyone. Soon some pairs of firemen emerged from the kitchen with large baskets full of sandwiches. The sandwich fillings that I remember were ham (with mustard), salmon, egg salad, but there may have been others. The white bread was always very fresh – made that very day at either Hollyman’s or Vodden’s Bakery. The baskets were a type of laundry basket that I have not seen for many years. But each one held many sandwiches and the firemen made countless trips around the dance floor urging everyone to take just a few more.

A moment after the sandwiches appeared, other firemen began to deliver heavy white china coffee cups, followed by large white enamel urns of steaming hot coffee. The coffee was already doctored with rich cream and lots of sugar. We had never heard of people drinking coffee without these fixings. The coffee was made in a large copper boiler. The method: Fill one copper with cold water and place on hot stove and bring to a full boil. Place one pound of ground coffee in a cheese cloth bag and sew the bag closed. Drop the coffee bag into boiler for (I don't know how long). Add cream and sugar to the boiler to taste.

PERFECT! There has never been coffee served to large gatherings with such a wonderful aroma and flavour since those days.

After lunch, the dancing would resume until 1:00 a.m.

TRICKSTERISM

Many years after leaving Blyth, while living in Northwestern  Ontario, we made friends with a lady from that area who had spent some time in Huron County when she was quite young. She was a pleasant and intelligent woman, but she did not have a keen sense of humour. She had developed what one might call a “mixed” impression of Huron County people – particularly the men. It seemed to her that men of this area were constantly playing very cruel and demeaning practical jokes on each other.

I was surprised at first to hear of this sort of general condemnation of Huronites. But on reflection, I realized that there was certain validity to that reputation. Not everyone in this county performed these jokes, but I had a sizeable collection of stories about such antics. I suppose I had always assumed that people from other counties enjoyed the same sport.

One of the practical jokes in my collection took place at a weekly fire brigade meeting.

Just a brief background to set the scene.

Bill Morritt had served as secretary for the fire brigade for several years. Never one to stand on ceremony, each time he read the minutes of the last meeting he would end with something like “Old Bill, Secretary.” When Bill decided to withdraw from that job, a new member was elected as secretary. He was one of the local pharmacists, Earl Willows. Earl took his new post quite seriously. At the conclusion of his reading of the minutes, he intoned the following in a very officious voice: “E.H. Willows. Secretary”.  Just one more detail. Earl was an avid cigarette smoker except when in his pharmacy, but he had a habit of leaving the fag in his lips long after it had expired.

On one occasion, the fire meeting was taking place in the Morritt implement shop close to Memorial Hall. When Earl began reading the minutes, Bill Morritt slipped into the next room and retrieved a very large iron bar and then tiptoed back into the meeting room close behind Earl.

When Earl closed the minutes with “E.H. Willows. Secretary”, Bill dropped the iron bar with a resounding crash, Earl dropped his minute book and swallowed the remains of his dead cigarette.

A funny story. Amusing to all (except perhaps Earl).  A way of saying “Don’t take things or yourself too seriously”. An exclusively Huron County practical joke? I am not sure.

Santa Claus was a Fireman

When I was a pre-schooler, my parents operated a bakery in Blyth. The bakery was then located in the store across from Memorial Hall where some readers will recall the Blyth Apothecary was located, and  then Tim Saunders’ Antique Store. Behind the retail portion of the store, the north wall was covered with wooden shelves with drawers which were not used much. One Saturday morning, for no particular reason, I began opening each drawer to see what was inside. I came upon one drawer that was completely empty except for a pair of gray cloth gloves.  It must have struck me as strange because I had never seen such gloves in our place before.

That afternoon, Santa Claus came to town. He was travelling by train in those days. He was to arrive at the Grand Trunk Station on Dinsley Street. My mother took me to the station for the event. Soon the old steam engine chuffed and huffed into town from the south. The conductor opened the coach door and set out a small steel platform. Then the familiar red suit and white beard appeared. My mother picked me up so that I would be able to see St. Nick through the crowd and began to move through the crowd towards St. Nick. The Ho, Ho, Hos were coming closer. Santa was holding his large bag of toys over his shoulder, holding on tight with his hands covered with . . . .gray cloth gloves! I remarked to mother the similarity of the gloves to the ones I had seen in the drawer in the bakery.

Suddenly my mother remembered that she had something important to do back at home, and we returned to the vehicle, and that was the end of the Santa Claus visit for me.

A few years later when I had figured out the Santa Claus thing, I remembered this scene. My mother told me that she was afraid that the clue provided by the gloves would increase the chance that I would see through my father’s disguise as soon as he came really close to us. Parents in those days went to great lengths to protect the secret of Santa Claus from their young children. They were convinced that an early discovery would have a devastating effect on kids for whom the mythology was very real.

Each year, the firemen with the required shape, took this trip from Londesborough to Blyth on the GTR in a red suit. The firemen arranged a parade from the station to Memorial Hall where they gave out a bag of candies and an orange to every child in the village. My father was a fireman for several years but I was not aware of his playing the Santa Claus role again. In those days, our grocery stores seldom stocked oranges except at Christmas time. They were a very special treat.

More for the Children

The members of the fire brigade, in the course of their duties, often got an intimate view of home situations – very often the conditions under which children were living. The men were very discreet about these findings and equally discreet about the treats, toys, and other gifts that found their way into these homes following their discoveries. I have never heard or read any detailed account specific examples of these informal social welfare deeds, which indicates to me the code of secrecy at play here.

Ringing the Fire Bell

There was a white cord hanging down the front of Memorial Hall, attached to a clanger at the bottom of the bell in the tower above, with the other end neatly wrapped around a cleat anchored beside the front door of the Hall. This rope was used to activate the clanger to strike the bottom of the bell, giving a very different sound than when the clapper strikes the inside of the body of the bell. Everyone could tell when the bell was using for fire related purposes. In response to a fire, the bell was rung continuously for as long as it took for the men to arrive.

Each week, the firemen held “fire practice”. The tradition was that either the village constable or one of the firemen would ring the fire bell to call the men to the meeting. A special ring rhythm was used to call men to the practice. That rhythm was one, two, three, pause; one, two, three, pause, etc.

One evening I happened to be in the vicinity of the Hall when John Cowan, the village constable, came to ring the bell for fire practice. Imagine the delight when he asked if I would like to do the honours. He knew that there was no need for any instruction since I had lived across the street from the Hall for years and had heard the rhythm countless times. I got to call the Blyth Fire Brigade to their fire practice! What a thrill!

Our First Fire Truck

In 1941 a used fire truck was purchased. It served the village for a number of years.  It is still used in parades. I recall the day it arrived in the village. It was parked in the centre bay of Doherty Brothers White Rose garage while Gar Doherty, who was a great mechanic and also a member of the fire brigade, checked it over. Gar asked me if I’d like to sit in the seat and try out the siren. Silly question for a seven-year-old boy! I can vividly remember the thrill of turning the crank on the siren and creating all that noise.

By the way, this garage was located where the village parking lot is now at the corner of Queen and Drummond.

The Flax Yard Fire

Many years ago there was a flax mill located on the property where the Queen’s Villa Apartments now stand. One night we were awakened by the dreaded night sound of the fire bell. Looking out the back window of our house on Dinsley Street, we could see a very large glow above the roof tops of the houses behind ours. My parents and I got dressed quickly and headed out to see what was going on. It is one thing to see a building going up in flames. This was a field in flame – a very large mass of flax straw which had been piled south of the old flax mill as long as I could remember.

There was a really heavy smoke hanging in the air. Our firemen were doing the best they could to spray water on the burning areas, but the tiny stream coming from the hoses were clearly not up to the job of bringing this very broad inferno to heel.

As I recall the fire alternately smoked and flared for several days and small fire crews watched and sprayed the area through that time until the fire gave up.

I do not know if they ever discovered the actual cause of the fire, but I believe that the general consensus declared spontaneous combustion as the probable cause.

George Radford Construction Co. Fire

George Radford purchased the large building on the north west corner of King and Queen street from the estate of Dr. James Perdue, Blyth’s famous veterinarian and character. Radfords used this building for the care and maintenance of their rapidly growing construction business which involved a number of large trucks, bulldozers, and other heavy equipment.

One day I came down with the flu and had stayed home from school.  I heard the fire alarm, looked out my bedroom window and was able to see the Radford building belching black smoke with flames shooting out of the roof. This was a very serious fire which took a great deal of time to knock down.

My recollection of the cause of the fire was that while one person was operating welding equipment at one end of the building, another man at the other end was filing up a gasoline tank. The description of the scene in the building was most vivid. Very suddenly the air in the building, filled with fumes, became ignited in a flash. The burning went from a few feet above the floor up to the roof. The men working in the building were able to walk out unscathed by crouching below the fire and walking out of the building as quickly as possible.

Everything in the building was destroyed. George Radford restored the building, using as much of the original structure as possible.

When the fire was completely out and the firemen were looking over the damage, they made a shocking discovery. Two of the men had been positioned for a lengthy period of time shooting water into the building through a window on the south side of the building. Stacked below this window they discovered several cases of dynamite. They apparently were told that fire alone would not set the dynamite off without some percussion, but they were still shaken by the thought of what might have happened to them.

Conclusion

As mentioned in the opening, our fire brigade has always been an important part of our community. They volunteer to protect the community, and not only that: they have always contributed in many other ways towards the betterment of the village.  And that statement remains true to this day.

Remembering Emmer Dennis

Emmerson Dennis

Machinist and Story Teller Extraordinaire

Dennis Family Background

Thomas Alexander Dennis came to Canada from England as a child with his parents in 1845.  He arrived in McKillop Township in 1866 and lived on Concession XIII North, Lot 19 and raised a family of 4 sons and 3 daughters.

Two of the sons, Harry and John, formed a partnership and ran a threshing outfit for many years.  (A picture of their outfit may be seen in the McKillop Township history book.)  The steam engine that provided power for threshing also ran the grinder and the saw that cut wood for heating the house.

Thomas Henry (Harry)’s Family

Thos.’s son Harry, married Matilda Forbes and they had 5 sons: Ephraim Edward, called Eph., and Wilson, called Wils, and Porter Allen, called Port, and Emmerson, called Emmer, and Lloyd.

Emmer, born December 26, 1885, at Lot 15, Concession 14 south, McKillop Township, was the only boy in the family who went to high school.  He attended Brussels Continuation School.  At age 17, he headed west to join his brother, Wils, in a lumber camp in B.C.  He would go west for the winter and come back in the spring to plant his crop in McKillop.  Before returning home for good, Emmer tried his hand at homesteading in Alberta.

As the boys grew up, several of them, went west as farmers and adventurers.  One of them, of course, was Emmerson, who came home around 1920 -1922.  He had trained as a machinist in B.C. and used that trade as he made his way home.  Once there, he set up shop on the home farm.  During the summer, he worked at home and with neighbouring farmers.  In the winter he did lathe work and repaired local machinery.  He was likely inventing things as he did in later life.

Mrs. Dennis was always urging the 5 boys to marry.  With a household of men, she longed for a female family member or two.  The family still has a letter that she wrote to Wils telling him that she had spent $25.00 (a huge amount at that time) for a dress for his wedding which never did occur.  Perhaps she wore it to other weddings.

Emmer was always a great tease and loved to tell yarns and play tricks.  While out west he had a picture postcard made of himself standing with a young woman and a baby, which he sent home.  Of course he had neither wife nor baby at that time.

Around 1934 a widow, Barbara Shultz, took the job as hired girl on the home farm in McKillop, and helped keep the household running.

One morning in April of 1937, to the family’s surprise, neither Emmer nor Barb were there.  Perhaps they left a note saying they had gone to be married.

Emmer Dennis, Blyth, Ontario

The newly weds made their home on Drummond Street in Blyth where Emmer had a machine shop.  He sharpened lawn mowers, better than anyone else, I am told.  He made parts for machinery, repaired and built guns, and worked with Russell Dougherty who had been a neighbour in McKillop, to make machinery for his turnip plant.  In the 1930s, Russell started the turnip waxing plant in his garage on Queen Street in Blyth, thus giving work to 5 men.  Emmer helped Russell make his dream and plans for a precision turnip seeder a reality.  Emmer would have been the only man in Blyth at the time with the technical skills, the necessary equipment,  and experience to do such a job.  He had learned the trade of machinist in B.C. many years before.  Both Emmer and Russell were held in high regard in the village for their intelligence and kindness to others.

People of Blyth believed Emmer could fix anything, no matter how complicated.

Emmer and Barb's Home on Drummond Street, Blyth

In his shop was a large bull’s eye with bullet holes only in the centre.  Some adventuresome sort snuck around and peeked in the window and discovered the secret.  One of Emmer’s guns, aimed at the bull’s eye, was held securely in a vise.  The bull’s eye was proof of the excellence of the guns he was actually making.  The gun was held in the vise to align the sights.  His nephew recalls that he would put the gun in the vise and open the east door of his shop, outside of which, he had a target set up with a bale of hay for support.

Emmerson also made a long bow and a cross bow.  When nephews would come to visit, he would let the boys try using them.  He set up cardboard boxes behind the target to stop the arrows that missed the target.

As long as children were reasonably well behaved, Emmer would let them hang around his shop and watch as he worked and entertained them with his tall tales.  Many boys had permission from their mothers to go straight to Emmer’s after school.

One story he told was about his experience during a tornado out west.  He was carrying a plank across his shoulders when the tornado came out of nowhere, caught that plank and screwed him right into the ground.

He mesmerized children with his tales of the alligators he had “for sure” seen in the Blyth Creek to the north of his house.  He even convinced them that he knew how the critters made their way there.

He had discovered native artifacts on the McMillan farm at the east end of the village of Blyth.  He often took boys there to dig.  Johnny Morritt, when 80 years old, spoke warmly of those child hood experiences.  Emmer told the boys that what they were finding proved that Indians had camped at that site by the Blyth Creek.  His own interest in the artifacts began when he was a boy and many arrow heads were discovered on the home farm. 

Emmer never owned a car and often men who were going out of town would invite him along.  His company was always entertaining.  One day Harold Vodden and his son Brock, 16, asked him to go to Kitchener.  On the way home they ate steaks at a restaurant.  At home again, he told Barb, “You should have seen the steak this young lad ate.  It was this big!”and he indicated a platter size.

To be allowed to visit the Dennises on Hallowe’en Night was a treat coveted by all Blyth children.  Barb and Emmer welcomed all visitors warmly.  If lucky, they would hear some of Emmer’s stories.  On the table would be a mound of popcorn balls.  Before the witches and hobgoblins were allowed to take one, they had to sing a song or recite a poem.  In later years, as Barb’s health declined, she was no longer able to make the famous popcorn balls but neither she nor Emmer would want to disappoint the children, so they put out saucers of freshly popped corn for each visitor.

One time, when Barb was in hospital in London, around 1949, Emmer walked up to The Standard Office where I, aged 13, worked on Saturdays.  He wanted a special card for Barb.  He asked me to write in it, a most affectionate note, which he dictated.  He had the address on a piece of paper for me to copy to the envelope.  I wondered if he couldn’t write but of course he could as he had attended Continuation School and had his machinist papers.

Barb passed away in 1964 and Emmerson Dennis in 1970.

Whenever his name is mentioned, people immediately smile as they at once recall a tall tale he told, or a trick he played, or a kindness he did.  Chuckles follow smiles and many exchanges of memories occur.

To be remembered always with a smile

is

a well-earned living memorial to the life

of

Emmerson Dennis.

This story was written after visits with Emmer’s nephew, Murray and his wife, Oline (Godkin) Dennis, at the Dennis home farm in November 2010.  They kindly shared pictures and stories to add to those we had collected earlier.

Janis (Morritt) Vodden

Repository of Blyth History                              November 18, 2010.