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Miscellany
?A few random comments on this week’s happenings...
In our Town Hall report elsewhere on this page, you’ll see that Township Council has voted to create more “balance” on the committee struck to make recommendations on the controversial matter of using commercial fill from hither and yon to restore used gravel pits, by adding Mayor Shepherd, an avowed proponent of commercial fill, to the two councillors already on the committee, Mr. Ballinger and Ms. Northeast, who the Mayor said are “biased” against the notion.
First, it seems rather strong to use the word “bias” in the early days of a debate. Second, although there might be several good reasons for putting the mayor on a committee dealing with such a hot-button issue (which seems destined to occupy a good deal of time and energy as we draw closer to the municipal election), restoring “balance” to an advisory committee isn’t one of them. As was frequently pointed out Monday, the committee is a fact-finding one, laying out options for Council to consider; Council (and perhaps not even this council) will make the ultimate decision.
Also, deliberately putting the mayor and Ms. Northeast in another situation where they can waste time by taking shots at one another, is ill-advised at best. Soon after he took office, the mayor publicly insulted his most experienced councillor by not naming her the chair of any council committee; their relationship hasn’t improved any in three and a half years. They’ve occupied way too much time over those years in rhetorically spitting at each other. The fill committee deserves more mature behaviour, and we’d hate to think Mr. Ballinger’s talents are going to be wasted acting as a mere referee.
We intensely dislike putting unpleasant stories in the Cosmos, particularly on the front page; we’d like to think life in a small town is overwhelmingly good news. But with all the rumours flying around town, we had no choice about the story on page 1 this week. The story contains all the facts that are currently available; for instance, although we would have liked to tell you a little more about Christopher Sager’s teaching history, neither the College of Teachers nor the union would tell us.
We applaud the decision of the Board and the USS administration to circulate a letter about the issue to staff, students and parents the same day the police issued a release to the media. It made clear a number of important points: that the administration initiated the police investigation, that they were not pre-judging the teacher’s guilt, that the student was receiving the support she needed. They, like us and you, will now have to wait for the courts to reveal the rest of the story.
Last week, our columnist and reporter Roger Varley was tantalizing in saying he would be leaving us, for a while at least. Perhaps some of you guessed his reason, but you can now discover it for yourself on page 9 of this issue. Be assured that from this point on, Mr. Varley will be treated like any other candidate in the upcoming municipal election. He will pay exactly the same rate for advertising space. He will be asked the same questions as others, and given the same amount of editorial space to respond. At our forum for Ward 4 sometime in September, he’ll be given the same amount of microphone time as all the other candidates. And he’s right. He won’t be writing anything for us until the election is over, if then - not “Am I Wrong?”, not “A Cup of Coffee” (which will be taken over by Lisha Cassibo), not even his beloved Bruins. We suspect he’ll miss them most of all. But that’s the price for putting his hat in the ring. If he wins, we’ll miss him. If he loses, it should be fodder for a few good columns.
