Accident ends young athlete's career

But not Thomas Francis' spirit

by Michael Erskine

LITTLE CURRENT-The young friends of Thomas Francis, a 17-year-old Little Current youth who suffered severe injuries in a single vehicle accident earlier this fall, came up to excitedly, and carefully, embrace him before a high school hockey game Saturday night.

Mr. Francis was at the Little Current arena as a guest of the Manitoulin Secondary School Mustangs hockey team as they faced a visiting team from Lasalle Secondary. Mr. Francis was dropping the puck in an honourary face-off in front of those who would have been his teammates, had it not been for the events which led to his current medical challenges.

Mr. Francis is slowly recovering from a broken neck, an injury which up until a few days ago forced him to wear a 'halo' brace. He now sports a less obtrusive neck brace which nonetheless severely restrains his movements.

"It was really a problem just getting in and out of a car," he admitted ruefully of the halo brace.

Young Mr. Francis will be watching hockey games from the sidelines from now on, perhaps for the rest of his life. The type of injury he sustained to his neck will likely preclude his ever playing competitively again, admits his father Ray.

Ray Francis and his wife, Cindy, currently have four other children at home, and in addition to the normal challenges facing a couple with a large family and an older home, Christmas and winter coming on, were added the cost and challenge of trying to get to their young son's side for at least a few days every week while he lay immobile in the hospital.

The elder Mr. Francis admits it has been a struggle, but the community support he and his wife have received during their family ordeal has been incredible.

"People have really been wonderful," he said. "It has really helped us to get through this. Words are really hard to find to express just how grateful we are to everyone."

For Thomas, the road to recovery will be long and difficult. He has already had to relearn simple things like how to walk unassisted, and the left side of his body remains in a very weak condition.

Restricted to day passes for some time, Thomas Francis is now back at home, but he will be undergoing a regular regime of physiotherapy for a very long time.

As to the future, there are still unresolved questions he will have to face as he recovers. The family still does not know what the eventual outcome of the police investigation will be into the night when Thomas found himself immobile at the wheel of a vehicle in the ditch. They are waiting for the other shoe to drop.

For now, Thomas Francis considers himself very lucky to be alive and, however slowly, recovering from an accident that could have left a number of families bereaved.

It will be a very long time before he finds himself behind the wheel of a car again, as in addition to his injuries, he will have to undergo special instruction and a pass another driving course before getting his driving licence.

For now, he and his family are focussed on his recovery and taking things, as they must, one day at a time, knowing that, thanks to a miracle, they are all together to celebrate the dawn of a new year.

Amtelecom buys historic Gore Bay cable system

Begun in 1950s,it's one of Canada's oldest cable firms

by Michael Erskine

GORE BAY-Manitoulin Island boasted one of the first cable television networks in Canada with the founding of Gore Bay Cable TV, and thanks to a deal finalized last week, it will continue its leading edge tradition under the auspices of another Island icon: Amtelecom.

President and one of the longtime owners of Gore Bay Cable TV, William (Bill) Robinson, announced the deal in a press release on December 15. In the release, Mr. Robinson indicated that he was retiring from the business after many rewarding years. In making his announcement, Mr. Robinson expressed satisfaction that the company would continue with Amtelecom.

"Gore Bay Cable TV has always been a part of the community," he said. "We bring both family entertainment with our cable television service and informational content through the Internet to residents in Gore Bay. I am pleased that Amtelecom, with its solid history of service and investment on Manitoulin, will continue to build on this history."

"Amtelecom is dedicated to serving Island residents and Gore Bay Cable TV is a great opportunity for us," said Amtelecom President and CEO Michael Andrews. "It gives us an opportunity to offer advanced telecommunication services to another major market on the Island. We will continue to invest in the telecommunications infrastructure on Manitoulin in a significant way in order to continue to enhance service offering and quality and the residents of Gore Bay will benefit from this investment."

Mr. Robinson said he would miss operating the cable system, but that he recognizes the need for a larger (albeit still community-focussed) company like Amtelecom in order to continue delivering state-of-the-art television and Internet services-and of course as he is "a little over 30 now," it may be time to spend a little more of the hours in the day doing some of the other things he loves.

"I have flown for years," he said. "Now my wife has just gotten her pilot's licence as well, so maybe we will spend a little more time doing some of that."

The three original founders of the company were electronics pioneer and early adopter Harold Edney, automobile retailer Ronald McQuarrie and a Gore Bay lawyer called Cliff Boyd (later Judge Boyd).

When Mr. McQuarrie dropped out of the company a few years after it began, Mr. Robinson bought his share and came on board as a partner. Judge Boyd also later moved on.

It seems that Mr. McQuarrie, a man with significant business sense, had discovered that there was not a lot of money to be made in a micro-cable company, and in fact, recalled Mr. Edney, he had discovered that being an owner of a cable TV company was actually costing him business. People take their television pretty seriously, and the result of a technical glitch in those early days of the technology could often translate into a lost car sale.

Judge Boyd had entered the partnership more as a financial supporter to get it off the ground, and once the enterprise had stood shakily on its feet enough, he moved on to other things.

No large cable company would ever have considered entering the Gore Bay market in the early days, noted Mr. Robinson-the size of the market would simply not have made any sense-but luckily nobody convinced Mr. Edney and Mr. Robinson of that.

"Harold and I were partners for a very long time," said Mr. Robinson, who still consults with his retired partner. "He is a remarkable man."

Although he is no longer associated with the company, Mr. Robinson sought and received Mr. Edney's approval of the transfer of the company to Amtelecom.

"They have been involved on the Island," he said. "They have proven themselves to be good corporate citizens here on Manitoulin."

The idea for Gore Bay Cable TV might not have begun at all, if it were not for the financial limitations inherent in other approaches, noted Mr. Edney. The founders originally looked into the idea of installing a repeater station to bring stronger signals to the region, but that idea never got off the ground because there would have been no way to generate a cash flow from the enhanced signal to pay for the repeater. "So we decided to go with cable," he said.

At that it was hardly an easy prospect; the technology was in its very infancy, and the equipment literally had to be built on the fly from scratch. It required a truly exceptional individual to mount that learning curve and the steady stream of technological advances that followed.

Mr. Edney was the right man at the right time to serve as a cable television pioneer.

He began his career interested in electricity in the 1940s, during the war, and as electronics developed, he became enthralled with the magic of the technology.

In the very first days of television, early adopters had to be satisfied with the occasional 'skip' signal bouncing off the atmosphere all the way from California.

"It would come in for a few minutes, then it would fade away; on a really good day you might get half an hour," he laughed. "It was pretty exciting stuff."

In these days of the ubiquitous 500 channel universe, it is hard to imagine just how magical those times really were.

The original cable bill, in the late 1950s, was a mere $5 a month and only a handful of houses near the bluffs were within reach of the cable.

"The telephone company was pretty helpful," recalled Mr. Edney, who also worked for them at the time. "They let us run our cables on their poles."

The nascent company was also very fortunate in being able to secure a site high on the bluffs (under which Gore Bay nestles) on which to site their tower.

"It was an old tower site for Ontario Paper," recalled Mr. Edney. "There was a little six-foot square shack and a cement pad and that was about it."

The remote location-you had to walk about a mile in from the nearest road-was also ideal because it lay far from the road. In those days before proper shielding, the interference from passing ignition coils in automobiles and trucks could play havoc with the delicate equipment and weak signals.

Gore Bay Cable also became pioneers in the new satellite transmissions for TV Ontario.

"We had contacted them hoping to get a licence to repeat the signal from Sudbury," recalled Mr. Edney. "Suddenly this letter arrives in the mail offering us the satellite deal."

The dish arrived at the Department of Highways building in a large crate, followed a short time later by three technicians to install it.

"I had to find a way to wrestle it up to the site and then these three fellows show up, with no winter clothes, in the middle of January, to install it," he laughed. "They sure got their bellies full of it by the time it was all done."

Once complete, the signal was astonishingly good. "Right from the start," he recalled. "I was really impressed."

Mr. Edney was less impressed with the advent of the Internet. "We looked at it a short time before I left the company," he said. "We found about seven potential subscribers and I didn't think it had much potential."

"Bill decided to go with it though," said Mr. Edney. "He managed to do pretty good with it too,"

The sale of Gore Bay Cable TV will take effect on January 1, 2007, and both telecommunication pioneers agree that the time has come to let a big company with deep pockets take a crack at it.

Amtelecom is a publicly traded Income Trust with corporate offices in Aylmer, Ontario. It is the Island's largest telecommunications provider, bringing telephone services to the Mindemoya, Manitowaning and Wikwemikong communities since 1977.

In 2002, Amtelecom became the first company to offer high-speed Internet services on Manitoulin and it currently reigns as the largest such provider of high-speed services to this day.

The company has about 27,000 subscribers to its local and long distance telephone services, 13,000 Internet subscribers and delivers cable to around 8,500 households.

2006 Island housing starts look good

by Michael Erskine

MANITOULIN-Although few are ready to cite the current number of buildings going up on Manitoulin as any kind of building boom, the impressive cycle which began a few years ago still remains quite robust.

Each of the Island's municipalities report that the number of building permits going out for cottages, garages and housing remain strong and generally in line with the previous year's numbers.

"Assiginack is doing reasonably good this year," said Tom Spry, noting that, taking the two new water plants out of the equation, building in the area is up about 20 percent.

"You have to take out the water plants," he said. "Otherwise you get a year with $7.5 million, and that isn't really a realistic representation of what is really happening out there."

In the case of the Northeast Town, taking a close look at the past two years there is a bare $150 between each of them, notes Mr. Spry, who is also the building inspector for NEMI.

The value of building in the Northeast Town has run at about $3 million over the past couple of years. "It's not what I would call a huge boom to get excited about, but if it stays at this level it is a good rate," said Mr. Spry. "There are plenty of lakeshore cottages going up, and a number of new houses in town as well."

The Township of Billings has also seen a good steady rate of building, with home starts, garages and cottages remaining stable at around $2.29 million.

No paper next week

As usual, there will be no paper between Christmas and New Year's. The Expositor office will close after Thursday, December 21, and reopen on Friday, December 29 for the production of the following week's paper. All country correspondents and classified and display advertisers are urged to have their material to the office on that Friday, for use in the January 3 edition. Happy holidays!

EDITORIAL

A newspaper is a community collaboration

Another year has somehow slipped by and it's less than a week until Christmas!

When we were young, it seemed as though time virtually stood still. But now...

Like every year on Manitoulin, this has been an interesting, often exciting one, in the newspaper business.

Manitoulin won the prize for Ontario's longest pile of used tires and that controversial fact (hopefully soon to be remedied) generated a couple of dozen stories.

When no-one could have predicted it, we had a tornado in the summer (a weather event that Environment Canada insisted on calling a "microburst").

Whatever it was, it was unprecedented and it left millions of dollars of cleanup and repairs in its wake.

We had the heart-rending story of the young woman, Tish Smith, who, while canoeing in the North Channel last summer, was capsized by a freak wave and credits her dog Echo with saving her life after she spent nearly a dozen hours in the cold water.

Ms. Smith's miraculous survival, and the story of the heroic dog that would not leave her side in the water, was played on the front page of this paper in the same edition where the early details of the tornado were reported. Both stories were pulled together during a blackout, with only one rotary phone at the disposal of staff, who worked by candlelight until a generator was up and running.

Either one of these stories, by themselves, could have been the "story of the year." But both in the same week?

Manitoulin is a wonderful place to be in this business because, somehow, there is always all of this interesting news to report on.

But you know all of that. You read the paper.

And this paper that you read, it's really a community project.

Our friend Rose Diebolt from Sandfield takes time out from her extremely busy schedule to test, compose and send the recipes that make up the weekly column, "Recipes from Rose's Kitchen."

Petra Wall, who lives near Providence Bay, interviews an interesting Island pioneer each month for the full-page feature "Now and Then: a celebration of life on Manitoulin-Mnaachtoong Maadsewin."

Andre Leblanc, still with a hand from his dad Larry, keeps us abreast of how the young people are doing in organized (and often individual) sports competitions in the column "Ice Chips and Canoe Quips." Andre and Larry both call Central Manitoulin home.

There's always something going on in our local libraries and Assiginack Librarian Debbie Robinson and Mindemoya and Providence Bay Librarian Claire Cline make sure we know what it is with their monthly columns.

Agriculture is Manitoulin's charter industry and so Brian Bell from Gore Bay, Manitoulin's and the North Shore's agricultural representative, works hard to research and write new material every week for his column, "Farm Facts and Furrows" through which Island farmers can keep up-to-date on trends and developments-and so too can interested non-farmers.

Manitoulin Secondary School is well represented in these pages by "Kids in the Halls" co-columnists Lauren McCormick and Meagan O'Hare (both girls are in Grade 12 and live in Little Current), while Mindemoya's Emily Drystek profiles an MSS athlete in the aptly-named "Player Profile" column.

A new column has recently appeared in these pages: "Wellness Corner," authored by Marc Bedard, who hails from The Slash and seeks in his writing to give us understanding of some of the stresses that, as humans, we fall heir to, but looked upon from a uniquely Manitoulin perspective.

Mr. Bedard has only recently began his column, so please look for it. It's full of useful, healthy information.

At any rate, are we starting to see a trend here, in the crazy-quilt of talented individuals who give of themselves to provide you with an interesting, representative paper?

Just wait; there's lots more.

There are all of the people who provide the news from our rural communities. One of them, Erma McAllister, who writes the "Spring Bay RR" news, was honoured this year by her municipal government in Central Manitoulin as Senior Citizen of the Year. And high among the many activities Ms. McAllister was cited for was the unfailing contribution of her news column.

Any of the other rural news reporters could be likewise honoured (some of them already have been) for their efforts. These include Jean Cannard (Sheguiandah Scribbles); Lillian Sullivan, Audrey (Toots) McDermid and Phylma McDermid, who share at various times in the year the writing the news from Providence Bay; Pat Hall (Tehk Talk); Jean Bennison and Marilyn Sparham (The Slash News); and Ruth Dunlop (Little Current Place News).

And no-one is more in and from the country than our friends Dave and Beth Draper who give good sensible advice, when asked for it, in their column, "Cry Me A River." Of course it's rendered with down-home humour and peppered with sage advice from the country and western songs that Dave knows so well.

We will also mention a new addition to the Island from Shauna-Lee McClements, who writes her spirited column, "All-Star Attitude News" about the exciting events at Assiginack Public School in Manitowaning.

Some of our talented freelance writers include Margo Little from Gore Bay, Jane Hubbard from Kagawong, and Randy Russon of Sault Ste. Marie,  who always came along at the right time to help out, while excellent photo submissions are provided by such local shutterbugs as Jan McQuay, Jeff Parsons, Nicole Belanger Smith and John Savage.

We must also acknowledge the postmasters at our myriad of Island post offices, together with the rural route drivers who, finally, get these newspapers to your mailboxes in a timely fashion, week after week. Others help too, like Dianna Owen who drives the Birch Island and Whitefish Falls papers to the stores and post offices, and in so doing ensures the papers arrive on time.

There's also a well-read police report, "Law and Order," every week. Its contents are largely provided by OPP Constable Al Boyd, and we thank him for his help.

Finally, there's yourselves, the readers, who also write interesting and often challenging letters to the editor to share your views and opinions in that forum.

You are also amazingly loyal, and that fact encourages us to provide you with the best newspaper we can, week after week.

Merry Christmas to all of you, from all of us. Best wishes for a healthy New Year too.

Sincerely,

Rick and Julia McCutcheon

Kerrene Tilson

Al Ryan and Susan Hart

Esther Anstice

Jack MacLean

Jim Moodie

Lindsay Kelly

Mike Erskine

Patrick Kiley

Gerry Clifford

Marilyn Harasym

Rosemary Debassige

Roy Bowerman

Steven Richards

and from the Gore Bay office:

Tom Sasvari

Jeananne Thibault

Heather Nevin

Letters to the Editor

Recent Expositor editorial challenged

Perhaps this newspaper has some rethinking to do

To the Expositor:

The recent editorial entitled "Stephen Harper should rethink his social agenda" (December 13) set off two alarm bells for me that I would like to address: 1) the idea that governments should not revisit the decisions of previous governments; and 2) the idea that tolerance is a core Canadian value.

To the first, the editorial criticizes the prime minister for not adopting the Kyoto and Kelowna agreements, and not strictly upholding the same-sex marriage policy, all previous Liberal government initiatives.

The idea that every government must be beholden to the decisions of past governments is unworkable and silly. For example, the federal Liberals once ran on a platform of eliminating the Tory GST. If it is wrong for the Tories to revisit issues like the Kelowna and Kyoto accords, then by the same token it was wrong for the Liberals to revisit the GST. By the same token, it would be wrong for the Liberals, or any other government, to raise the GST again since its recent lowering. To render future governments incapable of revisiting policies would be the death knell of our democracy.

Why would the Expositor advocate such an alarming notion? I believe the reason is that social liberals think that once a certain amount of opinion swings their way, no-one should talk about an issue anymore because it is "decided" and to continue debate that social liberals engaged in previously would be "divisive." So the editorial isn't really meant to argue that future governments should never revisit the decisions of past governments. What the Expositor really means to say is that social liberal views count and socially conservative views don't count.

This brings us to the idea of tolerance, which the editorial claims is "a core Canadian value" with "strict limits."

Because social conservative views don't count, tolerance is used in a selective way. That is why the Expositor can describe people who support same-sex marriage as tolerant, and name-call 43 faith groups in this country as "zealots" that produce feelings in the editorial writer of being "disgusted." Apparently, 43 groups of disgusting zealots are beyond the limits of tolerance.

The Expositor editorial also limits tolerance to child molesters, for example, who would "threaten the safety and innocence of our children." This highlights one of the most confusing aspects of social liberalism being advocated by the Expositor.  How do we decide who deserves tolerance and who doesn't, when tolerance vilifies both faith groups and child predators? These limits to tolerance do not seem to be very strict after all.

As a society, we used to talk about morality as something worth striving for, instead of bandying the word tolerance about. The effect of replacing "morality," a word with clear implications for right and wrong, with the word "tolerance," as the Expositor has done, is that we are no longer able to talk about whether or not something is good or bad. The result is a confusing patchwork of what is conscionable, so that child sex offenders and church attendees get lumped in the same category.

I tolerate many ideas and practices that I don't share. True tolerance, when it can be found, is necessary for dialogue to take place within diverse communities and a nation. But if the Expositor believes that to be good Canadians we should be tolerant as its editorial is tolerant, then I think this newspaper has some rethinking to do.

Ray Scott

Big Lake

Industrial farms dissuade carnivore tendencies

Perhaps an Island abattoir would rekindle an appetite for meat

To the Expositor:

Although I am not a hunter, the recent correspondence regarding the morality of hunting caught my attention. I eat venison and have given hunters permission to hunt deer on my land, so that might make me a hypocrite when I say that I, personally, could not hunt. The hunters I have met here have all been gentlemen and fine people; it's just that I could not bring myself to hunt.

Much weightier I feel in the matter of animal welfare is the way our animals are treated at the feedlots and industrial farms. Once I became aware of the living conditions of animals, whether cows, chickens or pigs, in these feedlots, I stopped eating meat from the grocery store. Not only because I find the quality of the meat suspect, but also because I do not have the stomach to consume the product that was bred and slaughtered in the way I understand is common in the industrial farms.

When I drive along the countryside here on Manitoulin and see the "happy" cows  grazing in the fields and eating grass as they should, I find it reprehensible that so many are slated for the feedlot in their last months of life. Perhaps if we had an abattoir there would be a different outcome for these animals. If I could buy my meat and poultry directly from the farmer, I would certainly feel more inclined to indulge my carnivorous habits. Currently there is a lot of controversy in southern Ontario over the question of raw milk, and of the farmer's right to sell his product and the consumer's right to buy. The police and various government agents have attacked and prosecuted farmers who want to have a more direct contact with consumers, using methods that are reminiscent of drug raids and seizure of child pornography from real criminals. It is a shame that our law enforcement is involved with such issues when it is needed in matters of real threats to public safety.

So, the deer hunt is not, in my view, even  a question. There can be differing opinions, to be sure, but if we want to speak of morality, then we should turn our attention to the welfare of domestic animals and the way in which the rights of farmers and consumers are being violated.

M. Vincente Belenson

Spring Bay

Why was the fire department contribution left out of explosion story?

Information can often be obtained from an official with first-hand knowledge of the incident

To the Expositor:

Where was the fire department in the early morning hours of December 9? A terrible accident occurred leaving four people badly burned. We heard of this in the reports on the television that weekend as well as in our local newspapers (Expositor and Sudbury Star) later that same week. The story tells of how police and ambulance crews responded and called in help from town employees to clean a trail to assist them in getting their vehicles in to the scene. How come the NEMI firefighters weren't there to help assist? Well contrary to recent publications from local media sources the fire department was there. In fact they were there shortly after receiving the 911 dispatch at 6:50 that same morning. When they arrived on scene they set up an incident command post and began gathering as much information as they could from the EMS personnel who were already on scene. The fire chief, being the incident commander of the scene, then called in support from the town workers via direct radio communication to bring in snow removal equipment (backhoes) in order for the rescue team (fire department) to be able to reach the victims of the explosion. The OPP were also called in to assist the fire department's efforts through the use of their snowmachines. The incident commander also requested the EMS team to call in the air ambulance due to the remote location of the site. Even though all this was performed in a very professional manner it would have been all in vain if one of the victims (Barry Walker) would not have further risked his own life and made his way out to meet fire department personnel who then assisted him in making the rest of the trek to the ambulance that was standing by a few kilometres away.

I would like to take this moment to personally thank the OPP and the NEMI town staff for assisting the NEMI Fire Department and the EMS personnel with this rescue. And in the future it would be wished that the media find its most accurate source for information prior to publication. This information can often be obtained from an official with first-hand knowledge of the incident.

Duane Deschamps

Little Current

EDITOR'S NOTE: Attempts were made by the Expositor to reach NEMI fire chief Darren Bailey on the Monday before our paper went to press, but we were unable to make contact.