By Christopher Green

While Trudeaumania has allegedly swept Canada, for the second time in it's history, I am far from someone on the bandwagon of the “crimson tide”. But, while Justin Trudeau is far from my favourite politician, he is, for a fact, the Prime Minister of this country, as such, I have a respect for his office and I pray for him as a person as well.

On May 18th, depending on who you ask, Mr. Trudeau either physically “attacked” multiple MPs or it was all an accident and misunderstanding.

Here's another view of the incident to consider. A vote was being held that the Liberal party was trying to get pushed through. The opposition was unhappy about this and NDP party members were attempting to delay the vote and physically stood in the way of the Conservative party whip, preventing him from doing his parliamentary duty. Mr. Trudeau went over and grabbed the Conservative party whip to help him through the physical blockage, and accidentally elbowed a female NDP MP in the process.

Naturally the NDP MP, who had been elbowed, was upset. I would be too, but it seems that perhaps too much was made out of this, on the NDP's part. Sadly, the Conservatives (who arguably benefited from their whip being able to get through to vote) lashed out as well, in true partisan style. It was Green Party leader Elizabeth May who defended Mr. Trudeau, even across partisan lines. Mr. Trudeau himself even apologized for the incident.

Was Mr. Trudeau completely innocent? No, after all, it's debatable whether or not he was helping the Conservative whip at all. The whip was perfectly capable of going around the other side of the aisle, or pushing through the NDP crowd himself. It was not the responsibility of the Prime Minister to jump in physically. After all, the physical action of the NDP blockage was what Mr. Trudeau was protesting when he acting. The House of Commons, a forum of ideas, is hardly the place for physicality. But let's put things in perspective here, even if I don't agree with Mr. Trudeau's politics, let's keep it to his politics, the man is a human being as is every other member of the House of Commons. We all make mistakes, the important point is the motives and the restitution of the action. I don't believe Mr. Trudeau intended to physically hurt anyone, and I think we need to look past partisan lines and move on to bigger issues that shape Canada as a whole.

Regardless of the political party you favour, prayer for our House of Commons, our government, our Prime Minister and opposition leaders would be deeply appreciated.

To the Editor,

Our annual Emmanuel Community Church Yard Sale on Friday, May 6 and Saturday, May 7 was by all accounts a success!

We would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to the Port Perry and surrounding communities for your support,donations, purchases and patronage. Thank you to the Scugog Bikers Church for the loan of your tent: set up and take down. We had good weather, good sales, and two wonderful days of community.

Our prayers were answered. Thanks to you, our monetary goal for local and world missions was surpassed.

                            
Emmanuel Community Church
Missions  Committee

To the Editor,

Thanks to The Standard  staff for sending a photo journalist and publishing a nice piece to promote our recent Lions Pancake Breakfast in Uxbridge Saturday, March 26th. It was appreciated!

Jean Doucet   
Uxbridge & District Lions Club

It has been truly inspiring over the past couple weeks seeing the country and locally the North Durham community respond to the crisis in Fort McMurray after the terrible wildfire that has ravaged the area.

As most have likely seen in this edition of The Standard, 100 Men of Scugog raised over $5,000 for this cause that was matched by TD Bank as well as the Federal and Provincial governments bringing the total donation over $20,000.

As well, McDonalds held their own drive where $1 from every Big Mac was donated to the Red Cross for fire relief.  Uxbridge Baptist Church also collected items to be sent to Alberta, such as pillows, blankets, clothing and other items.

So far, the Canadian Red Cross has raised over $60 million for the cause according to a report
It is always amazing to see people try to help those that they may have never met, because they know that it is the right thing to do.

The same can be said when the North Durham community stood up and helped initiatives to help bring Syrian Refugees to Port Perry as the civil war in the country continues and possibly Uxbridge in the future. The support has been so large that the Port Perry Refugee Support is planning to bring three more families of Syrians to the community.

Canadians don’t just stick up for other Canadians, they help those who could be worlds away and people that we likely have never made contact with in our lives. It is always exciting as a newspaper to see how a local community can rally around a big issue and can help wherever they can.

We are sure that these donations will make a wonder of a difference to those who have had their lives torn apart , and this will bring comfort knowing people are there to help

A very important debate is going to take place in the Kawartha Lakes as Jamie Schmale is launching a referendum on Bill C14, the assisted dying act.

Each household in Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes, Brock should expect to receive a copy in the mail of the referendum publication in the coming weeks. The results will be made public before the vote is held in the House of Commons. 

There are so many things that could go wrong with Euthenasia if this bill does become law, including medical records being confused. This does happen a lot more than most people would like to admit. Innocent people could be accidentally euthanized in this case if there is confusion. 

Human error is always a factor and human error now has the possibility of causing death. This could lead to numerous lawsuits against medical organizations that improperly filed their paperwork or just mislabeled a patient. 

There is also the factor of young people living with mental health being able to take the easy way out rather than getting the true help that they need to cope with the world around them, never knowing the possibility of becoming a productive citizen in our society. Someone who is depressed could have a greater power to end their life legally. 

Now, more than ever, people must ask themselves where they stand on this deep and complex issue, what they want for the future and must get involved in the debate to ensure that their voice is heard. 
Referendums have the power to make the government listen to you. This is your chance to make a difference on an issue of grave importance in our entire society, the issue is one of life and death. 

Many police organizations and general Canadians were thrown for a loop recently when an Ontario Judge ruled that a common type of breathalyzer was inaccurate in determining a person’s intoxication.

The Court found inconsistencies and flaws in the machine’s ability to properly tell the level of a person’s intoxication and that left enough reasonable doubt to let the defendant walk free.

This ruling will unfortunately have a powerful negative impact on the province and every local community.

Suddenly everyone that has at one time been charged by a device such as this will have a reason to appeal their sentence now. Many of those that were guilty of the offence could walk without facing any sort of penalty.

Everyone who was charged because of this machine could now go free.

According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada, alcohol plays a factor in 55 per cent of collisions in the country. One of the more high profile cases of drunk driving happened recently with Marco Muzzo getting 10 years for killing four people in an accident. Suddenly police have lost a key tool in helping to charge offenders and possibly stop some of these accidents from happening.   

This is just one device being called into question. Does this ruling mean that lawyers could argue that other similar machines have similar flaws? It just might.

The Crown is looking to appeal this decision, which could undue some of the damage that has been done by this ruling, but this creates reasonable doubt in all of the machines that are used  to put away actual criminals.

To the Editor,

I read an interesting "Letter to the Editor" in the April 7th Standard about Stop the Stop Signs. The writer obviously knew what he was talking about as he was an Energy Conservation Committee Member.

 I have lived in Canada most of my life but was brought up in the U.K. where they often have "Yield" signs instead of "Stop" signs. The road that I grew up on was a quiet street but crossed by a very busy highway, in fact the famous annual London to Brighton rally for old classic cars still travels this main road.

Obviously there are no four way stop signs and the only sign that makes you check the busy road is a Yield sign. If there is traffic approaching you must yield or stop until the way is clear. If there is no traffic you just need to slow down as you enter or cross the main road.

The other common sight on U.K. roads of course are round-a-bout's or traffic circles. They can be just a few meters in diameter or built to control traffic on major highways. We see more and more on Canadian roads, one in mind was recently built at the intersection of Concession road 9 & the York Durham Town Line replacing a stop sign. This intersection previously created many accidents due to poor sight lines.

Negatives would be the cost to build and, a lack of available land, especially in existing or new sub-divisions. A new stop sign can be put up on any corner in just an hour or so, not so traffic circles which would need to be designed during the planning process in order to create space. However, yield signs would work where a stop sign is currently called for or even to replace unnecessary stop signs at intersections where traffic is clearly visible. Just my opinion anyway

Bob Vince,
Ashburn