Millroy: Intimate Violence; Lights out; First Nations Payouts

Sault Ste. Marie Police Services confirmed last week that two deaths that occurred in the city on May 1 were the result of a murder-suicide that included intimate partner violence.

Neither of the individuals were identified, other than that they were husband and wife.
Yet in another act of intimate partner violence that occurred in October, which saw four people shot to death, another wounded and the shooter take his own life, everyone involved was named except for three children.

The shooter, Bob Thomas Hallaert, had killed his partner at one home and then travelled to another where he wounded his ex-wife and shot to death their three children, aged six, seven and 12.
Considering that both these case involved murder-suicide as well as intimate partner violence, wouldn’t you think they would be considered the same when it came to releasing facts about the case?

In the latest, the husband strangled his wife before taking his own life by self-strangulation.

We can only assume that he did it by hanging himself, rather than managing it with his bare hands.
I believe than when anyone is murdered in our fair city that we, the public, should be privy to that information. I see no reason for the barebones facts in the latter case to be withheld for nearly two months and I certainly don’t understand the rationale behind not providing the names.
It becomes especially ludicrous when those involved in one case are named and those in a case with similar circumstances are not.

As I CROSS ALBERT STREET at Elgin at least four times each week, I worried a bit about the taking out of the traffic lights at this intersection.

I find I have to nose out over the crosswalk, a no-no according to ministry of transport guidelines, to get a clear view of oncoming traffic as it is obscured by the Masonic Lodge building, which sits on the northwest corner.

I have the same problem when going north on Dennis where it meets Albert.
However, since the lights were taken out I have come across other intersections in the city where views are blocked, mainly by hedges, so I figure I will live with what has occurred at the two intersections being mentioned here.

The lights were also taken out where Queen Street meets Church Street.

I have nothing but applause for public works and engineering services for removing these lights.
Where sometimes I would sit on Queen waiting for the light to change and then waiting while sometimes as many as 15 vehicles passed before the way was clear, I now seldom wait at all.

With the lights no longer an impediment, traffic from the east no longer piles up as vehicles are sailing through the intersection individually. This in turn means there is little in the way of holdup for vehicles turning left onto Church Street.
Good work.

I AM NOT SEEING much being written these days about some of the First Nations councils wanting some of the funds from the $10 billion Robinson Huron Treaty settlement being held back for band use.
The focus now seems to be on a couple of them fighting the heavy legal fees, initially set at $510 million but with $255 million being returned for band use.

I think the councils should be satisfied now that it is public that $255 million of the legal fees is going to be returned to the bands and also believe that they would have had trouble getting their hands on any part of the funds going to individuals anyway.

The treaty initially says that in ceding the land the chiefs would receive two thousands pounds of good and lawful money of Upper Canada, with a further six hundred funds to be delivered to them each summer.

But it also says the province shall augment that money from time to time, “provided that the amount paid to each individual shall not exceed the sum of one pound.”

The latter would seem to say that future payments would go to the individuals, as has indeed been the case.

With the money, capped at $4 a year for 150 years, going to individuals for all that time, it only stands to reason that the money now coming down should go straight to the individuals involved.

The complaint about lawyers’ fees will be heard by the Superior Court of Justice but it should have no bearing on the release of the funds, which are scheduled to begin going out in early August.
If the court grants some cutback in legal fees, which I doubt it will do, these funds can be distributed later. I say I doubt there will be a change because the fees were negotiated in good faith on a contingency basis, five percent originally but coming in at two-and-half percent with the cutback to $255 million from $510 million.

Recipients should be happy.

The 3,395 Garden River band members, for instance, will each be receiving $171,199. The 3,200 Batchewana band members will each receive $174,349.

The largest payout will be to the 183 members of Zhiibaahaasing First Nation, $1,078,521 each. The lowest, $139,888, goes to the 8,610 members of Wikwemikong First Nation.