- Location
- The Conservative part of Ontario
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2006 08:00:33 -0600 (CST)
From: owner-cdn-firearms@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Majordomo User)
Subject: County kills Sunday hunting proposal
PUBLICATION: Belleville Intelligencer (ON)
DATE: 2006.10.12
SECTION: Local
PAGE: 3
BYLINE: Samantha Craggs
PHOTO: Intelligencer photo by Samantha Craggs
DATELINE: PICTON
ILLUSTRATION: Greg Farrant from the Ontario Federation of Anglers
andHunters attempted to convince Prince Edward County's planning
services committee to vote in favour of Sunday hunting using guns. The
committee deferred it to next year.
WORD COUNT: 399
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
County kills Sunday hunting proposal
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
The debate about Sunday gun hunting in Prince Edward County will
continue into the new year. After a hunting delegation faced the
planning services committee Tuesday, councillors on the committee
deferred the decision until January that would have allowed gun hunters
to roam the county's forests on the traditional day of rest.
"I'm disappointed," said Greg Farrant, who appeared as a delegation as
government relations and communications manager with the Ontario
Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH). "Some of the arguments I heard
were familiar, but I respect the councillors, who are obviously
representing hunters and non-hunters."
Both factions were there for the discussion, including Monica Alyea,
councillor for South Marysburgh, who voiced the dissent of some of her
constituents. Alyea said she chooses Sundays to canoe and kayak because
it is one day of the week where there is not gunfire in the distance.
"When I walk out and hear guns, I know that's a day I'm not going to be
out on the water. But I know on Sunday, I can go out," she said. "It's
the perception of safety, and people need to know there's one day they
can go out and know for their children or grandchildren and themselves
that there are no guns."
Sixty-seven municipalities have voted to allow Sunday gun hunting, but
it should be up to 100 by the spring hunting season, said Farrant.
Currently, every municipality in Hastings County except Bancroft and
Wollaston have voted to allow it. Farrant has visited 34 municipalities
since March asking them to consider it. With deer hunting only two weeks
long for those who use guns, he said, an extra weekend day is important
to families who hunt.
Farrant said the committee could have approved it, even with an election
next month. It is a decision with no financial implications, he said, so
it is not bound by the "lame duck council" dynamic.
Kelly Baverstock of Picton appeared before the committee with a petition
of 328 signatures in favour of Sunday gun hunting.
When the ban on Sunday hunting was introduced, she said, no stores were
open on Sunday and everyone honoured the day of rest. Times have
changed.
But Jim Moore, a bow hunter and farmer near Picton, agreed he would like
one day with no gunfire. Bow hunters have a longer shooting season and
can already hunt on Sundays.
"It's not the local hunters, it's the people coming from the city," he
said. "It's nice to live in a rural area and be able to get up one day a
week and say 'today, we don't have to tolerate it.'"
Farrant said the safety issue is based on perception, not reality.
"Some of the perceptions out there are blatantly wrong," he said.
From: owner-cdn-firearms@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Majordomo User)
Subject: County kills Sunday hunting proposal
PUBLICATION: Belleville Intelligencer (ON)
DATE: 2006.10.12
SECTION: Local
PAGE: 3
BYLINE: Samantha Craggs
PHOTO: Intelligencer photo by Samantha Craggs
DATELINE: PICTON
ILLUSTRATION: Greg Farrant from the Ontario Federation of Anglers
andHunters attempted to convince Prince Edward County's planning
services committee to vote in favour of Sunday hunting using guns. The
committee deferred it to next year.
WORD COUNT: 399
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
County kills Sunday hunting proposal
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
The debate about Sunday gun hunting in Prince Edward County will
continue into the new year. After a hunting delegation faced the
planning services committee Tuesday, councillors on the committee
deferred the decision until January that would have allowed gun hunters
to roam the county's forests on the traditional day of rest.
"I'm disappointed," said Greg Farrant, who appeared as a delegation as
government relations and communications manager with the Ontario
Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH). "Some of the arguments I heard
were familiar, but I respect the councillors, who are obviously
representing hunters and non-hunters."
Both factions were there for the discussion, including Monica Alyea,
councillor for South Marysburgh, who voiced the dissent of some of her
constituents. Alyea said she chooses Sundays to canoe and kayak because
it is one day of the week where there is not gunfire in the distance.
"When I walk out and hear guns, I know that's a day I'm not going to be
out on the water. But I know on Sunday, I can go out," she said. "It's
the perception of safety, and people need to know there's one day they
can go out and know for their children or grandchildren and themselves
that there are no guns."
Sixty-seven municipalities have voted to allow Sunday gun hunting, but
it should be up to 100 by the spring hunting season, said Farrant.
Currently, every municipality in Hastings County except Bancroft and
Wollaston have voted to allow it. Farrant has visited 34 municipalities
since March asking them to consider it. With deer hunting only two weeks
long for those who use guns, he said, an extra weekend day is important
to families who hunt.
Farrant said the committee could have approved it, even with an election
next month. It is a decision with no financial implications, he said, so
it is not bound by the "lame duck council" dynamic.
Kelly Baverstock of Picton appeared before the committee with a petition
of 328 signatures in favour of Sunday gun hunting.
When the ban on Sunday hunting was introduced, she said, no stores were
open on Sunday and everyone honoured the day of rest. Times have
changed.
But Jim Moore, a bow hunter and farmer near Picton, agreed he would like
one day with no gunfire. Bow hunters have a longer shooting season and
can already hunt on Sundays.
"It's not the local hunters, it's the people coming from the city," he
said. "It's nice to live in a rural area and be able to get up one day a
week and say 'today, we don't have to tolerate it.'"
Farrant said the safety issue is based on perception, not reality.
"Some of the perceptions out there are blatantly wrong," he said.