PROBUS Club of
Blue Mountain
PROBUS Club of
Blue Mountain
Michael began his comments with June being one of his favorite months with the club’s summer schedule of events that included biking, hiking and paddling trips, our annual golf tournament and the quarterly summer cocktail event, all occurring. He mentioned the community events that were happening in Collingwood that included the Theater Porchside Festival, the Jazz and Blues at the Station Park along with concerts at Simcoe Street Theater and the Marsh Street Center in Clarksburg.
He ended his comments speaking to the separation issue occurring in Alberta, with it’s Premier, Danielle Smith who is trying to seek a binding referendum later in the year and Canada’s economy, with the hope of the renewal of CUSMA, which is very important given the ongoing global trade pressures.
Dan Edwards introduced new member Doug Haslam to Probus. Welcome Doug!
This month’s “Tale of Interest” featured Dan Crabb and Roxanne Dinova.
Before introducing Roxanne, Dan began by telling us about his work with the new Georgian Bay Cancer Support Center in Collingwood, which began in 2024. Because of his work at the GBCSC, an awareness for the need of cancer support services in the Collingwood area was needed, due to its growing number of cancer victims. From this, the wellness part for these victims is now provided by the Georgian Bay Cancer Support Center.
Dan then introduced Roxanne, the new general manager for GBSCS, who talked about the wellness component that GBCSC provided for people with cancer, the caregivers, and its survivors, and its many support services.
She then stated that since January of 2024, Collingwood has supported a growing membership of 171 services, five bi-weekly support groups, weekly arts and expression classes, weekly fitness and well being classes, community events (cycle for hope, paint the town pink), wig fittings, and individual counselling sessions.
Roxanne then talked about funding and the three primary funding sources: donations (one time and monthly donors), events (annual events such as Cycle of Hope) and grants (funding we apply through various bodies) that are ongoing.
She informed us that the new “Home for Hope” can be found at 185 Hume St., Collingwood. Roxanne finished her talk by providing GBCSC’s goal for South Georgian Bay is that all services are open to all individuals at NO COST. The GBSCS continues to outreach to increase awareness and membership, expand programming based on community needs and develop strong local donor base.
Tom Jopling introduced guest speaker Norman Douglas, a former Crown Attorney who had a legendary 48-year legal career. In 1994, he was appointed to the criminal law bench, where he presided for 28 years in Brampton, Guelph and London until his retirement in 2021.
Today, Norm began by talking about the judicial system and how with its delays, plea bargains, and different types of paroles, has created a lot of questions concerning on how the judicial system is run and why it is seen as “the Land of Nice”. Before getting into some role playing where we will be the judge, Norm talked about a case that he presided over where a man was accused of an horrific, brutal rape of a 14 year old girl and got convicted to life with no chance for parole but over time was granted parole against the wishes of the victim’s family and court.
Would you have allowed parole for this man? To show how the law can be complicated and that everyone has a different view of the law, Norm presented three cases to the members:
1) was a sexual assault case that involved a Chinese exchange student who fondled his ex-girl friend in her sleep after a party and the next day goes to the police and turns himself in, the police tells the girl what happened and she lays charges even though she doesn’t remember it, he pleads guilty and gets a conditional discharge.
2) an 83 year old man, with no record, pleads guilty to writing hate graffiti in the downtown of a town and received 6 month jail sentence.
3) a woman was charged with DUI after her car was found in a ditch and she asleep behind the wheel, she didn’t get convicted but over time it was overturned and she received the minimum sentence.
In each case, one of our members was asked to be the judge and give their verdict from those provided by Norm. The members, in each case were then ask questions concerning the charge and give his verdict for what was allowed by law.
This month’s winners were Brian Usher Jones and John Wettlaufer
PROBUS Club of Blue Mountain
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