Bill C-14 proposes reforms to Canada’s bail and sentencing laws, including changes to reverse-onus provisions, bail conditions, sentencing factors, and restrictions on house arrest, to increase public safety.
Elgin-St. Thomas-London South MP Andrew Lawton, who sits on the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, has put forth an amendment that will strengthen our criminal justice system by ensuring that criminals cannot vouch for people who have been criminally charged to be released on bail.
Lawton’s amendment was adopted this past week by the committee and bars anyone convicted of an indictable offence in the last 10 years from acting as a surety for another accused.
Tag Archives: Dave Gregory
Ryan Davies’ drowning in Lake Margaret is the impetus for a life jacket loaner program
What began as a pleasant morning of fishing on Lake Margaret this past Labour Day quickly turned tragic when a canoe holding three friends tipped over.
Two people were rescued, however, after a day-long search, the body of 26-year-old Ryan Davies was recovered.
The St. Thomas Fire Department’s water rescue unit was on the scene supplemented by the OPP underwater rescue unit.
Coast Guard officials arrived just before noon that day with sonar and submersible equipment to assist in what became a recovery operation.
St. Thomas Fire Chief Dave Gregory explained that the thick matted weeds under the surface of the water were making matters difficult.
Gregory advised at its deepest spot, Lake Margaret has a depth of about 20 feet.
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For the third time in as many years, St. Thomas is on the hunt for a city manager
Well, that was short-lived.
Heralded as “a pretty good standout” among over 70 applicants, Michael Bradley assumed the city manager post at city hall on May 15.
Exactly five months later, a media release from Mayor Joe Preston announced, “City to begin recruitment for new city manager.”
Bradley has accepted the position of CAO with the City of Brantford – his hometown – and will depart his office at city hall in mid-November.
Before accepting the post in St. Thomas, Bradley had been the Commissioner of Community Development with the City of Brantford.
He also served for 11 years with the County of Brant, including a stint as CAO from 2018 to 2023.
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St. Thomas designs action plan to pursue federal housing accelerator funding
As part of the city’s ambitious housing strategy, members of council on Monday (Aug. 14) will be asked to approve an application for funding under the CMHC Housing Accelerator Fund program.
This funding is available to municipalities across the country and is to create a greater supply of housing at an accelerated pace and enhance certainty in the approvals and building process, according to a report to council from Taylor Mooney, the city’s strategic initiatives manager.
Mooney notes such an application “has the potential to achieve sizable funds to support housing development in the City of St. Thomas. Base funding is estimated at $20,000/HAF incented unit, with opportunities for top-up funding and an affordable housing bonus.
To qualify for funding, the city has to prepare an action plan that identifies at least seven initiatives and the money provided is determined by estimating the number of permits issued for dwelling units resulting from the initiatives in the action plan before September 2026.
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VW considers the St. Thomas EV battery gigafactory ‘a high-security plant.’ However, Mayor Joe Preston says, ‘I don’t believe so.’
We learned this week that policing services at the Volkswagen EV battery plant scheduled to begin production in 2027 will be provided by an OPP tactical unit.
The decision was made at a meeting in Toronto attended by St. Thomas Mayor and police board vice-chairman Joe Preston, former St. Thomas Police Chief Chris Herridge and current Police Chief Marc Roskamp.
We can assume Preston was representing the city in his capacity as mayor as the police board was not formally invited to the meeting.
Why would they have been?
This policing directive was a foregone conclusion administered at the provincial level.
Although initially hesitant to confirm, Preston stressed the OPP policing request came from the German auto manufacturer.
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St. Thomas Fire Chief Dave Gregory says we’ve got this covered when asked about challenges with the new Volkswagen EV battery plant -‘It’s what we do day-to-day’
He calls it great for St. Thomas.
St. Thomas Fire Chief Dave Gregory likens it to winning the lottery.
Of course, we talked about the announcement earlier this month that Volkswagen is coming to town where it will construct what it refers to as a gigafactory for battery cell manufacturing.
We talked with Gregory earlier this week to get a sense of what that will mean for the fire department in the way of needed resources and planning for when the plant opens in 2027.
“As far as resources and stuff go, I’m unsure at this time because I haven’t seen a footprint or layout of any sort.
“But, it’s what we do,” stressed Gregory. “We have Magna, we have Presstran.
“All the equipment we have, the manpower and the training we do, we’re prepared for anything they will bring to us.”
Gregory doesn’t feel they would need to construct a substation in the new industrial area.
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‘The people pay their taxes, they expect some kind of service for their money and I hope we can deliver up to their expectations’ – St. Thomas Deputy Fire Chief Kyle Smith
For the past four years, the St. Thomas Fire Department has faced the equivalent of an internal multi-alarm blaze.
And, it is to be hoped with the announcement this week of Kyle Smith’s promotion to deputy fire chief that the final embers of controversy have been suppressed.
You have to delve back to August of 2017 and the death of popular fire chief Rob Broadbent to discover the source of the flames of discontent.
The decision was made somewhere in the corridors of city hall to look elsewhere for a replacement for the outgoing, community-minded Broadbent.
This is despite a strong candidate in Deputy Fire Chief Ray Ormerod who, according to some sources, was not even granted an interview.
We’ll wend our way back to Ormerod shortly.
So the search for a new chief ended in Chatham-Kent where the deputy chief in that municipality, Bob Davidson was deemed the ideal replacement.
Davidson arrived in St. Thomas in January of 2018 only to abruptly tender his resignation in July 2021.
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In announcing his re-election bid, Steve Peters observes, that you can ‘move an agenda along quicker at the municipal level’
Hot on the heels of Joe Preston’s announcement he is seeking a second term as St. Thomas mayor, Steve Peters has made it known he too will pursue re-election.We caught up with Peters at the end of the week and he stressed, “There is a lot of work to be done on a lot of issues and, honestly, that’s why I chose to seek re-election.”
His political career was launched at the municipal level before Peters moved on to represent Elgin-Middlesex-London at Queen’s Park.
“When I reflect on all my years in politics and my service on different fronts for me, I’ve always been a huge fan of municipal politics, where you can say it is black, I say it is white and collectively we find the gray and get on with it.
“You can make things happen and move an agenda along quicker at the municipal level.”
Sitting in the council chamber, Peters looks to provincial politicians now and is convinced there is an ongoing role shift that is leading to an imbalance for municipalities.
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Is the revolving door in the chief’s office at St. Thomas Fire Department a case of the tail wagging the dog?
The question begs an answer.
What exactly is going on with the city’s fire department?
We are now working on the third St. Thomas fire chief in under a year, what gives?
First, it was Bob Davidson, who came on board in January of 2018, after serving as deputy fire chief in Chatham-Kent.
Well, he served until July of last year when it was announced he abruptly retired.
Or did he?
Was he pressured into leaving?
Remember, the St. Thomas Professional Firefighters’ Association was more than a little upset when Davidson was brought aboard after the death of popular fire chief Rob Broadbent in August of 2017.
The decision was made at city hall to hire a chief externally, rather than from within the department with then Deputy Fire Chief Ray Ormerod considered a strong candidate.
Word has it Ormerod was not even granted an interview.
