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Wheels/Insert Mercedes SUV owns the road Sports/11 Tigercats are all-stars CLARINGTON'S AWARD-WINNING NEWSPAPER SINCE 1854 Ik Canadian Statesman X . _ .. *^,*1 at durhamregioii.com Pressrun 24,150 Wednesday July 7,2004 • 38 Pages • Optional 3 Week Delivery $5/$l Newsstand No proof couple sought to harm boys, judge says '■Editor's noté: A court order \protects the identity of the victims victims in this case and their names and those of their family members members have been changed for this 'story. , BY CHRIS HALL ! Staff writer DURHAM -- As court officers officers handcuffed the two former Blackstock residents charged with caging and abusing their two adopted sons over a period of more than 13 years, the couple couple took one last look at their boys before heading off to serve a maximum of nine months in prison. Three years after Adam and his brother Dale, now 17 and 18 respectively, were removed from their Blackstock-area farmhouse by Durham Children's Children's Aid Society officials and Mr. and Mrs. Smith were arrested, arrested, Ontario Justice Donald Ha- likowski sentenced the pair to serve a maximum of nine months in jail, as well as three years probation. During Monday's sentencing hearing, Judge Halikowski noted the couple had "good intentions" intentions" for their adopted sons, but after years of abuse at the hands of the Smiths, he handed both similar sentences. In January, both Mr. Smith, 52, and his wife, 42, each pleaded pleaded guilty to three counts of forcible confinement, three counts of assault with a weapon and three counts of failing to provide the necessaries of life. As a. result,* the pair will serve concurrent nine-month sentences for the assault and confinement charges. They will also serve a concurrent concurrent one-month sentence for failing to provide the necessities of life for offering the boys no water while keeping them teth ered or caged and for having no smoke alarm in their room. Upon their release from a provincial prison, the couple will also be on probation for three years. Under that order, the couple cannot have any association association with Adam and Dale unless approved by the court; they are prohibited from associating associating with any youths under the age of 16 unless they attain parental or guardian permission; and they must undergo counselling. counselling. In her sentencing submission last month, assistant Crown attorney attorney Soula Olver asked the judge to consider a six- to eight- year sentence for Mrs. Smith and a three- to five-year term for her husband. The defense countered with a request of a 12- to 15-month conditional sentence for Mrs. Smith and a six-month conditional conditional sentence for Mr: Smith. As he read out his sentencing verdict, Judge Halikowski told the court he had no irrefutable evidence that the couple sought out to.harm thfc boys. "There is no proof... of a plan of maltreatment or malnutrition. (The boys) were not beaten or kicked," read Judge Halikowski from his report. "There is no sense that some of the treatment at the hands of these parents were acts.of cold and calculating calculating fashion... (Mrs. Smith) was directly concerned with the health and welfare of these boys (as evidenced in her numerous trips to see Port Perry physician Dr. Paul Puckrin and her constant constant contact with education officials)." officials)." He added the responsibility of taking care of the two boys, whom Mr. and Mrs. Smith adopted from her sister who passed away in the early 1990s, Celia Klemenz/The Canadian Statesman Wind chill Storm cuts power in Courtice See JUDGE page 5 As many as 4,400 hydro customers left in the dark, Veridian says BY SHELLEY JORDAN Staff writer CLARINGTON -- A wild thunderstorm lasting six minutes minutes was responsible for a large power outage in Courtice Sunday Sunday evening. While Environment Canada did not receive reports of damage damage from the area, meteorologist meteorologist Denis Paquette said the storm that whipped through the region was capable of bringing heavy rains and winds gusts of up to 100 km/h. Axel Starck, executive vice president for Veridian Connec tions Company said 4,400 customers customers lost power in the industrial industrial and residential area of Courtice when two substations that cover the north and south of the town were knocked out. Power was lost beginning at 6:07 p.m„ when a lightning strike caused a short circuit on Hydro One feeders located along Wilson'Road. The short circuit caused the switch to remain remain open. When crews at Veridian discovered discovered the source of the problem, problem, they opened another switch that allowed hydro to feed into the area from the South, bringing power to the bulk of the Courtice area by 8:08 p.m. Other local problems caused by. downed trees and lightning strikes can take longer to fix because repaired equipment must be capable of handling the 44,000 watts of power that travels travels along main power lines. Mr. Starck said there were 40 calls from the Ajax Pickering Pickering area of localized power outages outages when high winds caused branches to snap and tumble down onto power lines. The last customer without power in Pickering was brought online around 12:30 a.m., said Mr. Starck. "Near Bowmanville eight homes were without power at Port Darlington and had power by 7:30 a.m. Monday morning," morning," he said. "The transformers burned out and took some time to repair. repair. The storm also wrought havoc on the Bowmanville Fire Department, when a close lightning strike knocked out communications. "Phones, radio, air condi tioning and everything needs to be repaired," said divisional fire chief Gordon Weir. "We had to 1 reroute our phone system through the Os- hawa and 911 dispatch offices," he added. Divisional Chief Weir said they are waiting to have the computer cards replaced that control the system for incoming incoming calls, but their outgoing call system was working. "You may not realize right away you have damage when the power is knocked out because because things turn off," he said. Approximately 2,200 Hydro One customers were affected across the province, said Daflyd Roderick, a spokesman for Hydro One. "Storms like these are hard on the distribution system... (it) blew trees down and we had poles breaking." Fire lays waste to century-old barn Photo courtesy of Durham Regional Police Service This aerial photo taken from Durham's police helicopter helicopter shows the lire consuming an Enniskillen barn. BY SHELLEY JORDAN Staff writer ENNISKILLEN -- A barn fire at Dutchmaster (tree) Nursery had firefighters working working through the night to bring flames under control. Divisional Fire Chief Gordon Gordon Weir said dispatch was called at 8:58 p.m. July 2, and sent 20 firefighters with four tankers and three pumpers to tackle the blaze at 1695 Regional Regional Road 3 near Enniskillen. Enniskillen. "We were lucky because nobody was hurt," said Mike Tillaart, co-owner of the fami ly-run business. Tenants renting a house and a storage unit on the property had been repairing a vehicle earlier in the day and put it inside, inside, but later noticed smoke coming from the building and called the fire department, said Divisional Chief Weir. "A barn and a shed in close proximity went up," he said. Mr. Tillaart said that, because because of the dry timber and high winds, flames were incredibly incredibly hot and melted hydro wires that were 200 feet away. See EMPTY page 6 INDEX Editorial Page 4 Sports n Classified 7 GIVE US A CALL General 905-579-4400 Distribution 905-579-4407 General FAX 905-579-2238 Newsroom FAX 905-579-1809 durhamregkm.com E ■ScX- • SERVICE ONTARIO^» • PARTS DRIVE riiniw clean! MON., WED., FRI. 7:30 am - 6:00 pm TUES. & THURS. 7:30 am - 8 pm SAT. 9 am - 4 pm ACCREDITED TEST & REPAIR FACILITY WHITBY OSHAWA 300 THICKSON RD. 3. WHITBY I 666-1772 honda www.honda1.com 3te«iSK£Stie Mj/if.Ontlme. SFF DEALER FOR DETAILS,