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OPINION Katelynn Sampson never stood a chance. Details of the life of the seven-year-old Toronto girl, found murdered in an apartment last Sunday, have emerged this week and they are not pleasant. Bernice Sampson, a drug addict apparently unable to manage her addiction, turned over custody of her daughter to family friend Donna Irving the woman now charged with killing Katelynn. Unbelievably, it appears that Irving was able to gain full and final custody of Katelynn this past January without the involvement of any child and family ser- vices agency and without a background check on Irving who had a trio of criminal convictions. A simple application to family court was enough to shuffle this young girl from one unhealthy environment to anoth- er. Homicide Det. Sgt. Steve Ryan said it was probably the worst thing Ive seen in 20 years of policing when describing the little girls body. Police say the nature and severity of Katelynns injuries resulted in a longer than expected autopsy and that some of her injuries were not fresh. Through court records and other accounts it appears Katelynns life was a living hell. Her mother was a drug addict. Her father was a drug addict and out of the picture. She was sent to live with Irving who has had three criminal convictions since 1999 for assault with a weapon, possession of cocaine and communicating for the purpose of prosti- tution. Irvings live-in boyfriend Warren Johnson was also charged with second degree murder in the case on Wednesday. How could this happen in Ontario today? In some instances there are more checks and balances in place for people to adopt an animal than there were for Katelynn to be moved from one disaster-in-waiting to another. Already rumblings of a inquest have surfaced but it would have to wait for a resolution to the criminal case in this matter that will take years. There appears to be a legal loophole that needs plugging immediately by our provincial politicians. Before there is another Katelynn. Horror story Steve Nease LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dear editor, After reading recent articles, I felt compelled to share my thoughts and take the opportunity to raise awareness of the Halton Regional Police Youth Justice Program. Adolescence is a window of oppor- tunity for education, strength and skill building. Youth develop in a positive way when they feel connected to their communities, feel valued and are able to build genuine relationships. It is important when harm has been caused that youth are held accountable and responsible but also have an opportu- nity to understand and repair the harm that they have caused. The Halton Regional Police Service, in addition to processing alleged offenders through the court process, also looks for opportunities to divert youth who have offended, away from the court process. The Halton Regional Police Youth Justice Program is a pre- charge diversion program which is designed to work with youth who have committed an offence. It holds youth accountable and responsible for their actions while seeking to help repair the harm that has occurred. As adults, we need to be strong role models emulating the behaviour we expect from the youth. The first step is viewing the youth of our community as assets and resources rather than problems or hoodlums. Danielle Pomeroy, social worker Halton Regional Police Service Milton and Halton Hills Program designed to work with youths Letters to the editor must include an address and daytime telephone number. Unsigned letters will not be published. Letters should not exceed 200 words and may be edited for content and/or length. E-mail: jmcghie@independentfreepress.com Mail or drop off: Independent & Free Press, 280 Guelph St., Unit 29, Georgetown, ON., L7G 4B1 Publisher Ken Nugent Advertising director Steve Foreman (sforeman@independentfreepress.com) Retail advertising manager Cindi Campbell (ccampbell@independentfreepress.com) Managing editor John McGhie (jmcghie@independentfreepress.com) Distribution manager Nancy Geissler (distribution@independentfreepress.com) ADVERTISING Advertising co-ordinator Jennifer Christie (jchristie@independentfreepress.com) Retail Sales: Jennifer Spencer (jspencer@independentfreepress.com) Brendan Louth (blouth@independentfreepress.com) Amy Sykes (features@independentfreepress.com) Andrea Lefebvre (alefebvre@independentfreepress.com) Brendon Stevenson (bstevenson@independentfreepress.com) Real estate: Sue Spizziri (realestate@independentfreepress.com) Classifieds: Kristie Pells (classified@independentfreepress.com) ACCOUNTING Rose Marie Gauthier, Michelle McEachern EDITORIAL Cynthia Gamble: News editor (cgamble@independentfreepress.com) Ted Brown: Photography (tbrown@independentfreepress.com) Lisa Tallyn: Staff writer (ltallyn@independentfreepress.com) Eamonn Maher: Staff writer/sports (emaher@independentfreepress.com) PRODUCTION: Mary Lou Foreman, Kevin Powell, Shelli Harrison, Dolores Black, Debbie MacDougall STAFF DIRECTORY Send us a letter! Phone: 905-873-0301 Fax: 905-873-0398www.independentfreepress.com Something bugging you? What do you think? Below are the results of our most recent online poll. For the current poll go to www.independentfreepress.com How many medals will Canada win at the summer Olympic Games in Beijing? Less than five (45%) Between five and 10 (22%) Between 11 and 15 (22%) More than 15 (11%) The Independent & Free Press is published Wednesday and Friday and is one of several Metroland Media Group Ltd. community newspapers. Editorial and advertising content of The Independent & Free Press is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE INDEPENDENT & FREE PRESS Dear editor, Re: Town green plan. Whilst I am like most residents, in favour of all the good things that can be realized from such a plan, I am a lit- tle concerned that we should need to hire a co-ordinator and a full-time administration assistant to start with and probably more bodies down the road if past experience of such things is anything to go on. Why is it not part of all the manage- ment and workforce at the Town to operate their various areas of responsi- bility in the most appropriate green way as a normal function of their job as it is the citizens obligation to do their green best. A great many of us already do this without any prompting and have been doing so for a long time. So why cant the Town operate in this way without needing some department to tell them how and what to do? If the mayor and council mandate that way of doing things surely it is the managers and co-workers job to do it that way through possibly some educa- tion and changes in job description. The employees seem to do a good job and I am sure would not need any extra management to spell it out for them. There are many common sense practices like energy conservation, open windows more instead of air con- ditioning, drying clothes outside instead of in the dryer oh, I forgot, we cant always do this as we have this annual burn permit promotion which allows people to burn so the neighbours cannot open the windows or hang the washing out. The simple solution? Stop issuing the burn per- mits. Control the dandelions (which has now taken over from the trillium as our provincial flower) by cutting the parks and other areas while they are in flower instead of when they have seed- ed the whole area. It is really not that difficult to improve things with a little common sense. J. Sanders, Georgetown Town doesnt need a green department Dear editor, We would like to thank the local Halton Hills, Erin and surrounding communities for their most generous donations of dog food, cleaning mate- rials, bedding, etc. for our shelter. In particular, we would like to thank the very kind ladies at Curves (Georgetown), Sarah Pring at Zellers, Food Basics, Price Chopper, The Real Canadian Superstore and A&P, and all of the individual people who gave so much when we really needed it. Our shelter has been overloaded with dogs, due to a recent rescue of a large number of dogs from one proper- ty. Your donations have made their stay at the shelter much more enjoy- able and comfortable. Upper Credit Humane Society Dogs appreciate gifts 6 Acton/Georgetown, Friday, August 8, 2008