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Pa ge 6 T hu rs da y, F eb ru ar y 19 , 2 01 5 - T he IF P - H al to n H ill s - w w w .th ei fp .c a The Independent & Free Press is published Thursday 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 is a member of the Ontario Press Coun- cil, which is an independent ethical organization established to deal with editorial concerns. For additional information or to file a complaint, contact info@ ontpress.com or call 416-340-1981. The Independent & Free Press Courting disaster Letters to the editor Saturday is Valentine's Day. Do you have plans? • No, it's just another day (68%) • Yes, time with my special Valentine (32%) WEB POLL RESULTS (Go to www.theifp.ca) 905-873-0301 Publisher: Dana Robbins General manager: Steve Foreman (sforeman@theifp.ca) Retail advertising manager: Cindi Campbell (ccampbell@theifp.ca) Managing editor: Chris Vernon (cvernon@metroland.com) Distribution manager: Nancy Geissler (ngeissler@theifp.ca) Classifieds/Real Estate Kristie Pells (realestate@theifp.ca) Classified Call Centre 1-855-415-8237 classified@theifp.ca Accounting 1-866-773-6575 Editorial Cynthia Gamble: News editor (cgamble@theifp.ca) Lisa Tallyn: Staff writer (ltallyn@theifp.ca) Eamonn Maher: Staff writer/sports (emaher@theifp.ca) Get the latest headlines delivered to your inbox by signing up for our twice weekly electronic newsletter. Go to www.theifp.ca and click on 'Newsletter sign-up' at the bottom of the homepage. Obese cat has nine lives Letters must include the author's name, ad- dress and daytime phone number. Anonymous letters will not be published. Letters should not exceed 150 words and may be edited for content and/ or length. Publi- cation is not guaranteed. Email: cvernon@metroland.com Mail or drop off: Independent & Free Press, 280 Guelph St., Unit 77, Georgetown, ON., L7G 4B1. Letters policy Advocates for victims of violence are shedding light on a scenario so bizarre that it's amazing it could be happening here. According to the Domestic Violence Death Re- view Committee, over the past 10 years, the criminal and the family courts in this province have refused to share information. This has led judges to impose contradictory court orders. Terrible tragedies have resulted. In 2006, Andrew Osidacz, the abusive ex-husband of Julie Craven, was ordered by the criminal court to stay away from her and their son, Jared, 8. The family court, however, granted Osidacz un- supervised weekend access to the child a mere three weeks after he assaulted Craven. He stabbed Jared to death and then went to Cra- ven's house and attempted to kill her before police shot him. In 2004, a two-year-old girl was murdered by her father, who was on probation for assaulting her moth- er and had a restraining order against him. Years after these incidents, there is still no formal mechanism to allow the courts to share vital informa- tion, the committee reports. Abused women who receive contradictory court orders often live a nightmare, said Pamela Cross, le- gal director of Luke's Place, a support and resources centre. "Having their lives chopped up and siloed by these two systems is frustrating and they don't understand why the two courts can't talk to each other, or which order trumps the other," she told the Toronto Star. "It's just nonsensical." Queen's Park has been long aware of this funda- mental dysfunction, but seems incapable of address- ing it in a meaningful way. And that is nothing short of absurd. How many more children and women will be put in harm's way before this is fixed? Victims of domestic violence need support and protection, not bureaucratic procrastination. Nimo, our lovable and slightly over- weight house cat, slipped through the door Dec. 19 into the bitter cold of winter. Our prayers were answered Jan. 26 after 38 days and we would like to recognize and thank those we owe Nimo's life and recovery to: • Jennifer, within our South George- town neighbourhood who found him starved and frozen -- you persisted until finding a service who would take him; • Barb Johnson, volunteer for North Halton Kitten Rescue who came to his aid -- without your knowledge and kindness I'm certain he would not be here today; • Georgetown Animal Clinic doc- tors and staff -- you are the best; • And, our dear family friend Chris- tine of Wags To Wiskers grooming -- you dedicated yourself to his care during his first week home. Veronica Lester Vaccines raise questions OPINION Sorry but I think there is a ques- tion as to whether or not all child- hood vaccines are safe or were safe. A friend of mine with twin autistic daughters places the blame 100 per cent on a vaccine. I cannot argue with him. Given our history of environmen- tal miscues, whether thalidomide, DDT, Carbon Dioxide, Environmen- tal Estrogens, and on and on, it is dif- ficult for any educated person to take the government's word on anything to do with health. It is simply not good enough for one to ask well then "what causes au- tism?" and hear "We don't know". What causes all these new peanut allergies? "We don't know". In the absence of governments doing their job of identifying the en- vironmental causes exactly, then a parent's judgement is as good as any- thing else. I myself, being a student of his- tory and therefore having a mistrust of the health system -- and after hav- ing relatively low birthweight chil- dren, waited until the last possible moment to vaccinate, in order that my kids mature as much as possible before subjecting their tiny bodies to these chemicals (especially those containing mercury). In this day and age with our abil- ity to collect and process data around the world, we ought to be able to do much better than "we don't know". That just isn't good enough. Adrian Visentin