The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.oakvillebeaver.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, July 29, 2010 · 6 The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5571 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate.The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Commentary NEIL OLIVER Vice-President and Group Publisher, Metroland West DAVID HARVEY Regional General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution SARAH MCSWEENEY Circ. Manager The Oakville Beaver is a division of Letter to the editor Pesticides can be safe way of controlling dangerous weeds As I read a recent headline in the Oakville Beaver, "Beware ­ noxious Hogweed is spreading", I couldn't help but wonder what was going through the minds of those who support bans on pesticide use in urban settings. There are organizations who advocate for bans on pesticides in the name of public health, but in fact these bans, which are based largely on fear and misinformation as opposed to scientific evidence, can jeopardize the health and safety of the communities these people claim they want to protect. It is ironic that the very products the McGuinty government banned for lawns and gardens are being used to solve this issue. Some will surely question the use of pesticides to control this weed since many organizations and our own provincial government have spent the past two years telling them how dangerous these products are. The current case of Giant Hogweed sweeping across Oakville is a prime example of how the benefits of pesticides are conveniently overlooked by ban supporters. Pesticides are safe, well-regulated tools used to protect green spaces from damaging insects and invasive weed infestations. Giant Hogweed is poisonous. Without access to safe, effective pesticides to combat this nasty weed, people, especially children, gardeners and campers, would be at risk of serious infection, perhaps even blindness. The situation, in my view, is simple: governments can continue to give Canadians access to pest management tools ­ tools that undergo stringent scientific review by Health Canada to ensure they are safe for use ­ or risk allowing poisonous plants to go untamed and threaten people's health and well-being, and damage both the environment and the economy. The plant science industry is committed to continuing to develop safe tools that contribute to healthier, happier, more prosperous communities. And as governments now turn to pesticides to control the Giant Hogweed infestation, they will have to start explaining to the public that these products are safe and effective tools for controlling this and other menacing weeds ­ something our industry has been saying from the very beginning. LORNE HEPWORTH, PRESIDENT, CROPLIFE CANADA -- REPRESENTING THE PLANT SCIENCE INDUSTRY WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com Suburban Newspapers of America Media Group Ltd. RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville ATHENA Award JAMES HOGGETT / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER CLEARING THE AIR: O'Finn's in downtown Oakville hosted a Music for Clean Air fundraiser last Friday night which featured the music of Craig Murray. All proceeds from the event went to support C4CA. Attending the event were (left to right) Craig Murray, Linda Hines, Frank Clegg, Kevin Yates (owner of O'Finn's) and Dawn Stafrace. Break-in ends with a clean getaway, but sadly, dirty windows The following is a good, clean story. A spotless yarn. A tale full of suspense, mystery, and the intoxicating smell of cleaning solutions. It was late Friday afternoon. I was rushing home from running errands. And I was late. I'd left myself less than an hour to do assorted chores before meeting my wife in town for dinner. Little did I know that when I entered my home, I'd be entering a crime scene. Or, perhaps more appropriately, I'd be entering the Twilight Zone. Twilight Zone? Well, it was certainly odd when I entered the house and was not goofily greeted as usual by our hound. Instead, I found him downstairs. Whenever we go out, we place a chair across the stairs so he can't venture into the basement, which he tends to use as a porta-potty. Strange: the hound had managed to move the chair and trap himself in the basement. Next, I went into our bedroom where I found the bathmats from our bathroom on the bedroom floor. And, in the bathroom, all lights were on. I was willing to believe that the hound had managed to move the bathmats and place them neatly in another room, but I was unable to even consider that he'd scaled a wall and turned on lights. My `spidey senses' were tingling. Someone, I thought, is in the house. Naturally, I ran outside. And phoned everyone I know who could possibly be (a) in my house (b) messing with me. Everyone claimed innocence with airtight alibis. I swallowed my fear, grabbed a Louisville Slugger from the garage, went back into the house, and went looking for an intruder; praying I Andy Juniper would not find one. All clear. By this time I was late for dinner so I decided to put the whole whodunit down to gremlins and go dine with my wife. While eating we mulled over the mystery, deciding that when we returned home we'd scour the house to ensure nothing was missing. Trouble was, in the subsequent scouring, we found, well, scouring. My wife began her inspection in our bathroom. She called me to see her findings: toilet paper folded at the ends, like they do in hotels; towels professionally folded. We continued to notice other oddities: the floor was washed. Shower stall cleaned. Mirrors polished. We hesitated calling the police, but thought that if a lunatic was going about breaking, entering and, ah, cleaning, they should be aware. Frankly, we felt violated. And kind of creeped out. An officer was soon at our door. While waiting we'd further inspected and found the mudroom bathroom had been rendered spotless. The hall bathroom, too. We told the officer our findings. And he called in forensics. Seriously. Forensics. CSI Moffat. Next thing we knew, our bathrooms were being dusted for prints. Seriously. Dusted. And then we all put our heads together and tried to stitch together the pieces of this bizarre puzzle. Our house had been entered. Nothing had been stolen. The invader(s) had made what could only be called a clean break. And our bathrooms were spotless. We may never know exactly what went down in our abode that afternoon (the lone witness ­ the hound ­ ain't talking), but we've formulated a theory: A cleaning crew came to our house by mistake. They began the job, discovered their error, and fled. Now, we don't know whether to make double-sure we always lock our doors, or leave `em open, and hope they do windows. Andy Juniper can be contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, or followed at www.twitter.com/thesportjesters.