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Wednesdsay June 6, 2001 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER A3 A uthor has personal connection with Walkerton water tragedy Brenda Lee Burke's grandfather's death was suspicious and her cousin almost died from E-coli B y A n g e la B la c k b u rn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF The words W alkerton and w ater -- bad w ater -- will likely be etched in many a mind for a long time to come. None more so than the people of W alkerton, Ontario. A year ago this month, Ontario was shocked by the new s o f the deadly E -coli outbreak that poisoned W alkerton's water, making thousands ill and killing at least seven. It was among the top news stories o f 2000, but while people here heard about it, people in W alkerton lived i t ... people like Brenda Lee Burke and her family and friends. Burke, 34, and now an Oakville resident, has put her writing and editing background to work, to publish the first book about the tragic affair, D on't Drink The Water: The Walkerton Tragedy. B urke's 90-year-old grandfather, W illi Weiss, died in W alkerton two months prior to the crisis, but his name made its way onto the coroner's list of investigated deaths. Burke's eight-year-old cousin, Elisha Reich, nearly died in hospital there due to E. coli infection. B urke's father, D ieter Weiss, was among the first to speak out against Ontario Prem ier Mike Harris, and her mother, Sheila Smith, struggled to keep her W alkerton fitness centre afloat as the town became a "ghost tow n." Don't Drink The Water retails for $23.95 (Cdn.) from Trafford Publishing -- in a print-on-dem and format. It's also available via the Internet. Burke launched her book just in time for the environ mental fair, G reenSTEP 2001, held in W alkerton last month. The fair celebrated the first year of healing after the deadly water debacle. Some proceeds from B urke's book sales will go to the Greening o f W alkerton Initiative and the W alkerton Community Foundation, both of which raise funds for W alkerton's long-term recovery. "The W alkerton water tragedy was the worst crisis of its kind in Canadian history. It resulted in death, illness, financial loss and paranoia," said Burke. The author said even at the recent fair she could see "stress" in the people o f the community. There are those who will drink the water now. But others don't even trust bottled water, while still others fear taking a bath, she said. "It was like a bomb was thrown on the community, basically," she observed. "It's going to affect the people for the rest of their lives." Trained in creative writing and journalism at York University and the University of Western Ontario, Burke has w orked in com m unity jo urnalism and is now em ployed at an Oakville publishing firm. D on't Drink The Water covers everything from the sickening reality of the disease, as witnessed in hospital emergency rooms, and the blame issue, to the road to recovery and the media circus that descended on the town. Mind you, Burke admits, "The flip side is that if not for the in-depth coverage, the people of Walkerton may not have got the answers they did, the donations or the help." Burke was on maternity leave with her young son, Roman, at the time o f the tragedy and said it was her m other who suggested she write the book. "I wanted to tell the story of the people o f W alkerton," said the author. Her goal was to tell the' story, bring out the emotion of what the people went through, and to raise questions about the causes and handling o f the events. "I wanted to bring a personal story to the public. Even though it was a tragic part of history, I wanted to docu ment it in an accurate, personal way," she said. Burke believes that because she was from the area, she gained the trust of W alkerton residents. Capitalizing on their tale o f sorrow w asn't on her agenda, she said. From the personal interviews and hours o f research, to weeding through mounds of inform ation and spending months at work w riting the book, Burke adm itted, "Nothing about it was easy." "It was a horrible thing that happened," said Burke. Photo by Riziero Vertolli Brenda Lee Burke: cousin nearly died in Walkerton E-coli outbreak. Your Tiger Express1Store O ffe rs y o u 2 L m o re ! 270 g . Coke o r Pepsi $149 $349 . tess tasj plus or pltra taxes t I & deposit wi where applicable plus taxes 2% M ilk H o s te s s C h ip s plus taxes 24 oz. Immigration hearing today for U.S. fugitive A 58-year-old man fleeing a hate crim e conviction in C alifornia, who was arrested in O akville last week, will appear before a Im m igration C anada detention review hearing today. Howard Keith Henson, has been in policy custody since his arrest at Oakville Place May 28. "He was ordered to continue detention on grounds that he would ·not appear for purposes under the Im m igration A ct," ex plained F ilm C itizenship & Im m igration Canada (CIC) spokesperson G iovanna Gatti. H enson had been living in O akville since May 12 after he skipped sentencing in a C alifornia court last month. He was arrested in the parking lot at O akville Place, in a jo in t effort by the Toronto Police Fugitive Squad and the H alton Regional Police TRU (Tactical Rescue Unit) team. Henson had been up for sentenc ing in a H em et, C alifornia court in N o r m a n d y early M ay on a crim e against the Church o f Scientology. Henson had been convicted under the C alifornia Penal Code o f "inter fering with a religion" for picketing outside the Church of Scientology's com pound in Hemet, California. Henson has had a long-standing dispute w ith the C hurch of S cientology as evidenced on his Internet site where a legal defence fund has been initiated. G la c ia l F re e z e Michaelina's Protection Car Wash E n tr e e s fo r th e p r ic e o f a r e g u la r car w ash Come on down for these Tiger Express specials from June 1 - 30, Y c c A l LC d 3 U J Dundas Esso, ^20 Dundas St. W. Hwy. #5 (Dundas & Neyagawa) Oakville, Ontario 905-257-8350 to n ig h t c o m m e m o r a te s To Commemorate D-Day, the inva sion of Normandy, on June 6, the Oakville Museum at Erchless Estate will present a special showing of the documentary "Unlucky Lady, the Life & Death of HMCS Athabaskan." The event is from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Introducing the film will be Oakville resident Ed Stewart, author of the book Unlucky Lady and a consul tant for the video. Stewart's brother Bill was among the 261 casualties as a result of the sinking of the Athabaskan in the Second World War. "Unlucky Lady, the Life & Death of HMCS Athabaskan " is a recent docu mentary by producer Wayne Abbott that was first broadcast on History Television in April. The film conveys the tragic story of how the HMCS Athabaskan set out with its sister ves sel HMCS Haida to protect a Royal Navy mine-laying force. It shows how this ill-fated mission led to the sinking of the HMCS Athabaskan resulting in 261 casualties. There will be time for discussion afterwards. Admission is free and light refreshments will be served. The showing of the documentary is in conjunction with the Oakville M useum's exhibit "Shadows of War ... Not So Long Ago in the 2 0 ^ Century. Oakville Museum at Erchless Estate is the restored home of Oakville's founding family, the Chisholm's. Open year-round, the museum is located on the picturesque Erchless Estate over looking Oakville Harbour and consists of several buildings. For more information call (905) 338-4400 or visit the museum web site at www.oakvillemuseum.com. 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