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6- The Oakville Beaver, Friday July 27, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 Circulation: 845-9742 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. NEIL OLIVER Publisher JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director TERI CASAS Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA CALHOUN Circ. Manager Gunning for answers As he left his vehicle one of the men pointed a handgun at him, threatened him and ordered him to turn over his deposits. ··· "At gunpoint they demanded money and some other items. We believe they took off with some money and some electronics." ··· ...Police said the robbery occurred at about 10:30 a.m. when two men wearing ski masks and pointing a handgun entered the store. ··· "The suspect produced a handgun from his waistband and struck the victim in the face twice..." ··· The proliferation of gun-related crime is no longer the exclusive problem of Halton's largest neigbouring community. While Toronto braces for what may be its bloodiest year on record for gun-related deaths, there are indicators that firearms are becoming the weapon of choice among more criminals in Halton. In July alone guns were used in a terrifying July 16 Oakville home invasion in which a sawed-off shotgun was brandished, a July 9 convenience store robbery in Georgetown that saw two clerks forced into a freezer at gunpoint, the July 22 armed robbery of an Oakville man making a night deposit, and three Burlington incidents within 48 hours last weekend (July 20-22), including one where a male victim was pistol whipped. Fortunately, with the exception of the one Burlington case, none of the incidents resulted in victim's being physically harmed. However, as the frequency of guns being used for criminal activity in Halton rises so too does the risk one of these police calls is going to end tragically. Is the apparent flood of gun crimes in recent weeks merely coincidence, or is Halton's growth and its proximity to Toronto, Hamilton and Peel making it a convenient alternative for criminals armed with guns? Are the same factors that are pushing Toronto toward an record high year of gun-related fatalities influencing a shortterm flood of gun crimes in our region? Halton police have yet to put forward a theory about this phenomenon. We only hope that the recent incidents represent an aberration and not a sign of things to come. The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Destruction of school's naturalization project dashes dream As a nutritional consultant and mother, I have always tried to teach both my kids and my clients the value of living `green'. Living green has been a theme even before it has become trendy in the last year or so. Live in awareness of our effect on our environment, and notice the effects it has on us -- mentally, physically and spiritually. Recently a shocking revelation jumped out at me from our local paper (The Oakville Beaver, July 21) about our local naturalization project at Sunningdale Public school. The picture with it caught my eye and sent me reeling -- the sight of a bobcat plowing down and demolishing the site of Dreamacres. Dreamacres was a 10year-old naturalization project which was meant to help our teachers demonstrate to students how to live, protect and learn about nature and our environment. This was meant to bring the classroom outside and create new, positive awareness in impressionable young minds. It was meant to give the students a quiet place to play, study, read and learn; a wonderful benefit to any learning facility. This site was progressive, approaching some of the concepts already in place for years in European learning facilities. Many dollars went into this project over the years, through fundraising, community and corporate grants. Many long hours of volunteering went into it as well, including those of my family and friends. It is understood that any garden project comes into maturity around 12 years. At that point, it becomes more self sustaining and all those hours of work come to fruition. So, just at the point when this project was turning the corner to maturity and sustainability, the Halton District School board deems this land necessary for portables! This project was something the teachers and students of this school, not to mention the volunteers and donors, were leaving as a lasting living legacy to their careers there. This was something good which they could go back to visit and show others --"I planted that tree, look at it now!" Well, look at six of those trees now. Moved (in a desperate attempt to save some part of this dream) in the hottest, and driest part of the summer to try to survive as some sort of testament to what was worked so hard on. Halton District School Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com See Public page 7 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.