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• SINCE 1854 • AMALGAMATED 1999 WITH CLARINGTON THIS WEEK • Pressrun 21,400 18 Pages Wednesday, July 19, 2000 Optional 4 week delivery $5/$l newsstand Kids benefit rom concerts Entertainment, page 13 Courtice boy gets a helping paw Friends and Neighbours, page 7 Vksv?;: • .'SS66BSS'Xfruwts xsajmtwixmawixmi ErmnïïïïTT 2 Medium Plum l f fwliloppingi 10 Chicken Winy* 11 Chwu.it DimiI iî UBliK Cokes 3 Dlftpbfl fiiiucee jRiaiacjiRr-am; Can you drink and be merry? Water list doesn't tell the whole story: Region official A young offender identified only as 'Resik', convicted of 15 counts of mischief for graffiti, looks over a nuirai he STEPHEN SHAW/ Statesman photo worked on at the Pickering Skateboard Park. This mural, however, is permitted by the City. 'Taggers' out for a good graffiti time BY STEPHEN SHAW Staff Writer Police call il property destruction; destruction; hard-core tagger 'Resik' likes to think of it as landscape beautification. Artwork or eyesore, regardless regardless of your view, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, in this case the property owner. "Graffiti is not to destroy. We're just bringing some colour to every day life, adding a layer of colour to the surface. Some guys do it for the destruction, but the real 'writers' do it as an expression," maintains Resik (not his real name), a 16-year- old local high school student, "It's about our culture. It's deeper than what people think. It's not just about grabbing a can of paint and putting a name on a wall... There's a history of graffiti." Resik, which was the signature signature or "lag" he used to identify his street drawings, was among several Durham youths charged in the spring in connection with a six-month, spray-painting spree in the region's west end. The leading member of the "Can Rockers Crew" admitted to his colourful crime wave and pleaded guilty July 11 in Os- lrawa youth court to 15 counts of mischief to property under $5,000. He will be sentenced next month. "It's like an addiction. 1 was on a high for a while. I just couldn't stop," Resik says of his recent graffiti binge. "It's just a feeling you get, like an obsession. You get a visual visual in your head and then paint it on this huge wall," says Resik, who boasts drawing the "fourth largest illegal painting in all of Canada," a 98-foot mural under a bridge. The arrests, which also included included members of the Red Eye Bandits, the tag for another group of youths, were part of an investigation by the street crime unit in response to what police Sec PLAZAS page 2 Inside li)t Statesman WHERE TO FIND IT Editorial Page ; .6 Classified .9 Entertainment -- .13 Sports .15 GIVE US A CALL General 623-3303 Distribution .. .579-4407 Death Notices .683-3005 Sincerely Yours 1-800-662-8423 Web site durhamnews.net statesmn@durham.net General FAX .. .623-6161 ONTARIO'S DRIVE CLEAN ACCREDITED TEST & REPAIR FACILITY '"An «ifllciul murk of the Vrovincu of Ontario used under licence. WHITBY - OSHAWA 1 -MO DUNDAS. ST. E., WHITBY LOCAL (905) TOR, LINK (905) 666-1772 686-1745 XC32G www.honda1.com J'i BY JACQUIE McINNES Staff Writer CLARINGTON - Residents Residents tapped into municipal water in Courtice can keep on drinking while their neighbours neighbours on well systems should keep on testing to ensure then- supply is safe. Reassurances came straight from the top at the Region's works department about the safety of Durham's municipal water systems yesterday, following following a leaked Ministry of the Environment "Adverse Water Incidents Report" in a Toronto daily paper. The report contained the names of dozens of Ontario communities believed to be experiencing water quality difficulties within the province. Thé list included Courtice, Uxbridge and Brock. • ' ■ But, Ken Thompson, director director of environmental services for the Region of Durham, says all the Durham incidents were isolated cases and the water in question proved to be safe upon further testing, "The municipal water supply supply in Durham Region is well maintained," Mr. Thompson says. "Testing is carried out continuously with water testing testing done on a daily basis. The water is safe to drink. There is no reason for concern." The list released was incomplete, incomplete, notes Durham MPP John O'Toole, who says the report it came from was a "working document" used by the ministry in conjunction with local works departments and medical officers of health. "I'm disappointed when documents get reported when they are only partial," he says. "The report wasn't conclusive. Other information was missing." missing." Some of that information includes the results of followup followup investigation by local works departments, he says. "In some cases re-testing is done with different results. If you read the original report you think there's an emergency," emergency," but the next report shows everything is fine, he explains. That was definitely the case in Durham, says Mr. Thompson. Thompson. Courtice's place on the list was based on one test conducted conducted at one commercial fa- See WATER page 5 CELIA BRONKHORST/Statesman photo A family who picks together CLARINGTON - Members of the Creasy family were help- Ted Watson Farms recently. Enjoying the fruits of their ing themselves to the sweet harvest of raspbeny season at labour are, from left, Logan, 7, Albert, 11 and Jennifer, 9. Appeal denied in child-scalding case Conviction of William Brown stands BY STEPHEN SHAW Staff Writer The Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld a Hampton man's conviction for criminal negligence negligence in the horrific scalding of an Oshawa toddler more than 16 years ago. , A jury last year found William John Brown, 56, guilty of criminal criminal negligence causing bodily harm in the 1984 incident which left 23-month-old Lindsay Hry- horuk with third-degree bums to 60 per cent of her body. An Oshawa labourer, Mr. Brown was handed an 18-month jail sentence, which he has al ready served. In a recently released decision, decision, a three-justice panel rejected rejected Mr. Brown's grounds for appeal, appeal, which included that jurors were wrongly instructed by tire trial judge. Court was told Mr. Brown was babysitting the daughter of his then-girlfriend, Judy Partly, when he decided Lindsay needed a bath. After undressing the toddler toddler and filling the tub with hot water only, he went to answer a telephone call, leaving the child unattended. "While on the phone he heard her jump, fall or otherwise get into tire tub," the judges said. , Lindsay suffered severe, life- threatening bums and remained in hospital for five months, which was followed by nine months at a cenüe for disabled children and numerous skin graft operations in the years to follow. Now 18, the Oshawa teenager remains permanently scarred, physically and emotionally. The definition of criminal negligence is an act or omission of an act which shows "wanton or reckless disregard" to the life or safety of another person. "In this case there was evidence evidence of the appellant's awareness awareness of the risk to the child. He knew the water was extra hot. He turned off the tap and he told her to sit on the floor. In addition there was evidence... the appellant appellant was aware of (Lindsay) having having jumped into tire tub on an earlier earlier occasion," the appeal court concluded. Police and the Children's Aid Society at the time investigated the incident as suspected child abuse, but decided against charges because of a lack of evidence. evidence. In January 1995, when Mr. Brown was arrested for violently shaking 14-nronth-okl Tommy Tanner, the son of another girlfriend, girlfriend, police re-opened Lindsay's Lindsay's case and charged Mr. Brown. (Mr. Brown was also convicted of aggravated assault in tire shaking of Tommy, but his conviction was overturned by tire court of appeal, which ordered a new trial. The Crown has stayed the charge.) In dismissing Mr. Brown's appeal, appeal, the court expressed "some misgivings" about the lengthy period between tire incident and the laying of the negligence charge. "Despite a full investigation investigation at tire time this event occurred, occurred, the matter was not prosecuted prosecuted for some 13 year's... Only the fact that it was fairly tried by a jury reduces, but does not completely completely abate, those misgivings."