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Vol. 132 Number 03 PORT PERRY, ONTARIO - TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1997 COPY 65¢ (61¢+ 4¢ GST) 32 Pages Scugog opts for slow start Neighboring town councils in full swing By Chris Hall Port Perry Star While the new Scugog councillors aren't holding regular meetings throughout the month of December like their municipal neighbors, local politicians are hard at work, says Mayor Moffatt. The council, sworn in at a ceremonial meeting Dec. 1, is not scheduled to meet again until Jan. 12. But the mayor said councillors are keeping busy over the next month. 3 And, he added, there's nothing urgent to attend to right now. "There are no big pressing issues left for us to take care of right now, and we don't feel that there is a lot of business to do to move up," said Mayor Moffatt, adding coun- cillors are working on new ways of doing business in the next term. "We are going to have a different com- mittee structure and we have some work to do on that," he said Saturday. All members of council met last week. Mayor Moffatt said that part of the rea- son for the council's slow start is due to the number of new councillors elected in the Nov. 10 municipal vote. "Other councils have had little change A CHRISTMAS WISH: L tric our Store re for business Sunday morning for its nfo Annual Kids Day. Plenty of area youth swarmed into:the Queen St. store to take advantage of its kids only policy where TRG 'and dad. Spending some time in the store was employees were on hand to help select the perfect gift for ant sedi ~* CHRIS HALL PORT PERRY. STAR 'seven-year-old Kim Pringle of Port Perry, who, along .. with her brother Duncan, was in search of the perfect gift for her parents. And remember, there are only 18 days left Hin Christmas. Decision on dangerous offender designation pending Please turn to Page 18 Play it safe this EL holiday season By John B. McClelland Port Perry Star Judge Harry LaForme will decide next Monday (Dec. 15) whether to allow an application to have Mitchiel "Micky" McArthur declared a dangerous offender to continue . Four days of testimony into the dangerous offender applica- tion concluded last Friday in front of Judge LaForme in a Whitby courtroom. If the judge rules that the application can continue, the next stage will be a psychiatric assessment on the 45-year-old ne jo : ig ¥ zon' tha fivns McArthur, who was found guilty in April this year of 17 charges the igtmas ple n is the tim orci 2) | stemming from the October, 1994 bank robbery and shootings at Year when people should exe ise an. the Port Perry Plaza in which five people suffered serious wounds from a hand gun and high powered semi-automatic rifle. Once that assessment has been done, a report is turned over to the Attorney General's office where a decision will be made on whether the final stage of the dangerous offender application "We want to make gure that everyone knows to water their trees regularly if they have real ones because 'they Please turn to Page 20 i" Ter PRICE dt 9,699 McArthur's fate known Monday can be argued in front of Judge LaForme. Only about 100 criminals in Canada have been declared dan- gerous offenders, a designation which sees them given an inde- terminate sentence which comes up for a review every three years. McArthur's record includes a string of violent crimes going back to 1977, when he shot a Toronto police officer in the leg dur- ing a jewelry store robbery. He attempted to shoot the same officer in the chest, but his hand gun misfired. Six years later he was convicted of a bank robbery in Hepworth, Ontario in which several shots were fired at a truck attempting to block the path of McArthur's getaway car. In 1984 he was convicted in three robberies in western Canada in which guns were brandished, but no shots fired. And on Oct. 20, 1994, McArthur and an accomplice got away with $50,000 from the Port Perry branch of the Bank of Montreal. The bank manager was deliberately shot at close range just Please turn to Page 13 "Ona Doalor Fo lg See ear Fo walans