In honour of Donna, we welcome all those who knew and loved her to join us on Saturday, July 5, 2025 from 1-4 PM at the Woolwich Memorial Community Centre, 24 Snyder Avenue, Elmira, ON. Please bring your wonderful memories and stories to share, along with wearing your favourite bright colours which Donna loved.

Light refreshments will be served, and we look forward to seeing everyone.

www.dreisingerfuneralhome.com

At age 6 days, passed away June 12, 2025 at Sick Kids Hospital, Toronto. Son of Reuben and Amanda Martin of Maxwell. Dear brother of 6, all at home.

Arrangements entrusted to Fawcett Funeral Cremation Reception, Flesherton.

www.fawcettfuneralhome.ca

BELWOOD – Township staff will press on with more specific costing of renovations to Belwood Hall after council approved the request at its June 16 meeting.

Kasey Beirnes, manager of buildings and property for the township, updated council on proceedings and findings to date, with support from officials at ATA Architects Inc.

Belwood Hall was originally constructed in the 1870s. It is used by the community for events, public meetings and private functions and is badly in need of repair.

It is not accessible, requires mechanical and septic updates and foundation repairs at minimum.

The building was divided into five zones for the study – entrances, the main hall, kitchen/servery, stage area and washrooms, along with a review of the structure, septic and mechanical systems. 

Each zone could be restored individually, although staff and the architect see savings and efficiencies in doing the project all at once.

To make the washrooms compliant with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), officials propose raising the floor, thus eliminating stairs, constructing a new entrance directly from outside rather than having to go through the main hall, and installing a janitor’s closet and three new washrooms – male, female and universal.

Preliminary costing pegs this renovation at $226,500.

This renovation would adjust the doorway, redo the millwork and install new appliances. The servery opening to the main hall would remain. Cost for this renovation is $102,560.

The main change here would be to add a ramp and stairs and rework the main entry door to be AODA compliant.

More investigation into the septic bed just outside the entrance might impact what can happen here.

The cost is estimated at $218,400.

The plan for the main hall is to upgrade the windows and add larger windows on the lake side of the structure.

A new storage room would be added, as well as new floors and ceiling.

The cost is estimated at $391,980.

The renovation proposes bringing the stage down to floor level, adding a new HVAC room and more storage space, at a cost of $107,760.

Council also heard the entire building needs new heating, air handlers and air conditioning. This could be done by zone, but the preferred method is to do it all at once.

Total construction cost is pegged at $1.592 million. With expenses already paid the renovation comes to $1.85 million.

Of that, $960,000 is not in the budget.

Councillor Lisa MacDonald expressed a bit of “sticker shock” at the price tag, but said she supports the project.

The rest of council agreed and approved the request.

Beirnes said the next step is to conduct a “Class B costing,” which will deliver more accurate pricing, and to prepare construction-ready documents, which would allow the township to apply for grants.

Beirnes said staff could also look at naming rights and other sponsorship opportunities to fill the budget gap.

The matter will return to council in September.

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GUELPH – Parents and guardians can share concerns they have about human rights at the Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) during a series of parent/community engagement sessions. 

The first sessions took place at Centre Wellington and Centre Dufferin District high schools on June 16 and 17. Three more are set for 7pm on: 

• June 19 at Norwell District High School in Palmerston;
• June 20 at John F. Ross Collegiate Vocational Institute in Guelph; and
• June 23 at Erin District High School. 

Parents can attend whichever session is most convenient for them. 

According to the UGDSB website, the goal of the sessions is to hear “directly from parents and guardians about their human rights-related concerns and experiences.”

The sessions are part of a third-party human rights review currently underway at the board, led by Patrick Case and Julie Lassonde. 

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According to board officials, the review “will identify systemic barriers with the goal of promoting human rights-centred actions.”

The reviewers did not respond to the Advertiser’s questions about the sessions in time for publication. 

UGDSB communications lead Heather Loney said information about the sessions was given to parents and guardians in a variety of forms, including on the board website, school websites, through the UGDSB mobile app UG connect, and through school administrators who were asked to forward information along to families. 

However, many parents reported not knowing about the sessions until after the first one had passed.

Loney initially said the board sent out an email to all parents and guardians. 

When Advertiser staff informed her many parents reported not receiving that email, she said she was mistaken and no such email had yet been sent.

“We regret the error,” Loney said.

A board-wide email about the sessions was sent five minutes after the conversation between the Advertiser and the board. 

Ana Maria Rajcan, a parent who went to the CWDHS session, said there were five parents in attendance.

She said Case led the session, introducing himself and guiding the discussion by asking parents three questions:

• What would you say human rights in education do and do not include?;
• What is the UGDSB doing right when it comes to promoting/advancing human rights?; and
• What would you do to further enhance human rights in our schools? 

From Rajcan’s perspective, Case seems to understand the challenges faced and paths to improvement.

He was also “really good at listening to parents’ concerns,” she said. 

She said parents’ general consensus at the meeting was that “the board is doing a good job in terms of formal acknowledgment of different groups that might be marginalized,” but that teachers need more training, resources and funding, and parents and students are unclear on paths available to address issues. 

“Parents feel like they have to make themselves a problem in order to be heard rather than there being some kind of system that can help you navigate having this issue,” she said. 

“It’s an organizational issue, not a teacher issue,” Rajcan added, and parents in the meeting seemed to agree teachers have a lot to deal with. 

Parents’ concerns ranged from accessibility accommodations to trans children struggling in elementary schools, Rajcan said

Racism was not a big focus of the meeting, she said, “though I think the meeting was spurred on by the Black Parents Council.” 

Each session is likely to have different themes, based on which issues are raised by the parents in attendance. 

Rajcan said there were some concerns at the CWDHS meeting that Wellington and Dufferin schools are often left out of the equation, with more focus and resources directed at Guelph schools.  

For more information about the review, click here.

To submit written comments, click here by June 30. 

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Warning: This article contains details of sexual assault. Anyone who is at risk of sexual violence or has experienced sexual violence can call the Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis 24-hour helpline at 1-800-265-7233.

GUELPH – The owner of a Fergus pub has been found guilty of sexual assault. 

Robert O’Brien was charged with four counts of sexual assault in June 2023 and found guilty of two counts this week.

He was found not guilty of one count and another was dropped before the judgment. Sentencing is set for September.  

O’Brien owns the Goofie Newfie Pub, and an employee alleged he sexually assaulted her on four occasions between 2021 and 2023. 

The complainant’s identity is protected under a publication ban. 

She was in attendance during the ruling on June 16, supported by about two dozen people, many wearing teal ribbons to represent sexual violence.

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Among the attendees was Haley Baumber and her family.

O’Brien was charged with sexually assaulting Baumber in 2016. A year later he pleaded guilty to lesser charges of assault. 

Justice Nicole Redgate, the judge presiding over O’Brien’s recent matter, said she assessed the credibility and reliability of evidence presented during the trial.

Taking place over six days between Oct. 16 and March 13, the trial involved three witnesses, including the complainant but not O’Brien.

Redgate said the complainant described O’Brien sexually assaulting her on a bus ride from Toronto to Fergus after a Goofie Newfie staff holiday party in January 2023.  

The complainant testified that, without consent, O’Brien wrapped his arm around her, slid his hand under her pants to touch her “bum” and under her bra to grab and pinch her breasts.

She said his hand moved towards her groin, but he stopped when someone at the other end of the bus called out to him, asking him to fetch a drink.

The complainant’s “account of what O’Brien did to her on the bus was reliable,” the judge said, and her memory is credible. 

The complainant testified she responded to the assault by freezing up and hoping it would be over soon. 

Redgate said it is not fair to expect victims to respond certain ways while experiencing violence, noting “myths and stereotypes” around rape and rape victims “have no place in criminal court.”

The defence didn’t present a witness, Redgate noted, which is not required and did not impact her conclusion.

The Crown presented a witness whose testimony both contradicted and corroborated the complainant’s account at different times.

The defence argued the allegation lacked the necessary details to meet the burden of proof and had “discrepancies that cannot be reconciled.”

The complainant’s memory was unreliable, the defence alleged, and she had financial motivation to lie about O’Brien due to a related civil suit.

Redgate said the complainant was “cross examined thoroughly” regarding motive and testified she was not motivated to lie for financial gain, but to tell the truth to stop O’Brien from doing it again. 

“The fact that she has filed a civil suit seeking damages for Mr. O’Brien’s behaviour does not detract (from the evidence),” Redmond said. 

While Redgate acknowledged discrepancies between the two accounts, she said they were “not incompatible” and did not reduce the complainant’s reliability or credibility.

Victims cannot be expected to remember specifics of insignificant events following traumatic incidents, she noted, and the complainant admitted struggling to recall certain details because she was distracted by her disbelief about what O’Brien did.

And though the complainant did admit to consuming alcohol throughout the day, she had no lapses in memory and her reliability was not compromised, Redgate said. 

During the trial, the defence attorney presented a photo which showed her seated at a table with a group, including O’Brien, whereas she had testified she was at a different table, waiting for a ride home. 

The photo also shows her smiling and laughing, while she claimed to be upset. 

The complainant acknowledged she was mistaken about not sitting at the same table as O’Brien, but attested the photo did not reflect her true feelings – “just what she was displaying to the world at that moment,” Redgate said.

And the judge said the inaccuracy about sitting at O’Brien’s table was not dishonesty or an attempt to mislead the court. 

Regarding the incident on the bus ride, Redmond expressed satisfaction the complainant was truthful in her account of O’Brien’s unwanted touching.

The judge said it was sexual and happened without consent, therefore O’Brien was guilty of sexual assault.

O’Brien was also found guilty of a sexual assault that took place at the Goofie Newfie in August or September of 2022. 

The complainant said O’Brien came up behind her when she was standing at the bar, put his hand on her lower back, and slowly moved it down until his hand was on her buttocks. 

“He did not say anything before or as he touched her,” Redgate recounted from the testimony.

“It made her feel uncomfortable – she did not want him to touch her … and had done nothing to suggest that she … wanted him to touch her.

“After he touched her, [she] turned around and gave him a reaction, as she was surprised that he had done that,” Redgate continued. “She testified that he apologized.” 

The defence described the testimony as a vague allegation lacking sufficient detail, Redgate said. 

The complainant could not recall some specifics such as who was in the pub and whether anyone could have seen the assault – details Redgate called “peripheral matters that do not go to the core of the allegation.” 

Details of how and where the touching happened were not contradicted by other evidence or undermined by cross examination, the judge noted. 

She said the complainant was “unshaken in evidence that Mr. O’Brien apologized after the touch, which supports the evidence that the touch happened and that Mr. O’Brien knew he made contact.” 

However, Redgate said “given the limited nature of the apology,” it does not shed light on whether the touch was intentional or accidental. 

The judge added there was nothing to suggest the touch was caused by being jostled together in a crowded space, as it happened before the dinner rush.

And it wasn’t fleeting or a brush of the hand, as it progressively moved downward from her back. 

The judge concluded the touch did happen and was intentional, nonconsensual and sexual in nature. 

Redgate found O’Brien not guilty of a third count of sexual assault in an incident on the boardwalk outside the Goofie Newfie on Oct. 31, 2021. 

The complainant was working that evening and O’Brien was socializing at the pub. 

She told the court she offered to drive O’Brien, his wife and their friends home as she was sober and they weren’t.

On their way to the parking lot, she said O’Brien bumped into her, propelling her forward, and his “hand grazed her bum,” Redgate recounted. 

It was not a slap and his hand didn’t linger for more than two seconds, she noted. 

The complainant testified O’Brien commented to his friend: “something like ‘I’m not supposed to be touching waitresses,’” Redgate said. 

“She was surprised but decided he was intoxicated and maybe lost his balance.” 

Redgate said the complainant testified she then drove O’Brien, his wife, and three of their friends home in a truck before returning to the Goofie Newfie to finish her shift. 

O’Brien’s friend Jonathan Karn testified O’Brien was not in the truck – it was Karn, his wife and two other friends, Redgate said. 

Karn testified he had “no recollection” of the incident on the boardwalk, but Redgate said “Karn’s evidence is unreliable and not credible. 

“Karn admitted he had been drinking alcohol that evening (from about 9pm until 12 or 1am) and knew he should not drive,” the judge said.

“He was impaired by alcohol, thus his ability to accurately observe, recall and recount was compromised.”

She also expressed “difficulty with the sincerity and honesty of Mr. Karn’s evidence,” as he did not admit to being intoxicated or even “buzzed,” but did admit that “after drinking all evening, he shouldn’t drive.” 

Redgate said she believes Karn was “attempting to downplay the effects of alcohol in an effort to bolster the reliability of evidence.”  

“Given the close relationship which he presented in evidence, he was biased and attempted to mislead the court about O’Brien’s presence in the truck and on the boardwalk,” she said. 

The complainant, Redgate said, was “reasonable, fair and balanced, and not compromised by consumption of alcohol.”

The judge said she accepted and testified to “facts that did not necessarily serve her interest” and her recollection was “coherent,” holding up under cross examination. 

Redgate said it was clear the complainant did not consent to the touch, but there was not sufficient evidence to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that it was intentional. 

“He knew that what he had done was wrong,” Redgate said, as demonstrated by his comment after.

But that “doesn’t show that it wasn’t an accident.” 

O’Brien is to return to court on June 27 for a case management appearance, and then again in September for sentencing. 

The post Fergus pub owner Robert O’Brien found guilty of sexual assault appeared first on Wellington Advertiser.

GUELPH –  The mother of an Arthur man who died in police custody last year has filed a second complaint with Ontario’s police oversight agency. 

Nathaniel Schofield died of drug toxicity at the Rockwood OPP station on July 10, after being held in custody overnight.  

He was a 36-year-old father of six. 

Faye Dzikewich filed her first complaint about her son’s death with Ontario’s Law Enforcement Complaints Agency (LECA) on Jan 9. 

Dzikewich was notified a month later that the complaint would not be accepted because at that point a Special Investigations Unit (SIU) investigation was still underway. 

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That investigation concluded on March 24, with SIU director Joseph Martino stating the officers involved “comported themselves with due care and regard for [Schofield’s] health and wellbeing.”

But in Dzikewich’s complaint, filed on June 12, she alleges her son’s death “was easily preventable” and he died due to: 

• insufficient monitoring, which prevented OPP staff from realizing sooner that Schofield was in medical distress;
• OPP staff failing to perform appropriate first aid such as CPR;
• officers providing inaccurate information about his condition to paramedics and firefighters; and
• a malfunctioning panic alarm at the Rockwood OPP station.   

According to the SIU report, when Schofield appeared to exhibit withdrawal symptoms, OPP staff offered several times to call for medical help but he refused. 

Dzikewich, who has reviewed the video footage from Schofield’s cell, said there is no evidence he was offered medical care, and she does not believe he would have turned it down. 

The SIU report states a staff member checked on Schofield every 15 minutes or so, but Dzikewich says the checks were just someone walking by and glancing into his cell – not nearly enough to assess his condition. 

At a memorial for Nathaniel Schofield outside the OPP station in Rockwood last August organized by his mother Faye Dzikewich, centre, people held candles and signs with photos of Schofield. Photos by Robin George

OPP staff called 911 at about 10:15am, when Schofield was gasping for breath and appeared to be having a seizure. 

Dzikewich, who has medical training, does not believe it was a seizure, but heart failure. 

“If they reported the symptoms properly, he would be alive,” she alleges in her complaint. 

Narcan was administered and a defibrillator was retrieved but not used, the SIU report states. 

When paramedics arrived at 10:25am, Schofield had no vital signs. He was transported to Guelph General Hospital and pronounced dead at about 11:20am. 

In her complaint, Dziekewich alleges OPP officers were “discreditable” and “neglectful” and “have unlawfully exercised their authority.” 

In the SIU report, Martino stated that neither the OPP sergeant in charge of the station at the time of Schofield’s arrest, nor any other officers involved, “transgressed the limits of care” prescribed by law. 

Asked for comment, Ontario Provincial Police Association spokesperson Scott Mills said the union “fully supports our members involved, who acted lawfully in accordance with their training and policy and procedure.”

Wellington County OPP spokesperson Matthew Burton said “it would be inappropriate” for the detachment to comment “as the matter is currently before the [LECA].”

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