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P u a if c t u w s y U O N A V V ST, K r ^ 4 K V IU E O n t a r io 161 224 watercolours Lexus dealership Chisholm S C H (X )L SUCCESS www.chisholmoentre.com £ W k : - !< % 4-1% by the lake 9 rand opening A rtscene B usiness I H i S n t: U l . ia I I//N /«V>Mi%/l / \ M / \ M M /> .1 tv. w w w .o a k v ille b e a v e r.c o m THE OAKVILLE BEAVER NORTH A M ER IC A 'S \'t * 1 . :i` ) No. 40 MOST AWARDED C O M M U N ITY NEWSPAPER A MctroIrMXl I\iblicaii< > n W ED M iS I> A Y . A P K U .2 4 . 2( K > 2 r >2 i 'i ij_> t *s i r> ( it `m s /> ii t< Doctor forged dead teen's medical records W ill s e m e 4 5 - d a y w e e k e n d j a i l te r m By Howard Mozel O A K V IL L E B E A V E R S T A F F Environmental Protection Committee may be scrapped N o n e e d , s a y s O liv e r A newly conceived Growth and Environmental Protection Committee may be axed before it ever meets. Ward 2 representative Fred Oliver asked councillors of the Planning and Development council Monday night to consider chopping the committee in order to expedite approval of the much debated Official Plan Amendment (OPA) 198. The year-long controversy is focused on 7,600 acres of open space located north of Highway 5 in Oakville. Local environmental group Oakvillegreen says the area's wildlife, plants and underground water sources should remain untouched. Developers who own the majority of the land want to build on it. The town has currently designated the A n O ak ville doctor who pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of forgery and p erju ry in connection w ith a teenage patient, who died w hile under his care, w ill serve a 45-day sentence on consecutive weekends starting Frid ay. Dr. Anthony Laws was handed the jail term by Justice Robert LeDressay in Burlington Provincial Court after hearing testimony that included powerful impact statements by Tom and Patricia Bain, the parents of 14-year old Jonathan Bain, who died of liver failure in 1993. In passing sentence. By Howard Mozel Justice LeDressay addressed O A K V IL L E B E A V E R S T A F F Dr. Laws and characterized his conduct as "serious and There are no words to ade selfish acts of dishonesty" quately describe the effect of done only to "cover yourself' Dr. Anthony Laws' lies on which " prolonged the emo Tom and Patricia Bain's fami tional agony" of the Bains. ly. but the impact statements The judge said he took into they read aloud in court account several mitigating Tuesday spoke volumes of factors but said these are not pain. justification, especially con " Consider being thrown sidering Dr. Laws' " special into a deep, dark pit. a pit of status" as a physician. grief similar to the Joseph Following the sentence, story in the Old Testament." the Bains said they take no said Patricia. "When I was satisfaction in Dr. Laws' struggling to find a way out of "misery" and that they accept the darkness, this doctor's the outcome, which dealt Coverup nearly destroyed family (See 'May 13' page A5) Tips lead to quick arrests I 1 , s o le ly w ith the c r im in a l c o v c r-u p s o ld n tti in to s la v e ry . charges, not his care of their son. " We just don't want this to happen to anyone else." said Patricia Bain. Halton Regional Police laid the charges last May based on testimony Laws gave at a 1998 disciplinary hearing held by the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons. Laws pleaded guilty before the College to profes sional misconduct for falsify ing medical records and let(See 'D octor' page A4) a prison of punishment and pain. His lies shifted the ! blame for Jonathan's death from himself to our family doctor, my husband and myself. He took himself off the hook and placed others on the hook." Particularly distressing for Patricia were the 1 3 months of doubt and suspicion surround ing her concurrent administra tion of two drugs (Cylert and Ritalin) prescribed for her son by Dr. Laws - something that he denied. (See P arents' page A4) Hatton eyes $11M in unpaid traffic fines Halton Court Services is launching a new collections pro gram to recover about $11 million in unpaid provincial fines. The majority of the debt is from unpaid traffic tickets, including some that are 13 years past due. The Halton organization inherited this debt portfolio during the transfer of Provincial Offences Act responsibility from the provincial government last year. "We are now responsible for this debt and we are making every effort to collect, said HCS administrator Frances Evans. "Every dollar we collect belongs to Halton taxpayers. Recovering this revenue is good business and we all benefit." At the time of the transfer, there were 32,000 cases with out standing payments totalling $10.2 million. It's estimated that 500 additional cases per month fall into default. " People need to understand these charges never go away and they must pay," said Evans. "W e are going to use all the tools available to us. including licence suspensions, plate denials, credit reporting and civil enforcement, to ensure pay ment." Halton Court Services has three POA courts, one each in Burlington. Oakville and Milton. Recovery of the overdue fines has begun and payment options are in place. Evans said there are many reasons why people don't pay there fines. "They may have lost the information, never received the notices or simply forgotten." she said. " We are here to help people meet their payment obligations, not penalize them. Our stall are customer service professionals who are eager to make this work for everyone." For more details about provincial offences fines, call 905637-1274. HAPPY WALKERS: Among the 700 participants in the Loblaws Super Cities W A L K for M S in O akville were (above) Debbie Mortin with her children Cassidy and Sierra and (left) Vickie, Pat, Barb and Debbie of the Ruhv Rockets of the Red Hat Society. The O akville walk raised $160,000 to fund research into finding a cure for M S, as well as providing serv ices to those currently living with this disease. Across Ontario, 25.000 people raised a total of $3.3 million in Super Cities W A LK s for M S in sever al communities. For more information about multiple sclerosis and the M S Society of Canada, call 416-922-6065 or 1-800-268-7582. or visit www.mssociety.ca. Thanks to two alert citizens, who weren't afraid to get involved, the Halton Regional Police made arrests in two seri ous incidents last weekend. On Sunday at 4:20 a.m., an Oakville resident noticed two men loading articles into a pick-up truck at the rear of the plaza at 1 34 Lakeshore Rd. W. The citizen gave police a description I of the truck and officers stopped it a five minutes later, heading north on Dorval Drive. Police found a quantity of meat, pry bars and a red plastic gas container j inside. Meanwhile, officers who responded to the scene of the plaza discovered a [ fire inside the Agabi Mediterranean Restaurant and quickly called the Oakville Fire Department. Three Hamilton residents have been i charged in connection with the incident. On Monday at 12:09 a.m., another citizen observed a man removing men's suits from Maynards on Bronte Road and | loading them into a red Plymouth van. The information was quickly passed on to police who promptly located the van on the Q EW near Winston Churchill Boulevard. A ll property taken from the store was recovered and a Toronto man stands charged. " The Halton Regional Police Service is grateful for the actions of these citizens who took the time to call police and provide accurate, relevant information on these serious crimes. The Service relies on interaction with our citizens," said police spokesperson Sgt. Val Hay. Editorials..............A6 Focus.................. Cl Best Wheels........... 06 Sports.................. D1 Artscene............... C 8 Business................ B6 Classified............... B3 Hom e & Garden...... B1 P a rtia lD dhtrv: On Site Magajne, Rona Cashwa^ Rona batting, (htunban Drugs. Halton Bltnls. Home Depot, Holland part Gallery. Future Shop. Little Caesar of Canada. W laSolanAS p a , Photos by Riziero Vertolli Sean, The Bay, Ijukeshon Place Retirement Centre Canadian PuMcaflons M ail Product Agreement *435-201 Oakville Volkswagen 557 Kerr Street II I 4 MOTION all-wheel drive I PeterW atso n X V K S T M E N T S 9 0 5 .8 4 4 .3 2 8 5 www.oakvillevwaudi.com Drivers wanted. 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