Judge Omer Chartrand of Hawkesbury and SD and G Crown Attorney R. Percy Milligan had a different opinion when it came to a jail sentence that fit the crime(s).
So, on Nov. 15, 1958 the much respected prosecutor, who had established a tough-on-crime reputation, didn’t mince words or waste time in announcing that Chartrand’s ridiculously lenient sentence would be appealed. He called it a miscarriage of justice.
The 27-year-old man, a small-time criminal with a lengthy record, pleaded with Chartrand to give him a break on jail time, promising to turn his life around. Yada, yada.
Meanwhile, Milligan said the judge needed to slap the man with some serious time in the slammer. Like around eight to 10 years in the pen.
Turned out Chartrand’s idea of a stiff sentence for somebody just convicted of a string of five armed robberies, 11 break-ins, assault of a city police officer, escape from custody that resulted in a two-day manhunt involving 60 police officers and theft of a car (cops also threw in a speeding charge) was two years less a day, which sent him to a reformatory, an easier place to do time than the notorious Kingston pen.
The city’s updated official plan that discouraged shopping centres was unveiled in November 1958.
The planning board and consultant Prof. Kent Baker presented the draconian argument that large scale shopping centres were not in the city’s “best interests.”
Such centres, it was claimed, would inflict undue competition upon merchants in the downtown and Montreal Road shopping districts.
Instead, the plan called for the two shopping districts to be married by a sting of restaurants and specialty shops along Water Street.
Development of the waterfront was put on hold until the federal government made up its mind on the proposed all-Canadian seaway.
ALSO IN 1958: Old Man Winter got a jump on the season with a mid-November 15-centimeter storm whipped by strong gusts. … The Dominion Observatory Seismology department downplayed a report by the National Building Code of Canada that said Cornwall and Ottawa areas were ripe for damaging earthquakes. The observatory said the chance of an earthquake that would cause major damage was remote. Nevertheless, insurance companies used the report to boost earthquake insurance premiums by 500 per cent. … The Ontario government announced a plan to raise speed limits on major four-lane highways to 60 miles per hour. … Sorry kids, but there would be no Santa parade in Cornwall. The lack of volunteers was the reason. The Retail Merchants Association had offered to fund the parade. … Nathan Phillips, who grew up in Cornwall and was a graduate of Cornwall Collegiate, was re-elected mayor of Toronto. He was Toronto’s first Jewish mayor. … Cornwall Public School Board was dealing with overcrowded classrooms. At six-room Vincent Massey, where the student population had soared to 232, one class with a single teacher had 50 kids. Eamer’s Corners, also with six classrooms, had 160 students, while Viscount Alexander had 277 and West Front 272. … Fill ‘er up to capacity. That was the response by the department of education to a request by the Cornwall Collegiate Board for an addition to St. Lawrence High School. The department said the school’s enrolment would have to exceed 1,080 to qualify for the addition. It had 900 students. The school had to replace all its locks after keys went missing. … A sentry’s lamp that dated back to the War of 1812 was found in a bush north of the city. The finder was offered $20 for the relic. … Courtaulds was getting into the carpet business. The brand name was COLORAY. … It was hardly worth the trouble of breaking into Harold Robinson’s garage near Ingleside. Only 25 cents was in the cash register that had been pried open. … First Baptist congregation purchased the empty lot at York and Third streets for a new church. At one time, the lot was home to the McGill Chair factory. … Cornwall’s Ray Tessier was a member of the St. Lawrence University (Canton, N.Y.) freshmen hockey squad. … Canadian National Railway said new technology would replace the Morse code system with the advanced Telex system at its Cornwall office. … The new south channel international bridge spanning the St. Lawrence River that connected the U. S. with Cornwall Island was built in six months with 3,430 tons of steel and 450 tons of cable. … It took seven years of negotiations with Courtaulds, but the city finally nailed down a deal with the company to extend Second Street across company property from St. Felix Street to Lefebvre Avenue.
THIS AND THAT: Back in the other century, when Catholics and Protestants where killing each other, somebody suggested that life could be much more pleasant if they all would become atheists. Then perhaps, they could live together like god-fearing Christians. … Somebody who lived through it, tells me that in 1945 they knew the war in Europe was going well because the country stopped having national prayer days. … The OMERS pension plan, one of the country’s biggest (and richest) public employee retirement plans, has purchased an indirect stake in Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment (MLSE) for $400 million. MLSE’s stable includes Toronto Maple Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC, Argonauts and AHL Marlies. … Ultra-right wing-nut commentator Ann Coulter once told Republican nominee candidate Nickki Haley “go back to your own country.” Not a big leap for Haley, born Nimarata Randhawa. The former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador was born in South Carolina. … Cornwall Police Service no longer wasting hard-to-find money on a United States-based accreditation program called CALEA.
QUOTED: “The taxpayer is someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service exam.” – Ronald Reagan
TRIVIA ANSWER: When the Atlanta Braves defeated Houston Astros 7-0 on Nov. 2 2021, Montreal-born Alex Anthopoulis became the first Canadian-born general manager to win a World Series title.
TRIVIA: On May 13, 2021 this company ended 100 years of serving the Canadian public. It still operates in the United States.
