🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello Folks,
 
Please read this message and please add any info that may help
in my situation, I have tried to take the proper steps to have the
local authority answer my family's concerns, with regard to these
problems that arose from the local authority's negligence. They are 
ignoring the regulations they are responsible to follow. I am asking 
for all public opinion and help with these issues. Since June 1997 
this is not the only letter that I have sent that has not been either
acknowleded or answered in regard to this situtaion. We as Canadians 
need to take notice and stand up for our rights as longtime tax paying 
familys in this country. I have yet to find one government official 
connected to this that will do the job we have appointed them to carry 
out in these cases. 
 
I ask YOU as a Canadian tax payer is this what we should expect or 
deserve from these people. Please read the following letter that was
sent a month ago now unanswered and question yourself, is this letter 
clear enough to have immediate action/attention taken. If you wish, you 
could also forward this to the offices at the email addresses that are 
provided and send these people your opinions and help these people 
understand we wish them to carry out the jobs they where appointed and
are payed to perform.
 
thank you to all concerned
 
Sincerely
Doug Gilby
 
      
----- start of letter sent to our Ministry of Cemetery
         regulations on march 14, 2000. - STILL NOT ACKNOWLEDGED ------
 
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 18:53:27 -0800 (PST)
From: Doug Gilby <wx968@victoria.tc.ca>
To: Rob.Dowler@ccr.gov.on.ca
Cc: Cora.Dela#032#Cruz@ccr.gov.on.ca, Khurshid.Khan@ccr.gov.on.ca
Subject: Re: Request for Inspector
 
 > ATTENTION: ROBT. DOWLER - DIRECTOR OF CEMETERY REGULATIONS
 > ATTENTION: CORA DELA CRUZ - REGISTRAR OF CEMETERY REGULATIONS
 > ATTENTION: KURSHID KHAN - CEMETERY REGULATIONS OFFICER
 
 RE: CONTRAVENTION OF THE CEMETERY ACT RE SMITH/HAINER CEMETERY 
     ST. CATHARINES
 
  In the following ways I feel the City of St. Catharines has violated
  the Cemetery Act:
 
 1) Chapter 4  #60 part (2) of the act states "An application to declare
 a cemetery abandoned may be made by the owner of the cemetery, the
 municipality or Registrar"
 
 We can find no paper trail or evidence that application was ever made
 to "declare the cemetery Abandoned"
 
 2) Further Chapter 4, 60 part (4) states that "The municipality is
 responsible for the cost of an application under this section including
 the cost of a survey of the land involved" part (7) continues
 that..."Upon declaration that a cemetery is abandoned being registered
 in the appropriate land registry office, the municipality becomes the
 owner of the cemetery with all the rights and obligations in respect to
 the cemetery and the assets, funds, and trust accounts related thereto
 that the previous owner had."
 
 It is our concern that the municipality of St. Catharines never did
 initiate the land survey they were obligated to perform and in the
 interim, as a result of the City moving the headstones, the farmer's
 fence was realigned actually encroaching on areas where once marked
 graves were located.
 
 We are further concerned that the City never did register the cemetery
 as they were obligated to do according to the part of the act quoted
 above. In fact in my personal visits to the registry office, all the
 records on the land containing the cemetery were unaccountable and
 missing.
 
 3) The Cemetery Act further states in Ch. 4 part 64 that "For the
 purpose of ensuring compliance with this Act and regulations an
 inspector may, (e)conduct such tests as are reasonably necessary to
 determine the integrity of a structure, fence or marker in a cemetery"
 
 Under this section of the act, we are requesting the Ministry to send an
 inspector to examine the issue of both the fence and the damage done to
 the grave stones by the City of St. Catharines.
 
 4) It is also stated in Ch. 4 # 68 "No person shall disturb or order
 the disturbance of a burial site or artifact associated with the human
 remains.." 
 
 It has been pointed out by several specialists that the "associated"
 headstones and grave markers are historic artifacts and examples of
 folk art--these have been uprooted from their grave sites by the City
 and detrimentally dealt with by being cemented into a memorial wall not
 on the grave sites where they were initially intended to be.
 
 5) Also stated in Ch. C3 part 44.--(1) The owner shall, 
     (a) keep and maintain fences about the cemetery sufficient to
 prevent dogs, cattle and other animals from straying therein;
     (b) keep the cemtery and the buildings and fences thereof in good
 order and repair.  R.S.O. 1980, c 59, s. 44. 
 
 6) Also stated in 17. The owner shall ensure that buildings not be
 erected in a cemetery within 4.57 metres (fifteen feet) of an in-ground
 grave. O. Reg. 130/92, s. 17.
 
The farm owner has erected a fence as recent as 1999 that has violated 
the gravesites. My concern this was done without proper supervision 
and my family's graves have been allowed to be further desecrated. It is
very unsettling and humanly unbelievable this city would allow this to
happen after seeing my concerns, they have been aware of since 1997. 
 
 We trust that you will exercise the obligations of your position by
 acting promptly upon these violations of the act for the good of all
 concerned and that you will keep us informed regarding the progress
 made in correcting these problems. A carbon copy of this memo will also
 be forwarded to the Mayor of St. Catharines, the Regional Chairperson,
 Ms. Zimmerman and to our MP, Mr. Walt Lastewka. Thank you for your
 attention on this morally obligating issue. 
 
Please be advised this is not all the issues, though I have had some help 
putting this letter together. I will be following up with other issues
related to further family concerns. I still need other cemeteries in the
area properly accessed.
 
Thank You
Yours Sincerely
 
  Doug Gilby 
 
---end