Cheers &Jeers
CHEERS: To Charlottetown’s Tommy MacGuigan for being named by Special Olympics Canada as the recipient of the Dr. Frank Hayden Athlete Lifetime Achievement Award. MacGuigan has been an athlete with Special Olympics on P.E.I. for more than 35 years. Over that time, MacGuigan has proudly represented the Island in sports such as floor hockey, softball and track and field. According to Special Olympics Canada, the award is given to an athlete who best exemplifies “the spirit, philosophy and goals of the Special Olympics movement over the course of their career.” Congratulations Tommy!
JEERS: To former Bluefield High School guidance counsellor Arthur Francis McGuigan, who was sentenced on Tuesday in P.E.I. Supreme Court to 90 days in jail for his latest conviction of sexual assault. McGuigan was previously sentenced in 2014 to five-and-a-half years in prison for sexual assault offences involving former teenage students, including sexual exploitation, luring as well as trafficking methamphetamine. We trust school staff to protect our children from sexual offenders. As a result, it is particularly egregious when a school staffer breaches that trust and commits those offences against kids.
CHEERS: To the Tracadie Players who know how to put on a fabulous fundraiser. Over the past 17 years they have staged dinner theatres each fall and spring. In that time they have raised over a quarter million dollars for their community. The funds are divided between the Lions Club, the Tracadie Community Centre and the Parish Life Committee. It’s great to see people in the community working together.
JEERS: To the 15 drivers charged with impaired driving on Thanksgiving weekend. These offences included a 49-year-old Winsloe man who registered breathalyzer samples more than three time the legal limit and a 29-year-old Stratford man who police found unconscious in his vehicle in the middle of Route 24 in Bellevue. As the P.E.I. RCMP said in a press release, that weekend was “not something to be proud of when it comes to responsible driving decisions.” They’re right, but the problem is that this sort of selfish and dangerous behaviour happens all too often on the Island.