The discriminating 'practice' of Terry Alyman.

July 16th, 2005

Halton Hills - Georgetown: Contrary to the Parks & Recreation policy and procedure document - F-A001 (R) - Quote; "No requests from commercial outlets will be entertained", many may had noticed the Town's marquee at the Acton arena displaying the  message in the below picture for a few weeks last spring for an Acton BIA member.

click image to enlarge

Realized the potential in renting the sign, The Halton Herald.ca filled out and submitted two applications which were accepted by the parks department to rent out the marquee at the Acton Arena and the Mold-Masters SportsPlex for one week to The Halton Herald.ca. The applications were reviewed and accepted by the attending parks and recreation employees, dates were reserved and registered receipts were issued confirming the agreements.

The day before the Acton Arena's message was scheduled to be displayed, the Facility Supervisor - Al Hay, contacted Al Kirouac to advise him that he had been told to contact Mr. Kirouac and inform him that The Halton Herald's message was not being permitted to be displayed. Mr. Kirouac asked the supervisor; on whose authority? Mr. Hay replied; the director, Terry Alyman. Mr. Kirouac asked why? Mr. Hay replied;

"Something about it being a conflict of interest and something about a police investigation".

On May 13th., Mr. Kirouac contacted the Parks and Recreation Director, Terry Alyman, who confirmed what Mr. Hay had informed Mr. Kirouac earlier, as well as mentioning he had read the May 6th Toronto Star report: 'Probe urged in land swap controversy' and told Mr. Kirouac; after reading about his (Mr. Kirouac's) involvement in logging a complaint that initiated the police investigation involving Town Council, he felt it was not in the best interest of the Town to display the Halton Herald's message.

Mr. Kirouac elected on may 16th, 2005, to take the matter to council where he had hopes of resolving the discrimination issue.

During the May 16th council meeting, Mr. Alyman was quoted as stating;

"It's long been my practice to not to engage in any business activity or essentially suspend any business activity, which is what we indicated to the delegation, where-by the third party has launched or threatened to launch an investigation on the corporation. So that's simply a standard business practice that I adopt."

Once again, Mr. Alyman was referring to a Police probe, where, at the time, police were in the preliminary process of following up on complaints made by Mr. Kirouac and the three other private members of the community. as reported in the Toronto Star May 6th, 2005.

Councillor Davis asked Mr. Alyman: "what is the policy of the town boards"? Mr. Alyman replied: "it's a fairly lengthy policy". He went on to mention priority of groups and deadlines of dates, and didn't mention anything about restrictions.

Councillor Davis asked: "is there a policy which restrict who can advertize or who can display messages"? Mr. Alyman replied: "the delegation eluded to one".

Councillor Lewis asked the Parks and Recreation Director, Mr Alyman; "have we ever had any signage up before that have come down before their expiration dates"? Mr. Alyman replied: "I can't recall any specific one. We wouldn't necessary make any decision on their status". Councillor Lewis asked Mr. Alyman; " who ultimately accepts responsibility for the sign"? The director replied, staff does, fundamentally, and if there's any reasons beyond the knowledge of staff, certainly their managers, or in this case myself would step in and pull the ad.

This isn't the first time the Town of Halton Hills Parks & Recreation Director has singled out one of the Town's own community members. Terry Alyman also suspended the recreational privileges of a community member who brought safety concerns to light, which were never addressed by the director until an article was published in the Toronto Star last Feb. 05.

Quote from Toronto Star article: JACK LAKEY

"Stephen Grasby emailed us about it. He had been complaining to the Town of Halton Hills, which runs the facility, ever since it opened. To underscore his point, Grasby shot photos of the floors and sent them to Halton Hills officials last November.

About a week after our story (Feb. 05), Grasby got a registered letter from Halton Hills parks and recreation director Terry Aylman, saying he was suspended for three months for taking photos in the change rooms, which is prohibited.

Grasby's suspension made many in Georgetown angry that it appeared he was punished for calling the Star."

The 'no photo' policy came into effect January 2005. Stephen Grasby's photos of the safety hazards were taken in November 2004.

Click here to read the Toronto Star Article.

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