On the lighter side of the news

Library evacuated over spray
By Don Peat, The Peterborough Examiner
Friday, March 9, 2007. Page B1

The curious incident of the pepper spray in the library sounds like a
book title but it was fact, not fiction, yesterday morning at the city
library.
Shortly after the main library on Aylmer Street opened at 10 a.m., staff
had to evacuate the building and prop open the doors after pepper spray was
released around the main desk.
City firefighters responded, but no injuries were reported and the
building was reopened quickly, staff said.
The pepper spray had been inside a pressurized canister marked "dog
repellent" on a key chain left Wednesday night, library manager Becky Rogers
said.
While staff were looking at the key chain trying to find an
identification tag that would help them find the owner, Rogers said, someone
accidentally pressed a button releasing a small dose of pepper spray.
"I noticed staff started coughing and tearing up," Rogers said, adding
the spray seemed to waft around the main desk area by the entrance and
started to float toward the children's area. "We had to evacuate everyone."
The library tends to be fairly busy when it first opens, but, except for
one staff member with a cayenne pepper allergy, no one reported any lasting
symptoms, she said.
Staff said they were glad the incident didn't happen on a Tuesday
morning when about 90 parents and children gather for story time.
The owner of the keychain has called the library, Rogers said, and will
be coming to pick up her keys.
Rogers said the incident has been a learning experience for staff and
has shown the need for a library evacuation procedure.
She said she'll start working on that immediately.
Although staff say they have seen some interesting items come into the
lost and found, no one recalled ever finding dog repellent before.
"This is one of the stranger ones," Rogers said.
dpeat@
peterboroughexaminer.com

Sidebar- Is it legal?
City police said dog repellent and bear repellent types of pepper spray
are legal -- to a point.
Sgt. Walter DiClemente said as long as the spray is bought to be used
for the intended use it's legal.
But if the spray is used in a crime then it is considered a weapon and
becomes illegal, DiClemente said.
"It's like a baseball bat. You can use it to play baseball and it's
fine, but if you use it to commit a crime then it's a weapon," DiClemente
said.

Blog Resurrection and Booze

Hello comrades,

For those in or near Toronto, there shall be a a small, J-school boozin' event over the upcoming Easter weekend.

A few of us are meeting at the Red Room, 444 Spadina Ave, around 8 or 9 p.m, on Saturday, April 7, 2007.

For those not in the vicinity of Toronto, we shall raise our glasses to thee.

Adios,
Rob

horray for Estok

From the Freeps. . .
Estok returns to journalism in HamiltonThu, February 1, 2007
By KATE DUBINSKI, SUN MEDIA

The director of the University of Western Ontario's communications department is going back to his roots after being hired as the head of a daily newspaper in Hamilton.
David Estok will start in March as the editor-in-chief of the Hamilton Spectator.
Estok started in journalism at the Spectator 25 years ago, and has worked at UWO in public affairs and as a lecturer in the faculty of information and media studies.
"I'm really looking forward to it. I'm from Hamilton . . . it will be like going home, going back to news and journalism," Estok said.
He starts the job March 5, replacing long-time Spectator editor-in-chief Dana Robbins who moves to Kitchener as publisher of the Record and Guelph Mercury.
"I've had a passion for journalism all my life. The Spec had a revolution . . . and has really taken some leading-edge ideas around journalism, so I was really attracted to the paper," Estok said.
Going from journalism to public relations and back is fairly uncommon, but Estok has done it before: He worked in PR, then went to Macleans magazine.
"London's a great city -- we came to raise our family here."

Happy New Year from the South

I scored a five day junket to Antarctica with Prime Minister Helen Clark- and living legend Sir Edmund Hillary. A bit chilly here at Scott Base- but not as cold as London Ontario in winter...