'Stick to guns' stance lauded by councillors

BY NADINE ARMSTRONG

The Hants Journal

NovaNewsNow.com

It was definitely not a case of 'least said, soonest mended' for the Municipality of West Hants.

After bearing the brunt of bad press for weeks after going ahead with separate 'boy' and 'girl' daycamps, the municipality still came out on top during the regular session of council Aug 14. Councillors praised Warden Richard Dauphinee and Recreation Director Kathy Kehoe for sticking to their guns.

The gender segregation debate sparked national attention when nine-year-old Lydia Houck of West Hants requested admission to the boys-only camp and was turned down. However, despite the negative publicity and added stress on recreation staff, the camps went off without a hitch.

Councillor Rick Gaudet, whose daughter attended the 'glamorous girls' camp in question, saw the response first-hand. “They enjoyed themselves tremendously. I think they should do it again next year, with a week-long camp.”

“They had a blast,” Dauphinee said, who was also onsite that day, prepared to deal with media coverage of the event. He said the boys had a great time too during their fishing, hiking and golf event.

“We will never have a 100 per cent success rate, but from what I saw it was pretty close,” he said.

Councillor Randy Matheson said it was unfortunate the way media exploited the events. “That’s the sad part about it. We have a great recreation staff and the reaction was quite unfortunate.” He said council should continue to support its recreation director.

“To her credit, she didn’t back down and is to be commended. We should all give her our unanimous vote of confidence. We should also applaud our warden for dealing with the press in the manner that he has, under difficult circumstances.”

Matheson said he has no doubt his own grandchildren would have enjoyed the events. “I don't think they would have been offended.” He said there’s nothing wrong with having options, traditional and non-traditional.

Constituents agreed

It seems their constituents agreed. According to Council and the Recreation Department, the only complaint lodged locally was by Houck. “I think the majority is supporting us,” Matheson said.

Kehoe said rather than fielding complaints from residents, it was quite the opposite. “We received many calls from parents supporting our decision. Actually, when you look at the big picture, we have received very few negative comments and of those the majority were out-of-province or outside the country,” she said.

Kehoe added that recreation is about more than just sports and that’s why they include a variety of activities in their program “It’s about activity and creativity,” she said. Jewelry-making was a large component of the girls-only day. “They had a wonderful time.”

At the end of the day, girls enjoyed a little female bonding. The boys did as well. “There are times that girls just want to be with other girls and boys just want to be with other boys,” Kehoe said.

“It’s about bonding with your own gender,” Dauphinee said. The fact the boys went fishing was incidental.

“My daughters are into karate, fishing and soccer, but they also like to paint their fingernails. What it's really about is balance,” Kehoe said.

Dauphinee said it has been implied that next year’s line-up may not include the segregated camps, but no decision has been made yet. “This was a pilot project and we won't make any decisions until the success has been assessed.”

In the meantime, children of both genders enjoyed a co-ed trip to the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park and Victoria Park in Truro Aug. 15.