{"id":115408,"date":"2022-06-28T11:27:29","date_gmt":"2022-06-28T15:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=115408"},"modified":"2022-06-28T16:17:54","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T20:17:54","slug":"graydon-smith-faces-charges-laid-by-private-citizen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/graydon-smith-faces-charges-laid-by-private-citizen\/","title":{"rendered":"MPP Graydon Smith faces charges laid by private citizen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Graydon Smith, MPP for Parry Sound-Muskoka and newly appointed Ontario Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry, has been charged with violating Ontario\u2019s Endangered Species Act. The charges were laid by private citizen Michael Opara.<\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 14px;\"><strong><broadstreet-zone zone-id=\"45658\" keywords=\"\" soft-keywords=\"true\" zone-alias=\"\"><\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Smith, the former Mayor of Bracebridge, was named along with the municipality and two Bracebridge employees in charges related to allegedly causing harm or harassing Blanding\u2019s turtles, and impacting their environment. The turtles are a protected species in Ontario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The charges remain unproven, and a court date has been set for September 21, 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The charges arise from road grading work undertaken by the Town of Bracebridge in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to a story written by CBC News reporter Mike Crawley, Sarah Hahn, a lawyer acting on behalf of the Town of Bracebridge said she is confident the charges will be thrown out. \u201cIt is unfortunate that town resources must now be used to respond to these baseless accusations,\u201d Hahn was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The complainant, Michael Opara, is a Bracebridge activist who has appeared before council on numerous occasions, at times accusing council and then-Mayor Smith of inappropriate actions. Sources tell Doppler there has been an acrimonious relationship between Opara and council for years. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When reached for comment, Smith told&nbsp;<em>Doppler<\/em>&nbsp;that he is unable to comment on the matter at this time.<\/p>\n\n\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\">Don\u2019t miss out on Doppler!<\/h5>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Sign up <a href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/dont-miss-out-on-doppler\/\"><u>here<\/u><\/a> to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.<br \/>\nLocal news in your inbox so you don&#8217;t miss anything!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a style=\"background: #5cb85c url('https:\/\/d1iczxrky3cnb2.cloudfront.net\/red_logo.png') no-repeat 37px; color: #fff; text-decoration: none; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; display: inline-block; font-size: 16px; padding: 15px 38px; padding-left: 75px; -webkit-border-radius: 2px; -moz-border-radius: 2px; border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0 1px 0 0 #1f5a89; text-shadow: 0 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);\" href=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/support-huntsville-doppler\">Click here to support local news<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><broadstreet-zone zone-id=\"45657\" keywords=\"\" soft-keywords=\"true\" zone-alias=\"\"><\/broadstreet-zone>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Graydon Smith, MPP for Parry Sound-Muskoka and newly appointed Ontario Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry, has been charged with violating Ontario\u2019s Endangered Species Act. The charges were laid by [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1904,"featured_media":104907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MPP Graydon Smith faces charges laid by private citizen - Huntsville Doppler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Smith has been charged with allegedly violating Ontario\u2019s Endangered Species Act. The charges were laid by private citizen Michael Opera.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/graydon-smith-faces-charges-laid-by-private-citizen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MPP Graydon Smith faces charges laid by private citizen - Huntsville Doppler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Smith has been charged with allegedly violating Ontario\u2019s Endangered Species Act. 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