Hunters make rowers ‘duck’
by Blake Wolfe/The Scugog Standard

Just a few months after the sound of firearms fell silent in a Scugog conservation area, municipal representatives found themselves discussing a similar matter, this time involving duck hunting taking place near a retirement community in Port Perry.
mWard 5 Councillor Howard Danson told council and staff that a number of residents in the Castle Harbour and Canterbury Common neighbourhoods have reported recent incidents of duck hunters discharging rifles from the shoreline or from Lake Scugog. The complaints have come from a number of neighbours making use of a pedestrian walkway near the shore, he said, adding that in at least one incident, shots were fired while members of the Durham Rowing Club were practicing during the early morning hours.
mAlthough the area is clearly marked in a township bylaw as off-limits for hunters, Councillor Danson said that the issue of which party enforces the legislation needs to be clarified.
m“This is an issue that isn’t going away,” said Councillor Danson. “A stray bullet could go anywhere.”
mMunicipal staff are scheduled to meet with Durham police and representatives from the Ministry of Natural Resources to discuss how to control the issue.
mEarlier this spring, the same parties met to strengthen restrictions on recreational firearm use on Crown Lands in the township’s north end, after several rounds fired by target shooters using the provincially-owned property (some using what where believed to be high-powered rifles) - hit a Simcoe St. farmhouse.