Former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer has been much in the news the past several months for drunk driving and possession of cocaine charges yet receiving basically a slap on the wrist for the events that occurred that late Sept. 10 night last year. The Toronto Star has an excellent article in Thursday’s paper detailing the events of the night and how he eventually ended up getting busted by Caledon OPP during a routine ride check. The above photo is the spot where Rahim Jaffer was busted in Palgrave.

An excerpt of the article:

Constable Kim Stapleton was going off shift and left her fellow officers at the RIDE program in Palgrave at 12:45 am. A diligent officer, she activated her mobile radar detector as she drove south through Palgrave on Highway 50. The speed limit in the small town was 50 kph. The detector beeped and clocked the approaching Ford Escape SUV at 93 kph.

“I’ve got a high miler here,” Stapleton said into her radio, turning on her lights. She told Sgt. Mike Garant back at the RIDE program that she was pulling over an SUV.

Walking up to the car, the female officer shone her flashlight in at the driver. Rahim Jaffer looked back. Stapleton smelled alcohol and asked Jaffer several questions.

“I smell alcohol, I am doing an alc test,” Stapleton radioed to Garant.

Pulling a roadside breathalyzer unit from her cruiser she administered the test, which showed positive for alcohol. Stapleton radioed for a male officer to join her because she was arresting Jaffer. Stapleton called for a tow truck to take away the Ford.

Sgt. Garant sent an officer down to Stapleton’s position. The officer searched Jaffer and found a bag in his pocket, which turned out to be cocaine.

The police officers looked inside Jaffer’s car and found a stack of Helena Guergis’ business cards. They drove Jaffer to the Caledon East OPP detachment and administered a blood alcohol test, which showed a level above the legal .08 level (police have not released the level or amount of cocaine). In Ontario, the penalty for being found guilty of driving above the legal level is a one year licence suspension, a $1,000 fine and a requirement to install an ignition lock that prevents a vehicle from starting unless the driver provides a sober breath sample.

Officers at the OPP detachment conducted a strip search of Jaffer, which police say is standard protocol when drugs are found on a person.

Stapleton charged Jaffer, 38, with driving over the legal blood alcohol limit, speeding 93 kph in a 50 kph zone; and possession of cocaine. He was released from the station around 6 am on Friday, Sept. 11.

If you are looking for a place for outdoor skating or hockey this winter season then you must check out Palgrave, Ontario. Located in north end of Caledon, you are able to skate on some cleared paths and there is also local hockey on the pond area (which is actually the Humber river) just on the north edge of the town. Local volunteers maintain and clear the ice for use, warnings are also posted if the ice may be unsafe for use. You can park either along side Hwy 50 or in the small parking lot by the Palgrave Rotary Park beside the newly constructed Gazebo.

Google Canada today revealed more than 130 Canadian cities to be viewed in the 3D environment of Google street view mode. Among those cities are Bolton, Orangeville and surprisingly many parts of Caledon, Ontario. Even the smaller the towns of Caledon Village, Caledon East, Alton & Mono Mills are mapped as well as many of the main roads through all of Caledon. Mapping by the famous google camera car was done this past summer, I actually saw it in person in Orangeville one weekend.

Street View is a free feature in Google Maps, Google Earth, and Google Maps for mobile. It was first launched in 2007 and it now includes imagery from 18 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. To start exploring, simply visit maps.google.ca and zoom in to the lowest level or drag the orange “Pegman” icon from the left side of the map onto a blue-lined street.

Google Street View has also become a great tool for real estate, it provides people an easy way to show what is around the house that is for sale in the neighbourhood, gives people a better idea of a property and area instead of just blindly showing up. However on the other side of things Google has come under fire for privacy concerns surrounding the service and has addressed those issues by blurring out the faces of people in the photos, as well as licence plates on vehicles.

If you see anything of interest in the Caledon area on Google Maps Street View please leave a comment here.

This photo taken back on September 26th in the Palgrave conservation area provides a last glimpse of summer. There is only a small hint of changing colours and it just shows you how quickly it can turn from very green to the colours of fall. This is an HDR photo processed in Photomatix from a single raw file from my camera, click here to see the original photo.

I caught a few pictures of this little bunny on Finnerty Side Road on my way home last week, he was nervous but was still enough and posed for a few photos. He is a Eastern Cottontail Rabbit and is a native species to Canada and a common sight in Caledon, Ontario. Eastern cottontail rabbits are one of the few wild animals that are known to “play” with other members of their species. Rabbits are also incredibly fast, and are able to reach speeds of 60 to 75 kilometres per hour. This speed is a necessity for eastern cottontails since they have numerous predators and very few natural defense mechanisms. They are usually found in or near wooded areas and meadows but they have also adapted to increasing urbanization and frequently live in city parks, golf courses and in residential yards. For more information about them click here.

While looking on Google Maps one day I found an area along the Humber river north of Palgrave, Ontario that appeared to be densely forested and appeared to be untouched. It looked interesting and got my curiosity going so I decided to take small hike for about an hour or two and check it out. Once entering this area it was quite clear that there was no trails, no paths, nothing, the land is completely untouched so you need to make your own trail and find your way through some of the dense bush and trees. I started off following the Humber river but at times was forced to detour into the forest. All of this land I think is owned by someone but is unused and the land definitely borders on other people’s property as I came to the edge of a few people’s properties when I went off course a bit but the bulk of all this land is untouched and peaceful where you’ll never see anybody but animals and birds. Below are some more pictures of the area.

The fallen tree in this last photo I actually climbed accross it to get to the other side of the river, camera gear and all.

Does anyone know what happened to the Tim Hortons that was at Highway 50 and HWY 9 (Palgrave)?

I noticed it closed not too long ago and was then surprised to see them tearing it down this past week. This particular location has always been very busy especially in the mornings so I don’t think the reason was a lack of business. I don’t think they are putting a larger one in there as there isn’t much space available there, the majority of the business was drive thru anyways.

I found this little guy a red headed woodpecker inside the Palgrave Conservation area. Unfortunately it had started to snow at the time but I was determined to get a picture of him so once I spotted him I slowly stalked him into the deep woods and with my brand new zoom lens (Olympus 70-300mm) for my SLR I caught these photos of him. Due to the low lighting and snow falling I adjusted the images in Photoshop and Photomatix to bring out the colour some more and smooth it out. Click on the photos to open larger images.