In response to the charges laid against Brad Scott, the Port Elgin Pumpkinfest Board of Directors has removed Scott from his role of President, read a June 17 Port Elgin Pumpkinfest media release.

The actions Scott has been charged with are inexcusable and the Board of Directors strongly condemns child exploitation of any kind.

“These actions Mr Scott has been charged with do not represent the values of Port Elgin Pumpkinfest,” said Dave Mensher, now serving as President of Port Elgin Pumpkinfest. “Upon learning of these charges, our Board of Directors immediately removed Mr Scott from his role.”

See: Board announces a modified Pumpkinfest due to COVID-19

On June 12, Peel Regional Police said that investigators from the Internet Child Exploitation Unit with assistance from the Waterloo Regional Police, had arrested and charged Brad Scott, 40 years old, now of Waterloo, in an alleged child luring investigation where a male was believed to be communicating online between June 17, 2019 and June 11, 2020 with someone he believed to be less than 16 years of age, for a sexual purpose.

Usernames and display names used on various popular messaging and social media platforms included:

madeincanada
John (with smiley face emoji beside the name)
John Snyde
MaverickKW79
Kwguy34@gmail.com

Scott was arrested on June 11 and charged with Luring a Child to Commit Invitation to Sexual Touching, Luring a Child to Distribute Sexually Explicit Material, and Luring a Child to Attempt to make Child Pornography.

He appeared at the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton for a bail hearing on Friday, June 12, 2020 in answer to those charges.