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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News Record, 2014-10-22, Page 44 News Record • Wednesday, October 22, 2014 www.clintonnewsrecord.com Clinton News Record PUBLISHED WEEKLY — EST. 1860 53 Albert St. P.O. Box 39 Clinton ON NOM 1L0 (519) 482-3443 www.clintonnewsrecord.com SUN MEDIA A Quebecor Media Company MARIE DAVID Sun Media Group Publisher Grey Bruce Huron Division 519-364-2001 or 519-372-4301 NEIL CLIFFORD Publisher neil.clifford@sunmedia.ca MAX BICKFORD Advertising Manager max. bickford@sun media.ca TARA OSTNER Reporter clinton.reporter@sunmedia.ca DAWN JOHNSTON Sales Representative clinton.ads@sunmedia.ca SUBSCRIPTION RATES 1 YEAR $50.00 (47.62+2.38 GST) 2YEAR $95.00 (90.48+4.52 GST) SENIORS 60 WEEKS $50.00 (47.62+2.38 GST) 120 WEEKS $95.00 (90.48+4.52 GST) Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a Typographical error, the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged but that balance of advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. In the event of a typographic error advertising goods or services ata wrong price, goods or services may not be sold. Ad- vertising is merely an offer to sell, and may be withdrawn at any time. The Clinton News -Record is not responsible for the loss or damage of unsolicited manuscripts, photos or other materials used for reproducing purposes. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40064683 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES: CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 53 Albert St., Clinton ON NOM 1L0 (519)482-3443 We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. Canada Aocna Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and the Ontario Community Newspapers Association editorial Vigilance key in Ebola fight WI Agency We shouldn't panic. But we should hold the experts to the highest standards in the fight against Ebola. Go ahead and make your concerns known. Because a disease like this shouldn't be able to make it to a First World country. Yet it already has. The sys- tem failed. Thomas Eric Dun- can, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States, shouldn't have made it to Dallas in the first place. But he lied on his screening ques- tions. The honour system clearly isn't working. Then we leam two nurses who cared for Duncan contracted the disease. Nurses from that hospital are now speaking out about how unprepared and disorganized they were. But this isn't about problems at one hos- pital. One of the nurses called the Centre for Disease Control and Preven- tion, reported she had a fever and intended to board a plane. They didn't tell her not to fly. So she did and now the CDC is getting in touch with over a hundred passengers. Now the World Health Organization is acknowledging its own failures in deal- ing with the disease. An internal docu- ment sourced by the Associated Press explains, "Nearly everyone involved in the outbreak response failed to see some fairly plain writing on the wall." So you'll forgive us if we're a little leery of health agencies that tell us not to worry. Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins said his province - home to Canada's busiest air- port, Pearson Inter- national - is pre- pared to deal with Ebola even though the risk is very low. Probably as low as it was in Dallas the day before Duncan arrived. Which is why vigilance is necessary. But what do we do? The African nation of Senegal is actually on the cusp of declaring the disease over in their country. Health officials say patient tracking, health practices and border controls all played a role. On Tuesday Immigration Minis- ter Chris Alexander said the Canadian government isn't ruling out travel bans. We would support this measure. Plus, kudos to Air Canada and its employee union for letting flight attend- ants wear protective gloves. The Ebola fight in Africa continues and we can better help them if we're not preoccupied with combating it over here. column Waking up from dogmatic slumbers Tara Ostner The Clinton News Record Many human rights have akind of value that is beyond measure. They are what provide us in the West- ern world with the many freedoms that we hold so dearly. Today, there also exists a multitude of differ- entkinds of human rights. Civil and political rights, that is, our oldest and most entrenched rights, for exam- ple, include freedom of per- sonal conscience and expression, freedom of movement and association, freedom to vote and run for public office, reliable legal protection against violence and various due process rights, for instance, the right to be considered innocent before proven guilty of a crime and the right to a pub- lic trial before an impartial jury. Civil and political rights are also called first -genera- tion rights. Economic, social and cultural rights, somewhat newer rights, on the other hand, include entitlements to subsistence, basic levels of education and health care, clean water and air and equal opportunity at work. These rights are also called second -generation rights. Finally, there is a new wave of rights that has just surfaced in the past decade or so and this group of rights is referred to as third - generation rights. These rights include rights to national self-determina- tion, economic develop- ment, a clean environment, affirmative action pro- grams, the survival of one's mother's tongue as a func- tioning language, parental leave benefits and many more. Some people even go so far as to say that people have a right to the intemet. The things that people claim are actual rights these days are, when you think about it, somewhat aston- ishing. Adding more and more to the list of what con- stitutes a "right" (say, as opposed to merely a want or desire) refers to a phe- nomenon that is known as "human rights inflation." Today, human rights infla- tion is occurring all around us at a very fast pace. However, ifyou have turned on the news recently you might have heard that debates on doctor -assisted suicide are returning to the Canadian courts once again. As the law currently stands, Canadians who wish to end their lives due to irre- versible medical condition and/or severe disability do not have the right to have their doctor assist them in ending their lives. Life is pre- cious, opponents to doctor - assisted suicide say, and intentional killing is never justified. The fact that people can these days legitimately claim a right to the intemet and yet they do not have the right to end their own life is unacceptable in myview and proves how something has to change in the Cana- dian legal system. Just think about it On one hand, you have the fight to be able to surf the net. On the other hand, you have the fight to not have to continually endure endless hours of pain, not being able to swallow, not being able to breathe or not being able to stop violent epi- sodes of vomiting. It should not be difficult for the aver- age person to see that fighting for the former, really, has nothing whatso- ever to do with protecting human dignity which is what human rights purport to be all about Fighting for the latter, however, does not just help to protect human dignity, it defines the very concept itself. What is the more funda- mental right in the above cases ought to be blatantly obvious and Canadian law- makers should feel ashamed of themselves for not making a more eamest attempt to legalize doctor - assisted suicide. The court's Wiling in the 1993 Sue Rodri- guez case was wrongful and today - not down the road - is the time to rectify it Fortunately, I think that change is on the way or at least on the horizon. According to a new poll, doctor -assisted suicide is finally being supported by a majority of Canadians and I think that citizens are finally beginning to realize just howbackwards andnon- sensical our current position on the issue really is. Why the change in heart over the decades? Perhaps it is due to the surfacing and society's surprisingly unquestioned acceptance of this newwave of rights called third -generation rights. Perhaps people are realizing: hey, wait a second, if people can honestly claim an entitlement to ultimately superficial things then surely an individual should have the right to end his or her own life. People are, as the Ger- man philosopher, Imma- nuel Kant, would say, begin- ning to "wake up from their dogmatic slumbers" and without a doubt this is something for the better. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The News Record welcomes letters to the editor. All letters must be signed and include a day- time phone number for verification purposes. Letters can be sent care of the Internet at clin- ton.news@sunmedia.ca, sent via fax at 519-482-7341 or through Canada Post care of The Edi- tor, P.O. Box 39, Clinton, ON NOL 1LO.