HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2013-11-28, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013. PAGE 5.
Ihave no quarrel with hunters. As a matter
of fact I admire the man or woman who
goes out and harvests his or her own
protein. Such people are less hypocritical
than oh, say, me. I harvest my protein from
the local supermarket, letting someone
else do the dirty work of shifting said protein
from the forest or the feedlot to my dinner
plate.
I respect subsistence hunters, but
trophy hunters – people who hunt just
for the thrill of killing something big? You
suck.
I’m thinking specifically of one Clayton
Stoner, a B.C. boy who recently had his
picture taken holding up the severed head of a
grizzly he shot on the B.C. coast near Bella
Bella. Stoner wasn’t interested in the body
of the bear – he left that to rot on the forest
floor. He just wanted the bragging rights to the
head.
Must have been real tough to shoot the
grizzly, which was known as “Cheeky” to the
folks who knew him. I imagine Cheeky was
shambling toward Stoner looking for a
handout about the time the heavy calibre
bullets smashed into his chest. Or maybe
he was just standing on his hind legs sniffing
the wind and wondering what the odd
creature in camouflage clothes squinting
down a shiny stick was doing in his
neighbourhood.
Oh well, it’s not as if Stoner is singular in
any way, or breaking the law, come to that.
Killing grizzlies is big business in British
Columbia. The province sells killing rights in
two trophy hunts every year. Between 2001
and 2011 nearly 3,000 grizzlies – 900 of them
females – were ‘legally’ slaughtered by trophy
hunters.
Is this a popularly supported moneymaker
for the government? Hardly. First Nations
oppose it, environmentalists decry it – and 80
per cent of all British Columbians want it
stopped.
Especially since the government handles it
so ineptly. Each year the number of kills
exceeds the limits set by bear-management
policy. There are only about 15,000 grizzlies
in the entire province. By sanctioning the
slaughter of more than 300 prime animals a
year we’re cutting it fine. According to
biologist Kyle Artelle, grizzlies “have great
difficulties recovering from population
declines. A sow may have a litter of three
young every three years.”
What’s even scarier: we only think there
are 15,000 grizzlies left. It’s a govern-
ment estimate – from the same geniuses
who ran the east coast cod fishery into
extinction.
It’s a dangerous game to play, risking the
future of a magnificent species just to satisfy
the fantasies of men suffering from the twin
afflictions of too much money and penile
inadequacy. If we must have blood money,
how about a trophy hunting season on…
trophy hunters?
I’m sure even Darwin would approve.
Arthur
Black
Other Views
Trophy hunting: too much to bear Shawn
Loughlin
Shawn’s Sense
It is probably a safe bet to assume that
everyone has had to face a bully at some
point in their life. It’s also safe to assume
that a great many people have been a bully
once or twice before.
I’ve faced my share of bullies and, much to
my own dismay, looking back, I’ve been a
bully before.
However sometime between me facing the
bullies of my childhood and realizing, not that
long ago, that bullies plague the real world
after school, something changed about the way
people bullied and the way people react to
bullying.
I’m not going to say that life was a Norman
Rockwell painting for me growing up. I had
big ears and wore even bigger glasses. I read a
lot, knew a lot and eventually started acting
like I knew a lot and none of that is helpful for
a kid on the playground.
I met my fair share of bullies, but I know
that, at times, I also put people down. It’s safe
to say, I’m aware I wasn’t always dolling out
the warm fuzzies.
But bullying when I was young was... not
benign, but close to it.
People would face off against each other,
mocking each other for getting cut from a
hockey team or for wearing glasses or for not
being as fast or popular as other kids. Then
things would die down, people would forget
and we would all go back to playing kick-
across. (And if you don’t know what that is,
you missed something special by not going to
school at Robertson Memorial Public School).
To the best of my memory, we didn’t do the
“clique” thing. We all just sort of played
together.
I’ve come to realize since then, with the
exception of a couple people, most of the kids
in my class from Kindergarten to Grade 6,
before I moved out of Goderich, just sort of
got along somehow. I’ve also come to realize,
having gone to a different school or two after,
that wasn’t always the case.
However, as bad as it got, as tough as a bully
became or as hurtful as the insults that were
hurled may have been, we all bounced back
from it.
Things seem to be different today.
Maybe the bullying doesn’t stop. Maybe the
internet allows kids to be targeted long after
they leave school for the day and into their
home life. Maybe the mistakes we make
follow us a lot longer and a lot further in the
modern world and, I can admit, that’s a scary
thought.
Maybe (and I know this may frustrate some
people) kids are just softer nowadays.
There is also the chance that it’s an
amalgamation of all those things.
Whatever the reason(s) is(are), children
these days don’t always bounce back the way
my classmates and I did. Sometimes they get
low, and, after getting low, they don’t see a
way out from their problems anymore.
They start looking to extreme actions to get
away from their bullies and that’s how we end
up with school shootings and suicides.
This week we are all supposed to recognize
the fact that bullying exists and it needs to be
stopped.
However, I think that the problem goes a lot
deeper than everyone realizes.
I’ll harken back to a more recent column and
point out that one of the first forms of bullying
I was ever introduced to was the
institutionalized kind. As a kid I was taught to
compete with fellow classmates, fellow classes
and fellow schools.
Under the name of school spirit, we did all
sorts of things to dishearten our opponents.
From cheers to jeers, we’re taught that
bullying is wrong unless it’s directed at a
class/school that’s different than our own.
Beyond that, we talk about national
identities and, more often than not, national
identity is about saying we aren’t someone
else, not by pointing out what we are.
While I don’t wish to repeat too much of my
previous column, I will say that bullying isn’t
going to be addressed by having students band
together against it until we recognize there are
forms of bullying out there, forms of
competitiveness breeding feelings of anger,
that is more than allowed by society, it is
encouraged.
Getting out of school and getting in to the
real world can uncover layers of bullying some
people are just not prepared for.
Often times we’re told stories where it isn’t
the best person for the job who gets it, but the
person who is able to discredit their
competition the best.
Beyond that, entering politics, we see bullies
all the time. They throw mud at each other,
they accuse, insult, gang up on and inevitably
bully each other and it isn’t disparaged, it’s
accepted as a part of the political process.
Something does need to change.
Maybe kids shouldn’t be allowed on
Facebook or other social media sites because it
seems so many of these problems seem to be
focused on the continuing harassment that
happens there.
Maybe politicians should be held to a higher
standard and, once that happens, other people
can take that example and begin living it.
Maybe, and I know this is crazy, we can stop
focusing on what class someone is in, what
school someone is from or what country
someone is in and start aiming towards a
common goal instead of focusing on who got
to the goal first.
It may be cliché, but I’m pretty sure that
John Lennon hit this anti-bullying thing on the
head when he wrote the hit song Imagine and
spoke of a world with no countries, no greed
and no division, a world where people lived,
worked and died together.
Regardless of whether bullies are getting
meaner, victims are getting hit harder or
people just aren’t as emotionally hardy as they
were once upon a time, it’s apparent that
something needs to change.
The simple fact that there is an entire
Wikipedia entry on the term “school shooting”
is a symptom of a disease that needs a cure and
needs it now.
Denny
Scott
Denny’s Den
Bullies and the bullied and the real world
Just out of reach
After years of speculation from
councillors and Central Huron
ratepayers alike, the Regional Equine
and Agricultural Centre of Huron (REACH) is
finally under the microscope, with the
municipality’s huge investment said by many
to be more of a financial black hole than a boon
to the economy.
Next year will be the centre’s sixth in
existence and after initial business plans
suggested REACH would be self-sufficient by
year five (2013), members of the centre’s board
of directors are asking council for nearly
$250,000 to operate next year.
This has set off alarm bells for many
councillors and, as you’ll read in this week’s
issue of The Citizen, resulted in council
attending a REACH board meeting to discuss a
way out of the financial mudslide the centre
finds itself in.
Criticism of the centre is nothing new, as a
small, yet dedicated group of critics has been
attending council meetings for years,
constantly pounding councillors with questions
about the centre’s finances and operations.
Councillors and board members, however,
seem to be split on how to approach the
situation in terms of how involved the public
should be, despite the fact that, as Councillor
Brian Barnim correctly points out, the money
being considered for donation to REACH
belongs not to the councillors, but to the
taxpayers of Central Huron.
“Have a town hall meeting. I know it won’t
be a pretty thing... but the facts are the facts,”
said Barnim. REACH Board Chair Larry
Langan, however, said that a “contentious”
public meeting could negatively impact
possible future partnerships.
While, admittedly, I don’t often agree with
Barnim, he is right in this case. The facts are
indeed the facts and with the centre asking
council, and essentially taxpayers, for nearly a
quarter of a million dollars a year to operate,
residents should have their say in the matter.
REACH serves a small community of horse
people and special interest groups, many of
whom, through what I’ve observed, come from
all over southwestern Ontario, not locally, to
use the facility. It’s not a facility that serves the
entire community, like a community centre,
which historically loses money, but is often
used by everyone in the municipality in one
capacity or another.
REACH’s visitors may be happy to have
their time at the centre subsidized by local
taxpayers, but for the many locals who have
never set foot in the centre, that arrangement
can be a tough pill to swallow.
So while a suggestion from Councillor Alex
Westerhout that the two parties discuss
strategies or reorganization of the centre
behind closed doors may shield council from
its critics, perhaps its critics are exactly from
whom council needs to be hearing.
REACH Executive Director Jeff Marshall
said he is optimistic the board’s request from
council can be as low as $100,000 in as little as
three years, which is still a lot for the
municipality to absorb on an annual basis.
Shutting Central Huron ratepayers out of
decisions that could keep them on the hook for
hundreds of thousands of dollars in the coming
years simply isn’t fair to them. Whether or not
REACH will have success in the future should
not be tied to how involved members of the
public are allowed to be, especially when it’s
their money on the line.
If a business is in turmoil, its investors see
that as a time to huddle up. Now is not the time
for councillors to close the doors on the public,
when both sides have so much to lose.
“To laugh often and much; to win the
respect of intelligent people and the
affection of children; to earn the
appreciation of honest critics and endure
the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate
beauty; to find the best in others; to leave
the world a bit better, whether by a healthy
child, a garden patch or a redeemed social
condition; to know even one life has
breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Final Thought