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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1985-12-18, Page 4[640523 Ontario Inc.] Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. P.O. Box 152, P.O. Box 429, Brussels, Ont. Blyth, Ont. NOG 1H0 NOM 1H0 887-9114 523-4792 Subscription price: $15.00; $35.00 foreign. Advertising and news deadline: Monday 4 p.m. Editor and Publisher: Keith Roulston Advertising Manager: Beverley A. Brown Production and Office Manager: Jill Roulston The most popular fellow in Blyth on Saturday was Santa Claus, here for his annual visit. Despite blustery weather a huge crowd was on hand to see movies and get treats from the grand old man. The event is sponsored by the Blyth Lions Club. There are people who will tell you that the important decisions in town are made down at the town hall. People in the know, however know that the real debates, the real wisdom reside down at Mabel's Grill where the greatest minds in the town (if not in the country) gather for morning coffee break, otherwise known as the Round Table Debating and Filibustering Society. Since not just everyone can partake of these deliberations, we will report the activities from time to time. TUESDAY: Tim O'Grady said he heard on the radio the other day that somebody was complaining that the war toys are just too realistic these days. Tim figures if they are, we should be safe. He went out Christmas shopping last week and got his daughter (just to show he's not sexually stereo- typing his kids) one of these fancy deadly gadgets that are supposed to blast the representatives of the "evil empire" to their just reward. He got it home and before wrapping it, he decided to try it out (just to make sure it worked, of course). It barely made three trips across the living room rug before the batteries wore out and the ray gun fell off the front. Tim figures that if the real weapons are anything like these, 90 per cent of them will break down before they can start killing anybody. WEDNESDAY: Billy Bean came up with another of his schemes to make money today. He said he's been looking at these tanning salons they have in the cities. You know, those places where they go and bake themselves under heat lamps so they can look like they've just come back from the Cari- bbean? Hank Stokes said he knew some pretty vain people but he didn't think there were enough of them to make a tanning salon around here. He did have an idea though. If you could make those heat lamps look enough like the sun, people might be curious enough to pay to see what the sun looked like since it is past living memory when we last had a sunny day around these parts. THURSDAY: Julia Flint said she has been one of the last holdouts of her generation to the ideals of the 1960's: you know putting your neighbour before yourself, not amassing material things and so on. Still, she said, she had to admit the 1960's really were dead and buried. It wasn't that Ronald Reagan was in his second term in the White House and got elected because he cut social programs for the poor. It wasn't that Brian Mulroney was selling off Crown Corporations as if they were loss leaders at the supermarket. It wasn't even that the people who used to hike across Canada with knapsacks on their backs now travel only in airconditioned BMW's. What really told her the sixties were past was when she bought a granola bar in the store the other day and instead of finding it crunchy, found it soft, filled with chocolate chips and covered with caramel. FRIDAY: They got around to talking about Christmas shopping at today's session. Ward Black said he took his wife shopping in the city last weekend and every second person he met he recognized from back home. They were all in the city looking for bargains because of the high-volume of the stores in the city. Julia Flint said she was one of the few people who didn't go to the city to shop last weekend. Instead she stayed home and although there were plenty of people on the local main street, she hardly recognized anybody. She figures they were city people come to the small town looking for bargains because of the lower overhead of our stores. Burns UCW feasts The Burns U.C.W. meeting was held Dec. 11 at the home of Trudy Pollard. Twenty-one members present enjoyed the Christmas meeting with a delicious turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Gay Salverda, group leader, opened with a Christmas poem. Clara Riley had the Christmas message followed by prayer by Rev. Snihur. A reading "Christ- mas on the farm" was given by Ida Salverda. Margaret Taylor gave a reading, "Along way in deed". Romana Jamieson gave a reading, "Christmas comes in softly". In between readings carols were sung. Rev. Snihur was guest speaker and his theme was "An invitation from Jesus". It was moved by Trudy Pollard to give $1,000 to Londesboro church. It was moved a flower be placed in church on Sunday. Mrs. Riley reported 34 boxes were taken to Toronto. Five shut-in boxes are to be sent out with a card in each one signed by all members. It was moved that each month members bringcanned goods, baking etc. for the Friendship house. Gifts were then exchanged. The meeting closed with the Lord's prayer. PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1985. Editorial One trend we don't need Canada has always adopted fads, fashions and fantasies from the United States but one most of us could have done without was our recent addiction to lawsuits that has been accompanied by huge court judgements. Huron County administration is looking at a 100 per cent increase in the cost of insurance next year because the insurance companies, frightened by the trend of our courts to award huge liability payments, have increased rates for insurance coverage. Increases of as much as 1000 per cent in one year have been imposed on municipalities in Ontario this year. On a more personal level, we all face higher car insurance rates every year, brought on not just by the fact that today's plastic cars disintegrate so easily, but because law suits have increased the amount of liability coverage we need to carry. The Americans have been way ahead of us in this trend. Litigation threatens to take over from baseball as the national sport. It can, after all, be played 12 months a year even in northern climates. Lawyers have made it easier for people to think about suing because they agree to take part of the settlement, not fixed costs. This of course, makes them push for the biggest possible settlement because they'll get a bigger commission. It isn't just the cost of the actual settlements that take its toll. Companies that face lawsuits must keep expensive lawyers on retainer to ward off as many threats as possible and to do battle when the plaintiff can't be convinced to drop a suit. In some cases, it is less expensive for the company or government to settle out of court ,than it is to fight the case, even when the defendant feels his case is just. The results have begun to have adverse effects on society down there in a way we haven't yet begun to see. Some good family doctors have gotten out of the field because the cost of malpractice insurance has become so huge it isn't economically viable. Doctors delivering babies are particularly vulnerable because they're dealing with two people not one and if something should go wrong with ababy during the delivery and there,is a deformity or crippling injury, the suit may cover looking after that child for life. Newspapers in the U.S. threaten to be put out of business because of the high cost of defending themselves against libel suits. The large court settlements in Canada are likely to make lawsuits the newest form of lottery playing in Canada. The bigger the potential gain, the more people are likely to gamble on going to court and the more drastic effect it will have on society. Often the motive of the court is a good one. If one person causes a crippling accident that leaves another individual in need of constant care then shouldn't the guilty person have to pay the costs, not the injured person and not society in general? Yet the cumulative effect here is that society in general, through higher insurance rates and higher taxes to pay insurance rates, is going to pay the price anyway. The Huron-Perth County Roman Catholic Separate School Board is currently circulating a resolution to municipalities and school boards across the province asking the province to do something about the situation. No real solution has been suggested but the government need only look south of the border to see what lies ahead if they don't find some way to act on the problem. Here's hoping they can find a just solution. Canadian you say? Pity! "Wasn't that good? And it was Canadian too!" That was the surprised reaction of many people after the recent CBC presentation of the Canadian classic "Anne of Green Gables." What a horrible thing to say about the people of a country that they are astonished when they like something that was made in their own country. Yet it is the perception of many Canadians, including many who should know better (including people in the media), that if it's made in Canada it must be boring, cheap looking, full of bad language and incompetent. The word "Canadian" is enough to make many people switch channels. Even with the interest Anne of Green Gables generated, ratings will likely show most Canadians were watching some mediocre American show not the Canadian one. CBC must take some of the blame for this with its attempt to give culture to Canadians the way grandmother used to give codliver oil. Yet the inferiority complex of Canadians is legendary. Canadian singers and musicians had little luck making a living until radio stations were forced by regulation to play Canadian music. Today Canadian recording stars are among some of the most popular in the world. Canadian movies can't even make it to the screen of the local movie theatre unless they have the stamp of approval of a U.S. distributing company. One of the best police dramas on television this year is Canadian, though you'd never know it. The show is sold to the U.S. and seems to be set in some anonymous U.S. city to the point that when the producers wanted to stage a spectacular chase scene in Toronto's CN Tower, they had to rig the story to have the cops chase the villain to Toronto so he could run around the pod on the top of the tower. The CTV network with a horrible record in producing Canadian drama would logically boast about a home grown quality product but it gives far less promotiontothis than it does to Magnum P.I. or any other American show. Surely our modesty has&ot to the point it's a little sickening.