The Citizen, 1988-01-27, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27. 1988.
Opinion
This is justice?
There will be those who will say that justice was done when
Hilbert Van Ankum was acquitted last week of neglect of a mule
on his Wroxeter area farm but one has to wonder if this is real
justice.
Judge Robert Reilly agreed that any neglect to the
four-year-old mule from not keeping its hooves clipped had not
been wilful. Mr. Van Ankum was backed up by his veterinarian
who said the treatment of animals on his beef farm was
“top-notch”andbyHuronAg.-Rep. Don Pullen who said that
on a scale of 10, Mr. Van Ankum’s farm was a “high nine’’.
But despite the fact Mr. Van Ankum has been found not
guilty he has paid a high price. For nearly a year he has had to
live with the charges hanging over his head. His reputation as a
top-flight cattleman has been damaged. And he has probably
incurred high costs to defend himself against the charges.
In a court system that is hopelessly backlogged in cases, an
innocent person may have to wait months before having the
chance to prove his innocence. In a legal system where the use
of a lawyer has become essential and good trial lawyers can
charge hundreds, even thousands of dollars an hour, an
innocent person can be bankrupted proving his innocence. If a
person’s health, reputation and finances are all hurt by a charge
that should never have been laid, how much justice is there?
The people who laid the charges against Mr. Van Ankum could
have saved the time of the courts, the tax money involved in
pursuing the case and all the grief Mr. Van Ankum has suffered
if only they'd taken the time to check out the situation and talk to
the same people who testified in court about what a caring,
first-rate farmer Mr. Van Ankum is.
There has been little justice shown Mr. Van Ankum. Perhaps
the one good thing has come out of this was the way his fellow
farmers rallied tosupport him when the charges were first laid.
Reason over passion
Those of the Conservative persuasion are often wont to
remind us that we must put reason over passion, particularly in
things like the Free Trade debate. Would they could heed their
own advice in their attempts to get their government to throw
out the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications
Commission decision to give the licence for an all-news
television service to the CBC.
Led by western Conservative MPs, but joined by a majority
from Ontario and Quebec as well, the Conservatives are
pushing Prime Minister Mulroney to overturn the decision and
give the licence to Allarcom, an Edmonton-based bidder that
lost out to the CBC in the CRTC decision.
Partly the anger on the part of the MPs is a feeling that the
eastern interests will dominate again if CBC has the service.
Western MPs seem to feel if only they controlled the media and
the banks and the government, the whole way this country
functions would change.
Partly the anger comes from a philosophical idea that free
enterprise is naturally better than anything owned by
government. All one has to do is look at the horrid job private
television has done in this country of explaining Canada to
Canadians to shoot down that argument. Until recently when
CTV and Global discovered they could make shows in Canada,
make it appear they take place in anonymous U.S. cities and sell
them to American networks, they produced virtually no
Canadian drama. C.B.C. for all its faults was the only network
ready to tell us about ourselves and not dress Canada up as the
U.S. to get international sales.
The private networks did do somewhat better with news but
to expect an organization to start from scratch and produce
news 24-hours a day is expecting a lot. Undoubtedly we would
end up with much of the news being picked up from the U.S.
Cable News Network, promoting even more of the American
viewpoint in world events instead of an independent Canadian
view.
But the thing that really irks many M.P.s is the roasting their
government has often taken from CBC news. How can they
keep paying the bills for CBC and having reporters for The
National and other programs keep biting the hand that feeds
them?
The Conservatives aren’t the first government to feel the
sting of CBC criticism, but a thoughtful look would probably
show that CTV reporters and reporters from private enterprise
newspapers have been just as critical. It’s just the feeling that
these reporters are public leeches who attack their benefactors
that gets under the skin of the M.P.s.
The only real question, however, should be who can do the
best job of bringing news with a Canadian viewpoint. The CRTC
already knew that CBC with its bureaus around the world, is
far more capable of starting the new network and making it
work. TheM.P.sshould have enough else on their plate than to
set the precedent of trying to turn the awarding of television
channels into a political affair.
Mabel’s Grill
There are people who will tell
you that the important decisions in
town are made down at the town
hull. People in the know, however
know that the real debates, the
real wisdom reside down ai
Mabel's Grill where the greatest
minds in the town \if not in the
count ry\gatherformorningcoj'fee
break, otherwise known as the
Round Table Debating and Fili
bustering Society. Since not just
everyone can partake of these
deliberations we will report the
activities from time to time.
MONDAY: Hank Stokes, who’s
always reading those little stories
at the back of the paper, was
pointing out one in this morning’s
paper that said if the greenhouse
effect comes along as the scientists
are predicting, the extra water in
the ocean from melting ice could
put Saint John, N.B. under water.
Thatstarted a good talk about
which cities people around the
table would like to see under water
first. Tim O'Grady said it would be
good to see New York under water
because it would be the first time
the streets were clean in years. The
ocean, however, might not recover
from the pollution.
Julia Flint was wondering about
Beirut, which nobody would miss
much anyway. In fact, she said,
maybe the whole middle east could
use a good soaking.
"Do you think," asked Hank
hopefully, "the water will get high
enough to wash out Ottawa?”
TUESDAY: Billie Bean was talking
about the decision of the people on
Prince Edward Island to approve
buildinga bridge or a tunnel to link
the island to the main land. "Sure
wish I could get the contract to
build that bridge.”
Tim said he thought they were
crazy to make that decision. The
way the country’s going he was
trying to figure out a way to cut off
Huron county from the rest of the
province and float it out into Lake
Huron. Billie said he’d like to get
that contract too.
WEDNESDAY: There was a good
deal of fun around the table this
morning at the government's (and
Ward Black’s) expense about all
those free-trade promotional bro
chures being shredded to be used
as toilet paper. Billie Bean was
saying that 44 tons is an awful lot of
toiletpaper. Hank said yeh, the
way government employees take
bathroom breaks it might last a
whole day.
Ward said they could laugh all
they w'anted but now the proof was
out that the average family would
save $800 a year under free trade.
Julia said that was v?hat the figures
showed but other experts say that
you'll have to shop pretty hard to
notice that kind of difference. Hank
said his wife should notice then
because she shops hard all the
time.
Billie said he didn’t figure it was
going to make much difference,
this supposed $800 because after
looking at all the tax changes
lately, he figures by 10 years from
now Michael Wilson will have
figured out a wav of getting the
whole $800 for the government.
THURSDAY: Hank was saying
that (he Blue Jays are sure paying
Continued on page 5
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