HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-12-14, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1988. PAGE 5.
BY TOBY RAINEY
Life wasn’t much fun for Blyth's
June Foran last year at this time, or
for any of the three Christmases
before that. When winter began to
close in, so did her world - and spring
seemed a long time off.
Trapped in her own home by the
onset of a shocking blindness that
came without warning in 1983, there
wasn ’ t a lot she could do, or any place
she could go, without being totally
dependent upon her husband, Ron;
and that rankled to the point that life
often seemed almost too great a
burden to bear.
But all that has changed now:
Mrs. Foran has a new pair of eyes in
the person of a gentle and beautiful
German Shepherd dog named Bud
dy, and all of a sudden she can be her
own person again, coming and going
wherever and whenever she wants,
dependent upon none but herself,
and her Buddy.
“Ijust can’t imagine how 1 got
along without her,' ’ she says now. “1
don’t think there is a store in Blyth
that we haven’t been in these past
few months ... she's given me a
whole new life!”
“Yeah - that dog has more friends
in town than I do, and I've been here
for 25 years,” jokes Ron, beaming
with pride over his wife's accom
plishments, while Buddy thumps
her tail in agreement, content to
know that her beloved family is
happy.
Buddy is a Guide dog, specially
trained to serve as the eyes of a
master who can no longer see. And
even though she is only two years
old, scarcely more than a puppy, she
knows that whenever she is wearing
the special harness that is the badge
of her profession, she is to respond
only to the commands of her master,
and is to keep that master safe from
any harm that might come in the
form of unexpected curbs, obstacles
in the path, or even in the threats
sometimes uttered by other dogs.
Buddy’s learned and natural
protective instincts are causing her
and her master some problems in
Blyth, where the pair has been in the
news several times over the problem
of dogs running loose, dogs which
Buddy sees as a possible threat to
her master, sometimes lunging at
them if they get too close to Mrs.
Foran - a terrifying experience, June
says, when she can’t see what is
going on.
Born, raised and trained in cities
and on busy streets, Buddy had
never before seen a dog running
loose - or a cat, which can sometimes
be an even greater problem, Mrs.
Foran says. Blyth council is greatly
concerned about the problem, but
with a bylaw already in place stating
that dogs must be confined to their
own property, but not necessarily
tied, there is little anyone can do to
make Buddy’s job easier. June says
Buddy is getting better, and will
never bother with another dog
unless it comes right up to her, and
she expects the problem will solve
itself in time.
But in the meantime, she appre
ciates any help that people in Blyth
can give, adding that people have
been very good in keeping their dogs
found, and the trainer had to head
back to the city without making any
suggestions.
In Canada, virtually all guide dogs
are trained at the Canine Vision of
Canada School in Oakville, a project
which was instigated and is admini
stered entirely by the Lions Founda
tion of Canada, supported by Lions
Clubs in communities all across the
At present, it costs more than
$500,000 per year to run the school,
with a large part of the funds being
raised by Lions Clubs across the
nation, most notably the Walk-a-
Dog-a-Thons which are held every
year on the first Sunday in October
(last year, the project raised more
than $40,000 in District A-9 alone,
Mr. Chisholm says). But the Lions
June Foran and Buddy have become inseparable companions, with Mrs.
Foran enjoying the new-found freedom and independence the dog has
brought into her life. The pair are a familiar sight on the streets of Blyth.
in during the times she is likely to be
out with Buddy, and in telling her
when there is a loose dog on the
street or near a property line. At one
time, Buddy’s trainer even came up
from the Canine Vision School to
observe the problem first hand and
see if Buddy could be corrected in
any way; but although he, Buddy
and June walked up and down
village streets where other dogs
have often challenged the Seeing
EyeDog, notaloosedogwastobe
nation. The school has been turning
out trained guide dogs for a little
more than three years now, at the
rate of about ,45 dogs per year,
although it will be able to train about
150 dogs and people per year when it
gets up to running at full capacity,
according to Grant Chisholm of RR 2,
Lucknow, Canine Vision chairman of
LionsDistrict A-9, which takes in the
entire areafrom Goderich to Mit-
chell and across to Thornbury and
Orangeville.
The International
Scene
BY RAYMOND CANON
Needless to say, I was quite
interested in the recent decision by
the Fleck Manufacturing Company
to move its equipment out of its plant
at Centralia and have the work done
down in Mexico instead where the
wage rates are much lower than they
are in Canada. The move came as a
result of a strike by the workers of the
Centralia plant and it goes without
saying that the move caught the
strikers without an effective coun
ter-move although of possibility of
the plant closing had been in the
wind for a couple of days previous to
the actual event.
Even Bob White, the normally
competent head of the Canadian
Auto Workers union, was at some
thing of a loss. In trying to cheer up
the strikers outside the plant, he
threw out some of the silliest
statements he has ever made in
claiming that the move was the
resultof the free trade agreement. If
management thought they were
going to get away with stunts like
that, then the workers, led by Mr.
White of course, would be prepared
tooccupy the factories in order to get
their pointacross. He will, of course,
if he is prepared to go to jail for
trespassing. Good try, Mr. White,
but smarten up a bit. Don’t you know
reality' when you see it staring you in
the face?
The Fleck issue has nothing to do
with free trade. Mr. White, being in
the middle of the automobile
industry, should realize that what
happened toFleck iswhatisgoing on
wherever cars are made. Whether
the car you drive is of European,
North American. Japanese or Kore
an in origin, the chances are that the
parts in it have been made anywhere
in the world for there is no longer any
such thingasa truly North American
car. Even the so-called Big Three,
GM, Ford and Chrysler, all have
shares in Japanese car companies
and you have only to look at nearby
Ingersoll to see a concrete example
of the new wave.
The fact is that one car manufac
turermayeven have its gear boxes or
transmissions made by someone
who also supplies them to the
opposition or. surprise of surprises,
even made by one of the competitors
themselves. The whole market is
highly competitive and Fleck, like
anybody else, has to keep prices
down in order to compete.
From the looks of the wage levels
at Fleck, it appears that the w orkers
there would fall generally into the
unskilled bracket and this brings up
epes
of a
friend
large corporate donations toward
the support of the school, such as a
recent donation of $10,000 from Sun
Oil of Canada, a donation secured
directly by Mr. Chisholm who is a
Sunoco fuel oil dealer. The Purina
company, too, is an ongoing suppor
ter of Canine Vision, Mr. Chisholm
says, supplying several dogs per
year to the school, as well as all the
dog food required by animals in
training; Purina will also provide
dog food free of charge to anyone
using a guide dog over the dog’s
entire working life, Mr. Chisholm
says, while many local veterinarians
will provide free medical care, or
careatcost.toanyguidedogthey
have as a client.
All the dogs trained at Canine
Vision are donated by breeders or
just by interested persons, and
nearly all are German Shepherds or
Labrador Retrievers, both breeds
known for their intelligence; more
Labs are used because they are
quieter and seem to suit more
people, Mrs. Foran says. In her class
at the school, she was the only one
who got a German Shepherd,
although he has never been told
why: the new owners are carefully
assessed both in their home environ
ment and again at the school to make
sure that the match is as perfect as
possible before the dogs are allotted,
she says.
It costs about $6,000 to train each
guide dog, but none of that is
charged to the person applying for a
dog. Any individual in need may
apply to Canine Vision for assess
ment, and some are referred by
Lions Clubs in their communities.
June herself was approached by the
Blyth Lions Club soon after she was
stricken with blindness, offering her
the chance to take training at Canine
Vision, but she turned it down.
“I hadn’t had a dog for about 25
years, and Ijust wasn’t ready for it at
the time,” she says. ‘‘You have to
come to terms with your blindness
yourself before you can take on
anything else. It takes a lot of time,
because you know you will be putting
your life in the dog’s hands. It’sabig
step.”
It wasn’t until June went on a bus
trip sponsored by the Canadian
National Institute for the Blind
(CN1B) in July, 1987 which toured
the Canine Vision School that she
started to think seriously about
applying for a Seeing Eye Dog. She
did apply in October, 1987, but heard
nothing until March, 1988, when a
trainer from the school came to Blyth
to assess her in her own home.
Things moved quickly from then
on, and in early June Mrs. Foran
found herself at the Oakville School,
worried to death over being in a
strange place with strange people
and strange dogs: she had never
been away from home before, and
was ready to come home after two
days. Instead, she decided to stick it
out, and within a few 13-hour days,
exhausted but happy, she was
matched with her beautiful Buddy,
and the pair hit it off right from the
start.
Training involved learning to
work with Buddy in the city setting,
and it wasn't long before June felt
confident that she could put her life
in Buddy’s charge, even learning to
take a bus downtown on her own, no
small feat for a girl raised in the
country! The pair were home again
in Blyth three weeks to the day after
June entered Canine Vision, and
withinafewdayswerea familiar
sight on the streets of the village,
where it was Buddy who had to learn
to adjust to a whole new way of life.
‘‘She never smelled some of the
good old country smells we get here,
and she had never seen snow
before,’’June laughs. ‘‘She just
went crazy at the first snowfall, she
got soexcited that wcboth wound up
in the middle of the field across from
the house.”
Now, thepair issoadept at getting
around that many people in the
village will swear that the little
woman with the big dog must have
somesightinordertonavigateso
well. ‘‘But 1 don’t -- I just have my
Buddy, and that’s all I’m ever going
to need,” June says, while the big
dog’s tail wags in agreement.
Unskilled labour the same
the world over
another point Canadians would do
well to ponder. Canadian unskilled
labour is no better nor no worse than
unskilled labourelsewhere in the
world and it is a whole lot more
expensive than most. Forthis reason
it is going to continue to lose out on
jobs requiring such labour when it
can be done more cheaply else
where. You can rant all you want
about the evil effects of free trade,
real or imaginary but nothing,
including tariff walls, is going to
prevent this global trend from
sweeping over Canada.
The smart ones in this country are
the ones who are attempting to
upgrade their skills so that they can
fmd jobs in industries w here Cana
dian firms have an honest chance of
competing in an increasingly compe
titive world. Wavinga Canadian flag
is not going to do any good; people
have to make a living everywhere
and jobs are jobs to the Mexicans as
much as they are to the Canadians.
I feel sorry for the workers at
Fleck; they have been caught in the
vicious crossfire of competition and
their leaders either failed or refused
to.see the hand writin gon the wall
when they walked out for higher
wages. How much of this action was
on advice from the above mentioned
Bob White, I don’t know but, if it
was, then he, too, has become
something of an anachronism.
Canada has got to realize that our
industry has to run hard just to stay
in the same place; if we want to get
ahead, we have to run that much
harder. I have been teaching this
important fact in my economics
classes for some years; I sure hope
that somebody out there is listening!