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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1987-02-25, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1987. Unfair treatment? Media representatives in Huron county are not in good standing with many members of Huron County Council these days since the publishing of a story in the London Free Press last week that devoted two pages to accusations that county administrator Bill Hanly and a handful of councillors run the county like a private corporation. The tempest had been brewing for a considerable length of time and had been stirred up by the resignation of former Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Harry Cieslar and the dismissal of County Librarian Bill Partridge. More turmoil was created by the county’s attempt to have the county library board dismantled and the operations of the library before a committee of council and the subsequent dispute over the reappointment (or lack of reappointment) of one critical board member, Janis Bisback of Hensall. There is no doubt there is some room for complaint over the councillor’s treatment at the hands of the Free Press. Pictures of Mr. Hanly, former library board chairman Tom Cunningham, Reeve of Hullett and Warden Brian McBurney are all very unflattering while photos of their critics are all posed pictures showing them in the best light. Then there’s the fact that the Free Press, which long ago consciously abandoned attempts to provide news coverage in Huron, seems only to be interested in the county only when it sniffs scandal. Having set out thinking there was a problem here, it seemed unlikely to suddenly decide on talking to people that the whole thing wasn’t worth a story. Although there was little substantial fact in the lengthy stories, the fact the Free Press devoted so much space to the issue makes it more important than it probably was. The weekly newspapers of the county have their own deficiencies in the matter. Because of a lack of time and money, ourlocal papcrsjustaren’tabletodigintosuch issues and come up with the truth. Even having one reporter devote several days to researching and writing a story can mean an article costs a newspaper hundreds of dollars. On our small budgets Huron county’s weeklies just can’t afford that. Without that kind of indcpth reporting, it’s impossible to strain out fact from vindictiveness in a situation like this one. One thing rings true through all the accusations and innuendo, all the charges and counter-charges: a certain uneasiness between councillors and county employees. Whenever there are part-time legislators and full-time administration there will be tensions. The politicians will wonder just how real the needs and the complaints of the professional staff are (especially when the staff earn salaries many of the councillors can only dream of). The staff, doing their job every day, feel the politicians don’t know what is going on and are meddlesome in their desire to get control of the staff instead of letting them get on with their jobs. It’s a tension that may be as healthy in a democracy as it is inevitable. What Canadian culture? Clayton Yeutter, the United States Trade Ambassador, caused a storm recently when he said (apparently straight-faced) that if the U.S. was willing to risk its culture in free trade negotiations with Canada, then Canada should do the same. But while most Canadians reacted negatively, Ambassador Yeutter got some support from an unusual source, Senator Jerry Kaplan, the NDP organizer. Maybe there is cause to question some “cultural” protection legislation Canada has, he said. What good, for instance, have private broadcasters done for Canada in exchange for the protection we have given them under Canadian law. (He made the comments in his regular weekly panel dicsussion on CT V Canada AM. The interviewer quickly changed the subject.) The Senator has a point. Parliament passed a law years ago to protect Canadian stations from competition from U.S. stations in border areas by not allowing deductions as a legitimate business expense for the cost of advertising on U.S. stations. There is also a law that says where a television show is available on cable TV on both a Canadian and an American channel, the ads on the U.S. channel must be deleted and replaced with Canadian ads. These laws have infuriated Americans in the business. And what have they done for Canadians? Well, it has made a pile of money for those lucky few Canadians who own television stations, but the rest of us haven’t got a lot out of it. In return, the television companies are supposed to give so much of their time for Canadian content, but they spend more time finding ways to cheat the content rules than they do making programs. I hose they do make are usually either news programs or cheap game shows. Then we have Canadian television stations that automati­ cally import American programming even if there is no real relevance to Canada. “Amerika” last week on CTV is a case in point. What is the logical reason to devote 14l/2 hours or prime time television to this right-wing American paranoia? That’s probably more time than the network devotes to Canadian drama in two months. Network executives will say their only responsibility is to make a profit for their shareholders. If we’re going .to live for profit only, however, why not open the border and let the A mericans send us their propaganda and make the money from it, too, even if it drives the private broadcasters out of business? At least that way it would leave what advertising dollars there are to help pay the costs of CBC, a Canadian alternative. Sundown by the river Mabel’s Grill 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 Fili­ bustering Society. Since not just everyone can partake of these deliberations we will report the activities from time to time. MONDAY: Tim O’Grady loves to torment poor Ward Black about all the scandals going on in Ottawa. He was on him this morning about the latest developments in the Roch LaSalle mess. “I don’t know what all the fuss is,” Ward argued back. ‘‘All these guys, even if they are guilty, haven’t done anything the Liberals didn’t do when they were in power.” “Sure,” Tim said, “and you Conservatives are so much more efficient about it. It took the Liberals 20 years to have as many scandals as you Conservatives have had in three.” TUESDAY: Billie Bean said he was looking in a Toronto newspaper this morning and thought for a minute the post office was finally getting its act together. There was a picture of a stage coach beside one of those red mail boxes in the city and he thought maybe the post office was going back to the days when they delivered the mail on time, but then he discovered it was just a publicity shot advertising a stamp that commemorates the first post office in Toronto. WEDNESDAY: Julia Flint was upset this morning about the fact the Americans are going to be testing the cruise missle in Canada again. She said she isn’t even sure the Americans need the missile with all the other weapons they have, and if they think they do, they should test it over their own darned country. Ward explained that the Ameri­ cans needed to test in Canada because it wanted to simulate the conditions the missile would en­ counter over Russia if it was ever used: frozen wasteland. Tim said if it was wasteland they were looking for, they should be testing it over Ottawa. Billie said that he was all for the testing if it means they can work out the bugs that made two of the Continued on page 39 Praise to post office staff THE EDITOR, Three cheers for our local Post Office staff. Their efficiency is ‘‘parexcellence.” Keep upthe good work. May we have them in our midst for years to come. Two grateful patrons Lloyd & Aimee Barth [Published by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. ] Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Published weekly in Brussels, Ontario P.O.Box152 P.O. Box429, Brussels, Ont. Blyth, Ont. N0G1H0 N0M1H0 887-9114 523-4792 Subscription price: $15.00; $35.00 foreign. Advertising and news deadline: Monday 2p.m. in Brussels; 4p.m. in Blyth Editor and Publisher: Keith Roulston Advertising Manager: Beverley A. Brown Production and Office Manager: Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968