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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1989-03-01, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 1989. Opinion Are there signs of intelligent life? A visitors from outer space who dropped in on Canada these days and happened to land in a hockey arena might report back that no signs of intelligent life had been spotted on the planet earth. Those who sometimes criticize Canadians as bland, too polite and too law abiding, have obviously never seen a hockey game. Hockey sometimes seems to bring out the worst in fans and players alike, particularly as the players progress closer to what is normally called “the age of reason’’. Plenty ofpeople complain about the violence in hockey but it appears few people in a position to do something about it consider it a problem. The older the players get, the more the Don Cherry school of hockey seems to prevail where the referees “let them play the game’’. Thegameofteninvolvestryingtorun opponents through the boards. It can involve high sticking, slashing, spearing, and general mayhem. Two players were ejected from Sunday’s Brussels Bulls vs. Tavistock Braves Jr. Dgameforspearing. Those crimes were at least called. But there are many other fouls where the referee looks straight at an incident that is obviously a breach of the rules but decides not to call it. The problem is that the same referees who call Junior games are often on the ice for games by younger teams and apply much the same criteria to what is deemed a penalty. The game gets rougher and rougher until something really bad happens. On Saturday, in a game in Blyth, a Belgrave Pee Wee was slashed across the wrist as he lay on the ice and he had to leave an important playoff game. Everybody in the arena made the call but the referee who stood right there looking at it. The only call he made was to throw out the Belgrave coach when he protested too strenuously that a call should have been made. Once body contact starts at Pee Wee hockey level the number of boys playing hockey drops off greatly. Many hockey leaders have professed worry about this but do little about it. All that is really needed is to apply the rules as they are already written. Few people are hurt in open-ice body checks but more are hurt in being crashed into the boards, elbowed, cross checked, slashed or hooked. But some coaches, some parents, and apparently many referees seem to feel that when boys get to the level of Pee Wee and beyond, they are supposed to be more manly, to be able to give and take. They “let them play the game’’ with many infractions ignored. And what do they teach these young men at an impressionable age? That rules aren’t really rules but just guidelines to get around if you can. That you have to be “manly’’ and try to intimidate your opponent. That the people who play by the rules aren’t real men but wimps. Why bother having rules if they aren’t going to be enforced except in the most flagrant violations? We have created a great game in hockey, but in this silly macho code we are demeaning it and driving both players and fans away from the game. The way it should be done Democracy is not an easy thing to practice but Hullett township council has shown bravery in the face of opposition in trying to do the best they can to make democracy work. Faced with what has become one of the most emotional issues in recent years, what to do with the land along the abandoned CP Rail right of way that goes through Grey, Morris, Hullett and Colborne townships, Hullett councillors decided a public meeting should be held. The meeting was held Friday night and there was no doubt about the tone of the meeting. Nearly everyone there was a landowner along the line and they wanted the land returned to them. But Hullett councillors refused to take the easy way out and simply go along. One by one they insisted they weren’t ready to make up their minds, that they thought more information was needed into all the alternatives for the land. They wanted to look at the rails-to-trails proposal. They wanted to look at a re-rail proposal for a regional railway. They wanted to look at the possibility the province should keep the right of way for a possible utility corridor in the future. Faced with more than a dozen angry landowners who weren’t interested in any proposal but one that would give them the land and let them reunite severed parts of their farms, that took a lot of courage. It’s the kind of leaders hip one needs from community leaders. The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOM 1H0 Phone 523-4792 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 Belgrave Creek in winter Russia is still a mystery BY RAYMOND CANON As a person who has kept an eye on Russia for a quarter of a century, I must admit to being still rather puzzled about what is going on in that country in spite of all the glasnost, or opennes which is supposed to be the order of the day. This is not to say that the Russian newspapers and other publications are more secretive than they have been in the past. Quite the contrary? On balance there is much more news that is being considered as fit to print that would never have found its way on a page of Pravda or Izvestia in the good, old Stalinist days. It is just that the Kremlin is being rather selective when it comes to releas­ ing statistics. For the last quarter of a century the Kremlin has been having its economic statistics published. Ad­ mittedly nobody on this side of the ocean put much credence in them but at least they got published. Not any more! All of a sudden these statistics have disappeared and I mean totally. There is one of two conclusions that can be drawn from this move. The first possibility is that the true figures are so damag­ ing to the Russian cause that the authorities refuse to print them. The second is that, in the glasnost era, they are so unreliable that the newspapers will have nothing to do with them. Perhaps as in many similar cases there is a modicum of truth in both of the above. The Kremlin’s equi­ valent of Statistics Canada is still Continued on page 5 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario, by North Huron Publishing Company Inc Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $17 OO/yr ($38 00 Foreign) Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2pm - Brussels, Monday, 4pm - Blyth We are not responsible for unsolicited newscriptsor photographs Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Editors. Publisher, Keith Roulston Advertising Manager, Dave Williams Production Manager, Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968