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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1989-03-08, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 1989. Opinion Biyth Festival's bigger than we think Probably even many long-term supporters of the Blyth Festival we re a little stunned at the size of the provincial government’s $900,000 grant to the expansion of the Blyth Festival facilities including an addition to Blyth Memorial Hall. Perhaps it’s a case of something being so familiar to us that we don’t realize how big a shadow the theatre casts across the entire arts scene in Ontario. The size of the grant puts the Blyth Festival in a class approaching arts giants like the Stratford Festival or the Canadian Opera Company. Despite the prevalent feeling that government is too free in throwing around citizens’ money, such grants are not made often. It took two years of negotiations for the Festival fundraisers to get this one (as well as a good deal of co-operation from the village of Blyth councillors and staff). The money for funding capital projects in the arts is extremely limited and the competition for the money is tough. So the fact that the Festival was able to get a grant of this size says a lot about how much the people in the know, the people in charge of cultural affairs in the provincial government, regard the Festival as a pillar of Ontario's culture, just as the $450,000 federal grant last fall shows how important the Festival is on a national level. The story of the little acorn that grew into the huge success the Festival is today has been repeated so many times that we’ve gotten used to it by now. Perhaps this large recognition by the senior governments should make us take a new look at what has become an important part of life in Huron County as well as on a national scale. The recognition also puts a heavy load of responsibility on the shoulders of the volunteers and staff of the Festival itself. The little theatre set out to serve the local public first and others from across the province and the country became interested because the Festival’s plays were interesting and well done. The challenge now for the Festival is to continue to serve the national audience without losing track of what the theatre is all about; providing plays that speak specifically to the kind of experience of Huron county people, both in the towns and villages and on the farms. It must manage to be both a small village business and a large national entity. Walking that narrow line may be a tougher task than building new facilities. The rest of us have an easier task. We can just sit back and enjoy having such a prestigious national organization in our own back yard. Proving the point Frosting Letter from the editor Once again last week the 11 top Canadian leaders, the prime minister and the premiers, got together to talk about Meech Lake and once again the pressure was put on the two unsigned provinces to sign. The Prime Ministers and the other premiers who have signed the agreement like Ontario’s David Peterson, argue that the concerns of Frank McKenna of New Brunswick and Gary Filman of Manitoba cannot be addressed until Meech Lake is ratified by all the provinces. To open up the deal and try to make the changes now would be impossible, they argue, because getting unanimity is a once in a lifetime thing. Changes would make the whole deal fall apart. The Prime Ministerandthepremiersdon’tseemtosee that in such an argument they are proving just what the opponents to the Meech Lake deal have said: that the provision in Meech Lake that future changes to the constitution must be passed unanimously, will handcuff future generations of Canadians from having constitutional reform. MeechLakeistheonlytimethefederalandallthe provincial governments have ever been unanimous on constitutional change in nearly a century of trying. Only by locking themselves away in an all-night bargaining session with the opinion of the Canadian public excluded, was this deal struck. Public opinion polls shows that if it were up to the Canadian public, this deal wouldn’t be accepted, but there has been a conspiracy of silence between the premiers who we re the re, the federal government and both opposition party leaders, not to challenge the deal and its provisions. Premier McKenna and Premier Filman may feel very lonely when they sit in a federal provincial meeting and have nine other leaders pressuring them to change their minds but they have millions of Canadians on their side. We can only hope they don’t give in: that they don’t sell us down the river, too, by accepting this bad, bad constitutional deal. Maybe we're being had BY KEITH ROULSTON Did you ever get the feeling you’ve been had on this whole Salman Rushdie and “The Satanic Verses” affair? I don’t mean that the offer of Ayatollah Khomeini to pay millions of dollars to the person who kills Salman Rushdie for the insults to Islam allegedly contained in the book isn’t alarming, it’s just that the way this issue has spread fear throughout the western world will likely seem a little silly when we look back on it. Canadians and other westerners have been caught between defence of a basic principal of democracy and the guilt we feel because we’re told over and over again that we discriminate against this or that minority. Muslim leaders in Cana­ da have been quite ready to worry that the fuss has been demeaning them and contributing to a stereo­ type that Muslims are radicals and dangerous, yet I think many Mus­ lims are ready to play on that very fear and ignorance on the part of westerners to get their goal of getting the book off the book­ shelves. While Muslim leadership has agreed the death threat is wrong, I wonder if a few leaders aren’t silently pleased that many bookstores refused to sell the book because of fear that staff might be in danger. If Canadian Muslims are as peaceful as their leaders would have us believe, and we have no evidence that they aren’t, then our booksellers have little to fear. Sure there have been death threats called in to book stores but some nut is always ready to call in death threats from the safety of an anonymous telephone booth. When Tom Landry was fired as the coach of the Dallas Cowboys football team, the team’s owner received two death threats for heaven’s sake. When movies like “The Last Temptation of Christ” come out, there are Christians who are ready to call in death threats too. But how seriously do we take them? But in this case, the whole issue of freedom of speech, one of the backbones of our democracy, has been put in danger because of the rantings of a powerful, religious leader halfway around the world. Powerful as he is, do we really think the reach of me Ayatollah reaches around the world to punish booksellers in Canada? The few death threats in Canada have played on our fears of this seemingly irrational religious group led by the Ayatollah. Even though few of the Muslims in Canada are from Iran or are followers of the Ayatollah, we’ve worked ourselves into a state of panic at imagined possibilities of selling this book. In our innate fairness there have been Canadians who have agreed that the book shouldn’t be sold here, even though we’d never think of listening to Christian groups that called to banning a book that was equally as insulting to Christians. If the image of Muslims in Canada suffers from all this, Cana­ dian Muslim leaders deserve some of the blame. While they have disagreed with the death threat, they still are virtually unanimous that the book should be banned. The ambassadors of various Mus­ lim countries who last week refused the urging of Joe Clark, Minister of External Affairs to condemn the Ayatollah but instead turned on Canada demanding the book be banned, are equally to blame. If they have faith in their religion they shouldn’t be afraid to let it stand for itself, not be threatened by a book few people would have read if not for all this fuss. They Continued on page 8 P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont NOM 1H0 Phone 523-4792 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario, by North Huron Publishing Company Inc Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of 517 00 yr (538 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 unsoli'- ted newscripts or photographs Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. 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