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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1989-11-01, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1989. Drugs are here too The seizure of thousands of dollars worth of drugs by Huron County police forces last week showed that quiet Huron County is not immune to big city problems. Police drug investigators readily admit that drugs are not the major problem here that they are in the big cities, but the problem still exists. While police say they didn’t come across any “crack” or cocaine during the four-month undercover operation, the potential still exists. If people can sell marijuana and hashish, they can also switch to more lucrative drugs. It doesn’t take many aggressive entrepreneurs in the drug business to create a major problem. The situation calls for vigilence to keep our relatively small drug problem from becoming a major problem for our young people. Intolerance grows With the relaxing of tensions between the Soviet Union and the West, people can think of real peace in the world as this Remembrance Day approaches. Can they think of real peace in their own country however? While sanity seems to be coming to the world’s main antagonists over the last 40years, while understanding and tolerance seems to be growing elsewhere, here in Canada it often seems it is the intolerant crazies who are getting the headlines and setting the national agenda. On the weekend the Reform party meeting in Edmonton passed resolutions that would seek to undo many of the attempts to build understanding in thecountry over the years. Canada’s multi-cultural policy should be scrapped, they said. Royal Canadian Mounted Police tradition “should not be jeopardized by any concession to religious or ethnic minorities”. And of course Quebec was told to either drop its fights to be declared a “distinct society” or get out of Canada. On the other extreme are the hardliners in Quebec who say they must either ha ;e the rights to override the Charter of Rights in order to protect the French language (as they did when English speaking people wereforbiddentoputsigns in English outside their shops), or there’s nj place for them in Canada. Have Canadians completely lost the knack of compromise that has kept this country going for 122 years? Have we lost the will to understand? Why have we chosen to build symbols into something so big that they endanger the kind of flexibility it takes to keep a big country like this together? Is the idea of a Mountie wearing a Sihk turban so terrible that it’s w orth all the fuss people have been making over it? Is an English-language sign on a Montreal shop such a danger tothecontinuationof the French language in Quebec that it’s worth thousands marching in the street, that it’s worth overturning the basic civil rights of a minority? While leaders in the Soviet Union, Hungary and Poland are coming to the realization symbols aren’t worth the effort to fight over, we in Canada seem to be creating problems for ourselves by attaching insane importance tolittle things. We seem tobe on the kind of course countries sometimes get on, daring someone to insult our symbols, getting ourselves backed into a corner that eventually leads to confrontation over something that isn’t worth fighting over. We have, in Canada, an opportunity to show the world there is a chance for world peace. If we can make this huge land with two official languages, with representatives from nearly all the races and nationalities, if we can make this work, then we can be an example to the world. With the growing intolerance that’s been on display lately, we may just prove the opposite, and lost a country to boot. Plaging it tough A speaker at the Huron County Pork Producers special meeting in Londesboro Thursday night pointed out a problem for Canadians trying to go head to head with Americans in the search for markets. Hog producers were discussing a new $2 a hog levy to offset a possible new U.S. duty which the Canadian producers think will be disallowed but they don’t know for sure. But if the Americans lose this case, the man said, they’ll just dream up another one to keep harassing Canadian packers and producers until they decide it’s too expensive to try to enter the U.S. market. With the various trade actions by the Americans, Canadian producers have already spent huge amounts in recent years to try to keep the market open. This despite the fact American farmers have just as many subsidies as Canadian farmers. What Canadians are finding out is that when dealing with aggressive American businessmen, you can lose even when you win. P.O Box 429, BLYTH, Ont NOM 1H0 Phone 523-4792 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 Taking flight 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 Filibustering So­ ciety. MONDAY: Tim O'Grady was egg­ ing on Ward Black this morning over the spat between Prime Minister Mulroney and Prime Minister Thatcher where Maggie signed a Commonwealth com­ munique then turned around and talked about how silly it was. “Mulroney’s finally getting a little of his own back,’’ Tim says, “saying one thing and then turning around and doing the other.’’ Ward said what could you ex­ pect, seeing as how Thatcher is a woman and they’re always chang­ ing their minds. Julia Flint boiled a little at that one but said one thing she hasn’t changed her mind about, that Ward shouldn’t be a politician if he’s such a male chauvinist. What it, Hank Stokes warned Ward, Julia might just get mad enough to take a poke at hime. And, Billie Bean put in, Mulroney better watch it he doesn’t get Maggie mad enough because he’s got a jaw that would make a mighty inviting target. “I imagine Maggie doesn’t pack much of a left but I’ll bet her right’s a killer.” TUESDAY: Hank Stokes said he sure likes this dry warm weather for getting things done but things sure are dry out there. “Even the river is almost drying up,” he said. Well, said Mabel as she was Continued on page 13 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $19 OO/yr ($40.00 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, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth We are not responsible for unsolicited newscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Editor & Publisher, Keith Roulston Advertising Manager, DaveWilliams Production Manager, Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968