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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1995-04-19, Page 4Citizen :A The North Huron P.O. Box 429, P.O. Box 152, BLYTH, Ont. BRUSSELS, Ont. NOM 1 HO NDG IHO Phone 523-4792 Phone 887-9114 FAX 523.9140 FAX 887.9021 Publisher, Keith Roulston Editor, Bonnie Gropp Sales Representatives, Jeannette McNeil and Julie Mitchell 1/1EPHRED CSFICULATION The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $23.00/year ($21.50 plus $1.50 G.S.T.) for local; $33.00/year ($30.85 plus $2.15 G.S.T.) for local letter carrier in Goderich, Hanover, Listowel, etc. and out-of-area (40 miles from Brussels); $62.00/year for U.S.A. and 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. Publications Mail Registration No. 6968 Good intentions: bad results Letters Photo by Jeannette McNeil Trees won't be free, warns Blyth couple THE EDITOR, Free trees? Taxpayers don't you believe it for one minute. You will be paying for the pickup, forest cleanup and delivery. The village owns and maintains the truck that will be used. The salaries paid for the manoeuvre are from our pockets. Is the intelligence of the taxpayer being insulted? Farm owners Would you not also like stones picked up and removed from your fields? They could be used for rock gardens or whatever large stones are used for. Governing powers never give something for nothing. Only the gift of love is free. Charlie and Verne Dakin. THE EDITOR, It has come to my attention that there is some confusion in the community regarding the status of health sciences program at the Stratford Campus of Conestoga College. Let me assure you that we are alive and well. Although the Registered Nursing program is being phased out, other health care programs currently being offered include Registered Practical Nurse, Health Care Aide/Personal Support Worker, and Home Support Worker. These programs vary from four to 18 months in length, are affordable, and provide excellent employment opportunities upon completion. They are designed to meet the changing needs of the health care system in Ontario. Yours truly, Carolyn McPherson. Who are these guys? This picture was brought into The Citizen by Doug Whitmore of Blyth. If anyone knows the identity of any of the people in this picture or could share any other information please let us know. PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 1995. Sometimes an attempt to do something worthy ends up creating more bad than good. The federal government's gun control legislation may end up being that kind of tragic mistake if it ends up causing the same kind of right-wing pro- gun lobby in Canada that exists in the U.S. It must have seemed like a no-lose situation for Justice Minister Alan Rock at first. Canadians, particularly urban Canadians, were disturbed and angry about the number of violent murders in large urban centres. Why not, he must have felt, look like he was doing something about the problem by imposing tighter gun controls. There are a lot more people who don't have guns in Canada than there are who do, particularly in the cities. There is no organized pro-gun lobby in Canada as there is with the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) in the U.S. Mr. Rock must still feel he's won the battle on the issue. The Liberal majority will carry the bill even with rebellious MPs like Paul Steckle voting against it. There will be a little attention paid to the angry gun owners by the media but generally they're seen as blood-thirsty neanderthals by the urban intelligentsia so the issue will go away quickly once the bill is law. What's worrisome, however, is that for the first time the kind of extreme NRA rhetoric that dominates U.S. politics is being heard here. Some extreme gun owners are talking about the right to bear arms and worrying about government "confiscation" of their guns. There is talk of hiding guns, of failing to obey the laws that call on them to register their guns. The NRA has even gotten into the issue directly, threatening to boycott Canada as a hunting destination if they're forced to register their rifles and shotguns at the border. It would be a tragedy if Canada became infected with the kind of NRA madness that sees opposition even to the banning of machine guns and other assault weapons, yet the actions of the government seem to be promoting that sort of reaction from some gun owners. Some of this reaction by gun owners is stupid and exaggerated but the sad part is that the legislation makes hunters and farmers feel like criminals while real criminals will still have no trouble getting guns. The gain from this legislation may not be worth the harm done. — KR Where were the activists? Pictures of wide-eyed, cuddly seal pups are still being used by animal-rights activists across Europe to protest the seal hunt, even though the hunt of baby whitecoats has been banned for years. Even though the only hunting allowed is of less photogenic adult seats, the cuddly seal pup was just too cute an image to abandon. Meanwhile on Monday, Greenpeace activists in England were protesting the extension of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty because they feel it encourages the continuation of the use of nuclear energy. These sound like groups desperately in search of a cause, which makes one wonder where they were in the turbot dispute and why they haven't noticed that the world is wiping out entire populations of fish through over-fishing. Nowhere were there protests in Europe about the Spanish using nets that scooped up "baby" fish by using nets with too- small mesh. Nowhere were there radical actions to sneak on board fishing boats and expose illegal practices. Each spring Bridget Bardot and the other fashionable activists come to Canada to continue protests over the seal hunt, perhaps reliving the nostalgia of their youth. If they had wanted to protest some Canadian environmental irresponsibility in the past decade, they should have been manning the barricades over our own over-fishing on the Grand Bank or in the salmon fishery on the west coast. But somehow, in this Disneyfied world, it's more important to protest in aid of a cute animal than for one that's slimy and, well, ugly, like the turbot. There are protests about the plight of doe-eyed calves being fed for veal. There are moves to protect whales and dolphins. There are huge, organized campaigns to protest "cruelty" to pregnant mares who wear special rubber garments to collect their urine for use in making hormone drugs. There are complaints about chickens in cages. There are graphic films showing the killing of animals in slaughter houses. There is nothing about the destruction of life in the seas that make up the biggest portion of the earth's surface. Perhaps the problem is that there are no graphic pictures of fish being caught, of them twisting and turning to get free. Perhaps we need Disney animators to create more cute turbot. Perhaps someone needs to point out that without fish, those cute seal pups will starve. Unless they get involved, the activists will lose all credibility.— KR E ditorial 1