HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1997-01-29, Page 5\
Arthur Black
THE CITIZEN. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29,1997 PAGE 5.
Opinion
Oh, we've got a real
Canadian hero
We are not good with heroes, Canadians...
we shove them on the nearest available
pedestal. We leave them up there for a while,
and then we begin to throw things at them.
Peter Gzowski
What I consider a hero is a guy who works
every day and supports his family. The
ordinary guy. I think to hold it together
nowadays is a heroic enterprise.
Leonard Cohen
Gzowski's right - Canada is very hard on
its heroes. We sneer at the Alex Trebeks and
the Christopher Plummers who go to
Hollywood or London to get famous.
Traitors! Turncoats!
We scoff at the Marshall McCluhans and
the Alice Munroes who stay home and get
famous. Cowards! Homeys! If they're any
good how come they ain't in Hollywood?
We've got a Canadian hero in our midst
who's been around for as long as I can
remember, and never received his due.
Trouble is, he's not beautiful like Pamela
Anderson Lee, nor articulate like Joni
Mitchell, nor graceful like Karen Kain.
As a matter of fact he’s middle-aged, and
built like a 260-pound beer stein.
But don't tell him I said so. Because if he
had a mind to, George Chuvalo could clean
my clock with his left hand and do yours
with his right - even though he’ll turn 60
next year. They just don't make them any
tougher than George Chuvalo.
For those of you too young to remember,
Chuvalo was Canada's gift to the world of
heavyweight boxing. He fought anybody
who ever cared to lace on a pair of gloves,
and though he wasn't the most gifted pugilist
the world has ever known, nobody ever
Go to hell — cheaply
When 1 worked for the Dept, of External
Affairs, there was a saying that a diplomat
was a person who could sell you a one-way
ticket to hell and make you look forward to
the trip. Now you don't need a diplomat to
tell you about it; you can see for yourself!
You are right if you think that this
statement needs a little clarification, so here
it is. To make the necessary discovery you
will have to travel to Singapore where, at the
city's Haw Par Villa, you can see not one, but
10 versions of hell and all for the low, low
price of $15. The details of what you find
when you get inside are based on what
happened to bad people in ancient China
when they died.
This shouldn't bother you too much since it
has always been my conviction that hell is
pretty bad regardless of what society it
represents. As it happens, the crimes
depicted there are nothing if not
contemporary and you should be able to
•relate to most of them.
Let's take the third court of hell where
transgressors are sent for having committed
such crimes inciting social unrest, showing
managed to knock him out- or even down.
He fought 97 professional bouts and he
fought the best. Floyd Patterson couldn't take
him out. Muhammad Ali, in his prime,
punched George till he couldn't lift his hands
any more. Chuvalo never backed up and
never went down.
Never lost his sense of humour either.
George may have looked like a barroom
bruiser but he had a fine mind and a quick,
deprecating wit. I remember the time he
appeared on Saturday Night At the Movies
with Elwy Yost. Elwy was more than a little
nervous, having this monument of
testosterone as a guest. Elwy burbled even
more than usual.
"Now George" said Elwy, "I'm trying to
think of the right world to describe your
nose. It’s not ex-actly Roman...it's not
precisely Greek..."
George interrupted with "Elwy, it looks
like a potato."
George is not fighting these days - not in
boxing rings in any case. Fact is, George is
going 15 rounds in the toughest fight of his
life. He is trying to wring some good out of
the fact that his wife and three of his sons
have killed themselves.
Heroin did the boys in. They just couldn't
handle the pressure of being the offspring of
Canada's toughest man. They took drugs.
They OD'd. They died.
And insurmountable grief over their deaths
claimed his wife Lynne. I knew Mrs.
Chuvalo slightly. We worked at the same
plant nursery north of Toronto for a couple
of summers. Lynn Chuvalo was feisty, funny
and as strong a person as I've come across.
But she couldn't handle the death of three of
her boys - and who can blame her for that?
So George is left. And what he does these
days instead of sucking on a bottle or turning
into a miserable recluse - what he does is go
around to schools and talk to auditoriums
full of kids to try and convince them to stay
By Raymond Canon
disrespect for their elders or trafficking in
drugs. Their punishment, in case you are
wondering, is to be tied on a red-hot pillar
and grilled.
In the sixth court, those guilty of
possession of pornography are educationally
sawed in two.
This is admittedly much worse than that
meted out to the resident of Singapore who
lived not far from the villa. He was fined
$50,000 for downloading porn from the
internet and having a copy of Penthouse
found in his possession. He is probably
eternally thankful that he did not get sent to
hell.
While I indicated above that the crimes
were based on ancient Chinese traditions, I
can only wonder how long it will be before
the paternalistic government of Singapore
gels around to including a few of the actions
which it considers reprehensible in that city.
By showing a horrible punishment as a result
of smoking, spitting, urinating in the elevator
or failing to flush the toilet, it might be able
to cure a whole generation of Singaporeans
of such unforgivable behaviour.
You probably have not seen this villa
advertised in any tourist brochures at your
local travel shop. But now and again I like to
be able to depart from haranguing you about
your economic sins, which you really all
know, and bring you something totally new.
away from drugs.
It is not an easy thing for George Chuvalo.
He is a man of action, not a man of words.
He breaks into a sweat every time he has to
haul his 160 pounds up onto those
auditorium stages and face a room full of
blank faces that never heard of George
Chuvalo.
But that's not the tough part. That comes
when he has to talk about his boys.
He tells the school kids about the
vomiting, the screaming, the rushing to
hospitals in the middle of the night. He tells
them about the son who wanted to study
Russian literature, the other son who wanted
to be a game warden. And how they both
wound up dead on the floor with needles still
stuck in their arms.
He tells this tale to any high school that
will have him. He has spoken at high schools
in Ontario, in Alberta and in British
Columbia. Chuvalo tells the students that the
little decisions they make now will affect the
rest of their lives. He tells them that drug
addiction does not happen overnight. He
tells them that as young people, they simply
do not know enough about the honors of
drug addiction.
The high school kids do not smirk,
whisper or nudge. They listen in total
silence.
And when it's over, I daresay there is not a
single kid in that audience that will ever
again regard heroin as glamorous or sexy.
As for George Chuvalo, he just does what
he's done all his life. He absorbs the pain,
sits on his stool, waits for the bell and the
next round, the next high school audience.
Then he goes out there, wades in, chin up,
and does it all again.
No Canadian champions? We've got at
least one I know of.
Ottawa? You were looking for someone to
pin an Order of Canada on?
***
Actually, the villa in Singapore is not a
new creation, having first been constructed in
1937. It has had its ups and downs but of late
has been doing quite well. Close to a million
people have come to see what hell was all
about; most of these were tourists and most
were from other southeast Asian countries.
However, if you haven't got the time, the
inclination (or the money) to go all the way
to Singapore, the best picture of hell you are
likely to get in this part of the world is to be
found in your local library. That is if they
have a copy of Dante's Divine Comedy,
where you can find a picture of not only hell,
but its halfway house called purgatory.
Dante Alighieri was an Italian who lived in
the Middle Ages and who, at one time, fell
moved to write a poem in memory of a girl
he had loved, but who had died at an early
age. The poem, which, together with the
superb etchings of Gustave Dore, takes up
about 200 pages, is a detailed description of
not only hell and purgatory, but heaven as
well.
It is without a doubt one of the great
masterpieces of world literature. Il gives you
a wonderful and personal vision of the
underworld and all adds up to the realization
that hell, either in the eyes of an Italian or a
Chinese, is not the most pleasant of spots.
Which is why the diplomat, selling his one
way tickets, has his work cut out for him.
Municipalities
beware!
THE EDITOR,
Look out Sudbury area! Be wary
Ottawa/Carleton municipalities! Watch your
back Timmins and suburbs! Keep your eyes
and ears peeled Windsor 4nd area towns! Put
your guard up Stratford! Beware
Peterborough area!
Look out all Ontario! No Town is Safe!
In an effort to download fiscal
responsibilities from provincial to municipal
jurisdictions, the government of Ontario is
planning to create as many super-ci lies as it
can steamroll through the legislature. It's
happening to Dundas, Flamborough,
Glanbrook, Ancaster and Stoney Creek right
now and it could happen to your community.
Plans are well underway in the Toronto
and Ottawa/Carleton areas and talks are
beginning in Windsor and Sudbury. The
Kingston amalgamation is neariy complete.
And all this is happening without any
public consultation of any sort! As a result,
Toronto has announced it is having a
referendum, as are the towns of Dundas,
Ancaster, Flamborough, Glanbrook and
Stonecreek. However, Mike Harris, Premier
of Ontario, as already said that it doesn't
matter what the result of the referendums is,
this is going to happen whether we like it or
not.
The effect on our town of Dundas is
profound. 1997 is our Sesquicentennial year.
One hundred and fifty years of history and
tradition will be dissolved with a sweep of
the pen at Queen's Park as our town charter
is revoked. And no matter how hard we try
to keep our community; the caring,
beautiful, friendly, dynamic town that it is,
after a while we will simply become a
neighbourhood of Hamilton. We will lose
our identity as assimilation lakes place.
The rationale for this is supposed to be:
saving money and ensuring one-slop
shopping for services. However no one, not
the govem-ment, the facilitator, nor the local
councils can show us how much money will
be saved and whether we could save even
more by simply utilizing better business
practices.
Even the prospect of reducing the number
of elected politicians doesn't add up as the
new mega-council will be full time and well
paid.
Historically, transition expenses run
around $50 million. Moreover, it has been
determined that Dundas' tax rale will
increase 20.7 per cent with some of the other
munici-palities seeing increases of over 50
per cent. We will lose local decision making
and will not have parity on the new mega
council. The only community seeing a
benefit from this deal will be Hamilton
which will reap our tax base to cover its
deficit while enjoying majority
representation on the new council.
Small towns are the life blood of Ontario.
They are what make Ontario a serene and
beautiful place to live and visit. They are an
oasis of caring, community minded people.
If we wanted to live in an uncaring, crime
and poverty infested mega-city, we would
move there!
We have to slick together and not be
bullied into something we don't want. Think
carefully before they come to your
community proposing a mega-city. Think
about what's at stake, historically,
financially, structurally and emotionally.
In Friendship,
Pat File,
The Dundas Citizens' Voice Committee
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