Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1997-03-05, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 1997 The North Huron P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOM 1H0 Phone 523-475 FAX 523-9140 PAIO The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $27.00/year ($25.24 + $1.76 G.S.T.) in Canada; $62.00/year in U.S.A, and $75.00/year in other foreign countries. 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 Letters itizen P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. NOG 1H0 Phone 837-9114 FAX 887-9021 Publisher, Keith Roulston Editor, Bonnie Gropp Advertising Manager, Jeannette McNeil E ditorial i ....._______________j CCNA Photo by Janice Becker VERIFIED CH3CULATION Harris must start listening Does a vole once every four or five years for a provincial government give the winners a blank cheque until the next election? The provincial government will give an indication with its reaction to the overwhelming vote against the amalgamation of cities in Metropolitan Toronto. Premier Mike Harris and Municipal Affairs Minister Al Leach have already indicated they will go ahead with legislation to amalgamate the six municipalities no matter what the results of the referendum were. On Monday, before the votes were counted, Harris already was discounting the results, saying the voting method was flawed (people could phone in to register their vote). He felt a survey by a professional polling organization was more scientific, but that survey too, showed people opposed to amalgamation unless they could be assured taxes wouldn't rise. The government hasn't been able to give that assurance. It conducted one study to predict savings from amalgamation but even the man who presented the study admitted some of the assumptions he made could have been flawed. But facts and figures don't seem to matter to this government anyway. Leach, after the mega-week announcements of downloading to Ontario's municipalities, assured people their municipal taxes should go down in a year or two. Municipalities calculated they got far more in costs than the province took (in Huron County, $13 million more). The province has never presented any figures to back up its claim that municipalities got a fair deal. It has been the style of the Harris government not to explain. The premier seems to feel he has been elected CEO of a corporation. He makes decisions and the rest of us, workers for the corporation, are supposed to go along without question. But even in the corporate world, this kind of model is something from the bad old days. Smart modem managers know that even if a company isn't a democracy, getting people on side will make it much more likely for the company to succeed. But Ontario is a democracy — or at least it was until the infamous Omnibus bill gave the government the power to take on dictatorial powers (and hand them out to unelectcd bodies like the Health Services Restructuring Commission). A democracy is a changing thing, not something where people have their only input at election time. Public opinion between elections must be taken seriously (strangely, if a poll shows Mike Harris ahead of the opposition parties, he’s quick to quote it as public validation of his agenda). The Toronto vote, flawed as it may be, will be a test of Harris' belief in democracy. If he thinks the voting system was improper, he should organize another referendum with rules he thinks are fair. And while he is at it, he should start listening to public opinion on other policies such as hospital restructuring. People's needs and wishes should matter all the time, not just at election time. — KR Tyranny of the majority It's very comforting when people feel they have the moral right to impose their will on others— very comforting, but very dangerous. There's a runaway movement in North America right now to make life so unpleasant for smokers that cigarettes will be snuffed out. The cause is good, the extremes of the campaign is not. Given the number of people who become ill or die every year because of the long-term effects of smoking, it should be a goal of society to end this filthy habit. But the campaign is taking on the trappings of a witch hunt as anti-smoking proponents push through regulations that seem to have more to do with punishing people than with public safety. A non-smoker should not have to breathe the smoke of a smoker, but some anti-smoking forces aren't prepared to stop once that protection has been assured. Toronto now has a total smoking ban in bars and restaurants unless a segregated, ventilated room is set up with less than 25 per cent of the floor space. It smells of harassment, not protection. In the U.S., President Clinton has proposed a law that anyone under the age of 27 would have to provide proof of age before being allowed to buy cigarettes — the idea being to keep mature-looking teens from getting cigarettes. We're going too far for a good cause. — KR THE EDITOR, On Friday, Feb. 28, 348 teachers and education workers of Huron County held a rally at the constituency office of Huron MPP Helen Johns. I delivered the attached statement to MPP Johns on behalf of OPSTF-Huron. MPP Johns submitted a letter to the editor which appeared in the Huron County local papers the week of Feb. 26 in which she asked the question, "What is it that they (teachers) are marching about? I believe that my statement to MPP Johns answers her question. MPP Johns We, the teachers and education workers of Huron County, are here to express our deep concerns for the integrity of our Huron County schools, for public education in general and for our profession. The focus of education should be the three R's. Mr. Snobelen, Minister of Education and Training, has refocused education in Ontario with the four C's - Cuts, Crisis, Change and Classroom. It is quite obvious that the letter "C" is indeed a favoured letter with the minister. His most often used expression in public debate is "Let me make this perfectly clear!" With all due respect, we are here today to make some things perfectly clear ourselves. Cuts have hurt the classroom. Cuts have hurt the students in our classrooms. There are more students in each classroom. There are more students with needs in our classrooms. Teacher librarians and special education resource teachers have been eliminated and reduced respectively in our schools. Programs like music, physical education and junior kindergarten are under attack. Cuts have hurt the classroom! The minister early in his mandate promised to create a crisis in Ontario's public education system. Sad to say that this is one promise that the Minister has kept. Minister Snobelen has initiated unprecedented CHANGE in order to provoke his crisis. The onslaught of change includes the Secondary School Reform Initiative, the new elementary curriculum reform, province wide assessments through the EQAO, education governance changes within Bill 104- and threatened changes to teacher collective bargaining rights and means. »*• Educators are used to educational reform over the past 150 years of Ontario's educational history. Educators welcome worthwhile and tested changes to curriculum and education that is progressive and beneficial to our students. Teachers are in fact agents of change. We have embraced the use of computers and technology in our classrooms as an example. The intensity and frequency of recent changes and those proposed will lead to chaos. Writer reminds that work still to be done THE EDITOR, "If I had only known, I would have...!" This statement of a mother observing her daughter's success in education could have been made anywhere. Worldwide, the face of poverty is increasingly becoming female. We all know of examples of women who feel that, if they had only had access to further knowledge or learned specific skills, life would have turned out differently for them and their daughters. Despite a lot of progress, women are still earning less than men in comparable positions: the majority of poor in Canada and elsewhere are women and single mothers. The 1997/98 budget of the federal government will do little to change that situation. March 8, International Women's MPP Johns, please tell the Minister of Education that a classroom is not just four walls with a teacher, students, books, paper, pencils and a computer. The minister tells the public that for every dollar spent in the classroom, 80 cents is spent "outside of the classroom". This is misrepresenta­ tion! He is neglecting to include in his calculations things like the school library, guidance, teacher preparation time, school resource teachers, principals, vice-princi­ pals, arts, sports, custodial services, the school secretary, transportation and busing. A classroom does not stand on its own. Snobelen's definition of classroom devalues all of the programs, educational, personnel and services that support the "real" classroom in a "real" school. To replace existing employees who provide custodial, secretarial and support services with low-wage, casual employees is foolish. To target these employees is to suggest that their Continued on page 5 Day, is intended as a reminder that the situation for women in the world is not equitable and balanced. There is still a lot of work to be done. In Canada, we may think that we face obstacles, but they fade in comparison to developing countries in Asia and Africa. For a mother in places like Bangladesh, the lack of opportunities for learning and obstacles to development are dramatic. It is difficult for us to fathom unless we have been there and spent time among the women. In the villages of Bangladesh, many thousands of women have embarked on a road towards change. Supported by Canadians through USC Canada, they have been able to move obstacles from their path and have lea-ned new skills, started small businesses and Continued on page 7