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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2006-10-26, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2006. PAGE 5. Other Views .ou probably didn't notice it because the Earth didn't move or anything, but there was a moment last year when everything on our planet changed, probably forever.' Sometime back in April — or maybe it was June, or November, we'll never know for sure — but sometime, a farm kid from Maple Creek moved into an apartment in Regina. Or perhaps it was a Mexican 'illegal' bedding down under a bridge in El Paso. Or maybe an Irish Sweepstakes winner from Killkenny took possession of a mansion in upscale Dublin —somebody, somewhere moved from the country to a city and tipped the scales. When that person moved in, it became official. Humankind became more urban than rural. A greater percentage of us now live under the bright lights than out in the boonies. And that has never happened before. It's not necessarily a bad thing, given our tendency to foul our own nests. If we're going to make a mess, it's probably better to keep it concentrated in a few spots rather than polluting and desecrating the entire landscape. But it will change our natures forever. And it will change our cities too. For one thing, most of those moves weren't made to, the downtown core. People are actually moving to the outskirts of cities, where land and housing are still (relatively) cheap and available. City centres are already crowded. They've got nowhere to expand but up, and that option has obvious limitations. So the outskirts are bulging. The so-called Riots of Paris last year didn't take place in any The one sure thing when an Ontario government-appointed judicial inquiry issues its findings soon in the 1995 shooting death of an unarmed native protester at Ipperwash Provincial Park is it will have some tough comments on police. Most people naturally will be watching first to see whether Mr. Justice Sidney Linden puts any blame on Mike Harris, the Progressive Conservative premier of the time. One of his former• cabinet ministers has testified Harris told police in no uncertain terms he wanted the Native protesters removed from the park a few hours before they moved to do so and shot Dudley George. But Harris and others, who were ministers with him have denied the allegation and government-appointed inquiries often have been lenient with politicians. The judge has said he will make his views known by the end of the year and has a wide- ranging mandate to report on events surrounding the death of George and recommend how to avoid violence in similar circumstances. His inquiry necessarily focused also on how the Ontario Provincial Police handled the incident and it was shown to have so many failings he can barely avoid criticizing it. Among them, the OPP originally claimed the protesters fired first, but now has officially said it has concluded the Natives were not armed. In one of many taped conversations, a police sergeant also said "we took gunfire from a car and we returned fire." But the OPP has now accepted all the shooting came from two of its own squads, which has some elements of those all-too- regular, war stories of so-called friendly fire killing a wrong person. Police also had told media they tried to remove the protesters after some of them Paris you'd find in a tourist brochure or Michelin Guide. They weren't burning cars and smashing windows along The Champs Elysee. The unrest exploded in the slummy and hideous outskirts of Paris, where 75 per cent of Parisians live. After passing the `Bienvenidos' to Mexico City signs, you can drive for more than an hour through overcrowded Third World barrios before you reach anything resembling the city's core. Most of the citizens in Istanbul and Sao Paolo, Brazil do not live even close to their city centres. Their homes are miles away in the swarming, sprawling outskirts. It's the same the world over. Fifty per cent of Barcelonans live in the outskirts, as does almost half the population of Warsaw. Meanwhile, what's happening to our downtowns? Well, they're changing too. The ones that haven't already been 'modernized' are trying to capitalize on their tourist cachet, which is to say, their quaintness and historical significance. They are, in fact, turning into museums of their former selves. It is still possible to live downtown, but it's pricey and getting pricier. Ask a New Yorker. threatened a car driver with baseball bats, but it turned out a Native merely had thrown a stone at another Native's car. Some officers emerged far from the fair, tolerant, even-handed members of the community they are supposed to be. Some in taped-recorded conversations were at least callous. The officer who killed the protester boasted "my guy dropped" and another rejoiced "we took out Dudley George, who's a jerk." One referred to a native as "a great, big, fat f---ing Indian" and another suggested "we thought if we could get five or six cases of Labatt's 50, we could bait them." The first officer commended "creative thinking" and the second chuckled "works in the south as watermelons." Such racist talk by police is not exactly a new discovery, but for decades politicians have been assuring the public new training was being given to end it. Senior OPP officers were found describing Harris and his associates as"barrel-suckers, just in love with guns," who "couldn't give a shit about Indians." This language may not impair their ability to fight crime, but it adds to the atmosphere of insensitivity and offends many. Other officers bordered on racism when they had so-called souvenirs made of this incident in which police killed an innocent man. These included t-shirts and coffee mugs with labels Or a Venetian. It's hard to think of cities-as an endangered species, but if there is such a classification, Venice is surely its poster child. Basically, Venice shouldn't even be there. It's built on 118 tiny islands situated on a marshy lagoon with the Adriatic Sea lapping at its doorstep. Venice has been sinking — or rather, flooding — for at least a century. Experts now think they've finally got a handle on the problem and the city has been pronounced safe. Pending global warming, of course. Now that they've figured out how to keep the burg afloat, Venetian city fathers face a brand new problem. The people are leaving. In the past 50 years the population of the city has shriveled from 121,000 to just 62,000 — a drop of nearly 50 per cent. In the past 10 years Venetians have been packing up and moving out at the rate of 800 a year. If it keeps up at this pace, the city will be completely devoid of residents by 2046. Venice council housing chief Mara Rumiz fears her city is approaching the point of no return. "Beyond then," she says, "Venice will never again be a normal city but will become a mere tourist destination and lose its charm — even for the tourists". Ah, there's the rub. How much can a city tart itself up and trick itself out before it loses its intrinsic allure and becomes little more than a tacky, barren photo op? Seems to me that's already happened to cities like Reno. And Niagara Falls. And what do we do after we turn our cities into uninhabitable tourist traps? • Where do we move next? Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your letters brief and concise. Spooky stuff The autumn crispness nips, the night stillness teases as darkness creeps in from the edges of twilight. Figures move, blending into the shadows, making their steady progress - one purpose, one mission in mind - to treat or trick. Halloween arrives on Tuesday night and the streets of our small towns will be bustling with trick or treaters. I don't recall a lot about the Oct. 31s of my childhood. I remember being taken around by car one year, and cringing in the back in sheer terror. I remember scooting around to nearby places with an older sibling as guide when I was still quite small. But I also remember that I was fairly young the first time I was able to gad about door-to-door with my friends. The biggest safety issue at that time was... Adtually, I don't think there was one. I know we wandered the entire town, visiting the homes of strangers as well as those of people we knew to be friends. Mom and dad did check the candy, I suppose, but I think it was probably more so they got first choice, then for any suspected mischief. Big kids could be an issue back then. It seems to me I do recall one particular Halloween when a group of teens delighted in an act of intimidation with us for a few harrowing moments. But generally, sending the kids out in costume on their own for a Halloween jaunt was pretty much the norm in the early 1960s. It's a different world out there now, even in small town Huron County. We are more cynical, leSs idealistic, and very aware of the potential for mishap and the dangers The costume clad, are a naive group, so the responsibility falls on adults to keep them safe. Some of the first precautions are in the costume. Children need to see and, be seen while out trick-or-treating so their costumes should be light colours and not so long that there is any danger of them tripping. Masks can obscure vision, so make-up or face paints are a better option. Glow sticks and flashlights will help light their way once dusk falls and increases their visibility to oncoming motorists. Trick-or-treaters should be reminded that the sidewalks are the safest place for walking. The rules don't change just because it's Halloween. Obey the traffic rules and don't dart across the street. The world is generally comprised of good people, but unfortunately evil exists as well and there's probably no better time to rear its ugly head than on Halloween. With little ones roaming the street, there is a danger of bullies, or worse, taking advantage. Small children should be accompanied by an adult, of course. But when they reach the age where they want to venture out on their own, mapping out an area in which they are allowed to visit may help you feel better about their safety. Remind them that they should, under no circumstances, enter the home of a stranger. As well, set a curfew. When the goodies come home make sure you check them thoroughly. Tampering doesn't happen very often, but taking precautions can avoid tragedy. Besides, it also helps you make sure that the treats are age appropriate. Most importantly, however, is to get these messages across without frightening the children, because one thing that hasn't changed is the fact that for kids Halloween may be scary — but in a fun way. Headin for the bright lights Police face rebuke from inquiry "Team Ipperwash '95," the insignia of their units and a feather and arrow broken on an anvil, which to Natives symbolize dead warriors. They also had shirts labeled "I support Ken Deane," the sergeant who shot and killed Dudley George and was convicted of criminal negligence causing death. More recently, another OPP emergency response unit based in Barrie was disbanded in 2004 after eight of its officers went to a house on a reserve and defaced Native icons. The officers also adopted a "code of silence" and deliberately misled investigators and some were counseled and others lost their jobs. A few months ago five officers . in Peel Region north-west of Toronto were ordered to take sensitivity training and had their pay docked after they circulated e-mails describing Natives as drunks and criminals. Some police are still not getting the message racism is unacceptable and the -Ipperwash inquiry has to help get it through to them.