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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1983-04-06, Page 44 • Times -Advocate, April 6, 1983 Ames - dvocate Times Established 1873 Serving South Huron, North Middlesex Advocate Established 1881 8c North Lambton Since 1873 Amalgamated 1924 Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited i LORNE' EEDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager BILL BATTEN Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor DICK JONGKIND Business Manager Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mal Reabtratlon Number 6386. . Phone 235-1331 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $21.00 Per year, U.S.A. $56.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' and 'ABC' *CNA Protests bring results Who says protests don't work? During the past couple of weeks, two protests have resulted in apparent success for those involved. The people of Crediton and Dashwood succeeded in convincing the Bank of Montreal to cancel plans to close their sub -agencies, while Farm Survival member Allen Wilford succeeded through a hunger strike to get the Canadian parliament working on a farm bankrupt- cy repatriation program. There is, of course, little similarity in the two types of protests. The residents of Crediton and Dashwood conducted a peaceful appeal, and while there may have been a form of intimidation in the threat to take their business elsewhere, that is a prerogative they enjoy under any circumstances. Bank officials were faced with a business decision only. That was not the case with the hunger strike of Mr. Wilford. It was a violent tactic with a human life at stake, although he alone can judge whether it would have been carried to that end or was merely a threat. Regardless, it was an,action that brought results, although the implications are severe if others see such forms of intimidation as a vehicle to press others into the action desired. It opens up a whole new threat of blackmail, hostage -taking and suicide; a threat which can only be dispelled when people clearly show they will notpay the price of any such intimidation. Battle for .power Peter Pocklington may not be the current favorite in the Progressive Conservative leadership race, but there are indications that as the richest man in the con- test, he could win if he follows the example of others in the questionable antics going on in the fight for con- vention delegates' positions. At meetings in Quebec last week, some skid -row men were hustled off in buses to be registered as voters in the riding meeting. Few of them knew, what they were doing, apparently being given only the names of delegates for whom they •were to vote in return for whatever favors were given them. The success of the leadership candidates, of course, is based to a great extent on who is chosen to be a delegate for the vote at the convention. Skuldug- gery, blackmail, bribery, intiniidation or other means to get the right delegates chosen is apparently being used by some. The frightening aspect is that those methods are being used to pick a candidate who may well become the next prime minister of Canada. While ail the candidates would naturally disassociate themselves from any questionable prac- tices on the part of their supporters, it does show the lqw state of politics in this nation and the dgpths to which some will stoop to better their cause -and attain power. Of course, Canadians may not find the price some will pay to get elected too surprising. They've been paying the high price of patronage and promises for years, some of it above the table and certainly that which is passed out under the table. This is free enterprise? It seems that some of Ontario's lawyers are upset about the number of young people graduating from law schools and entering the profession. The practising lawyers have set up a study aimed at determining whether or not limitations should be set on the number of law students which can be accepted for training. In other words, too much competition for business might do some nasty things to the existing structure. Wedoubtthat many lawyers are in favor of this total- ly undemocratic approach to an economic problem. Those who do see a need for limitations on competi- tion are scarcely in line with the concepts of free enter- prise and justice for all, which should be the watchword of their profession. Wingham Advance Times .Penal system needs some change The inconsistencies and questionable practices within Canada's penal and legal system must leave the ordinary layman with his head shaking in disbelief, to say nothing of his feet shaking in fear. For the past several weeks, there have been copious news stories relating to the practice of "gating", a situation that has now been ruled illegal by the Ontario Court of Appeal. From my understanding, the situation is such that when criminals are released under mandatory supervision, the Parole Board has been standing outside the gate of the prison in question to nab thoge whom they consider to be dangerous and march them hack to their cells. The prisoners are, in effect, caught in a revolving door. It's almost enough to make a person laugh. imagine, if you will, the wasted man- power and paper work involved. Joe Criminal is taken from his cell and prison officials go through the work involved in effecting his release. He is escorted to the door and upon stepping outside, is im- mediately collared by a Parole Board of- ficial sent to the scene at considerable ex- pense, and quickly marched back into the prison where officials there have to go through the routine of having him re -admitted. ' These are criminals who have not serv- ed their full time as dictated by the courts. In Canada, you see, there is this strange system whereby even the most dangerous criminals are released on mandatory supervision after a specified portion of their time has been served. A 10 -year jail term, for instance, is not served for 10 years. That would be ab- surd! It is automatically shaved. * •. • • The practice of "gating" is im- plemented by the Parole Board in cases where they suggest the criminal to be BATT'N AROUND with the editor released is still dangerous to the public. These are your, basic rapists, murders and the like. To indicate how dangerous they may be, is seen in the fact most of them are released from maximum security institu- tions. In other words, these are men and women who for whatever reason, are not considered safe enough by prison officials to be in minimum or medium security institutions. There are even cases where the prisoners consider themselves too dangerous to be allowed out on the streets. They don't want to be released, fearing their own actions will result in the same type of crimes which put them behind bars inthe first palee. Even their pleas go unheeded. The system says they have served enough time and they have to get out. The system has rules that must be followed, regardless of the consequences. The vast majority of us can keep on laughing about the situation because the odds are that we will not be victimized by those who are released hack onto the streets even though they are considered too dangerous. Of course, as any lottery winner will tell you, sometimes the odds are in your favor, or in this case, not in your favour. If that dangerous criminal rapes or murders only one person upon release from prison, your odds of being that vic- tim are, in round figures, one in 25 million. It's small consolation to that victim, but the system says those odds are quite acceptable. Well, they're not'! And, it's high time those in charge of the system realized it. Obviously, the question of "gating" is not the main issue. The big question is why criminals deemed too dangerous to be put back on the street are even con- sidered for parole under mandatory supervision. If a judge, in his wisdom after deliberating on the fact of any particular case, suggests that the offender should serve. 10 years in jail, then that sentence, should be carried out unless the offender can demonstrate beyond any reasonable doubt that he is safe enough to be put back into society any sooner. There are those who contend that many judges in the land already err on the side of leniency in their sentences, so rules which automatically reduce those sentences certainly compound the error and jeopardize the right of Canadians to be free of those considered too dangerous to live among them. "Perhaps it's a spillover from the oil glut?" Miss them like tooth -ache Nothing annoys me quite as much as the dear souls who, when I'm tell- ing them about my retire- ment, beam sym- pathetically,' and exclaim gushily, "But you'll miss the students, won't you?" They are shocked and a little indignant when I tell them that I will miss the students the way I would miss a bullet -hole in my sternum, a punch in the mouth, a massive coronary. "But I thought you lov- ed your students," they croon bewilderly. And of course they're right. I do love my students, in the abstract. I also love apple pie and ice cream, rye on the rocks, lilacs, rag -time music, and women. But that doesn't mean I've got to eat nothing else, drink nothing else, smell nothing else, hear nothing else, and feel nothing else, for the rest of my days. Imagine one day of sit- ting around eating apple pie and ice cream, washing it down with Canadian Club under a 'lilac tree with the tape recorder blaring rag -time, and a beautiful, soulful woman on your knee. You'd wind up with pie tasting of rye, sickly - sweet music, and a woman screaming because she had an ice cube down her decolletage and ice cream (chocolate) all over her bikini. One could cope with one day of that. It might even be interesting. The com- bination has many But try it three, days in a row, or ten, and you'd wind up in the white jacket. What if the woman startedsmelling of rye, the apple pie tasted like lilacs, the rye was hotter'n their friendly, local policeman and their in- gratiating'? psychia«rist and their grandfather and theirjo"ialuncle. I know perfectly well that the moment I retire, Sugar and Spice Dispensed By Smiley a fire -cracker, and the music started sounding like strawberry ice cream? And that's how I feel about my students. As we used to say in Germany, "Genug ist genug!", or something along those, lines. Does the janitor miss his broom? Does the, sailor miss puking into the wind? Does the housewife miss the ironing? Does the plumber regret not having scabs on his knuckles any more? Does the doctor miss the people at parties who ask him if their wife/husband is divorceable? Certainly I'll miss my pupils. Just the way I miss the old rubber boots for fishing that I threw out twelve years ago. Just the way I'll miss being a prisoner -of -war on bread and water. It's not that I don't like kids. I do. But I don't go on and on and on being their father and their mother permutations. and their baby-sitter and my potential students will be plunged back into the Dark Ages. None of them will be able to read or write or scribble graffiti on the desks or go to the washroom twice every period. What is to happen to them? It may seem heartless to you, but it doesn't' bother me in the slightest that good ole Mr. Smiley won't be there to suckle them at his literary breast, watch them blossom into language that only a sailor wouldn't shrink from, and steer them into courses that will drive them to suicide. They can go and cry on someone else's shoulder about the rotten parents they have, and the terrible turmoil of being a teen, and the "fact' that all their other teachers are down on them, and that's the only reason they are fifty-percenters instead of eighty-percenters. They can tell some other gullible that they didn't know that their assign- ment was due, that the reason they 'missed the test was that they'd miss-;' ed the bus. They can give .• somebody else the big blue or brown stare of utter sincerity while they lie through their teeth about why their desk has sud- denly overturned, or why their desks are covered with pornography. Don't get me wrong. As individuals, I love them. Who could be sweeter than Shawn, wide-eyed, who tells me that the reason he didn't write the test was that he hadn't (in two months) read the book? Who could be more ap- pealing than Lisa as she explains that the reason she is falling behind is not her boyfriend, perish the thought, but her parents, father a wife -beater and mother a drqnk (both of them turning up for Parents' Night; the father a milquetoast, the mother a Sunday School teacher)? What can you say when Greg mutters, shamefacedly, that he didn't get his essay done because he, heck, was ski- ing all weekend because, like, it was the only decent weekend all winter? Maybe the reason I'm so soft is that I never told a lie, was never late, never slept in, never missed an assignment, and sat like an angel in class, when I was a student. Whatever, I'm gonna miss them exactly as much as they're gonna miss me. In both cases, like a tooth -ache. Things change south of border. One of the conclusions that I came to after a week of vacationing in the 'States' was that you can eat, sleep, and drive there, for a lot less money, even when you consider the dif- ference in exchange on the Canadian dollar. Eating in American restaurants has improved a lot since 1 last drove down to Florida, about ten years ago. Then, there was no such thing as the franchised eating place and you sort of took your chances at finding something decent. There are still lots of poorer quality places along the freeways but I would have By staying with the big chains we found that there was good food to be found, Perspectives BySyd Fletcher to think theyare being in any pride range we squeezed ouby places were willing to pay, and such as MacDonald's, with excellent service. Wendy's, Cracker Barrel, If you're travelling Bob Evans, Jerry's, throwOhio, Kentucky Perkins, and Pizza Hut. and Tennessee, I can thoroughly, recommend the Cracker Barrel chain. They've got hot biscuits, chicken and dumplings, and a . variety of vegetables like you wouldn't believe. Try them if you get a chance. One tip though. For even better service get in the habit of eating before or after the regular meal* hours. You'll get faster service and you 11 be back on the road before you even know it, providing of course that you can get the women out of the souvenir shop.