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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1985-09-18, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, September 18. 1985 Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 Imes dvocate Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM ISO Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 519-235-1331 LORNE EEOY Publisher BILL BATTEN ROSS HAUGH Editor Assistant Editor JtM BECKETT HARRY OEVRIES DICK JONGKIND Advertising Manager Composition Manager Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $23.00 Per year; U.S.A. $60.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' Part of deterrent A suggestion that court sentences reflect the impact of crime on the vic- tim is one that deserves some further consideration, despite a rebuff from a spokesman from .the Canadian Bar Association that victim -impact statements could be construed as an element of vengeance against the perpetrator of a particular crime. Sentences are imposed primarily to act as deterrants, but surely there should be some consideration for the effect of the crime on the victim and a little less tendency to exercise concern for the criminal. While victims often have an op- portunity to pursue claims in civil courts, it is often not worth the ex- pense involved and there are many cases where it is totally impractical because the criminal has no resources to meet any such settlements. The victims of any particular crime often suffer various ramifica- tions. A car stolen from one individual may not result in any particular hard- ship, while the loss to another person could have expensive consequences that should be reflected in the sentence. Victims suffer to varying degrees physically, emotionally and financially and should be allowed to explain those circumstances to the court to reflect the magnitude of the crime. That tooshouldbe considered part of the deterrent for others. Got what they want Not everyone is happy with deci- sions made by planners and councils, but a B.C. man has taken a novel, although unorthodox, method to voice his displeasure over a decision with which he didn't agree. Neighbors of Bert Stocks opposed his bid to turn his agricultural designated land into a proposed development for townhouses and light industry. The council backed his neighbors in refusing his proposal. However, probably before the cheering had even subsided from his neighbors, Stocks set out to use his land for the agricultural designation which had hampered his planned development. He declared war by say- ing that if .the neighbors wanted a farm next door, he'd give it to them. In fact, he plans it to be the smelliest, busiest and noisiest farm around. He had a load of chicken manure dumped on the property line just across the street from the neighbors and then. ordered in some pigs and a number of roosters, apparently at- tempting to allow the latter to signal their early -morning calls to annoy those around him. The fight may Trot be over yet, of course, but it does suggest that winn- ing the battle does not always signal a victory in the periodic war over what people can do with their properties. County should clear air Ontario Municipal Board member E.A. Seaborn may be accused of taking the easy way out in his recent decision on the Exeter objection to a proposed agri-industrial park on its nor- thern boundary in Hay Township. Seaborn ruled that the appeal would be allowed primarily because the documentation re- quired under the Food Land Guidelines was not provided in the Hay application. However, it should not be con- strued as an easy way out of the issue. The board member was quite correct in allowing the ap- peal without actually addressing the real question on the planning interpretation. The Food Land Guidelines are quite specific in their re- quirements and some one erred badly in assuming that a verbal report would suffice when in fact specific documentation is required. While the onus may rest ultimately with Hay Township to ensure the documentation is pro- vided in the application, the municipal officials should have expected better direction from the professionals who were guiding the application on their behalf. The ministry of agriculture and food witnesses who appeared on behalf of the township must surely have known • of the stringent requirements of a docu- ment prepared by their own ministry. County planning direc- tor Dr. Gary Davidson must also have been aware of the requirements. Exeter's representatives voic- ed some disrnay at the lengthy hearings that the documentation under the Food Land Guidelines was not undertaken and were ob- viously successful in having that point impressed upon Mr. Sea horn. If the matter was going to be laid to rest, there would be little value in any finger -pointing or recriminations. * * * * However, Hay Township has already moved quickly to ask the county planning department to prepare the necessary needs study under the Food Land Guidelines to pursue the matter further. Hay and Exeter ratepayers Batt'n Around ...with VilikThe Editor have already paid about $15,000 among them to stage the first hearing and it is conceivable that they would have to spend a similar amount to go through the entire process again. There is no guarantee, of course, that the planning depart- ment can justify the subdivision under the Food Land Guidelines, or even if they did, that the OMB would rule in Hay's favor on the question of the project being in conformity with the township's secondary plan. That was, after all, the major debate at the OMB hearing and that issue remains unresolved. in the narrow view, the OMB hearing may have been a waste of time and money for both municipalities and therefore assessing some blame for the lack of proper documentation should be of interest to both. The planning department must clearly assume some of the blame and that undoubtedly will add to the consternation of Ex- eter officials who have already called into question the apparent conflict of interest that arises when two municipalities served by the same planning experts end up in conflict. Despite his assurance that similar cases have arisen and that members of his staff are allowed viewpoints on planning matters that may be contradic- tory to other members of the staff or even the director, the situation appears to be untenable. Private business can not operate effectively when the prin- cipals are in conflict over prin- ciples and policies and it is dif- ficult to imagine that public business can overcome similar problems. If those problems are not real, they are certainly im- agined and contradict the long - held theory that while bosses may not always be right, they are the bosses and that alone makes them right. It is totally unrealistic to sug- gest that a member of the plan- ning department could have fill- ed the role undertaken by in- dependent planner Jean Monteith in arguing against the presenta- tion made by the county planning director. It is an issue that is now pro- bably of more concern to Exeter officials than the Hay project itself, and the planning director and committee should move quickly to discuss it publicity with Exeter council before the depart- ment moves to comply with the Hay request for another bylaw to cover the proposed subdivision. Exeter should expect some assurance that the public ser- vants will be fair in their treat- ment of the two municipalities and not work primarily to vin- dicate themselves over the defi- ciency shown the first application at the expense of a portion of the residents whom they serve. Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by l.W. Eedy Publications Limited ew9PEctel ell Tolt TRtLK1 hili WEEK- VAT ctlt:Rrt "I considered running for the Alberta Tory leadership, but I lack one essential political quality — I've never played for the Eskimos." Laws of modern life A newspaper article the other -day reminded me of one of the in- exorable laws of modern. life: Things multiply in inverse pro- portion to their use. It is a simple fact. and we've all been through it. that there are certain things in life that multip- ly like rabbits, and others that in- variably disappear forever. No matter how hard you try to get rid of pennies, they just build up, and if you carry your loose - change in your pants pocket, as I do, after a week you are listing heavily to the right. You pile your 1t3 pennies on the top of the dresser and start again. and a week later you have 22 pennies in the same pocket. Another multiplier is the single sock. Start out a new year with 12 pairs of socks. in three months you'll have six pairs and six odd socks. In six months, you'll have 12 single socks. After years of suf- fering this, i've counter -attacked. I now buy 12 pairs of identical socks, so that after six months. at least i have six pairs of socks. . Ladies used to have the same problem. before the invention of panty -hose. But this discover,. hasn't lessened their problems. in the old days, it they got a run. they usually had a spare single to match the good one with. But now, if you get a hole in one leg of your panty -hose, you're scup- pered. Out they go. the intact one with the bran one. Women also have other multipliers in the singles divi- sion: earrings and gloves. Bow many women in this fair land have seven or eight exquisite single earrings and four or five superb single gloves'' it's quite fashionable these days for a pian to wear a single earring, and a practical chap who lost a glove would wear the other and put his, bare hmid in his pocket. But women don't think that way. and the gloves a11(1 ear- rings prolifereate in their solitary glory. Old keys multiply at a fantastic rate. until cupboard drawers and plastic howls are overflowing with them. We have a huge col- lection of car keys going back to our fifth -last car. every key to the house before we changed the locks, and enough skeleton keys to outfit James Bond on one of his capers. New keys are diminishers. I have lost two sets of keys to my present car, and sometimes search for half an hour to find one of the nesv sets I had to order. The new keys to the new locks disap- peared. and I had to take off the locks and go to the key man for new ones. I wonder where they are, at this moment? The new ones that is. Paper is definitely • in the multiplier list, especially if you are writer and/or teacher. I sit to write this column in a sort of tun- nel between two massive piles of Sugar &Spice Dispensed by Smiley paper higher than my head. Makes me feel like an old badger. Bottles. particularly those on which there is no deposit return. pile up about as fast as you can empty them. But prepare to take back your beer -case of empties. and there are always two miss- ing. Where did they go? is there a guy. or a dame. hiding behind the furnace who sneaks up when you are beddy-byes, drinks two of your beers. then eats the bottles'? For the ladies, the wrong shades of lipstick and half -empty bottles of nail polish multiply. along with saucers for which the cups have disappeared. Wire coat hangers reproduce like rats. The other day. while at- te►npting to get my coat out of the closet, i knocked down six emp- ty hangers. i carefully fished thein up from among the parts of the vacuum cleaner. took another 40 empty hangers off the pole, tied them ail together with cord, marched calmly into the base- ment and hurled them into the woodpile. Two weeks later, I knocked down eight hangers while getting my coat. and sat down and wept tears of fury and frustration. Pencils multiply. but there's never one in the house when you are trying to take down a long- distance phone message. Odd buttons multiply until it seems like a button factory. But when you needtsvo the same size and color. forget it. You have six .thousand buttons, no two alike. You think you don't take many snapshots. Been to the attic late- ly? There are twelve boxes of them up there. right from your own baby pictures. through you courting days, into your own children at every stage. and about five hundred of the grand- children. Rut just try to find that especially good one you wanted to send to Aunt Mabel. Completely vanished. Shoes multiply. al' wife had about thirty-six pairs. most of them out of style. just like that outfit she had to get the shoes to go with. She had to tear my com- fortable old shoes out of my hands to put them in the garbage. i go to a half-price sale. buy three new pairs. and they sit there, still and stark, while i go on wearing the old shabby ones. Stamps run out: •magazines pile up to the ceiling. Bills and receipts multiply while bank ac- counts diminish. Pornography flourishes as sex drive diminishes. Television channels multiply while their contents diminish in quality. Workman- ship diminishes as cost of it soars. And i' 'v just touched the sur- face. 11ow about acid rain and fish'.' Or safe. salted highways and holes in your car'' \Vas it always like this. or is it .lust a curse of the twentieth cen- tury'' 'Make up your own list : two columns, one headed Multipliers. the other 1)itninishers. 1t will shake you. Trifling historical facts Last week 1 was talking about why Canadians should and do feel pride in their country. 11 should he pointed out that despite the time and money that the Americans have put into weapons and the military, That the U.S. has not always been the great fighting machine that it has let on to be, and that in reality the Canadians have proven themselves to he the forefront of keeping the North American continent as stable as it present - ly is. ,In both the first and second World Wars and in the Korean War. Canadian soldiers were known for their bravery. their skills and their sacrifices. 1t should be noted that although the Americans gave supplies to the Allies at the first part of the war that it was the Canadians who By the Way t)y Syd Fief( her fought in those first desperate engagements. Corning to the aid of the European nations without any hesitation, unlike the Americans who waited for 1'eat'I 1larbour's direct attack before they got really involved. Just for interest. you might note something about various battles from the war of 1812-14 such as the ones a1 Detroit. ('rysler's Farm. and (,lueenston Heights sshere the liritistl army and Canadian militia. though vastly outnumbered by the Americans, soundly whipped the latter. As you might guess, these trig aof hiso'}' snakeflinthef,1►ctsnerican tetxtry h(x)ksrarein their schools nor is if the stuff of which ('RS. MGM. or the New York publishing houses take much note for their epic films or books, for obvious reasons