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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1992-09-02, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, September 2, 1992 Publisher: Jim Beckett News Editor: Adrian Nage Buslneas MIMager: Don Smith Composition Manager: Deb Lord Publications Mail Registration Number 0386 SUBSCRIPTION RATES' CAMADA Within 40 oodles Maas.) addressed to wan latter oarol•r addwsuus 550.00 plus 52.10 •.s.T. Outside 40 lathes (SS law.) or any latter esnfor address 530.00 plw 522.50 (total 12.10) + 3.55 G.$.T. Oablds Canada H&00 ni "Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely." ... Thomas Macauley Published Each Wsrassday Mond.g at 424 Mala et., Exeter, Oatarlo, NOM lea by J.W. Eedy hlNeMlsas Ltd. Telephone 1418.288-1331 •.s.tr. eRiesl1Oaas EDI T01:1 \1.S Boyle a deserving recipient He kept us in line. He was ex- cellent in his depth of under- standing problems and yet many times he let us have it." That was how Exeter Mayor Bruce Shaw described former Times - Advocate Editor Bill Batten during a special ceremony Sunday • afternoon which saw Derry Boyle presented with the first Bill Batten Memorial Award. Batten was a tireless worker not only in the journalism business but as a con- tributor and dedicated fan of minor hockey. That is why it is particularly fitting that Boyle was selected as the in- augural recipient of the award. It is a great honor and Boyle, who was joined by several members of his family was overcome with emotion. He was. very pleased to be receiving the awsard. For men like Batten and Boyle, re- membering their accomplishments is simply a way of recording history. As Batten did so many years through his stories and photos with this newspa- per, Boyle's work with minor sports too will become encased in our memories and our hearts. F.C.C. Invest a little time in Ontario's future The future of any province lies with their young people - young people with vision and energy who, when they see a need, are prepared to fill it. In Ontario and this community we are indeed fortunate to have an abundance of young people who fit this descrip- tion. It is these young people who deserve, but seldom receive, proper recognition. For that reason the Ontario Junior Citi- zen of the Year Awards Program was founded in 1981. This program, a project of the Ontario Community Newspapers Association (OCNA) with assistance this year pro- vided by Bell Canada, has over the past eleven years paid tribute to 144 exem- plary individuals or groups between the ages of six and 18. Junior citizens represent a broad cross-section of Ontario's fine youth. Some are honoured for their tremen- dous attitude in coping with illness or handicap. Some have identified a local need, and have taken a leadership role by devoting an amazing amount of time and energy towards community service and betterment. Still others have been selected for re- sponding instantly in a moment of crisis, or for the way in which they have shown kindness and compassion. 'Those chosen to receive the awards, along with their families, are guests of honour at a luncheon in Toronto during the annual convention of the Ontario Community Newspapers Association. Award recipients are joined by Ontario's Lieutenant Governor for a family por- trait at Queen's Park, and are presented with $200 and a Junior Citizen lapel pin. Many young people in our community are worthy of the attention and encour- agement provided through the Ontario Junior Citizen of the Year Awards Pro- gram. Every nominee will receive a cer- tificate stating that they were considered for this distinct honour and contributed greatly to their community. Invest a little of your time in Ontario's future. Say 'thank you' to a special young person or group by filling out an Ontario Junior Citizen of the Year nomi- nation form - available now from this OCNA member newspaper. Psycho -thriller at Blyth What does a theatre do when disaster strikes? Why, thc show must go on, of course. And so it did last Tuesday night at the Blyth Festival when actor Rob- ert King was needed in the de- livery room. With no under- study, artistic director, Peter Smith bravely stepped _ in with script in hand to save the day for I'll Be Back Before Midnight. Somehow this did not seem like a fair performance to re- view, but it was a novelty to sec a theatre audience jump out of their seats in fear. You know you've got a successful play when ... With all the psychological, thriller motion pictures that have filled movie theatres in the past couple years, it isn't surprising Cat this mixture of pschological drama and comedy we a popular item at the Blyth Theatre box of- fice as well with the return of Peter Colley's I'll Be Back Be- fore Midnight. Recent movies such as Cape Fear, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction use the human psyche to play on everyone's deepest fears and make the not -so -gory, but intriguing picture more rea- listic. Colley starts out with the well- known suspense features of a motion picture such as ,gine- tingling music and sittiulated heart beats, but in the absence of a movie camera, he has a more challenging job. Realistic mur- ders which occur on stage, not off, and the intimacy of a good scare like in the pitch darkness of a movie theatre are rarely seen on stage. Adding Thought to Sense by Michelle Ellison Midnight telLs the talc of mid- dle-aged Jan and Greg who, in attempting to put the colour back into their marriage upon Jan's release from a mental hos- pital, find themselves in a rented farm house in the middle of no- where. The house is owned by a rath- er eccentric, local farmer who tells nasty ghost stories to get the imaginations of the occu- pants funning wild. The couple's May, however, is inter- rupted by Greg's sister Laura whose unusual relationship with her brother stokes Jan's mental illness. Without the use of fancy cam- era angles, Colley still manages to get the audience on the edge of their seats mainly through set. The old farmhouse in the mid- dle of nowhere becomes a char- acter in it's own right as it is spoken of often as the trigger to Jan's mental illness and the mur- derer of an innocent victim. "It's this house, we have to get out," says Jan. And with a dark farmhouse and only a flashlight to light her way, Jan continually blinds the audience, searching for the killer among us or behind us at the back of the auditorium. The small seating area becomes a large sitting morn in the sea- soned farmhouse. This theatrical technique ac- counts for the gasps, tense hand- holding and screams that were emitted throughout the play. The typical psycholigical spine-tingler must play on the mental stability of its audience, esti Midnight does this as well. Just as Jan begins to question whether she should be checking herself back into the looney bin, saying, "They keep saying it's not true, that I'm imagining all this. But the most frightening thing is, what if I am?" the audi- ence begins to question the reali - ty of what they see on stage. Although a review of this play did not seem appropriate consid- ering the circumstances, anyone who enjoys a good horror movie intermingled with light htunour and drama, would be impressed by I'Ia! Be Bock Before Midnight which runs until September' 12 at Blyth and then goes on the mad for an Ontario tour. "Thar. OP(IPS) P714 %giiilr, 1„ bother us tonight.'" Guess It was mid afternoon, the time when I sometimes become a lit- tle sleepy. So 1 just sat back, quietly pondering. I spend at least half an hour a day ponder- ing. It benefits both the mind and the cardio -vascular system. All of a sudden there was a commotion outside. Where you live, commotion" might mean a riot breaking out or the police chasing some bank robbers. Around here, a commotion is the crunch made by car tires on the gravel driveway. It isn't of- ten that somebody comes to vis- it my office. I peaked through the shutters. It was a commotion of major proportions. Not just any old car, but two black limos. Five men in business suits, carrying black attache cases got out. 1 also noticed two smartly dressed young ladies and two liveried chauffeurs. What was going on? 1 quickly changed from slip- pers to shoes (I always wear slippers in my office) and went to open the door. I couldn't be- lieve my eyes. It was the Prime Minister and his encourage! "You must be lost," I said, feeling apologetic about my sloppy appearance and the unti- dy condition of my entrance way. "Not if you're Mr. Peter Hes- se/," one of the women said. "You have been picked by lot- tery to decide the fate of our na- tion." "How?" "We put every single social in- surance number into a huge pot and asked the computer to pick onc. It picked yours. Meet Mr. Mulroney!" "Mr. Prime Minister..." "Call me Brian!" "If you call me Peter," I said, who came to visit! still stunned. "May we come in?" I rushed around, trying to find enough chairs for everybody. Fortunately the chauffeurs and most of thc security men stayed Peter's Point • Peter Hessel outside. Then I cleared my desk. "What do you want me to do?" "Peter, we have tried every- thing, and we have come to a dead end. Nothing else will work. There will be no more first ministers' meetings, no more lunches at 24 Sussex, no more consultations, and no more commissions. There will be no referendum, and no constitution- al assembly. You are our last re- sort." "But..." "There can be no but. If you refuse to help us, thc country will fall apart." "Surely you don't mean that, Mr. Prime Minister - sorry, Brian. The country won't just split up and disintegrate, with everybody suddenly floating in space. Surely the Canadian Shield will still be here, and the Rockies, and the Great Lakes, and the Prairies." There was silence. I was be- ginning to believe that they were serious. They really want- ed me to tell them what do 10. what an opportunity! What rc- sponsiblity! "Brian, 1 said, "here's what has to be done." Just then, a whole caravan of Letter to Editor media vehicles pulled into my yard. The place was buzzing with television cameras and mi- crophones, while I told Brian my plan. "It's really very simple,' 1 said, pointing to thc map on my office wall. "Tell Quebec to leave, but hold on to the northern part of the province in Canada, to be un- der native control. That way, Canada will stay together. Then keep everything else the way it is now: the Senate, the House of Commons, the court system, - don't touch them. They're just great." "Then what?" "Then you concentrate on solv- ing Canada's real problems." "What problems?" "Just three steps," I said. "No, 1: fire all your constitutional ad- visers." "All 974 of them?" "Every single one. No. 2: Hire 974 ordinary, sensible Canadi- ans from all walks of life - farm- ers, clerks, factory workers, nurses, teachers, small business people - and pay them each S100,00 a year." "What are they to do:'" "Roll up their sleeves, put in an honest day's work and fix the economy. Think of ways to create work. Put Canada back on its feet." "Oh boy", Mulroney sighed, "I can't wait for No. 3." I'm . afraid Brian will have to wait. Because that's when I wokc up and realized that 1 had been E noozing and dreaming. 1 looked around in my office. No- body. I looked out the window. Only a couple of mourning doves sunbathing on the warm gravel. Well ,1 guess somebody else will have to make sure that Canadian~ don't end up in limbo. Rural Dignity quest ons survey Dear Editor. The day before the recent an- nouncement by the Supreme Court of Canada of its refusal to hear an appeal from rural communities seeking the re -opening of their post offices, Canada Post released yet another of its miraculously timed customer surveys. Since these surveys (done every couple of years) are the sole defence Can- ada Post and the Minister Respon- sible, the Hon. Harvie Andrt, offer for their unpopular closure/ privatization program, they war- rant scrutiny. Canada Post is unwilling to re- lease the names of the 27 commu- nities where the, interviews were conducted outside businesses op- erating retail postal outlets. So it is impossible to do the basic check- ing that in 1990, for example, re- vealed one of the places supposed- ly contented with their "r.p.o." not even to have had one at the time of the survey (Napinka, Mb.). It is unlikely any of the at least 240 towns left without any retail postal service (by Canada Posts admis- sion) after Ibe post office was shut down or the private outlet contract was cancelled, wore included in the survey. As Ethel Baird, of Gadsby, Ab., said to a Calgary Herald reporter, "They should have asked us. I would say 99 1/2 per- cent here would have said it's the most horrible thing there was." Since the closure of her post office in 1988, Mrs. Baird, like hundreds of other disserviced and dissatisfied Canadians, must travel 25 km. for retail postal services. What does not appear in Canada Post's survey results is that the great majority of rural Canadians were 100 percent sat- isfied with the post offices that1111) had served them well for decades until closed by crown corporation. The surveys also leave out the fact that no delivery standards exist for mail travelling between two ru- ral points, or between a rural point sod an urban centre. The survey does not ask for cus- tomer reaponse to the literally hun- dreds of thousands of hours cut at post offices across the country in 1990 and again in 1992. In spite of promises from the corporation that .these cuts do not result in loss of service to the customer, the fact is that mail previously sorted and available to the public by 8:30 or 9 the a.m. is now relegated to an "all day sort" - that is, as the postmaster is able to get to it, between custom- ers. Most communities have lost their Saturday and noon -hour ser- vice: high volume. high revenue periods. At a time of devastating unem- pioyment, the survey docs not re- quest feedback on tlic loss since 1986 of 3,000 jobs (83 percent of them belonging to women) to rural Canada's economy. At a time of national crisis, the survey fails to address the loss of the unifying role played by the tan- gible federal presence of the public post offices flying Canadian flags right across the country. Canada Post and the Government of Canada would do well to avail themselves of the assessments of post office closures and privatized outlets coming in - free of charge - to MP.s office, public meetings and community newspapers from not 27 conununitics, but hundreds of towns and villages. Rural Canadians will not truly be satisfied until the federal govern- ment cancels the Canada Post plan. Yours truly, Cycle Patterson, National co-ordinator, Rural Dignity of Canada.