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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1996-10-23, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, October 23, 1996 Publisher & Editor: Jim Beckett Business Manager: Don Smith Production Manager: Deb Lord ACvertisjr g; Barb Consitt, Chad Eedy News; Heather Mir, Chris Skalkos, Ross Haugh, Brenda Burke Production; Alma Ballantyne, Mary McMurray, Barb Robertson Brenda Hem, Joyce Weber, Laurel Miner Transportation: AI Flynn, AI Hodgert Front Office & Accounting; Elaine Pinder, Sue Rollings, Ruthanne Negriin, Anita McDonald, Cassie Dalrymple The Exeter Times -Advocate !s a member of a family of community newspapers • ok '"OM* providing news, advertising and information leadership • inion 11)11.01Z1 kl.ti No more protests, please elp! We're being held hostage. The labor movement has been protesting On- tario government policies by shutting down city after city, and threatening a general strike every so often. Public service workers left roads covered with snow and shut down small meat processing plants last winter in protest. Medical specialists have been refusing to take on new patients to protest government poli- cies. Now Ontario family physicians are threatening to do the same thing come Nov. 1. While sympathies frequently lie with the ;groups Conducting the protests, Mtlatiy of us are growing weary - and angry - at being held hos- tage. To all extents and purposes, battles are being waged against the Ontario government, and the chosen field of battle is Joe Q. Average. Joe is the guy who manages to pay most of his bills most of the time. He doesn't live in luxury, but he earns enough to pay the rent and buy groceries. To say he's a bit worried about his job is an understatement - words like "downsizing" are enough to make him grind his teeth. Joe doesn't believe for one moment that gov- ernment leaders and captains of industry are suffering much. He is well aware that money is being made. He hears every day about the "jobless economic recovery" and he knows ex- actly what it means - the rich guys get the divi- dends, but he doesn't get a raise. And then he hears about another protest. Government leaders and captains of industry may be the ultimate targets, but Joe knows where the battle will take place - right orf his head. The idea seems to be that if the little guys are made to suffer enough, they will deliver the message to government leaders that something has to change. On one level, we understand the anger felt by each group. The government is trying to deal with an overwhelming debt load. Captains of in- dustry must make profits for the shareholders or investments will go elsewhere. Public service employees were facing the prospect of seeing most of their jobs go out the window. Physi- cians are subjected to government "claw backs", cut backs and ceilings, as well as the prospect of paying their own malpractice insurance. On another level, there is a growing bomb shelter mentality, meaning that every time one group or another has a disagreement with the government, we want to hit the deck and get out the flak jackets, because we know how, and where the battle will be fought. Someone will grab poor Joe by the throat, give a good shake, and say, "Tell that to Mike Hams." Joe Q. Average is feeling victimized by all these people sending messages to the govern- ment. What he wants is to go about his business in relative peace and quiet. What he doesn't want is to be held hostage again and again. No matter how wonderful the cause, no matter how justified the complaint, no matter how good and decent the group making the com- plaint, all Joe understands is he's being used and abused, and he's crying, "Unfair!" Remember how it felt in Grade 2, when the teacher couldn't figure out which child was talk- ing, so she made the whole class stay in? The theory was the children would get angry at the one who was talking. What actually happened was they got angry at the teacher. Holding Joe Q. Average hostage may work a time or two, but sooner or later it is going to backfire. Saugeen City News A View From Queen's Park, TORONTO -- Reform Party leader Preston Manning has been in Ontario looking for help in the coming federal election, and he already has some from Premier Mike Harris. Manning, on a four-day speaking tour, fo- ' cussed on urging Ontarians whose views are right of centre not to waste their votes by divid- ing them between his party and the federal Pro- gressive Conservatives who, he said, are no dif- ferent from the federal Liberals. Those who voted for Harris's Conservatives in 1995 should find this no barrier to support- ing the federal Reformers, Manning said, be- cause both have much the same aims. Winning in Ontario is crucial to Manning, be- cause it contains one-third of the federal rid- ings, and while Reform won only one seat here in 1993, it came second in 56 others when the tight -of -centre vote was split. Manning can make a statistical argument that small -c conservatives should rally behind his party, because it won 52 seats nationally while the Tories won only two, and none in Ontario, By Eric Dowd but he is handicapped by Reform's dismal per- formance since then, so it is now (behind even the federal Tories in polls). Ontario Tories also have a long history of supporting their federal party in elections, al- though they restrained their enthusiasm in John Diefenbaker's later years as prime minister and when Joe Clark supported higher oil prices. In 1993, when Kim Campbell was briefly Tory prime minister and flying in polls, Harris was merely an unknown leader of a third party and the federal Tories did not feel he was worth calling on for help. Hams told news media at the time that he would not endorse any federal party, but would support specific policies which appealed to him, but few cared. Hams is closer philosophically to Manning than to the federal Tories or any Tories of re- cent decades, Ontario or federal. Harris and Manning share the same fervor for reducing government, balancing the budget, cutting tax- es and getting tougher with criminals. ccw Publications Mail Registration Number 0386 Ons yew at. for Ontario subscribers - $35.00 + OST Two year rate for Ontario subscribers - $63.00 + OST Ono year subscription - $63.00 + TAT Two year subscdptton - $119.00 + a$T OTHER RATES Outside Canada - $99.00 + 6tt►T Mashed Mob Wednesday Manting .t 424 Mein St., Exp. Oatans, NOM Sitio by J.W. Eedy Publications Ltd. Telephone 1.I11b23111231 • Fax: 519-23110704 ovoid Minim IkessalvessiNeely.cast G.S.T. Nr105210e35 Your Views Letters to the editor Education boards discriminating Why is it in Huron County such in- justice is allowed to continue? Dear Editor: Again I feel compelled to remind our neighbors and friends, the many citizens of Huron County, that there are a great number of families in this county against whom the policies of the Huron County Board of Education (HCBE) and the provin- cial Ministry of Education are discriminating. These families (over 100 of them) from all walks of life have, for religious reasons, chosen to send their children to the Clinton and District Christian School (CDC) and its corresponding secondary school, The London and District Christian Secondary School. The annual budget for running CDCS alone, is over $750,000. CDCS is not a church sponsored school. It is entirely independent and inter- demoninational. The cost is carried solely by fami- lies who have children enrolled and by friends who support these families in this cause. Why do they do this? They are definitely not fringe fanatics. They are people like yourselves, but they are unique in that they are convinced of the necessity of making any sacrifice that might be necessary in order to continue their objection to the Ontario governments unjust monopoly on the province's educational sys- tem. They are protesting the Ontario government unjustified attempt to grab the hearts and minds of the children of all of the families in this province. Let me explain. These Christian parents are convinced that the Christian perspectives (including lifestyle and val- ues) of our churches and homes cannot, and may not, be divorced from the learning that happens in our children's schools. They do not agree with the "humanistic philosophy (religion) promoted by the public school system, therefore they believe that Christian schools are not a choice but a necessity for them. They object to the inequity of a govern- ment which promotes one philosophy (religion) in a public school system at the expense of other philos- ophies (religions) by making those, who object to the provincial choice, pay their own way. As such these families feel compelled by con- science to voice their objection to the monopoly of the Ontario government and to the teachings of the public schools system by sending their children, at any cost, to an alternative (Christian) school. The provincial government has allowed them to do so. But at what a terrible price. Not only do these parents receive no municipal or provincial tax dollars for sending their children to a Christian school, but, because they have made this choice, they are compelled to pay, through their property taxes and through provincial government taxes, their full share of the cost of the public school system, including the cost of the Huron County school bussing system. To add insult to injury, Christian school students are denied much of the health care that is provided to students in the public school. For the past 34 years, often in the face of personal economic hardship, these Christian parents have believed so strongly in the need for Christian schools, that they have willingly paid for the main- taining and the running of the Clinton and District Christian School without any help from the Ontario government. These Christians have steadily resisted and will continue to resist the attempted encroach- ment of the provincial government on their religious freedom. Why is it that, in Huron County such injustice is allowed to continue? Why do the Ontario government and the Huron County Board of Education condone this double tax- ation? Why should these solid Christian citizens of Hu- ron County have to pay for the county public schools, which they, in good conscience, cannot use? Why should they have to pay twice for trans- portation, once through their taxes for the right to ride the bus to the closest public schools, and then again, in payment to the Huron County Board of Ed- ucation, to use these same buses as they run their children to, or right by, those schools? Transporta- tion alone costs these families about $600 per child yearly above what they are already paying the HCBE for these buses in their taxes. Is this a justifi- able penalty for taking seriously the parents' obliga- tion to bring up their children in their own faith? Believe it or not, these parents are not asking for Christianity to be put back into the public schools. They have strong feelings about that. They believe that everyone has both the right to not be subjected to someone else's religion in a school, and the right to teach their own faith to their children in their homes, churches and schools. They believe strongly that there is a valid place for a public school in our society. Today the public school may well be the ideal place for parents who wish to teach their chil- dren to tenets of humanism. The parents at CDCS simply ask for the right to be treated equally. They suggest that the province ought to prohibit the imposition of double taxation by the local boards of education for those (minori- ties like themselves) who find the public school sys- tem an unacceptable option for their children. They recommend that the government allow the educa- tional portion of municipal taxes to follow the child to the school chosen by the child's parents. They ask for equal treatment in health care. They are convinced that students graducating from Christian schools are well prepared for citizen- ship, are spiritually healthy followers of Christ and are well qualified to continue their education. They believe that the very existence of Christian and other alternative schools adds a healthy dose of competition to the school system which can only help to encourage growth across the spectrum of Ontario schools. At the same time they are convinced that indepen- dent Christian schools are run very efficiently. The average cost of Christian School in the Ontario Alli- ance of Christian Schools is $3,900 per child. That is still roughly half of the cost of the public school. The argument put forward that Huron County can- not afford to offer justice to Christian School par- ents during times of restraint is a pitiful one. This country is based upon the premise of justice for all. It is my belief that this is not an issue of dollars as much as one of control. In fact, a good argument can be made for the partial funding of Christian and other alternative schools which would actually save the Ontario government and the county substantial tax dollars. Dear editor, I would plead with you and your readers, the citizens of Huron County, to remember that there are many people in Huron County that arc waiting for equity in taxation, as it relates to inde- pendent schools, so that Christian and other alterna- tive schools might become accessible to all who wish to use them. Let's not let them down. Sincerely, Clarence Bos, Principal of CDCS Manning on tour They also like the same processes, such as settling issues by referenda supposedly to re- flect more accurately the public view. The federal Tories under Jean Charest have now recognized the success of Harris and other right-wingers and the threat posed by Reform by promising to cut taxes, allow children as young as 10 to be prosecuted, make parents fi- nancially liable for crimes by children and pri- vatize part of the Canadian Broadcasting Cor- poration, but still are not as far to the right as Manning. Harris also owes a large debt to Manning and Reform because they did not split the right -of - centre vote in the 1995 Ontario election by run- ning candidates against him . Some of Harris's MPPs are convinced that they would have lost if Reform had competed. Some also have been supporters of Reform federally. On a visit to Ottawa in the summer, Hams held talks with both Charest and Manning, which suggests he thinks of them as some sort of equals rather than as Charest being from his own party and his brother -at -arms, at just nominally, and Reform its opponent: " Although Charest claimed that Harris assured him that almost all who voted for him favour the Tories federally, the premier denied saying. Manning explained his understanding was that Harris will not try to persuade voters to support either Reform or the Tories and that Reform will stick to the federal scene and Har- ris to the provincial. Hams said that his MPPs "can support whoever they want" and he will support those who espouse policies that are good for Ontario and a spokesman for the premier has since reit- erated he will endorse policies, not parties. Harris may feel that by not declaring support for either the federal Tories or Reform he is being neutral. But a premier normally is expected to support his federal party. When he avoids doing so he is rebuking it andsuggesting it is not worth helping. 1 •