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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1999-12-01, Page 7Wednesday,December 1999 Exeter Times—Advocate 7 Opinion&Forum 1 OYEARS A November 2 89 - The South Huron Panthers recently won the Huron -Perth Conference senior football championship for the fourth straight year. The Exeter Cemetery cele- brates its 125th anniversary this week. The original minute book and other old record books will be on display Saturday in the council chambers. The five acre site for the cemetery. was purchased in , mid 1864 and the first burial was on December 3 of that year for 26 year-old Honour Gidley. 20 YEARS AGO . - -• - November 30, 1979 - Named recently as Ontario Scholars at SHDHS are Catherine Abbott, Brenda Fletcher, Steve Paton, Brad Taylor, Lucy Van Esbroeck, Anne Dearing, Marian Martens, Sandra McLeod, Doug Scott and Robin Little. At. Thursday's Town of Exeter annual Appreciation Night, Marjorie Pollen and Harvey Pfaff were named citizens of the year. The 1978-79 business of the Exeter District Co- operative was one of the most successful in recent years. Total sales reached an all-time high of $3,616,974, an increase of $702,000 over business generated a year ago. Profit or net savings amount- ed to $102,525, up almost $57,000 from the previ- ous fiscal year. The recent resignation of Exeter reeve Si Simmons resulted in three changes in the makeup of Exeter council this week. Council has named Don McGregor to fill the reeve's post while Harold Patterson moves up to deputy -reeve and Al Epp is the new councillor. 35YEARS AGO November 29, 1964 - Ken Gemmell of R.R. 2, Kippen was awarded the Elston Cardiff Citizenship trophy at the annual Huron County 4-H Achievement Night . held in Wingham. The award goes to the top overall 4-H member in the county. Only 857 Exeter resident, cast ballots in the municipal election this week, which represents only 43 percent of the eligible voters. 40YEARS AGO November 30, 1959 .- Several floats will be added this year to the annual Santa Claus parade which will be held in Exeter this Saturday. Shipka residents crowded the local school Friday night to hear the children perform and see a three - act comedy by the young people of the community. Billy Arms+rong, son of Mr. and Mrs. Irvin Armstrong underwent an operation on his eye at St. Joseph's Hospital in London. He returned home Tuesday. 50 YEARS AGO December 1, 1949 - After an absence of 10 weeks from his pulpit owing to injuries received in an auto accident, Rev. H. Snell conducted Sunday services at James Street United Church. Mr. and Mrs. James Lawson and Mr. and Mrs. William Martin of Exeter recently celebrated a dou- ble golden wedding. The ladies are sisters. 60 YEARS AGO December 1, 1939 - Zurich has just formed its own branch of the Red Cross. Sheldon Wein while motoring to Exeter Friday morning from Dashwood saw three deer at an intersection in the road three and three-quarters miles west of town. Two of the deer crossed the road in front of the truck he was driving while the other turned back. 75 YEARS AGO November 30, 1924- Huron County Council is in session this week. In attendance from the area are Exeter Reeve W.D. Sanders; Usborne Reeve William Coates and Reeve Alex Neeb and Deputy - Reeve John Hayes of Stephen. Officers were elected for the Exeter Hockey Association Monday and a team will be entered in the OHA. Elected were hon. pres. - Rev. J. Foote; president - L.J. Penhale; vice-pres. - W.J. Statham; sec.-treas. - W.H. Harness; trainer - A. Delve; man- ager and coach - G. Cochrane; executive - U. Snell, H. Rivers, H. Southcott, C.L. Wilson, C.P. Harvey, T. Pryde. 1 IOYEARSAGO December 2, 1889 - The Exeter Times reports, "Our goal is to have every family in town take the Times. About thirty more and we will have them all." ROSS HAUGH SACK IN TIME OPINIONS AND LETTERS Panther Profile Hello and welcome to December as well as to this week's edition of the Panther Pages. If you have read Ms. Homuth's column, you will know the secondary principals of the Avon Maitland District School Board have decided to desemester the upcoming school year. Some things that will happen are: * the Grade 9's and 10's will be desemestered * some Grade 11, 12 and OAC courses will be semes- tered * some Grade 11, 12 and OAC courses will be dese- mestered * it will still be possible for graduates to be finished at the end of semester one * period lengths are being examined * a news letter was sent home with students and is printed this week in Ms. Homuth's column If you have any questions regarding this situation, feel free to contact the school at 235-0880. This week there will be an assembly regarding the Christmas Bureau. At this assembly; students will get a chance to take a tag with a child's age and gender and then bring a present back ip the school for this child. It is a great way to support mit-community and I hope we all participate to this event. - Next Thursday is the annual Semi -Formal. For all you people that might not know, this is a dance where girls wear a nice dress and guys wear a shirt, tie and good pants. The cost is $5 per person and sign -ins are allowed. It rims from 7:30 p.m. -11 p.m. and please have your student card ready at the door. This is one of the best dances of the year so come out and dance the night away! That's all for me, I'll see you next week! Upcoming Events Grad Photos All Week Thurs.. Dec. 2 Gr. 9 Parents' Breakfast Meeting 7:30 a.m. Boys' Hockey SH @ St.Anne's Recognition Assembly Fri.. Dec. 3 Girls' Hockey SH at Listowel Jr. Boys' Basketball Tournament at SH Boys' Hockey at Palmerston Tournament Wrestling Gr. 9's and 10's only to Beamsville Pastor Rutledge in Guidance Office Sat.. Dec. 4 Sr. Girls' Volleyball Tournament at. Medway Sun.. Dec. 5 Black Jazz to play at the Zurich Mennonite Church Wed.. Dec. 8 Girls' Hockey SH at Madill Boys' Basketball SH Goderich Co -Op Students' Job Fair in morning Thurs.. Dec. 9 Semi -Formal JAMIE REABURN PANTHER PROFILE Writer unhappy with decision Dear Editor: Re: Truckers beware I am the driver that parked. a tractor -trailer on the boulevard in front of the old Scout Hall and have done so for the past six and a half years, not the three months quoted in your article. I don't know where the complainants have been for the other time. If parking my rig there was an invita- tion for a ticket as quoted by councillor Robertson, then I suggest that the police were not in agree- ment, as one was never served. If the boulevard is town property, why is it not then plowed in the winter, unless there is to be a function at the Scout hall or youth centre. I have removed my rig from the boulevard to comply with the request of town council although begrudgingly, as I still see people illegally parked on the streets. Sincerely M PAGE • Y# # h i < letters to the editor as si c 110141 issues. r;orwerns, • By Vic: (514) 23 By e -ma 1: editcrrC South Hur c u •f Please include name a# cif'' Anonymous le w The Times•A reserveselto edit letters .ieter, Ontario NOM 1S6 Teachers making a buck TORONTO - Teachers are not fussy how they make a buck to fatten their pensions and this could embarrass them in discussing ethics with their students and competing to prove they are more public-spirited than Premier Mike Harris. The Ontario Teachers' Federation has been caught not once, but twice investing in business ventures many will consider dubious. The federation's giant pension fund has $184 million invested in a Canadian company, Talisman Energy Inc., which has bought a large stake in an oil field being developed in Sudan, . where a civil war has raged in which 2 million have died since 1983. Observers including the United Nations, United States and human rights groups have charged the Sudan government has dis- placed and killed many inhabitants to develop the oil field and revenue from it will re-equip its mili- tary and a U.S. teachers' pension fund is among those who have pulled out their money. The firm has denied it has contributed to any repression. A teachers' federation spokesperson said it is more concerned about preventing abuse of human rights than making money, but the board managing its fund said it has no legal right to pull out, because the law requires it to investto obtain the highest possible return and not con- sider moral or ethical issues. The teachers' fund coincidentally also has been revealed as a' major investor in Imasco Ltd., a Canadian conglomerate whose major subsidiary is Imperial Tobacco Ltd., Canada's biggest tobacco manufacturer with such brands as Player's and du Maurier. The pension fund normally does not talk pub- licly about its investments, but the. British American Tobacco company is trying to take over Imasco and the teachers' pension fund says it would be happy with either -- it has no objec- tions to being part-owner of either tobacco com- pany. Imperial also has been identified as having spent extensively on market research on how to attract young smokers, part of the reason smok- ing has made a comeback among" youth includ- ing many still in school. Harris's Progressive Conservative government, noted more for drag- ging its heels than aggressively countering smoking, said only a few months ago tobacco use is 'the leading cause of preventable illness and premature death in Ontario.' What are teachers doing peddling a product to students that is clearly and indisputably harmful to their health? Teachers also are among the better educated and informed in society and ought to know something about current affairs and can read newspapers. Surely they should have recognized they were risking helping a repressive government contin- ue violating human rights without others having to point it out to them. There is some truth to the argument of those managing the teachers' pension fund that the law requires them to invest their clients' money to obtain the best return they can or risk being sued. A Liberal government under premier David Peterson faced this concern in the 1980s, when the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Board, Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan, Ontario Hydro Pension Plan, Ontario division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees and half -a -dozen universities, all worthy organiza- tions opposed to repression, were found to have hundreds of millions of dollars between them invested in firms doing business with South • Africa then under apartheid and helping it pros- per. Most of these agreed to divest and the province quickly put through. a law that allowed funds to get rid of their South African assets without any- one being able to sue them for breach of duty. But most people will feel legalities are no excuse and there are a lot of places to invest and people supposed to have the public good in mind and set an example should not be getting into such investments. What will the teachers put their money in next -- the Krupp armament fac- tories? ERIC DOWD A VIEW FROM QUEEN'S PARK