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Times Advocate, 1999-12-15, Page 7y.December 15, 199 v.n. Tin..rAdwcaa 7 Opinion&Forum 1 OYEARS AGO December 13, 1989 - Former deputy reeve Dennis Snider will fill the empty Grand Bend coun- cil seat, which has been vacant since July. As of the first day in the new year, all public education build- ings in Huron County will become smoke free. South Huron Hospital is following suit. Effective February 14, 1990, the hospital is going smoke free, with the motto, "Give your heart a break and stop smoking." 20YEARS AGO December 12, 1979 - Usborne Reeve Bill Morley is the new warden of Huron County. On the first ballot Monday afternoon, he defeated Tuckersmith Reeve Ervin Sillery and Goderich Reeve Eileen Palmer. London Township Reeve Fred Lewis was elected warden of Middlesex County, Thursday afternoon on the first ballot. Of interest, Morley's grandmoth- er and Lewis' grandfather were brother and sister. Top seniors of the Exeter Saddle Club were hon- oured Saturday night. They were Doug Timmerman, Jerry Sims, Steve Preszcator, Doug McMillen, Martha Wells, Barb Parsons and Karen Dietrich. Fern Adair and Rick Forbes were named Queen and King, respectively of Centralia College, Friday night. 30YEARS AGO December 12, 1969 - Minnie Noakes was claim- ing her defeated attempt at a comeback for the reeve's chair in Hensall was due to discrimination against women. She did, however, promise to try again. 35 YEARS AGO December 14, 1964 - Robert I. McDowell was promoted to the rank of Squadron Leader this week. He now heads the Armament Training Section of Central Officers School replacing Squadron Leader R.R. Waters. C.V Laughton, QC, of Bell and Laughton, Exeter has been named one of the Lambton representa- tives to the Forest District High School Board and also Assistant Crown Attorney for Huron County. The Huron -Perth District of the Ontario Bean Producers Marketing Board elected their directors at the annual meeting in Zurich last week. They are Robert Allan, Brucefield; Fergus Turnbull, R.R. 1, Dashwood; present chairman of the Ontario Board Charles Rau, R.R. 2, Zurich; Winston Shapton, R.R. 1, Exeter; Alice McBeath, Kippen and Harvey Taylor, R.R. 3, Clinton. 40YEARS AGO December 14, 1959 - Mrs. Gerald Godbolt was elected president of the Women's Federation of James Street United Church. Mrs. Labannan Hodgins is president of Trivitt Memorial's Women's Auxiliary. 50YEARS AGO December 15, 1949 - The students of journalism at the University of Western Ontario staged their annual Christmas banquet, Thursday evening. It was attended by more than 125. Don Southcott is president of the Journalism Press Club. Reeve A.J. Sweitzer entertained members of council and town officials to a turkey banquet at Monetta Menard's Restaurant following the final council meeting of 1949. The local stat of the Bell Telephone Company held a Christmas party recently starting with a turkey banquet at Monetta Menard's and conclud- ing with dancing. 75YEARS AGO December 14, 1924 - Fred Cornish has moved into the residence at the rear of the store on the Lake Road, Exeter North. Mr. E.O. Penhale has disposed of his 50 acre farm in Stephen Township to Mr. Ben Makins of the same township. Ames Foote Left Monday morning for Detroit where he has accepted a position as motor mechanic with the city's fire department. 11 OYEARS AGO December 14, 1899 - Exeter council has passed a bylaw prohibiting boys skating and running hand sleighs on the sidewalks. The Constable is on the watch and all boys caught violating the bylaw will be punished. The question is, were girls included in this bylaw? Or is it still in effect? ROSS HAUGH BACK W4 TIME OPINIONS AND LETTERS Doingthe decades Dear Edito The curtain went up on the forties with war raging and raging in western Europe. The Maginot Line was failing to contain the Nazi invaders and Belgium and Holland were no match alone against the onslaught. Winston Churchill was becoming the daring and defending voice of the free world. Britain and her Commonwealth fought back with traditional dogged- ness and was joined in the fight by the U.S.A. when they found themselves threatened on both fronts by the attack on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese. Hitler's dream of a quick sweep westward and across the Channel to include Britain was being challenged with increasing success. The birth of the buzz bombs, No. 1 and then 2, and fiery incendiaries spread terror in London and other vital cities. Total night black -outs were enforced and brave Britain watched and fought fires all through the long nights. All this and more they did with the strength from half-filled stomachs as food was low and rationing rigidly enforced. Russia was an eastern ally but later used their great build up of arms and forces to subjugate by control a buffer of countries west and south of Germany and small Baltic republics. This strengthened the Russian position in post-wai settlements. As the Nazi swastika was coming down, the iron curtain was a building. The Normandy inva- sion moved the war in Europe toward its end and the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan, the first ever used as weapons, brought the end to war with that country. Excepting for the absence of armed conflict, Canada was literally at war in every other respect. It was ideal as a training base for fighting personnel, for the manufacture of armaments and for supplies of food and medical aid. Army and air bases were set up in many centres. Factories were too led to war production of which the output was conveyed across to neutral ports that remained available The mer- chant marine carried food and medical supplies, suf- fering many losses to the German U boats which came threateningly close to our own shores. We also set up prison camps for captured enemy fighters and provided homes and schooling for war -orphan British children who came in large numbers for sanctuary. I met a number of these children as I vis- ited the schools in my county inspectorate. I was always impressed by their fluency of speech and vocabulary depth. I remember the reply of Nigel, age seven in response to my comment as to the standard of his printing. He said, "Oh, do you think it is good, sir? My father always told me that it was simply frightful." The schools also helped with an occasional survey of food and crop resources, working with the Dept. of Agriculture. At one point the schools were directed to collect milkweed stalks and leaves with the thought of using the milky sap to make rubber. The room next to my office in the County Bldg. became the holding tank, and even smelled like. one. Rationing of butter, sugar and gasoline was enforced and coupons issued according to need. Each car carried a sticker on the windshield to indi- cate the level of priority for that vehicle. Each munic- ipality had its war -service committees: war funds, the aid in victory bond drives, salvage committee, to organize selection and collection of salvageable materials - forerunner to the blue box of our day, etc. Churches, women's institutes and service clubs helped in all such efforts. The Lions Club, of which the writer was a member, set up a boys and girls after-school hostel where children came to do school homework with help and enjoy games which soldier - dad was not there to handle. Older children came in early evening and local teaches and others gladly volunteered their services. If we search for any good that comes out of war it might be that man is in truth his brother's keeper. Personally I found the war years challenging with new and widening experiences and responsibilities, as there were gaps ahead to be filled and younger men and women were moved up. I was given my first opportunity to write or edit school texts. Following the war I was given my first extra -provincial oppor- tunity as a summer faculty member at Dalhousie U. in N.S. We also gained two daughters in the forties and they have lasted a lifetime, thankful to say. My first post-war car arrived in 1946 with no front or rear bumpers or rear seat cushions - supplied months later. I was also transferred form field super- vision in `48 to the staff of teacher training at the London Normal School. I found that I preferred the academic human -interest area in education to the materialistic duties of budget -battling and manage- ment. Young people grow into and with their jobs budgets just grow. GERRY DOBRINDT Harris at odds with courts TORONTO - Premier Mike Harris must be afraid of stepping out of his office in case some- one hands him a writ. The Progressive Conservative premier has faced -- and lost — far more challenges in the courts than any predecessor. Harris has now decided he has had enough and complained higher court judges who are federally - appointed make too many rul- ings that create new policy and usurp the rights of elected governments like his. He has asked that provinces be given a say in appointing such judges, whom he clearly sees as activist and unsympa- thetic to his right -of -centre agenda. The Tory premier has won some court cases, but more often been rejected. Soon after he became premier a judge ruled he could not abolish a law that forced employers in the broader public sector to pay women the same as men even when they did not have male employees so they could make comparisons. The court held they could be compared to women who have pay equity in other institutions. When Harris tried to fire five directors of a gov- ernment agency and appoint others more com- patible, a court said he could not do it before their terms expired without proving reasonable cause and they stayed. Harris was proud of a so-called victims' bill of rights he passed and flourished it at every oppor- tunity, but a court ruled rudely it was mere rhetoric designed to make victims feel good and gave them no new rights. Harris was amalgamating one municipality when he tried to undermine objecting councillors by appointing trustees he said nastily would pre- vent them going on a last-minute spending spree, but a court told him he had no such power. Harris tried to prevent teachers' spouses run- ning for election to school boards, fearing they might sympathize with a profession that mostly opposes him, but a court ruled trustees can think independently of their spouses and said no. Harris wanted a law that would have forced separate schools to hire non-Catholic teachers, but a judge found separate schools have a right to exist in the Constitution and also to means to preserve their religious character. Harris, in just one more recent example which irritates him most, was prevented from scaling down Montfort Hospital in Ottawa by a court which ruled Ontario has an obligation under the Constitution to maintain its services to preserve the area's French language and culture. Harris is now being sued by among others Indians who Live off reserves because he ear- marked profits from a casino for only those on reserves. An environmental group is privately prosecut- ing his government for failing to clear up a haz- ardous dump, which may seem merely an allega- tion anyone can make, but it alreadyprose- cuted a municipality on a similar charge and had it fined. Guides and outfitters are suing Harris because he cancelled the spring bear hunt and the pre- mier is trying to put off a date in court to explain his role if any in a police shooting of a native demonstrator. His law grudgingly giving rights to gay and les- bian couples is being challenged because unlike other jurisdictions he defines them as same-sex partners rather than spouses, which they say segregates and stigmatizes them. Another law only a few days old prohibiting aggressive panhandling already faces challenges including a claim it trespasses on the federal Criminal Code. Harris has got in more legal tangles than earli- er premiers partly because he is more innovative and unwilling to accept the status quo. He may have had poor legal advice, but more likely he disregards some of it because he is always in a hurry. Harris also is attacking judges when he should be attempting to change the laws they have to work with, but those who lose often blame the referee. ERIC DOWD A VIEW FROM QUEEN'S PARK