HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1981-06-11, Page 4Pose 4
Citizens News June 11, 1981
MODERN TIMES
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Thoses who destroy should rebuild
It is to be hoped Canadian Solicitor General
Robert Kaplan means what he says when he said
Matsqui prison would be rebuilt with the active par-
ticipation of the prisoners.
Men housed at the medium security facility
east of Vancouver, went on a 15 hour rampage of
rioting during which prison buildings were set on
fire, the drug dispensary was looted and police and
firemen were pelted with bricks, rocks and fire
bombs.
Early Wednesday morning (June 3) 90
policemen, supported by 100 armed forces per-
sonnel, entered the compound and rounded up the
prisoners. Only nine resisted, but were persuaded to
surrender when faced by the police show of force.
The riot was supposedly caused by the prisoners
being upset by a new pay scheme --not bad food,
poor housing or overcrowded conditions but a
pay scheme.
We hope the federal government faces the
prisoners with an attitude of "You made your
bed ---now sleep in it".
Perhaps living in a tent village on the prison's
recreation field, while rebuilding their own housing,
will give the prisoners time to ponder the fact that
it was they who set fire to the buildings.
Tent city life may also make them thankful that
it is June, not January.
Drink a toast to. departure
For 200 years one family had carried on the
family glassmaking operation — the only one in
Afghanistan. But cousins Saidullah and Saifullah
stopped production abruptly when the Russians
marched in. This was a regrettable interruption not
only of the 200 -year family tenure but of the much
longer (about 3,500 years) tradition of glassmaking
brought to Afghanistan from Mesopotamia.
The elements of the process had been retained
in their stark simplicity: "Take some form of
silica, such as sand; add alkali, possibly ashes from
plants or trees, to lower the sand's melting point;
add perhaps a pinch of lime from crushed stone to
stabilize the batch; pray to Allah; heat the in-
gredients until the mixture turns to glass; shape
and then cool."
It sounds as beautiful as the main product, a
light blue drinking vessel. Let up hope that the next
batch off the production line will not be long
delayed. Millions are waiting to raise them in a
toast to parting guests.
(Globe and Mail)
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Published Each Wednesday Sy J.W. Eedy Publications ltd.
Member:
Canadian Weekly Newspapers Associ'sion
(oarse Weekly
Newspapers Au ciation
News Editor Rob Chester
Second Class Mail Registration Number 1385
Subscription Rotes: $8.50 per year in advance in Canada 519.50 per year outside Canada Single copies 254
By
ROB CHESTER
I was a bad boy this week.
I filled out my census forms before June 3.
The thought of $500 fine or 3 year jail sentence
for this heinous crime has kept me awake for at
least 15 seconds every night.
But, since nothing has changed in my status (at
least not on June 3) the penalties are not as severe
as if I had or would actually refuse to answer a
question.
I lucked -out and got a copy of the long form. It's
about 50 or so questions on where and how you live,
,your education and your current job status.
Since I live in an apartment, and since I live
alone, and since the form is set up' for six people,
5/6ths of the form went to waste.
For apartment dwellers the form also has a few
other quirks.
What energy source is used (mostly) ° to heat
your hot.water? For all I know the water is heated
by friction when it clanks its way through the pipes.
All I know for sure is, I turn on the water and after a
few minutes it's hot.
Estimate the age of the building you live in:
(followed by a series of choices) ---After living in
the town of Exeter for just over five montlks, all I
can be sure of is that the building was put up a
minimum of six months ago.
In a gigantic apartment building, the owner or
superintendent would be over whelmed by the one -
in -five tenants with the long form demanding to
know the buildings age and water heat source.
Parts of the form are also repetit ive.
It is in this sense I find the census most reassur-
ing.
The fact that the government has too much in-
formation keeps most of us out of the slammer.
Co-ordinated with the provinicial government,
the federal census wouldn't have to pester me for a
thing: all my education data is recorded by the
province; the province handles birth and death
records (I exist because the government has a slip
of paper saying that I do) : the feds have all my tax
and employment records including my address
and the time I've lived there.
It gives me a headache to think of all the data
various government agencies have records on. With
my car and driver's licences, social insurance,
OHIP and combined with other private companies'
data, a good statistician could project what I
probably had for breakfast.
But all this information is locked away in sup-
posedly confidential files just as the census will
be.
Even with the revolution in computer
technology, they still haven't perfected big brother
to the state where it can automatically cough out a
Canadian census. They have too.much information
to ever accurately correlate all of a single person's
facts and figures.
(Which is alright by me --my skeletons can
stay in the closet where they belong! )
Thus umpteen millions are being shelled out to
pay census takers to drop off and collect forms.
Not only won't the federal government utilize
the post office system they trust it for income
tax returns, but not for information on how our hot
water is heated-- they are paying top dollar to
their census workers. The workers are paid $5.65 to
$600 per hour. (Don't I wish I could count myself
in.)
I do not doubt the census is a vital source of infor-
mation for both governmerft and the private sector.
But I have to agree with the criticismg of the
overimportance the government has attached to it.
In parliament, the MP for Fraser Valley West,
Robert Wenman, asked the minister in charge,
Jean -Jacques Blais, if it really is necessary to send
someone to jail if they refuse to say how many
bathrooms they had.
Walter McLean (Waterloo) further grilled the
minister concerning the government's violation of
women's privacy. One question asks women to
report the number of children they have had.
McLean argued, "It contradicts the confiden-
tiallity given to Canadian women when they give
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