HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1996-03-27, Page 4Page 4
Times -Advocate, March 27, 1996
AMMO
Publisher & Editor: Jim Beckett The Exeter Times -Advocate is a member of a family of community newspapers
Business Manager: Don Smith ►" Ass providing news, advertising and information leadership
Production Manager: Deb Lord
Advertising. Barb Consitt, Chad Eedy
News; Heather Mir, Chris Skalkos,
Ross Haugh, Brenda Burke
Production. Alma Ballantyne, Mary McMurray, Barb Robertson
Brenda Hern, Joyce Weber, Laurel Miner
Transportation: Al Flynn, Al Hodgert
Front Office & Accounting. Elaine Pinder, Sue Rollings,
Ruthanne Negrijn, Anita McDonald, Cassie Dalrymple
1.1S.IM/
fa rise
inion
Publications Mail Registration Number 0386
SUBSCRIPTIOf!1 RATES: CMIAPA
Within 40 miles (65 kat.) addnas•d to non lotto(
carrier addresses 933.00 plus 92.31 a.s.T.
Outside 40 miles (65 km.) or any letter cantor address
933.00 plus 830.00 (total 63.00) + 4.31 Q.S.T.
Outside Canada 699.00 plus 96.3 OST
(Includes $88.40 postage)
Published Each Wednesday Morning at 424 Main St.,
Exotic, Ontario, NOM 186 by J.W. Eedy PuMleatIons Ltd.
Telephone 1-519-235-1331 • Fax: 516.2680766
SAT. Naof2.Oe35
Mentality no longer acceptable
ive years after the collapse �f
the Soviet Union, and 10 years of eco-
nomic crisis, Fidel Castro continues to
rule over Cuba.
Few nations and even fewer leaders
survive such political odds, but the will
power of one of the world's last com-
munist countries seems unbreakable,
especially with the proposed tightening
of the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
Some representatives of the United
States government are finally beginning
to realize that the embargo will only
prolong Castro's powerful hold over
Cuba. •
The charismatic, cigar -smoking revo-
lutionary uses the embargo to ferment
patriotic hatred for the capitalist giant.
Ten year of continuing economic
hardship has forced Castro into making
some positive changes. These include
a gradual change from a completely
state-owned and operated economy to a
mix of and private and state business
with a push to attract foreign invest-
ment.
Cuba is slowly becoming liberalized
but remains under the spell of a revolu-
tionary leader who has fought long and
hard to save his country from a fate of
eternal poverty suffered by the majority
of Latin American countries.
The United States have few or no allies
in its fight to get rid of Castro. Attempts
to coerce the world's nations into sup-
porting aninternational embargo against
Cuba are meeting resistance.
A new bill created by Republic Sena-
tor Jesse Helms calls for a ban on im-
ports from any country that buys sugar
and molasses from Cuba, and cut U.S.
government contributions to the World
Bank and other international financial
institutions if they make loans to Cuba.
Canada has every reason to be afraid of
the Helms' bill. These and many other
proposals contained in the proposal en-
danger Canada's $500 million export
trade with Cuba. Rather than playing the
part of a meek and quiet friend to Cuba,
it's time for Canada to speak out and
call for an end to the U.S. embargo.
The 'big stick' mentality of the United
States towards Latin American nations
is no longer acceptable in a world which
is increasingly dependent on internation-
al trade and co-operation for its econom-
ic well-being.
Your Views
Letters to the editor
•..1 ,(l1111/lf�tilli
OCSA joins with Reynolds Aluminum Company
.. We are particularly grateful to the Re-
ynolds Aluminum Company of Canada
for this support...
Dear Editor:
The demand for vital community services like
Meals on Wheels is increasing as more seniors seek
help to remain at home. To keep up with this de-
mand, Town and Country Homemakers is looking
to partner with caring companies. We are particular-
ly grateful to the Reynolds Aluminuttt''Company of
Canada for its support.
The Ontario Community Support Association
(OCSA) to which Town and Country Homemakers
belongs, has joined forces with Reynolds to help
5,000 hot meals this winter to seniors and people
with disabilities throughout Ontario while giving
shoppers a chance to win free groceries,
Town and Country Homemakers is participating
with OCSA and Reynolds in this campaign and we
urge everyone to shop at IGA, Food City, Price
Chopper, Foodtown and some independent grocery
stores in Ontario during the month of March and to
purchase participating Reynolds products. For each
sale, Reynolds will donate ten cents to our program.
Every year Town and Country Homemakers
serves over 250 seniors and people with disabilities
wholesome and nutritiously balanced meals. This
could not be done without the generous support of
those who contribute time, money, and resources to
our program. Our volunteers donate their time to
drive their cards and deliver meals to the elderly in
our community.
We applaud the commitment of Reynolds and our
dedicated volunteers and contributors without whom
our program could not exist. If any of your readers
are interested in learning more about how they can
truly make a difference in the life of a senior or per-
son with disabilities in our community, they can call
Town and Country Homemakers at (519) 357-3222.
Sincerely
Jean Young, Executive Director of Town
& Country Homemakers
A View from Queen's Park
Ontario's public servants should adopt more
effective strategies when they strike again --
beginning by throwing out the old union song
books.
Striking government employees accompanied
by broader public sector workers including
teachers and professors stood outside the legis-
lature and sang mournfully about casting off
their chains.
They sang, because no union singsong would
be complete without it, of dreaming they saw
Joe Hill last night, alive as you and me. Joe Hill
was a union organizer executed in the United
States in 1915 on what some beliet,e was a
trumped-up murder charge.
They chanted bawdily that Progressive Con-
servative Premier Mike Hams is an asshole, he
shall be removed, harmonized about not bow-
ing down to genocide, and asked listeners to
remember Tiananmen Square (in Beijing,
where 1,000 demonstrators were killed by
troops in 1989) and it all seemed unreal in the
Ontario civil servants' strike of 11996.
Some civil servants, those who will lose their
ti�.%f ►:Lid r;..
•
By Eric Dowd
IibLD
You HE'S
OUT OF
TOUCH
ReAWITHu7Y
What's news?
B,'enda Burke:,.
Committee clash a pain in the neck
Hasn't the village got enough
to deal with without this
ridiculous in -fighting?
With two of the village
committees clashing and its
reeve resigning, Lucan must
look forward to a summer of
change and challenge.
Added to that is the
responsibility of maintaining
,operations of the sewage plant'it
recep y took over as well as
n.possible amalgamation plans
, with Biddulph Township.
These larger issues, as well as
many smaller ones, will cross
council's table in the near
future.
But before anything else gets
done, hopefully scrapping
between the Lucan 125
Executive Committee and the
• Lucan and Area Heritage
Committee dwindles as
celebration plans go into high
gear for June.
, The executive has informed
the heritage their historical and
.cultural displays are not allowed
.in the main hall of the village
community centre.
The heritage committee,
claiming they were given the
go-ahead to use the hall in the
first place, has already promised
various groups they could bring
displays. Now they say they risk
losing credibility due to what
looks like a last minute
back -out.
On the other hand, the
executive claim they need the
space for the performance of the
Molly Maguires in order to earn
revenue to cover costs of the
celebrations.
The battle, painfully
simplified, is history versus
entertainment. Not that history
can't be entertaining or that
entertainment can't be
historical. But the way these
two committees have been at
each others' throats lately
suggests the limiting view of
black or white.
Judging by what's been
happening in Lucan during the
past several months, problems
seem to arise whenever people
are told `no.'
No, you can't put council on
television (at first) and no, you
can't plant trees on boulevards
and no, you can't put historical
displays in the main hall.
Rightfully so, saying no gets
tempers flaring, especially when
it's done by council or a
committee affiliated with
council.
Where is the compromise?
Why is every issue resulting in a
complete yes or more often, a
no? Either council completely
gives in (such as in the
television coverage case) or
bans permission with no ifs,
ands or buts allowed.
Lucan's heritage committee
has a right to be upset. Not only
did someone break an important
promise to them, they've been
made to feel less important than
a concert.
Ironically, results of a study
completed by MBA students
suggest Lucan needs to take
advantage of its'history, it's
strongest appeal. '
Besides, doesn't the
anniversary of Lucan's 125th •
suggest, just by its name, that
celebrations will perhaps centre
around history and tradition?
If the displays need
air-conditioning, so be it.
Maybe that's what all the fuss is
about. Perhaps the executive
want to provide people
entertained by the Molly
Maguires with air-conditioned
comfort.
To be fair though, the
executive needs the money. At
least they say they do. So it
wouldn't be a good idea to run a
village deficit over one weekend
of fun.
But like many other issues
affiliated with council, where is
the action that makes modern
sense, or at least, the attempt to
compromise in hopes that
someone may be allowed to
have just a little fun?
jobs, have been treated shabbily in that govern-
ments of all parties could not say no and kept
hiring. Bankrupt taxpayers can no longer afford
to keep them, but at least they will get much
more generous severance benefits than those in
the private sector.
The remainder of the government employees
will sit mostly in their comfy offices with rea-
sonable pay and perqs. There is no connection
between their world and the appalling exploita-
tion in U.S. mines a century ago, the closest
they come to oppression is having to stand out-
side for a smoke and the only race that is endan-
gered by government tightening is the stampede
to go home.
These public servants also have little in com-
mon with groups representing the needy, like
the Coalition Against Poverty and Network for
Social Justice, who rushed to the microphones
vowing to work together for their common
CaUSC.
The public servants do not have to worry •
where their next meal will come from and there
Now that could earn alot of respect
is no record that when high school teachers got
their handsome $65,000 a year salaries they
rushed to share them with the poor.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Un-
ion also will have learned that it is better to run
its own strike and not accept the help of tough
industrial unions.
While OPSEU ran the pickets, the politicians,
non-union staff and news media got into the
legislature building to work subject to minor
delays the union asked for on the ground this
would show respect for its picket lines.
When the industrial union heavies took over,
they prevented even some MPPs from reaching
the legislature, a fundamental breach of the
rights of MPPs and the public, who are entitled
to have their elected representatives there to
speak and vote for them.
Four students who smashed windows when
the legislature was not even sitting have been
charged with intimidating it and the pickets'
blockage went further and while that does not
excuse subsequent violence by police it should
prompt the civil servants to wonder if they have
the right friends.
Public servants next time also should meet
hard-pressed taxpayers halfway with ideas how
they can save money. The province's employ-
ees could offer to give up one of their many
paid holidays, such as Remembrance Day, pro-
vided so they can attend war memorial servic-
es, although probably not one in 50 does, and
which others including teachers and schools
• manage without.
Teachers might offer to forego some of their
professional development days timed conven-
iently near weekends or the now notorious
$32,000 retirement bonuses many get for not
claiming sick leave when they were healthy.
Professors paid an average $73,000 and other
staff at most universities might volunteer to
give up the free tuition their children get, the
oddest perq because energy ministry employees
do not get free hydro nor employees of the Liq-
uor Control Board free scotch -- now that could
earn a lot of respect.
1
14,