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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1978-07-27, Page 3r • • • People inProfiie:Vernon has no problem visit by Shelley McPhee Although Canada and Jamaica are at least 2,000 miles apart, and although the climate varies widely between the two and the language and customs are different, Vernon Hendricks is having little problem adapting to the Canadian way of life. Vernon, a 16 -year-old from Old Harbour, St. Catherine, Jamaica is visiting in Canada, specifically Bayfield with John and Kathleen Siertsema on a four-week Lions International Youth exchange. "This is my first time in Canada," Vernon explained with a soft spoken Caribbean accent, "but I have been to Mexico and New York City." Despite the accent, it is not hard to understand Vernon, and likewise he has little trouble understanding his Canadian hosts. "We speak English in our home and our schools follow the English system. We do have a local dialect called Patois though. It's broken English, Jamaican with some African," he noted. Vernon has found most of his new encounters interesting, especially farming. Farming is not a new experience for Vernon since his father, mother, his brother and he live on a farm in his homeland. The farm is not an exotic one where tropical fruits are harvested, but Vernon's father runs a broiler operation. "We have about 20,000 broilers on contract and also have a few acres of vegetables. We also 'have about 20 calves," he explained. "Most of the land is irrigated and crops are grown year round. We have about 40 acres and for a broiler farm, that's big," Vernon said. • Vernon likes the Canadian coun- tryside, especially all the trees but was interested in learning about electric fences used here. In Jamaica, there are no such fences, only wire strands. Like many Canadian boys of his generation who have been raised on farms, Vernon has no desire to work in agriculture when he's finished school. He hopes to go into engineering and study at either a university in England or Florida. Vernon's social life is similar to Canadians as well, although he claimed Jamaicans don't like rock music, "Reggae and soul music is what we listen to." Reggae is now a popular music style in North America as well. Along with playing cricket and soccer, Vernon is the president of the Leo club in his town. The Leo club, which also has branches in Canada and other countries, as well, is the teenage UAW to prosecute... • from page 1 130 employees the union is paying strike benefits to about 94, while about 40 employees continue to work. The union is insisting that all employees in a bargaining unit should be required to pay union dues. But the company refused to meet the demand. All attempts made by the Ministry of Labor to settle the dispute have failed. The recent decisions by the labor board came after lengthy hearings into the union's allegations and the next step is to take the cases to court which UAW Iawyer, Robert White, said would be 'done as quickly as possible. The Labour Relations Board said that in its function there must be sufficient evidence to support prosecution. But even though the board ruledthat the UAW could take their cases to the court, the board emphasized that it was not making any final decisions on the matters, which is the job of the courts. In the case against Riddell the board dispensed with his plea for ,parliamentary privilege claiming the statements were made outside the Legislature and that the statements in no way related to his duties as an MPP. In addition to the remarks made by Riddell accusing the union of fraud in obtaining certification, the board said he spoke to picketers at the request of Mr. Turner and asked the employees if they wanted the plant to shutdown. The board said there was evidence indicating that Riddell told the, em- ployees that he knew Mr. Fleck well and that Mr. Fleck owned three plants, one in Huron Park, one in Tillsonburg and one in Eastern Ontario and that if Mr. Fleck was to he the target of harassment in the Legislature he would shut the plant down. However, the board claimed it was not uncommon for politicians to take strong positions on labor relations policy and industrial disputes. "In doing so it is not uncommon for them to take sides and to do so with deep conviction. It would be unrealistic and indeed undesirable, to expect persons in political life to adopt an apolitical attitude to all industrial disputes or to always display the dispassionate face of the mediator. "But as with employees, employers and indeed all citizens, the freedom of expression enjoyed by members of the Legislature outside the House is not absolute. "It is more lawful for a holder of public office, albeit out of a deeply felt concern for his constituency, to convey on the part of an employer, statements that threaten intimidate and unduly �My influence employees to fear for their job security and thereby refrain from exercising their rights under the act, than it is for a member of the Legislature, under the guise of free speech and out of equal concern for his constituents, to incite employees to participate in an 4 unlawful strike against their employer. In connection with , Riddell's statements on the picket line the board ruled there was a prima facie case that the member had interfered with the exercise of the employee , rights in violation of the Labor Act. They said further ,that the application by. the - union was not a frivolous one. The board said that the interest of labor relations in the province would benefit by a clarification by the court of the extent to which employees are protected' from interference with their rights of collective bargaining in the circumstances relating to Riddell and his statements. 1 version of the Lions Club. Vernon's group has 21 members and only received its charter this past year. Although the Leos have not undertaken many of their own, they help the local Lions group with their projects. When Vernon returns home, he is apt to tell his peers many of the new things he saw during his stay in Bayfield. One of the more unique experiences that Vernon will have encountered is an international camping trip with the 55 other teenagers involved in the ex- change. Vernon has never heard of a sleeping bag, let alone slept in one, but he will get his chance to try one when the group sleeps out at Wildwood Park, near St. Marys, during their four week stay here. Despite Vernon's interest in sports, he had never tried baseball until he played with a group in Bayfield one evening. "He wasn't so good at hitting the ball," John Siertsema laughed, "but at catching and running, he topped everyone in the field." The different food that Vernon has tasted will be something to tell his family and friends. Although Jamaica is filled with fruits, they are a tropical variety and Vernon hadn't eaten peaches, currants or cherries before. Like many people from warmer parts of the world Vernon, to our amazement, finds the temperatures a little on the cool side here. He ex- plained that the, temperature in Jamaica is usually in the high 80's and 96's (Fahrenheit). Vernon also enjoyed a refreshing swim in the.cool waters of Lake Huron. "It's nice to swim in but I couldn't taste the salt," he noted. "Most of the time the ocean is calm, smooth and clear especially in the evenings," Vernon said. Many unknowing North Americans have often heard that Jamaica is an unsettled country with the blacks and white people fighting. Vernon quickly defended his country on this and stated, "In Jamaica there is a peace truce now. That bad time was only a small era but it gave us a lot of bad publicity." The Siertsemas have told Vernon the tales of the Canadian winters and have shown him slides of the snow and told him about the cold. Likewise Vernon has told his hosts about his country and about his an- cestors. On his father's side, his great grapdfather was born in Scotland. On his mother's side his great, great grandfather was a chief of an African group, the Maroons, slaves who escaped to the hills of Jamaica. It is through such international meetings like the Lions exchange, which has been running for four years now, that such misconceptions can be better understood and cleared up and different lifestyles can be seen and talked about. CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, THURSDAY, JULY 27, 1978- 'AG 1' Too cold "I don't think I could live here In the winter," Vernon Hendricks said unsurely as he looked at photographs of the Canadian winter. Vernon, a 16 year old from Jamaica is spending four weeks with John and Kathleen Siertsema of Bayfield as part of the Lions International Youth Exchange program. (News -Record photo) Teachers, board dispute cost of strike BY JEFF SEDDON Just three months after the apparent settlement of the 31 day teacher strike it appears the board and its secondary school teachers have still not learned to agree. The most recent dispute centres around the arbitrator's report made public last week in a press conference called by board of education chairman John Elliott. The teacher strike was finally settled April 13 when both parties agreed to let an arbitration hearing decide on three contentious issues --sick leave gratuity payment, teacher workload and the pay increase. for teachers in the 1978-79 school year. The board flatly refused to send the issues to arbitration during the strike conceding to the intervention only when teachers agreed to have the arbitrator rule on two contracts, the one in dispute and one under which teachers will work in 1978-79. Board chairman John Elliott claimed throughout -the strike that third party intervention was too risky for Huron taxpayers. He said the board could suffer as a result of the arbitrator's decision claiming elected trustees should not put taxpayers in that position. Elliott said in the press conference last week that his fears were realized after the arbitrator's decision was made known. He said the decision was "preconceived" and that it appeared the arbitarator, had based his rationale on neighbouring counties ignoring the Huron board's claim that Huron tax - It i' often said that the world we live in today is nothing more than a sin bin, filled with corruption, little morality, hatred and violence. "Things have sure changed since the good old days," people often philosophize. However, many of these people who want to relive the past are unrealisitically forgetting specific instances that prove that the Vic- torian era was not all chaste , and pure. I have found that while resear- ching the column, "From the Early Files" countless examples that prove that the lifestyle and morals of the 1800's are not much different from today. Surprisingly, just as there were well-mannered, decent, modest people, there were just as many criminals, thieves and vagrants in respect to the population as there are now. Looking through the issues of the Clinton New -Era in the year 1878, random examples from the local news column tell about coun- terfeiting, vandalism, bootlegging and drunken quarrels in the November 21 issue of the paper. *Look for the Yellow Tickets *Alterations at cost on Sale Clothing ON ALL SUMMER MERCHANDISE 20,50% o.. I1I N►pacll's *All Sales Cash & Final No Exchanges No Refunds MAIN CORNER" 41N1 'O 48.9933 Attempted 'arson of the livery . stable, robberies, fraud, use 'of abusive language, murder threats an'd charges of prostitution in , the area filled the previous week's issue. In another issue, jail 'statistics for the year ending September 30 noted that 128 males and 17 females had been jailed during the year. That's quite a large number considering the population and considering that most people who faced illegal charges at that time were fined for their offences. Even sexual assaults occasionally turned up in the pages of the local paper along with "hurried" marriages. In the September 5 issue, details were given of a "brutal outrage" in McKillop Township when a ruffian named John Logan grasped a 14 -year-old girl by the name of Alexander, "threw her down and outraged her person." Teenagers don't sound much different today than they were a century ago. In the August 22 paper it was reported that several warrants had been issued to boys who continued to indulge in "noisy and disorderly proceedings". at the GTR station every Friday night. Those who received the warrants vKere tried.and fined $1 apiece. Instances of young boys caught smoking, sneaking into bawdy houses and hotels and racing their horses along ,the streets were often reported. Lists of court charges, and con- victions periodically filling the pages of the paper are really quite interesting if not amazing. Countless cases of theft, inmates of bawdy houses, using offensive language in the streets and drunkeness were frequent charges. Times have not really changed that much and those people who claim it has, must have read too many fictional accounts of the prudish and narrow Victorian age. Speaking of literature, censorship and the banning of books was also quite prevelent in the past century. One of the most powerful censors of the 1800's was the Vatican City's Index Librorum Prohibitorium. It is interesting to note that one of the present day's classic pieces of literature, Victor Hugo's, "Les Miserables" was banned by this censor from 1834 to 1869. Where are these good old days that people tell me about? payers couldn't .afford what other counties were paying for teachers. He said the decision confirmed the reluctance of the board to go to ar- bitration. Elliott said the 6.75 percent increase in wages awarded''' the' teachers by ,arbitrator Dean D. L. Johnston of the University of Western Ontario could mean a 9.18 percent increase on the county salary grid for secondary, school teachers. The comment was based on the assumption that the same teachers on 1977-78 payroll returned for the 1978- 79 school year. Gord Johns is one teacher who took exception to Elliott's statement. The financial officer for District 45 of the Ontario Secondary School Federation recently went as far as to say the board saved money as a result of the strike. Johns indicated the board chairman's, comments were an attempt to make political hay and that the taxpayers actually saved 5.6 percent of the board's proiected budget costs as a result of the 31 day work stoppage. Johns said he lost about $3,500 in wages during the strike, about 15.75 percent of his total annual salary. He said the wage increase awarded him through arbitration . increased his salary by 6.75 percent or about $1500. The lost wage, about $2,000 represented about nine percent of his annual ear- nings. The Goderich District Collegiate Institute teacher said salary in- crerf ents, a wage increase given every teacher with less than 10 years ex- perience who returns to teach in a county school another year, account for about 2.2 percent of salary costs to the board. He said salary savings to the board are realized when a highly paid teacher retires and is replaced by a new teacher making far less money. The saving reduces that increment cost to about 1.5 percent. The end result of Johns' exercise is that the board saved 7.5 percent in Turn to page 11 • Push for new pool The Clinton community pool fund got another push last Wednesday night when a delegation of Percy Brown and Stewart Taylor, from the monster bingo committee reminded the rec committee that they have $23,000 to start replacing the pool with. "Now get going on it," stressed Mr, Brown. "I've heard since last spring that you've been going to get estimates on this new pool," he added. "Now we won't sign the money over to you until you get going," Mr. Brown said. The rec committee approved the construction of a new pool to replace the present 22 year old one last January. "Build the thing this fall so it would be ready for the children to swim in next summer," Mr. Brown encouraged. "You have to get busy and apply for your Wintario grant and get the ball rolling," he went on. "If we can get that pool built for $60,000 then we're laughing,'' secretary Marie Jefferson explained to the rec members, "We have $23,000 now and it can be matched, dollar for dollar by Wintario and we can also get a Community Centres Act grant." Although the pool is cracked, the deck is rotten and the piping system is' decaying, the community pool has a new heater and chlorinator and the dressing rooms are in good shape. "We only need a small building for • the equipment before the other one rusts out, which may be soon," noted area manager, Clarence Neilans. Mr. Taylor said he wished the bingo committee had more money to give to the pool fund, but the Monday night bingos have been down this year. No it's not too early! 0 Especially ifou are planninga Winter y Holiday. Registrations now in full swing for ALL Sun Destinations. Sorry, we would like to say STARTS ODAY! Merry Christmas but many destinations are full already!! THE COACH HOUSE TRAVEL SERVICE 59 Hamilton St. Goderich 524-8366 KENMORE DUAL ACTION WASHER REG. '469.98 .0.,$425.00 KENMORE ALL FABRIC DRYER REG. '309.98 KENMORE DRYER REG, !219.98 NOW 8275.00 NOW $Z00.98 In,5tore50es1a1s1 At SEARS ORDER OFFICE 36 ALBERT ST., CLINTON 482-3951 OPEN: Daly, 9:00 A.M. - 8:30 P.M.; Closed Sundays M �t- ,, limi ' - _,......_ , 1.1._ _ Merry Christmas but many destinations are full already!! THE COACH HOUSE TRAVEL SERVICE 59 Hamilton St. Goderich 524-8366 KENMORE DUAL ACTION WASHER REG. '469.98 .0.,$425.00 KENMORE ALL FABRIC DRYER REG. '309.98 KENMORE DRYER REG, !219.98 NOW 8275.00 NOW $Z00.98 In,5tore50es1a1s1 At SEARS ORDER OFFICE 36 ALBERT ST., CLINTON 482-3951 OPEN: Daly, 9:00 A.M. - 8:30 P.M.; Closed Sundays M