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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1975-05-08, Page 27ga Ia.w and liberty needed udges The Goderich Lions Club recently, sponsored a dinner and evening for the town council and invited County Judge Frances Carter as guest speaker. Judge Carter outlined some of. theaproblems plaguing ''toda '> ociety and offered his opini� A'.n the reasons for some of these ' probl'eins 'and their possiblecure. The texttof his speech is as follows: "I do not think it necessary to tell you that we are living in times of great social, unrest. You know that. Every day we are aware of some action being taken to cure real or imaginary grievance by methods ranging fxom peaceful negotiation to violence.. We are --living in a world where even those - I might say particularly those -- who occupy positions of leadership and authority are under constant attack and scrutiny, and • indeed' recent happenings to the south of this nation showed the scrutiny to be justified. Civil disobedience, lack of integrity in 'business, racial discrimination, colour discrimination, sex discrimination, religious discrimination, the non- medical abuse of drugs, fear or irreparable environmental damage, fear of drying up of energy supplies, food shor- tages., the increasing invasion of one's privacy, .th,e disin- tegration of the family, the inability of the churches to provide effective leadership, inflation, social. 'per- missiveness, unemployment ° and recession, are but a few of the evils which escaped from. ,Pandora's Box which . are disturbing our world today. "The area of my concern, however, is the l'aw, and I would like to take some time to discuss this problem with you this evening. 'What is the law? It is a body of rules -which ,a society recognizes as binding on its members. Most of us, 'when we think of the law, think of the police, because, to most of us, the,,.la:w means criminal law, and rightlyj'o, because it is the criminal, law which protects ,our most fundamental -rights, the right to our lives, the right to personal security of our person, and the. '=right to our possessions. Anyone who says � knowlingly violates those.righis is guilty of a crixne. Why do we think of the police? Because we, also. know that, if laws are not enforced,' • they become ..valueless, and society. loses the very' protection the law was to ensure. Basically then we have a criminal law for our own self- protection, "We hear a great deal of talk today about people's rights,' privileges and liberties. So much so that you would almost be led to believe that, in order to have liberty, the law must be abolished.. Nothing could be farther from the truth, for without law there can be 'no liberty, for' the law 'ensures to each one of us, not an absolute liberty -for no society can continue to exist if every one of its members tan do as he likes - but a liberty under law which protects each of us from,ar- bitrary interference from- his fellows. "And when we are talking about rights and privileges we must remember that respon- sibility is the other side of that coin. Somewhere I read 'An unfortunate. trend' in our country is the increasing tendency on the part of many of our citizens to think and talk in terms of the rights and privileges of the individual in a democratic society, with a lessening inclination to stress the responsibility of the in- dividual. I should like to em- phasize that it is, the respon- sibility of the individual, rather than his rights and privileges, -that gives him '-hi's strength and- gives democracy its strength. "What then can we say about law and liberty when we con- sider the state of ,our nation today? Only yesterday the news media reported a steady increase in the crime rates in the cities. The number of robberies in Ottawa in 1974 is said to be up 86 percent over 1973 and the number of armed robberies has almost doubled' there in the same period. Nor can we be complacent in this area. Today's London Free Press carries an article which states that the use of cocaine has increased dramatically in an area which could include "the Waterloo region, Stratford and 'Grey, 'Bruce and ' even Huron Counties The increase in thefts under $200.00 was said to be fantastic. And the quantities of cocaine seized, previously in- the $5 and $10- price range has now jumped to the $500 -price range. "What is the cause of this steady increase in crime? The 'Solicitor General of Canada, .Hon. Warren Allmand, put forward many theories in., eluding violence on the media, inflated crime reports by the police, ' lenient)' judges and parole, permissiveness, loss of traditional values,, and a greater, number of people in the 14 = 30 age bracket. There is no doubt that violence portrayed in the media, particularly that on TV and I am. not referring solely to' the violence seen in so many movies - but also to the - constant portrayal of war and the effects of war on the news- casts. 'There' ews-casts.'There' is no doubt that, after continued exposure to this type of thing, our sensibilities are dulled, and we no longer react with the sense of shock and outrage we exchibited the rt 0 first time- we saw these things.. We are losing our sense of compassion, we are becoming conditioned to cruelty, to man's inhumanity to man. "And what of the permissive society? To me, saying we have a permissive 'sodiety and saying we have lawlessness are one and the same thing. One is' not the cause of the other. But who is ,to blame - the legislators?' the Judges? No, my friends, it is us, all of us, for these things would not happen if • we did not permit them to happen. We get . the kind of society we 'deserve, no better, no less. And if traditional moral values have been lost, who is to. blame? How often do we tell our children that our fathers add mothers would not allow us to get away with the things they' get away with. That we didn't have the things they have? But who lets • them get away with things? Who , gives them the things they have? She's come a long way - remember her -with cards by Gordon Fraser, "a lovely dried • floral_ piece, or just .something. different. Lewis maiden voyage provides a days excitement Ontario New Democratic . Party, leader Stephen Lewis missed the boat so to speak Saturday that caused a delay in a speaking engagement the NDP leader had scheduled for Goderich. " Mr. Lewis and his father David had been in Massey and Blind River the previous day and decided to take the Ontario :government's new ferry Chi-Cheemaun, from South Baymouth to Tobermory when complications caused what Mr. 'Lewis termed "More excitement than one can abide in a day. . . ' The ferry delay threw Lewis' schedule awry and he -'came directly to Goderich from' Tobermory abandoning an engagement in Port Elgin. , The Lewis' boarded the ferry at 1:30 p.m. and shortly after the trouble began. Mr. Lewis stated that in his 12 years in . Ontario politics he has never ridden the ferry and the sub- cpsequent complications that occurred on his maiden voyage "could start'one to believe in conspiracies. Only fifteen minutes after boarding the.ferry Mr. Lewis ""recalled the " captain's voice carne over the loudspeaker asking, "is there a diver in the neighbourhood?" The call came after one of the ship's hands had entangled an anchor. line in the propeller. The rope had wound itself around the propeller and there was a second directive from the captain to man the lifeboats. . 'Immediately five • crew members clambered into a lifeboat which began ft:tending into the water. As the lifeboat made its way towards the water it hit the side of the, ferry on three occasions with resounding thuds that sent -the '" " crew flying in different directions. " • Mr. Lewis, watching the proceedings from the deck of the ferry, stated sarcastically that `safety drill was certainly not something that was overdone on that boat.' Once ,the lifeboat had reached the water the crew im- mediately m-obnted the ' oars in the oarlocks and began flailing helplessly and unrhythmically at the water. "It was really something to see these five Men rowing in different.directions so the boat moved in a crab-like.fashin, really going nowhere," Mr. Lewis said. "It looked like five handpicked members of the Ontario Liberal Party." A diver finallyfreed the entangled rope from the propeller -although Mr. Lewis claims it took some doing since he cut himself more 'than the rope. The ferry finally pursued its ' normal course and the captain, .obviously ,,embarrassed spoke at great length with Mr. Lewis. "The captain was obviously frantic that I should discuss the incident in public," Lewis said, "but I assured him that the story would never, ever cross my lips." 'l "And are the Judges too lenientTIt all depends on whose ox is being gored. If, .you or, I were to stand in the dockof the court 'we . would want the charges against ,us proved beyond a ..reasonable doubt. And what as to punishment? Would you have yourAudges without compassion? ' Edward Gibbon once said, " Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigor of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feeling of mankind. " "Gentlemen, the point I. am trying to makeis merely this: Many of you here today fought overseasnsure liberty for ourselves our, children. Yet today, that very liberty is being threatened by a more insidious foe, that is a general apathy in society towards the rule -of law. "What we need, what we must strive for, is a proper balance between law and liberty. None of us wants a police state, yet all of us wish to live in a peaceful society. Ali -of us must strive for this goal. We mustn't let .George 'do it. We must do it ourselves. And not at the United Nations, Washington or Ottawa, but here, here in Huron County, h' re in Goderich, for, this is where our world, our community, is. . "I should like to close my brief remarks by quoting. the words of a -great American Jurist, the late Mr. Justice Learned Hand who in language which is among the most beautiful to be found anywhere expresses the ideal of Justice in a spirit in keeping with this occasion. `Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it. And what is 'this liberty which Mist lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, and un- bridled will; it not freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial- of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A Society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon - becomes a society where freedom,is the possession of only a svage few; as we have learned to our -sorrow. What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith.. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of , liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests -alongside -:its own, without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers _ .that not even a eparrow falls unheeded; the spirit of liberty ie.the spirit. of Him 'who,, :near'. Years ago, taught lesson it has never:, f earl' has never quite "forgotten, that there MAY be a isiogdoit, where the least shall be heard and considered,sidebyside with the gr`eatest." G9DERICN RED CROSS NEEDS, HEMI DONO:RS Please Come To The RED CRQSS BLOOD DONOR CCIN�C DON'T FORGET THE WEDNESDAY,. M'AY 21 GDCI AUDITORIUM 2-5 and — 8:30 L'ATR DU TEMPS the romantic perfume b ' Nina Ricci Paris • ANY SIZE ON THIS KODAK POCKg.T INSTAMATIC 40 OUTFIT , '9,1 2,1 5,20,2'3 cu. ft. J ' Priced from $249. 'to $329 ' 82 Cambria Rd. 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