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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1977-11-17, Page 5r days Sykes Bet you didn't get your snow tires on in time. And last we..kend's little prelude was a grim reminder of everything we have come to hate over the summer. Snow, slush, winds, dead batteries, poor visibility, anxious moments at the wheel, getting . your son to, 5:30 a.m. hockey practice, a friendly smile from the oil man who seemed to be at your house just last week and shovelling, shovelling, shovelling. Yechhh! But just the thought of winter is ac- tually more disturbing than wading through it once it settles in. The initial shock of a few inches of snow is more frightening than being hemmed in for a few days under winter's wrath. Face it. It's just plain fashionable 'to complain about the weather and should anyone dare to admit that September's rain or January's blizzards really aren't much bother at all they are apt to be turned into the gamekeeper of the African Lion Safari. But we know winter is coming. Seems to happen every year about this time and being creatures of habit we prepare for it.`By complaining about the weather, forgetting to put the snow tires on, thinking surely somebody will buy you a pair of boots for Christmas, leaving the storm. windows in the basement and trusting the family wagon without a tune-up. The worst part about our winters is the driving and as people prepare for the snow there are certain basic items that should be thrown into the trunk of the car to act as a survival kit just in case the highway decided to stop at Amberley and refuse's to go any further. The Metro Toronto Safety Council advises people to keep a basic winter CODER ICH SIGNAL -STAR, THURSDAY, NOVEMBF survival kit in their'car if they drive a lot in winter. The recommendations could help you survive if you're trapped in your car in the sort of blizzards that frequent this part of Ontario. The Council suggested a metal can, preferably a coffee can, steel shovel or ,hoe, two wool blankets, matches, can- dles, some hard chocolate and two or three plastic garbage bags. Okay. The uses of the shovel and blankets should be obvious. The plastic garbage bags, with holes cut out for the head and arms, make an effective windbreaker. Check your closet, you may have already included it in your wardrobe at a fashionable fee. Now the chocolates are for nourish- ment. Diet chocolate is an available option if the waistline is spreading but motorists stranded for any length of time, dieting on chocolate, will likely suffer severe social stigmas from resulting acne problems. The matches and tin can are ',ler melting snow for drinking water and producing heat. By the time the survival kit is packed into the car it looks like the wife returning from a shopping ex- pedition. I know two fellows who travel 45 miles. to work from Goderich and pack half of a gas station into their car in case of such an emergency. The only thing'they are missing is a mechanic. He wanted $1p an hour and they, refused to pay him. But most important of all is con- servation of heat. And for that the safety council suggests sharing the blanket with a friend. Ah yes. You can disregard all the previously mentioned emergency items but always, for safety sake, pack the friend of your choice. It could save. your life. HE WEEKAFTEm es G90 e has been a great deal of debate ncern expressed by politicians ducators on raising the legal g age in the province. al MPP for Essex South, Remo i, introduced a private member.; the Legislature calling for the g age to be raised from 18 to 19. e MP's voted in favor of adopting Ontario Premier William Davis ced that he would raise the age in ng but did not declare if it would 9 or 20. ini's bill sparked concern at all o Premier William Davis has d to raise the drinking age in next spring but has yet to if it will rise to 19 or 20. announced his intentions in the ure shortly after the MP's voted of adopting a Liberal private 's bill raising the age from 18 to vote on the member's bill last y was an overwhelming 72-29. was a split among the Con- e Cabinet on the issue bu,t Davis y would fall in line behind his d legislation. In that legislation, Il be introduced next spring, he INFORMATION, BACKGROUND AND OPINION HERE IN HURON levels of government and especially with governing boards of education who expressed growing concern for drinking among school students. The Huron County Board of Education supported the bill to raise the legal drinking age and forwarded that ap- proval to government officials. The board gaveapproval to a letter from the Oxford County Board of EducatioQ who asked for support of the proposal. In a letter to Huron County officials, the Oxford Board stated that present legislation resulted in an unacceptable situation in terms of its effect on health, safety and morality. The Conservative Government lowered the drinking age in Ontario to 18 from 21 in 1971. Despite a split in his own cabinet, Davis has agreed to raise the age, which indicates that statistics related to teenage drinkers and safety warrant a change. One of the major'concerns is that teen age drinkers in Ontario high schools have had a marked effect on teenagers not of legal age, where the percentage of drinkers has risen drastically. Mancini cited a 1976 'Addiction Research Foundation (ARF) survey showing that among a sample of 1,439 high school students in Ontario, 86 per cent drank, while less than 25 per cent were of legal age. Mancini is confident that raising the drinking age would alleviate the drinking problem in the high schools of the province. But while the bill has met with en- thusiastic support in the Legislature a serious rift in the cabinet has developed on the premise that if youth can be trusted to vote at 18 they can be trusted to drink. Several cabinet ministers have indicated that the bill boils down to trust of our young people. John Cochrane, director of education for Huron County, supported that reasoning and told the board at their last regular meeting, the bill may be defeated on that basis. The bill has since been given approval. However, Cochrane told the Board of Education trustees that during the war there was a law telling youngsters they had to fight when they were 18 but couldn't drink until they were 21. The move in 1971 to lower the drinking age had a marked effect on the rise of PROVINCIAL POINTS said he would include a package of proposals related to minors, alcohol advertising and highway safety. The move is perhaps a bit humbling for the Conservatives who lowered the drinking age in Ontario to 18 from 21 in 1971. Reports have indicated that the move was responsible for an increase in teenage alcohol consumption. Davis said that raising the age won't solve the significant social problem that exists but said if he can improve the situation of teenage alcohol consumption it was his intention to move ahead. But he also warned the public and particularly parents to remember their responsibility to provide guidance and an example to the young on alcohol use and abuse. However, the Premier has no intention of raising the voting age and admitted there was a definite con- tradiction in allowing a person to vote and sign legal documents, but not to drink. The drinking issue will come up in the spring session of the Legislature and Davis only hopes that the. passage of the bill isn't delayed too long since young people affected should be able to make their views known when the bill goes for debate. The lowering of the drinking age to 18 created problems in many high schools across the province and now there is great concern for the effect of drinking high schoolers on younger students who are under age . The private member's bill was in- troduced by Remo Mancini, the Liberal MPP from Essex South and with the second reading it was given approval in principle but will die at the end of the current session. Davis did not vote on the bill saying he didn't want to influence his colleagues by taking a stand, but said he supported the bill in principle. Both opposition leaders voted against the general trend of their party. Liberal leader Stuart Smith voted against the bill while his party hacked it 23-5. NDP leader, Stephen Lewis voted in favor of raising the drinking age while his party voted 15-12 against. The Conservative party voted 37 in favor and nine against. NDP member for Hamilton Centre, Michael Davidson, was the only MP to speak against the bill and said it was a matter of trust. He asked what kind of future we had if we- couldn't trust our eek Solicitor General Francis ealed that the RCMP conducted ail interceptions from 1954 to qualified his statements the claiming that RCMP security rformed break-ins over the past s to counter -espionage sub- nd terrorism. nsisted that under such cir- ces the break-ins, and mail ions could not be termed e confirmed in the House that P had opened a number of mail. d the House that the practice k to 1954 and no law authorized CANADA IN SEVEN such mail interceptions. Even the Solicitor General cannot authorize mail interceptions under the Official Secrets Act, no matter what reason he might have. Since a preliminary investigation has revealed the mail openings, Fox decided to refer the matter to Canadian Justice Minister, Ron Basfdrd, and a federal commission of inquiry into the RCMP. A combined force of RCMP, Quebec Provincial Police and Montreal city police broke into the offices of the left- wing Montreal news agency in early Oct ober 1972 and the government claims it wasn't informed of the incident until early 1976. Fox said that as soon as he was appointed Solicitor General in September 1976 he issued a directive to the RCMP saying that all operations of the force had- to be done within the framework of the law. Fox said that while he thought that such RCMP practices should not occur the country should be willing to let the Royal Commission on Security evaluate and assess them and come to con, elusions as to whether or not they con- stitute illegal acts. Fox would not estimate how many break-ins were actually conducted by the RCMP but did admit they dated back to the mid -1950's and added that none have occurred since he became Solicitor-General—He claims he has now directed the RCMP to prepare complete briefs on all its past activity and present them to the McDonald inquiry. The McDonald inquiry will have the power to go through RCMP files and subpoena all members of the force and its security service. An opposition member has suggested that a parliamentary committee be formed to examine the security service. Fox said that a Royal Commission is still the proper forum for dealing with the situation. NDP leader Ed Broadbent also suggested that an interim report be supplied to the house on the commission proceedings. Postmaster General, Jean -Jacques Blais, said he and senior post office personnel have looked into every potential allegation regarding mail interception and he has ascertained there are no grounds for those allegations to the best of the information of his security and investigation ser- vices. Former NDP leader Tommy Douglas asked Fox if the mail interceptions were v lit be a y a drunken guard during ail to brought on by a typhoon have caused a fire that rough the Hotel Filipinas in Manila. ties reported that the fire least 42 people and injured a leas ers. arshall Francisco Agudon that the toll would rise to 50 that firemen had, seen more fre burnt out shell as tiieSt pie plunged to their deaths doves and a Red Cross n said that other dead had WORLDWEEK suffered massive hone fractures, in- dicating they had also jumped. Some of the survivors said that hotel guests panicked and many stumbled and fell as they made their way through exits and down fire escapes. Hotel owner Jose Covarrabias said there was a brownout just before the fire and many patrons lit candles in their rooms which may have been the cause of the fire. However, Mr. Agudon said the fire began in room 5010, a fifth floor room occupied by a German couple. One hotel guest said the fire started in an adjoining room. He said he heard an explosion, ran out into the hallway and saw two men - one looked like .a policeman and the other a room boy - rushing out of a room carrying a fire extinguisher and a partly burned cur- tain. The man, identified as Rolf Stockhorst, 42, said other members of his German group, six shoe consultants, told him an unidentified American had saved their lives. The American ap- parently knocked on their door and shouted for the occupants to get out but they never saw him again and assumed he is still alive. Armando Aquino, a 37 -year-old room attendant, said the fire began on the fifth teenage alcohol consumption but our Premier isn't convinced that raising the age will solve the serious social problem that exists. The ]noting age in the province will not change and in the minds of young people will create a definite contradiction. That contradiction can only foster a mistrust between young tfoters and government, if they cannot see the merit in the legislation. But maybe Davis realizes that his 1971 move, although a popular one among people, had serious social consequences. young people. He favored a ban of liquor advertising as an alternate approach. Former Liberal leader Robert Nixon said there was no significant objection on either side of the legislature when the drinking age was lowered in 1971. But he said he was converted when statistics from the Addiction Research Foun- dation indicated the number of young drinking drivers killing themselves on the road. Huron Middlesex MPP Jack Riddell voted against the bill and Huron Bruce Liberal MPP Murray Gaunt was absent. done with the authorization of the post office officials or whether the RCMP sirnply paid post office informants to intercept the mail. Fox said the matter was only brought _to his attention and that he did not have a clear picture of the people involved. An interesting side note to the RCMP affair was Industry Minister, Jack Horner's comments that his former party colleagues are gutless and at- tempting to ride to power on the backs of the Mounties. He also claimed that if John Diefenbaker was in the House he would have prevented the Conservatives from making any charges on the matter. floor, quickly 'engulfed three higher floors and then spread to the floors below. It was not certain how many people were in the 376 room hotel when the fire began. The hotel owner said there were probably 200 people registered in the hotel, a four building complex. The front of the complex is seven stories high and rear buildings, surrounding a courtyard, are nine stories high. He said all but about 100 of the rooms were gutted. Most of the hotel guests were foreigners including a small party of Canadian tourists, Norman Scharca, 59, of Selkirk, Manitoba said he and Roy Armstrong, 72, of Vancouver, were in a second floor room when they were warned to flee. "We went down the stairs into the lobby. The fire seemed to be falling from the upper floors.'; Mr. Scharca said, "We stood in the rain outside the hotel for several minutes while firemen started working on the fire." One Austrian tourist said the fire was a nightmare and he and a friend were awakened in their fourth floor room by explosions and people shouting in pain. Because of the smoke he and a com- panion jumped out a window to an ad- joining roof. He said he saw a Japanese crawl in terrible pain and he felt the urge to help a dying man but his companion yelled at him to run for his 1°ife. He said it was good to be alive but felt sick that the Japanese must have died because no one helped him. Typhoon Kim veered north away from Manila and there were no reports of immediate casualties or damage in the area, a major rice growing region. High waves in Manila Bay knocked down a number of shanties in the slum area.