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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1984-08-08, Page 2Huron xposit9t: SINCE 1860, SERVING THE COMMUNITY FiRST Incorporating Brussels Post 10 Main Street Published in SEAFORTH, ONTARIO Every Wednesday morning JOCELYN A. SHRtER, Publisher RON WASSINK, Editor JANET MACDONALD, Advertising Manager Member Canadian Community Newspaper A'ssoc Ontario Community Newspaper Association Ontario Press Council Commonwealth Press Union International Press Institute Subscription•rates: Canada $18.75 a year (In advance) Outside Canada $55,00 a year (In advance) Single Copies - 50 cents each . SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, WEDNESAY, AUGUST 8, 1984 Second class mall registration Number 0696 527-0240 Not a compliment Unwanted sexual attention ranging from whistles and cat -calls to propositions and groping is not Just friendly appreciation pf the opposite sex. Laws against discriminationin the Canadian Constitution label such behavior as sexual harassment which can carry up to $5000 in damages. Last week, the Canadian Human Rights Commission found Liberal MP Allister MacBain guilty of sexual harassment against his employee, Kristina Potapczyk and ordered him to pay $1500 to his victim. Potapczyk told the tribunal that she was forced to quit her job 13 months after she started because she rejected her boss' sexual advances and was humiliated by leering, sexual innuendo and his standing needlessly close. Despite the fact that Mr. MacBain called the decision "a nothing", such unwanted attention is something serious to its recipients. Sexual harassment added to the normal pressures of a job can make the workplace unbearable. It can also make an evening's walk around the block an annoying and sometimes frightening experience. Charges against sexual harassment are not made frivolously. Though Ms. Pota;lczyk was awarded $1,500 in compensation, but she spent $23,000 In legal fees and other related expenses to seek satisfaction, almost $4000 more than she made a year at her job. To her, sexual harassment was a real threat --a threat that she was determined to fight against. Ms. Potapczyk has made It clear to Canadian employers that unwanted sexual attention is not a compliment or a harmless Joke. It's discrimination that neither women nor men should have to put up with, - S.H. New citizens It may not have been Canada Day last Friday, but for a Brusseis'famfly, it will be a day they will long remember -- it's the day they became Canad{an, citizens. The Larprom family of Brussels arrived in Canada four years ago after they fled their native country, Laos, because of Communist takeover. They found temporary refuge in Thailand and when they were given the chance to emigrate to Canada, they grabbed it. In the four years they've been in Canada, the family has made a new home, made new friends and scraped together every penny they earned so they could be self-sufficient. They did even better than that, they moved Into their recently purchased home, purchased with their own savings, last week. Too often, we Canadians take our country for granted. We are quick to complain about the government, the state of the economy, and about life In general. Sometimes It gets 10 the point where we don't now any better --all we do is bitch and complain. But Canadians are fortunate people. What we take for granted, people of other countries have to fight for. We are free, we have our own Charter of Rights, but most of all, we live in one of the best darn countries In the world. The Larproms were overjoyed when they became new Canadian citizens. "We are very happy" best describes. the feelings of the family. "We like Canada very much," says Mrs. Larprom. A family that has lived in Canada only four years know how fortunate Canadians are. Let's take a chapter from the Larproms and be thankful that we live in this great country of ours --Canada. At the same time, let's make sure we keep It that way --true north strong and free. - R.W. Farmers must be optimists COUNTRY CORNER by Larry Dillon Canada's farmers suffer from an incurable disease: optimism. Yes, we all complain about current conditions but even when they are at their lowest mood, farmers are quick to assure all around them that things will soon be better, "Sure, prices are low and the economy is in terrible shape. but when this year's crop comes off....' Plans are for improvement and expansion, never for disastrous prices or crop failures. Livestock farmers who have suffered record losses for the last few years are eager to explain how they will reinvest the profits that they expect next year. Cash crop operators are pricing and buying newer and bigger equipment. This unfailing optimism must be frustrat- ing for the "prophets of doom" who continually explain how failure is inevitable. The farmer fails to listen to expert predictions of losses in corn production. He rushes out to purchase extra seed. When the banker advises him to reduce his livestock inventory, he finds credit elsewhere and increases his herd size. Telling our farmers, "it can't be done" is like waving a red flag in front of a bull.' They just charge right ahead, all the faster. They know of and expect present hardships but that big return is just ahead. Perhaps as dose as the next harvest, or the expected spring upturn in market conditions. THE FISH WERE biting at the Lions Park in Seaforth on Sunday, but most avid fishermen found their catches too small to take home. Collin Skea, left, examines a fish caught by David Scarrow, (top -right). Craig Judson will have a fish tale after he caught a minnow (bottom right). But will anyone believe his story? (Waaslnk photos) Vv a uu uave sums uuau,ebs LauUreS because of overly high expectations. How- ever, runaway optimism is a necessary quality in today's farmer. His faith in the fundamental soundness of our. country's economy can carry him through some tough times. Our farmers will hang on through continuous years of losses because of it. Farm accountants can shake their heads in wonder when the farm family survives a whole year on only the baby bonus payments. They may not be prepared to make that sacrifice themselves but the farm family can because they know that things will be better next year. The rural way of life is still based on the theory of sacrifice now, add a bit of hard work and success is coming soon. This unshakeable faith in the future is an asset both to the farmer and to alt the people of the country. Their insistence on reinvest- ing and continuing to work hard is a boost to the nation's economy. That expectation of good times ahead may just be the vital ingredient to ensure that the good times do come. The optimism is out there and it is thriving. ft's just too bad that it is not a bit more contagious. A healthy dose of optimism spreading throughout the country will do little harm. If all the people, the corporations and the institutions expert things to improve. they will. Reel good time! Sports program the pits, but Canada gets gold An avid follower of World and Olympic sports events, i can say I'm proud of our Canadian Olympic team. We're winning more medals at the Los Angeles Olympic Games than we've ever won before. Though we could attribute the Canadian performance to the East European boycott of the games, we can still say that Russians or no Russians, Olympics records are being broken, and by Canadians. I came across an interesting article in the Globe and Mail, "All that glitters isn't gold --Despite Olympic medals, experts say our sports program is the pits." Canadians seem to be cynical, but let's give our athletes credit. Our program may be the pits, but Canadian athletes are winning medals which in itself is a morale booster. Look what happened to Ann Ottenbrite when she raced after Mex Baumann's gold medal performance. She swam for gold and won. The reason she won was because of a high level of confidence --confidence that was built by Mr, Baumann. SENSE AND NONSENSE by Ron Wassink Sports may not be high on our priority list, but athletes who participate in the Olympics, send four years training for a few seconds in ,e spotlight 'In the Globe article. it was reported.that a term of top Canadian sports scientists have dismissed the success of our athletes in Los Angeles as a temporary Illusion. They say our national sports program is bad, and is steadily getting worse. Granted our sports program probably isn't what it should be, but gold. silver and bronze medals are no illusion. But at the same time, the scientists have made some good points. Did you know that coaching is out dated and ,that biomechanics and computer analyses are in? Apparently raw ability and an endless regimen of push-ups is no longer enough to create a world-class athlete. The part I agree with is that when you're fully trained, you'r,e tired, flow that makes • sense. One scientist says that Canada's biggest mistake is a failure to monitor its athletes properly. Even at the elite level. most undergo detailed testing only twice a year --which he says is useless; it's like taking snapshots. • He says there's a fallacy that more training is always better. In fact, resting for a few days is sometimes better. The secret it seems, is in the field of biomechanics and blood pressure readings. All this scientific stuff is foreign to me. 1 was always told that practise makes perfect. And I think it still does. But whether we're into sports or on the job, i tend to agree that pushing ourselves to the limit is when we give our poorest performance. The scientist says that athletes often try to be at peak training for a major competition. But you can never perform very well when you're fully trained because at that point, you're very tired. My thougltts'are that if you're at the pbint where you feel tired and it's blamed on overtraining, I'd say you were bored. Despite what the experts say, l'm proud of our Canadians. They're doing a super job. Fully trained or not, perhaps we should be more optimistic and applaud the men and women we sent to the Olympics. They're the ones who make us proud to be Canadians. Our sports program may be the pits, but the athletes continue to excel with each Olympics game. Let's ask them what they think of the program. Rich forests won't last forever To listen to our politicians, bur past is a disaster and our future cap only be salvaged by whichever of the contenders is making the speech. Listen to John Turner: "if one question is put to me across Ontario, indeed across our country, it is, John. why is it when we have been given the best piece of real estate on the face of the globe, the resources that few other countries can hope to have, one third of the fresh water in the world,• limitless forests, our prairies, the breadbasket of the world, and metals, and hydrocarbons on our land and off our shores, and a reasonably tolerant. moderate, industrious people, why have we not been able to put it together?" Well John, 1 haven't asked you the question but i must admit i've wondered from time to time. Unfortunately, the answer isn't as simple as it is for you. If we'd just chosen you 16 years ago instead of that intellectual Trudeau, wed all be rolling in millions right now. The answers are a lot harder than that; hard to find and hard to accept. First of all. what about the truth of our BEHIND THE SCENES by Keith Roulston limitless heritage. We've swallowed our own propaganda about this country. We do not live on the best piece of real estate in the world. Both the United States and the Soviet Union have nearly everything we've got to offer and more of tt. While we talk about our breadbasket in the prairies, the Americans have an area many times larger. They have more good farmland and a more favorable climate, Limitless forests? Try to buy a pine two-by-four these days and see how limitless our forests are. in eastern Canada we're importing lumber from the southern U.S. Those limitless forests probably are a good example of what's wrong with the country. When the pioneers came to Canada, trees were almost as much a nuisance as they were a resource. We burned them and let them rot, anything to get them off the land so we could plant crops. Up north it seemed the pine forests stretched forever. Replant what we'd cut? That cost money and cut profits. Besides, there were enough trees for centuries. We were a people with limitless resources so we lived the easy life, serene in the belief it would last forever, The tremendous years of growth in our economy and material well being in the 19S0s and 60s were financed by selling off the country. piece by piece, to foreign investors who naturally saw our resources as something to be exploited. Then they moved on when there was another corner of the world that could give a better return on investment. Pierre Trudeau must take some of the blame for the mess. So must Lester Pearson. John Diefenbaker and every prime minister back to MacDonald. But so must the business community, the people represented by Mr. Turner and Mr. Mulroney. They were men who were willing to take the short term gain and ignore the future, to harvest the trees but not replant. To change the future would mean some tough times of adjustment. We would need to take control of our own economy again and pot depend on foreign ownership and investment. But politicians have to get elected in the short term and as a result can't plan for the long term. Trudeau tried to repatriate the economy but as soon as there were problems. as soon as the Americans cried foul. people like Mr, Turner and Mr. Mulroney screamed he was ruining the country. And sadly. the Canadian people don't want to make the sacrifice. We d rather live in the rosey glow of our illusions as long as possible rather than pay the price now - to go cm harvesting trees and pretending the rich forest wilt last forever. Newspapers have put with Smiley for years 1 seem to have written quite. a bit about community newspapers over the years, but it hasn't been deliberate. So, if you'll forgive me, i'll write one more. Unless you want me to tackle, once again, Jim Ross of Exeter, who il; furious at me because he pays more in income tax than i receive in salary, if you can figure that one out. Recently received a monthly statement from the syndicate that carries my column coast to coast. Started looking over the old familiar names that have been running this column for 20 years or more, and got a bit sentimental. They run from Nova Scotia to Hay River, NWT, and if 1 ran a quiz, i'll bet half my readers couldn't spot, by province, half the newspapers. But my personal relations with many of their publishers go back a long way. Never hear from most of them, but bump into them at the odd convention, and renew the old bonds. i'll just mention some of the real old-timers, who have stuck with the thin gruel and thick porridge of this column for more than two decades. Dutton Advance, Hello, Herb Campbell. I know you're semi -retired but hope you're still stroking a golf ball. John and Randy, Neepawa Press; George and Sandy, Estevan Mercury; remember that fishing trip in North Saskatchewan? Are SUGAR AND SPICE by Dill Smiley you all alive and as well as can be expected? Remember the big fish dinner in my three-bedroom cabin. when the rest of you, including Barry Wenger of Wingham, were crowded into little cabins? Little did 1 know that Irwin Macintosh and wife Barbara, when we saw them courting at a convention about 30 years ago, would wind up as Lieutenant -Governor and His Lady of Saskatchewan. Irwin was with the North Battleford News and Barbara's father was with the Creemore Star if memory holds. And they wind up entertaining the Queen, The Blenheim News Tribune, the Bolton Enterprise and the Bowmanvitle Statesman are old customers, and I knew well their owners at that time: Russ Schearer, Werden Leavens, and John James. Where are you guys? Port Perry Star, 1 know Harry Stemp is still around, but where is Peter. the flute -playing lino operator with a vast amount of Norweigan good humor and common sense? Say the word Peter, and we' It have another round of gott, with an ambulance in close attendance. Where is Gene Macdonald of the Alexandria News. who could get a party going in a mausoleum? Not a word for years. i know Don McCuaig of the Renfrew Mercury is out to pasture, cutting wood. catching trout, but let's have a word, old buddy, from the depths of the Ottawa Valley. i've never seen a copy of the Creston Review, the Parkhill Gazette or the Glenco Transcript, but they've been old friends for decades. And what's this about you, Andy McLean, selling out the Seaforth Expositor to a young upstart, after 112 years in the business? Andy was a man who looked middle-aged when he was young,, young when he was middle-aged, and almost juvenile as he grew older. Last time 1 met him and his charming wife and their daughter, Susan White who is going to carry on as editor, i thought the McLeans were indestructible. 1 suppose that any day now, I'll hear that Mac and Val of the Tilbury Times will be hanging up their hats while still in their prime. (in fact. Mac, i think you're already slipping, Had a letter sent along by your son, Terry. who said he'd found it on your desk, but you obviously hadn't dealt with it.) Perth Courier, Winchester Press, Meaford Express., Wheatley Journal, Yorkton Enter- prise, Swift Current Sun. Lacombe Globe, Lachute Watchman, Exeter Times -Advo - tate, Atikokan Progress. Glencoe Tran- script. Oxbow Herald. Weyburn Review (hi, Ernie). Westport Mirror (hi, Your TV Repair Man), Orangeville Banner, Hanover Post. And all the rest of you guys who have put up for years with the bleatings and blurtings of this writer. Thanks. You represent something 1 admire and respect. You work under continual stress to produce a product that is valuable rather than sensational, controversial rather than merely inflammatory, optimistic rather than depressing. Hang in there those of you who are left, and you young fellows, carry on the traditions. You may not be the New York Times, but you are probably more important to your community than it is to the world. Last note: George and Eida Cadogan. veterans both, hope to see you again before we hit the wheelchairs. Love, Bill.