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The Citizen, 1986-12-30, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1986. Editorials Bill 16 a good step Michael Breaugh, Municipal Affairs Critic of the New Democratic Party in Ontario and M.P.P. for Oshawa has proposed a private member’s bill which, if passed, would help open the democratic system in municipalities just a little more. Bill 16, called the Municipal Amendment Act, would mean that all meetings of municipalities and local boards and committees of council are open to the public except when the majority of the people on the board vote by resolution for a closed meeting. The act spells out the very limited conditions under which the meeting can be closed. The bill also says these bodies must post in a prominent place, at least three days before the meeting, a notice of the time and place of the meeting and of the agenda to be considered. The act is also a freedom of information act and means all municipal records of such meetings and other records, except those covered under the provisions for closed meetings, are open to members of the public during normal hours. No doubt the new rules, if adopted, would be inconvenient for local councillors and civil servants. It is already hard to conduct business in a council chambers when people are listening to your every word (and copying it down for inclusion in newspaper reports). But people must feel comfortable with their government. They must trust it and to trust it they must feel things are being done in an open, honest manner. When meetings are held behind closed doors there is reason for doubt and suspicion on the part of the people. Those who attend meetings of councils or boards may already feel in the dark. Even the media representatives often do. Minutes are distributed tocouncillors but not read, for the sake of brevity. But often councils will approve minutes of three or four meetings since the last regular meeting, meetings which neither press nor public has had notice about. At Huron County Board of Education, the spectator can be totally left in the dark because nearly all work has been done in committee meetings and discussion is generally cut and dried. If people don’t know what’s going on, democracy is handcuffed. Hopefully this is one private members bill that will find its way through the Legislature. Counting our abuses Human beings have an apparently innate ability to find something to feel abused about. Recently baseball pitcher Jack Morris turned down a multi-million dollar contract offer from his old team, the Detroit Tigers, shopped himself around to other baseball teams with great fanfare, and when he was turned down sulkingly compared himself to Jackie Robinson being discriminated against by team owners. Jackie Robinson was the first black to break the colour-bar in Major League Baseball and endured hell, not just racial taunts but detrth threats. Mr. Morris has really had it hard like that. Tim Raines, another baseball player termed the multi-mill- ion dollar offer from his team, the Montreal Expos as insulting. Then there was the baseball player a few years ago who had been the highest-paid player in history who went into a sulk because somebody else got an even bigger contract. He was hurt because his team wouldn’t negotiate his contract to make him the highest paid player again. Sports figures were only the most visible evidence of the madness that overtook North America in the 1970’s and early 1980’s. The tide is turning, as Mr. Morris and Mr. Raines have been finding out. Sanity is returning. But the ability to feel sorry for ourselves, to find injustice all around us, remains. People are always finding ways that their “rights” are being trampled. One would think, to listen to a television or radio newscast, that we were living in a police state, that people in South Africa or the Soviet Union were free by comparison. Canadians for instance, are subjected to the horrible abrogation of their rights as the illegality of Sunday shopping. Imagine such hardship imposed on people that they can’t buy fur coats on a Sunday or search through a bookshop for an essential book like “The Joy of Sex.” And in Quebec the bombings have started again because people may be allowed to put a language other than French on store signs. If people from Chile or China could listen to us they must think we’re pretty silly, self-centred people in Canada. But there is something frightening about this myopia of the Canadian people. More and more we seem to be getting pressure from the majority for “rights” that will hurt the minority. Because the majority of people is in favour of Sunday shopping, they insist they should have their way even if it means a minority, the employees of those stores, must work on Sundays and forego the thing most of us take for granted: the chance to spend a day as a family together. If this tyranny of the majority continues we really will have a problem of civil rights, of protecting the minorities who will be hurt from the whims of the majority. The trend is dangerous. Hopefully Canadians will grow up and listen to themselves. We recognize how silly Jack Morris sounds comparing himself to Jackie Robinson, but do we recognize how silly we sound in our demand for so many of these “rights”? Letters to the editor Legislated rights, wrong THE EDITOR, Over the past year or so, personal rights have been discuss­ ed and argued by most of us to some degree. The problem seems to be the further the issue goes on, the less gets accomplished. In fact it has become apparent to me that the harder we all fight to gain our personal rights, the more we step on the rights of others. When the courts or the govern­ ment steps in to legislate personal rights, the amount of rights gained are a small fraction of the rights that are stripped from others. For example, not long ago a great deal of time on the radio was spent discussing the new law banning “adult only” apartments. This makes it illegal for a landlord to refuse to rent to a family with children. They claim it is not right to discriminate against such fami­ lies. I know the reason behind the issue was to provide more places for families to live. However let’s not be so dense as to think by forcing landlords into renting buildings that are design­ ed, built and decorated for adults only to families we are solving any kind of housing problem. What’s more, let’s not pretend that it’s done for thesakeof “rights” when it strips the rights of not only landlords, but also the rights of any adult wishing to live for whatever reason, in a building free of children. Presently, most of the dairy farms in Ontario are trying to deny me the right to choose what I want to buy to spread on my bread in the colour I choose, not to mention the farmers who grow soya beans or the companies that manufacture soya bean margarine. A much bigger and more complex problem are the rights of women in the work place. Surely my wife and 1 have the right to have one of us stay at home to raise our children. This has become nearly impossible as the cost of living is pushed to the ceiling as a result of the high percentage of families with both man and wife out working. In addition to this, some people think that my tax dollar should be spent on paying for day eare so as to encourage more families to have both parents working. This, I belie ve, will drive the cost of living even higher. Recently it became illegal to discriminate against homosexu­ als. I would be the first to agree that it is wrong to discriminate against any person or persons regardless of circumstances. I believe it is my obligation to love (agape) Homo­ sexuals to the point of employee, lodging or assistance in any manner they might require of me that I am able to provide. However, I would like to know who will compensate employers who are forced to hire homosexuals to work with a reluctant public i.e. restaurants and stores. Further am I to send my children to a school that not only employs homosexuals but is not allowed to point out the biblical approach to unnatural perverted sexual lifestyles? This promotes a life style to rfly child that I believe to be warped and corrupt. There are many other examples of loss of rights through others trying to gain theirs. But I want to make myself clear in case it appears 1 have contradicted my­ self. First of all I think personal rights are a very important issue and one not to be made mock of by using it to manipulate the system into depriv­ ing someone else of their personal rights. Secondly, I have a small child (one and a half years) but I also trust that as long as I live in a country as great as this one, neither I nor my wife and little girl will be homeless in plain view of fellow Christian countrymen re­ gardless of any laws. Thirdly I worked on a dairy farm as a boy and as much as I cherish those memories I don’t believe a monopoly on the butter market is in the best interest of any one. Incidentally on that farm we grew Continued on page 19 Exciting hockey's back THE EDITOR, W.O. A. A. Intermediate hockey, had the image of a recreation league for no talent players to get together once a week, play a little hockey, drink a few beer, tell a few stories, of rowdy drunken fans, wood chopping on ice, all-start wrestling, lumberjacks on skates fresh from the bush with a new supply of hockey sticks. Sorry folks, timeshave changed. Today’s hockey is fast skating, hard hitting competitive and enter­ taining. and the greatest thing of all is that the entertainment is supplied by local entertainers: the owner of the gas bar on the corner, the clerk at the hardware store. the neighbourhood carpenter, all play­ ing for their hometown, challeng­ ing not just names on a road map. but the rival down the road we competed against for years in sports, business and recreation. Towns using the same players we cursed, taunted and admired throughout minor sports. Remem­ ber the Northern Jr. D. loop: Markdale. Southampton. Grand Valiev and W+arton. Now look at the Intermediate League. Tees- water. Mildmay. Lucknow. Ripley. Continued on page 12 [640523 Ontario Inc. ] Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Published weekly in Brussels, Ontario P.O.Box152 P.O.Box429, Brussels, Ont. Blyth, Ont. N0G1H0 N0M1H0 887-9114 523-4792 Subscription price: $15.00; $35.00 foreign. Advertising and news deadline: Monday 2p.m. in Brussels; 4p.m. in Blyth Editorand Publisher: Keith Roulston Advertising Manager: Beverley A. Brown Production and Office Manager: Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968