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The Citizen, 1988-09-21, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1988. PAGE 5. OFA blasts Free Trade, upholds mandate to protest The Ontario Federation of Agri­ culture helped sponsor an anti­ Free Trade Agreement advertise­ ment in 17 newspapers across the country last week and, despite criticism from some farmers, will continue to point out faults in the deal, RogerGeorge, First Vice- president of the Ontario Federa­ tion of Agriculture told a meeting of the Huron County Federation of Agriculture Thursday night in Clinton. “OFA isn’tagleeclub,’’ he said, “it isn’t our job to sing everything is great. Our job is to point out the problems.” OFA had said a year ago that it wasn’t opposed to Free Trade but was opposed to this deal, he said. He said he couldn’t conceive that you could have 205 Conservative MPs and not one could find one thing that isn’t great in the agreement. The problem, he says, is that Canadian farmers have half the continent but they happen to have It was a nostalgic but exciting sight for many theatre patrons Sunday as the Blyth Festival crew packed up the props and equipment of “Bordertown Cafe” as the playleft onatwo-month, 21-theatre tour of Ontario following one of the most successful seasons ever. Crew members [from left] Crystal Salverda, Debra McKay, Elizabeth Morwick, Bill Gosling and Ray Salverda load the van prior to its departure. the north half. He once visited farms in California and saw watermelons coming out of the fields by the truckload and was told the watermelons would be in Torontowithin48 hours. That’s faster than shipping from North Bay to Toronto, he said. One winery in California could supply all the Canadian market by running for an additional 12 minutes a day. As the government has promis­ ed, he said, supply management has been protected but he wonder­ ed for how long. If Canadian processors are to compete and there are no tariffs to protect them they have to get raw materials at the same price as their American competitors or go broke. They will have to either bring Canadian prices down or get access to U.S. supplies of raw materials. Major processors like McCain Foods, which paid for a large portion of the anti-Free Trade Advertisements, will survive be­ cause they can shift their opera­ tions to the U.S. but they have some concern for the Canadian farmer. He read from a U.S. trade document that promised to contin­ ue to work in the ongoing trade negotiations for the removal of remaining barriers such as supply management. While some areas of farming will benefit from the agreement, he questioned if the gains were worth the losses. He quoted an Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food study that showed red meat producers could expect to get an extra $18 million benefit from the deal but other areas of farming would lose $113 million for a negative $95 million impact. He said he was a red meat farmer himself but he didn’t think the $18 million gain was much of a benefit. And he warned, that under Free Trade over the years the Canadian currency was bound to pull closer to the U.S. dollar losing Canadian farmers their biggest trade benefit of today. Asked what alternative Canada had to trading with the U.S., he said an export agency such as Canagrex could be re-established to seek export markets. Some Morris Twp. Council Sidewalk work to start Work on the construction of new sidewalks in the hamlets of Belgrave and Walton should start next week, despite a minor glitch caused by a misunderstanding on the part of the contractor who won the bid for the job. Morris Township council learn­ ed at its September 6 meeting that KKN Builders Inc. of Dublin, which had been awarded the sidewalk contract last month at a total price of $28,275, had added an additional $4,875 for fill for the sidewalks in Walton, which it had assumed was not included in the bid. Council accepted the revised bid atthe total cost of $33,150, with the work to be completed as soon as possible. Council also learned that no additional funding is available from the MTC for the Walton sidewalks, although the $7,000 grant transferred to Walton after being approved for Belgrave is still available, oncethework is com­ pleted. Council also learned that Road Superintendent Lloyd Michie had passed the Bridge and Culvert Course at the C.S. Anderson Road School, which he had attended last May; congratulations were exten­ ded to Mr. Michie. Still on roadwork, council passed a motion increasing the standby rate for snowplows to $30 per day, and authorized Mr. Michie to advertise for tenders. Tenders will be due October 4, and will be opened on October 6. In other business, a by-law was passed to open and dedicate Chestnut Street at the north-west side of Brussels as a public roadway in the near future; the move comes after months of legal negotiations between council and landowners adjacent to the new roadway. In matters of drainage, third and final reading was given to a by-law for the construction of the Nichol Drain, Branches A and E, at a special meeting held September 12; no appeals were received following the first and second reading of the by-law in August, and work is expected tobegin at the companies are doing a good job getting more exports but the agency could co-ordinate such efforts, he said. Canada is one of the few countries that doesn’t have such a trade agency, Mr. George said. end of this week. Petitions for repairs to both the McCaughey and Pease Drains were accepted; and drainage superintendent Gary Nicholson was advised to proceed as quickly as possible with repairs to both the Coultes and Mustard Drains. In addition, a drainage culvert is to be installed at the Emerson Mitchell property at Lot 26, Concession 10, as soon as possible. Building permits were approved for Ross Goll at Lot 12, Cone. 2 for a car port; for Gerald McArter at Lot 27, Cone. 7 for a storage shed; for Doug Hillier at Lot 29, Cone. 4 for a mobile home; for Dan Lichty at Lot 20, Cone. 6 for a mobile home; for Glen JohnstonatLot21, Cone. 3for manure storage facilities; and to Glen Warwick at Lot 31, Cone. 1 for a granary. In addition, a permit was approved for Transmaris Farms Ltd. for the demolition of a house, barn and shed at Lot 18, Cone. 7. Chief building official Leo San­ ders reported to council on the construction of a house where a stop-work order had been issued earlier; council then passed a motion instructing Mr. Sanders to appoint a contractor to render the building safe for occupancy in accordance with the Building Code, unless the owner completes the building to specification by September 30. An unrelated mo­ tion was also passed that there be no charge applied for a building permitfor a chimney, butthat if the chimney is built by an inexperienc­ ed person, it mustbe inspected and must conform to the building code. Council again discussed a rate­ payers meeting, which will likely be called in order to have ratepay­ ers meet the candidates in the event that a municipal election will be held in Morris Twp. on November 14, according to clerk­ treasurer Nancy Michie. October 17 is the final day for candidates to declare their intentions to run in the upcoming municipal elections. Road accounts totalling $54,907.74 were approved for payment, as were general accounts totalling $49,054.30. USSR knows what boosts news safes BY RAYMOND CANON If you were to look at a newspaper in Russia, it would be a pale imitationof mostCanadian ones. For one thing it is much smaller with one of the most outstanding features being that there is no advertising. Why should there be when there is no competition? In addition, the news is pretty well what the Kremlin wants it to be. Living dangerously in the eyes of a Russian editor is printing something with which the government does not agree espe­ cially if it is in any way critical of anything being carried out by the Kremlin. The two major newspapers in the Soviet Union are Pravda which translated means “truth” and Izvestia which means “news”. One of the most frequently heard jokes is that in the News there is no truth and in the Truth there is no news. Be that as it may, this is the general picture that the public has of the Soviet print media. That may have been the case in the pastbut in the Gorbachev era of Russian politics, that is no longer true. Glasnost, the approximate English translation of which is openness, has brought with it an unfolding of opinion in the coun­ try’s newspapers and magazine the likes of which have never been since Lenin first arrived back in Russia in 1917. Let’s take Pravda, for openers. The paper is the official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and as such has published the Committee’s ver­ sion of the truth. Under Gorbachev this has permitted the situation where it is possible to have more than one point of view on a number of subjects. If there is anyone doing acrobatic acts because of this, it is the editor, Viktor Afanasyev, who dates back to the Brezhnev years. Since he has not moved as fast as some of the hierarchy would like him to in this new era, there have been calls for his dismissal. This he has managed to avoid, at least so far, by printing a combination of both progressive and conservative articles. The Truth, it seems, now means different things at the same time. Perhaps it is rather a debate which will lead to the truth, something along the lines of the synthesis of Hegelian philosophy which is so dear to Marxists. Izvestia has turned out to be somewhat more liberal than its sister paper. It has concentrated on a campaign for constitutional reform as well as a greater openness in the workings of the Soviet government. Because of this it is not surprising that the circulation has gone up by a third in the past year. The readers must be delighted. While we are talking about the more liberal papers of the Russian media, we should have a look at Ogonek which means Little Spark. Ishould point outrightnow that, if I can be said to have a soft spot in my heart for any Russian paper, this is the one. One summer many five-year plans ago, I drove to Moscow with a friend of mine. When we were unloading our luggage from the car in front of the Hotel, a photographer and a journalist from Ogonek appeared on the scene and proceeded to interview us, at the same time taking a few pictures. The inter­ view and the pictures duly appear- edinOgonekandlmustadmitit was not a bad job. By interviewing me even way back then they can claim to be in the vanguard of liberal tendencies. Right now Ogonek goes about as far as any Russian paper can under glasnost. One English newspaper commented that Ogonek felt that it had printed so much of the “good news” for 70 years, the only thing that could achieve the proper balance would be to print all the bad news, otherwise known as the truth. It has broken new ground on several occasions and it is small wonder that readership of the paper is now running close to two million. With that sort of circula­ tion I might just agree to yet another interview. One Soviet newspaper has even taken to publishing a serialized version of Pasternak’s Dr. Zhiva- vo, which was on the banned list for years after it was first published. All in all, things are looking up in the Soviet Union. The editors, for one, have learned precisely what it is that boosts circulation.