The Lucknow Sentinel, 1978-02-22, Page 2Page 2- -%uckpow Sentinel: Wednesday, Feb.. 22, 1978
The Lii1,.kn�*'Sentinei.
' IUCKNOW, ONTARIO
"The Sepoy Town
On the Huron -Bruce Boundary ,
Established 1873 - Published Wednesday
Published by Signal -Star Publishing Ltd.
Robt. G. Shrier - president and publisher
A Sharon J. Dietz - editor
Anthony N. Johnstone - general manager
Subscription rate, $10 per year in advance
Senior Citizens rate., $8.00 per year in advance
U.S.A. and Foreign, $14 per year in advance
Business and Editorial Office Telephone 528-2822
Mailing Address P.O. Box 400, Lucknow NOG2HO
Second class mail registration number- 0847
Pawns in a. chess game
The real loss in the dispute between
the Huron County Board of Education
and the county's Secondary SchcibI
Teachers is not the side who eventually
give in to the demands of the other, but
the innocent who are caught in the
middle - the students.
Surprisingly, the students are not
• interested in a holiday from school but
rather, feel they are being played with.
Their real concern is that they do not
know what is happening.
The teachers claim that the students
understand the situation but, the
students say the teachers do not discuss
the strike with them'., .
When the teachers are at school their
attitude is not conducive to learning and
the students are restricted, in their use of
resource materials because principals
will not allow lab equipment and library
books to be taken home. in case the
schools are closed for a long period of
• time.
Grade thirteen studentsare concern-
ed that the time lost now wi mean that
some work will not be coveted and this
will show next year when they are trying
to continue their education and have not
covered necessary material.
One student is afraid that if the
teachers are out for a long period of time
the students will have to attend school
next summer. This would interfere with
his summer job and iouidn't be able
to make enough' .money .to support
himself at university next year.
Some teachers are giving students
assignments to complete at home and
some are tutoring students in their
homes. While this may help several
students, it is not conducive to the
system as a whole.
And, if teachers find it difficult ` to
teach effectively because a class is
large, it is certain that teaching in a
living room will be awkward.
Regardless of who is right or wrong in
the dispute, the teachers and the board
say tha t their first interest is the quality
of education for the students in the
Huron County system, yet neither side
seerns to:be"thinking of the student who
is the big loser if the teachers .are out for
any real period of time.
It's like arguing parents who play
their children off against each other and
manipulate their children to their
advantage.
Yet, all -along, they say their real
concern is for the children.
The dispute cannot help but have,
adverse effects in the classroom even if
the teachers are on the job. It isa
serious situation when a county board of
education and its teachers have so little
communication that contract settle-
ments cannot be reached without using
,the students as pawns in a chess game.
February 15, 1978...
The Editor:
Dear Sir;
It is hoped that a detective
story without murder, fraud 'or
other crime may be sufficiently
novel as to win space in your
paper.
There is such a story of a
CanadianArmy unit that served
throughout Europe WW2. This
unit, the 65 Tank Transport Coy.
RCASC was disbanded in Holland
in 1945. Ex -members departed
for civy street in every, part of
Canada and contact between
individuals was lost.
Twenty eight years later, two
former members met in Flin Flon,
Manitoba and speculated on what
had happened to their wartime
friends. It was decided to try for
some answers. It should be noted
that a 28 year old trail is a cold
trail and difficult to follow. The
first answer was a shock, a. man
remembered as a hpppy joking
youth and unit f vourite was
found dying in an Edmonton
Hospital. A notice in the Legion
Magazine produced eight replies,
all from the area between Sydney,
.N.S. and Powell River, B.C. (a
truly generous.hunting preserve).
The search became , a chain
reaction as the members when
found joined in the endeavour.
After_ some progress had been
made, the undertaking was
organized by province with v ex-
change of information. Leads
were dredged up from -memory,
unit daily orders (source Ottawa
Records), from old address books,
phone books, old photos, etc.
Four and a half years of
detective work has located 210
living ex -members and about '35
deceased out of a possible of
about 700. The search continues.
Will anyone reading . this,;
please check with your_ WW2'
army acquaintances, if a - 65th
man be found, please advise him
of a company reunion to be held
at North Bay, Ontario, July 7,8,9,
1978. For reunion details and
A
other important, information, he
should contact Maurice Rains -
forth, P.O. Box 1071, Stirling,
Ontario, 613-395-3052 (or the
writer).
Mr. Editor please accept the
thanks of the men of the 65th for
this valuable space in your paper.
Sincerely,
L. I:° Purdy,
P.O. Box 145,
Waterloo, P.Q. JOE 2N0
36 Grosvenor Blvd.,
Ft. Albert, Alberta,
T8N 1P2
February 11, 1978.
Town Clerk,
Lucknaaw, Ontario.
Dear Sir,
I am trying to trace my great
grandfather's family. The name is
Bratchie - James Bratchie was a
farmer at Erin - and in 1865 they
moved to Lucknow.
The children were all baptised
in the Presbyterian. Church in
Acton upHu nytil the move - as far as
I' know. d
James' wife may have been a
Methodist - as my mother, . who
visited her""gr"andmother, was
always warned not to sing the
'Presbyterian hymns she learned
at Church in Goderich.
I wonder if there are any
records of property they may have
awned or church or graveyard
records.
I am a member of the
Bruce :Grey Genealogy Society, .
but do not know of any members
front Lucknow.
I would appreciate any informa-
tion you may have.
Quebec controversy still interests readers
Dungannon, Ont.,
February 13th, 1978.
The Editor,
The Lug know Sentine
Lucknow, Ontario.
Dear, Sir:
It is my opinion that Canadians
should- have nothing to do with n
the kind of racist propaganda
represented in the book "Biling-
ual Today, French Tomorrow".
The mentality that produces this
kind of literature is similar to that
which lies behind the Ku Klux
Klan in the United States and the
neo-Nazi movements which have
surfaced in 'recent years both in
Europe and North America. ' It
would be potentially, dangerous
were it not for the fact that most
people will see its utter foolish-
ness in the claim that there is
some kind of "devilish plot"
engineered by Mr. Trudeau and
his associates to make the whole
country French. TIl"e plot exists
only in certain badly confused
minds.
. Mr. Trudeau's concept of a
land in which either of the
founding races can feel at home
anywhere from coast to coast is an
admirable one if a very unrealistic
one. It has not succeeded even
\within the Civil Service despite
great expenditure of public mon-
'11 d
ey and will not succeed across the
country for obvious reasons.
There is no valid reason why
English-speaking Canadians in
Goderich or St. John, N.B.'or
Kamloops, B.C. should be able to
communicate in French for they
would probably never use such
ability on the local scene. The
plan would have made more
sense had certain areas of the
country been designated as
bilingual areas. Apart from the
resistance to learning French
those most disposed to this
scheme are' unlikely to attain the
degree of fluency required to
make the scheme work. So the
"devilish plotters" in Ottawa
would have a poor chance of
implementing their fiendish des-
ign to foist their language on the
country.
• Our country is poorly served by
people whose aim is to sow
dissension and strife in a land
already tense over the separatist
issue. They will win converts only
among those who are a thousand
miles from understanding the
'feelings of French Canadians (I
resied in the Province of Quebec
for ? period of time) ' and 'poorly
informed on the real issues.
Yours sincerely,
(Rev.) Clyde G. Westhaver.
February 13, 1978.
To' the Editor:
Dear Madam.
I have never read the bo�ppk
"Biligual Today, . French TotnOr-
row" but I've lived long . enough
in Canada to find out that beside
all the tckerings° and name
calling, the two founding stocks of
the nation are undeniably true
blood related under the skin.
I suspect that the chip on the
shoulder of a very limited amount
of English speaking Canadians
are, for a while, flared, up by new
comers from the British Isles who
want to impress, for a while, that
they :were so good a British
subject in England that their
presence over here was just to
reinforce their love for the mother
country they left behind. And I
suspect that . all the stubborn
"frogs" of Quebec, and as well as
all over Canada, are just enter-
tained the same way by 'zealous
newcomers from France, Switzer-
land, Belgium, or .what have you,
who endeavour to tell them that
their French is a bastardized one
corrupted by the schemes of the
maudits anglais.
Why, just talking about that is
enough material copy for a whole
generation of unimaginative re -
porters.
What we are never told, _ as
puritans,, is- the shy and secret
feelings of a pre -Victorian great
great grandmother, of any family,,
but not recovered yours, who fell
over backwards with an enterpris-
ing coureur de bois who was so
manly different than the consti-
pated limeys of her entourage.
Conversely, what we would like, to
read about, in the open, is the
state of mind of an unknown great
great grandfather from Trois-Riv-
ieres or Hull who came all the way
up to Dundas to slash trees and
clear a patch like the Mohawks
trail for the displaced Pennsyl-
vanian-Duth to tread safely upon.
What about his feelings for a fair
maiden from say Aberdeenshire,
Knapdale or° Sheffield?
To hell with France when the
fair maiden scratched his back
and bit his neck. To hell with
England when the coureur de bois
displayed and demonstrated a
relentless . stamina that sent
prejudices and narrowminded-
ness over the hills.
To make a long story short,
imagine yourself so-called "blue
blood \ English Canadian" and
you, so called "de belle nobjesse
Francaise", imagine yourself dis-
patched by your employeur to
South -America where everybod
speaks Portuguese or Spanish.
Sincerely,
Alice B. Herbert.
,(Mrs. A. C. Herbert)
Just see yourself there, alone,
for six months or a year. Out of
the blue sky someone among the
men working for you succeeds to
explain to you that there is
another Canadian living alone
some sixty miles away.
Great Scott! Aleluia or By Jove.
You've got to go and see the
chap. You want to. talk about the
country: The Maple leaf for `ever,
,if not the weather. You jump, into
your jeep. Don't forget the
Molson. You drive like mad
'cause this backwards country
doesn't ever have the civilized
traffic sigis of good old' Canada.
You think, '"Am I glad to talk
about hockey, smelt fishing and
American football. And about Joe
Clark who looks like Diefenbaker,
and about Broadbent who knows\
that all the so-called NDP adepts
are in fact true Liberals that don't
know the meaning of the words,
and about Trudeau, the machiav-
ellian genius, who had, nor had so
far the guts to tell us all that we
need something else than a
democracy." You're still thinking
as a true Canadian thinks, iri Spite
of all the gibberish printed by the
gabby crowd .of the media and
then, rounding the curb, you
discover the chap you are looking
for.
There he is! No introduction
CONTINUED ON PAGE 17
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