The Citizen, 1995-02-08, Page 4today, then sometime in the future.
Can you help us get this mobility
bus service on the road? If 200
persons or businesses in central
Huron donated $100 each or 400
persons sent us $50 each, this
would put our fundraising over the
top. You will be glad you helped
when you see people in your
community benefitting from this
service.
Come on, residents of central
Huron! You have helped to build
hospitals, community centres and
you have supported homemaking
and visiting nursing. agencies.
CHuMS is also a non-profit
charitable organization and we can
issue official receipts for income
tax purposes for donations of $10
or more.
Donations can be mailed to
CHuMS, Box 458, Clinton,
Ontario, NOM ILO. Or you can
telephone me at 482-5666 or 1-
800-267-0535 if you would like
someone to pick up your donation.
Please help us if you can!
Yours truly,
Bev Brown
CHuMS Fundraising Chairperson.
THE EDITOR,
Last week The Citizen covered .a
story concerning the Walton
Community Hall. We are writing to
clarify some of the information in
that article. Rent for the Walton
Hall has been $45. Since that
amount doesn't cover hall expenses
the Walton Women's Institute has
held luncheons to meet expenses.
These meals have been 'quite
successful so that the Institute
could meet costs. We want to keep
the cost of the hall rent'reasonable
so that the community had a
useable facility. The true cost for
rent of $85 suggested by Reeve
Murray could be seen as excessive
to renters.
Photo by Bonnie Gropp
The Walton Women's Institute
are a well organized, effective
group who have updated and
maintained the Community Hall
nineteen years.
We have appreciated the support
of the Community and thank the
Councils of McKillop, Grey and
Morris for handling the public
meeting regarding the Hall.
Sincerely,
Walton W.I.
President Marjory Humphries
Sec./Treasurer Helen Craig.
THE EDITOR,
PART ONE: Leave it to Beaver
By J. Archibald
Once upon a time, in a land not
so far away, there lived families.
These families were happy living in
this land, this placed called Straw.
Straw was a big place with few
inhabitants. Most were farmers,
growing food for those nearby and
in other lands. Some worked in
trades, building, buying and selling.
Others nourished, healed, taught,
counselled.
Altogether, they were a commun-
ity. The land was fair and so were
those who lived there.
Straws, as the residents of Straw
were known, had a good standard
of living in a land that was holding
its own, despite what one of the so-
called regional leaders said; a
porcupine by the name of Stickley-
Prickley. But that didn't concern
most of the habitants of Straw
because nobody took much heed of
what Sticklcy said anyway.
Everybody thought that he was
temporary, like an itch.
What bothered the Straws most
was a closer, more pressing
concern - it was the Beavers. The
Beavers were a group of self-
indulgent rodents who got together
Continued on page 6
IA wooden frame
Letters
THE EDITOR,
As chair of the fundraising
committee for the CHuMS bus I
have been excited by the positive
response to our fundraising
campaign to start up a mobility bus
service in central Huron, which
would also serve the residents of
Blyth and Brussels.
As reported in The Citizen
(January 25) we are within $4,000
of having enough money for our
share of the bus purchase. What I
failed to mention is that CHuMS
has an agreement with the five
municipalities in central Huron
(Clinton, Hullett, McKillop,
Seaforth and Tuckersmith) that we
will raise an additional $15,000 to
provide us with a financial base
before we start up the transit
service. This means we must raise
$19,000 before we can purchase the
bus.
Anyone who has started a new
business knows it is wise to have
money in the bank at the beginning
to avoid going into debt. In our
case, we need to buy insurance and
gas, install a telephone and pay
wages before we receive the
subsidy from the Ministry of
Transportation.
Presently there is no other
transportation available for the 200
persons who have applied to
CHuMS and arc patiently waiting
for the service to begin. Do you
have a relative, friend or neighbour
who would benefit from a
specialized transit service? Perhaps
you yourself may be eligible, if not
Citizen :A
The North HOron
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CIRCULATION
PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1995.
There's no 'right' decision
The difficulty for people in authority is that sometimes decisions
must be made when there is no 'right' decision. Such is the case for the
judge in the Paul Bernardo murder trial.
Shortly the judge must rule
on a plea from the families of
the victims of the two murders
Mr. Bernardo is charged with,
that certain video evidence be
presented in a closed
courtroom where only the judge, lawyers and jury will see it. On the
other hand, television stations have asked for the right to televise the
trial, the first time such a case would get on-air coverage in Canada.
The wisdom of Solomon couldn't help a judge please both sides on this
issue.
Both sides are right, and both see mainly their own point of view. It
is perhaps easiest to agree with the parents of Leslie Mahaffy and
Kristen French that the video evidence should not be shown. The
families shouldn't be made to suffer again, they argue, either by having
to see gruesome pictures of their daughters' demise or by having to
answer questions from the media about the tapes. Simple human
compassion argues they should be treated with as much dignity as
possible. The media circus of the 0. J. Simpson trial seems proof that
we should do things differently here.
But media supporters argue that rather than hide more evidence, the
public should be given more information about the case, even to the
point of putting it on television for the first time in this country. They
too have a point. We have come to distrust our justice system whether
for good reason or not. Few of us have ever been inside a real court-
room watching a real trial. There are times when the whole justice
system seems too much like a game played among colleagues in the
legal profession.
The Simpson trail coverage has at times been sickening but the
televising of the trial might save a lot of grief in the long run. Much of
Los Angeles has been divided on black/white lines on the trial. Black
residents, as an act of faith, often feel Simpson is innocent and
persecuted. If the trial is there to be seen every day on TV and if he is
eventually convicted, perhaps they will have been calmed by actually
seeing the justice system working before their very eyes.
These are the elements the judge must weigh, and no matter which
side he chooses he'll be wrong by some, and right by others.—KR
What a way to start a country
One likes to think of countries being formed through ringing
declarations of unity. Such is not the case in Quebec where the Parti
Quebecois is scheming how to phrase the question on the upcoming
referendum so that 10 per cent of the people who now don't want to
separate will choose "sovereignty".
It amounts to forming a country by trickery — hardly a sound moral
basis on which to start a country. Premier Jacques Parizeau is trying to
find any trigger he can to turn people against Canada and toward
independence — or at least toward the "sort of independence that he
proposes in which Quebecers can have the best of both worlds.
There's the matter of the deficit, for instance. Mr. Parizeau keeps
dangling the cozy thought that Canada is bankrupt, that federalism
doesn't work, and that somehow if people vote for sovereignty the
whole thing will just go away. He insists that relations will go on as
normal with the rest of Canada but at the same time he lets on that
Quebec will not have to take its full share of the deficit. Wrangling
over who owns what share of the deficit is likely to be one of the things
that brings the most heat if Quebec tries to separate (as money is in
most divorce proceedings).
Mr. Parizeau must also perform the double-talk of making English
Canadians out to be people you can't live with, yet having his voters
believe that we're so reasonable that we won't have any hard feelings if
they vote to separate, and will accord them all the privileges they-had
in Canada (such as using our dollar and keeping our citizenship).
If he succeeds in getting 50 per cent plus one vote, Mr. Parizeau will
feel he has the right to negotiate sovereignty. If he doesn't get it, he or
his successors will try again, hoping they do get the elusive majority, if
even for the one when the vote takes place. If people change their mind
the day after the referendum, too bad, so sad.
Could any government of a country formed on such a slippery set of
ethical underpinnings, really have the strong sense of morality it will
need to avoid the temptations of power? Hopefully the majority of
Quebec voters will see through the trickery and stick to their long-held
view — that sovereignty is an option not worth the risks.—KR
E ditorial