Times Advocate, 1999-06-16, Page 7Wednesday, June 16, 1999
Exeter Times -,Advocate
7
1 OYEARS AGO
June 14, 1989 - Active obstet-
ric services have ceased at South
Huron Hospital, as only six
babies were born there in 1988.
However, 11,911 persons
sought medical attention at the
emergency department last
year, an increase of 25 percent.
The local hospital will continue
to provide for emergency deliv-
eries, and to accommodate
mothers who return from city hospitals with their
newborns. = .
20'YEARS AG4
June 13, 1979 - The South Huron Big Brothers
Association is richer by $1,500 thanks to
Saturday's walkathon. First across the finish line
was John Hayman followed closely by Albert Van
Dyken and Ed Clair. The youngest participant to
complete the 16 kilometre route was five year-old
Jamie Haines who collected $40 in pledges.
The debating team from SHDHS won the Huron
junior and senior championships in a recent com-
petition, The seniors were Paul McCauley, Ann
Dearing and Sue Chapman while the junior team
comprised Kevin Glasgow, Matt McClure and Ilona
Schaufler. The coach was Colin Lowndes.
35YEARSAGO
June 15, 1964 - Ed Brady of Exeter won the
western jumping class at the Southwestern Ontario
Horsemanship Club horse show at St. Thomas.
Canvassers will be calling on residents in the dis-
trict next week in connection with the upcoming
mass TB survey.
Mr. and *Mrs. Lee Learn and Fred and Mrs.
Norah Taylor flew from Malton airport Thursday
for. a ten-day visit to England and on to Germany.
Several lads from SHDHS walked out of school
Monday after exams and immediately headed for
another school term at the Conservation School
being staged by the Ausable River Conservation
Authority at Camp Sylvan.
40 YEARS AGO
ROSS
AUGH
SACK IN TINS
June .13, 1959 .- Four Scouts from Exeter, Doug
Jermyn, Jim Sweitzer, Doug Hodgson and Dale
Turvey were among the 25 honoured at a Queen's
Scout recognition service for the Bluewater region
at Harriston, Friday night.
Grand Bend Lions Club has completed arrange-
ments to present TV songstress Joyce Hahn, as the
feature attraction at its annual ball to be held in
July.
Council passed a bylaw exempting Exeter
Legion's Memorial Hall from all taxes except those
for school and local improvement purposes.
Exeter Girl Guides paid tribute to a sister, 12
year-old Lynne Harper of Clinton, Saturday after-
noon by forming a guard of honour for the funeral
procession which passed through Main Street on
its way to burial services at Port Stanley. The
Clinton Girl Guides body was found in a woodlot,
near Clinton RCAF Station.
50YEARS AGO
June 15, 1949 - At the laying of the new Exeter
District 'High school Wednesday afternoon, R.N.
Creech realized the crowning achievement of his
long years of service as a member of the Exeter
Board of Education:
Town council approved the final plans and ten-
der forms for the William Street storm sewer. Clerk
C.V. Pickard was instructed to call for tenders.
Grading for the site of the new $25,000 commu-
nity centre in Hensall is being done this week.
Lucan High School graduated its final class this
spring and now Lucan students will travel to the
new East Middlesex Collegiate in Arva.
75 YEARS AGO
June 14. 1924 - Messrs. R.G. Seldon, J.A.
Stewart, George E. Anderson and William Rivers
were in London this week attending the Thistle
Club Scotch lawn bowling doubles.
a
Rev. R.E. Southcott of Gowganda in ; Northern`
Ontario is spending his holidays at :his home in
town.
Warren, little son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred May had
a narrow escape from being poisoned on
Wednesday morning last. He and little Jean
McEwen were out playing together and getting
hold of some toadstools. He ate a portion of one
thinking it was a mushroom. A physician was
called and administered proper antidotes and the
little lad was soon himself again.
LFTTERS TO THE EDITOR
We are worth a
fortune
Dear Editor:
My daughter in Los Angeles sent this to me in a
Fathers Day card. I thought you might like to give your
readers something to smile about. It was well done,
whoever did it.
We are worth a fortune!
Remember, old folks are worth a fortune - with silver
in their hair, gold in their teeth, stones in their kidneys,
lead in their feet and gas in their stomachs. I have
become a little older since I saw you last and few
changes have come into my life - frankly, I have
become a frivolous old gal.
I am seeing five gentlemen every day. As soon as I
wake up, Will Power helps me get out of bed. Then I go
to see John. Next Charlie Horse comes along and when
he is here he takes a lot of my time and attention.
When he leaves, Arthur Ritis shows up and stays the
rest of the day. He doesn't like to stay in one place very
long, so he takes me from joint to joint. After such a
busy day, I'm really tired and glad to go to bed with
Ben Gay. What a life! Oh yes, I'm also flirting with Al
Zymer.
P.S. The preacher came to call the other day. He said
that at my age I should be thinking about the here-
after. I told him "Oh I do, all the time. No matter where
lam - in the parlour, upstairs, in the kitchen or down
in the basement, I ask myself - now what am I here
after?"
(Original author unknown, but obviously female)
Tom EMERY,
Lucan
IV/AIDS Netwo
no longer at location
Dear Editor:
This is to notify you that Huron County HIV/AIDS
Network, located at 3 Albert Street, Clinton will no
longer be located at this address as of June 28, 1999.
We are, modernizing our operation and will no longer
be burdened with the upkeep of an office. Our funding
is being reallocated to better serve our purposes. We
will be maintaining a portion of our services and con-
tinuing to serve our clients.
We would like to know if you would still be, interested
In keeping your name on our membership list. In order
to meet the expenses incurred in mailing we request
the performance of 10 hours volunteer service or a $10
membership fee. This will afford you the privilege of.
voting at our Annual General Meeting and receiving
our mailings.
If we do not hear from you, we will assume that this
means you do not wish to stay on our membership list.
Thank you for all your help and support in the past. If
you have any further questions feel free to contact us
at 482-1141.
H.C.H.A.N. Executive
SANDY BECHTEL, CHAIR,
Startlingfigures released
Dear Editor:
On April 22, 1999 the Superintendent of the Office for
the Freedom of information released some startling
figures that should be very embarrassing to the
Chretien government. While Ottawa insists that their
firearm registration Bill C-68 "is working", they refuse
to admit that it's not, and that it's costing Canadians a
hemorrhage of tax dollars.
Canadians have been told by our government that all
seven million firearms in our country will have to be
registered, but the latest information from Ottawa con-
firms that only 5,137 people have filled in the papers
so far. These people registered only 7,012 firearms,
which represents a mere 1/10th of 1% out there.
Opposition parties are insisting that the cost of oper-
ating the Canadian Firearm Registry System has
topped the 1 billion dollar mark.
The Ministry of Justice Is only admitting to having
squandered $133.9 million. Even if you were to take
the Justice Ministry's figures to be correct, we now
know that $26,066 has been spent on everyone of the
handful of firearms owners who've signed -up so far. At
the present snail's pace rate of registration, it will take
over 400 years to complete the paperwork on the
6,993,000 firearms that are still unregistered.
It's time for the office of the Auditor General to step-
in, and advise Canadians about this blatant and waste-
ful use of our tax money. _ f.
PETER E. STICKLEE
Cozy relationship
Police have been extremely
kind to Ontario's Progressive
Conservatives --- but then the
Conservatives have been kind to
police.
Police, who are supposed to
avoid partisanship in their work,
showed their fondness for
Premier Mike Harris and his
Tories repeatedly in the election.
Officers in Toronto in one
example allowed themselves to
be used to promote Harris's
views at one of his campaign news conferences.
The officers told Harris and the assembled media
that they need more powers to whisk beggars and
squeegee kids off the streets and the premier
promptly announced that he will provide them.
Other parties advocate different approaches, such
as tackling the root causes of begging, and police in
earlier elections had refused to be trotted out at
any party's meetings to further its views.
The police association in Toronto then took the
ultimate step and paid for a newspaper advertise-
ment calling for the re-election of Harris and many
Tory candidates it named, on the ground they
would strengthen law and order.
Police also were helpful beyond the call of duty in
keeping demonstrators from heckling Harris.
Political leaders should be prepared to endure
some heckling, but after Harris suffered taunts
some earlier premiers accepted more stoically,
police sealed him off like he was vacuum-packed
coffee.
Police not only dragged away, justifiably, demon-
strators who prevented the premier's bus moving,
but arrested many before he arrived and even
ejected some waiting peacefully in halls .to meet
him.
Police used squad cars to block three retired
teachers in an old school bus displaying anti -Harris
signs from leaving a parking lot, which sounds like
police committed an offence, and sometimes more
police guarded the premier and his election plat-
form than there were demonstrators. Once 50
police in riot gear surrounded him, although not a
single demonstrator showed up.
Police showed less enthusiasm for shielding Bob
Rae from rude comments when he was New.
Democrat premier and a huge crowd of them
demonstrated in surprisingly boisterous, even ugly
style outside the legislature because he would not,
accede to their demands.
Uniformed police also booed Rae at a baseball
game in the SkyDome and loudly called on Liberal
attorney -general Ian Scott to resign after a police-
man who shot a man in his home was charged
with manslaughter. It was one of many instances of
police with ares,supposect to+ uphold the legal
process being unwilling
to await the court's verdict
on one of their own.
But police have many reasons for liking Harris's
Tories. They have always said unreservedly that
cops are tops and should never be blamed for any
of the large number of deaths from police shoot-
ings, long before all the evidence was in.
On rare occasions when police officers were
charged with offences against the public, their
chiefs pronounced them innocent and their uni-
formed colleagues packed courtrooms to protest
and intimidate and now have even started taking
out ads proclaiming their innocence, all before the
cases are tried.
Police have been found in error in many recent
high-profile cases, including the wrongful convic-
tion for murder of Guy Paul Morin, obtained by
police evidence later ruled unreliable and falsified,
and failure to follow information that allowed
rapist -murderer Paul Bernardo to commit more
crimes.
To cite just a couple more examples, police have
consistently undermined the independent Special
Investigations Unit's proper attempts to look at
their use of force, and now threaten, with all their
privileged knowledge, to investigate and retaliate
against politicians and others who criticize them.
Harris's Tories have never rebuked police for any
of this, as they should have, and police are now
paying them back. Individual police officers have
the same right as others, of course, to support any-
one they choose in an election.
But police as a body with all their powers now
support a government because it went along with
their agenda, which often ignored the public inter-
est. Their cozy relationship is too close for comfort.
A VIEWFROM
QUEEN'S PARK