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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1981-10-07, Page 1the 0 eric 133 YEAR -40 OCTOBER. 7,1981 , GODERICH, ONTARIO There will be turkeys everywhere this week, people prepare for Thanksgiving on Monday. Mrs. Roberta Machan's grade 3 students at Victoria Public School did their part Monday and created turkeys for as decoration. At top, Sam Wain paints a multi -colored beauty Chris Johnson proves he definitely, walla turkey for Thanksgiving, and Jamie Williams top hats his bird. (Photos by Cath Wooden) 50 CENTS PER COPY Police report two thefts on weekend. Goderich Police report a -quiet weekend of two thefts, a narcotics violation and several liquor and traffic violations. On Friday evening a coat was stolen from a local restaurant. Also on Friday evening a tape deck was stolen from a locked vehicle parked on a car lot. The rear window was smashed to gain entry. Police arrested a man Friday and charged him with mischief in connection with recent damage to swings and benches at Harbor Park. Board moves on tax issue Education requisition due four times a year in 1982 BY STEPHANIE LEVESQUE The education requisition for the Huron County Board of Education will be collected in four in- stallments from the municipalities effective Jan. 1, 1982. In a re, immendation from the administration and approved by the board, the monies will be collected in the following manner; 25 per cent of the total. 1981 education levy for each municipality will be ' due on March 31, 1982, 50 per cent of the 1982 education levy, decreased by the amount paid on March 31, will be due on June 30, 1982, 25 per cent of the 1982 education levy will be due on Sept. 30, 1982, and 25 per cent of the 1982 amount will be due on Dec. 15, 1982. Each municipality in the county will be notified of the change from two installments per year to four payments per year, before Oct. 31. In director of education John Cochrane's report, projected savings of $80,217.20 could be realized through quarterly payments. Trustee Murray Mulvey, representing the Townships of Howick and Turnberry and the Town of Wingham, said the taxpayers will still have to pay, whether the school board pays less or the municipalities pay less. He said it would be a hard- ship on the rural municipalities. Trustee Dr. J.C. Goddard of the Township of Hay and the villages of Hensall and Zurich said as school trustees it is their duty to run the school board economically. The topic of quarterly payments versus semi- annual payments had been discussed earlier in the year by the board, and at that time it was suggested it be considered again in the fall. In other business, the board approved implemen- ting a special education advisory committee con- sisting of Trustees Goddard, Jean Adams, and Den- nis Rau, and non-members of the board from the Goderich; South Huron, and Wingham Associations for the Mentally Retarded and the Huron -Perth Association for Parents of Handicapped Children. Huron -Bruce MP offers insight on constitution debate BY MURRAY CARDIFF, ' M.P. (HURON -BRUCE) At a time when Canadians are largely preoccupied with economic problems , that deeply affect their personal lives, it is easy to understand why the details of the Constitutional struggle are hazy to Us and seem of secondary importance. Constitution -making is a dry subject when it con- sists so largely of a _ war of words, espcially un- - familiar words about whose meaning we can not, easily agree. What makes this: war of . words im- portant, however, is that it is an attempt to decide our future together without resorting to a more violent kind of war. Canadians have lived together so suc- cessfully over 114 years tll i wetoo easily forget that civil war and violence isthe alternative to the rule of law which regulates our wars of words. All we need to do is look at the violence of the world around us to be reminded that nothing is more important to the life of a nation than the ability to live under the rule of law. Constitutions are important because they set the framework for the kind of law we will be ruled by. If we want a peaceful life together, we must be surethat the rneans by which we change the law are fair to others, for no matter how good our aims are, if we achieve them by unfair means we can be sure that those who feel cheated will remain resentful. The willingness to live by the law • will have been weakened by Our action, and good intentions may bring evil: `- This seems to be a part of what the Supreme Court was saying in last week's judgement. It recognized a distinction between the ends which the government is trying .to achieve with the Trudeau constitutional package and the means by which it is trying to achieve it. The Court said, in effect, "We have no business asking whether the ends are good or bad, for that is a political matter." But then they went on to say that the Court does have the duty to ensure that the means by which the government tries to ac- complish its ends are just. • in medieval times, the question of who was right and who was wrong was sometimes decided by a CONSTITUTION COMMENT battle. Whoever won was considered to have been. proved right. This is the principle that Might is Right: Today we pride ourselves on having a more developed concept of justice than that. We have ac- hieved it, however, partly by learning to make distinctions that tic' courts of :laW- up into knots- on occasion, as they have in this present constitutional struggle. The principle distinction which the Court had to make was between a law and a convention. The Court said in effect that if a law is broken, the injured party can be given redress in the courts and the guilty party can be penalized in the courts. But there are many aspects of our constitution which are not written up as law. They are settled ways of doing things called conventions. Conventions can change, of course, just as a law can change, but the Court did say that we presently have a constitutional convention in Canada prohibiting the federal government from changing the powers of the provincial governments without their consent. The Court refused to decide, on this occasion, how many provinces would have to give their consent to a change in the balance of federal and provincial powers, but it left open the door to making that decision later. What it said on this occasion is that while no law prohibits the federal government from trying to change the constitution in the way it proposes to do, the present convention about con- stitutional on- stitutional c hange does. Some judges in the Supreme Court pointed out that some conventions are more important than laws, but the difference is that conventions can not be enforced by the Courts. When a convention is broken, the in - ICU fund a community project The • fund raising campaign for a new Intensive Care Unit at Alexandra Marine and General Hospital is quickly becoming a community project. By the time canvassers conduct a door-to-door blitz Thursday, October 15, nearly 15,000 people in the hospital's service area will have had. an opportunity to financially support the construction of a new ICU unit. Fund-raising committee Chairman, Bob Dempsey reported that the industry and commercial campaign is being conducted and all local service clubs are being approached as well. The response to date has been most encouraging and the committee's municipal target was met with 100 pet cent success. Last Thursday the campaign and Hospital Month, was officially kicked off with a candlelight parade frdm Victoria School to the The Squa re. The commjttment to a new ICU unit and the in- volvement of- the community has spilled into the elementary school ranks. Children will be involved in coloring and poetry contests and the Boy Scouts of North Street United Church have pledged the proceeds from their next bottle drive to the ICU campaign. But the big push is still to come. On Thursday, October 15, hundreds of canvassers will knock on each and every door in town soliciting your support for the campaign. Canvassers will be armed with pledge sheets and information to answer any questions on the campaign, hospital facilities and proposed new f ac itliti es. The committee is relying heavily on support in the door-to-door campaign and canvassers should be out early in the evening. When a canvasser calls, any and all pledges will be accepted but the committee would also like you to carefully consider the possibility of presenting a canvasser with post-dated cheques. Pledges will be accepted over a three-year period until Decerriber, 1983 and anyone wishing to donate a sum of money over that period, or if you would like to donate a sum and split the payments, consider post- dated cheques. That system will also make the work of the com- mittee a little easier, in terms of cash and com- mitment management. The canvass will include the town of Goderich and the Township of Goderich in- cluding the VLA subdivision. Turn to page 2 • Slope repairs are costly department learns The federal Department of Public Works is up to its neck on a reconstruction project it has started at Goderich Harbor. What set out to be repairs to the slope supports on the northeast revetment wall and bank has turned into a much more expensive reconstruction project than anticipated. Southwestern Ontario project manager Earl Douglas said Monday, when the' project was started September 15 it was thought that some replacement and repairs to the upper portion of the retaining wall was all that was required. "When we got into it conditions were different " Douglas. said- " eha-nges. in. the design- of the base_ structure will now be necessary." The 25 year-old timber wall,which is under water, appears to be solid however the super structure or gabions have "corroded" according to Douglas. The wire mesh gabions were installed between four and five years ago he said Because Goderich Harbor is somewhat funnel - shaped Douglas said the waves have damaged the gabions and they will have to be torn out and rebuilt. Gabions similar to the ones at Goderich Harbor have withstood wave action well elsewhere he said. . The original contract for work on the 53 metres of wall was to cast $21,754 and was let to G.E. Young Diving and Marine of Toronto. When asked what the project was likely- to. cost nese that e>tha- work is in- volved, Douglas would make no comment, "This isa difficult thing for us," he said. jured party cannot go to Court to have the injury corrected. This raises a question about how an in- jured party such as .a province can obtain justice when the convention is broken. Too often in human affairs, the answer is that correction of such injuries is sought through violence, through civil war. Canadians are not accustomed to thinking, of the possibility of civil war, and one main reason is that our historical conventions have worked very well in comparison with those of many other countries. Yet violence is so much a part of the human condition that we must always be aware of it and be careful to maintain both the rules by which we govern ourselves and respect for those rules: To break a convention not only breaks the constitutional rules, as the Court said, 'but it-also.undermines„respectiorthe vey.principle of lit►ingbyii les. When we see the violence in the world around us, we do well to devote ourselves to maintaining respect for the overriding principle of going by the rules, for we do not know to what catastrophe we might be led if we stop living by the historically agreed rules. That, in my view, is why the constitutional struggle is of very great importance. . The real constitutional debate does not centre on the question of whether to patriatee-the constitution, that is, to bring home to Canada a constitution that is presently in. Britain. Everyone, or almost everyone, agrees that we should patriate the Constitution. Britain 'wanted us to do it in 1931, at the .time of the famous Statute of Westminster which said that all countries of the Commonwealth were free and equal nations. ' Canada asked Britain on that occasion to keep the Constitution of Canada as a series of British statutes because we could not agree among ourselves on any other way of being able to make future changes. Since 1931, we have agreed among ourselves on a number of changes in the Constitution, but we have continued to get them enacted by making a request to Britain to change their statutes relating to us. In other words, we all agree that we would like the Constitution home, but we can't agree on how we Turn to page 2 • jw 13,M: 15 INSIDE THE SIGNAL -STAR Property standards Under the Property Standards Bylaw of 1978. the town of Goderich has the authority to take action against residents whose building or property is in disrepair or conditions pose a health hazard. Even derelict vehicles that are abandoned. wrecked or dismantled cannot by stored in any yard. Read Dave Sykes' in- terpretive story on page 1 A. Budget squeeze Increased costs relating to 'high occupancy rate and outstanding contract settlement could put the squeeze on A M&G's budget. The hospital has beers operating at 95 per cent occupancy rate and the nursing staff has been without a contract since October of 1980. See thestory on.xage.a.