The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Page 6, Whitby Free Press, Wednesday, February 10, 1993 The only Newspaper owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents! MEMBER OF: ONTARIO CANADIAN COMMUNITY COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER CNA NEWSPAPER " ASSOCIATION ASSOCIATION CANADIAN rom;% CIRCULATIONS CNA DIVISION AUDIT BOARD 25,500 COPIES DELIVERED WEEKLY Published every Wednesday by 677209 Ontario Inc. Box 206, 131 Brock St. N., Whitby, Ontario L1N 5S1 Phone: 668-6111 Toronto Line: 427-1834 Fax: 668-0594 Doug Anderson - Publisher Maurice Pifher - Editor Alexandra Martin - Production Manager Printed on newsprint with minimum 20% #W recycled content using vegetable based inks. To the editor... Link a f nightmare To the Editor: Re: 40V407 f reeway link. It was discouraging to see Durham regional council vote 18 to 11 in favour of route DMZ for the north-south freeway that will link highway 401 with the future highway 407. This route would be at the extreme east end of the wide open space between the residential areas of Ajax and Whitby, and less than a half-mile from the residential area of west Whitby that extends from West Lynde to Rossland Rd. - If the Ontario government accepts this advice, and rejects the contrary advice from Whitby council, people in west Whitby wili have to keep their windows closed ail year round and may even be driven indoors in summer to escape the roar from the freeway that will be continuous day and night. This nightmare would not just be in our time. It would be there for our successors, down the generations. Believe it or not, the Ministry of Transportation's study of the alternative routes assigns a weighting of only five per cent to the noise impact of the eight-lane *freeway, but assigns 29 per cent ft the impact on the natural environment, 14 per cent to the impact on agricuture and 16 per cent to the impact on the economy. Even the cultural impact gets a nine per cent weightingl Ail these environments are substantially the same throughout the wide open space being studied, yet the ministry's study lists every trivial, ed even temporary, difference between such things as watercourses, vegetation removal, wildlife habitats and interference with wood lots and wildlife. These trivial differences are then multiplied by the idiotic weightings to bring route DMZ out slightly ahead of routes in the middle of the open space which would have a greatly reduced noise impact. The argument against choosing route DMZ would seem to be unanswerable, which may be the reason why the ministry has never tried to refute it. What seems to have happened is that, way back, some foolish person devised these skewed weightings that don't make adequate allowance for the notorious noise problem. The Ministry of Transport bureaucrats then feel they have to adhere to this nonsense that they follow by rote instead of using their intelligence. If the citizens of Whitby and, indeed, of Ontario generally, dislike this absurd method of selecting a freeway route they should write to Premier Rae. David Hunter Whitby To the Editor: As community development services co-ordinator for the AIDS Committee of Durham, I am appalled by the recent attention our community-based agency is receiving. We have been accused of trying to recruit people to homosexuality, raise funds for this task, putting explicit pamphlets in the school system and providing information that would intentionally keep getting more people infected with the HIV virus. I can only say, for the last time, these ideas are totally untrue. We have responded to the allegations that have been thrown haphazardly at us. As a result, we have decided to stop this back and forth of letters to the editor. We are spending too much time dealing with people who seem to think that ignorance is the best way to protect one from this deadly disease. We have tried repeatedly to inform these people The Whitby Free Press welcomes letters to the editor on any subject of conoem to our readers. Letters should be brief and to the point - rarely more than 300 words. Ai letters must be accompanied by the name, address and telephone number of the writer. However, on request. your name may be withheld from publication if we agree there is a valhd reason. The newspaper reserves the nght to reject or ecit ail letters. Send to: The Editor. Whitby Free Press, Box 206, Whitby, Ont. L1N 5S1. or drop through our mail siot at 131 Brock St. N. Ignoring the consequences By Stephen G. Leahy Parents spend much of their time teaching their children about possible consequences: those of crossing a street without looking both ways or the improper riding of bicycles; later, the potential consequences of unprotected sex or of dropping out of school. Parents, teachers and other adults shoulder the responsibility of pointing out the consequences of a child's actions because it is vitally important for their safety and as a way of teaching children about life. All of us rack our brains about the possible consequences of an important decision. We ask friends what they think the consequences may be. With enough thought and information, we can generally having a superhighway in their predict the results of our decisions backyard. or actions. This thinking ability This kind of community civil makes our lives safer and simpler. war happens whenever things like Yet, despite the importance of dumps, sewage plants or heavy being aware of consequences, we industrial plant sitings come up. ut..e this wonderful ability Ninety-nine per cent of the time, a selectively. larger, more affluent ratepayers' The continuing controversy association (often those most regarding the 401-407 link and the likely to benefit from the project) 407 itself are examples of how influence the local politicians to selective we can be in ignoring justify sticking a smaller, usually consequences. The link is part of rural and poorer area, with the the overall plan to bring a project and its undesirable superhighway. called 407 from consequences. Thus, the Town's Toronto through the northern part position is that the '401-407 link of Whitby and eastwards through should follow Lake Ridge Rd. Oshawa and on past Newcastle. where there are only a few hoùses The reason the Town and the and farms. Region want the 407 is that they Some would argue that the believe it will speed the growth of people have spoken and the their respective areas. councillors- have listened. In fact, Many local businesses and what las happened is a small merchants want that same growth group citizens have successfully so that they can, they hope, 'grow' lobbied politicians into doing what their businesses. Many residents they want. also want the highway so that, it's the same kind of thing that among other things, it will make it goes on in Ottawa or at Queen's easier for them to commute to Park. These lobby groups and the their jobs in the Toronto area. politicians would have us believe There has been a great deal of that this is a fair and just way to publicity and talk about the many make the 'right' decisions. It isn't. benefits of the 407 over the years. It would be fair and just for And very few comments about the those who profit most from a drawbacks. Yet, surely the fight polluting factory to have to live over the location of the 401-407 beside it; or, for those who link is one of the natural produ e the most waste, to live on consequences of the 407. top o a dump; or, for those who If there is to be a new use a d benefit most from highway superhighway, links with 401 will 407 Io have it run through their be required and those multi-lane backyards. links will be in someone's backyard But that is not the world we and near someone's local school -- , live in. Many intelligent and not to mention the 407 itself. well-meaning people will happily There are ail sorts of benefit from things like this consequences with such a huge highway and not give one moment project -- negative and positive. of thought to its negative Residents want to get to their consequnces -- unless it might go jobs 15 minutes faster and those near their backyard. Then they who happen to live close by the act, but only to find some way to 401-407 link should not be avoid the consequences. complaining about lower property This way of avoiding or not values, increased noise or the loss thinking about consequences has of the peaceful small town life for created almost every environ- which they came here. mental problem we now have. We Those in local business who enjoy our air conditioners without want the growth they believe the thought of the negative conse- 407 will bring should not complain quences of ozone depletion until that their children will suffer we have to make our children play because of the air pollution from inside on sunny days. We will drive the highway or the link. Members our gas guzzler to the corner of council who want ail that growth market until our weather becomes should not be whining about ail the so unnatural that we have summer complaints, headaches, lost in January. development opportunities the Ali things have good and bad project is, and will, cause. consequences. All of the uproar about the The bad consequences don't 401-407 link is not that people go away because we don't want to think that the negative think about them. We tell our consequences outweigh the children that often enough. We benefits. No, these people don't also tell our children that just think they personally should have because some other kid is doing to suffer any negative something wrong that they don't consequences. They ail want the have to follow along. Perhaps we benefits but they do not wish to should ail try harder to practise pay the price. So the uproar is only what we preach. about who is going to get stuck Opinions expressed are those living with the negative side of of the author. of our policy on informed decision-making, but to no avail. To these people who keep throwing accusations, I wish they could somehow channel their negativity into something more positive. Maybe they could help in the fight against this deadly disease instead of putting down those of us who are trying. Our mission statement: To provide HIV/AIDS-related services to the inected, affected and general community in Durham Region. Our goals: To provide community-based HIV education in Durham Region; to provide peer support to individuals, families and groups infected or affected by HIV in the Region; to advocate with and on behalf of individuals, families and groups infected or affected by HIV in the Region; to create an organizational structure that will support the development and provision of HIV-related services in Durham. For us, responses to the letters to the editor are now over. We invite anyone who wishes to know more about our organization to call 723-8201, or drop by the office at 78 Simcoe St. N., Oshawa. We will be more than willing to answer any questions you may have. Geoffrey Joy Community development ai-ac t- r£iatr moth Ksubd~i(o.,x No more responses Viewpoint, servi co-agipaor