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1 0 . Whitby Free Press, Wednesday, August 14, 1996, She is handsome, as horses go. She stands about five hands high, one leg now slightly longer than the others. If she could walk, she would limp. Sh. came to us one evening before garbage collection. My daughter and her mother were visiting friends in the next block. And as they left, near dusk, there she was, at curbside:,a large., stuffed:horse,, some styrofoam pelts bleeding ont of a wound ini one leg. TCan I keep her, Morr?" Kide ask the darnedest things. "She belongs to someone else," came thre reply. 'We're throwing her out" replied the hostese. "She's losmng her stuffing and we're always tripping over her." "Can I keep her? Please?" Erin asked again. "Oh, ail right." Moms'sometimes say the darnedest thlings. Stuffed pets are simple te care for. No feeding. No animal waste. (We don'tcoeunt the styrofbam blood that trickled ito the trunk-of the car and created a tell-tale path through the house te the playroom downstairs. lire firit operation, with needle and thread, closed that -wound. The horse, with its mangy, brown coat and blonde mane, became a fugture. Mer warm, intelligent marble eyes would follow you every trip te the laundry room. -Despite warnings, her considerable bulk blocked paths. Adults would trip over her carcas with a curse. We're tkigabout.astffed toy that stands belly butten high a the ears, three and ahaIf feet fr-om nose te where the tail is anchored. Every time an adult tripped over her, the horse would be relegated te the flirnace room. Just as often, visiting children would retrieve her, te po, poke, prance with - and then leave her in a heap in the laundry room. Once to offen. "That's it," I cursed, at no one in particular, after stumbling over her one more time. 'We'll take her te the curb on garbage morning and ]et her go free. Horses should be free te run, feel the wind in her mane."9 No protests. But the. next day the playroom is transformed ite an operating theatre. "Hi guys, what's going on." "MTis mare has a broken leg," said Rachael, one of Erin's friende. "We're going te operate. and fi L "So she cari stand up on her own. So some people won't throw her in the garbage," added Erin. 7%re two girls concluded that a broken wire i the right leg led directly to the falling over sickness. "We need a coat hanger. We'll fà it."' Thre coat hanger didn't work. They needed a wooden dowel, or metal tube, or something. This led te an eamination of thre garage: a treasure trove of useless stuif. We emerged with a discarded mop handle. "This will do fine."- I did not s ee thre operation itself. I do know it took two tries, for I vacuumed up the blood after. Iren tlrere, thre day before garbage.day, this useless stuffed horse is standing, almost without help. Her left fr-ont leg is- stiff, like it had a mop handle în it. If you looked closely, you can see a hump above ber left shoulder, as though the mop handle was teo long. "Seé? She stands. Now we don't have t . .. 'Take her te thre curb and let her run wild? Oa. "GoocL NOW we!egin emaehr rpe til a Repression of a minority Equine operation I .-d ON4TARIO PROVINCI[AL POLICE STATION,1955 The hous. at 306 Gilbert Street West was the headquarters for the Whitby Detachment of the 01>? from 1950 to 1959, when the. preent station was bullt at Henry Street and Hlghway 401- The. WhitbY Detchinent was formed about 1940 and had its firat office in thre Court Houa. (now the Centennial Building>. WltbyAr.blv. Photo 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesday, August 13, 1986 edition of the WUMTY FRER PRES " Doug and Susann Anderson have purchased Tiie Fr..Prte" from Milce Burges. " A 40,000 squar-e-foot addition te Lake Ontario Steel Co. will cost $3.7 million. " A contest te leIect a W;hitby Town Crier wiil bo held on Héritage Day, Sept. 13. " Building permlit. totalling.$20 million over laut year have been lssued i Whitby asth,, town heads for a new construction record. a a5 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, August 10, 1961 edition of the wHY BY VIEEKLy NEWS " Dr. Walter IL Weber Of North Bay is the new Superintendent of the Whitb Ontario- Hospital.> b " Tii. water temperature i. 80 degrees Farenheit at the Whitby beh on Lake Ontario. " A train smashed into a transport truck at the CPR Thickson Ra crossing.' " George Gouldburn is WhitbY's new works supervisor. .100 YEARS AGO from thre Friday, August 14, 1896 edition of the WH[TBY CHONICIE " A fire i Arksey's Woods near'Brooklin took a whole day to bring under control. " A Toronto mani narned Caton drowned in Whitby Harbour when he jumped off the top Of Watson's grain elevator. " A number of boys aged about 14 have formed the MpeefFobl lb *Twenty-five menibers of tire Whitby Sons of Soetland attended thre Sottish gmsa ,Brantford on the Civic Holiday. gmsa' i- Page 7 By Alex Shephord Language police and repressive sign Iaws, these- are the renewed assault on the« anglophone and allophone coMmunities of Quebec. Many people i the world, i far lesm democratic countries than Canada, would find it difficuilt to believe that a government would attually engage police to sPY on store patrons and others engaged in commerce to ascertain ini what language they are conducting themselves. George Orwell wrote about Big Brother and its insidious intrusions into the lives' ofpeople in Mis book 1984. Many believed hMs concerne unwarranted. I arn sure if' he was alive he would point to Quebec's laws as evidence of the. evolution of this phenomena. Quebec and Quebecers have genuine concerns about the lbss.of their'culture and language. Realistically they live in a se& of English. bombarded daily through the media, It i. not totally unreasonable they would take soine stepe to try to protect their way of life. Indeed, peoples throughout the world are trying to flnd ways of idenifring themselves as unique, as we move toward a global trading system. This is ail of Canads challenge as weil. Ini a free democracy we muet question the Power of the majoritY over thi. minority. Clearly flot ail disgruntled anglophones or ailophones ini Quebec can just pick- up and leave. Mmm tm-,eQLieeii " s P.--u-k Rej-x)ii Many are no différent from us. The~y are not rich and they have commitments. They look with fear toward the repression the. separatise want to dish out. How do some even maintain their jobs, if your only language is English, when knowing that non- French speaking Quebecers represent almoat 20 per cent of the population, and only mn. per cent of the. Quebec government can couit their first language as sometbhing other than French. It is clear there must b. -limitations put on the power of the. state. Miàjority government is one thirig, but when it translates nto tyranny against minorities, it must be, resisted. The. anglophone community is.now uniting to boycott stores that refuse to display bilingual signs. Thi is a reasonable action. It would also be reasnable if we ail iad Rasta oftliese companies, to discover any national firns engaged i the»e practices as w., too, siiould boycott them'i Durham and elsewhere. The. Frenchi language and culture is well and alive i Quebec. Tiie repression of the minority ha. les. to do with preservation of a culture than the. repression of a minority who want te romain part of Canada. Alex Shephed us MP for Durham riding wùhich inlcldeaWhitby, north of Taunton Boa& To reàch hie constituency offlce~, eaU 723-7670 (Oahawa). 1IMA Mil il