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6 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, May 16, 1989 The 2ovf Perey Shae 235 QUEEN STREET - PORT PERRY, ONTARIO PHONE 985-7383 FAX 985-3708 EDITORIAL BUSINESS OFFICE t Publisher - J. Peter Hvidsten Office Manager - Gayle Stapley od Editor - John B, McClelland Accounting - Judy Ashby (+ CNA | CN News/Features - Cathy Olliffe Billing Department - Anna Gouldburn =] News Reporter - Rob Streich Retail Sales - Kathy Dudley, Linda Ruhl The Port Perry Star Is authorized as second dass mail by the Post Office 1, Ottawa, for cash payment of postage. Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 Subscription Rate: In Canada $29.00 per year Elsewhere $60.00 per year. Single Copy 50¢ PRODUCTION Annabell Harrison Trudy Empringham Darlene Hlozan ADVERTISING Advertising Co-ordinator - Valerie Ellis Advertising Sales Representatives Pat Webster, Lisa Hutchings Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association Ontario Community Newspaper Association Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Co. Ltd. Port Perry, Ontario Editorial Comment JUST $600,000 For a country that is floundering in a sea of red ink to the tune of $300 billion and has just passed a budget that digs very deep into the pockets of every Canadian, $600,000 is a pretty paltry sum. After all, it would take 60 times that amount just to pay the interest on the national debt for a single year. So, what's the point of getting into a flap about a measly $600,000? Well, a news relgease/ communique', as they are now called, arrived last week on the desk of the editor of the newspaper you are now reading. Nothing unusual about that. The editor gets dozens of news releases/communique§ from the federal and pro- vincial governments every week. . Some are useful, some end up in the file under the desk. This particular news release/ communique" arrived from the office of the Secretary of State, the Honourable Gerry Weiner. It was headed "the Department of the Secretary of State funds a $600,000 research project to counter the assimilation of Francophones outside Quebec." The first two paragraphs of this news release/ communique read as follows. "Secretary of State Gerry Weiner today announced the approval of a $600,000 grant to the Fedefation des jeunes canadiens-frangais (FJCF) for a study on assimila- tion. "The wide-ranging project, entitled "Vision d'avenir" will be carried out over a period of 18 months and is aimed at formulating concrete measures to check assimi- lation and providing a comprehensive plan of attack for francophone minority communities." The news release/communique' goes on to quote the Honourable Minister Gerry Weiner as saying he is pleased with the direct attack being made by FJCF on the problem of assimilation in francophone communities out- side Quebec, particularly among young people. Clearly, we must put an end to this phenomenon and we must start with our youth." That is a direct quote from Mr. Weiner. And how does the FJCF plan to use the $600,000 tax dollars? It will set up a national review commission (no ex- planation) and hold public hearings to examine the inheri- ent causes of assimilation. Seriously, folks, the war against assimilation has been launched. Gerry Weiner has fired the first salvo to attack (his words) this phenomenon, and by gosh, he's going to arm the Federation of Young French Canadians with $600,000 of your money to fight the good fight. One gets the impression. that assimilation is some kind of a seditious plot out there that must be stamped out with all the force (and tax dollars) that a state can muster. There is absolutely nothing wrong with young French Canadians living outside Quebec fighting assimilation in Ontario or Manitoba or the Yukon, but why, we beg to ask, do they have to do it with your tax dollars. ~ The news release/communique'tells us that part of the fight against assimilation will be to "develop community projects as well as a plan to increase awareness among the various players." Increase awareness? Community projects? Aware- ness of what? Does it take $600,000 tax dollars to do this? Why can't they spend their own money, instead of yours. We can't help but wonder if similar sums are going to (Tum to page 8) A PR RR SLEDS Ye " YOR WHAT WE ARE ABOUT TO RECEIVE, | THANKS FOR SMALL MERCIES, MR. WiLsoN ! " EB A yhatterbox by CATHY OLLIFFE AN INSTITUTION SAYS FAREWELL | just can't believe Jim Thomas is gone. With 40 years in the Markham/Stouffville newspaper business under his respected belt, he threw in the towell, without so much as a farewell editorial in the Stouffville Tribune. Mr. Thomas knows why he left so abruptly. The staff at the Tribune probably know. Ru- mours are rampant. But | have no idea why this hard-working editor called it quits. Whatever the reasons, I'm having trouble accepting the fact he's gone. | grew up in Markham, and Jim Thomas' name on the masthead beside "editor" at ei- ther the Economist & Sun or the Tribune was as common a sight as the scenery on my route to school. Tallish, wispy thin with a slicked-back thatch of black hair, he always reminded me more of the chimney sweeps in Mary Poppins Miah of the growling Lou Grant editors of tele- vision. . | didn't know Mr. Thomas, although | knew him to see him. Everyone did. With a square camera bag loaded over one shoulder, he was at the same time familiar and untoucha- ble. | was only a kid, so he was much arger than life. A man to look up to. A celebrity. To me, a runny-nosed tyke with big newspaper ambitions, the man might as well have been Prime Minister. At the Port Perry Star we have a saying that goes something like "Everyone in this town has had their Wi in the paper at least once." We're kind of an Andy Warhol community, if you get my drift. But | lived in Markham for a long time and | never had my picture in the paper. | didn't even get my name in the paper. | was a no- body, and oh how | used to envy the girls who were chosen by Mr. Thomas to be the Econo- mist & Sun's Teen Pick of the Week. In every issue he photographed some fresh-faced teen, and printed a snippet of information about their favourite hobbies and their lifelong Oa my ambitions. | wondered how the heck Mr. Thomas chose those teenagers and dreamed wonderful but hopeless dreams about being discovered by the god-like newpaper editor. It was never to be. The closest | ever came to Mr. Thomas was when he Photographed my grandparents, on two occasions. The first was when he visited the Hooper farm in Buttonwville to take Peles of five gen- erations--Great Grandma Pratt, Grandma Ha- zel Hooper, my Aunt Ellen, my cousin Debbie and her new daughter Mandy. | watched him smoothly arrange the five women on the couch, coax smiles from every- one but little Mandy, and finally click the shut- ter on the biggest camera | had ever seen. | t in the way a lot, hoping he'd look at me, throw up his arms and shout, "You've GOT to be the next Teen Pick of the Week!" Mostly | remember thinking | could hardly wait to tell my friends / stood next to Jim Thomas. The second occasion was many years lat- er, at my grandparents' 50th wedding anniver- sary. | was enrolled at Sheridan College at the time, studying journalism, so | wasn't quite so enamoured of Mr. Thomas. He was, | dis- covered in my classes, a human being like anyone else. Still, | hung around and tried to get in the way, hoping he would throw up his arms and shout, "You look like a GREAT re- porter! You've GOT to come work for mel" Alas, he didn't. Time went on, | travelled many miles from Markham and Stouffville, and every time | re- tumed, | would be shocked with the changes in the towns. But one fing never changed. One important institution that made those towns different from all others, Jim Thomas. He continued to lend his name and his time to the Trib, and thus continued to remind me of where | had come from. To me, Jim Thomas is Stouffville. And now "home" will never be the same again.