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the HERALD Bilingualism kept hushhush Home Newspaper of Halton Hills- Established A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited Guelph Street Georgetown 3Z6 Ontario DAVID A BEATTIE Publisher and General Manager MIKE TURNER Editor Phone 8772201 DAN TAYLOR Advertising Manager Second CUM Mill Page THE HERALD Wednesday March Still a good show Through time the Georgetown International Bantam Hockey Tournament has undergone many changes not all of them for the better For one thing there has been a decline in the number of teams that have been able to take part in the event and the tournament has lost much of its international flavor But the Georgetown tournament remains a for some of the finest Bantam hockey talent around And if theres one thing that wont change its Georgetowns reputation for staging a major tournament with a great deal of class Over the years the community has become known for the way it has treated visitors during the weeklong event Virtually everyone leaves Georgetown with fond memories after taking part in the tournament Thats why its a good idea to drop around to the arena this week to catch some of the action Theres good hockey and you can help make the tournament a success with your support After all some things never change The money of color No other topic discussed in this column has ever drawn as much mail as bilingualism Unfortunately many of the peo ple writing are reluctant to go on the record there is a fear of being seen to be on the wrong side of the issue As one Sherkston correspondent wrote your views are mine ones we only express at home and to our families Such fear is understandable given the almost unanimous sup port for bilingualism among members of the political establish ment and mainstream media It was illustrated quite nicely when Premier David Peterson went to Brockville in the last pro vincial election Supposedly he wanted to make the point in the Englishspeaking heartland of eastern Ontario that he supported In reality since Peterson knew there would be pickets from the Englishlanguage lobby group Alliance For the Preservation of English in Canada pre sent he was projecting an image of the man of principle bravely enter ing the Lions Den This wasnt difficult considering how overwhelmingly the media were on his side As reporters accompanying him on tour stumbled off the bus near the APEC placards for example the cry went out from one reporter to Bring on the bigots The media response was laughter It makes it easy for the politi cians to play their language games when any resistance to bil- Queens Park Derek Nelson Thornton Ntwa Service ingualism can be labelled as bigotry Thats how Premier Peterson sees it In his eyes objections to are the problem not his governments imposition of a manifestly unfair duallanguage policy upon Ontario It isnt just Frenchlanguage ser vices being offered but equality between a language that 90 per cent of the population doesnt understand and a language that is the common and historical tongue of Ontario EFFECT ON JOBS The effect of this when it comes to jobs is obvious The fran cophones because most know English have the inside shot at in creasing numbers of government- connected positions One intriguing incident has oc curred in Marathon a Northern Ontario community where the transport ministry awarded a con tract for issuing drivers licences to Peter only to have it vetoed by the francophone affairs office couldnt speak French in what is an officially designated bilingual district As a correspondent from Marathon wrote me Peter is married to a Frenchspeaking girl who with her parents works and lives in the same Swiss Chalet- type building if someone needed Frenchlanguage service heshe would have to wait a few minutes until the francophone members of this germanopbone family could free themselves of work in the other little enterprises of their business complex Then there was eastern Ontario Conservative Bob puzzlement over govern ment advertising for a personnel officer in Brockville In this supposedly solid anglophone area which isnt designated bilingual candidates for the job had to show superior Frenchlanguage skills the highest level possible but only excellent English A correspondent from Sudbury writes that our daughters and grandchildren are being denied jobs and promotions even though they have better qualifications and are better educated simply because they Were not born of French parents This isnt just a generalization Another person from Sudbury gave me a specific example along that line in conversation just last week And a third person with a French name wrote me a while back about how oral capability in the French language can be manipulated so as to make it next to impossible for an anglophone to achieve the level of fluency sup posedly required for a position One has to wonder if the govern ment knows that it has wrought Editors Notebook Mike Turner Editor In the much ado about nothing department I found myself in an interesting discussion recently It had to do with the unspeakable act of colorizing classic films of yesteryear A friend of mine was quite in censed at the mere thought of the treacherous Ted Turner taking these wonderful films and through the marvel of computers adding color where none existed before all for the sake of making money andlotsofitatthat The very idea of renting a video cassette originally filmed in black and white and watching it in an updated colorized state on the television was a little more than she could handle But then I pointed out something that seemed to quiet things down a bit At a mere pittance of what a television technician would charge I volunteered to restore any colorized film to its original blackandwhite format with the mere flick of a wrist A lot of people dont agree with the colorizing of films and to a point Id have to agree with them but only so far as to say I dont agree with watching colorized films Its not as though anyone is twisting peoples arms Once films are colorized it doesnt mean theyll never again be seen in their original form You could almost compare this to watching Xrated films There are those who like to and those who dont like to Once In California a cable station had a signal mixup and cut Into regular programming with movie of the blue variety The station began getting calls that went something like This movie Ive been watching for the last is just terrible You should be ashamed Theres a curiosity about coloriz ed films mainly from those of us who have already seen the classics in their original form The unfortunate truth though is there are some younger movie goers who t be the least bit interested in going to a black and white film So why not candy coat or colorize it to attract their attention The message reaches more of the masses And if Ted Turner happens to make some money along the way what the heck Hes not quite the villain some would have us believe he is Canadian businesses seen in profile By MacKENZIE Ottawa Bureau Thomson News Service The federal government is ac cumulating massive amounts of data that will provide snapshots of Canadian industries and their ability to compete in world markets The detailed assessments were ordered early last year by then in dustry minister Robert who cited international com petitiveness as the key to survival and growth It became the first major assignment for the new In dustry Science and Technology Department a born by the merging of a streamlined Regional Industrial Expansion Department and the Ministry of Science and Technology The examination began as details were being worked out for the CanadaUS freetrade deal and new talks were planned for the multilateral General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade A total of 119 Industrial sectors covering everything from wallpaper to construction machinery and wine were selected for review by the depart ment More than half are com pleted and the rest are in the final stages said JR Larie director- general of the departments plann ing coordination and contra branch Lane described the reviews as capsules that are intended to show precisely where each sector stands in the free market Feedback from industry has been generally good Lane said although he does not expect any companies to shift directions or plans after examining the profiles It may cause them to think he commented noting that one brewery reprinted the brewing in dustry profile and sent it out to shareholders I guess that par ticular group thought it told the story as it was Some of the outlines are reassur ing to those finns that have main tained a competitive edge and will likely be able to deal with the com petition from the US Others serve as warnings especially to sectors that have been supported and in sulated by supplymanagement systems or protective trade bar riers POINT THE WAY In many cases the reviews point the way for industries that will have to adjust to a more com petitive continental market Im proved technology modernized or scaleddown operations and specialized production are com mon among the perceived needs for aging industries that may be buffeted by free trade Lanes department does not carry any analysis beyond the sec toral stage That kind of broad sweeping review is more likely to be carried out by other depart ments such as finance or agriculture in the preparation of budget or policy papers he ex plained Lane described the industry- profiles project as just one of the things we do There is no team dedicated exclusively to the pro duction of the series All reviews are being written by existing departmental staff But the project does represent a new direction for the department I think youll see us being more aggressive in getting information out to the public and to business he said And the new department is mov ing awaV from the traditional grants and funded programs for in dustry he added Well be more service oriented more information oriented This is one of our products It may be a popular move if the industry profiles are any indica tion Lane said the reviews are not universally accepted but ex tra printings of some profiles are going to be ordered to meet the de mand for copies There is a standing order from the department for copies of each profile They are distributed to Members of Parliament the media embassies provincial governments business schools and industrial development offices Once production of the initial series is complete Lanes depart ment may be told to continue revis ing and updating the profiles as in dustry conditions change When de who is now head of the Treasury Board was industry minister he expressed the wish that the series continue to be a pro duct of the new department But our first priority is to get the first batch out the door Lane said