Page 6 Halton HillsThis Week, Saturday, July 11 1992 EDITORIAL Kudos to Canadian peacekeepers A Canadian soldier was wounded Thursday performing his United Nations peacekeeping duties in Sarajevo. : It is hard for any of us to imagine what the Canadian contingent in the war torn city is experiencing. When was the last time some- one in Halton Hills had to duck sniper fire or travel in a convoy of armored personnel carriers. Thursday was not the first time the Canadian soldiers and their U.N. counterparts have been fired upon — and, unfortunately, it is not likely to be the last. During the last couple of weeks, the Canadian contingent of 800 has reopened the airport in Sarajevo allowing a trickle of relief flights to get in and provide the non-combatants caught in the con- flict to at least start to get food. Canadians have a long history of performing the delicate task of “peacekeeping” at various hotspots throughout the world — and we should all take pride in the job they do. And while we sometimes have our differences — take the cur- rent Constitutional. dilemma — we can not begin to imagine the Kind of deep seated hatred that must exist for two groups of people to kill more than 7,000 of their countrymen and still keep shooting. To put the fighting in simple understandable terms, think about Acton residents wanting to break away from Halton Region gov- €rnment control. Now imagine that the people of Georgetown want to keep Acton as part of the region. The shooting starts and more than 1/5 of the population of Halton Hills is destroyed. We are not trying to trivialize the conflict in Bosnia- ‘govina, just put it in perspective. The television and newspaper pictures do not even scratch the surface of suffering the everyday Joe on the street faces. Hunger, cold and thirst are rampant. Homes are being destroyed daily. And still the bullets fly. Yet in the middle of the chaos a group of Canadians — most of whom have never been under fire — try to keep the airport open and the warring sides apart. We owe them our support, our understanding and our best wish- “Who’s the guy with the camera?” One of our forest friends enjoys an afternoon snack last weekend. Photo by Scott Kline Esquesing Historical Society. Letters & Canoeing on Wilber Lake. Georgetown high school is on the hill. Date unrecorded. Photo courtesy of Small town advantages This letter was sent to Halton Hills Fire Chief William Cunningham. A copy was filed with Halton Hills This Week for publication. Dear Bill: This note is long overdue, but still very necessary that I take the time to thank the Halton Hills Fire Department. At approximately 4 a.m. on May 29, my husband got up out of bed and collapsed on the floor. Once he came to (with no knowledge of passing out), he was able to get back into bed. I immediately called 911 as he is a medical challenge, being diabetic as well as a heart and stroke patient. He had triple heart bypass as well as Carotid artery surgery last November, so one never knows. Once I called 911 and made arrangements for an ambulance, I put the car on the street so the driveway was Clear for the ambulance. Suddenly three men appeared at my door. I was a little reluctant to let them in, but they told me they were fire fighters and the ambulance was on a call and they were summoned to respond to this call. They immediately took charge and then the resuscitator truck arrived with yet anoth- er six fire fighters all dressed in their gear. I can remember telling them, “Hey guys, I don’t have a fire!” Then the ambulance arrived and were able to make the trip to the hospital in relatively short order as the fire fighters had already made the assessment. Thank you to all who helped, but a special thanks to Cal Wilson, John Tassone and Tony Cassarin, who were the first three to arrive. They happen to live on our street and we have had many chats since. Isn’t it neat to live in a small town where the fire fighters are your neighbors and care enough to stop in the next day to see how things are and still a month later wave and take time for a chat! Thanks again, guys! Dianne Rainbow. Chamber wants action/answers from MPP The following letter was sent to Halton North MPP Noel Duignan on May 27, 1992. As of July 6, no reply has been sent. The letter was provided for publication in Halton Hills This Week by the Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce. Dear Noel: It would almost appear from your letter of May 6, 1992 that our meeting with you on January 16, 1992 was with representatives of “big business” and if that was your impression than you are quite out of touch with the local business community that you represent. The whole tone of your letter is of “them versus us” and that your government is being besieged by frenzied, wild-eyed business peo- ple taking shots at you. Let me set the record straight. The Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce is the voice of business in Halton Hills whether it be large or small and we will continue to serve our members to the best of our abilities. Our concerns about the LRA are real, not imagined and the concerns are felt by both large and small businesses. The vast majority of our mem- bers are small businesses and the members of our Issues Committee that you met with all were repre- sentatives of small businesses. To suggest as you have in your letter that the opposition to the proposed LRA is just a “big business lobby” is irresponsible. Our members who operate busi- nesses in Halton Hills who provide employment, working shoulder to shoulder with their employees, are to be encouraged not condemned as you have done in your letter. One line in your letter I think sums up the way you think about business people and I quote, “It has very little to do with labor relations — the real goal is to erode People’s confidence in reformist governments.” As a business community we are concerned about the changes to the LRA and we should not be belit- tled in the manner that you have done. It may be all right for your party to attack faceless corpora- tions but our members do not fit that category; our members are the front line troops in the business world. I would like to reiterate our con- cerns about the LRA and hope that in your next response to us you will deal with them instead of a witch hunt. I have enclosed a copy of our brief and have highlighted the specific areas of concerns. Doug Penrice, Member Issues Committee. Halton Hills This Week, Weekend E > | HIS WEEK 7G 481, and is printed in Oakvile by Q.E. Web Printing, ph St., Georgetown, Ont. Peps eee. PUBLISHER: Ken Bellamy : Scott Kline PRODUCTION MANAG! HALTON HIL| PHONE: 873-; REAL ESTATE MANAGER: Kathy Toth |ANAGER: Marie Shadbolt ER: Kathleen Topolsek ~ THIS WEEK IS INDEPENDENTLY OWNED & OPERATED. 54 FAX:873-3918