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THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2005 GRAPEVINE FUTURE RETAIL A vacant Mill Street property that long ago housed the Force Electric plant has been sold to a Mississuaga businessman who does not wish to be identified. The deal for the property, bounded by Mill Street, Church Street, Eastern Avenue and Fel- lows Street, closes February 15, according to Royal City Realty broker Damian Nikic. Nikic said when a Regional study, now underway, confirms there is adequate water for growth, the businessman intends to devel- op a retail building to complement the olde Hide House, whose former parent company, the olde Hide Market, sold the property for an undisclosed sum. MUCH THANKS Members of ASAP -- Acton Sports Acton Park -- are grateful to a number of people for a $500 donation to the skateboard park project. Officials at the Millhouse Rest Home on Mill Street wanted to give Halton police a "many thanks donation" for the safe return of their resident, David Loader, who was found safe and sound in Guelph after he wandered away from the Acton facility just before Christmas. Police cannot accept donations, so Millhouse officials asked Acton Village Constable Garry George if he knew of a worthy project. He suggested ASAP, and the cheque was delivered to the grateful com- mittee. DAUGHTERS HONOURED The new executive of the Daughters of Knox, at Knox Pres- byterian Church, was installed by The Reverend Pieter van Harten at the January 9 church service. Some of the events that in-com- ing president Lorna Hodgson is looking forward to this year include the St. Patrick's Day sup- per on March 17, and the annual bazaar in October. Matt Mills STUDENT EXCELLENCE Congrats to Matt Mills who was McKenzie-Smith Bennett School's unanimous 'choice to receive the board of education's annual Stu- dent Excellence award. Matt, a Grade 8 student at MSB, is known for academic excel- lence, willingness to help natural leadership skills and his sense of humour. He, and award recipients from all Halton public schools, will receive their awards at a board ceremony on April 28. LAUGHING OUT LOUD The Town's youth centres, including Off The Wall on Mill Street, will benefit from the third annual Laughing Out Loud com- edy night on February 4 at the Legion. In Acton, tickets for the chase- the-February-blahs-away fun fest featuring MC Ben are available at Off The Wall, and Home Hard- ware. Laughing Out Loud is presented ~by Acton's David Burland, the newly elected president of Halton Hills Community Services and Information, and a Johnson As- sociates realtor. SPA RENO In order to continue to pamper happy clients, renovations are underway at Blue Springs Spa and Salon on Mill Street. "The growth (in clientele) has been unbelievably magnificent and that's great news for Acton, actually," said owner Kristine Cieslok. "You open something and you don't know how it's going to do and then we are so busy we need to expand," she said, adding a full spa treatment room and a double treatment room, offering privacy and a whole range of services, are being built in the former fitness room. FAIR FACTS Not one pumpkin pie was en- tered in the baking contest at the Acton Fall Fair, puzzling since the fairgrounds was a sea of orange in honour of the pumpkin theme. This year's Apple theme was announced by the Society at its annual general meeting on Satur- day, along with some interesting fair facts. 128 pairs of mittens knitted by Acton's Elinor Grammick in the fair's Community Service Chal- lenge are warming the hands of Acton kids this winter = Maplehurst inmates who helped dismantle the fairgrounds were praised for their hard work. The super jail will be asked to sup- ply another crew this year =Pay duty police, who must be hired in pairs, cost $134 per hour for fair security totalling $2,200 =Prize money totaled $23,611 *Another fair season begins in March when the 2005 prize book changes are due BRUNCH TIME Halton Crime Stoppers officials and volunteers will help cook, serve and cleanup at the Acton Community Brunch on Sunday (January 30) at the Acton arena/ community centre. In exchange for their hard work, ~ Crime Stoppers will share in the proceeds from the all-you-can-eat $5 buffet, hosted monthly by the Kinette Club of Acton. REGISTER NOW The Acton Soccer Club is of- fering special early bird prices for those who register now for this year's season -you can save $25 per player if you register before March 1. League officials note that Acton is growing and a waiting list for some teams is probable. Registrations are accepted dur- ing regular business hours at Acton's Dollar Stretcher Daze, and the club is holding a registra- tion at Acton arena on February 26, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. + For details, checkout www. actonsoccer.or; THE NEW TANNER ACTON SCOUTERS: The Ist Acton Scouts group cou! 3 ncil welcomed Scouts Canada rep Ed Bolyk (third ' from left) to their January meeting. Local Scouting volunteers include, from left: Craig Parker, Kim Porty, Jim Garrett, Tom Niblock, Marion Urquhart and Jonathon Morgan - Submitted photo Where Jean Chretien was known as the Teflon P.M., because nothing ever stuck to him, P.M. Martin is proving to be a magnet for contro- versy. Take his recent foray overseas ') for instance. P.M. the P.M. had planned a business trip to Asia. The tsunami visit Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Ja- pan and China. Canada, as expected, has proven to be one of the most generous donor nations to tsunami devastated regions. What could go wrong? track before the P.M. left the country. Once past the p.r. faux-pas of not returning from Africa to Ottawa, the government dithered about for a few weeks before getting on track. That seems to be becoming a hallmark of the Martin regime. In addition to vast sums of money, the P.M. finally committed the disaster assistance response team (D.A.R.T.) to Sri Lanka. First prob- lem was that it took 16 days for our D.A.R.T. team to speed to the area. Italy's team, by comparison, was there in two. The fault is not our soldiers who had to be brought in from all over the country. The problem was, as it always seems to be, no money. Once our troops got to their as- signed area in Sri Lanka they proved many of the services they expected to provide weren't needed they shifted priorities. All reports confirm our soldiers are giving real aid and that their efforts are being appreciated. So how could that possible go awry? Canadian politics happened, that's what. It is reported that the P.M.'s than a circus. The P.M.'s staff were running around, at one time tram- pling over graves, all to ensure the photo-ops had the right backdrop. The P.M. went all that way and spent about 90 minutes on the ground. At one moment a padre was reportedly | pushed out of the way so a staffer could capture a kodak moment. Sooner or later we'll see a picture of Martin and the homeless kid. Wonder where that kid is now? Betcha he'd swap his couple of 8x10 glossies for some of the thousands, tens of thousands probably, this little p.r. \exercise cost. disaster gave Martin the excuse to - _ It might be said that things got off -- to be ultra professional. Seeing that -- visit to Sri Lanka was nothing less © The Way I See It with Mike O'Leary Although the P.M. had a photo- op with the Canadian Commander and a small medical team, he didn't visit the 200 member D.A.R.T. team at their camp. Paul Martin has to have the worst political advisors in history. The entire tsunami area is a mess. No wonder most world leaders stayed away recognizing they would only get in the way. We, on the other hand, have a wonderful picture of our leader drinking right out of a bottle. That was a big help. And then things turned worse for the P.M. Just before he went to India the same sex marriage debate came to the fore. Following a lively debate in the Indian press, the spiritual leader of World Wide Sikhism issued an unprecedented edict. Joginder Singh Vedanti directed his followers worldwide to reject the legalization of gay marriage. It is sus- pected that Martin cancelled.a planned visit to the Sikh Golden Temple at Amritsar because of the controversy. Odd that all 4 Sikh M.P.'s on the trip visited the temple after the P.M. moved on to Japan. That should play well in the Sikh community here at home. Gay marriage dogged Martin for the rest of his trip. At one time, during his China trip, Martin intimated he might be prepared to go to the polls over the issue. After second thought, probably when he realized he wouldn't win an election called over gay marriage, he backed down. The Conservatives appear to be ready to campaign over the traditional definition of marriage. The Federal Liberals, make that Paul Martin, hoped the Supremes would decide the issue and it would go away. Instead, the court dumped the whole definition of opposite sex versus same sex right back into Par- liament, where it should have been in the first place. Two provincial Appeal Courts should not have usurped the highest court in the land. Parliament is that court, not the Supreme Court. aul Martin is not helping his case by ordering the Cabinet to vote with him on this matter. This is a funda- mental change in one of the base 'Paul Martin can't escape debate | building blocks of our society. To have unelected judges usurping Parliament is bad enough. To order Cabinet members, who are equal as M.P.'s to the P.M., to vote against what might be the wishes of their constituents is obscene. Must you check your conscience at the Cabinet room door? ' The P.M. keeps prattling on about the Charter of Rights existing to protect minorities against "the op- pression of the majority". By the same token, what statute or institu- tion is there to protect the majority from the oppression of the minor- ity? Please don't tell me Parliament will protect us; not when the Prime Minister, in a most dictatorial way, orders other M.P.'s how to vote on the matter. This has nothing to do with the oppression of a minority. The matter of gay rights has been decided and accepted by society as a whole. This is all about forcing a significant, if not a majority, of Canadians to ac- cept a definition of marriage that is opposed to their deeply held and/or spiritual beliefs. An institution that has been eroded by the state in the last 50 years to conform with a secular society. I don't accept for one moment the Supreme Court's acknowledge- ment that religious groups will not be forced to conduct or support marriages which do not conform to their beliefs. Many Religions preach against homosexuality no matter what the broad attitude of society is. There is already concern that including sexual orientation in our hate legislation may have these religious leaders now in jeopardy of being arrested. They're not preach- ing hate your neighbour but'they are preaching their beliefs. Don't they have rights? Can we legislate the legitimacy of religious traditions going back thousands of years? Religious traditions that gave birth to the same institution now trying to cast those beliefs aside. It's akin to patricide. One thing Mr. Martin should have learned on this trip. The same sex marriage issue is heating up and will be more divisive than ever imagined. Each Canadian should make their views known to the P.M. and, in our case, M.P. Mike Chong. And one other thing Mr. Martin. You can run, but you can't hide from this question. 2)