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The politics of the environment Home Newspaper of Halton Hills- Established A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario DAVID A BEATTIE Publisher and General Manager MIKE TURNER Editor Phone DAN TAYLOR Advertising Manager Second CU Mil Rtgblercd Number Page THE HEBALPTWed March 1989 Grave misconception Apparently some people havent been paying close at tention to whats going on in their own backyard When the selection of a new landfill site in Milton was made recently many people heaved a sigh of relief After all that means there wont be a landfill going in at the Ac ton quarry right Wrong The site in Milton is to be a Regional landfill and has lit tle to do with the proposed landfill in Halton Hills Yet when the announcement on Milton was made some people began congratulating themselves Members of POWER the group spearheading the fight against the Ac ton proposal immediately began receiving phone calls touting their victory Both the selection of a landfill site for Halton Region and the proposal of a private landfill for Halton Hills have been contentious issues But while somewhat similar in nature they are far from one and the same It appears the community of Milton will fight the deci sion to put a landfill for the Region in their neighborhood And the issue of a proposed landfill in the Acton quarry is very much an ongoing concern Everyone should take a glance out the window and ap praise exactly what is going on in their own backyard Out of season There is the environment Then there is the politics of the environ ment The announced banning of CFCs first by Ontario Environment Minister Jim Bradley and then just a week later by federal Environment Minister Bouchard had as much to do with the latter as the former Or does anyone think that Bradleys preempting the federal position was sheer coincidence The CFCs eat upper atmosphere ozone the main shield between creatures and crops on the face of the planet and the destructive skin cancer immune suppres sion growth retardation in plants ultraviolet radiation of the sun It was well known that Ottawa intended to make a major policy announcement on CFCs in March and what better way for Ontario to steal federal thunder than by an nouncing virtually the same pro gram in February This is particularly true when you consider that the Ontario government has been under attack unfairly in my view for lacking an agenda and being a do- nothing government So what better way to appear decisive and activist than by jump ing in with jackboots on the side of the environmental angels in the battle against the dreaded CFC Thats the politics of the CFC ban Look and act tough The reality is considerably more complex Neither the provincial nor federal ban on CFC substances is total In truth some of the specific Editors Notebook Mike Turner Hen Editor With the clear crisp weather of March upon us what better time to discuss something with more of a summer flavor bicycling The Ministry of Transportation recently announced new legisla tion that will curb unsafe bicycles Amendments to the Highway Traffic Act now confirm that bicycles are a vehicle and thus are subject to the same rules of the road as other vehicles of the motorized variety And this is pretty hardhitting stuff folks Bicyclists in apparent con travention of the law must stop at the request of a police officer and identify themselves Further aspects of this new legislation dictate bicycles must have adequate brakes and must be walked not ridden across pedestrian crosswalks On the upside of this turn of events is the possibility that it may In fact help to cut down on serious accidents involving bicycles Statistics for 1987 show 34 cyclists were killed and over were injured in Ontario in 1967 The biggest problem I have with this is the timing Who could possibly be thinking about bicycl ing when the roads are frozen arid a little moisture on your hands would mean theyd stick to the handlebars I would hope there would be followup warnings to these quicksilver culprits who have been getting away with breaking the law all these years And that brings me to my next point Havent these laws been in effect for some time now I thought bicycles were always treated the same as motorized vehicles And if that is the case then why do we need any more legislation All we need is for the police to keep an eye on the cyclemaniacs and come down them when deemed necessary And if these laws havent been in effect it seems like theyve been a long time coming doesnt it Everyone has their own horror story involving near misses with cyclists Still its a little tough to think about cracking down on cyclists when there arent any around Maybe we should file this one for a few months Queens Park Derek Nelson Thornton Ntwa Servlci goals simply restate what has already happened In other cases it outlines what industry was plan ning to do anyway And in a few cases it really means nothing is happening at all Although they were only discovered in the late 1920s the nontoxic nonflammable proper ties of CFCs made possible the refrigerator air conditioning and insulation revolutions of the past few decades PER CENT are responsible for about 85 per cent of the ozone depletion worldwide with carbon tetrachloride methyl chloroform and halons each responsible for about five per cent of the ozone loss The Bradley and Bouchard an nouncements also affect used in fire extinguishers and indirectly carbon tetrachloride which is used in the manufacture of CFCs Canada had earlier banned use of CFCs in aerosol sprays with the exception of those used for prescription drugs And thats precisely what the new Ontario law repeats Interestingly about 25 per cent of global CFC use is in aerosols but federal regulations had already reduced that percentage here to 10 per cent This medically oriented per cent will not be af fected About 40 per cent of CFC use in Canada is in air conditioning and refrigerants but the new regula tions will phase that out by 1998 According to a survey of ozone- related WorldWatch In stitute an environmentalist organization the worlds two largest CFC producers Pont and Imperial Chemical have already begun production of a substitute for CFCs for the technicallyminded it is in these industries The same is true for the two other major uses of CFCs work has already begun on a substitute for CFC solvents and a replace ment for CFC sprays used in the manufacture of rigidfoam insula tion Dow Chemical for instance had already said it would stop us ing CFCs this year Still there is a plus side to the politics of the Bradley and Bouchard announcements When the Montreal Protocol was signed in to reduce most worldwide CFC emissions by half as of 1998 Canada thought that wasnt strong enough By going for what amounts to a ban that eliminates 85 per cent of CFC emissions by 1999 both Canada and Ontario are sending a signal to the rest of the world This is important gang lets get cracking So why not publicity If provin cial or federal actions can enhance the perception of longterm danger to us all so much the better Porn and hate squad at work in Ottawa By The fire and brimstone heaped on The Satanic Verses and its author has also drawn attention to the small government office that protects Canadians from foreign pornographers and hatemongers Tucked into an imposing Gothic stone building that looms over Ot tawas trendy Byward market the Revenue Departments porn and hate squad sifts through thousands of books films and cassettes each year to rule on what is fit for Cana dian eyes and ears The office known as the prohibited importations unit seldom attracts publicity Its five fulltime reviewers thumb quietly through titles and labels that would rivet a Marquis Sade But things changed recently when one was asked to spend the weekend reviewing the controver sial Salman Rushdie novel that has Infuriated the Muslim world and prompted Irans Kho- meinl to post a bounty on the authors head Since the reviewers recommen dation to allow importation and sale of The Satanic Verses unit director Margaret Gillis has spent much of her time under television lights and on the telephone explain ing the departments decision Theres never been an issue that attracted this much attention from the media Its obviously because of the international aspects she said Each reviewer in the unit is call ed hundreds of times in a year to scan material everything from catalogues brochures and magazines to audio and video cassettes in search of offensive words and images About reviews are com pleted each year and recommen dations passed on to managers who make the final decision on whether to enter the titles on the list of pro hibited items The lists Chat are prepared by the office are lengthy There are 100 pages of titles of material that has been branded as obscene or as hate propaganda treasonable or seditious About per cent of the banned material is regarded as bate propaganda GUIis said The lists of prohibited items and of materials that have been reviewed and released are intend ed to allow customs inspectors to make quick decisions when material that might be considered offensive shows up at border points A quick run through the titles is enough to convince anyone that most of this stuff is not typical cor ner video store or bookstore fare Most of the hate items tout the alleged superiority of the Aryan race and warn of the plots of ethnic and religious minorities Editors would cut this story here if we listed even a few of the obscene materials So what effect does sustained doses of violent kinky or quirky images have on the reviewers dont know You would have to ask them Gillis chuckled All reviewers are selected through the normal publicservice competition process and are judg ed on their background suitability and knowledge But reviewers serve for only two years before be ing shifted into another position doesnt know if any reviewers volunteered for the job The issue of censorship has also been drawn Into the storm over The Satanjc Verses Its an issue that seems to arise every time state controls are applied to the circulation of films and literature and one to which the office is sen sitive In a free and democratic socie ty everybody is going to be con cerned about governments role in this But were administering the law and anyone who is concerned about our actions can appeal them Gillis said There have been many appeals she added But few had the impact of the decision that struck down the key obscenity provisions of tfie Revenue Departments own Customs Act They were too vague the court ruled Since then the department has relied on the Criminal Code But there are some prominent names on the lists On the seventh page of the list of prohibited hate materials just ahead of The Klansmans Handbook is the title of an antiSemitic comment by 16thcentury religious reformer Martin Luther