Halton Hills Newspapers

Georgetown Herald (Georgetown, ON), October 7, 1989, p. 4

The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Page THE J the HERALD Hollywood is falling into foreign hands OUTLOOK is published each Saturday by the HA I TON HERALD Home Newspaper of Hills A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited at Street Georgetown Ontario L7 Second Mail Registered Number STAFF Diane Maley Hollywood that great American dream machine is falling into foreign hands First it was Twentieth Century Fox then MCM Now Columbia Pictures of New York makers of Ghostbusters Is being bought by a big offshore company Sony Corp of Japan Sony has agreed to pay billion US for the movie maker This is not Sonys first foray into North America It already owns CBS Records for which it paid billion almost two years ago For Sony the investments make sense It sells televisions and recorders With CBS and Columbia Pictures it will be able to supply movies records and videos as well Canadians always mindful of the problems of foreign ownership of cultural industries may well wonder whether foreign ownership of the movie business makes good sense for the United States And because we watch the same movies we too have an interest in who is making them NEW BLOOD Sony says it will give Columbias management independence on a daytoday basis Two of the com panys executives Vjctdr Kauf man and Lew plan to resign when the deal is done- Donald Keough Columbias chairman called Sony an ideal Berrys World f2en PUBLISHER David A EDITOR ltriui MacLeod AD MANAGER Dan Taylor Donna Km SPOUTS Colin Gibson Smith loan Manual SNAFU by Bruce Beattie buyer It has all the right characteristics and the ability to take the company to its next im portant step he Its main characteristic is money As well as movies Columbia makes primetime television shows and operates 820 movie screens in differenct locations through Its Loews theatre unit CocaCola Co its major shareholder will benefit hand somely from the sale The- internatinalization of the North American culture industry will bring about at least one impor tant change It will be difficult for Washington in future to use a diverselyowned Hollywood movie industry as a propaganda machine the way it did in the Se cond World War Global investments like interna tional trade will help pave the way for lasting peace No one wants to fight with their best customers Far from changing the flavor of American movies Sony will make money selling them all over the world Mind you some people view this mass export of American culture as unfortunate if not downright sinister but thats not Sonys fault SELLING OUT Still there is bound to be some muttering among Americans The land of the free already has begun to talk about limiting foregin in vestment something that would have been unheard of a few years ago It it does it wont be only the Japanese British and Europeans who get smacked by new laws Canadians too own billions of dollars of land and businesses south of the border Notwithstan ding Robert Campeaus un- fortunate experience Canadian in vestment in the United States will continue to grow for the foreseeable future Happiness is finding a fountain where people make wishes near a gumball machine Politicians play dubious game of fear this ratheY suggests that Meech Lake or no Meech Lake- Quebec will some day become indepen dent likely in a association type of pact Whats the alternative The nationalist Liberal party of Petersons buddy Premier Robert won so per cent of the vote FIVE PER CENT The two federalist parties runn ing Equality and Unity won only five per cent of the vote between them Bourassa was explicit during the election campaign that he sup ported staying in Canada only because Quebec got more out of the union than it put into it And he was equal explicit- about Quebecs suppression of English For the first time in the history of Quebec a premier went so far as to suspend civic liberties to pro tect and defend the French language He recalled Bill which was passed in and boasted For the first time since the British conquest English theu lost its official status in Quebec and it was me and my govern ment who did it Since then the Supreme Court has backed him saying it is okay for to suppress English signs The common law Canadian right to use the English language anywhere in this country in any fashion was smashed But Bourassa then went further Opposing the Supreme Court rul ing in favor of bilingual signs he promised to eradicate those as well Yet the signs themselves are on ly symbolic of the deeper reality that English as a language and a culture simply lacks respect from francophone Quebec It is why English landmarks are given French names and why the eradication of English from the public eye and in the public ear is the prime goal of Quebec na tionalism Life in almost all its public facets is to be lived in French in Quebec It was revulsion against such humiliation that produced the predominately anglophone Toronto Quebec politicians and their apologists in the rest of Canada plays a dubious game of fear every time things dont go their way Ontario Premier David Peterson showed how it is done after being asked what effect the Quebec elec tion results might have on the chances of the Lake accord being approved Firs t me the threat We have to understand what it could potentially mean If it didnt go through he answered Like what reporters automatically responded their ex pectation being that- Peterson would say rejecting Meech Lake means separatism Except he never does Instead he talks in vague generalities about stresses on the country and about symbolism and about the reasonableness of Meech If he is pressed Peterson gets in tense speaking darkly about ex treme language and how the media should practice self- cen sorship oh these sensitive mat ters What Peterson doesnt seem to realize is that the game of brinkmanship is over People like him have argued once too often that appeasing Quebec will pro duce a strong Canada The evidence of the Quebec elec tion campaign is quite clear that it doesnt work The openly separatist political party the Parti Quebecois won per cent of the vote Peterson even concedes a Parti victory one day the reality being that there are inevitably changes of govern- ADVERTISING SALES Jeannine Valols Craig Teeter PRODUCTION DKPARTMKNT Dave Hastings Annie Myles Wilson CIRCULATION Mario How to launch a frigate Gil Hardy Ottawa Bureau Commissioning a naval frigate is not like sex or riding a bicycle you tend to forget now to do it without practice Which is where George comes in The 39- yearold heads a small working group responsible for ensuring the proper traditions and ceremonies are used as Canadas new patrol frigates are commissioned The first of the frigates will officially join Maritime Command next spring or early summer has been working on the ceremonial aspects on and off for the past year The delving into archives is necessary because Canada hasnt commissioned a fighting ship since 1973 when the last Tribalclass destroyer entered service Two small minesweepers were com missioned earlier this year but the ceremony was not as elaborate as it would be for a frigate said in an interview Its a matter of gathering details because we want to do it right We have to preserve the traditions that came down from so many years back The first of the new frigates to be commissioned will be the Halifax She becomes HMCS Halifax once commissioned and will be followed by the Vancouver Ville Quebec Toronto and Calgary- The first six ships are under con struction at a cost of billion and should all be in service by The first of the remaining six frigates should be- launched by said the archives contain plenty of guidelines for the actual commissioning ceremony But his main problem is deciding how many people should be invited when the Halifax is commissioned at the Saint John Shipbuilding yard in New Brunswick MORE INVOLVED Weve got other government departments more involved with the shipbuilding program now said Departments such as Supply and Services and Industry Science and Technology have a big role in awarding contracts for military hardware and must be properly represented at the commissioning There will probably be between and 1200 people invited to the ceremony Theyll come from all walks of life he said Among those represented will be the workers who built the ships and the companies that supplied material and equipment There will be military and political VTPs including the minister of defence the chief of the defence staff and the chief of maritime command Each naval vessel has a sponsor usually the wife of a senior politi cian or naval officer or captain of industry f said Mila Mulroney is the sponsor of the Halifax because shes the prime ministers wife and its been a long time since we commissioned a ship Members of the ships company will form up with their backs to the Halifax while a band plays After a

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