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The Acton Free Press Wednesday Juh13 Was it worth Was it worth several million taxpayer dollars for Canadians to go all out on Canada Day celebrations After all it was only one day or in some cases one weekend In this time of a national identity crisis perhaps it was worth it Not since our centennial year in have Canadians been made more aware of our birthday celebrations Was it because 110 years is another mile stone in our history or just a round number and the powers that be decided it was time for another party Or perhaps it was the growing threat that next year or the year after that we might not have the Canada as we know it today Or was all that money spent so Canadians might get that feeling of pride for their country back again to show everyone we are not bad off Sure the inflation rate is ridiculous and our work force strikes more than almost any country in the world But at least in this country we are given the freedom of speech and of choice If not then old Rene in Quebec would never be allowed to do and say the things he is getting away with Is it going to be Canadas best point which destroys it Right now for most Canadians who really care all eyes and ears are on Quebec We as Canadians are beginning to realize just how important each province is in and all are needed to make up our country Feelings are perhaps at a low ebb right now If the money spent helped Canadians bring back their pride and national unity it was well worth it At least one person in Acton was reached on July A young child around nine years old not even born in Centennial year rode his bicycle up Willow St singing O Canada at the top of his lungs It was a touching scene as he waved his Canadian flag and sang the national anthem Perhaps this means Canada does have a future after all Once upon a time A group of French Canadians sit around the backyard talking It is a small town typical of many in Quebec Soon an argument ensues bet ween a relative visiting from Ontario People in Ontario don pay any provincial tax one man shouts Bill Davis runs the country when Trudeau is out of town still another cries Ottawa is the capital of Ontario and there is nothing there for us is another exclamation The person from Ontario is horrified at her cousins views She argues with them but they become more adamant Nothing she says will convince them they are wrong in all accounts that people her province are paying perhaps one of the highest provincial taxes in the country They call her a traitor for moving away something she did more than ten years ago The story is true unfortunately This French Canadian woman now living this area could not believe what her relatives thought She felt frightened that the terrifying thing about their beliefs and the knowledge that the stories are not confined to her family in that one town She says those stories and others even more unbelievable are culating throughout most of the towns where the majority of people have never been away from home to realize they are wrong The area resident does not know how these stories are getting around She does not know if they are being circulated by organized groups lobbying for separtism or whether someone made up a joke once which someone else took seriously and the whole thing got out of hand Whatever it is these people are going to one day be putting on a referendum which is going to be deciding the future of this country People who believe these totally untrue rumors and even more and are given propaganda about how well everything will be with the country of Quebec are going to be hard to convince they are being fed a pack of lies If one plate contained a thick juicy steak and the other con tamed a dried up cold boiled hot dog which you had been told was made out of cat meat which would you choose What you dont know is that the steak had been refrozen twice and was actually horse meat and the animal died of hoof and mouth disease and the hot dog was per cent beef It s a hard choice and which hopefully Quebec residents will look carefully into each one before picking upaplateandstart eating One bite could be fatal Hydros help needed One of the most bizarre inquiries is how the hearing officer described the events unfold before him in Actons Legion last week Heanng officer Donald Meyrick came out with the characterization after Ontario Hydro refused to give his inquiry into Hydros proposed Bruce Milton ion tabled in previous inquiries and in a secret meeting Hydro also refused to present for examination any systems plan the people who decide where corridors go Ontario Hydro ought to give Meyrick whatever information the hearing officer asks for because only through the officer does his superior Energy Minister James Taylor receive recommendations concerning all parties in the dispute Hydro cooperation would make the hearing more normal The information collected at taxpayers expense concerns one alternate route to get power from the Bruce nuclear generating station on Lake Huron to Essa near Barrie The BruceEssa route is favored by the Interested Citizens Group ICG Heanng officer pleaded with Hydro for information which led the Solandt Commission to conclude Hydro has indeed studied the Bruce Essa alternate Solandts Commission mainly investigated the Pickering corridor In a secret meeting with ICG representatives Hydro also agreed to present data on its Bruce Essa study The ICG claims not to have received that information In addition to undermining the inquiry process Hydro is challeng the Supreme Court of Ontario This provinces highest court ruled in a strongly worded unanimous decision that hearing officers specifically are to listen to evidence concerning alternate routes A hearing officer is powerless to subpoena witnesses or coerce them to testify under oath He can only invite contestants to give evidence on the assumption they speak truthfully The hearings are adjourned until next month When they resume Ontario Hydro will have an op portunity to change its tactic of resistance to one of cooperation Hydro needs to change after all what is good for secret meetings is good for public hearings Of this and that Again we apologize for the lack of our popular 50 Years Ago column Our files have returned from the microfilmer completely unbound in loose sheets We hadnt antici pa ted this at al and must now wait for the slow process of rebinding The 50 Years Ago column will be back as soon as possible For the summer decorators one thing the inventors cant seem to get the bugs out of is fresh paint 1 YOU LL HAVE TO ROLL it tight says Rich Rocher playground and daycamp supervisor in photo on left Rick helped about 50 leaders leaders in training and youngsters learn the basics of overnight camping nature studies and orienteering at Blue Springs Scout Reserve Thursday and Friday In top right hand photo Rick helps leader Karen Glenn wash dishes Tents are down in bottom right photo but the poles have to be carried back to the pavilion at Blue Springs David Allen 11 did just that during the rainy overnight campout You were probably surprised and a bit shaken by that recent CBC television show Connections all about the permeation of Canadian society by organized crime the Mafia he French Connection the Hong Kong Connection and so on 11 neither surprised nor disturbed me I known all about It for about four decades In fact l amazed that Oil CBC t interview me if they wanted some thing authentic about the beginnings of organized crime in this country I was there Of course at the time I realize what I was getting in to I was in my early teens But the pattern looking back was obvious There were two families in my home town the Salvatis and the Showing little originality both operated behind the front of a fruit store They were bom from Sicily and they were enemies Sammy ran a special on fresh asparagus you can bet your armor plated vest that Joe after sending one of his boys down to check the prices in the store window would undercut him by a dime Back end forth went the skirmishes but we ordinary small town punks caught only once In a while the savage Internecine warfare thai went on behind the fruit store fronts Tor example tried loasil They joined the United Church to set up another front and it s been rumored that they laundered a lot of their ill gotten gains by syphoning them through that organization as donations On the other hand the went on speaking Sicilian threatening to murder their kids if they didnt work harder and muttering about their con with Home At the time 1 belonged to a gang of young hoodlums who hung about in the town two pools rooms those of Bob and Sylvester O Toole One of our gong the Chinese connection was Joe scion of the only Chinese family In town As you can see It was quite a cosmo politan municipality though the popu was only We were i prctt vicious crowd but it was Depression so that we the opportunities of today punks was no point In snitching purses from old ladies there was nothing In them No point in mugging gen for the sime reason broke We t drink because our fathers afford to hive it around the house to steal Helling iround on motorcycles of course v is out of the question Butwcdid terrorize a few neighborhoods by riding our second hand bicycles on the sidewalks and right someone I don want you to think for one minute that we out our subliminal frustrations and latent iggressions society We At least once a week wc lean out the third floor windows of the local Chess Chowder and Club which we were allowed to use as junior members from nine to 11 on Sunday nights in ex change for janitorial duties and spit on below There t many passersby that is on a Sunday evening in a town but occasionally we hit one shout Tally ho and toast teach other in Pepsi But it was through our other yes I admit it now activity that we liecime deeply involved with The Mob This activity was stealing from the outside stands of you vc guessed It the town two fruit stores from the outset it was obvious that we d come under wing of one of ihelwo amilles It take long to see where we were heading The Salvatis kept a good lookout shouted loud In English and would chase you all the way to the river to gel bick a lousy peach But the Guaracchis although they too shouted in Sicilian were fat and run our gang was one of their boys Phil Wo terrorized him into utter submission by threatening to xpose his membership in the club to the Godfather Joe who would have thumped him into a very small pizza indeed So we had an Inside man He tip us off when his old man was off with the truck to Buffalo where he had a close connection with the Bananas gang knew exactly when he arrive back with a truckful of bananas grapes you name it and laid our plans as carefully as the IRA The minute the new fruit was put on the outside stands one of our gang would go into the store and ask Mama Guaracchi if Phil could come down to the pool room While she was haranguing him the rest of us would stuff our shirts and head for the park for a gluttonous gorge It was only a step from there to getting into the Godfather cellar and homemade wine when he was out of town Next thing you know a couple of us were running dances at cents a couple with beer In the back room in a tub of Ice We used to promise the orchestra and then beat them down toi5 The money just rolled in Some weeks we majle enough to pay a little off on our bill at the pool room where we habitually played on our nerve That Is without funds to pay Tor the table If you lost There was only one direction we could go and we d have wound up more debased and debauched than the Dubois brothers of Montreal If the war come along Some of us got killed Some of us had a worse fate We stayed alive and got married The old gang broke up But don t tell me about the Mafia I was there Longtime correspondent It was a great honor for the Free Press and Mrs DG Robertson some years ago when she was chosen the Champion Cor respondent at the annual con vention of the Ontario Weekly Newspapers Association She was presented with a plaque and che que at a dinner at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto and we recall how ably she spoke to the assembled convention Mrs Robertsons contribution to her community through her writing of the Osprlnge news for about years was just part of the reasons she will be missed She and band Dave were of course widely known through their store a centre of the community When they re tired to Acton she returned to re porting as the secretary of the Golden Age club Her clear hand writing and well written prose were pleasantly familiar to us over three decades and we join her family and many friends in mourning her loss Good things in schools June 1977 Mrs Kay Dills Acton Free Press Willow Street North Acton Ontario Dear Kay Just a note to express my appreciation and that of the entire staff of Acton High School for the very comprehensive and fair coverage of our school that we have received In the Free Press Please convey to both Helen and Eric my appreciation for the job which both of them have done in covering school activities With so much In the newspaper lately which Is critical of education it very gratifying that a paper such as yours depicts so very well some of the good things that go on In schools Thank you for your help In the past and I took forward to your coverage of the new school next year Yours sincerely Dean Fink Principal More letters on page I The Free Press I Back Issues 10 years ago Taken from the Issue of the ree Press Wednesday July 12 196T Roy McFadden of 121 Poplar Ave is in satisfactory condition in Guelph General Hospital following a collision between his new motorcycle and a hydro truck Friday morning at the corner of MIU and Elgin High school teachers getting far away from their profession during the sum vacation Three are marking grade 13 exam papers in Toronto Mrs Marion Reed BUI Coates and Joe Bray Miss Eliza belli Atkey Is recreational summer pro gram director in Acton Paul Mortindaie is taking a special geography course at GUI University and Pat Sullivan is taking a course at Waterloo University Attending courses at Ontario College of Education in Toronto are Miss Carla Vanderfrift Mrs Mrs HargitLaszlo Bruce An drews and C Mr and Mrs have moved from Toronto to 223 Elmore Dr with their young child Mr Maddeaux works in Wood bridge Newcomers to townare Acton high school teacher Swallow and Mrs Swallow who have moved from London to 186 Tyler Ave Mr and Mrs John B Frank daughter Dianneand friend Beverly Norton have re turned from a trip to Expo 20 years ago Token from the issue of the Free Press Thursday July 18 A former student of Acton public and high schools son of Mr and Mrs A announced this week the opening of a law practice in Guelph and Acton For the past two years he has been in Toronto with a law firm there Near noon today Harold Mike Coxc fell off a ladder when checking the heating sys tern at he new fire hall and was sent to General Hospital in an unconscious condition He was later released to his home with a wrenched body and severe bruises According to J Scott no bones were broken The Acton Chamber of Commerce held an outing at Belwood Lake lost evening Wed and enjoyed a night of boating water skiing and surf board riding Be tween water sports the men enjoyed a lunch provided by themselves No sub marine diving has been reported on this trip so it Is assumed Roy Goodwin got up on top of the water with the ski is The Acton Board announced this week that over 150 boys and girls registered for the swimming classes being conducted in the pork during July and August To date seven instructors are handling the various groups and an urgent appeal Is made for another two instructors 100 years ago Token from the Issue of Free Press July 12 1877 The first ten years of confederation ended with the last day of June They have been years of prosperity for Canada The future Is beaming with bright expectation A telegram from London on Saturday stated it was rumoured the Pope was dead Enquiry failed to elicit any confirmation Mr Robert Denny applied to Erin town ship council for a sum of money equal to the loss which he had suffered in the breaking of his plow while at Statute labour The ap plication was dismissed Wm C Chis holm was paid for keeping tramps No local events have occurred the past week worth recording and we can t get up enough energy to invent anything Our local columns this week arc woefully barren One page of the four page paper is devoted to world news and news from across Canada The Milton News after a trance of several months has again made its ap pearance in the land of the hvlng having beenrcsurrectedbyourfriedMr TJ Star Late of the Georgetown Herald It will doubtless continue to be the organ of the Conservative party in the county and being alone In that capacity ought to receive a full measure of support Who stole the church beef from Mr Ryder cook stove Friday night THE ACTON FREE PRESS PHONE 853 Business and Editorial Office CNA Mil rrindng Co It DM Cook Copyright