1t t t UAJV ViLLd DC.AV tK vvcuiic^uay /\prn z j , zuui T h e O a k v il l e B e a v e r Ian Oliver Publisher Neil Oliver .Associate Publisher Norman Alexander Editor Kelly Montague, .Advertising Director Steve Crozier Circulation Director Ten Casas OfficeManager Mark Dills Production Manager Riziero Vertolli Director of Photography Metroland Printing, Publishing.& Distributing Ltd.. includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser. Alliston Herald/Courier. Arthur Enterprise News. Barrie Advance. Barry's Bay This Week. Bolton' Enterprise. Brampton Guardian. B u rlin g to n P ost. B u rlin g to n S h opping New s. C ity Parent, Collingwood/Wasaga Connection, East Vbrk Mirror. Erin Advocate/Country R outes. E tobicoke G uardian. Flam borough P ost. G eorgetow n Independent/Acton Free Press. Harriston Review, Huronia Business Times, Kingston This Week, Lindsay This Week, Markham Ecnomist & Sun. M idland/Penetanguishine Mirror, Milton Canadian Cham pion, Milton Shopping News. Mississauga Business Tmes, Mississauga News. Napanee Guide. Newmarket/Aurora Era-Banner. Northumberland News. North 'fork Mirror. Oakville Beaver, Oakville Shopping News. Oldtimers Hockey News, Orillia Today. OshawaM/hrtby/Clarington Port Perry This Week, Owen Sound Tribune, Palmerston Observer, Peterborough This Week. Picton County Guide, Richmond Hill/ThornhillA/aughan Liberal. Scarborough Mirror. Stouffville/Uxbridge Tribune, Forever Mxjng, City of Mxk Guardian OPINION RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: O n ta r io C o m m u n ity N e w s p a p e r s A s s o c ia tio n THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: ^ S tr a te g ie s for E X F E ^ O rn P 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-2809 Circulation: 845-9742 W W CNA J C a n a d ia n C o m m u n ity N e w s p a p e rs A s s o c ia tio n fll|r T m T V A U C T IO N united Way of Oakville Jy%hem Q ()hc JAward (Qah'ilU o/bw ii'tk FOR BUSINESS EXCELLENCE B R O N T I tl^ T T E R F L Y O N T A R I O fin d oakville galleries | ^TSSBTcU S K S u b u rb a n N e w s p a p e rs o f A m e r ic a C h ild r e n 's C h o ir T O W NQfj^o F O RUB U S IN E S S K T H E A R T S mm E d ito ria ls Fading fast W h at's to becom e o f Stockw ell D ay? The G olden Boy o f the C anadian A lliance Party is com m ander o f a m utinous ship w hose fate is in the hands o f the top man. If he believes in the ideals of th e p a rty , he m u st ste p d o w n an d le t Alliance leader som eone else try their hand on the tiller StockwellDay is o f the political right. Failing to do so will | finding thegoing a see his political fortunes descend faster 1 than the Titanic. little tough these days, The sinking has already begun. especially There are alw ays changes in personnel follow ing an election, especially if they within his ownparty happen to be involved in a defeat. But the loss yesterday o f D eborah Grey is a m ajor blow both to the party and m ore importantly, to D ay himself. A veteran politician. Grey gave the party som e personality and profile in its early incarnation as The Reform Party, and she parlayed her view points into both Preston M anning and Stockw ell D ay's right hand. B ut for Grey, the course is clear. She w ants nothing to do w ith the A lliance leader and has term inated her executive positions w ith the party after a brief m eeting with D ay in O ttawa. F or the A lliance leader, the future looks as bleak as the past. A defeat that saw A lliance unable to break the stranglehold o f the Liberals east o f M anitoba, put D ay's future on the line. H e had cam paigned on delivering seats where no Reform ers had w on...and he failed. A nd so A lliance party m em bers w ill again be scratching their heads and seeking guidance in tea leaves over the next few w eeks and m onths as they try to determ ine w hat they have to do to beat the Liberals. R eg ardless o f the tact they take, chances are good that S tockw ell D ay w o n 't be at the helm. If he fails to realize his ow n liability to the party. Day w ill, to finish the sailing analogy, go dow n with the ship as the G rits applaud from the quay. L e tte r s to t h e E d ito r The Oakville Beaver welcomes your comments. All letters m ust be typed, signed and include the w riter's address and phone number. Send to: Letters to the Editor, The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, Ont. L6K 3S4 Goalie's appearance in game totally appropriate Re: "A ir-lifted goalie m akes jo k e o f m inor h o c k e y r u le b o o k " O a k v ille B eaver, Wed. March 28, 2001 D ear M rs. "N am e W ithheld" : O ver the course o f our House League sea son I receive and do my best to deal with con cerns raised by parents, coaches, convenors, sponsors and anyone else w ho feels they have an issue. This is part o f the "jo b " and I have no problem with it. In fact, I encourage indi viduals to bring forw ard their concerns since suggestions that are put forw ard in a construc tive m anner can help us im prove the quality o f w hat I believe is already a very good program. W hat does concern me, and w hat I object to are situ a tio n s lik e th is w h ere y ou have b r o u g h t f o rw a r d in a c c u r a te , b ia s e d a n d inflam m atory com m ents that reflect poorly on our A ssociation and the dedicated volunteers w ho spend countless hours trying to provide a quality environm ent for your son. Let me once again try to explain this "total ly unethical" situation. The root com plaint appears to focus on the rep lacem en t goalie used. T he goalie cam e from another team in the A tom W hite division and was clearly eligible and appropriate, both w ithin the rules as w ell at w hat constitutes sportsm anship and fair play. O v e r th e y e a r w e o ften h av e situ atio n s where goalies are aw ay and our playing rules describe how to deal with that situation. Rule N u m b er 7 R eplacem ent G oalkeepers. T his rule states in part, that the replacem ent goalten d er m ust be o f com parable calibre. The rule further goes on to state that in determ in ing the replacem ent the priorities will be: 1. G oalie from same league with sending coach's perm ission 2. G oalie from an age or ability division low er 3. D ress an out player. R eco g n izin g that this can be a sensitive issue it w as raised at o u r directors m eeting prior to the play-off(s) to confirm w hat "com p arab le c a lib re " m eant. T he in terp retatio n w as clear that it m eant as outlined above in priority (a) from the sam e league. We also discussed the issue o f "notice" and essentially agreed that this w as not always possible, given w hat could be a short notice cancellation and scram ble to find a replacem ent. By playoff tim e I w o u ld s u g g e st th a t the c o a c h e s do k n o w th e g o a lie s a n d w o u ld re c o g n iz e a replacement. W hile this clearly deals with the "refuse to enforce the rules" issue, there are a num ber of oth e r co m m en ts an d in sin u atio n s th a t also flavour your letter that need to be addressed. I personally spent over a h alf hour as the "executive" on the phone w ith you trying to help you understand the rules, obviously w ith out success. I tried to explain that w here a team finishes in the standings is not necessarily the goalies ranking. It depends on a variety o f factors, including the team s offensive and defensive strength and their style o f play. It should also be clear that any player can have both good an d b ad d a y s an d th a t th is is p a rtic u la rly noticeable for a goaltender. You might have m entioned that your sons team has a goalie that played "red" last year and is arguably the best goalie in the league. You might have m entioned that your hus band is an assistant coach for your sons team and you have an ex p erien ced head co ach both should know these rules. You m en tio n ed the o th e r team s "second goalie" - The other team does not have a sec ond goalie w ho did not w ant to play, they do have a young m an w ho played goal last year but did not w ant to and has not played goal this year. W h a t " c le a rly c o u ld h av e b e e n a 10-2 gam e for us." M y understanding is that the other team as a whole played well and upset your sons team in a very close and exciting gam e (3-2). W here had this ev er happened before in the playoffs! T h e c o n v e n o r left rig h t afte r the gam e. M aybe that was because he had already been there for five hours providing the volunteer support to let your son play. Y o u r c o m m e n t a b o u t th e " $ 1 0 0 fe e attached" and "the M O H A executive will do nothing to rectify the situation or enforce the rules" - T he league has and w ill enforce its rules. We have taken gam es away, had gam es replayed, suspended coaches and players and refunded players w ho w ere not p repared to follow the rules. You m ay be interested to know th at u n d er o u r C ode o f C o nduct, the derogatory rem arks contained in your letter could be easily considered as ground for disci plinary action against you. I u n d erstan d an d h av e ex p e rien c ed as a coach and parent the disappointm ent o f "los ing" a key game. H ow ever that does not give you or anyone else the right to translate that d isap p o in tm en t into the type o f unfo u n d ed attack displayed in your letter. M a y b e a little re fle c tio n w ill h elp you understand why we keep losing good volun teers w ho aren't paid enough to take the abuse directed at them by supposedly mature, level headed adults. K eep this in m ind next year w hen we d o n 't have enough coaches or con ven o rs to let the k id s (in clu d in g y o u r son) play. I hope you have the insight to recognize that you are part o f the problem , not the solu tio n . It is easy to c ritic iz e so m eo n e elses behaviour. It requires a lot more effort to step forward and w ork to im prove the situation. By the way, I sign my letters Letter of the Week Options running out for power sources Re: Sithe gas fir e d energy station.: N o t in m y back yard. One cannot doubt the sincerity o f Mary Trudelle and her supporters in opposing a state-of-the-art low polluting electricity generating station on the east side o f W inston Churchill Boulevard in M ississauga. The site is currently a barren industrial waste with the closest residence over one mile away. It is near an existing gas pipeline and can easily feed into the existing electrical grid. She and her group leave unanswered many questions. O ntarians have four options in their increasing dem and for electricity. Water powered, nuclear, coal fired and gas fired. O ur water powered sites for further development are small in scale and very lim ited in number. Nuclear cur rently carries too much political baggage to even be con sidered. That leaves coal and natural gas. Since I doubt there is m uch enthusiasm even for imported low sulphur coal, that leaves us with Canadian-supplied natural gas. Ontario has a capacity to generate about 15 per cent in excess o f its current annual needs. O ver the next 10 years, the GTA alone will experience a population increase of one million from the current five million people. That is a 20 per cent increase or tw o per cent per year. It would ap p ear th a t if we w ere to do no th in g , the GTA alone would be maxed out in seven years let alone considering dem ands from the rest o f the province. W here w ill the pow er com e from for the schools, hospitals, factories and homes? My questions to Ms. Trudelle and her supporters are these: Do they propose that we cut o ff any increases in our generation o f electricity using natural gas? If this is so, then w hich o f the two rem aining options (coal and n u clear) do th ey su p p o rt? W ill they be w illin g to be accountable in seven y ears' tim e w hen the brow n-outs start? F le x ib le e d u c a t io n Re: J. M ills letter to the editor, `Sm all chil dren deserve b e tte r' O akville B eaver A pril 4, 2001. D ear J. Mills: I am glad that your fam ily set-up w orks for both you and your spouse. H ow ever, I th in k y o u have m istak en the in tention o f my letter (A pril 28, 2001). My in te n tio n w as n o t to d ev lu e, in su lt o r p ass judgem ent on other people's fam ily structures; to do so w ould m ake m e insecure and narrow minded. M y in te n tio n w as to id e n tif y h o w o u r school system ignores the needs o f a large part o f the com munity. Today, there are m any dif ferent types o f fam ily structures. 1. Som e fam ilies choose to m aintain tw o careers to share the burden o f working. 2. O ther fam ilies have no choice because they need two incomes. 3. There are also m any single w orking par ents. R egard less o f a fam ily 's situation, I w as asking for g reater flexibility or choice from ou r school system . M ore im portantly, if our public schools cannot accom m odate the differ ent fam ily strucutres that exist, then w e should be allow ed to direct our portion o f the funding to schools that can. N. Leslie Williams I t 's a ll a b o u t e d u c a t i o n e q u a lity Russ Pfeifer Wayne M oorehead Vice President, H ouse League Pud Q fU i f UH-OM... THERE Sots P rv r' l SAMMY S H O O T IN GA BAIL AGAINST T H E , GARA&E- POOR AGAIN I i ' d b e tte r t e ll H im t o s to p ( b e fo re Y our by Steve Nease FATHER V HEARS 1 HIM» A I A ssum ing that Bill 160 guarantees equal and fair funding to all school b o ard s in O n tario , the present n eg o tiatio n s b etw e en the H alto n C a th o lic B o a rd an d its h ig h sch o o l teachers should be an easy task. The Catholic B oard should at le ast offer its te ach ers w h eat the H alton p u b lic b o ard negotiated w ith its secondary school teachers this past year. T he Catholic system could then have a contract in place by June, thus securing the academ ic year in September. If the Catholic B oard's offer falls short o f the negotiated contract o f the public board, w e can then conclude either: (a) Bill 160 does not guarantee equal funding or (b) the Halton C atholic B oard has a different ag en d a in its neg o tiatio n s w ith its em ployees, if the first conclusion is correct, then Q u een 's Park should pay up according to the m andate o f Bill 160, but if the second conclusion proves to be correct, then w e have to ask ourselves how `catholic' is the Catholic system if it intentionally bargains in bad faith w ith its teach ers. Further, if senior C atholic B oard officials are paid the sam e (and in som e cases even better than) their public board counterparts, it should follow that em ployees o f the Halton C atholic B oard should expect the sam e treatm en t and be paid on par w ith (and m aybe even better than) their public board counterparts. C an som eone fault my logic? If so, I look forw ard to fur ther dialogue. Steve Catlin