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A6 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday May 23, 2001 T h e Oa k v ille B ea ver 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 ofPhotography Metrotand Printing. Publishng & 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 urlin g to n S h opping New s. C ity Parent. CoHngwood/VNfesaga Connection. East >brk Mirror. B in Advocate/Country R outes. E tob ico ke G uardian. F lam borough Post. G eorgetow n Independent/Acton Free Press. Hamston Review. Huronia Business Times, Kingston This Week. Lindsay This Week, Markham Ecnomist & Sun. M idland/Penetanguishine Mirror. M ilton Canadian Champion. M ilton Shopping News. Mississauga Business Times, Mississauga News. Napanee Guide. Newmarket/Aurora Era-Banner, Northumberland News. North Vbrk Mirror, Oakville Beaver. Oakville Shopping News, Otdtmers Hockey News, Orillia Today. Oshawa/Whitby/Clarngton Port Perry This Week. Owen Sound Tribune. Palmerston Observer, Peterborough This Week. Picton County Guide. Richmond Hill/Thornhill/Vaughan Liberal. Scarborough Mirror. StoufMia'Uxbndge Trtxne. Forever ttx n g , City of >brk Guardan OPINION RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community New spapers Association THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: YMCA LCOM E* « A G O N ltd. Since 1930 KTViVttu I S tra te g ie s f o r T ,| KH S S K M i! .......... m JiNqlE B eII FuNd JM iem United Way of Oakville (>hc © O a k v ille ^ A w a r d s FOR BUSINESS EXCELLENCE 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 84 5 -3 82 4 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-2809 Circulation: 845-9742 WW C N A Canadian Community New spapers Association . | irT in w TV AUCTION IR O N T E THE B U T T E R F L Y Jl J A w a rd O N T A R I O f in d | oakville galleries | r z , P S fU fil MrbkrMHi S K Suburban New spapers of Am erica C h i l d r e n 's C h o i r TOWN O F H O A P C XUE L H N E S S S C T H E A R T S E d ito ria ls Looming crisis When high-speed jet passenger aircraft began transporting people further and further afield in just hours, it was called miraculous. But the ability to go from one side of the world to another in under one day also brings with it the possibility of a worldwide disaster. We've seen a small inkling of the prob With morepeople lems in the past few years with people travelling to distant entering Canada and the U.S. with infec tious diseases. Even though tuberculosis places, it seems only a was eradicated in this country, visitors matter oftime until a have brought it and other diseases to our shores. pandemic strikes - but And that's why the threat of a pandemic Hatton is determined to be is very real and not some theory. ready when it strikes. Just as in World War I when millions more died of disease than warfare, there is no doubt in the minds of those who study disease control, that it's only a matter of when, not if, a pandemic will occur and endanger the entire planet's popula tion. For Dr. Robert Nosal. Halton Region's Medical Officer of Health, not being ready for such an eventuality is not an option. We must be ready, if not, the con sequences would be too horrible to consider. As a tune-up to a special plan, the region held flu immunization clinics over the winter and the results seem to have borne fruit - fewer flu cases were report ed and the program itself succeeded in innoculating more Halton residents who were not in the vulnerable category. It took only two years for the Spanish flu of 1918 to claim about 20 million people and that was without the aid of sophisticated aircraft to help spread the disease. The last pandemic hit in 1968 with the Hong Kong flu so we've been more fhan 30 years without such a calamity. That pandemic clock is ticking but with an integrated action plan, Halton will be ready to deal with such an eventuality. Letters to the Editor The Oakville Beaver welcomes your comments. All letters must be typed, signed and include the writer's address and phone number. Send to: Letters to the Editor, The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, Ont. L6K 3S4 Private schools sure to kill social harmony Your editorial ( `School Funding Debacle, Oakville Beaver Wed May 16/01) condemning the public funding of private schools was really excellent. This dagger in the guts of public education is, of course, what so many of us had predicted and feared ever since 1995, when Tory Minister of Education John Snobelen was caught on videotape talking of the need to first `create a crisis' in our schools. Despite Mr. Snobelen's hasty disclaimer, there was no way his words could be interpreted as a `slip of the tongue.' Clearly his motto was: "If it ain't broke, then break it!" And there could be only one reason to break it. Today the campaign of underfunding our schools, denigrating our teachers, and deceiv ing the public, begins to come to fruition. After five years of relentless subversion and propa ganda (paid for by taxpayers' dollars), the Tory government has brought the public school sys tem to the brink of dissolution - as it intended all alo n g . The m an u factu red c risis has achieved its object: teachers are so fed up they can't wait to get out; students sit in classrooms where the dem oralization is palpable; and many parents view the conflict and disarray in our schools as beyond avail. And now the Tories come along and (surprise!) they have the answer - private schools! O f course, they open the door just a little at first. But once the prin ciple of funding private schools with public money is established, it seems only a matter of time before it is increased - and increased - and increased. Indeed, various religious denomina tions are already demanding full funding. Apart from other evils attendant on this folly, it is clear that squabbling over public funds for private schools is likely to hijack future elections at the expense of many other burning issues like health care, environment, clean water, and highway maintenance (Mr. Flaherty said we have to cut back on that!). But the long term consequences are even worse. As John Ralston Saul has made clear, the very structure of government in Ontario was set up over 150 years ago on the bedrock of our public school system. The founders of our province well understood the importance of the shared values that a public school system fosters. Now these incredibly ignorant, ahistorical Tory boneheads seek to vandalize what they don't understand. C on sider. Each year C anada takes in approximately 1% of its total population in immigrants. No other nation in the world even comes close to this. Every year we absorb a huge wave of people of every colour, back ground and religious belief. Many settle in the G reater Toronto A rea, including Oakville. Nowadays, a typical classroom in the GTA looks like a miniature United Nations - except that the kids get along much better. For, on the whole, young people's tolerance for people who are `different' is far greater than that of previous generations. But that didn't just hap pen by itself. The genuine disdain that most young people have for racist, discriminatory attitudes is the product of deliberate education al policies and civilized teaching philosophies in our public schools. But how long can such social harmony sur vive when the young are hived off to their own special and separate educational enclaves? Their John Knox Presbyterian school, their Orthodox Jewish school, their Sunni school, their Shi'ite school, their Sikh school, their Hindu school, their M orm on school, their Seventh Day A dventist school, their Rasta school their Irish Catholic school, their Irish Protestant school, their Tamil school, their Serbian school, th eir C roat school, th e ir Satanist school, and so on. How long will our adm irably tolerant polygot society survive with `you in your small comer, and I in mine?' History will surely record that this Harris government was the most socially destructive governm ent since M itch H epburn's in the 1930s, perhaps ever. But of all the incalcula ble long term harm it has wreaked on the fab ric o f our society, this funding o f private schools is likely to prove the most catastroph ic. George Patrick Letter of the Week M o re d istan ce n e e d e d b e tw e e n C h u rc h & S tate Two-legged `racoons' a strange breed tire" in which case it noisily gets thrown back into the junk pile. Our neighbours threw out a couch that their German Shepherd attacked and this resulted in heavy squealing and grunting as two men a couple of dayi»ago struggled to life this couch into their van. The time of day this happened? In the middle of the night of course. Do rac coons attack your garbage during the day? Not too often! After watching the news on City TV a few weeks ago I have a solution to the problem. The device is called the Scarecrow . The Scarecrow is a sprinkler (actually more like a water rifle) with a motion detector that has a radius o f somewhere around 75 feet. This wonderful Scarecrow sends an explosion of water at your offender. What could be more fun? Listen! You human raccoons out there I'll be ready for you next year. If you're going to disturb my nightly sleep I might as well get a few laughs while my husband sleeps through all the festivities. Ingrid Tunks The big spring cleanup has arrived. My fam ily lives north o f the QEW so our big garbage pick up dau is scheduled May 14. This annual event attracts many human rac coons that scavenge the neighbourhood dri ving ev ery th in g from oil burning pickup to big diesel rental trucks. Now don't No reason fo r p e stic id e s trucks get me wrong, if you want our junk take it. Re: 'A nti-pesticide fa ctio n fa ils to sway But please take it during the day. Why does council', Oakville Beaver, Wed. May 9, 2001. the pickup have to happen in the middle of the I was surprised to read that council had night? decided to go ahead with the spraying on public Our bedroom window faces the front and lands despite that most residents are opposed. May 14 was my breaking point. A truck circu In the same paper we have the letter from lated our street picking up stuff at midnight Julius McKenna expressing the views of many and another truck came at 2:30 a.m. followed residents, suggesting that the "councillors by another visitor at 4:30 a.m. Our windows ignored the vocal minority". I am not so sure upstairs are open so the first delight is the that it is in fact the minority, only that many noise of the truck followed by the smell of people don't want to get involved. diesel fum es follow ed by our dog barking No matter how `safe' the spraying is said to which wakes up our 4 1/2 month old baby. be, there are ju st too many disadvantages to While I'm trying to console our baby and continue and there are other better ways of con making attempts to quiet the dog I head rac trolling weeds. coons squealing tunes like, "wow look at all Jorgen Poschmann this good stuff," or "grunt grunt it's missing a Years ago, I began my journalism career at a daily n e w sp a p e r in the sm all tow n o f C o rn e r B rook, Newfoundland. I was shocked at the time to discover in many small school buildings about town, each operated by a sm all religious m inority. A few o f the larger Protestant school denominations had come together to form a C onsolidated School Board and there was a C ath o lic B oard as w ell. C om ing from O n tario , I thought this divisive arrangement a very inefficient use of education dollars. Recently, the Newfoundland's government created a single, non-denom inational school board, w hile in Ontario our government has announced a budget with a tax credit for independent school tuition fees. In a diverse, multicultural society such as we have in Ontario, public schools continue to play a pivotal role in bringing people together. The proposed tax credit will only help to further divide our society along religious, ethnic and econom ic lines. The world d o esn't need another Yugoslavia, or Northern Ireland or Middle East. Are we a community or not? In pandering to the lob bying of insecure bigots, the Conservative government has helped to further undermine an excellent public school system. Only the public school system provides such a wonderful opportunity for all cultures, religions and economic levels to come together on a daily basis, learning in addition to studies, how to interact and to understand and appreciate each other. More, rather than less, separation between Church and State is needed in our pluralistic society. M arion Gill Hospital has caring staff It seems to me that we often read negative comments about our hospital system and I am certain that in many cases they are justifiable. However, I would like to expose the opposite side of the coin and relate our own positive experience at the Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. My mother was admitted through the emergency depart ment at O.T.M.H. at the end of January where she spent the following three months under the care of the most attentive personnel imaginable. The dedication of the doctors, espe cially Dr. Ken Collett and the nursing staff of the 4th floor west and the 3rd floor west rehabilitation was exemplary with respect to Mom's treatment and their attitude towards our family. In so many instances they went beyond the call of duty offering kindness and true compassion to a person for whom little could be done except to relieve the excruciating pain. We are thankful to Sacha who processed her admission and was so attentive to the horrible pain of her first night in the hospital. I will always remember Gloria washing and set ting her hair, Janet and Rose Mary sitting with us offering com forting words, Patty the physiotherapist encouraging with her wonderful smile and Pam who came across as a longtime friend. There were many others whose names I unfortunately do not know, who should also be thanked. I recognize the shortfalls of the health system but let us acknowledge the work accomplished by the devoted care givers among us. They are angels of mercy who should be noticed and thanked. Fran Hogan Pud W e lu tu is would explain w hy E-VERYOrtE'S p il l o w s s u d d e n ly w e n t m u s in g fro m t o r bed s by Steve Nease 9 Q 9