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A6 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday June 9, 1999 Th e Oakville Beaver OPINION Ian Oliver Publisher Neil Q \w er Associate Publisher Norman Alexander Editor Kelly Montague, Advertising Director Martin Doherty Circulation Director Ten Casas Office Manager Mark Dills Production Manager Riziero Vertolli Director of Photography Metroland Printing. Publishing & Distributing Ltd., includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser, Attston HerakVCouner, Barrie Advance. BarryS Bay This Week. Bolton Enterprise. Brampton Guardian, Burlington Post. Burtngton Shopping News. City Parent. CoingwoocWV&saga Connection. East York Mirror, Erin Advocate/Country Routes. Etobicoke Guardan. Ramborough Post. Georgetown mdependent/Acton Free Press. Hironia Business Trees. Kingston This Week. Lindsay This Week, Markham Ecnormst & Sun, Midland/Penetanguishine Mirror. Milton Canadian Champion. Milton Shopping News. Mississauga Business Times. Mssissauga News. Napanee Guide. Newmarket/Aurora Era-Banner, Northumberland News. North York Mirror. Oakville Beaver, Oakvie Shopping News. OWtmers Hockey News. Onia Today. OshawaWhitty/Oanngton Port Peny This Week. Owen Sound Tribune. Peterborough This Week. Picton County Guide. Richmond Hill/Thomhill/Vaughan Liberal. Scarborough Mirror. Stouffville/Uxbridge Tribune, Forever Yxng, City of Mark Guardan 467 Speers Rd., Oakville O n t L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-2809 Circulation: 845-9742 RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association T Canadian Community f*CNA Newspapers Association S K * Suburban Nowspapers ot America THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: O T ^ p M H Y vmca.... j i f e s g r a * K U ( W 'V L L E X e n t r e JiiMqlE B eII F usd United Way o( Oakville E d i t o r i a l s R e m e m b e r in g D - D a y Sunday, June 6th marked the 55th Anniversary of D-Day, the invasion of Normandy. In Oakville, the occasion was remembered with a ceremony at the Bronte Cenotaph to honour those who sacrificed their lives on that hell­ ish morning on the beaches of Normandy 55 years ago. Despite the efforts of Hollywood filmmakers to attempt to recreate the Normandy invasion, it is impossible for us to comprehend the horrors the soldiers on those bloody beaches witnessed that day. For most of us, peace is something we take for granted. That wasn't the case 55 years ago, when thousands of allied soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy to launch the beginning of the end of Hitler's tyrannical rule in Europe. Some would never leave those beaches. Those who perished on that beach left behind families and friends who would miss them dearly, along with their own hopes and dreams of a better life which they would never experience. Near the end of the movie Saving Private Ryan, a dying Army Captain played by Tom Hanks tells Private Ryan he better be worth the sacrifices which were made for him. He has two final words for Private Ryan. "Earn it," he says. The words, although spoken to a fictional movie character, are directed at all of us who have benefited from the sacrifices made by those soldiers 55 years ago. It's a question we should all ask ourselves. Have we earned the legacy these soldiers left us through their sacrifices? When we turn our backs on the suffering of others, have we earned it? When our own bottom line is more important than the welfare of the less fortunate, have we earned it? When we silently allow the oppression of others through tyranny, have we earned it? When we pollute and ruin our planet for the sake of convenience, have we earned it? When we take our own freedom, and the freedom of others for granted, have we earned it? We must never forget the sacrifice those soldiers made so many years ago. Otherwise, they will have died in vain, and that would be the greatest loss of all. 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 C a n a d a P o s t m u s t n o t c h a r g e f o r e - m a i l Letter of the Week The last few months have revealed an alarm­ ing trend in the Government of Canada attempt­ ing to quietly push through legislation that will affect your use of the Internet. Under proposed legislation, Canada Post will be attempting to bill email users out of "alternate postage fees." Bill 602P will permit the Federal Government to charge a five cent surcharge on every email delivered, by billing Internet Service Providers at source. The consumer would then be billed, in turn, by the ISP. Toronto lawyer, Richard Stepp QC, is work­ ing to prevent this legislation from becoming law. The Canada Post Corporation is claiming that lost revenue due to the proliferation of email is costing nearly $23,000,000 in revenue per year. You may have noticed Canada Post's recent ad campaign 'There is nothing like a let­ ter." Since the average citizen received about 10 pieces of email per day in 1998, the cost to the typical individual would be an additional 50 cents per day, or over $180 per year, above and beyond their regular Internet costs. Note that this would be money paid directly to Canada Post for a service they do not even provide. The whole point of the Internet is democracy and non-interference. One back-bencher, Liberal Tony Schnell (NB), has even suggested a "$20 - $40 per month surcharge on all Internet service" above and beyond the government's proposed email charges. Don't sit by and watch your freedoms erode away. Tell your friends and relatives to write to their MP and say "no!" to Bill 602P. Kate Turner Assistant to Richard Stepp QC Berger, Stepp and Gorman Barristers at Law F ig h t against H om e D epot site n o t over As you already know by now, on Wed. May 26th, Oakville Town Council voted unanimously to deny the application of Home Depot to amend the Official Plan and zoning bylaws. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of your hard work and dedication to this issue. To GARA, thank you for bringing this matter to our atten­ tion by holding that first public meeting. And to the local newspa­ pers, thanks for the coverage. To the Planning Department, we appreciate your thorough analysis, the reflection, critical thought, and research that went into the Staff Report. We also thank you for your willingness to take the time to sit down with us and discuss the issues. To all the Town Councillors, we appreciate your recognition of the integrity of the Official Plan and we acknowledge the over­ whelmingly unanimous support we received on this issue. And, of course, a special thanks to Jody Sanderson and Steven Sparling for rallying the support of your colleagues, and for your help and advice. You worked hard to sup­ port your constituents. And, of course, to all the resi­ dents of the Glen Abbey commu­ nity, we couldn't have done it without you. You went door-to- door handing out petitions, you signed petitions, you made phone calls, you came to meetings, you wrote letters to the paper. You got involved and you made a differ­ ence. Thank you. Unfortunately, the fight is not over yet. As you are probably aware, Home Depot has already applied to the Ontario Municipal Board to appeal the decision of the Town's Com mittee of Adjustment to deny a minor vari­ ance to the bylaw. Home Depot also plans to appeal the decision made by Town Council on Wednesday night. This means our efforts must continue. So to all of you who have expressed concern, we have won round one, but be prepared for round two. We still have much hard work to do, and we are counting on your contin­ ued support. Simon Dann Vicky and Joe D 'Aurizio Chris Gardner Larry Geider Brian M cKrow Bob Miskelly Renee Sandelowsky by Steve Nease Cull the geese & feed the people I am always interested in "our geese." Your article in the May 28th„ 1999 issue - "Geese Roundup approved" brought to mind a possible solution that I have felt to be viable, but never adopted. Can you explain the reasons against an appropriate cull throughout the affected areas, with food processing compa­ nies volunteering to eviscerate these birds and make them available to Food Banks, or other needy groups, such as the Salvation Army? George S. Spice, P.Eng. N o p o i n t i n u s i n g L y m e d i s e a s e v a c c i n e h e r e The article "Medication offers Lyme disease relief," May 19th, 1999, contains erroneous informa­ tion. The author states that 60% to 80% of patients have erythema migrans (bull's-eye) rash. More recent studies show that it occurs approximately 50% of the time. The Lyme Disease Association of Ontario (LDAO) has documented the blacklegged tick, in over 800 occurrences/locations across southern Canada -- not 250 locations as stated in the article. Even though the blacklegged tick is a competent vector of Lyme dis­ ease, the infection rate is low. In clinical trials on thousands of patients over four years, the LYMErix vaccine was only 78% effective if all three shots are taken. In one trial (Steere et al., 1998), 16 vaccine recipients and 66 placebo recipients contracted definite Lyme disease after having three injections. The vaccine is also limited to people between the ages of 15 and 70. The Lyme disease vaccine is not justified in Ontario unless a person lives in an endemic area such as Long Point on the north shore of Lake Erie. John D. Scott, B.Sc.(Agr.) President, LDAO Ed. N ote : The in fo rm a tio n fo r th e a rtic le m en tioned above was p rov ided by S m ithK Iine Beecham Pharma and th e C en tre fo r T rave l and T ro p ica l M ed ic ine at Toronto Hospital. Pud New Central student doesn't want to move My name is Rodney Hall. I am in Grade 7 and go to New Central Public School in Oakville. New Central is the school that has the gifted program in it...until the end of this year. My school goes from Grade 5 to Grade 8. It has five portables and a hallway. It has over 250 students. I will not be at that school next year... not because I don't like it but because I, along with my fel­ low students in the gifted program, am being forced to move to W.H. Morden. Another school needs portables and the Halton District School Board does not want to buy any more. They'll save $120,000 by moving the program. Some say this is a good argument. I think it is but I'm a stu­ dent there so... it isn't. My first year there wasn't the greatest: I had a few friends but not very many. Grade 6 was worse. This year, however, things are good. I have friends, always something to do at recess and now 1 finally feel accept­ ed even though I'm really different from everyone. Then I find out that the program is getting split up. After endless rounds of meetings, they decide not to split the program... instead they decide to go and move us to W.H. Morden. Not that I have anything against Morden, it's just that I don't want to leave New Central. There is another very important thing... graduation. Grade 8 of the gifted program will be moved from the school that they have been in for a while to a new school where they will be for only one year. We'll graduate with a whole bunch of kids we do not even know. Graduation means a lot to me. Before, my old school went from Kindergarten to Grade 6. I was in Grade 4 and the next year I moved from there to New Central. At that school. Grades 5 and 6 were the big kids of the school. I've never really thought about it, but the Grade 6 have a graduation. I never went to it. And now the first time that I am going to have gradua­ tion from any part of school, it's going to be in a school that 1 will be in for one year and with a bunch of kids I won't even know? I mean come on. The Board says that our education will not change. I think that's wrong. Some of our teachers will move and some will not. Also, the other kids at Morden. I think there will be a lot of rivalry going on because the gifted kids want to be in New Central and the Morden kids probably don't want us in Morden. My brother had lots of problems in regular classes and had to change schools so he could get enrichment when he was in Grade 4. Now, he is in Grade 5 and is at New Central. So for the fourth year in a row, he will be in a different school. Is this really fair to him? I don't think the Board has thought out these possi­ bilities or they just don't want to. AH in all, I don't want the program to be moved and I know none of the teachers or students in the gifted program want it moved either. I know the Board needs money. They think that this is the best solution. I don't. It is not the best solution, and it is not fair to kids in the gifted pro­ gram. I speak on behalf of this program as a student when I say these things. The program should not be moved. Rodney Hall Student at New Central (And proud o f it!)