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6- The Oakville Beaver, Friday August 17, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 Circulation: 845-9742 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. NEIL OLIVER Publisher JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director TERI CASAS Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA CALHOUN Circ. Manager Settlement is good news Tuesday's announcement that the Town of Oakville has reached a settlement with the majority of landowners in the area north of Dundas Street is good news on several levels. First, and foremost, it means the town can avoid a costly legal bill -- an estimated $13 million -- for a lengthy (nine month) Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing. That money can be better spent on other projects in town. Secondly, it ends a long and bitter debate that has at times consumed and torn apart Oakville Town Council for a decade. Thirdly, it ensures that growth in north Oakville will follow a made-inOakville plan, rather than one mapped out by OMB panel members. The agreement essentially finalizes the secondary planning process, and creates an overall vision for how the 2,300 hectares of land east of Sixteen Mile Creek and north of Dundas Street will be developed. The area is expected to house about 50,000 residents and 25,000 jobs. More importantly, the agreement protects 600 hectares of land, which will be incorporated as a Natural Heritage System within the community. For the developers, the settlement also means they can avoid a lengthy and costly OMB hearing and begin work on their developments. Construction could start as early as 2009. One group upset by the settlement, however, is RAND (Residents Association North of Dundas), which represents many of the existing households north of Dundas Street. They feel that future development of the area should not come at their expense. One of RAND's major concerns is the Employment Lands, primarily for industrial use, running north of Burnhamthorpe Road up to Hwy. 407. The Town is hoping a transition zone of medium density housing and institutional uses will act as a buffer for existing Burnhamthorpe Road residents. While not perfect, hopefully the settlement will allow councillors and staff to focus on building a brighter future for Oakville, rather than a legal battle plan for the OMB. That's good news, indeed. The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Cartoon was insulting to Muslims Your editorial page cartoon, Oakville Beaver Aug. 3, regarding John Tory's proposal for faith-based schools funding is as humourless as it is bigoted. Your cartoonist made a failed attempt at humor of the cheapest kind: playing off hateful stereotypes against three-quarters of a million Canadians who are Muslim. It is yet another media attempt at intimidating any politician who tries (intentionally or not) to have a balanced approach toward Muslim Canadians among other communities of faith. Tory's proposal is not targeted to favour a specific religion, but seeks even-handed funding for faith-based schools. In other words, it gives back to the thousands of middle class Ontario taxpayers (who send their children to faithbased schools other than Catholic) a benefit for the millions of dollars they contribute to Ontario treasury. Unless you're Rupert Murdoch or Fox 'News', the connection between Tory's proposal and 'suicide bombers' is a bit of a stretch. You should apologize to your readers (Muslim or not) for insulting their intelligence, and to your Muslim readers for perpetuating a hateful stereotype. MOHAMMED GHOBARAH Cartoon was on target Re: Marion Schaffer's letter, Cartoon was upsetting, Oakville Beaver, Aug. 8. The writer found your editorial cartoon of July 25 distasteful, "appallingly vulgar," to be precise, whereas I, along with several others of my acquaintance, found it quite amusing, to the point and, more importantly, right on. I think the writer is overreacting to a cartoon, which correctly depicts certain politicians as leading from behind, so to speak. RONALD REA Cartoon was hilarious I have in front of me the editorial cartoon, which came with the Wednesday, July 25 edition of The Oakville Beaver. It is an appealingly hilarious drawing. Your cartoonist obviously (and correctly) thinks that our municipal and provincial politicians don't have a clue as to how to solve difficult social issues. I fail to see how the public is served when local politicians, i.e. Miller, McGuinty and Bryant, demonstrate a complete lack of leadership and understanding of the guns and gangs problem. And what message does this send to the young people of Oakville? Don't bother voting, because most politicians are incompetent boobs? I hope not. DERRICK GRAHAM The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council.The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206,Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com