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A6 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday May 5, 1999 T he Oakville Beaver O P I N I O N Ian Oliver Publisher Neil 0\wer Associate Publisher Norman Alexander Editor Kelly Montague, Advertising Director Martin Doherty Circulation Director Teri Casas Office Manager Mark Dills Production Manager Riziero Vertolli Director of Photography Metroland Printing, Publishing & D istributing U d.. includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser. A lston HerakVCourier, Barrie Advance. Barry's Bay This Week. Bolton Enterprise. Brampton Guardan, Burlington Post, B iring ton Shopping News. C ity Parent. CoingwoocM asaga Connection. East York Minor, Erin Advocata'Country Routes. Etobicoke Guardan, Flamborough Post. Georgetown mdependent/Acton Free Press. Huroria Business Times. K ingston This W eek. Lindsay This W eek. M arkham Ecnom ist & Sun. M idland/P enetanguishine M irror. M ilton Canadian C ham pion. M ilton Shopping News, Mississauga Business Times. Mississauga News. Napanee G lide. 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Forever >Oung, C ity o f Mark Guardan 467 Speers Rd., Oakville O n t L6K 3S4 (905) 8 4 5 -3 8 2 4 Fax: 3 3 7-5 5 6 7 Classified Advertising: 8 4 5 -2 8 0 9 Circulation: 8 4 5 -9 7 4 2 RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: B Ontario CommunityNewspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association S K « Suburban Newspapers of America THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: O T ^ M H Prt/mrntf for Tomorrom't Health Cm Y ymca.....J^ L ,W 'f e s S J l i r m 'CENTRE J iN C jlE BeII F u N d 1 1 United Way ot Oakville Editorials Poor sportsm anship If the legal profession ever awards a Lady Byng trophy for good sports­ manship, we doubt whether the the lawyers for CN will be garnering any votes for it. After all, the company's lawyers will hardly earn any sportsmanship points for filing an appeal of a recent Canadian Transport Agency (CTA) ruling against CN (and in favour of the Oakvi l l e S to p -C N -In -T h e ir-T rack s Committee) in Montreal. Already the residents have run up a $25,000 tab in their efforts to stop C N 's increased usage o f four tracks to the south o f C N 's Oakville Marshaling Yard. In March, the CTA ruled in favour of the neighbours' complaints and ordered the company to take immediate steps to mitigate noise on the southern tracks of its east Oakville Yard. Rather than obey the order, CN filed an appeal and is now waiting for a decision from the Federal Court of Appeal on whether it can proceed. If CN wins the ruling, the appeal will be heard where it was filed -- Montreal -- and not where the complaint was generated -- Oakville. The appeal could have been filed in Toronto. But by filing the appeal in Montreal, CN lawyers have raised the financial stakes for the residents in their fight against the national railway giant. While the residents won a major victory this week when town councillors agreed to cover any future legal expenses of the committee, the support extends only to courtroom expenses. It will be up to the Stop CN members to cover their expenses to and from Montreal. Bluntly put, we think it's a legal cheap-shot. Rather than relying solely on the strength of their legal arguments, CN would also appear to be relying on their deep financial pockets Poor sports, indeed. 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 The appeal could have been filed in Toronto. But by filing the appeal in Montreal, CN lawyers have raised the financial stakes for the residents in their fight against the national railway giant. / , 2 I m a g e s o f h a t e b e c o m e d e e d s o f h a t e My way of accessing news is through the newspaper and radio, not TV. As far as I'm concerned, these media provide more thought­ ful, less sensational coverage. I have especia lly en joyed CBC interviews, and the opinions voiced by the public across the nation, since it helps me to make sense of the events in my world. I often feel uplifted by the eloquence and intel­ ligence expressed by fellow citi­ zens. U nfortunately, it doesn't always mean I end up with a defi­ nite and sure opinion - that black and white way of looking at things that you can have in your teens. I still haven't come to a conclusion on Kosovo. I look at all that money spent on destruction, and I worry that NATO has started a war and will be responsible for its spread outside of Yugoslavia. I also worry that the responsibilities of citizen­ ship have disappeared - life goes on as normal for most people in this country. I came of age in New York in the 60's, during the Vietnam War. It was a time of activism; the youth pro tec ted in school and in the streets, and forced the rest of the nation to come to terms with the reality, morality, and legality of its leader's actions and society's apa­ thy. It is anathema to me to sit back and say our leaders know best - we need to be informed; we need to come to conclusions as to how we want our government to act, and we need to make these opin­ ions heard and considered. And that voice needs to be as strong or stronger than that of lobbyists, spe­ cial interest groups, and industry, so that the government's agenda isn't usurped. Our governm ent needs to be able to react quickly and decisively to events. I wouldn't want a totally populist form of government react­ ing daily to public opinion like a politician at election time; I expect their actions to conform to the law o f the land; I expect laws to be formed after giving full regard to P ud public opinion, and I expect accountability. That can only hap­ pen with a responsible citizenry. The prerogatives and responsibili­ ties of citizenship were instilled in me from an early age. I believe in the expression "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem." I wish I could say that I have lived up to that sentiment, but I can't. I have often allowed myself to be distracted by the business of my daily life - parenting and earn­ ing a living. There is one thing that I am cer­ tain of. We have allowed our chil­ dren and our society to be harmed by images of sex, violence, sexual Ontario's big union bosses are giving some of their rank and file a bad case of the blues. It's what you m ight call the 'Forced Dues Blues', an affliction which occurs when a union boss uses m oney his m em bers are forced to pay in dues, to finance a political cause some members may not support. And that's what's happening big time here in Ontario. O ntario's union bosses plan to spend millions of dollars in the upcoming provin­ cial election on an unprecedented all-out media campaign to promote their b ig-governm ent political views. Who is paying for this propa­ ganda blitz? Union members, that's who, through their forced dues. violence, and truly anti-social behaviour in entertainment. Our children have to live in a world where many of their peers are exposed to violent images daily. Yes, I believe that parents have a responsibility at home, and for the m ost part I believe in free speech. But no matter what we do individually at home, if we don't speak up against easily accessible pornography and violence on the air, in video games and movies, we are condoning it. But I certainly worry far less about newspaper journalism than I do with the sen­ sational type of reporting we get And if individual union members don't happen to sympathize with the union boss political agenda (and many of them don't), that's just too bad. Simply put, union members have no choice. That's why the Harris govern­ ment should change O n tario 's labour laws to prevent union boss­ es from using forced dues to finance their political feuds. It's time to restore choice to union members. It's tim e to end the 'Forced Dues Blues'. Gerry Nicholls Executive Director, Ontarians for Responsible Government (ORG is the provincial affiliate of the National Citizens' Coalition) from the screen-based m edia, because there is more time spent on analysis in the newspaper, and I believe a different thought process occurs in the viewer compared to the reader. All of this visual exposure to violence, some of it fiction, some of it reality, alienates society and our children from identifying with the reality of pain and suffering of real people. How on earth can any­ one out there believe that allowing young children to watch shows like WWF RAW at 4 p.m. (just one example) is not detrimental? TSN says they wouldn't air shows like WWF RAW if they weren't so popular. All o f us should be screaming at the top of our lungs to broadcasters to police themselves, and to governm ent to provide some controls. We can't prevent all availability by children of gratu­ itous violent images, but we can apply some control to w hat is aired, when it is aired, and what we w ill allow children to access. Rating systems alone aren't ade­ quate - that would require active responsible parents with a com­ monly held value system, and the ability to control their children's exposure. I say industry (media, game manufacturers, film industry, inter­ net providers and owners of search engines) and all levels of govern­ ment need to be given a message. Don't let them make money from m anipulating and harm ing our children and society. Set an exam­ ple - let your kids know your con­ cern, and get them involved in writing to your government repre­ sentatives and to industry, sign petitions, use your purchasing power, and boycott. Talk to others, read, learn, take a position, and articu late it w here it counts. Working for change is the best way to deal with feelings of alienation, frustration and ineffectiveness. Lin Mackrael R o b b e r y n o j o k e f o r v i c t i m s I take exception to the headline that appeared on the front page of the April 28th edition of the Oakville Beaver. You reported on an armed robbery that had taken place in Oakville. The headline 'Cash to go for gunman' was an insensitive choice of words to describe a very traumatic set of circumstances. Considering two employees were handcuffed and locked in a room by a masked gunman, the experience must have been terrifying. There are numerous examples in the Greater Toronto Area where armed robbery has been the precursor to murder. In the future, please do not trivialize such a crime by trying to inject a note of humour. By doing so, you give the crime an air of acceptability. Leo Campbell Time to end 'Forced Dues Blues' by Steve Nease IMGWDTDSEE W V E G O T W X gW &LPRO- P j T E c t ED . ' ^ ITS N O T / FDR HIM1 Letter of the Week Time for teaching I have reason to believe that the new curriculum put in by the government is being treated in a very cavalier manner by some teachers. It may be that teachers are so used to fobbing the children off with projects that the actual teaching of certain subjects may be daunting. For instance: I know of a child in Grade 4 whose reading level is at Grade 7 but for some reason his spelling and writing in below Grade 4. The item below was sent home for this child: BOOK REPORT 1. Prepare a book talk to promote this book. The talk will be presented to the class. It must be written out so that it can be practiced in the literature circle. 2. You should consider the following items as you pre­ pare your presentation: Write in sequence the eight o f 10 most im portant events in the story. Select either a humourous, mysterious or exciting part o f your book. Describe it. How did the author create this situation? Find an event in your story that had great effect on a character. Briefly describe it. Did it change the charac­ ter 's opinions or actions? Why? I would think that these questions are not meant to be used as the old chestnut the Book Report. They are obvi­ ously intended to teach the children reading comprehen­ sion and in view of this, each child should be reading the same book and the teacher should go through it in the classroom and endeavour to teach the children what comprehension is all about. However, it seems that in this case, the children chose his/her own book to read. Perhaps, they were expected to know all the answers to these questions by osmosis. This is not an area where it is possible to visit the library, copy out information and for­ get about it the next day. Comprehension initially has to be taught. The draw­ back is that the Hall Dennis Report under which the pre­ sent crop of teachers were schooled, the project, or do it yourself schooling prevailed and, in most cases, it has been disastrous. Furthermore, the fact that each child chose his/her own book in order to answer these questions makes me wonder how the teacher would evaluate the answers, as it would be impossible to read 25 different books.* The Harris government is endeavouring to remedy the drawbacks of the last three decades of social engi­ neering instead of actual learning experiences that make for literacy and character building. No doubt, it will be a tough job for the teachers, but I hope they will take up the challenge and find joy in the actual teaching of the students. No prejudice intended. Betty Hansford Seniors here deserve better Re: Long-term care in Oakville. On Apri l 23rd , Bur l i ngt on M PP C a m Jackson announced the development of new long-term care centres at four chronic care hospitals: St. Peter's Hospital in Hamilton, Runneymede Chronic Care Hospital in Toronto, Riverdale Hospital in Toronto and St. Joseph's Care Group in Thunder Bay. Given that Halton region is in dire need of long-term care beds, why did Mr. Jackson not also announce the immediate approval of the joint proposal of the Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital and Extendicare (Canada) Inc. to develop the 'old' Oakville Trafalgar High School site, adjacent to the hospital, into a long-term care facility? Is Oakville's need for long-term care beds less pressing than that of Hamilton, Toronto and Thunder Bay? Where is the support from the long-term care minister and our local MPP for local long-term care? Why can't our seniors get the support they need? M arcus Robertson