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0mw,. W.tcly T~m.., W~i~m~p~ Oo4mlbr 14~ 1~P4 - P Keeping busy at Kirby Church N w s froixShphed, w î h l x h p h r P R r a a ( , ne , -»imto V pqriao rafo o Leanne Reid, Bannie Reid and Cheryl Reid were a busy tria along with others at the Kirby United Churchi on Saturday serving an interesting luncheon menu ta eighty-four patrons who were taking part in the stone When you were born, there was paperwork. Someone completed a Registration of Live Birth. When you die, there is mare paperwork in the formof a Death Certificate. In between, we spend aur lives filling in forms: school registration, applications for drivers' licenses, marriage licenses and passports. Ihis paper trail continues: applications for bank accounts, credit cards, boans, mortgages and jobs. In some cases, there is more than paperwork. Many government jobs require, your fingerprints; some corporations ask for urine samples ta check for drug and/or alcohol use. Emplayment with the RCMP requires these as well as baseline IQ/psychological tests. We register pet dogs and cats, and some people register their prized bull or racing horse. What, then, is the big deal about registering a gun? Even more puzzling, why is the National Firearms Association spending millions of dollars lobbying for more permissive gun laws, when there is clearly a problem with the use of guns killing people in titis country? Last week, we marked the fi fth anniversary of the murders of 14 women at L'ecole Polytechnique in Montreal. They were killed by one gun, what is called a military assault weapon. Where, I wonder, ~the war? SIt is ragmng in the dark allies of aur streets, in aur restaurants, and in aur homes. Last year, 1,400 Canadians died from gunshot wounds in murders, suicides and accidents. 1,400 marc wcre injured. 9,000 Canadians were victims of armed robberies. Gun- rclated violence is a seriaus problcm. According ta the Canadian Coalition for Gun Contrat, there bouse tour. Kirby Unite"d Church also served a traditional turkey dinner in the late afternoon with 60 sitting down for the Christmas feast. are about 5 million gunsi n thisc country, including military assaultw weapons whicha re designeds speciflcaily toakill people-not forg guns part, sucha s hunting ort target shooting. No-one knowsw whoa wns any of these millionso of guns.S a, what'st he big deal aboutr registering a g un? The CanadianA ssociation of Chiefs of Police,t the United Churchof C anada, theC anadian Teacher's Federation,t the Canadian Auto Workers andt the Canadian Association ofE EmergencyP hysicians,aarea anong hundreds of organizatiansa across this country which thinki t's a g ood idea.N obody is asking gun ownerst aor egister their fimgerprints, leaveu urine samples,ooru ndergai intelligenceo r psychologicalt testing (while somne recent eventss suggest there i smore than scantv validity toathese concepts).S Simply, whati s being asked, ist that gun owners register theirg guns i na n ational registry whichk keeps track of who owns guns --n at unlike the kinds of registriest that keep track of w haawns dogs,c cats, and who was b omo r died int this country.W e live in a c ountry whichd doesflot valorize war, violence ort the gun. Why does a killingw eapon suddenly seem toabceas sacred caw needing protectionf from the prying pens of registryc clerks? Some argue that only theg good guys with guns will.r egister,a and that the bad guys withg uns won't, s0w hy bother?I tCs a s tarting pointi n that itr recognizes there are certain kindso of guns which have absolutely noa lace i naur s ciety -_-the militarya assault types and handguns.W hethero r not one believes gunsa are needed toaprovide food for af family,o r for the sporto f the hunto Nothing upsets people more than the ridiculous pensions members of Parliament receive. The pensions are far better than any received in the private sector. Hopefully, by Christinas, the Hon. Art Eggleton, ministet of Treasury Board, is going to announce changes to the pension that should have been made years ago. The public is fed up seeing people collect ai 40 years of age while working for govemment or as an elected official for another level of government. Clearly it is wrong when taxp ayers have to, wait until they are well on in years. The first thing I asked when I was elected and got to Ottawa was how tk, pensions got so far out of touch with reality? The answer was that historically people didn't run for parliament until they were close to retirement age. As a matter of fact initially MPs didn't get paid at all. 1 think thafs stretching it. Anyway MPs got on a train and chugged off to Ottawa, stayed at the Chateau Laurier and were The issue is that there are guns designed specifically to kill people ' . . and they do ... 1,400 Canadians last year. That's 1,400 too many! 1,400 lives our society did not take responsibility for .. except to fill out some paperwork which registered their deaths ... by guns. You can contact the Coalition for Gun Control at: P.O. Box 395, Station 'D', Toronto, M6P 3J9 (416) 604-0209. paid out-of-pocket expenses. These men were also rich, at that time only the rich got involved in politics. It wouldn't occur to them that MPs under 60 would receive a pension because few of them were below that age. Double dipping wouldn't occur to thern cither since few looked for other places to roost in government after they were deféated or reLired. But as things stand now MPs have six years to qualify for pensions. To get a 75% pension you have to be in the house 15 years. And in spite of what people Say, fewer than half evcr qualify for any pension at ail. Some MPs are crying about the proposed plan, especially those elected in 1988 and carlier, because they wouldn't be efigible to collect until they are'55. 'Meir argument is that the rules are being changed in the middle of the game. They say the pensions were part of their election plans, a little something to shelter them when they lost an election. I'm not at all sympathetic. Some MPs are alse crying over the indexing of the pension plan. Currcndy, once vou have served in the Commons pensions grow by 5 per cent a year, not bad eh, Combine that with government contributÏons and you have a mushrooming effect that isn't available to anyone else ouýside of government. it is simply preposterous. The proposal is to reduce the five per cent to 3.5 per cent. Ibere is a loi. of boo hooing (Continued page 10) Th. Northýberbnd-CL-uington Board of Ed-fion Iýadm in Learning REQUEST FOR TENDERS AND QUOTATIONS During the 1994/95 school year, the Northumberland-Clarington Board of Education will be inviting tenders and/or quotations on a number of commodities and services. A partial list is provided below: 1. School instructional, maintenance supplies, furniture and equipment. 2. Services such as plant afterations and renovations, snow and garbage removal, carpet cleaning, and landscaping, etc. Interested persons and/or firms are to advise the Manager of Central Services in writing and note the above media for tender advertising. Please send general information to Box 470, 834 D'Arcy Street, Cobourg, Ontario, K9A 4Ll. R. T. (Dick) Malowney Dire'cý0r of Education Diana Stewart Chairperson of The Board