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2 - Orono Weekly Times Subscriptions $38.09 + $1.91 GST = $40.00 per year. No Refunds. Publishing 48 issues annually at the office of publication. "We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs." Wednesday, January 13, 2010 ORONO WEEKLY TIMES - 5310 Main St., P.O. Box 209, Orono, ON L0B 1M0 E-mail: oronotimes@rogers.com or Phone/Fax: 905-983-5301 Publisher/Editor Margaret Zwart Production and Display Advertising - Donna Wood Classified Advertising - Sue Weigand The Orono Weekly Times welcomes letters to the editor on subjects of interest to our readers. Opinions expressed to the editor and articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Orono Weekly times. Letters must be signed and contain the address and phone number of the writer. Any letter considered unsuitable will not be acknowledged or returned. We reserve the right to edit for length, libel and slander. If your retail or classified ad appears for the first time, please check carefully. Notice of an error must be given before the next issue goes to print. The Orono Weekly Times will not be responsible for the loss or damage of such items. Increased security measures a blow to our personal liberty By Gavin MacFadyen, Legal Columnist, Troy Media `There's no place like home,' or so the saying goes. For those concerned about our civil liberties, that may just end up being where you have to stay. Those living in Western democracies have felt a certain confidence in being cloaked in an inviolable zone of personal security, privacy and autonomy that could not be breached absent compelling state reasons. What made that zone of privacy meaningful was that it was largely portable. It traveled with you like an invisible skin. The reality of life post-9/11 is that, in the name of collective security, we have been forced to, and largely willingly abdicated, personal privacy. The reasonableness of this in the face of terrorist threats is not really the question because, like a kaleidoscope, that interpretation depends on who is holding it up to the light. Now, a failed Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound plane has once again allowed for airports and border crossings to become a kind of twilight zone of totalitarianism. Fundamental rights to be secure in your person; to not be subject to unreasonable searches or capricious detentions absent cause, seem to have vanished quicker than your unattended luggage. A teenager in either the US or Canada of 2010 would be forgiven for believing that neither country ever faced threats of terror or acts of collective violence prior to that September morning in 2001. Yet, Canada suffered through its own acts of insurrection during the FLQ crisis of October, 1970. Then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau infamously declared "Just watch me," when asked how far he would go to restore and assure order. True to his word, the War Measures Act was implemented only days later. However, de facto martial law was temporary and not established in perpetuity. Our lives were allowed to return to normalcy. In 1985, Air India Flight 182 was destroyed in flight off the coast of Ireland; an hour earlier, a bomb aboard a CP flight exploded in the luggage compartment while the plane was on the tarmac in Tokyo. In the wake of these tragedies, Canada did not restructure its society in a misguided attempt to ensure that such an action never happened again. Perhaps it is a uniquely Canadian orientation to realize that `peace, order and good government' do not come without risk nor does free mean being forever safe and secure. The 1990's saw two terrorist attacks on American soil ­ the WTC bombing of 1993 and the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995. Both involved the use of a rented Ryder truck. So, naturally, to keep us all safe, all those renting vehicles immediately became subject to intense questioning, behavioral analysis, pat downs and strip searches. Right? Wrong. The absurdity of that response would be apparent on its face. Why then have we become so willing to surrender without a fight our basic liberties and human dignity at an airport or border crossing? Technology has made violations so unobtrusive that we forget how we would react were there not that barrier between those of us being watched and those doing the watching. Most major airports will be equipped with full body scanners in the very near future which allows for the indignity of what amounts to a strip search without all the fuss and bother of removing clothing. It has long been the squawk of those who care little for personal liberty that if one "has nothing to hide then one has nothing to fear." These are the same people for whom a constitution is nothing more than a placemat: nice to bring out at parties (don't spill anything on it!) but really having no function other than decorative to impress the Soviets if they ever come to dinner again. The more frightening fact is that a right, once abrogated or surrendered, is never fully realized again. The wonder is not that it has happened ­ that's what governments do. The wonder is that it is happening with, to paraphrase T.S. Eliot, not a bang but with nary a whimper of real protest. It is the height of irony that perhaps the shining moment in USCanada relations occurred when fake passports were issued to Americans who had taken refuge in the Canadian Embassy in Tehran. These passports allowed the threatened Americans to leave the Embassy and travel by air to safety. Given the paranoia now present, it would be darkly comical to see if such a flight to freedom would be viewed today as a triumph or an unforgivable lapse in security. "Come fly with me," used to be a friendly invitation to adventure and fellowship. These days, it is sounding more and more like a threat. Letters to the Editor Stephen Harper is Prorogation: accountable to Parliament perverting ernment bills that now all die Dear Editor, democracy on the table. To make the I am writing to protest the confusion of the Prime Minister that his office is our government. In fact, it remains our Parliament. It was indecent of him to prorogue it with so much important business still in hand. Not least the investigations of the parliament on whether his officials misled the House in denying knowledge of torture of detainees in Afghanistan, or the 36 govrequest to our head of state by telephone rather than in person, and choosing to make the announcement the day five Canadians were killed in Afghanistan is all further insult to the electorate. The Prime Minister is accountable to the Parliament, not the other way around. Colyn Crawley Bowmanville An Open Letter to Bev Oda, our MP. Dear Bev: We urge you and your cabinet colleagues to resign, enmasse, before Mr. Harper succeeds in perverting Canadian Democracy. What on earth is he thinking? Canada's great strengths are built on the ideas of fairness, the ability to engage in open discussion, a willingness to see the point of view of the "other," and a time-honoured respect for due process. His childish need to win at all costs endangers our valuable heritage. The uniqueness of Canada deserves better leadership than he is capable of. Yours truly, Pat Irwin Lycett and William Kay Lycett, Orono Clarington - abandoned Re: Council Reviews Progress, January 6, 2010 Dear Editor, I noted near the bottom of the story on Clarington Council's report card that the item to "Explore the cost, risk and benefits to our community regarding energy from waste technology" was marked "Completed". Completed? I would suggest instead "Abandoned." When Regional Council approved the environmental assessment study last June, Clarington Council, led by Mayor Abernethy, seemed to believe the assessment was complete, and dismissed with thanks Clarington's expert peer reviewers. In fact, this was the beginning of a new COUNCIL see page 3