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4 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, Wednesday, June 15,1994 Section Two by Gord Mills, M.P.P, Durham East i 1 Last Sunday, I spent the best part of the day in Toronto attending the 'D' Day parades at the Cenotaph, the March Past at Union Station, followed followed by another parade at HMCS Haida. The weather was great, and everything went off as planned. It was perhaps the last time to salute many of the veterans who gave their all for our freedom on the beaches of Normandy. Last Monday afternoon, in the Legislature I had the honour of speaking to the 50th Anniversary of 'D* Day and the invasion of France, on behalf of the government. As you can guess, I was very pleased. To those interested, my speech is available available as recorded in Hansard, at either my constituency office in Bowman- ville or in Toronto. Following Monday's Question Period, a reception was held in the Legislature Dining Room for about 200 veterans. This reception was attended attended by both the Lieutenant Governor Governor of Ontario, the Honourable Hal Jackman, and Premier Bob Rae. The occasion went off well, with several members of the Royal Canadian Legion Legion from Bowmanville and Port Perry in attendance. The Lt. Governor Governor and the Premier mingled among the guests, along with the Speaker, the Honourable David Warner. Fred West from Bowmanville Legion Branch 178, was singled out for special special mention by Speaker David Warner, Warner, and was given a standing ovation by all present. In case you don't know of Fred, he is 95 and was at Vimy. As he said, "Old Soldiers Never Never Die". During the week, the Committee on General Government was finally able to pass Bill 21. It wasn't easy, the Conservatives continued with their stonewalling, but in the end we were able to move on the Bill. Through the passage of Bill 21,1 was able to fulfill the promise I made to the folks at Wilmot Creek upon my election. Thursday in' the Legislature was high drama. All day long, meetings were held to sway those of us opposed opposed to Bill 167, to change our minds. As the count down to the vote moved closer, feelings and emotions took on a new desperate approach. From it all I am left to wonder if relationships relationships between those of us who voted NO on the government side, and those who voted Yes, can ever again be the same, such is the emotion emotion surrounding this issue. Only time will reveal if all the bitterness and hurts can ever heal. I saw the introduction of this legislation legislation as being nothing but trouble from the very beginning and said so at every opportunity in our caucus. It came forward in too much of a hurry with very little time for discussion or input. It was as if some in Cabinet' were on a mission, determined to press forward regardless of the Bill' suffering inevitable defeat. I believe the legislation should have been expanded expanded to include family partnerships. partnerships. Why shouldn't everyone in a support relationship benefit from work place dmg and health plans. And what about others employed in places where no health and dmg plans exist? Should we have a health and dmg plan that includes everyone? everyone? All of this begs the inevitable question, why should only those in a homosexual relationship benefit from special legislation that gives them rights not extended to include the broader public? The pressures placed upon me over this legislation I found to be most upsetting; To be told by some of my colleagues that by representing the views of those who sent me to Queen's Park, was a position better taken by a member of the Reform Party, was particularly offensive. As a father and grandfather, and someone someone who has attempted to live an or- derly type of life, I found it difficult to deal with people who called me a bigot and other names unsuitable to repeat in a family column, just because because in their limited opinion, my position position on this issue was wrong. Following the vote and the defeat of Bill 167,1 witnessed the most despicable despicable behaviour perhaps ever seen in the Ontario. Legislature, by any group. As I left the Legislature, I was threatened outside by a group of homosexuals, homosexuals, pushing their fists up to my face all the while shouting at the top of their voices, "shame". This along with whistle blowing, was rath- WWI Veteran States Position On Legion's Headgear Policy er unnerving. I can tell you,'this behaviour behaviour did little in the advancement of their cause, as far as I'm concerned. concerned. I have little doubt that these type of tactics will continue at Queen's Park, until the summer recess. recess. Many have asked me why I didn't take part in the debate on Bill 167. The answer is simple. I asked thé Attorney Attorney General's staff to include me on the list of speakers. I advised them that I intended to speak against the Bill. I was not given the opportunity to take any part in the debate. Simply put, if you are not on the list of speakers you don't get to say anything. anything. Them's the rules! From the worst to the best, and that was Friday morning in the gymnasium gymnasium of St. Stephen's High School. The gym was crowded with students, teachers, board members, and support support staff, to hear my announcement on behalf of the Minister of Education Education for funding for a new St. Stephen's Stephen's High School. The applause in response to the announcement was loud and long. It was great for me to be there and to hear just how much this new facility means to everyone at St. Stephen's after years of trying. The new school and site, will receive funding of $13.5 million. At the same time I announced funding of $4.975 million for a new Separate Elementary Elementary School in Bowmanville. Later in the day, I announced funding for the replacement of St. Mary's High School in Cobourg. This new school and site will receive funding of $12.8 million. While in Cobourg at the Northumberland and Clarington Board of Education Office, Office, I announced funding for a new public school on Martin Road in Bowmanville totalling over $5 million, million, and the replacement of the public public school in Newcastle funded for $5.139 million. All the news was very well received by Board members. members. The building of these new schools will contribute to the local economy through the purchase of supplies and the jobs this will create, in addition to the actual construction jobs. • Until next week - It's very easy to be open minded about new ideas just as long as they are the same as yours. Opinions and Comments Reader Says Quebec Residents Need to Know How Canada Feels During a recent trip across Canada, Canada, talking to teachers, students, business business people and citizens, I learned that very, very, few Canadians want to see our country break apart. I found also that many, many people people are dismayed and dumb-struck at the lack of vision for Canada's future among our political leaders. It is clear that people are searching for a way they could do something to get the country on a promising path to unity. In Quebec, where I have lived for almost 30 years, the media feed Quebeckers Quebeckers with a steady and destructive diet purporting to show that "the rest of Canada" is either indifferent or hostile to "the French fact". In the face of this, and the current uncertainty, I am sure that if individual individual citizens and their community associations, associations, schools, cultural groups and concerned people were to begin, now, to write spontaneously to Quebeckers Quebeckers to say how important and fer vently desired Quebec's full participation participation in Confederation is, there would be a decisive turnaround in Quebec's undecided vote. A spontaneous groundswell of concerned citizens urging full participating participating in a renewed Confederation would show our vacillating leadership leadership what the people of Canada want - to take a place in world communities communities fitting our talents, language skills, constitutional genius and commitment commitment to the moral imperative. Can we all start writing to Quebec saying this is how we feel? And continue continue to do so until the tide has turned? I urge your readers to write, fax, • advertise, but do it now. Find an address, address, a school, a small municipality, get someone in your community to help with the French translation and do it today. Ralph Hancox, Beaconsfield, Quebec. by Gord Mills, MPP Durham East Windreach Farm in Ashbum is among the one hundred and twenty four community facilities across Ontario Ontario to share in the Access Fund grants provided from the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship's Office for Disability Issues and the Office for Seniors' Issues. . The Access Fund is a program designed designed to improve accessibility for senior citizens and people with disabilities. disabilities. Windreach " Farm will receive $40,000 to apply to the costs of installing installing two unisex washrooms. "Accessibility plays a key role to seniors and persons with disabilities and their independence. This funding will improve the facilities and allow better accommodation to the people with disabilities Who go to Windreach Windreach Farm." Mr. Mills said. "We're building greater participation participation in the work force through these renovation projects," said Elaine Ziemba, Minister of Citizenship with responsibility for Seniors' and Disability Disability Issues. "At the same time, people people with disabilities and senior citizens citizens can share a greater part of community life because of the improvements improvements to these facilities." In the past five years, the Access Fund, in partnership with non-profit organizations, has provided over $20 million to create access to consumer advocacy organizations, employment counselling and vocational training centres, women's shelters, community community based mental health and addiction programs, and community facilities. Editor's Mail: (Editor's note - Apparently, 95 year-old Fred West of Bowmanville, a World War I veteran and member of Branch 178, Royal Canadian Legion, Legion, is fed up with some of the critical critical editorial comments that have been published recently concerning the no head-dress custom in Legion canteens. In the following letter, he is suggesting the critics find out more about the background of that custom before they cast slurs at the Legion). "The Legion was formed around 1926. When the By-laws and Constitution Constitution were drawn up, one of the first rules was the uncovering of the head, not for any religious reasons, or human rights (there was no such thing at that time) but for the men who died over there, not the men who went over and returned. "Let me give you a few of my own experiences, and I am only one of 600,000 or more veterans from W.W. I. "Have you ever been talking to your best friend and seen a bullet enter his forehead, and have him drop dead at your feet; or have you waited for a half dozen men to join you on patrol duty, and having to pick up the arms, legs, heads, bodies and half bodies and put them into a sand bag and bury them on the spot because they had been blown to pieces? Or, have you seen a soldier crawling on his hands and knees, not knowing where he was going because he had been hit in the face by a shrapnel shell, leaving him with no mouth, nose, eyes or ears? His face was like a ball of hamburger; hamburger; or have you seen a soldier who had a mustard gas shell burst at his feet, spraying him with mustard gas? You watch the gas eat away his clothes, and after that his body; or even seen a pair of almost new shoes - you walk over to pick them up, only to find the feet still in them? , "These are the men we honor when we bare our heads as we enter the Legion Hall. It has been pur custom custom since 1926, long before 1944 or 45, or Human Rights or any religious religious Jewish or Sikh sect rights were ever thought on. I don't agree with any statement that the Royal Canadian Canadian Legion is nothing but a bad excuse excuse for blinkered old folks to drink beer. I am ninety-five years old, and I don't drink beer now, and never have. "Maybe if you critics took the time to find out a little more about the Legion, you might change your minds. For instance, we put out a monthly magazine telling us what some of the branches do for their community throughout Canada. They raise millions of dollars for hospitals, schools, charities - you name it, they do it I could cite a lot more, but you have already made up your mind. I am not afraid to identify identify myself. FredH.West, MM&Bar, WWI. $ 11 i 1 When you strike up a conversation conversation with the Block Québécois you find they area pretty ignorant lot. Most are from rural Quebec, speak only French and generally are not that well educated. For most of them being elected to the House of Commons is their first trip outside of Quebec. Look at the great city of Montreal, they have elected the odd bloc-head but by-and-large Montreal has not supported them. Why? Because the city, the second largest in Canada, is too sophisticated to buy into the separatist separatist arguments. Last week in the House, MPs got into another "unity debate" and I rose to speak to the issue. Basically the message I gave the Bloc was that if you choose to leave the party early you don't get to take the car. In other words, it will be Canada that imposes an agreement on the separatists, from a position of strength not weakness, if Quebec leaves. Let's take a look at the money taken taken out of our back pockets as an example example of how Canada will bargain from a position of strength. We all understand what debt is and the struggle taken on to get out of it. Your government in Ottawa transfers transfers over $40 billion a year to Que bec. How much better off would Canada Canada be if it wasn't transferring that amount? Look at it another way, How worse off would the average Quebecer Quebecer be if a separate nation called Quebec Quebec had $40 billion loss to provide services and pay bills? Why our Canadian brothers and sisters living there would want a lower standard of living is absolutely beyond me. I do respect the Québécois and think the average Quebecker is much more sophisticated than Lucien Bouchard Bouchard or Jacques Parizeau give them credit for. Quebeckers decided in the 1960's they will not be slaves to philosophical philosophical or ideological positions that nurture nurture ignorance. , And the narrow form of nationalism nationalism preached to Quebeckers by the Bloc Québécois, and their cousins, the Parti Québécois, does exactly that. It locks Qucbecccrs within their borders. And as you restrict language rights and other forms of communication communication you den Quebeckers the right of mobility. You make the population servants to those who will be the elites of a new Quebec, And that will be those now pushing the separatist arguments. arguments. We all have to pay for this squab bling, whether you live in Quebec or anywhere else. We pay through higher interest rates such as mortgage rates and payments payments on the country's national debt. If you stop and figure it out, every time Bouchard utters the word separatism separatism it costs each taxpayer about $5. It's also sad when you know that preaching separatism contributes to unemployment, especially in the province of Quebec. And worse, it doesn't seem to bother Bouchard or his friends one bit. Some of you reading this may be saying all Shepherd accomplished in this column is to fuel separatism, that I'm playing into Bouchard's hands, that I lack understanding of this nation's nation's founding cultures, that there are more pressing issues to be discussed. discussed. Well, I've merely tried to point out that everyone is suffering because of this squabbling. We have to work at building this country. There will be no sweat poured destroying it, that's easy work. If anyone would like a copy of the speech I gave in the commons during the unity debate please write my office office or phone 721-7570 or 1-800- 5654105 and my staff will be pleased to send you a copy. 8 1-1