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"Pace 4 The Canadian Statesman. Bowmanvillc. September 10. 1997 ®lie Catmbtatt iJatcsiuau m Former Publishers and Partners Rev. John M. Climie and YV. R. Climie 1854 -1878 M. A. James, 1878 -1935 • Norman S. B. James, 1919 - 1929 G. Elena James, 1929 - 1947 • Dr. George W. James, 1919 - 1957 Produced weekly by James Publishing Company Limited P.O. Box 190, 62 King St. YV., Bowmanvillc, Ontario L1C 3K9 905-623-3303 Internet - statesman@ocna.org Fax 905-623-6161 HOURS: Monday to Friday 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. For 143 Years, Our First Concern Has Been Our Community Publisher - John M. James Assoc. Publisher - Rick James Plant Manager - Rick Patterson Ad. Manager - Brian G. Purdy Editor - Peter Parrott Production Supervisor - Ralph Rozema, Suzanne Bennett, Tim Bowers, Kevin Britton, Sharon Cole, Laurens Kaldevvay, Barb Patterson, Jim Snoek, Vance Sutherland, Jim Tuuramo Advertising Editorial Laverne Morrison, Wanda Partrick Brad Kelly, Lorraine Manfredo, Laura J. Richards Office Supervisor - Angela Ltischer, Junia Hodge, Grace McGregor, Nancy Pleasance-Sturman, Marilyn Rutherford New Tricks "Who says you can't teach an old newspaper new tricks?" That's what our advertisement in last week's Clarington/Courlice Independent said. And, this week, you're seeing some of the results. You'll find in this paper something old and something new. First, let's take a look at what's new, beginning with the narrower pages. Before you reach for your measuring measuring tape, we'll tell you that the new pages arc 25 inches wide. The height is unchanged. In other words, The Statesman is the same size as most of today's broadsheet papers such as the Toronto Star. One reason for the change is the new electronic technology technology we have been using for the past few years. Now we arc able to print complete, full-sized pages from our laser printers. And that means no more piecing pages together, no more blowing up small pages into large ones. It has, however, meant a slight trimming of the total size. The result should be a clearer reproduction of photos and advertisements. The second reason for the narrower format is the comments we've received from recent readership surveys surveys which indicate folks actually prefer smaller and more compact pages. We thought of going to a tabloid- sized page (the same size as the ones in the Toronto Sun) but decided against it because of our 143-year-old tradition tradition as a broadsheet-sized paper. A tab-sized paper just wouldn't be The Statesman. You'll notice that both our first and second sections are the same size (something our readers have been suggesting suggesting all along) and our weekend paper, The Independent, will follow the same format of being a narrow narrow broadsheet paper. Coming soon is a month-long subscription drive aimed at introducing new readers to The Canadian Statesman and offering our longtime friends an opportunity opportunity to renew their subscriptions and possibly win one of our fabulous prizes. What else is new? Well, the remaining changes are part of a fine-tuning effort to keep your community newspaper as interesting, informative and readable as we can make it. As far as we're concerned, this process begins every Wednesday morning when we look ahead to what we'll be printing in our next paper. Most of the changes are fairly subtle and involve layout and graphics. But, you will notice a greater emphasis on feature articles. Again, it's something something our readers have suggested. And now for what's old. We arc happy to tell our readers certain traditions connected with this community newspaper aren't going to change. Regardless of the advances in computers, laser printers, digital photography and the many other inventions that arise almost on an hourly basis, we are sticking with tradition. ".f, \ And that means, to pul. it concisely, that we'will remain a paper which is geared to the interests of the community which The Statesman has been a part of since 1854. Our content is driven by our readership and by its trials, tribulations, hopes, dreams, successes and failures. The early publishers of The Statesman, including M.A. James and George James were pioneers in encouraging encouraging the readers to also be contributors to the news of their community. Even in those days, it was easy for high-fallutin editors and journalists to fall into the trap of using their paper as a sounding-board for their own interests interests and views. We have tried to include in our newspaper newspaper the full range of concerns in this community. Nobody can succeed perfectly in this attempt. But, we try. That is why we are interested in covering not only a lax revolt at the Town Hall, but also the giant sunflower grown by a couple of kids during their summer holiday. That is why we cover, not only the exploits of our town's high performance athletes, but also the hockey teams whose players can barely see above the boards. That is why we rely on correspondence from our smaller villages and hamlets and write-ups from schools, service clubs, sports teams, community service groups, arts organizations, and the many other sources. We don't like to make high-sounding pronouncements pronouncements about this paper's overall mission in life. Newspapers are usually too busy with processing and assembling other folks' messages and meeting deadlines to worry about such lofty matters. When asked by one earnest young journalism grad what our newspaper's mission statement was, Statesman Publisher John James once replied: "Our philosophy is to get the paper printed on time every Wednesday." This, of course, is our immediate goal. But, along the way, we hope to fine-tune our publications to make them the best possible voice for news and advertising. The process is an ongoing one. And, the best news is that you can be a part of it by being a reader, a subscriber, subscriber, and a contributor. So, as the guy in the old movie said, "you ain't seen nothing yet!" Who says you can't teach an old newspaper new tricks? Not us. Letter to the Editor Environmental Compromise Not Acceptable in Waste Deal In a recent local newspaper story entitled Clarington wants land for waste transfer station, a written staff report to council reads "there seems to be no reason to proceed with the environmental clean-up at this time" if the site were to be used as a waste transfer station (land currently owned by Ministry of Transportation who stored salt and fuel). The report then recommends the town present a conditional conditional offer of purchase in the amount of $100,000, based on the environmental clean-up not being carried out by Ontario Reality. (Ontario Realty Corp. has valued the properly properly at $135,000 with $30,000 worth of environmental clean-up). A clause would be written into the agreement releasing the province from all future liability that may result from the lack of environmental clean-up! 'l'lie real disappointment is that Clarington Council still voted to go ahead in its bid for a local waste transfer station station while compromising an environmental clean-up: laying down your environmental guard does not set a good example example in the community. Paul /(essor, Bowmanvillc The People's Princess ■■ An English Rose pn by Laura J. Richards Staff Writer IP! V : "7 Where were you when you found out Princess Diana was dead? I was in a restaurant in Millbrook with friends Sunday afternoon. A woman had a copy of a newspaper that blared "Di Dead." It was interesting to hear 'God Save the Queen' used as exit music from CTV's Monday morning show. I think, for those of us who are royal-watchers because of our Loyalist and' British lineage,' there is deep sadness along with shock. I find it especially hard to accept her death, since the people who may have helped cause the crash arc within the very profession I work in. I am saddened to think that the photographers photographers who were involved in the ear chase do not understand (and probably never will) the word 'privacy.' 'privacy.' Not all of us royal- watchers wanted to see the photographs they wanted to take. Not all of us arc so greedy that we want to live someone's life vicariously.' And the photos now showing up will not bring her back. Diana was 36 when she died on Sunday morning. She was a' mother who loved her two sons deeply and cared about many other people and causes. She helped make the world understand that victims of AIDS are people first. She supported causes most royals turned away from because they were political in nature. Causes like the banning of land mines. Diana,, the Princess of YVales, will be missed. i , < v It did not sink in...not until Gillian blurted out "What?" A man deeper inside the restaurant nodded his head and said: "Paris. This morning." Diana, the Princess of Wales, lived the fairy tale princess story. And then she lived the story past the fairy talc marriage. We all got to see that "happily ever after" does not happen. happen. Many people, including me, watched Diana blossom blossom from a shy young woman through her awakening awakening to become a human dynamo. Dear Rick: When you pay users' fees for drugs, say "thanks, Mike". When your property taxes go sky high say "thanks, Mike". When your local hospital closes say "thanks, Mike". ' When you sit in an emergency room for hours say "thanks, Mike". When you see people trying to live on $520 a month say "(hanks, Mike". When you have no say about your child's education, say "thanks, Mike". When you lose your rights to negotiate negotiate a work contract say "thanks, Mike". When you see students' tuition fees go up by 30% say "thanks, Mike". When you see democracy in Ontario gone say "thanks, Mike". But, when it comes election time, you can say "Thanks, Mr. Harris, thanks Mr. O'Toole, but no thanks." Yours truly, Ernie Roberts Workfare Unworkable Reader Says To the Editor: Workfare isn't working (August 27th editorial) and it has never worked in any jurisdiction it has been tried in! Studies from all over the world including including New Zealand, numerous numerous American States and even a few Canadian provinces undoubtedly prove workfare docs not work for a number of reasons. reasons. The complexity of social services' coverage in this province is enormous. enormous. For example, an increase in welfare caseloads caseloads can be symptomatic of other socio-economic factors such as unemployment. unemployment. Research proves high unemployment negativity negativity impacts workfare placements. Common sense dictates that the unemployed would fill these job vacancies! Yet, the Tories' dismantling of public services, throwing thousands out of work (up to 50,000 people in the healthcare sector alone) clearly cripples their own initiative! Common Sense? Workfare is costly. At least double the cost of passive welfare. Workfare requires increased administration, administration, policing, and employment supports. The Tories' decision to download download the costs of social services to the municipalities municipalities will have an adverse effect on the taxpayers in Durham. Is workfare worth it? The lack of workfare placements in Durham Region is not surprising considering most community community agency representatives representatives (and the majority of our churches) find work- fare to be morally repugnant repugnant and punitive. Local unions have strongly expressed concern over workfare placements in downsized unionized workplaces. Workfare is a fiscally irresponsible, ideologically ideologically driven initiative forced upon the municipalities and the solution is to abandon it completely. C. Twomey Osliawa Thoughts Unlimited by Rick James Heads Up, Workplace Surfers The more I hear about the Internet, the less I like it. Whether it's concerns about security, the tortoise-like speed of the World Wide Web, or the issue of explicit pornography available available to anyone at the click of a mouse, it's becoming more evident to me that the way we communicated before the Internet wasn't wasn't that bad. This week, an unidentified company released a report showing the abuse of the Internet by its employees. Because of the embarrassing nature of the report, the firm preferred to remain anonymous. During a proposal to add another high speed industrial T1 communications line, the president of the company asked how the Internet was being utilized by his firm before he could justify buying another line. ATI line costs between $1,200 and $3,000 a month. The firm did not have the skills to monitor monitor the Internet traffic so it hired an outside firm to track which employees were surfing which sites. The results were frightening. It turns out that virtually of the Web traffic traffic involved sites not related to the company's company's operation. Of the top 80 Web sites listed, listed, only numbers eight and nine had something something to do with company business. The rest had no apparent value to the company, and the top seven were all sex and spoils pages, To compound the problem, the company's company's existing high speed line was being bogged down by employees downloading bandwidth clogging pornographic photos. Some of the more popular sex sites were receiving more than 2,000 visits a month. The president of the company was furious. furious. Instead of approving a second high speed line, he purchased an Internet moni toring system to keep track of wayward employees. The system would indicate who was using the system, where they surfed, and for how long. Surprisingly, lie did not fire any of the guilty surfers and look the high road of explaining the new monitoring system to the entire staff before its implementation. His strategy included a demonstration of the costs involved in lost time and additional additional equipment needed to meet the unnecessary unnecessary extra demand. Within three months, the unauthorized activity had dropped to zero. Not only did the company not have to purchase a second line, it was able to reduce its existing line charges by 30 per cent. As for the legality of spying on internet- ablcd employees, apparently the company is within its rights because it owns the data that stream through the corporate computer lines. To use it for anything other than business business purposes is equivalent to theft. It's no different than using the company's photocopier photocopier for personal reasons. The moral of the Story for employees with access to the Internet...be careful where you click. Somebody may be watching. watching. Why, Gordie, Why? It's unfortunate that someone isn't watching out for Gordie I-Iowc. Either he is desperate to keep his records intact or lie must not have a manager who knows what's best for one of the best hockey hockey players of all time. Why else would Gordie I-Iowc want to embarrass himself by lacing up the skates again for one game? He talked about doing it last year so he could make the claim of playing professional professional hockey in six decades. In 1996, the Syracuse Crunch was interested in having Howe wear their jersey for one game, but backed away when the publicity became so critical. This year, the Detroit Vipers of the International Hockey League arc willing to take the risk and have Howe take one shift. As one sporlswriler put it, "it will tarnish tarnish the image of one of hockey's greats forever. Howe will lake the face-off for a minor-league team, watch his "teammates" skate around him, watch his "opponents" keep their distance, and then head for the bench. But in the process, memories will be cheapened, nostalgia will be made tawdry." Don't do it Gordie. It would be the end of a truly remarkable career. Famous Racers While on the subject of famous sporting personalities, British sports car driver David Hobbs was in Bowmanvillc recently to cover events for television at Mosporl and visit his old friend, Ron Mutton. For those with long Bowmanvillc roots and really good memories, you may recall that Ron Mutton's service stations on King Street East and Scugog Street were used by top racing teams to service their cars during Grand Prix events at Mosporl. I can remember peeking through the windows of the garage doors to sec famous drivers like Al and Bobby Unscr, Bruce McLaren, John Surtees, Sterling Moss, and Jackie Stewart working with their mechanics. One of the most famous drivers to frequent frequent Ron's garage was the famous McLaren driver, Denis Huline. He was a good friend of Ron's and slopped to see him whenever he was in the area. Unfortunately, he died recently, while sitting sitting in the cockpit of a vintage race car waiting for the start of a race.