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i PAGE GTHE CANADIAN STATESMAN, DECEMBER 5,2001 Editorial Opinions FIRST CONCERN HAS BEEN OUR COMMUNITY FOR 146 YEARS, OUR Publisher - Tint Whittaker Editor-in-Chief- Joanne Burghardl Managing Editor - Jutli Bobbitt Advertising Manager - Brian G. Purdy Advertising - Laverne Morrison, Christian-Ann Goulet Office - Junia Hodge, Nancy Pleasancc-Sturman Editorial - Brad Kelly, Jennifer Stone, Jacquie Mclnnes Sije Cattabian Statesman Former Publisliers and Partners Rev. John M. Climic and W.R. Climic 185-1-1878 M.A. James 1878-1935 # Norman S.B. James 1919-1929 G. Elena James, 1929-1947 • Dr. George W. James 1919-1957 John M. James, 1957-1999 Produced by Mctroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd. Also Publishers of CLAR1NGTON THIS WEEK P.O. Box 190, 62 King St. W„ Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 3K9 TEL: 905-623-3303 FAX: 905-623-6161 HOURS: Monday to Friday 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.M. E-mail: newsroom@durhamrcgion.eom Publications Mail Registration No. 07637 EDITORIAL e mail Idlers to ncwsnwm@ diirluimresion.com Cries of pain must be taken seriously Justice, social services systems need to work together Thursday stands as a grim reminder of one of the worst days in Canadian history. On Dec. 6, 1989^a crazed gunmen gunmen walked into Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal and shot 14 women to death before turning the gun on himself. himself. The 'Montreal Massacre' sent shockwaves through the nation and caused men and women alike to look deep inside themselves in search of an answer for the horror of violence against women. We're still searching. We have our own sad Durham stories from the past two years. The Gillian Hadley slaying in June 2000 in Ajax at the hands of estranged husband Ralph was only the most graphic, sensational example of a crime all too common. In June, Andrea Schneider's body was found stuffed in the trunk of her car in an Ajax parking lot, her common- law husband James Stewart Poland charged with the slaying. slaying. Just three months earlier, Marcia Harmon and six- year-old daughter Danielle were murdered in their Pickering Pickering home by husband and father Montgomery, who later died in police custody. On Mother's Day 2000 Hemoutie Raghunauth was found dead in her Pickering home, her husband Ganeshram charged with murder. And in December December 1999, Robert Bateman admitted to gunning down his estranged wife Valerie Lucas-Bateman in the parking lot at the Oshavva Holiday Inn. Mr. Bateman recently pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and has been sentenced sentenced to 21 years in prison with no chance of parole. Such a trail of blood and death is alarming and unsettling. unsettling. How can it come with such frequency in Durham Region, one of Canada's most prosperous communities? Why do men decide to kill those they profess to love? The questions are simple, the answers complex. But solutions are available. The presence of more women's shelters is a critical first step. Women in fear of their partners must have a safe place to turn to. Governments Governments of all levels need to combine resources to make sure sufficient shelters are in place. Police must jail peace bond offenders to clearly demonstrate a zero-tôlerance policy to those who flout the Jaw. The Criminal Code needs to provide justices of the peace, judges and prosecutors with the power to severely penalize stalkers and those who refuse to obey the law. Through education and publicity we must create a society society which will not tolerate domestic abuse of any kind. ÎWW'. www.dolighan.com JMTUEQMU mv? mium M Ht «KH QWM6/ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Land expropriation decried To the editor: Re: application for approval to, expropriate land by Munici- palitÿ^çfÇlqinngtpn. I do-not-know if others take interest.' But I, for one, do not like to see any. level of government expropriate any parcel of land for any reason. If the owner of the land, who I do not know, wanted to sell the land, he or she would sell and this would be unnecessary. unnecessary. Just look at what the federal government did with the proposed proposed airport north of Pickering. How many farmers were ruined? They should have returned the land for the cost paid to the original original owners. Who owns it now, a developer? At one time people had what was called private property rights in this country. Read our Constitution. Constitution. Thanks to the Liberals in Ottawa, it's not there! Must be Pierre Trudeau's lasting legacy I've heard about. Don't say present present MPs didn't do it because they didn't correct it either. Point to be made is that I would like the local paper to print how the individual council members members vote on this issue so I know e-mail tellers lo nemmom@durtmmregioii.com who not to vote for in the next election. James Pyke Clarington Parking adds to hospital stress To the editor: If I had just one wish for Ontario Ontario Health Minister Tony Clement it is that he would have to endure the ordeal of visiting a loved one at Lakeridge Health Oshawa. This way he could see first-hand what our beleaguered health service has come to. 1 went to visit my 91-year-old mother, who had just been admitted admitted at LHO. I negotiated my way into the new public parking garage, after being issued a ticket from a machine. Following the posted instructions, I slipped this piece of paper into my purse. After my visit, I walked back to the garage, only to discover I had to go to the other end in order to validate my parking slip. Two talking machines stood near the elevator. A disembodied voice was spewing out a constant stream of instructions to an elderly elderly couple. With the assistance of the rest of us in line they finally retrieved their exit pass and walked away glassy-eyed. The other machine had an 'out of order' sign. When it was my turn to wrestle with this hunk of metal I decided to take the easy way and use my credit card for the $8 charge. The machine apologized. It could not accept credit cards today. Rummaging through my wallet I found a couple of $5 bills, but both were immediately regurgitated. Eventually I coaxed the,' temperamental contraption into accepting one of tlièm and found coins to make up the rest. Now I was the one with a glazed look as I went off in search of my vehicle, precious slip of paper in hand. As I snaked my way towards the exit I encountered a traffic jam. One hapless person had been unable to convince the striped barrier to lift up, and had to use the emergency phone to summon a real person! Eventually I was freed from this inhospitable concrete prison, though not before the final insult, when another disembodied voice thanked me oh-so-sincerely and urged me to 'Please come again!' As I drove away, I could not believe some official actually decided decided this was a humane, or even an. efficient way to run things. Surely, given the exorbitant parking parking charges, the hospital could have a person in a booth at the exit taking the money and giving change? Maybe that just makes too much sense! Jacky Bramma How to hang on to the magic Put a smile on someone else's face vvww.dolighon.com LOOKING 1U £ WITH THE STATESMAN 75 YEARS AGO Dec. 2, 1926 The electors of Durham County voted soundly against liquor sales when they voted for W.J. Bragg, the Liberal candidate with a resounding majority. Mr. Bragg campaigned campaigned in favour of the enforcement of the Ontario Temperance Temperance Act. 50 YEARS AGO Dec. 6, 1951 Bowmanville lire chief Lucius Hooper told residents to dial 3300 in case of lire. The request came following incidents incidents where precious minutes were lost as calls were directed directed lo the Oshawa central dispatch and other places instead instead of the Bowmanville lire department. The request applied applied lo Darlington residents as well as those in town. 25 YEARS AGO Dec. 1, 1976 At an all candidates meeting in Orono, debate focused on regional reform, responsible government and industrial growth. Thu incumbent, Mayor Garnet Rickard stated in the previous year, $8 million worth of industry had come lo the municipality. The mayor supported the continuation of arena and hall hoards instead of turning over the facilities facilities to the municipality to operate. I'd like lo know when exactly exactly the first snowfall of the winter winter stopped being the bright harbinger of Christmas magic and started being the dark omen of an extra half-hour commuting time for me. I hate that. I hate when I let magic fall out of my life. It can happen so easily and so quickly it's almost unconscious. unconscious. One "minute you're a kid delighting in snowball fights and building forts, the next you're scowling behind the wheel with a jumbo gherkin up your backside. But 1 guess magic is like that isn't it? It's like quicksilver. If you try to hold it in your hands it almost immediately changes shape and vanishes. It's still there, but you have to look for it. We constantly constantly have to look for it. In that respect children have it all over us adults. Having a kid around is like having a 'Water Witch' for magic. They can smell it a mile away and the closer they get to it the more twilchy they become. Children's magic is infectious too; it's also free for the asking. Not looking forward to putting the Christmas lights up again? Do it with your kids. ini' <"ii'n from the archives of The Canadian Statesman Decorating the tree becoming a Neil Crone Enter Laughing newswoni@durhamregion.com bit of a chore? Do it with your kids. I can't tell you how many times my own boys have saved me from becoming a Grinch. And not just around the holiday season either. Once, toward the end of a particularly dark and frustrating frustrating day, I walked into our upstairs upstairs bathroom. Something on the wall caught my eye. There, a good eight feet off the ground, smeared along the wallpaper was a huge glob of toothpaste. 1 went from zero lo crabby in no time fiat. I bellowed for the boys to conic here. They appeared almost almost instantly, the tone of my voice, telling them something was obviously rotten in Denmark. Denmark. Wordlessly, I pointed to the fluoride blob on the wall. They looked from me, to the wall, then lo each other. There was a short pause, then both broke out laughing hysterically. Magic. My dark spell was broken. broken. They, with their wondrous radar for the ridiculous had seen how impossibly hilarious it was that someone their size could accidentally fling that much toothpaste, that high. In that magical moment I saw it too, and laughed my head off. They had saved me once again. My magic compass was back on course. Very fortunately for all of us, children are not the only practitioners of magic in our world. We all have the power to enchant. Witness how remarkably remarkably transforming is your own smile to a stranger, how warm and wonderful a friend's hand feels on your shoulder as he greets you. Simple things yes, but so very powerful. And all within everyone's ability. I have learned one of the best ways to keep the magic from slipping out of my own life, is to try and put some into someone elsc's. A friend once told me by complimenting her on her new hairdo, 1 had made her entire day. Now if that isn't magic folks, I don't know what is. Kristine Hughes Co-op student jbobbiilfa durhamreginn. com Follow the leader Competition defines leadership; it is a training ground for challenges found in adult life. My sport sociology class recently went on a search and rescue for a bag of cookies to define our leadership roles. The prospect of being outside was horrifying horrifying enough let alone in the middle of nowhere on a cold November day. Did I really need to develop these leadership skills that my teacher had so clearly deemed "important?" Leadership is a quality I definitely do not lack in indoor- specific activities. It's where my inner leader takes over, making all of my logical decisions. These decisions have saved me from making horrible fashion mistakes and poor movie choices. For the first time I doubted my leadership skills and knew I would fail my group in any outdoor adventure adventure that we may embark on. But I decided, as any last year high school student student would, that my absence could be a potential risk to my grade. Besides, what's the worst that could happen? The wind would naturally blush my cheeks and the hike would save me a trip to the gym. So I silenced my inner leader and went out. As my group trudged along in the woods, no one listened to the directions I called from the safety of the footpath. I was beginning to realize my leadership qualities were as lost as I felt in the woods. As the wind whipped against i,merit reinforced niy theory that all humans humans should stick toian exercise routine called the 'rodent régime', which is similar similar to the way your typical family hamster hamster exercises - indoors, running on a machine (or wheel) with a water bottle nearby and the option to quit the workout workout whenever you feel like it. Instead I was in for the long haul, struggling to find the balance between the indoor and outdoor girl in me. Later that week while watching Sex and the City, I found the main character had also been unfairly whisked away to the countiy. There, she questioned how much one was willing to compromise in a relationship. Then I understood that when you're in a group situation that calls for a leader, we often find ourselves in compromising compromising situations to please another, but how far are we willing to compromise? compromise? The indoor girl in me remained prominent, as my group followed their own intuition towards success. They had found the bag of cookies, but I still feel I gained something from the experience. The search and rescue helped me to define define my leadership qualities. After all, possessing qualities of direction, direction, motivation and good-decision making are all beneficial for my next shopping spree. That is one search and rescue I could do blindfolded. Judging by my bank statement, I now have to work on compromise. Did I really need that sweater in both black and red? Kristine Hughes is a Bowmanville High School co-op student at The Canadian Statesman/Clarington This Week. ■ THE CANADIAN STATESMAN is one of the Mctroland Printing, Publishing Publishing and Distributing group of newspapers. The Statesman is a member of the Bowmanville Clarington Clarington Board of Trade, the Greater Oshawa Oshawa Chamber of Commerce, Ontario Ontario Community Newspaper Assoc., Canadian Community Newspaper Assoc., Canadian Circulations Audit Board and the Ontario Press Council. The publisher reserves the right to classify or refuse any advertisement. Credit for advertisement limited to space price error occupies. Editorial and Advertising content of the Canadian Canadian Statesman is copyrighted. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. prohibited. The Canadian Statesman welcomes- letters to the editor. All letters should be typed or neatly hand-written, 150 words, Each letter must include the name, mailing address and daytime telephone number of the writer. The editor reserves the right to edit copy for style, length and content. We regret regret that due to the volume of letters, not all will be printed. Fax letters to 623-616lor emailed to ncwsroom@durhamrcgion.com