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PAGE 6THE CANADIAN STATESMAN, OCTOBER 30,2002 www.durhamreglon.com Tim Whittaker Publisher Joanne Burghardt Editor-in-Chief Chris Bovie Managing Editor Judi Bobbitt Regional Editor Fred Eismont Director of Advertising Eddie Kolodziejcak Classified Advertising Manager Kirk Bailey Distribution Manager Lillian Hook Office Manager Barb Harrison Composing Manager Clarington's Award-Winning Newspaper Since 1854 Efje Canadian Statesman Phone 905-579-4400 Classifieds 905-576-9335 Distribution 905-579-4407 General Fax 905-579-2238 Newsroom Fax 905-579-1809 E-Mail newsroom@durhamregion.com 865 Farewell St., Oshawa ON L1H 7L5 Publications Mail Registration No. 07637 Oct. 30, 2002 Metroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd. infodurhamregion.com EDITORIAL c-muil Idlers to newsroom®<lurliamre);i(m.com Take time to keep children safe this Halloween night T he really scary aspect of Halloween isn't the little ghouls and goblins goblins who knock on your door or even the odd prankster who gets a kick out of smashing a jack-o-lantern or soaping a window. No, the frightful aspect of the most harrowing night of the year, is the senseless tragedy that takes place on our roads and streets. Four times as many children between between the ages of five and 14 are killed by cars on that one night of the year versus any other night. The Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit offers that startling piece of road carnage information to parents everywhere as a warning to take Halloween trick-or-treat safety very seriously. seriously. Certainly, childish excitement excitement is at a peak on Oct. 31 as youngsters race from home to home. It's up to parents to instil instil safety tips into their children. children. Never has it been so important important to look both ways before before crossing in addition to not running out from behind parked cars. Of course, parents; must : take the lead by accompany- u ing children along Halloween routes. Keep an eye on younger children and don't let them cross streets unattended. Make sure older children who may be trick-or-treating with out Mom or Dad's attendance, understand the importance of watching for traffic. If driving on Halloween night, drive extra slow and take' extreme caution. On no other evening of the year are. you as likely to encounter a child sprinting out in front of traffic on a residential street, eager to join friends or make it first to the next haunted house. Every block should be treated as a school zone and particular care must be taken to make sure you can stop instantly instantly if need be. When turning turning be sure you look both ways for pedestrians, and watch it when backing out of, or entering, your own driveway. driveway. The chance of a youngster youngster being there is far higher than normal. While traffic worries are No. 1 on the Halloween safety safety parade there are several other tips parades of younger children should keep in mind: • Try to have some type of reflective or bright material on a costume so motorists can see your child; • Children should only approach approach well-lit homes with the front lights on and never go inside a,home;. • Of, course; n check ■ your child's Halloween haul and toss out anything unwrapped, torn or that has any holes in the wrapper. Have a safe and happy Halloween. Halloween. OPINION e-mail letters to ncwsroom@(lurliam rcyion.com Mind your manners, please and thank you P erhaps you can relate to this. A day is split between the work you get paid for and the work you don't, which funs about four hours short of the time actually needed to do it all. I was having one of those days a few weeks ago, rushing rushing to get through one part of my life because the other - in the form of a nine-year-old beckoning me home - was calling. As 1 stashed my 'to do' list into my purse, a co-worker came into the newsroom newsroom to say a friend was wondering if we could do a story on how people seemed to have forgotten the words 'please' and Thank you.' The friend, a storekeeper, storekeeper, had been on the short end of bad manners so many times in recent memory it was affecting affecting her morale on the job. Another co-worker joined in and soon stories were being bantered hack and forth, tales from the front of rudeness and inconsideration on the road and in the mall. I vowed to ilo a column about the malaise of our modern society and our inability to put all those lessons learned in kindergarten to use. As I rushed through traffic traffic toward home, perhaps cutting off a fellow motorist or two in my haste, it occurred occurred to me I couldn't really really think of any stories of my own to relate. If people were rude to me in day-to-day in- Jacquie Mclnnes Staff Writer teraction, I had been too busy to take notice. Then it occurred to me. Am I one of the people they were talking about? As a child I had been brought up on the Mary Tyler Moore code of manners. manners. In my father's house the word 'ya' was unutterable unutterable as only a full 'yes' was considered respectful. Every request was proceeded proceeded by a 'please' or you repeated repeated it until you got it right. Most of us grew up this way. But maybe something something has happened on the way to two kids, double income. income. Life in Canada is busy, far busier than for our European counterparts. counterparts. In many European European countries everything shuts down for two hours in the middle of the day for an extended lunch. No kidding. For some, seven weeks of holiday each year is standard fare. North Americans, by contrast, live life in the fast lane. Few of us would intentionally intentionally he rude but how often do we forgo simple pleasantries not only to shopkeepers and strangers hut to our families as well? So please, for the sake of maintaining our global reputation reputation as polite Canadians, slow down and extend some kindness. And to the lady who took the time to give us this reminder, a sincere thank you. SDH&IttL www.dolighan.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Hydro e-mail tellurs to ncw.sroom@durIiimircgion.( hydro bills we can all see the results of privatization. They have increased increased by up to 40 per cent! Tory Premier Ernie Eves insists insists we have to wait a year to see lower rates, just like the Enron people said in California. California. How much more will we have been forced to pay out within that year? Is the worst over? Not yet apparently, the regulator warns of further increases increases and even Premier Eves, John O'Toole's boss concedes during the whole course of the " there - may - be-brownouts* and "privatize' hydro"'dëbate.'- ! -' id e i t^ttîtfèko.iïiàP^"-' 6 -' 'W 51 -otiOi Durham's Tory MPP John '* -The' "aïticlë n bÿ 'staff ! writer O'Toole held several town Jacquie Mclnnes'('Hydro bill bill nightmare all Tories'fault To the editor As Durham residents see their hydro bills soar our local Tory MPP has been unusually quiet. Hardly unexpected in the circumstances. circumstances. The Tories have consistently consistently mislead the public meetings before the summer to inform us of the need to privatize privatize Hydro. It would be better and cheaper for the consumer we were told. Jim Wilson, Tory energy minister, promised rates would go down. Now, with the arrival of of confusion', Oct. 13, 2002) highlights the confusing aspects aspects of new charges appearing on our bills, especially the debt retirement charge. One of the reasons the Tories gave for privatization privatization was that Hydro was accruing too much debt. Well, we are still paying down that debt, except that now profits are going into corporate pockets pockets instead of reducing that debt. Now we have reports that the Independent Market Operator Operator is investigating failed electricity electricity deals during this summer which meant the price to consumers consumers soared. Not only that but the IMO is investigating whether some deals were failed deliberately so as to manipulate the price. This stinks of Enron. Where once we had eco- ; nomioaily'-stable and reliable electricity generation and supply supply now we have huge price fluctuations, confusion and corporate corporate greed. This is the price the electorate pay for having the Tories in government with their corporate millionaire buddies. buddies. Harry McAlister Bowmanville OPINION CLICK AND SA^ Today's question: Do you think Ontario postsecondary postsecondary academic institutions will have enough staff and resources to accept substantially more students in this so-called double-cohort year? □ Yes □ No Cast your vote online at infodurhamragiijrt.com Last week's question: Would you be willing to give up some services to keep regional taxes to a minimum? □ Yes 47.8% □ No 52.2% Votes cast: 69 HAVE YOUR SAY Question Are you getting a flu shot this year? Sandy Brittain "Yes, I plan to get a flu shot this year and for my children. We haven't had a pandemic pandemic for more than 100 years. If we did have a pandemic...I hope (the flu shot) has a positive effect for me and my children." Sonya Sooley "No. I got a flu shot two years ago and spent the whole winter with the flu;" Connie Mclnnes "I'm considering it. I've had the flu already once." e-mail letters to newsroom @(lurli:mireyi(m.com Freedom of Information tripping up Tories O ntario's Progressive Con- seivativc government has a lot of bodies it would like to keep buried, but they keep getting dug up and embarrassing it. The Tories have been hurt repeatedly repeatedly by a freedom of information information law that enables inquisitive inquisitive outsiders to apply and obtain information about many government actions. The law was introduced introduced ironically and much against their own wishes by the Tories nearly two decades ago and not used much in its early years, hut suddenly suddenly has become a secret weapon for opposition parties and news media. Among many examples, examples, the Liberals found through requests under FOI that Cam Jackson, then a minister, spent taxpayers' money so lavishly on hotels and fine dining dining Premier Ernie Eves felt compelled compelled to lire him. Another Liberal request through FOI showed a second minister, Chris Stoekwell, and his staff ran up bar hills that were not permitted and a discomlitled Mr. Eves had to order them to repay taxpayers. A newspaper found through FOI a third minister, John Baird, and his staff spent loo liberally in restaurants and Premier Eves rebuked rebuked them. Yet another request through FOI discovered Rob Sampson, a fourth Tory minister who had been fairly tight in spending taxpayers' taxpayers' money on the needy, was more generous in dining at the best hotels, Requests through FOI also have raised suspicion Premier Eves may have had his staff put some of his restaurant bills on their tabs so he would look more frugal, but the investigation into that is still going on. A newspaper's request through FOI showed before Mike Harris, Mr. Evcs's predecessor as premier, stepped down earlier this year, senior civil servants exchanged exchanged memos when the Province was approving approving a controversial, mul ti-million-dol lar waterfront development sought by a close friend, Peter Minogue. The memos noted factors arc not supposed to be taken into account, such as that Mr. Minogue was "a personal friend of the premier and had been raising his application" at political political levels. Another revelation through FOI was that senior officials at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, Ontario, who judge what products their stores should sell, had accepted accepted free trips from suppliers which, while saving taxpayers' money, might be construed as influencing influencing their assessments. A report the Tories commissioned commissioned and kept secret for a year, finally obtained through FOI, predicted electricity prices would rise generally after they opened the market to competition and soar dramatically during periods of peak demand. Both are proving proving accurate so far and the Tories look as if they ignored good advice. advice. A request through FOI has shown pharmaceutical drugs which may endanger people have been found in large quantities in rivers and lakes near sewage plants, one more worry for a government government that has to be concerned particularly after seven people died from drinking contaminated water at Walkerton. The Tories went to court trying trying to keep secret studies they made on tire impact if Quebec separated and argued making them public would threaten national national unity and Ontario's economy. economy. But the information has been released under FOI and the nation nation and province arc still holding together as before. The Tories also have been hurt because the environmental commissioner commissioner they appointed,' Gordon Gordon Miller, reported lie has had to go through FOI to obtain information information because the environment ministry was unhelpful. The Tories, wisely for themselves themselves as it turned out, had ignored ignored calls for FOI legislation since the early 1970s, when the opposition parties began demanding demanding it, until premier William Davis was forced to set up a royal commission into it after he lost his majority in 1975. Even after that commission recommended FOI, the Tories dragged their heels, saying they were concerned individual privacy privacy might he violated and, besides, ministers could he relied on to provide the public with the information information it needed. The Tories eventually abandoned abandoned their rearguard action in 1984 and introduced an FOI law that was more restrictive in handing handing out information than now, hut it is something they must wish they could have kept on a hack shell' forever. Ellen Webb tEljc Cmmbiim Statesman is one of the Metroland Printing, Publishing and Distributing group of newspapers. The Statesman is a member of the Bowmanville Clarington Board of Trade, the Greater 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 advertisement limited to space price error occupies. Editorial and Advertising content of the Canadian Statesman is copyrighted. copyrighted. Unauthorized reproduction reproduction is prohibited. À°c ,m GHEEl <@SA HOC Eric Dowd Queen's Park