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a wy" 8 -- Scugog Citizen - Tuesday, January 17, 1995 1 published by : Scugog Ci THE SCUGOG CITIZEN an independently owned and operated weekly community newspaper, is distributed, free of charge, to over 13,500 homes and businesses in and around Scugog Township. Subscriptions sold outsidz Scugog Te 54 WATER ST. PORT PERRY, ONT, L9L1J2 . Phone : (905) 985-6397 Fax : (905) 985-1410 OGNA Member CCNA Mémber 15) [51] (#CNA Be CCNA Verified C. led CCNA CowTaouLeD 1 ichi co-publishers : John B. McClelland, Valerie Ellis hizen Publishing Ltd. editor : John B. McClelland y advertising manager : Valerie Ellis senior advertising sales rep : Chris Hudson accounting : Sibylle Warren reception : Janet Rankin production : Tanya Mappin . feature writer : Heather McCrae "Prod Canadians, proud to call Scugog Township home." EDITORIAL Good for you, Alex Good for Alex Shepherd. The MP for the riding of Durham had the guts to stand up in the House of Commons last week and register a "nay" vote to the Liberal Party's foolish Bill C-68, the piece of legislation that will require mandatory registration of all firearms in Canada. Shepherd was joined by eight'other Liberal MPs in bucking the Party on this issue. Prime Minister Jean Chretien was not a happy camper and those MPs certainly will face some kind of sanctions by the Party. A couple of days after the vote, there were press reports that Chretien, in a closed-door session, reminded those MPs that he is the one who signs nomination papers. The implication, of course is that h€ and the Party may not give these MPs the chance to seek the Liberal nomination in their ridings for the next federal election. If that ever came to pass, it would make the Liberals and Chretien a laughing stock. Bill C-68 will require more than three million law abidi HAVE YOUR SAY: "COUNCIL SUPPORTS THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PLANS FOR A "FAMILY ORIENTED FESTIVAL DAYS BY REJECTING REQUESTS |.FOR LICENCED PATIOS ON QUEEN STREET. T WONT SEEM LIKE FESTIVAL DAYS (F \ CANT HURL ON QUEEN STREET TS MY RIGHT To GET DRUNK AND BEAT THE CRAP GOOD | Canadians to register some seven million guns by the year 2003. y In a statement issued right after the vote, Shepherd said "the registry system is too costly and has only marginal usefulness." Precisely. That's exactly-why Shepherd, who does not own a firearm, decided to vote against his party. - "It's exactly why firearm owners from one end of the country to the other are so vociferous in their opposition. And it's exactly why a lot of Canadians who don't own firearms. are siding with gun owners on this issue. The government says the fire arm registry will cost only about $85 million to set up. Some say the cost could be four or five times that amount. In any event, this registry will create a huge bureaucracy up there in Ottawa. But the crux of Bill C-68 is that requiring law abiding citizens to register their hunting and target rifles won't do what everyone wants: reduce violent crime in the streets and violent crimes where firearms are used. | "Bill C-68 creates more government bureaucracy but fails to make our streets any safer," Shepherd said. We would venture to say that a vast majority of law abiding gun owners in this country would gladly register their weapons and pay the fees if it would cut down on criminals using firearms to commit their crimes.' Is the neighbourhood pimp/drug pusher/mugger/ variety store robber going to register his (her) firearm? Give us a break. Bill C-68 calls for mandatory four year prison terms for using a firearm in a serious crime. It calls for measures to deal with smuggling weapons into the country. That's all well and good, but the argument remains that the penalties are not stiff enough to serve as-a meaningful deterrent. Bill C-68 has become a lightning rod in this country. And it's going to cost the Liberals plenty of votes in the next federal election, enough votes to swing the tide, especially in rural ridings where the opposition was most pronounced. Law abiding gun owners--hunters, target shooters, collectors--drawn into the huge boondoggle of mandatory registration are not. going to quickly forget. Shepherd and his colleagues who saw through this sham nays may find themselves cut off at the knees by Chretien, Cabinet ministers and Party big-wigs. Well, that's the way things go in*this system. Back bench MPs who refuse to toe the Party line get into hot water. We'll be watching carefully. In the meantime, we applaud Shepherd for his actions. Bill C-68 is a foolish attempt to deal with crime in streets. It will end up costing ordinary Canadians hundreds of millions of dollars and won't deal with street-hardened thugs with an illegal weapon in their jacket pockets. and had the fortitude to stand up and be counted with the LETTERS TO THE EDITOR IMegabucks in abortions' To the Editor: | As if more proof is needed to \ verify money out-ranks people, here is classic, selfish rational, justifying random murder by dubious 'professionals' mocking a busy link in health-care. It seems some 1200 drugstores are losing 16 per cent on tobacco sales since Bill 119 vetoed their rights to tobacco-murder- posterity, friend or stranger. Selfishness stands ready to ignore smoking will foist premature deaths on helpless _addicts." Plus, they have no conscience whether medicare survives: only to choke on an estimated $3 billion resultant health bill. Thus should pending deaths subsidize sales loss of the medically trained pros whose education was partly subsidized by their victims? - Do you smell brazen? A Mr. Rosen and his committee losing legal challenge in court. What might freedom without responsibility simulate? (His pending appeal) What is vindictive? Pharmacist retaliatory twist decrying grocery stores selling cough, headachg and allergy relievers. What hight innovative crass be? Flaunting law by building a separate $20,000 kiosk in your otherwise six illegal outlets. Mr. Turk, Sir. Now for integrity. Detour Mr. Turk's stores and the SAV-On drug chain. Both defy the law for rights to exchange premature death for tobacco products in the name of falling sales. Since they are drugstores, shall we next expect hard drug kiosks? Shallow values manipulate responsibility. As a woman hearing other women complain about how long they must hike it for an abortion, how far did they hike it for un-wanted conception, and how many times? h That figure is not available whereas estimates range up to 40,000 abortions yearly in Ontario. I am not against therapeutic abortion, but birth control by abortion should be punished by more than writing off a blameless fetus. You can't tell me that 40,000 conceptions resulted from integrity-failure of the best available birth control. To practice less is to be handicapped. 1 deplore male selfishness that says it is up to the woman: and also the damage and disturbing side effects a pill delivers to women. If you like living on the edge, try that pill for you and find someone to trust a never- get-pregnant memory. Happily, I was never exposed to macho-marital-mandate, but I quiver with suggestion. For "" every selfish fetus-execution may the male participant be awarded a confirmed vasectomy, and where the female receptacle knows not who the Romeo is-- "allow me to yank a sperm- dispensing blockhead at random and supervise neutralizing of both incubator and wandering sperm infiltrator. When wanton fetus execution is condoned, while execution of violent and convicted killers is rejected, freedom yields to tyranny. ) 1 am not of pro life rigidity nor abortion-insensitive. What rankles is ° 'love' repeatedly pre-empted by care- free lust. Those 40,000 aborts equal mega-bucks: fit to inspire Harris to genocide Medicare. Philomena Mariman. Janetville, Ont. Support for MP Shepherd To The Editor: The Prime Minister has promised to punish the Liberal MP's who have voted against the party line with regards to the gun control legislation Bill C-68. Our MP has"voted against the Bill. He voted against this Bill to support the majority of his Durham constituents. Mr. Shepherd is our voice in Ottawa and I will not tolerate any negative~Hction taken against him by the Prime Minister. For any action taken against Mr. Shepherd is action taken against us, the voters. 1 fear our voice in Ottawa may be muzzled if we do not take action now. We are supposed to be living in a democracy where we have the right to speak and be heard. I feel we are losing this right. This is not a gun control issue but an issue of our ° democratic rights and our voice in Ottawa being silenced. I am printing 50,000 letters of support to start off this campaign. These letters will be circulated and sent to the-Prime Minister's office to voice our concerns. For more info contact: Tyler S, Briley 19 Poplar Park Cr. Port Perry, Ont. LSL 1E4 (906) 985-2422