The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

vived. pa = ea 5 a EOL ENT Bid AAT IR ERR ERR EIA TR BRN EYL TE SRO 5 Ar l 3 d ALE LSE MSS he H HAE 4 NEA Pra ditoriol comments The Oil Companies A massive federal report released last week alleges that the major oil companies operating in Canada over-charged consumers to the tune of some $12 billion between 1958 and 1973. Public shock, if the allegations are true, is understandable. And in the wake of that report it is also understandable why the public Is feeling a little helpless and confused. The opposition parties are calling for immediate roll-backs in prices and prosecutions to take place. The federal government, however, does not seem to want to proceed with legal action at this time because In the words of Consumer and Corporate Affairs minister Andre Ouellet, prosecutions "would have to focus on several narrowly defined legal issues," and would overlook major structural prob- lems in the oll industry. The federal government intends, rather, to launch a public inquiry into the findings of the report which was seven years in the making. All of this is little comfort to John Q. Consumer who shudders every time he fills the family car with gasoline, or gets a fresh tank of heating oil for his home. & : If the allegations are indeed true, what protec- tion does the consumer have in this country for necessities like gasoline or home heating oil? pockets of the consumer? You decide for yourself. And there is a further question that must be nagging in the back of the minds of consumers right now. The report dealt with the 15 years between 1958 and 1973. That year of course was when oll prices world-wide began to sky-rocket from about $3 per barrel to the 1981 price of $35 to $40 per barrel. Depending on how much of a cynic you are, the release of the report may or may not be co-incidental with major efforts on the part of the Canadian government to bring an even larger chunk of the Canadian oil industry under direct state control. The release of the report and-the allegations within it certainly are not going to hurt the govern- ment when it answers the critics who bemoan yet another intrusion into the so-called free enterprise private sector of the economy. The truth of the matter is that rip-offs by the oil companies or not, we have reached a point where governments must play a more major role in certain crucial commodities like food and energy. They are too important for the well being of us all to be left totally in the hands of those whose only guiding. force Is the margin of profit. ~ p UNITED STATES OF AMERICA No, G LONG MAY SHE RAIN OVER US 15 NOT A SALUTE TO AMERICAN ACID POLLUTION ! * \ Museum Should Get Support The Scugog Shores Museum is feeling the financial pinch. Operating costs are on the increase, and the Museum Board has asked Township council to. increase the municipal grant this year by $3500. - In 1980, the Board received a grant of $4000, and this . year the request is for $7500. In times of tough money when the property owner is also feeling the pinch, $7500 in a small municipality is a sum not to be scoffed at. Yet, council should approve this request for $7500 when it comes time to set the overall municipal budget later this spring. 4 Quite frankly, the Museum needs the support and deserves it. The Scugog Shores Museum, located on Scugog Island, has done much in its short history to collect, restore and retain the heritage of this community. ) The Museum has an excellent reputation, and one that Is well deserved. Stepping into the Lee House, for example, is quite literally like taking a step into the late 19th century. : Those from the community who are responsible for the operation of the Museum, who have donated their time and efforts over the years, have all helped to create something that every citizen can be proud of. . . Like virtually all cultural, social or athletic facilities in small communities these days, there is just no way that the Museum can "pay for itself," any more than our arenas or parks pay their own way. . The request from the Museum this year is for $7500. That is a little more than 50 cents from each man, whoman and child living in Scugég Township. That is not much of a price to pay for the purpose the Museum serves, and the feeling of pride and satisfaction it gives those who care about their heritage and take advantage of what it has to offer. CAN WE SURVIVE? Winter in this country is nothing to write home about. Especially if your home is California, or Texas, or Florida. We had a visitor this week from Sao Paulo, Brazil. He had never seen snow before. He couldn't believe how we sur- Had a ride with a cab driver about a week ago. He was from the West Indies. It was one of those comparatively mild days, bill smile pristine linoleum by teachers and students. School bus drivers also have all the aches of rising at an unearthly hour, getting the old bus started and warmed up, coping with a group of unruly kids just coming alive, and fighting their way through drifts and blizzards and freezing rain and stupid drivers who stall in the middle of the highway, or go into a skid right in front of the bus. Even the cafeteria ladies have to punch about sixteen Fahrenheit. It had been away below zero for about a week. As a good Canadian, I commented on the weather, "Nice to see the cold spell over." His response, "Mon, I am freezing to death. Ihave been freezing to death since I come to this , !?, 1? country two years ago." The vast majority of Canadians hate winter, with a deep, unrestrained violence. They hate struggling into boots and over- coats, and cars that won't start and the town snowplow, which fills in their driveway just - after it has been shovelled, and getting up in the dark to go to work, and having some- thing like a sauna bath in overheated stores, and shivering and shuddering waiting for a bus or street car. Some people like it, the imbeciles: gkiers, curlers, ice fishermen, and small children, and misanthropes of all varieties. I don't like to make a special case, but I think winter affects that fairly large seg- ment of our population involved in the education process even more deeply than all the other winter-haters. it is a grinding, wearing, tearing process for teachers, students, custodians, bus drivers, and even the ladies who dish up the grub in the cafeteria. If the human body reaches its lowest point at around four a.m., education reaches its lowest point in the long January to February haul. There's nary a holiday in those two months. Christmas vacation is but a memory, and the March Break is so far off you wonder if you're going to make it without going goofy or slitting your wrists. From January to March, teachers are either catching or getting over the flu. One head-cold is followed by another. It seems that a third of the staff - the smart ones who don't stagger in to work half alive - are home sick. That means more work for the dumb ones, like me, who stagger in to work half-dead. We have to cover for them, which means your couple of spare periods, normally used to mark papers, plan lessons, and try to get over the chaos of the last class, go out the window. We hate the one at home in bed, or sitting-up;- drinking lemon-- 'ade and rum and watehing TV. It's even harder on the students. Many of them stay up until midnight watching the box, get up in the dark at some ungodly hour, stand in a blizzard for ten minutes waiting for a bus, and drive twenty miles toward something that bores them out of - their skulls. Others, living in town, walk anywhere from a half a mile to a mile and a half, half-frozen, heads bared to the elements, and throats unscarved, as is the way of youth. It's no wonder they are tired out, surly, insolent, and groan loudly when they are asked to do some work, They are bound to be resentful when some stupid téacher says they're going to have a test tomorrow and they missed the entire week when that work was taught, because they were in bed with the flu. And the kids are sick. The sniffling, nose-blowing and coughing drown out the teacher's voice, already. enfeebled by another sore throat. " Custodians, or janitors, as they used to be called, have all the problems of teachers, "but must mop up every day-the-ocean-of snow and salt and sand tracked onto their their way through drifts, batteries that won't kick over, icy roads, frozen french fries, and come up smiling. Some of my students, in a recent essay, stated that one man cannot change the system, and that we must compromise our principles and go along with it, or try to change it by degrees and legislation. Jesus changed the world. So did Copernicus. So did Mahatma Ghandi. Einstein? The guy who invented TV. The guy who invented the wheel. Stephenson, who invented the internal combustion engine. Alexander Graham Bell, who relicts are practically supported by my wife. The entire school system is still in the nineteenth century, when the long summer holiday was established because boys and girls had to help with the farm-work in the summer months. Ridiculous. The work is now done by machines. I here and now advocate, implore and insist that 'school continue through the _Ssummer months, and that. January and February be declared the long vacation. And if there is no response; don't expect me to be teaching next year at this time. IIA Ln Arb ii a