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nd PILL Wate SRT Ora NS SOTER HSE < NAN TEI AD bd AS MS AR § RL MT Yr 0) lv SACRA EAR SO IN ae EE RS ditoriol comments EY NAT AR Y-RAY CS 3 ALR Rs Rr PAC SN ey ¥ b ' LYRE OES LAR SRR Sy AN RATAN MRA RY BRERA INES HA SAY : (7G 4 HLT ARACHIS TQ WS ALP OTe ; FE SARE ISI ANE AE The Classic Like the entjre Canadian football season, the annual Grey Cup Sunday in Montreal failed to live up to its pre-game billing. The fall classic had been touted by just about everyone as the mis-match of the decade and many were saying it was a typical way to end a football season which was dismal in so many respects. But thankfully, the game was anything but a failure, and certainly no mis-match. In fact, for a time it seemed as if the under-dogs from Ottawa might pull _off the upset of the decade and beat the all-powerful Edmonton Eskimos. But the Western team prevailed, thanks to some last minute heroics, and any sports fan who didn't get his or her money's worth from that game should take up stamp collecting. Aside from the fact the game had everything a classic sports event should have, it may have helped rescue the Canadian Football League from fan apathy in this country. * Several teams in Eastern Canada had a great deal of difficulty this past season, including the Ottawa Rough Riders who came within an eye-lash of winning on Sunday. } For many, the CFL was a sick joke this year. Football in this country has a great tradition, and' some believe the annual Cup game helps to bring Canadians together. But the League stumbled badly this year with teams like Toronto and Mentreal having all kinds of trouble which showed up at the box office. The game of football played in this country is one thing which is unique to Canada, even if a majority of the players come from south of the border. It would be a great shame for sport in particular and the country in general if football continues its nose dive. But if the Grey Cup Sunday was an indication of what might be in store when the season opens again next year, surely the sport will start to attract more fans into the stadiums, and the League can start to put the shine back on its tarnished image. ) Jail Jobs: Benefit All Armed with the simple but awesome statistic that it costs taxpayers $30,000 a year to support a single prisoner in a Canadian jail, the John Howard Society of Alberta is pressing - in the name of commonsense and economy - for wider adoption of the idea that a prisoner should work for his keep. {IN iL "JHE sHock was 700 MUCH, WE HAD 70 SLAP ON A CARRYING CHARGE It is an idea whose time has come, and the merits of which may be observed in scattered examples in both provincial and federal institutions. In Springhill, Nova Scotia, some prisoners are planting seedlings in a greenhouse as part of a reforéstration project; inmates at Cowansville, Quebec, assemble solar panels; and at Guelph, Ontarlo, prisoners work at an abbatoir. These are examples of experimental ventures by prison authorities and local business firms, offering potential benefits to just about everybody - for the prisoners, release from monotony and the chance to pick up a useful skill; for prison authorities a better prospect of rehabilitation; for the taxpayer, a reduc- tion in prison costs; and, for employers, a supply of labor for seasonal and marginal jobs. The primary object of the John Howard Society in Alberta is to have some new thinking along these lines firmly installed in a new medium-security jail near Edmonton, due to be completed in 1984. The society visualizes compulsory work for the prisoners, who would receive minimum wages from which they could help support families, pay room and board, and make restitution to victims of their offences. There is a proposal that private firms be Invited to set up manufacturing facilities inside the new jail, where employment would be 'the hub of all activity in the prison and work would be invested with some satisfaction and provide for some success or failure." And why not? For the benefit of no one in particular, the traditional system has apparently aimed to provide the most useless form of employment - where work was considered at all. We have preferred to let prisoners rot in their cells - a policy which probably helped us to our uneviable recidivism record. While we gladly acknowledge the projects launched here and there, the suggestions of the John Howard Society merit bolder adoption by government. - Courtesy of The Leamington Post. "REPETITION WAYS" Is your life a cultural wasteland? Do you do the same old things, talk to the same old people on the same old subjects all the time? ® ® Are you scared to take a risk, smile at - someone you've never seen before, do some- thing the neighbours will mutter about? Do . : gH n you want a decent tombstone, not flashy, but . 3 i dignified? : ; : "Of course you do, You're a good Canadian. You believe in personal decorum, censor- ship, the family as a unit, and capital ~ When you have: to settle for one meal of ground wheat a day, and have to huddle around a charcoal brazier to keep warm, just as few of us listen to the people of the world who are doing just that, right now. Forget about the Yanks. If you don't like their culture invading us, turn off your. TV Yanks won't invade us physically." Unless they have to, and there's not much we could Cheer up, you dour, gloomy Canucks. then you can whine, though few will listen, . set and get out your eskimo carvings. The punishment. : On the other hand. Do you go for a swim at midnight, sing a song at dawn, smoke marijuana, drink fairly heavily, march in protest parades, live in sin, abhor censor- ship and capital punishment, and contrive to do something that will offend friends and neighbours? } Of course you do. You're a good Canadian. You believe in individual liberty, acid rain, dirty movies and sexual irresponsibility. It doesn't matter which group you belong to, or whether you're somewhere in be- tween, you all have much in common. You despise the government, but won't elect an alternative, since you despise it even more. You are cal by inflation and high "interest rates, ether you are a 60-year-old farmer trying to keep the place going, or a 20-year old punk trying to maintain his habit. , Ties You are basically anti-American, though if you were asked why, you'could not give an' answer that was articulate. You feel frustrated, in this land of wood and water, not to mention nuclear power, because, if you are getting on in years, you see everything eroding around you, and if you are short in years, you see nothing but a stone wall between you and your aspirations. You wonder vaguely, if you're old enough, what became of the Canadian dream: "The twentieth century belongs to Canada." And if you read the papers and analyze the news, I realize that, while Canada still has a gh standard of living, we are very low on the totem pole when it comes to production, strikes, economic Btabttity," peace, happiness and goodwill toward men. If you're very young, you don't give a diddle. There's lots to eat, warm clothes and the old man will kick in a decent allowance 80 you can feed the slot machines with their war games, : But if you're a young adult, just about ready to launch into "real" life, you're so * bewildered about unemployment, and - escalating university fees, and the _in- creasing shadow of the computer, and the wealth of choices of a future (all lacking in security) that you can become so you drop out, or dive into a stream and fight against the current. ~ This isn't a doom and gloom column, It's merely a look at our nation today. It is so rife with suspicion, fear of nothing much, anger -over nothing much, that we are becoming paranoid. From the Prime Minister, through the head of the Bank of Canada, right down to your local alderman, you have lost trust, and feel that the ship is heading for the reef with nobody at the helm. ; | This is nonsense, of course. Canada has been going through this miasma ever since 1867, and before. Maybe the guy at the helm is blind-folded, and maybe we have scraped a few rocks, but the ship's bottom is still sound, and we haven't hit the big reef yet. If we do, we can always scramble into the boats, and become the new Boat People of North America. We've had the French-Canadian separa- tism thing with us for generations, John A. MacDonald almost put the country on the rocks, financially and politically, but' he dared to take a chance, and had vision. We survived a terrible depression, and came out smelling of roses (and the stench of our dead young men), in two world wars. do about that. If you can't afford your mortgage _ increase, you were probably over-extended in'the first place. Get rid of that monster, with its swimming pool and rec. room and pitch a tent. Preferably in the local cemetery, to suit your mood. Pull in your belts. Dump that extra car, the boat and the cottage. If you look at it objectively, they're just a big pain in the arm anyway. Walk to work. Tt a bus to the ¢ity instead of your gaS-gobbler plus parking. fees. Learn to do your own elementary plumbing and electric work at night school. Ladies. Get the knitting needles out and make lots of shawls, sweaters, scarves and wool socks. You did it for the troops overseas. And god-awful itchy and ill fitting some of them were, but they kept us warm. Stop spoiling your children with allow- ances. Let them earn their own money through odd jobs, or do without. Let's stop grumbling, and get back to a spartan, rewarding life, where ideas are nore important thah physical comfort. After you, he said.