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6 - PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, April 17, 2001 "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" / EE a TU TIT wc lER Pavan TT RTT aw PUBLISHER, GEN. MGR ....Don Macleod RL. a _-- BUSINESS OFFICE: Judy Ashby, Kathy Dudley MANAGING EDITOR . ...Jeff Mitchell oCna [0 3 1 IP Ly S Jb, Canadian anet Rankin, Lesley We OFFICE MANAQLR. «2 Sariey ORL I"ERRY SIAR Newspaper CNA ADVERTISING: Ginni Todd, Cindy Jobin ADVERTISING MGR .. .Deb McEachern Association ' ' ! Se -- Publications Mail Registration No. 07881 Member Ontario Community Gail Morse, Sandra Spears, Linda Clarke, Newspaper Assoc. PRODUCTION MGR . . Pam Hickey Lisa Monk, Janet Archer, Malcolm Lennox REPORTER ........... Chris Hall time. PHONE (905) 985-7383 FAX (905) 985-3708 We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada, through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) towards our mailing costs. E-MAIL: editorial@portperrystar.com Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Company Limited, 188 Mary Street - Port Perry, Ontario - LIL 187 advertising@portperrystar.com SUBSCRIPTION RATES: 1 Year - $37.45 (includes GST) Six Months - $19.79 (includes GST) ~~ Foreign 1 Year - $96.30 (includes GST) if not made, will not be considered. No daim wall be allowed for more than one insertion. subsequent issue or the refund of any monies paid for the advertisement. All daims of error in publication must be made by Wednesday, noon, prior to the next week's publication, a PRODUCTION: Trudy Empringham, Daryle Wright, Arlene Cheel, Robert Taylor, Richard Drew freelance Writers: Heather McCrae, John B McClelland, Rik Davie EDITORIAL POLICY: Opinions expressed by columnists, contributors and letter writers are not necessarily those of The Port Perry Star. Letters must be signed and the telephone number (which will not be published) included. Requests that a name be withheld will be honoured only if there is a compelling reason to do so. Errors will be corrected if brought to the editor's attention. We reserve the right to edit or refuse publication of any material submitted. ADVERTISING POLICY: The publisher is not fiable for slight changes or Nog rics errors that do not lessen the value of an advertisement. The publisher is not liable for other errors or omissions in connection with any advertisement in any Editorial Comment Task force report ignored? The timing of the provincial government's release of a task force report on extracurricular activities in high schools last week was telling: In the afternoon of Thursday, just prior to the beginning of the first long weekend of the year, and overshadowed by announcements about school funding lev- els for the coming year. You can't bury a report much deeper than that, really. And it's a tactic often taken by governments when they've been presented with recommendations they'd rather had not come up in the first place. The task force was appointed by the government to examine the ongoing problem of the withdrawal of participa- tion in after-school activities by high school teachers here and across the province. The teachers have taken the retal- iatory move of backing away from extracurriculars in response to the government's moves to increase teaching THAT'S TE FIFTH TIME Perhaps surprisingly, the task force came up with a rec- ommendation that calls for compromise, rather than falling in line with a government that has, during the course of its mandate, brought about change in education through edict rather than negotiation. It has recommended that extracur- - ricular activities be credited as teaching time, thus fulfilling the government's goal of adding to teachers' work days, while reinstating the programs that are such an important = part of a high school education. | Whether or not the government moves on this sensible suggestion remains to be seen. But we are not hopeful, given the lack of exposure the task force report was granted by the government, and the Tories' agenda of confrontation thus far. | Which is too bad. A solution is staring them in the face; it THE POLITE TEN-DIGIT DIALING REMINDER VOICE. |S BECOMING A LITTLE VEXED... RETRY trea appears they're looking the other way. LETTERS To the Editor: I wish to emphasize what was said here recently by the Thiberts of Port Perry who urged homeowners to think twice before slathering pesticides on their lawns. Canadians have great faith in government. We assume if we can buy it at Canadian Tire then it must be safe. But the truth is that laws govern- ing pesticide registration and use in Canada are 32 years out of date. The Pest Control Products Act remains unchanged since 1969. Under this mouldy piece of leg- islation, the basis for approving or rejecting a pesticide - "unaccept- able risk of harm" - has never been defined scientifically. As it stands, the public has no right to appeal the registration of a pesticide, but industry can appeal if a pesticide is not registered. There are 4,789 ingredients which are legally permitted to be part of a pesticide formula, but many of them, such as benzene and formaldehyde are proving to be far more harmful, than originally hells built Birdseye '$ ago. A new pool is Is our faith misguided? thought. Yet ingredients aren't required to be listed on packaging. They're kept secret by the manufacturers under claim of "confidential busi- ness information." When assessing health risk, the current legislation does not consider cumulative effects, the effects of early exposure on children, or life- time cancer risks of early exposure. Health and environmental stan- dards have come a long way since 1969. This legislation is dangerously out of date. In light of this situation spraying pesticides on one's lawn is a tremen- dous leap of faith, not to mention an assault on the neighbours. If our government is this com- placent over the health of its citi- zens, maybe Port Perry should join the enlightened vanguard of munic- ipalities like the city of Halifax, the Quebec communities of Hudson and Wakefield, and the town of Russell, Ontario and ban these poi- sons altogether. Kay Langmuir, Port Perry / NJ ~ ;