A6 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday December 6, 2000 T h e O akville B eaver Ian Oliver Publisher N e i Oliver .Associate Publisher Norman Alexander Editor Kelly Montague, Advertising Director Steve Crazier Circulation D irector Ten Casas Office M anager M ark Dills Production Manager Riziero Vfertolli Director o fPhotography Metrdand Printing. Pubishing & Distributing Lid., indudes: Ajax/Ptekemg News Advertiser. A isto n HeraJd/Couner, Arthur Enterprise News. Bame Advance. Barry's Bay This Week. Bolton Enterprise. Brampton Guardian, B urlington Post, B u rlin g to n S h opping News. C ity Parent, Coingwood/Wasaga Connection. East 'ibrk Mrror, Erin AdvocataCouitry R outes. E tobicoke G uardian. F lam borough Post. G eorgetow n Independent/Adon Free Press. Hamston Review. Huonte Busteess Traes. Kingston This Week. Lindsay This Week. Markham Economist & Sun. M idland/Penetanguishine Mirror. M ilton Canadian Champion. Milton Shoppng News. Mssssauga Busness Times. Mssssauga News. 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SK Suburban N ew spapers o l Am erica town O X ^e o fjo .-m u C h ild re n 's C h o ir PCK d BusinessbLTHf ARTS It's pretty bad when even the lawmakers can't remember the law. In case you missed it, the provincial government has reluctantly accept ed the resignations of Ontario Correction's Minister Rob Sampson and Tory MPP Doug Galt, the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Agriculture, after the names o f young offenders were read aloud in the legislature. The culprit was Galt, who says he was just trying to honour recent "grad uates" for the new strict-discipline program at Brookside Youth Centre in Coborg. To compound matters, his speech was carried live across Ontario on the legislative channel. Galt says he was carried away by his enthusiasm for the program and apparently forgot that under the Young Offenders Act the names of those under 18 years of age cannot be published or broadcast (or spoken aloud in the legislature). W hile the Tories adm ittedly don't like the Young Offenders Act. and would like to change it (but that responsibility lies with the federal govern ment), you would at least think they would know what the law is by now. Back in 1998 Bob Runciman, then solicitor-general, stepped down for a number of months after naming the mother of a young offender during the Tories' Speech from the Throne. We would have thought that particular case would have served as a stiff lesson for forgetting the law. But we were wrong. Sampson was forced to resign because of a colleague's mistake and will probably return to the Cabinet some time in the future. Galt on the other hand should be relegated to the backbenches of the leg islature for good. While his intentions were not criminal, his actions were dumb. Stupidity should not be rewarded, especially in government. I A H T f t L Y A ,J E A N ,A H ' L lB E G L A D W H E N T H E E L E C T I O N I S F I N A L L Y O V E R O o p s -th e yd idi ta g a in I IS O A H C A N R E L A X A N D F O C U S O N E ditorials V^oe?MAHeoLF«ME.,/TT K u n m * » > n v fi Letters to th e Editor The Oakville Beaver welcomes your comments. All letters must be typed, signed and include the writer's address and phone number. Send to: Letters to the Editor, The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, Ont. L6K 3S4 Tories are the party of the right I w as d ism ayed to read the com m ents made by the Alliance candidate after he lost last M onday's election, displaying all the overweening arrogance that we have come to expect from professional sports figures. Having been decisively trounced, both he and his Halton colleague, made great play of the splitting of the "right wing" vote between th em selv e s and th e P C 's. T hey ch o se to ignore or were ignorant of the fact that unbi ased polls have shown that, if there was no P.C. Party, an overwhelming majority of hard core Ontario Tories would vote Liberal. In o th e r w ords, if no Tory had run, B onnie Brown would have had an even larger plurali ty. On the other hand, if no Alliance candidate had jumped in to muddy the waters, the Tory candidate might have won. Their effrontery becomes insolence when Ferrone states that the P.C. should amalga mate with his Johnny-com e-lately crowd. I would like to remind him that, before Reform came along, there was no need to talk about amalgamation; the Tories were the party of the right. Joe Clark, of all the party leaders, was the only one in the debates to show qualities of dignity, statesmanship and authority. On the o th e r hand, D ay d em o n strated , from the beginning, how clumsy, inept and ill-prepared he was. Under these circum stances, perhaps our two bright Alliance lads might approach Mr. Clark on their knees and beg to be admitted back into the fold! K J. Hazelden Letter of the Week Brown's com m ents offensive to Catholics I am writing to state as a practicing Roman Catholic, the words used by the recently elected MP -- Bonnie Brown -- were an affront to our faith, in a very deroga tory reference to one of her opponents. Her words were, as reported by Rod Jerred -- "He thought he was a foot ball player, wandering around the end zone, looking for a HAIL MARY pass and we turned up with the game ball." I remind Brown that the Mary mentioned by her is, according to the Catholic Faith, the Mother of God. The name of the Mother o f God should not be taken in vain, that is. I don't know what denomination Brown supports, but I do know if the reference was made to the Islamic Faith or the Jewish Religion, I would fully expect a member of such faith, would, like me, bring this poor choice of words into public focus in Oakville. Brown is typical of the Members of the Liberal gov ernment -- arrogant, thin skinned and unable to fix the ills o f C an ad a, ju s t to m ention a few , T he Young O ffender's Act, Im m igration policy, fisheries agree ments, and monies gone missing from a major depart ment, with no accountability. Just a few of the bungles that have plagued this governm ent this past several years. It is a good job for Brown, the local vote was split by the Alliance and the now practically defunct Tory party. We can only hope that Paul Martin will lead the govern ment in the near future, maybe, democracy will then pre vail, as at present it does not. I might add. I am a proud citizen of Canada and it is a wonderful country still, despite the ruling party. Anthony G. Melia When will Canadian voters wake up? I am not proud to be a Canadian. In fact, I am ashamed. How could Canadians vote in the Liberals ag ain? C an ad ian s are an ap a th e tic , m is informed lot -- unwilling to educate them selves about the real issues o f government. C anadians think becau se the econom y is good, everything is just fine. If the Liberals were running a business, th ey w o u ld h av e b een fire d lo n g ago. C anadians have allow ed them selves to be taken in by Chretien's propaganda, instead of studying the issues and reading the colum nists in the newspaper. Both the Toronto Sun and National Post said... Don't vote Liberal, anything but. I d o n 't w ant to put up w ith four m ore years o f Liberal arrogance, more lies, more unkept promises, more paying high taxes to service their huge government, so they can squander our money. In three decades, our dollar has sunk fro m U S $ 1 .0 6 to 64 ce n ts U S. F o reig n investors do not want to put their money in a country with sinking currency and crushing debt. Investors think o f us as a third-world country. What will it take to make the electorate wake up? Judy Levy E d ito ria l w as w ro n g to m ix re lig io n a n d politics How kind of you to enlighten us as to the denominational affiliation of Stockwell Day (Editorial, Nov. 29th). You imply that Pentecostal Church membership and Alliance party mem bership (if not leadership) are somehow linked. I am sure that your failure to mention Jean Chretien's Catholicism or the reli gious affiliation of any other candidate was an innocent omis sion. By the way, congratulations on using the words "fundamen talist Christian doctrine," "Alliance." "right-wing" and "abortion" in one sentence. Such obfuscation of the issues is at best simplis tic and naive and, at worst, ignorant and irresponsible journalism. Is it trendy to ridicule religious beliefs? It is not. What would be labeled intolerant and unacceptable if the person were Jewish, Catholic, Muslim or Native Canadian is deemed permissible if the target is an evangelical Protestant. You do the intelligence and religious convictions of your read ers a grave injustice. For the record, I attend a Baptist church. Laurel Wynne R e a d e r r e s p o n d s t o W o m e n 's C e n t r e c r i t i c i s m Re: J. Jarrett's letter of Oct. 25th, 2000 In criticizing the programs of the Women's Centre, the writer focuses negatively on four two-hour programs. Closer inspection of the Fall and Winter Brochure shows that the Centre offers over 150 hours of programs such as abuse counselling, network for entrepreneurial women, employment network, separated and divorced sup port and counselling. These all assist women to become independent. In addition to these group programs, hundreds of hours of individual counselling are provided by peer counsellors. The Centre also addresses the needs of younger women not yet in the workforce and issues o f senior women. The financial report indicates that the Centre is very well managed. The funding received and the many hundreds of volunteer hours contribute to this achievement. As a taxpayer, I am convinced that the Ontario Women's Directorate is getting very good value for my tax dollars. For the provincial government to withdraw funding without closely examining the successful impact that the Centre has in the Halton region is very short-sighted indeed. C. June Saxton Brown ended election campaign on sour note I feel compelled to respond to the article that you ran in la st W ed n e sd a y 's p a p e r (N ov. 2 9 th ) g iv in g B onnie Brown's views of the election. I was truly outraged at Brown's personal attack on one of Oakville's leading citizens, Dan Ferrone. You quoted B row n as say in g F erro n e w as an em b a rra ssm e n t to Oakville the way he ran his campaign. Dan Ferrone has done a trem endous am ount for our community over the past decade, and for no other reason than he is one o f the greatest humanitarians I have ever met. He was bom and raised in this community and loves Oakville. I, as a member o f this community, am proud to call him our own and I know countless people feel the same way. Dan has more class in his baby finger than most politi cians I've ever met, including Brown. He is just, honest and a very moral man. The slurs that Brown threw at him were unjust and just plain unnecessary. Brown should take a good hard look at the way she ended these elections. I feel it is a dark day when one such as Dan, with all the good he has done and will continue to do, is treated in such a way. The only one that looks bad after all of this is Brown. There is only one thing worse than a poor loser -- and that is a poor winner! Shame on Brown. Trish Peden Pud by Steve Nease t