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Punt-Th 'iutryoeMtt-, My. November u. an We fail to see the logic behind the current wildcat strikes called by the mail carriers. In a series of rotating strikes the postmen have called off deliveries to several communities in Metro Toronto and around the province. The union is apparently protesting the use of non union labor to fill in for ill and vacationing carriers and to help with over-taxed work loads. The postmen complain when they have to work overtime or when they claim they are overburdened. When assisted through the hiring of extra staff to help them complete their duties, they go on strike in protest of non union employees doing their job. About 300 carriers were out picketing in wildcat strikes effecting Willowdale, Pape- Danforth and Oakwood-St. Clair on Monday. On Tuesday it hit closer to home as some 200 walked out from their duties at Weston, Keele-Dundas and Islington-Queensway. Other areas to see mail deliveries cease for at least a day were stations at Hamilton, Windsor, Waterloo, St. Catharines, Burlington and Thorold. The postman no longer seems to have public sympathy with him. Most believe he has over played his right to strike in the past several years and when a wildcat strike of the current nature occurs, he is being downright ornery. Postage rates are at a point where there is almost no way that they can be raised. The current success of the dispatch services bears this out. It is a foregone conclusion among those who have to maintain a reliable communication service will bypass the post office and utilize the facilities of these specialists in on time deliveries. It looks like this maybe another case of labor doing itself out of a job even though the post office is a government monopoly. Perhaps the government never should have granted the postman the right to strike in the first place. The've abused this right again by striking against the very thing they asked for: Help to carry out their duties. Perhaps there was a line is small print somewhere. We'll bet it says: as long as the price is right and I can maintain the right to strike over minor issues. What ever happened to that old slogan: Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these curriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds? iii. L01 if. 60' if. Without the a iii trains of today WI iii lack of control. i:.:. It takes a pl iii train of ten passe i:.:. five miles to mm if. hour on a straigl iii brakes will stop t if. of sixty miles an iii. 40 iii York Towns iii policy of repayi f.:. has carried ur iii credit. By resoli iii Unemployment I ii:. the relief office i: iii grocery orders t iii credit to the ret iii 20 ' human." a". “than no 219 - no“. wuvon, um "wildly by PrunupcI whom». LINN“ . rummage all. Imwwunno In. Wuhan hm" AM County at you than, m “mu and Some, and women Totes Advertiser and In. wnlon "not 50cm Clan Maul Rows'rlhon Number Isu Subacnnhon in” 'rilo par Fear In advance to any adore» m (anon other counmu " on Weston-York Times 60 YEARS AGO Without the air brake the fast passenger trains of today would be impossible owing to lack of control. It takes a powerful engine drawing a train of ten passenger coaches a distance of five miles to reach a speed of sixty miles an hour on a straight and level track. The air brakes will stop the same train from a speed of sixty miles an hour in seven hundred feet. 40 YEARS AGO York Township Council adopted the policy of repaying the corner grocer who has carried unemployed customers on credit. By resolution adopted following the Unemployment and Relief Board's report, the relief office is empowered to make relief grocery orders to the grocer who has given credit to the recipient. 20 YEARS AGO Children should have a regular bedtime and this hour should be adhered to, the youngster retiring at the scheduled time, with his bedroom windows open and the lights out. What now? v J MuMiuon, Pr-nt no Fabiano: Bill Bailey, Emlw Looking back Molly leon. - Minnow "monon- Ill "it The proposed special session of the legislature to be held before Christmas is scheduled to deal with the Davis government's promise to match Ottawa's 3 per cent cut in personal income tax and to provide details of the winter works program which was announced in the latter stages of the election campaign to counter unemployment figures which are the highest for the past ten years. Let‘s deal with the income tax cut first. The federal cut of 3 per cent personal income tax is retroactive to July Ist of 1971; presumably, the provincial government proposal to match it will have the same com- mencement date. The intention of this move is to put more money into the hands of consumers in the hope that it will be spent immediately and tend to give the lagging economy a lift, thereby creating new jobs, or at least forestalling any Increase in unemployment through further cut-backs in production. It is interesting to speculate on the immediate impact such a move might Toronto still number two Montreal remains both the largest city and the largest metropolitan area in Canada, according to preliminary 1971 population figures of the Census Division of Statistics Canada. ln second place in the census is the metropolitan area of Toronto, which has moved to within 110,000 of Montreal's population. Metropolitan Vancouver joins the two older centres in the 'bver-a-million population category. How' many jobs for winter? Everybody knows the meaning of ombudsmarr-he is someone to whom any citizen may take complaints about the actions of people in the government service. The ombudsman will listen. examine. and try to obtain redress of an injustice or amends for a grievance, There are many descriptive titles given the ombudsman. He may be called citizen's defender, citizen's champion, defender of civil liberty, parliamentary mmmisu- oner for administration, or ritizen‘s guardian. Whatever his title, it is his duty to keep watch over the way in which zmernment agencies and officials apply the law and regulations in dealing with the public Scores of books and hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles Show the interest people take m this relatively new office. In May min the American Academy of Political and Social Science devoted an Lune of Ace/DEM; 7011 57% MM Mf DESPrfE RREA T7/ TE5T Muzak”: have. Income tax deductions which have already been made from July I cannot be reclaimed until tax returns are filed next April, so the increased spending power will presumably be reflected for only the latter two months of 1971. It is difficult to conceive of this as having much more than minimal effect on this winter's unemployment. A _ _ _ (Incidentally, the federal government's 3 per cent cut in personal income tax was accompanied by a 7 per cent cut in corporation taxes. The Davis government is not going to match this, because they had already granted a 5 per cent rebate on all in- vestment in machinery and equipment, amounting to a corporate tax rebate of $125,000,000. This was granted in last April's budget. The fifth and last bulletin of a series covering some 4,700 cities, towns, villages, townships and other municipal units, showed metropolitan Montreal with a preliminary population count of 2,720,413 __ an im crease of six per cent since 1966. Toronto's metro population stood at 2,609,638, representing a growth of 16 per cent, and Vancouver's at 1,071,081. 15 per cent over the last census. Other metropolitan areas in the top ten, with 1966-71 The Annals to an exhaustive examination of "The Ombudsman or Citizen's Defender: A Modern Institution." This has become a source-book and a detailed guide to persons investigating the need for such a system of citizen- protection. The need to keep govern- ment administrators from abusing the wide powers that have been necessarily given them in recent years demanded a creative im novation'. The institution of the ombudsman went a long way toward providing what was neressary. Social service reaches into every area of life, and the officials in charge of its many agencies come into ttontttct with every citizen. The purpose of the om- budsman is to hold the scales so that justice IS satisfied, QUEEN'S PARK REPORT Donald C. MacDonald MPP for York South The principle contended that this has resy.Ited in 6,099 nfw jobs - a figure which has" been During the leader:’ television debate, Mr. Davis greeted with considerable skepticism; not a single one of those jobs has yet been identified.) However, let's move to the winter works program. The key question is: how ef- fective can such a program be when it is being launched at this late date? The memorandum providing the conditions, under which provincial government assistance will be made available to municipalities, was mailed on Friday, November 5, so it can only now come under active consideration at the local level. The Davis announcement during the election cam- paign spoke of some growth rates shown in brackets, are Ottawa-Hull, 596,176 (13 per cent); Win- nipeg, 534,685 (5 per cent); Hamilton, 495,864 (10 per cent); Edmonton, 490,811 ( 16 per cent); Quebec, 476,232 (9 per cent); Calgary, 400,154 (21 per cent); and Niagara- St. Catharines, 301,108 (6 per cent). The preliminary figures indicate that growth rates have slowed down since l966, due to lower birth rates and immigration. They also show that most of the growth has occurred in the fringe. and justice, as St. Thomas Aquinas defined it, is a constant and perpetual will to yield to each one his right. Citizens will take their problems, and complaints to the ombudsman because they look upon him as representing the state's conscience. He is not a person bound by legalities. seeking to win a case, but an arbiter who seeks to dispel erroneous notions on one side or the other by setting forth the truth. Service to Individuals A review given in The Annals shows that there are many different procedures in the carrying out of om- budsman duties, but his ventral purpose is always to protect the individual. He is, as was said upon ap- pointment of the Quebec provincial ombudsman: to receive the complaints of the 'e' ', ij. a, ji, 825,000,000 being made available for jobcreation at the municipal level, but the initial allocation has been limited to $8,000,000. In his highly critical presentation to the Finance Ministers Conference in Ottawa, November 1 and 2, Provincial Treasurer Darcy McKeough made the valid point that the federal government had given no indication that it planned a winter works program until mid-October. His suggestion was that this was so late as to hinder the effectiveness of any program. Mr. McKeough went on to say: "Accordingly, the Ontario government proceeded independently with its own programs. Since our programs have a municipal emphasis, we are coordinating them through our Provincial-Municipal Liaison Committee. In this way we arj able to minimize bureaucr tic restrictions and delays, and maximize the employment effects." pr: Now the municipalities can make application, and the administrative branch will review them. A whole series of questions arise. How many municipalities have labour-intensive work projects already planned so that they can respond without delay? How will the purely ad- visory group, the Provincial- Municipal Liaison Com- mittee, minimize bureaucratic restrictions in the manner noted by Mr. McKeough? Municipal applications for assistance will not be handled by them, but by the regular bureaucratic administrators of the Department of Municipal Affairs. Once the municipalities do respond, how quickly will the provincial government give clearancefor projects? In short, hdw fnany jobs are going to be created for this winter? Both Finance Minister Benson and Provincial Treasurer Darcy McKeough, had experience with belated efforts to cope with last winter's unemployment. Both of them asserted last spring that unemployment was in hand, but could not be cured overnight; that it would be 1973 before the problem could be licked. Both of them express public worries about the adverse consequences of the Canadian employment situation because of the Nixon 10 per cent surcharge. That was imposed in the late summer. Yet we are only now, in the dying weeks of the year, working out the details of a program to meet this winter's unemployment. public against the govern- ment administration, to make investigations and bring to the attention of the authorities the problems that he uncovers. of the Ombudsman Many persons who have grievances would find it difficult to go through procedures required under the regulations. They may not know where to start; they may not be able to pay the legal expenses; or their emergency may be of such a nature as to demand quirk action. Then, too, a request for review addressed to a government department may be referred to the of- fioer originally involved, and that is not of the nature of a real appeal. It has been said that if every member of parliament, every member of a legislature, every civil servant, every member of a Back, today, to the Bible; and to that tay1nating story in Gentsis Simmer 2. This sty is about us. It tells us we are uniquely gifted with life, with a garden, with animals, with a companion or help meet. We discussed the gift of life last time. Now we look at the gifts of a garden and of animals. We read: "And the lord. God planted a garden and put the man in it to till it and to keep it" (verses 8 and 15). How precious is the gift of a garden! And the whole of our planet earth is one vast garden in the round. And what makes it a garden is its narrow strip of topsoil stretched like a tender, slender skin over its spherical surface. Destroy that skin and you destroy life. No wonder man is required not simply to till it-that is to make it productive; but also to keep it- that is, to preserve it. Let me quote the words of a man more qualified than I to speak on these matters. His name is Dr. Rene Dubos, a microbiologist. He writes: "Man can learn to tolerate ugly surroundings, dirty skies, and polluted streams. He can survive even though he completely disregards the cosmic ordering of biological rhythms. He can live without the fragrance of flowers, the song of birds, the exhilaration of natural scenery and other biological stimuli of the natural world. This loss of amenities and elimination of the stimuli under which he evolved as a biological and mental being may have no obvious detrimental effect on his physical appearance or his ability to perform as part of the economic or technological machine. But the ultimate result can be and often is an impoverishment of life, a progressive loss of the qualities that we identify with humanness, and a weakening of physical and mental sanity. Air, water, soil, fire, and rhythms of nature, and the variety of living things, are of interest not only as chemical mixtures, physical forces, or biological phenomena; they are the very influences that have shaped human life and thereby created deep human needs that will not change in the foreseeable future. The pathetic week. end exodus to the country or beaches, the fireplaces in over-heated city apartments, the sentimental attachment to animal pets or even to plants, testify to the persistence in man of biological and emotional hungers that developed during his evolutionary past and he cannot outgrow." Something has gone wrong on a vast scale and it will need a great effort on the part of us all to put it right. There are signs that such an effort is forthcoming. One sign is the dissatisfaction displayed by youth in our technologically dominated and spiritually decadent society. This dissatisfaction is expressed negatively in truculent rebellion. It is expressed positively in environmental clean-ups and in the search for an alternative to a consumer-oriented society. Another sign is the plainly worded statement of concern put out by the present government of Ontario. Conservation must top the priority list of every government. We just can't afford to destroy our oceans (Jacques Cousteau, a marine biologist, says they are already one-third of the way toward destruction), to choke our Great Lakes (as we are doing), to pour our sand dunes into the omnivorous mouths of concrete mixers; to denude our hills with strip-mining; to change the wild beauty of the forest into a sterile heap of junk. It is good when governments see this and are prepared to act. municipal council, and every member of a school board looked upon himself as an ombudsman there might not be an opening for a special appointee. People in ad- ministrative positions have a tendency to forget why they exist: to serve the people. They can do this effectively by telling people about their rights. Another good sign is the outcry that has gone on and still goes on against the pollution of the atmosphere of Weston by Canadian Gypsum. This local example also shows how complex the problem is As it is, there is a gap to be plugged. The existence of an ombudsman, independent of politics and of the bureaucracy. encourages those in authority to consider maturely before making up their minds about legal decisions and discretionary acts. Justice Is a goal The ombudsman's duty is not merely to act as a buffer between the individual and authority, but to be actively employed in promoting justice. Justice is good in itself, not merely a necessary means of preserving order in a State. As Cicero put it: "Justice is much the most glorious and splendid of all virtues, and alone entitles us to the name and appellation of good men." The welfare of the people is the supreme purpose of the government. Grievance handling machinery should' be designed so as to provide easily accessible judicial review, flexible disposition of cases, and speedy judgment. But the om- budsman must not be so just that he forgets to be humane, nor can he be so generous that he neglects to be just. Those who appeal to him should remember that he is not there to dispense favours but to safeguard rights. Priceless heritage Theexiateneeottheorw DON REED Rev. Rood Is Mums"! ot WuImmslu Uniuio Lhurch in Wmon. and how it will only be solved by co operation between governments, manufacturers and people. If the production of gypsum is vital for our economic well-being and social amenity then local pressure, plus government legislation, must together see that it is produced cleanly. At the same time recognizing that the cost of such clean production will have to be paid for. And who is to pay the shot? It must be shared by everybody. Manufacturers will shoulder part of the cost by reduction of profit: government, part, by a reduction in taxation; and the public must play their part by accepting the need to pay more for the finished product. You can easily see how such measures taken on a national scale could easily "rock" the economy and place us at a disadvantage as against, say, a country that cares not a tinker's cuss for conservation. Well, we must be prepared to accept that disadvantage until such time as International Law can impose universal standards of environment control.“ may mean that as far as the scale of our Gross National Product is concerned we shall drop way behind other countries. But it also means that in the long run we'll preserve our country and our society, and by our example perhaps help preserve the world from the insanity of its present reckless course-converting the garden of the earth into a desert of the Ea much for the garden. What of the animals? We read in verse 19, "And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air; and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was the name thereof." First, note the important distinction between the creation of the animals and the creation of man. The animals, too, are formed out of the dust of the ground-so there is an affinity between them and man-to which science rightly testifies in its theory of evolution. But there is also marked in this story, the absolute distinction between human life and animal life. There is no breath of God in the animals. They, too, are God's creation. But they are not unique like you and I. They are not God's children in the same way as you and I. And you will notice that not only are they lower than man in the scale of creation, the animal's are also given to man-placed under his authority and control. He calls them all by name. Science again demonstrates and enlarges and illuminates this basic truth of the Bible story, when it classifies and describes and organizes the animal world into genus and class, and species-and gives them what? Names, scientific names! But the fact that the animals are given to us to name indicates that they are given into our care! And so it is right that we should-as we see so clearly happening today--be aware of our responsibilities in the matter of wild life conservation and bird protection. The animals of the world are an important part of God's gift to us, we have control over them, we must also exercise care of them. To preserve life by tending the garden and by caring for the animals! Simple, homespun truths. But vital-urgently vital. And we are just beginning to waken up to the fact that by neglect of these simple basic biblical truths we are endangering the life of the whole planet. Let she summarize the first 3 of the four lessons we find in Genesis 2. (1) Life is a gift-a precious gift. But life hangs literally by a thread-once snapped it can't be put together again. (2) Our garden, the earth's cultivated crust, is a gift. But that crust is slender. It is a thin layer that lies between us and our total extinction. (3) The animals are a precious gift. But the balance of nature is a precarious balance. Pollution upsets it. And if we allow pollution to proceed at its present rate-the balance will soon have gone beyond the point of no return! Genesis out of date? Don't you believe it brother! We're still lamely struggling to live up to it! budsman, though he is not appealed to by a citizen, gives a feeling of security. The citizen knows that should he ever believe that he has a legitimate reason to complain he has a friend at court who will see that at.. tention is given to his complaint. He will have confidence in the govern- ment which has appointed this independent officer to ensure the rule of law and the protection of rights. He will find it less necessary to parade and demonstrate to call attention to his grievance. The Ombudsmdh's ac- tivity is simple, informal and rapid. He is a master in discriminating between what is important and what is trivial; he can diagnose new situations because he has wide knowledge of similarities and differences in cases; he can look at both sides of an argument and seek some negotiable point. (Royal Bank Monthly Let-