PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1981,WIITBY FREE PRESS w hitbyr Wy Voice of the County Town Michael Ian Burgess, Publisher - Managing Editor The oni Whitby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents. Plublished every 4ednesday byM. .M. Publishing and Photography Inc. Phone 669-61 I1 The Free Press Huilding. 131 Brock Street North, P.O. Box 206, Whitby, Ont. Michael J. Knoll Community Editor Marjorle A. Burgess Production Manager Karen Thompson Advertising Manager Malitng Permit No 480 Member of the Whitby Chamber of Commerce Must live up to responsibilities . . . . CUPE must obey the law of the land Last week, the president of the Ontario Division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees said that her members should continue to break the law if the legislation is seen by them to be unjust. Lucie Nicholson made the comment last week at an Oshawa rally in support of this province's 16,000 non-medical hospital workers who went on strike, illegally, last month. Nicholson told the rally that the 1965 statute that forbids these particular workers the right to strike is "very unjust." Does this mean that because the law is unjust, in this case, that the union's president should travel about this province creating havoc with the health care system and possibly endangering the lives of many ill persons? This publication does not think so. If Nicholson and CUPE believe that the law is unjust then they should take their case to the electors of this province. If the electors agree with CUPE's position then new legislators would be sent to Queen's Park where the present statute could be repealed and new legislation introduced. This publication finds it difficult to believe that a person of Nicholson's responsibility, capabilities and intelligence would advocate that an entire group of people should break the law simply because the law is not to their liking. If every individual took the same attitude towar- ds "unjust" laws that CUPE does, then this province and probably even this country, would be in a state of anarchy. In order to have a peaceful society where its in- dividual members can pursue their life goals without interference, we have collectively set up a system of governnent that provides for rule of law. The duly elected government of the day created the 1965 statute in question and it is held that government has the confidence of the majority of the people and it may also be held that everyone who is a citizen of this province agrees (or agreed at that time) that the law was just. It is not the intention of this publication to argue for or against the right to strike for non- medical workers. There are strong arguments to both sides of the dispute. However, it is not these arguments that we wish to discuss but the implication of Nicholson's battlecry. It is the contention of this newspaper that no individual, no corporate body, no municipality, no organization and no union has the right to break the law. If the law is seen to be unjust, it is the duty of each citizen to not disobey the law but to seek changes in the law in a peaqeful manner. Nicholson also told the rally that the law was unjust because it took the right to strike away from a small segment of the population. Well, if Nicholson had done some research she would have known that the right to strike is withheld from many small segments of the population because it is believed that the jobs they do are essential to the wellbeing of all mem- bers of the community. Nurses, police officers and firemen are also denied the right to strike, in this province. We cannot have people like Nicholson travelling across this province encouraging others to break the law. What Nicholson should be doing is seeking the electorate's support in having the legislation changed so that it is just to everyone, not just the members of CUPE. The electorate, the taxpayers are the people who not only pay the salaries of CUPE's members but elect the government and in that government they entrust the responsibility to do what ls best for this province. If Nicholson and her union does not like the law then instead of disobeying the law, they should find peaceful, law abiding ways of changing it. Quite frankly, it is time that CUPE learnt that it has a responsibility to its membership to ensure that it behaves in a legal manner. It is time that Nicholson and her organization started living up to their legal obligations, and societal respon- sibilities. May we remind CUPE that they are servants of the Crown, sworn to uphold the law and to obey the duly elected government of the day. They should not and cannot preach to their members or to society as a whole that the law should be disobeyed. It is also worthwhile to note that the New Democratic Party has given its support to CUPE's position. Does this mean that the NDP and its present Queen's Park caucus support disobeying the law, in this case? We certainly hope that it is the NDP's desire to function within the framework of law and that their candidates in the upcoming March 19 provincial election make their positions clear. TH BlESTOF , PETER TRUEMANa A weekly news commentary from one of Canada's outstanding news personalities I don't know anything much about Derek Blackburn - the NDP member of Parliament for Brant - but after the comments he made a couple of weeks ago, I'm all for him. He lost his temper in a commons subcommittee which is dealing wiîth the problem of acid rain. He said that Canada is the laughing stock of the world for its timid approach to protecting its priceless environment. He pointed out that we've been blessed with some of the richest natural resources in the world, "yet", as he put it, "during the last 100 vears we have been doing everything possible to destroy that great national heritage." In a reference to the fact that we tend to export raw resources rather than finished products, Blackburn revived the old saw about Canadians as "hewers of wood and drawers of water." But he added that if we continue to allow the rape and pillage of our natural resources, in his words: "We won't have any bloody wood and water left." I'm not sure, as Blackburn suggests that we are the laughing stock of the world for our tinid approach to the defence of our environ- ment. Many of the nations who might be tempted to laugh aren't doing all that well themselves. But I applaud his anger. The absence of anger among backbenchers on Parliament Hill bas been a great disappointment to those of us who still have some faith in the Parliamentary sys- tem. I think it's fair to say that anyone who can sit in the House of Commons for any length of time wiîthout losing his temper simply isn't paving attention. That's not news, but that too is reality. OFF 70~A/)~E// )Jk -- 1 a