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ftitnrtfeiehoftslmyjmarchwiitfq sfc thursday march 19 1998 vol 110 no 22 the tribune is a member of the ontario press council the tribune opinions send your letters to the editor to the address below editorial balance required the destiny of people arriving in a new land is hard to pre dict we know canada needs immigrants and that immigrants helped make this country so dependent now on internation al trade more prosperous by opening new partnerships with the wider world canada would be foolish if it sought to admit only per fect immigrants people who speak one of our official languages fluently are welleducated by our standards and are young and already wealthy j yet that is what some recommendations in a recent federal report on canadas immigration and refugee laws seem meant to do j it was a welcome relief last week to hear immigration min ister lucierine robillard suggest these hasty proposals would be shelved robillards advisory panel had proposed language require ments for future immigrants basic knowledge for most fluency for some those whose french or english isnt good enough it argued should pay for language training the panel also felt immigrants who come as entrepreneurs should be between 21 and 45 years old but who can reasonably say successful immigrants who are older than 45 have nothing to contribute to this country or that poor english is an obstacle an enterprising immigrant cannot overcome last week robillard pledged a more balanced apprpach one canadians should welcome w waza l closing gallery demonstrates poor judgement dear editor we are greatly disappointed with the decision of the library board to close latcham gallery and especially with the process by which that decision was made we have been residents of this town for 13 years and both we and our children have benefit ted from the programs and opportunities available to us through the library and the gallery because of its location in the library the gallery has provided us and countless other families the possibility of acquainting ourselves with many different artists and many different art forms in a way that is easily accessible in this respect the latcham gallery is unique in ontario and the vision of its founders and the hard work of its many volunteers should be commend ed and supported by the town the gallery is visited regularly by library patrons by students and by other residents of stouf- fville and surrounding commu nities with the recent efforts by the chamber of commerce to improve the marketability of stouffville the importance- of having a variety of attractions and businesses becomes espe cially important at a time when our popula tion may double and the down- letters town core is being revitalized the decision to close the gallery seems especially illconsidered we question the lack of vision of both the board and the coun cil in closing a facility which has enriched the cultural life of this community showcasing local artists and exposing a large number of residents from small children to seniors to a rich variety of artistic experi ences the reason for the closure is cited as being strictly finan cial and the proposal has been made by judy scala town sparing rod spoils the child dear editor your editorial on spanking in the march 5 tribune entitled spanking okay caught my eye surely there must be something in the word of god to instruct us how to raise our family after all he is the creator of all things but isnt the word written by man true but didnt the apostle timothy say he was inspired of god to write it ii timothy 316 what does his word say then proverbs 1324 he that spares his rod hates his son but he that loves him chastens him at times prov 1918 chasten thy son while there is hope and let not thy soul spare for his crying prov 2215 foolishness is bound in the heart of a child but the rod of correction will drive itfarfmm him prov 2915 the rod and reproof give wisdom but a child left to himself brings his mother to shame all discipline must be done with patience and love not in anger we should be able to look on our chil dren with pride and not with shame n ellis silver jubilee says thanks for helping dear editor on behalf of the silver jubilee club we would like to thank each and every one of you for making our st patricks bazaar such a big success jean smith councillor that the gallery be run as a private enterprise not with our tax dollars according the jan williams library board chair the gallery is only supported by 213 members this kind of reasoning can only be seen as selfserving the real members of the gallery are the many thousands of visitors who come to view its exhibits every year and the children and adults who have benefitted from art classes art appreciation courses lectures and talks about art we agree with a recent letter in the tribune by sharon maude who with many other gallery vol unteers has sought to bring a bal ance in the recreation and leisure activities offered in this town our own family is very involved in sports activities specifically hockey and soccer but we have always appreciated the fact that stouffville is not only a sports town but also a music town and up until now an art town by their lack of support and funding and by the lack of mean ingful dialogue to look at ways of integrating the gallery into the future of this town we feel that both the library board and town council have demonstrated poor judgement we hope that both the library board and town council will recon sider this decision and seek more public input into ways that this wonderful facility can continue to contribute to the life of the com munity of stouffville ruth and andrew patterson stouffville tribune a metreland com newspaper patricia pappas publisher andrew mair editor-in- chief tracy kibble editor debraweller director of advertising mike rogerson retail advertising manager stacey allen classified manager barry goodyear director of distribution vivian oneil business manager pamela nichols operations manager about us 905 6402100 r tej til sales f x9056402100 905 6402874 distribution 905 6402100 q5 6405477 5 j rrr rrr rrrzrz tbetnbsarca 6244 main st stoufivfflef j ir4ale2 x vx it v y j- fe the stouffville tribune pub s llshnd iyefjr tueiday thursday j and saturday- is one of bs 1 mptroiandprinting publishing j and distribution group of commu- z nlty newspapers which includes i i aiaxplckering new advertiser raii8tohheraldcourier brri 5 advance brampton guardian iburtingtoni post cityparent i coliingwobdavataea beach con- is i nectlon east york mirror etobl- i coke guardian georgetown in t ptudenwuton f- ivesa mldlndpeoclnglihcne mirror ubbh wbllbvclorlngtonport perry tbls week peterborough this week richmond hultbornhlllvughn i liberalise mirror and luxbridgetv contents cannot be rrprinlrdwilh- out wrlllcn permission from he i publisher permit iiuv the pub s ildjerresenea the right lo refuse or elaasify an advertisement jcredttfor advertisement limited j to space the error occupied letters policy the tribune welcomes your letters to the editor please keep letters to no more than 300 words note that letters may be edited for space libel spelling grammar while we endeavor to print as many letters as possible we regret that not all let ters may be printed