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v f amikrolaha coifm 5 37 sandiford dr suite 306 stoufrviheont us 7x5 v publisher- ian proudfodt ic v j general manager -alvmbrouwer- editorinchief advertising director business manager brenda larson debraweller margaret fleming regional editor classified manager office manager brian kirlik stephen mathieu vivian qneilyj editor distribution director- v tracy kibble barry goodyear j i z r editorial paul martin has made right decision for now contrary to what you may have heard bank merg ers are not dead theyre just on hold for a year finance minister paul martin turned down- two merger bids and said he wont consider any more until he can bring in bank reforms that would protect the public interest s that decision is being hailed in some quarters as thefinal victory of consumer power over banks but it might be wise to wait a year before passing judgment y- for one thing our federal government has been known to reverse itself what is not in thepublic inter- est one year can become a public priority at the shift of a poll for another while the banks have failed txtcon- vince the government or the public before the deci sion was made theres every indication theyll pull out the heavy artillery now indeed royal bank chairperson john cleghorns comment that history will judge if martin has made the right decision for canada can be read as a threat that hell make canadians sorry he didnt get his way while martin has the power to stop chartered banks from getting together he cant prevent them- from closing branches which theyhave threatened to do he cant prevent them from laying off staff which they have threatened to do he cant prevent them from taking away services which they have threatened to do and if a yearfrom now canadians are even less satisfied with their banking system than they are now and iftlie banks blame the fact they werent allowed to merge and if the federal government has finally approved legislation governing the financial services sector we maywell have fewejr canadian chartered banks but for the time being martin has made the right decision i he certainly had no shortage of advice in factfive different panels offered recommendations the com petition bureau the commons finance committee the senate banking committee the liberal caucus committee and the mackay task force none of these groups endorsed the proposed mergers of the royal bank with the bank of montreal and the cibc with torontodominion but three of the reports advised against blanket bans on bank mergers thereby opening the door for deals a year from now those five reports appear to be supported by wide spread public opinion consumers seemed convinced that if five char- tered banks could nickel and dime them to death with service charges strangle small business by refusing to provide loans and offer an everdeclining standard of service then a smaller number of much larger more powerful institutions could only be worse in short the banks did a lousy job of convincing anyone that larger financial institutions were in any- ones test interest their argument was that increas- ing global competition will seriously harm canadian banks unless they are large enough to compete with giant american and european firms its hot an easycase to sell and certainly brow beating politicians wasnt ttie way to do it but in the long run it could be proven to be true the public hostility that helped scuttle the mergers will also help foreign competitors break into the canadian market v y u- r those high service charges and low levels of ser- vicedqindeeo live whether iargerbanlcs would beable tofoffer betv ter service at a better price remains in question- i 1 i i i i i i i i 1 i i r i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i r i i i i i i i rjij 5 m evolution hristmas- symbols u08bftbyurb0undq -r- byw6emen i i- i i i i i i i i i 1 1 i i 1 i i i i i i i i i i i 1 i ejougdeyine m of tolichwith public opinion i- ig485anlrsuriounpep ife 3m i998furby letters to the editor i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i t i i i i i i spirit skate raises 500 for stoufitville food bank v j because of some generous whitchurchstouffville residents some less fortunate people in our community will have food to eat this winter the skate with the spirit event was held sunday afternoon at the whitchurchstouffville recreation complex more than 200 people skated with the players from the spirit of stouffville juniora hockey team the players donated eight large boxes of nonperishable food and 203 in cash the total donation to the whitchurchstouffville food bank is estimated at more than 500 thanks to the town of whitchurch- stpuffville for donating the public skat ing time and to staff members at the rec centre for their help thanks to the spirit players and staff members who drove in from as far away as orillia and toronto for the event thanks to team owners ed and heidi hakonson for the generous donation tot he event thanks to the local family of schools for taking part particularly st mark and orchard park which adopted the skate as their christmas project thanks to volunteers anne salvagna and sharon oshaughnessy and thanks most of all to our gener ous skaters merry christmas see you next year skate with the spirit committee tory bashing obviously left wing radical folk i am compelled to respond to anoth er clever yet subtle attack on the ontario premier mike harris govern ment john sextons letter dec 8 pleading for a party to come forward in the next election without a platform of integrity is lacking in analysis he asserts the tory party is contra vening election rules by appropriately taking their message to the electorate during their governance j is pure nonsense and a twist of the facts j i imagine it would be politically incorrect for me to suggest only social istic extreme left wing radical folks would resort to gratuitously tossing out accusatory terms like dictatorship towards the harris government of course i would never say that in any serious letter to this paper about another- individual or group nor should sexton it is wrong and inappropriate sexton is absolutely free to vote for whom he chooses if he is determined to vote for a party with a platform they dont intend to fol low he wont have to spend any time at all analyzing which ones will do that tom mitchell unionville its somehow ironic that in the very week ottawa is announcing plans to improve the rights of victims we have been bombarded with exam ples of justice gone awry in bur courts its even more ironic that in two of those examples it is the governments themselves fighting tooth arid nail against justice federal justice minister anne mclellan yesterday announced plans to give victims a stronger voice arid more rights in the courts- unfortunately outside the halls of parliament and inside the halls of jus- tice the evidence continues to riiount that were still a lorig way from bringing our justice system in line with the views and wishes of the general public the first example involves the fami ly of slain toronto police officer todd baylis who was gunned down by a vio- lent drug dealer who had beeri ordered deported more than two years before the fatal shooting in june 1994 j as todds father ted himself a life- long toronto police officer explains the family cant begin healing until they know why their sons killer wasnt deported and more importantly until they are suresuch a tragic bureaucratic mixup can never happen again then at least something good may come from their sons death out of touch f t the second example of how far out of touch our justice system is with pub- lie opinion came monday when mr justice harry laforme rejected the- crowns attempt to get micky mcarthur declared a dangerous offenderso hell be locked up for life tv during his 30 crirninal- career- a mcarthuf has bracked up 187 cbnvicf tions and shot six people four of them- police officers his latest crime was a brutal 1994 bank robbery in port perry where three officers and two civilians were shot instead laforme sentenced mcarthur to 1412 years in jail for the bank robbery rheaning hell be free in about nine years to continue robbing banks and shooting cops r- the third example less tragic but no lessexaspefatmglistheouuagepusset- tlement of secualhassmeht jcharges against forihermppvand speaker of ontarios legislature al mclean the 600000 settiement paid by the taxpayers of ontario appears to be nothing but a coverup by the tory party to protect one of their old boys stouffville tribune r servihg the community since 1888 the stouffville tribune published eveiy tuesday thursday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publishing and distributing ltd group of newspapers which includes the ajavpickering news advertiser alliston heraldcourier barrie advance barrys bay this week bolton enterprise brampton guardian burlington shopping news burlington post city parent collingwoodwasaga connection east york mirror- erin advocatecountry routes etobicoke guardian fiamborough post georgetown independentacton free press kingston this week lindsay thsyteek markham economist sun midlandpenetanguishene mirror milton canadian champion milton shopping news mississauga news newmarketaurora georgina erabanner northumberland news north york mirror oakvillc beaver oakvine shopping news oridia today oshawawhjtbyclaringtonport perry this weekpetertorough this week richmond hiilthomhihvaughan ljberalscarmrdughmirrorjmjasseniorslhbridgetribuneandoofybrkguardian e thetribistarca mala0mrmiitnoinbr 1247 ontario press council canadian circulations audit board member y 4