The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

6- The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday May 16, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 Circulation: 845-9742 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. NEIL OLIVER Publisher JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director TERI CASAS Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA CALHOUN Circ. Manager Words to live by The United States has Al Gore, but Canada has Stephen Lewis. And when it comes to championing a cause, we'll take Lewis, the former leader of the Ontario NDP and one-time United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, any day of the week. Last week, Oakville residents were treated to two special appearances by Lewis, at the oomama fundraiser at Appleby College, Thursday night, and at Iroquois Ridge the following day for the high school's annual Annual Global Conference: Raising Awareness ­ HIV/AIDS and the Race Against Time. Both groups should be congratulated for inviting Lewis to speak. Few people who witnessed these two presentations -- and there were more than 2,400 people at the two events -- were not moved by this eloquent speaker. That's what happens when people are speaking from the heart and no one doubts the genuine passion that Lewis feels for his cause. As the UN Special Envoy, Lewis witnessed firsthand the devastation HIV/AIDS is wrecking on Africa. While he acknowledges that progress is being made -- according to a recent World Health Organization report of the two million people receiving treatment for the virus around the world 1.3 million are from Africa -- he quickly adds, it's not enough. "Five million additional people require treatment now," he told Thursday's audience. Lewis adds the deaths are avoidable because the antiretroviral drugs are available, but the Western world, including Canada, is failing on its promises to provide the drugs for free. Canada is not blameless. According to Lewis legislation is in place to allow the life-saving drugs to be manufactured for developing countries, but, as yet, Canada has never issued a simple compulsory licence to allow the production of a generic version of the patented drug. "What in God's name is wrong with the world that is willing to see a continent as expendable?," asks Lewis. We don't have the answer for that question. For its part, oomama gave everyone in attendance Thursday night a lobby letter urging the federal government to make good on its 2004 commitment to manufacture a generic version of the life-saving drug. If anyone has not yet sent their letter in, we urge you to do so, but not before running off a few copies to give to your friends. The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Re: Councillors side with residents against walkways, Oakville Beaver, May 11. What a shame that a tiny minority of the population is allowed to make life so uncomfortable for residents of Oakville. We bought here a year ago, in an area further south of the one mentioned. We back onto a trailway, which we thought was an advantage -- sharing the view of trees, not overlooked by anyone, great for walking the dog -- what a wonderful access to nature the trails and parks are, or so we thought. Thoughtless young vandals ruin enjoyment of backyard trailway view Our peace has often been disturbed, not by noise and drug use thankfully, but by vandalism. Some young people (yes, we know that for a fact) delight in the ignorant activity of throwing articles over our fence -- gravel, eggs (which are very difficult to clean up), chunks of asphalt, which fortunately did not hit any windows, and general refuse. They also seem to gain pleasure from punching holes in the lattice at the top of our new fence. Simple things please simple minds. Is there a solution? Even with motion sensor lights they know they can run away before we reach them. Perhaps the Town should allow homeowners backing onto public land to erect fences much higher than the present six-foot limit (I hesitate to suggest barbed wire at the top). It won't stop the puerile behaviour, but at least we can gain a little more protection of our personal property. SANDRA DONCASTER Rinks purchase still a bad deal Just to set the record straight, I am in complete agreement with Wayne Moorehead (Town's purchase of Twin Rinks a good deal for Minor hockey, Oakville Beaver May 9) that arenas, like other recreational and cultural facilities, need to be in sufficient supply in Oakville to be affordable. As a councillor I argued for the Town to directly subsidize private ice until Town-owned ice could catch up to the needs of the Minor Oaks Hockey Association and other groups. The interest alone on the $7.5 million paid to move Dominion Twin Rinks from private to public ownership would have easily funded such a subsidy. Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com See Benefits page 7 The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline.