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VIEWPOINT week? she passes away from cancer. the tune of over $100,000. dollars. off (as they should be) Wn nro dont doe 37 year. old Toronto woman who finds herself facing a charge of public mischief after an incredible string of events last The lady walked into a police station and told officers she had been mugged---her purse stolen with grocery money, her medication, personal papers and a one-way bus ticket to Winnipeg for her seven-year old son to use to stay with friends after Police officers at the station took pity on her, set up a bank account, acceptéd donations of food and gifts, air fare for the child to fly to Winnipeg and when the story hit the media, cash donations started flowing in to Very touching indeed, except the woman does not have cancer and was not even the victim of a mugging. Apparently, it was some kind of scheme to bilk the public out of a few Police are red-faced over the entire incident, but let's not blame them for being nice guys. And people who sent money to help a fellow human in apparent deep distress are very ticked This is a strange story. It is just slightly ironic that people were willing to donate over $100,000 to a perfect during the same week that food banks allover Toronto were reporting that. their Easter Drive for - donations had fallen far short of targets. And indeed in Port Perry, the Easter Weekend Drive collected much less than the last campaign at These are very strange times in Canada, but nobody can ever say they are not interesting. As for the charge John B. McClelland than their finances being a "bit inl at the end of the month. There is a feeling of despair, an A lack of any hope that things will get better in the future. An entire generation of young people, even those who are working hard on a university or college education, wonder what their future will be. Will they land 8 joa decent jos that pays a decent salary. There is something seriously out of kilter in this country, indeed the entire world. The social, economic and political similarities between the 1990's and the 1930's are alarming. And we all know what h d when Liberal dose of arrogance To The Editor: It was a sombre evening as snow began . to fall from a leaden sky on the 3rd of April - a fitting setting for the cool reception waiting for Allan Rock, Justice Minister, and Ivan Grose, Liberal MP of Oshawa. as they approached the Harmony _ Creek Golf Centre in Oshawa, gite of a Liberal fiindraising dinner. The crowd, about 200 demonstrators of concerned citizens belonging to groups .like the Family Action Council, Durham 'Women's ition, Ontario Federation of Hunters, Voice of Canadians, and the Sportsmans Alliance, carried signs that fateful decade drew to a close. TO CONCLURE; Can somebody please explain to me what a seven- year old girl is doing at the controls of a single engine airplane? The California youngster was attempting to become the youngest person ever to fly across the United States when she pranged the Cessna into a suburb narrowly missing a house. The girl, her father and a licenced pilot were killed. I take no comfort from the widely publicized statements from the girl's mother that this was something she wanted to do and there is no way the family would ever hold her back, or try to cushion her from anything remotely dangerous. There is nothing to prevent a seven year. from flying an aircraft so long as there is a licenced pilot at the other controls who can take over in the event of an emergency. There is, in my view, no way a seven year old should be flying an airplane, no matter who is sitting in the other seat. Rock of past faux- -pas made in legislations and warnings about the proposed amendment to the Human so thinks Rock. After a few nerve- settling cocktaild'it was back to business as usual for Rock "and Grose. Tell it to the media who will sell it to the land. Rock says that amending the Human Rights Act to ban discrimination on the grounds of orientation megns that homosexuals and . others with a sexual "orientation" cannot be fired from a job or thrown out' of their id b of the "ori ion" and nothing more. He patronizizigly offers up that heterosexuals are included in the legal definition of sexual orientation. "He doesn't acknowledge that homosexuality xual | ip a perversion of nature, ironically called an "orientation". | Although Rock knows full well that once Rights Act that would give homosexuals and others of various "or " near. celebrity status within our "democratic" laws of Canada. -t + Some of the signs read, "Pervert Control, ot Gun Control; No Special Rights for lomites; Protect the Family, Not the Perverts; My Kids should have the Right to Hunt." Rock and Grose d the gauntlet of ls are given special protection against discrimination under the Human Rights Act and the Hate Crime Bill, they will challenge every avenue regarding" discrimination - especially where it comes to "spousal" benefits and hts of adopting children. Rock blissfully glosses over facts and h demonstrators cheerfdl enough and stopped to talk once or twice, but by the time they reached the parking lot of the rea into his own bag of phony statistics. He comes up with plums like "the majority is4n favour of gun control; the Canadian public is for amending the Centre, Rock had a hunted look about him Human Rights Act." Rock even stated and.scurried like a harried little rodent toggard the restaurant ehtrance, with Grose darting closely behind. Once inside, the two politicians refused to respond to taunts or come outside to that present statistics reports coming in from the courts across the country show "that stiffer sentences were now being meted out - that's called working? * 1 thought'a crimé bill could be seen as address the crowd from the safety of the working if it reduced the rate of crime. For the finale, Grose suggested to the bal¢ony. THe tumultuous welcome subsided and an eerie calm ltke the aftermath of battle on the battlefield fell upon the scene: outside, snow started to come down; inside, the martinis started to go down, and the politicians preened | their ruffled feathers as the saddened press that the unhappy demonstrators could vote for Reform if they were dissatisfied with the Performance of his Liberals. It's funny that you should say that Ivan. enough dispersed. No harm done, just a routine public appearance by the noble politicians and of public mischief against the *| questions. I don't have the answers. . hild h up for ad clothing, shelter. - up for ad but not letel; well. or elsewhere in Canada. comfortable. / + who initiated things, I wonder what's the point. If convicted will they clap her in jail, impose a hefty fine (which she won't be able to pay)? Or will the case just get thrown out of court? In any event who is paying for her legal defense and should the over-worked court system be dealing with a case like this when there are thousands of more important cases back-logged months and even years? Good On another matter, I was intrigued (and horrified) to read that at least two families in Simcoe County had put they can no longer afford to"provide them with the necessities of life--food, The story made big headlines but it turns out that Simcoe County, Childrens Aid had over-stated the facts somewhat. Yes, a child was given i for economic reasons. Seems there were a lot of other factors in the decision as However, that's not to say that it can't or won't happen in this province There are a lot of desperate people struggling just to make ends meet. The wolf of poverty is not just sniffing at the back door, he's long since in the house and has made himself very There is an air of desperation, and for many people it cuts much deeper Had this young girl been ful her vulgar d ation of biased in b e youngest ever to fly isfaction from the servant across the continent, you know damn well it would be just a matter of time before a five. year old tried to better the record, or a three-year old. By the way, Guinness long ago stopped recording this kind of thing because of the safety factor. Had the girl's father and the licenced pilot survived last week's crash, they should have been charged, in my view, an ; . As | said, it was a strange week, and we haven't talked .about that horrendous shooting in British Columbia where an entire family was wiped out by a man distraught (obviously) over the break-up of his marriage. Predictably, there are questions being raised about how the RCMP pproved hand-gun purch for this guy when they knew he had threatened his wife in the past. It seems to me that anyone in this state of mind, prepared to methodically wipe out an entire" family, is not going to be stopped over whether his @ weapons are legal or not. The two hand-guns used in thig crime happened to be legally registered. For a price (and a surprisingly small price) just about any kind of firearm is available on the "black market" and they kill just as readily as those with all the correct paper-work. Enough said, By the way, how was your week? The dumbest of us has had of thy arrogance you stand for and support. Af the next election you will have a ciiance to reflect about the vaters you have alienated. Jann Flury, Oshawa, Ont. Entertainment from MP . To the Editor: - H As a voter of the Durham riding, apprecidte our MP Alex Shepherd's admission that hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid are being on non-deserving countries. Especially shocking was the fact that hard-earned Canadian tax dollars go the Turks and Caicos Islands, places that = Mr. Shepherd admits -- don't have any income wl, even harder to stomach is shad 162 raising taxed? Typical is the recent 1-1/2. cénts-a-litre increase in gasoline taxes. When Jean Chretien was finance ministes~ under Trudeau, he used to say: "Budget deficits don't matter." The present situation still reflects that same attitude. Cledrly, the Prime Minister hasn't changed much. At that time he believed in spend, spend, spend, and tax, tax, tax, and, 80 does'he today. Hopefully, Mr. Shepherd ~ \ will continue to entertain us'with more . revelations about Liberal waste. It will our d million annually Canada donat China. China is one of the alan port and fastest growing pawers in the world with i when it comes to 'building 'rockets and nuclear weapons. In an indiredt way, our tax dollars are subsidizing these activiti while ordinary Canadians ean only hope that these weapons may never land here. It seems unfair of Mr. Shepherd to shift the blame for these abusers, away from the really guilty ones, to ordinary Canadians by making statements like: "It appears Canadians are not only overly generous, but also particularly caring about who gets aid." Mr. Shepherd, krjows better than that! Ordinary Canadians have too much sommon sense. This squandering of resources is done by Liberals who refuse to be held accountable. By Liberals like Jean Chretien and Mr. Shepherd himse| who should have shid: "It appears are not only overly generous, but also not particularly caring about who gets aid." But, what can we expect from a government that is so proud that itd last deficit was only $32-billion and is still ¢ gth ination to punish these s spenders at the ballot box. Sincerely, Evert V Hampton, Ontario Return rings, no questions To the Editor: This is to the person (persons) who removed several pieces of jewelry from a home on Lakeridge Road on the ing of March 12, 1996. , The misking itemy include a past president' Kinsmen ring, and four lacrosse Mann Cup tings dated 1985, 1987, 1089 and 1991. There is no way.these rings can be replaced. We would very much appreciate it if the person ble would return the rings quietly--there will be no questions asked. Thank you. ' Name withheld, h ~~ it