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4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, June 25, 1985 editorial comments Adieu, Rene Un the su~~C9, it was pretty hard for anyone not to harbour at least some admiration for Rene Levesque. Fidgety, rumpled, often with deep circles under the eyes, cigarette dangling from his lips, affable, testy; he didn't look like the sleek buttoned-down politician of the 1970's and 80's. Rene Levesque is getting out of politics, and since he announced his intentions last week, some commen- tators in English Canada have been rather kind to the man who founded and led the Parti Quebecois. In recent years, his party was split in a bitter ideological fight over how far to take separatism. His par- ty lost by-election after by-election to the point where it seems almost a certainty that Liberal Robert Bourassa (remember him?) will form the next government. Levesque may have been the most colourful politi- cian in Canada, one of the most controversial, a man with a vision for the province and its people. He may have steered his party away for the complete independence option in recent years. But make no mistake, he was a "separatiste," the leader of a party whose purpose was to take Quebec out of Confederation, to split the Canadian nation down the middle. Fortunately for Canada, a majority of the people of Quebec decided they didn't want to pursue this course to the final outcome. Levesque recognized this and pull- ed in his horns for political reasons, much to the chagrin of the hard liners in the ranks of the PQ. Do we shed a tear for Rene? Not really. Why should anyone who puts Canada first feel any regret that he's leaving the political scene. Had circumstances and history taken a slightly different course, he might very well be retiring as the head of state of an independent country, and the rest of Canada would be a fragmented mess heading tor the United States. Terrorism The war came home to Canada over the weekend. The "war is the ever increasing and always brutal struggle with a seemingly endless stream of terrorists and extremist factions around the globe. For the most part, that 'war' has by-passed Canada. Up until the weekend, that is. An Air India jet liner with 329 people on board took off from Toronto and disappeared into the sea off the Irish Coast. All were lost and investigators strongly believe that a bomb destroyed the plane. Also on the weekend, a CP Air jet from Vancouver to Tokyo may have been the target of a terrorist attack. That plane landed safely, but a few minutes later a bomb in baggage exploded and two employees at Tokyo Air- port were killed. Had the bomb gone off half an hour earlier, the plane and all its 390 passengers likely would have been destroyed. In the case of the Air India jet liner, a group calling itself the Sikh Student Federation is claiming responsibility. Suddenly, Canada has been thrust front and cen- tre in the bloody world of international terrorism. It's a world that governments and police forces admit they have little effective means of controlling. And that is the core of the problem. How does the civilized world deal with terrorism? Give in to the demands? Hardly, for that would simply open the doors for more and more of the same. Get tough and use whatever force necessary? That seems like an easy answer, but in most cases, the authorities don't even know who they are dealing with. And besides. terrorist groups welcome martyrs ready to "die for the cause." Who is financing these groups; who is supplying them with the money, the bombs and the weapons, the passports? What 1s the underlying cause of terrorism? What prompts somebody to blow up a jet liner in mid-flight, killing in the process more than 300 innocent people? In most cases, the cause of terrorism in the 1980's stems from an old political conflict that has never been resolved. Is there anything the civilized world can do to pro- tect the innocents from this barbaric war? Precious Iit- tle, it seems, if events of recent history are any indica- tion. The policy adopted by many countries of not giv- Ing In to terronst demands is a brutal one, but is pro- bably the most effective, like dealing with any kind of blackmail. Rooting out the terronsts and bringing them to justice through a court of law 1s paramount. We may desire "instant revenge,' but if the civilized world stoops to this level, the terrorists will have won a victory over all of us. As for Canada, the real world has suddenly caught up to us. a8 NA° EET NT A TL SA a No XL HAIL Seth by Cathy Robb chatterb DOUG'S BIRTHDAY REVISITED Plans of Mice and Men ...... Why is it, that I feel so inclined to do wondrous ex- citing things on other people's birthdays when nobody has ever held a surprise party for me? - Is it in the vain hope that someone, somewhere, will remember my birthday, and thus do something totally outrageous" Whatever the reason, I continue to plan mad par- ties for good friends. And most of the time, they work out madly. Except last Sunday. Doug Olliffe's birthday. It was supposed to be a party to end all parties. Something he'd never forget. We called ourselves The R-Team. R for restricted. The game plan required us to meet Sunday at 7:45 a.m. in the Emiel's Place parking lot, clothed in black with stockings or balaclavas pulled over our heads. Two of the team membexs were to bring toy machine guns, one was responsible for rope, another for a blindfold, and it was up to me to bring the music, a walkman and my camera (natch). The music came to the team courtesy of Jim Mot- ton, the promoter from Crandell's Riverboat, who stayed up until the wee hours one night mixing us a tape filled with real Mission Impossible-type stuff. The Doug- knapping tape started out with the theme from Jaws, which we planned to have on full blast when we burst into Doug's bedroom at 8 a.m. His roomie Jeff promised to leave the front door open ---- all we had to do was sneak into the house, arm- ed with toy guns, Jaws music and rope, and HOWL through his bedroom door, scaring the bejeebers out of him as he lay sleeping (hopefully). He'd only be able to see The R Team for a split se- cond as he awoke, but with our disguises, he wouldn't know for sure who was responsible. And before he could even sit up, we'd have him blindfolded and hog-tied ---- and on his way out the door. We'd drive him around for awhile, ensconced in the back seat between two team members, with toy machine guns stuck firmly in his ribs, before taking him to the soccer field where we planned to tie him between two goal po-ts And there we'd leave him (well, actually, we plann- ed to have two guys babysit him to make sure nothing happened, but he'd FEEL like he was on his own), while we went to pick up the stripper The STRIPPER, you say" Yeah, well, I spent all day Thursday shopping for an appropriate strip-o-gram company before deciding to go with Gerry's Tease Me Telegrams, a Toronto com- pany that was going to charge The R-Team a hundred bucks for 15 minutes of vicarious thrills. At first we figured on paying the whole shot ourselves, but team member Ron Larkin pointed out that Dougie has bags of pals all over town who would just love to contribute a few bills to send him a stripper. So, we took up a collection, and within two days had enough cash to pay for the whole shin-dig. Nobody turn- ed us down. One thing's for sure, Doug's a lucky guy to have so many good friends. Anyways, we told Gerry of Gerry's Tease Me Telegrams to have the stripper meet us in front of the post office at 8:30 a.m. We were to pick her up and take her to the soccer field, where the entire R-Team would hide. Then the stripper would walk up to the hog-tied-and- by-now-probably-freaking-Doug, and take off his blindfold. And before he could start cursing at her for our stupidity, she'd start her bump-and-grind routine and finish by handing Doug a birthday card and driving him home. He was never to see The R-Team again and never really know who had planned his demise. Heh, heh. Later that night, while he was working at Emiel's Place, we planned to drop by with a cake Ron had made (a great huge sucker in the shape of a golf bag), and hear what he had thought of the whole operation. "Oh Geeze," we planned on mumbling, 'Who could have done such a thing?" Well, things didn't exactly work out as planned. To start with, some of The R-Team members weren't as gutsy as we originally thought. A few pup- pied out right from the beginning. Fine, we thought, we'll just add to the team. So I gave Doug's brother Charlie a call, figuring, hey, it's the guy's brother, of COURSE he'll want to join in on the fun and games. I should have suspected something was up the mo- ment I described the plan to Charlie, who was a little bit, how shall I say, icey on the phone. But it wasn't until the next day I found out how ornery Charlie really was. Understandably, he was being protective of his big brother, who he thought would croak with heart failure. To put it more simply, Charlie freaked, and threaten- ed to blow the whole scam wide open by telling Doug the gory details. So what choice did we have" Reluctantly, we agreed to cancel the kidnapping part of the plan. But the stripper was booked and the money was collected so Phase Two of The R-Team plan was put into effect. We'd merely bring the stripper in- to his house Sorry Charlie. Heh, heh. (Turn to page 6) i. -