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'5 . Comments 4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, October 6, 1987 Editorial ~ Taking and Giving Just last week, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that the City of Brampton is not liable for a $6.3 million damage suit sought by the family of a youngster who suffered brain damage ten years ago when he cracked up his motorcycle on land owned by the City. That case, which attracted wide-spread media publicity, had caused a lot of jitters in a lot of people, partly because the young man who was 14 at the time of the accident, was largely the architect of his own misfortune, and partly because a lot of people wondered if the settlement would pave the way for more mile-high judgements in the future. The Court of Appeal finally said no. While it may not be prudent to make comparisons, we could not help but notice that the same week the Appeal Court was over-turning the Brampton judgement, another court in Hamilton ruled that a man is entitled to $345,000 for injuries suffered in a car accident in which neither car sustained any damage. The judge ruled the man suffered medical problems and other ailments in the minor crash that complicated injuries he had suffered in an earlier car accident in 1975. He picked up $180,000 in damages for that one. In ruling that the man is entitled to $345,000 in damages, Madam Justice Janet Boland noted that the pain suffered by the man is "en- tirely out of proportion to the injury." There is no permanent neurological injury and the man suffers from a "form of accident neurosis.' The Judge also came to the con- clusion that with proper counselling and motivation, the man, a school teacher, should be able to return to work in two years. The insurance company plans to appeal. At What Price? Even Conservative MPs were slightly taken back when they heard that the Canadian Government, (er, the taxpayers) will be picking up a $31 million tab for two international conferences held in this country. The first one, the summit of francophone nations held in Quebec City last month for 37 French-speaking nations, cost just a tad over $11 million. The price tag for the upcoming Commonwealth con- ference in Vancouver is nearly $20 million. Security arrangements gobbled up half the total. Now, international conferences have their place in this world, and it's mighty nice of Canada to be such a gracious host. But surely $31 million in taxpayers money is a trifle much to lavish on the heads of state from all over the world. Could we not have spent just a hun- dred grand or so on a big conference call and put the balance against 'the national debt? Seriously, while we believe that Canada as one of the wealthiest nations in the world, has some kind of an obligation to host interna- tional get-togethers, $31 million for two such chin-wags in ridiculous. It's hard to justify when right at this moment, Canada Post, for ex- ample, is in the process of hacking up rural postal offices to save money, and there is a strike on because the Post Office wants to farm out its business to save a few more dollars. Most ordinary Canadians have never paid as much in personal income tax as they are paying right now. And there are layers upon layers of so-called "hidden taxes" which take their bite out of every weekly pay cheque. When Canadians find out just how the Government is spending their tax dollars, it's no wonder that more and more of us feel just (Turn to page 9) eats aa || "rane np ee oat 11111 ENP. v > i; ill | )T% COMFORTING TO KNow WASHINGTON FEELS ACID RAIN DAMAGE 15 40 MUCH BUNK / Port Perry Qs CNA 099 \ 3A 235 QUEEN STREET - PORT PERRY, ONTARIO . Phone 985-7383 PO Box90 LOB INO J. PETER HVIDSTEN Publisher Advertising Manager Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Community Newspaper Association Published every Tuesday by the . Port Perry Star Co (td Port Perry Ontario - JB. McCLELLAND Editor Authorized Office Department Ottawa and tor --a! IS SECON Class Mai Dy the Pog CATHY-OLLIFFE News & Features gs oy mM Un Ey A (Qs ' » TY - in al payment of postage ast Seconft Class Mad Repistration Number 0066 - Subscription Rate: In Canada $20 00 per year Elsewhere $60 00 per year Single Copy 50° COPYRIGHT -- All layout and composition of advertisements produced by the adver tising department of the Port Perry Star Company Limited are protected under copyright and may not be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher Chatterbox by Cathy Olliffe ON THIN ICE There is something I must confess. I dread the thought of revealing this fact in public. It is SO embarrassing. But I am pressured to bare my soul in the hopes of saving someone else. Here goes. I ----1, well, heck, (spit it out!), okay, I ---- I CAN'TSKATE! | Alright? I said it. It's'out. My cards are laid on the table. I, Cathy Olliffe, cannot skate. My ankles wobble, they burn, they hurt. My backside is habitually soaked from repeated con- tact with the ice surface. : Tiny tots with skates the size of dried prunes skate circles around me. Old folks glide by me like -I'm standing still. Really, it is so awful, now knowing how to skate. E Especially in a EVERYONE skates. [ mean, Port Perry is a hockey town, right? And if its citizens aren't playing hockey, they're playing ringette. And if they're not into team sports, they're learning how to do figure eights. Moms and Tots glide around the ice on Wednesday mornings. A group of older guys hack around with a hockey puck on Sunday nights. And during public skating, teenagers whip around like they have the devil on their tails. Not knowing how to skate in this land of skaters is like being a prostitute in a nunnery, like a Conservative in the Peterson government, like well, you get the idea. You just don't fit in, when you don't skate. What's more, people don't understand why you don't know. A workmate at the Star said, "How can you be a Canadian and not know how to skate?" A good question. My brother played hockey, my sister took figure skating lessons, but somehow, I never managed to make it to the neighbourhood arena. Maybe I was too busy with Brownies, who knows. For years, it didn't seem to matter that I couldn't skate. But now that I'm married to a hockey-playing husband, I'm beginning to feel inadequate. Especially since yesterday when I had some free time and spent it at Scugog Memorial Arena, careening off the boards, resting tired ankles on the benches, and discovering the wonders of the ice surface at the level of the ice itself It was a sheerly horrid performance. but at the.same time, refreshing and fun. For the first time in ages, I found myself desperately trying to master my blades, and thoroughly enjoying the odd moments when I wasn't falling. And I thought to myself, | WANT TO LEARN. community where And I asked myself, WHERE DO I LEARN? I could, I suppose, sign up with the four year olds in the Port Perry Figure Skating Club. But that thought is even more embarrassing than not knowing how to skate at all. So I asked around, and came to the conclusion there is no place for adults to learn the basics. I'm not talking the basics of hockey or figure skating. Just plain skating -- how to stop, how to start, how not to make a goof of yourself on the ice. Absolute- ly nothing fancy. Rashly, I decided to get something going myself. An hour once a week with a teacher who would show adult beginners the basics of skating. Unfortunately, prime time (after school, at nights) at the arena is already booked up pretty solid. Fortunately, there's plenty of time available during school hours. So my idea is to confiscate an hour every Wednesday morning from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.; hire someone who knows all about skating to show the basics; and gather together a group of adults who are just as terrible on skates as I am. I'm sure there are other people in the com- munity who skate just as badly as I do. I don't know how many, but I'm looking for at least 10 others to join in. At the moment, I have no idea how much the lessons might cost. If the teacher, for example, charges $25 an hour, then the group could split the cost, as well as the cost of renting ice time. At most, with 10 people, the hour might cost $6.50. Personally, I don't think that's too much money, if it means being able to skate without looking like a lunatic. So I've pretty well got the ice time, I'm track- ing down a teacher, and all I need is a list of names of people who are interested in coming out. If you think you'd like the join in the fun (and I know it will be fun), then give me a call at the Star (985-7383), sometime before the end of the week. Hopefully, we can get started on October 14th. In the meantime, I have a few questions about skating in general. Why is it that girls' skates always have picks' that trip you up and make you fall on your face, while boy's skates are smooth and supposedly easier to learn on? Why don't skate manufacturers simply make pleasure skates for both sexes without picks' Why do hockey skates have tons of ankle sup- port, while figure skates are made with little sup- port? Are girls supposed to have stronger ankles' I, for one, do not have strong ankles and would ap- preciate a skate that resembles a ski boat. Or possibly a cast. Do Wayne Gretzky's ankles ever hurt? (Turn to page 10) ------------