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p4 weekender january- 16 1993 our opinion lock up repeat sex offenders an inquest into the death of an 11yearold brampton boy raises seri ous questions about what the federal government should do with dangerous sex offenders christopher stevenson was taken at knifepoint from a shopping centre in 1988 by joseph freder icks a child rapist with eight convictions he was raped and mur dered now a coroners jury is trying to decide what measures could have been taken to avoid such an atrocity viewpoint paula crowell fredericks had been released from prison on mandatory supervision there has been pressure for a new law similar to one on the books in washington state there sex offenders can be detained in prison indefinitely when a sex offender is released police in the area are alerted so they can warn the public theres no possible way to protect the public from such criminals all the time but more can be done to avoid similar tragedies the federal government should take a long hard look at lock ing up repeat sex offend ers for good the expense of keeping them incarcer ated would surely be less than the cost of mopping up the woe they cause when they commit crime after crime court and counselling we criticize brazil yet give in here an open letter to premier bob rae i like you am appalled by the destruction of the amazon rain forest it is easy however to be critical of the way developing countries like brazil treat the environment yet despite our privileged position we still give in to the constant pressures to exploit our natural spaces we have already destroyed 80 per cent of the wetlands and 95 per cent of the forests in southern ontario fortunately some natural spaces still remain however these too are threatened and may soon disappear the lands in the proposed rouge valley nationalprovincial park are one of these spaces the threats are universal high ways urban sprawl pollution waste disposal and deforesta tion to name a few the destniction is usually perma nent the world wildlife fund of canada has designated the rouge as a critical unprotected natural area today we have the opportunity to preserve protect and promote the rouge by including all of the approxi mately 20000 acres of provin- cially and federally owned lands within the rouge park a 20000acre nationalprovin cial park would protect this natural area which runs from lake ontario to the oak editors mail ridges moraine from current and future threats please act now before more of our wet lands forests plants and ani mals are further threatened or destroyed it is time for us to lead by example lets create and pro mote a nationalprovincial park that will leave a legacy that we can be proud of i truly believe that preserving our environment by creating a natural park of this magnitude is one of the greatest gifts that we can leave the province of ontario sandra and peter balint markham hofcfzoime iu0m r1rt0yiiwu 1 vuwufyomd aw twtf asof m nfcw 1 1 wold ntffciness fcktlokwwes j nfl6vtee mi brian bass costs are reason enough to make a change in the case of firsttime offenders it would be wise to enact a law that allows the public to be informed when a prisoner is released the violation of the offenders rights is more than outweighed by the right of the public to know of a potentially haz ardous situation markham economist and sun st0uffville tribune uxbridge tribune weekender edition a metroland community newspaper patricia pappas publisher jo ann stevenson editorinchief paula crowell editor andrew mair editor debraweller director of advertising jennifer hutt director of distribution vtvtanoneil business manager pam nichols operations manager markham 291 2200 sales 7987g24 classi fied 2941331 stottflvillc g1021o0 uxbridgc 852971 1 29 18214 distribution and administration 9 heritage rd markham l3p 1m2 fax markham 2911538 stouflville 640- 5477 uxbridgc 8524355 the markham economist and sun stouuville tri bune and uxbridgc tribune published every wednesday and saturday is one or the metroland printing njblishingand distributing group ofsubur- ban newspapers which includes ajax pickering xews advertiser barrio advance brampton guardian burlington post collingwood connection ktobicoke guardian the liberal georgetown inde- pendentxcton free press kingston this week lindsay this week milton canadian champion mississauga xews xorth york mirror oakville beaver orillia today oshawaavhitby this week ielcilxmmgh this week scarborough minor the era banner contents not to bo reproduced without written permission from the publisher define canadians by our preference canada is a private joke shared by all canadians but we dont like other people getting in on it of course its a nitwit coun try of course there are too few of us and were racially prejudiced of course we bumble around and were always cold and we keep building enormous monuments to a canadian culture that doesnt exist of course we keep electing foolish people who make us promises we dont believe theyll deliver but its our private joke well laugh at it but nobody else had better sean kelly ho hum yet another entry in the most popular timewasting pursuit north of the 49th paral lel the ongoing neverending party quiz game that asks you to answer the question what is a canadian wake me when its over defining canadianism is a pastime thats been obsessing folks in these parts for years ever since that famous boozeup in charlottetown a century and a quarter ago when a gaggle of politicos in stovepipe hats got together over a couple of cases of whisky to thumb tack and scotch tape this country togeth er the fathers of confederation did a fair job of cobbling those early provinces but they forgot to whip up a worldclass nation al identity for us in the 125 years since schol ars and soothsayers proselytiz- ers and pundits have all had a go at nailing down exactly what it is that makes canadians nei ther american nor british nor french there have been some dandy definitions but none of them are ever quite perfect the best definition i ever heard came from irving layton the montreal poet decreed that a canadian is any person who goes around asking what is a canadian i dont propose to try and basic black o w- s- x arthur black answer the question here today life is too short but i think its my public duty to announce that theres a whole new data base out there for people who do want to make the attempt its a book by heather brazier which i found in the toe of my christmas stocking its called which do you prefer chunky or smooth the book is 268 pages detailing what canadians eat watch read buy and do on an average day the contents are enlightening with occasional excursions into incredible did you know that on an aver age day canadians spend 9589041 on lottery tickets that 214 of us get divorced that 223 canadians give up booze that 13699 of us say chuck it approximately and take the day off to go fishing ohan average day prime min ister mulroney receives 274 let- ters it doesnt say what per centage of them is xrated we drink 55575000 cups of coffee and at least one of us gets caught smoking in the wash i on a canadian airplane we might be able to identify canadians by checking their mouths theres definitely a sweet tooth in there canadians chomp their way through 274888 kilograms of chocolate daily which may explain why 28493 of us start a new diet or weight loss program on the same average day as to the question posed by the title its smooth canadians prefer smooth to chunky peanut butter by a three to one margin well we do have a reputation for being somewhat bland which do you prefer chunky or smooth by heather braziei published by harper collins