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

p 4 tribune october 30996 st trrrtrrrrrrrrrr comment communitys heart goes out to family the tragedy which befell the francis family of ballantrae this weekend was every parents nightmare an irrevocable and horrifying accident which will scar that family and their friends forever when a child dies especially in an accident there is nothing that can be said no soothing words of wisdom that can lessen the pain the community weeps as a whole with this loss nothing positive can come of this fouryearolds untimely death but if a little knowledge can be gained that would prevent such a tragedy from happening again he will not have died com pletely in vain children have an insatiable curiosity especially for things that move and make loud noises unfortunately their level of safe ty consciousness is not fully developed much before the end of their first decade or in the case of some teens their second decade this curiosity must be tem pered everyone knows this everyone also knows that a child can disappear in the excitement of being with we pray incidents like blink of an eye there is his dad at work dis- this never happen but nothing that could have obeyed him and now the they always do our prevented this tragedy family is in deep shock hearts go out to the fran- the youngster in his and grief cis family lfw stouffville tribune 6244 main st stouffville ont l4a1e2 905 6402100 905 6492292 classified 905 6402874 fax 905 6405477 publisher patricia pappas general managereditor andrew mair editorinchief jo ann stevenson director of advertising debra weller retail manager mike rogerson classified manager stacey allen distribution manager barry j goodyear administration vivian oneil operations mgr pamela nichols questions news andrew mair editor joan ransberry julie caspersen mike adler reporters sjoerd witteveen steve somerville photographers retail advertising joan marshman catherine dunkeld classified bonnie rondeau real estate joan marshman distribution arlene maddock reception ruth le blanc the stousville tribune published every wednesday and saturday is one or the metroland printing publish ing and distribution group or community newspapers which includes ajax pickering news advertiser alliston heraldcourier barrie advance brampton guardian burlington post cityparent colhngwiodwasaga con- nection east york mirror etobiooke guardian george town independentacton free press kingston this week lindsay this week midlandpenetanguishene mirror markham economist and sun milton canadian champi on mississauga news newmarket aurora erabanner northumberland news north york mirror oakville beaver orillia today oshawawhitbyclarington this week peterborough this week richmond hillthorn- hillvaughan liberal scarborough mirror todays seniors uxbridge tribune contents cannot be reprinted without written permission from the publisher bb1 teacher offers account of days of action protest much has been written about torontos days of action but what were the sights sounds and feel ings in the eye of the storm here are my observations as a partici pant in the saturday days of action protest 855 am twentyfive school buses leave the oshawa centre for toronto filled primarily with durham teachers we are also joined by parents students and health care workers we protesters are a jovial lot having decided that if were to spend a beautiful day sit ting in a bus and marching we might as well have an enjoyable time doing it 10 ajn one kilometer outside the princes gates of the cne we leave the bus receive our ball caps and buttons for the parade and stand in line grouped according to our particular affiliation teachers cupe workers and so on so far my favorite protest signs are we support mike the peel tax payers coalition flown at a safe distance behind a plane kirkland lake and timiskaming teachers no longer do i feel sorry for myself having to make the trip all the way from oshawa and for john a lump of coal carried by santa claus 1117 ajn we are still in line and still going nowhere speeches and bands continue to blare over the loudspeakers and the crowd is restless i am surrounded by more people that i have ever seen at one time before this is no place for ago raphobics or any living creature under five feet tall 1145 ajn we walk five min utes into the march a radio report tells us that the front of the march has already arrived at queens park this is a big group of people 1220 pm during the march i am impressed by several things guest column steve clavicj the organization is incredible huge sections of spadina street lakeshore boulevard front street and university avenue have been closed to allow the marchers twelve people abreast on average to progress there are countless police officers and our own protest marshals along the route an ambulance is parked at every other intersection i have never seen so many walkietalkies and cameras in the air simultaneously also sur prising is the police presence at the convention centre where the con servative partys convention is underway as we walk by two groups of mounted riot police most marchers slow their pace and stare in disbelief at the stern riders and horses both of whom are wearing face shields what they were expecting im not sure but they certainly were ready for it 130 pm it has been an horn- since we arrived at queens park and a toronto traffic reporter announces that the tail end of the march has only just passed the skydome various entertainers have been performing along the route but the big name singers have been saved for this final gath ering at the legislature to ensure we can hear them tractor trailers loaded with speakers and genera tors are parked along university avenue a few statistics 1 if you had a sudden hankering for a hot dog you werent alone a typical lineup at a vendors stand saw fifty people waiting at least twenty minutes for food 2 if you had a need for one of the toilets you should have thought of that before leaving the exhibition the wait for one of these was 30 minutes compared to 15 minutes back at the ex 3 one cameraman said that it had taken him 30 minutes just to film the teachers section of the march he had never seen any thing like it 4 a metro police officer at queens park stated that he was not aware of any problems during the march said he the crowd is very orderly the people here just want to make their statement 225 pm when bruce cock- burn sings nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight in the song lovers in a dangerous time the crowd estimated at well over 100000 cheers 4 pm we begin our trip home wondering where our fight will take us next you never really get over your first love they say you never get quite get over your first love but i wasnt convinced until i picked up satur days star and there staring out at me seductively from page one of section j was basil not basil as i had last seen him driving sedately out of my life after 10 years of slavish devotion but a new improved shiny basil a basil for the nineties yet still unmistak ably himself- his compact yet stur dy frame setting my heart on fire more than a decade after that last tearful farewell our affair began relatively late in my life 1 was pushing 30 when we first got together but it was love at first sight i had after all been dreaming of my knight in red shining armor ever since i was in high school basil and i met on the ashley motors lot in toronto in 1976 although he was surrounded by far sleeker more muscled speci mens their feline grace providing stark contrast to his utilitarian build his demeanor was irre sistible to my inner soul the stoic british character which had spawned sensible shoes good plain cooking and muddling through adversity with a cheery mustnt grumble was mirrored in basils practical unromantic car riage basil may not have set the world on fire but i sensed that he would methodically overcome all barriers to ensure that we arrived with the minimum of fuss at our destination of the moment our local garage mechanic alas was impervious to my new loves subtle charms whenever we drove in he would take one look at basil roll his eyes heavenward and mut ter darkly its that toy car again it was difficult not to sympathize the austin mini was nothing if not compact and repairing a mechanical problem would have been a challenge for the most nim ble contortionist fortunately for kates corner kate he0e this reluctant employee basil rarely needed fixing but he did have a weakness for eating up and spitting out fan belts since the fan belt drove the elec trical components in his tiny per fect engine i put this foible down to his inherently british mindset which would make scant allowance for a system that provided lights heat a fan and a radio simultane ously surely a person could get by with one or two of the above to expect more was blatant hedo nism despite my deep attachment to basil i knew it was over when he developed a unique air condition ing system through the rust holes in the floor his heart was still beating as strongly as ever but his body was fast disintegrating and it was time for him to go to that great wreckers yard in the sky his replacement my trusty rusty tercel has served me splen didly but somehow our relation ship has never reached the dizzy heights scaled by myself and my current vehicles little red prede cessor but then basil was the first car i ever owned it was in basil that i passed my driving test not least because his size allowed me to do threepoint turns in my own drive way with room to spare and at one stage this diminutive box on wheels was the sole family con veyance it was then that a visiting friend took one look inside our cavernous garage regarded basil with grave surprise and inquired when are you going to get a first car