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

p the tribune tuesday march 3 1998 tuesday march 3 1998 vol 110 no 17 the tribune is a member of the ontario press council the tribune comment inions st send your letters to the editor to the address below editorial cards cut fraud its about time a provincial government took action against health care fraud in this province and there is no denying it exists considering the number of previous government attempts in the past to curb abuse instead however of grasping the problems politicians have paid mere lip service to the situation afraid to step on toes or derail a social gravy train that has been running for far too long in the past 10 years many people have been receiving care from doctors and emergency rooms without proper health cards or with identification that is either stolen or forged universal health care is a privilege many countries including the united states dont enjoy but with so many people in some cases doctors abusing the system a change in the way health care is tracked in ontario is long overdue the tories have just announced a major crackdown on health care abuse by enforcing the use of new cards which will be vir tually impossible to forge this is a move to curb a 285miliionayear loss to the min istry of health and it couldnt come sooner as far as the government is con cerned the tories who are often criticized for a perceived lack of social conscience know they must eliminate abuses of social services in order to justify the cuts they have made to those pro grams it will also mean that people who truly need social assis tance will receive it and those who are abusing the system will not governments in the past have rarely taken charge of such loss es to its social ministries and taxpayers are fed up with paying for that irresponsibility ctwhfaelf jy w u m m ifmi 7 jv i februw 98 kids dont trvth is kindness overwhelmed when tragedy struck its an indescribable feeling to stand at the end of your driveway and watch all your belongings and everything youve worked for go up in flames and smoke bob and i stood in the mud and the slush in the morning of feb 18 as firefighters chopped holes in our roof and rustled past us to the trucks they were doing their job and we were watching our house burn down kibbles bits tracy kibble its a helplessness only death can top its a tragedy only others who have experienced such loss can fully understand its a devastation that only begins to sink in much later when you start to remember all that is now gone i remember the phone call as it came to my office that wednesday morning from my father my friend and boss andrew mair drove me to my house as i clutched my purse he tried to calm me down but i knew it was bad i remember approaching our- road a recipe for happiness in the 90s last weekend mr wallethead and i went shopping at his behest normally his eyes glaze over at the mere mention of the sword but on this occasion we underwent a strange role reversal the reason he was agog with enthusiasm was that we were bound for a cornucopia of office supply stores our first port of call had all the ambiance and charm of an aircraft hangar t here was an aisle devoted entirely to file folders of every imaginable size shape and design elsewhere you could buy anything from anti glare screen covers to those plastic mats which protect your carpets but which can send you clean across the room at breakneck speed should you go into reverse with undue exuberance after inputting a particularly pithy line we were there because my signif icant other had a coupon for 10 off purchases in excess of 50 we spent quite a while judging the rel ative merits of scratch pads fax paper and envelopes for his home office all i needed was an ink cartridge for my macintosh printer but despite the acres of shelf space and the immense diversity of products kates corner kate gilderdale it transpired that this item was too exotic to be included in the stores inventory i began to realize what id put my husband through on the countless occasions he had accompanied me on shopping trips for clothes as i wandered past a mindboggling array of desktop accessories 1 fondly recalled a column by lih- wood barclay about daycare cen tres for men at british shopping emporiums while their female counterparts shopped till they dropped the guys could watch tv slurp on a pint or play a leisurely game of pool of course some women probably adore shopping at office supply stores but i am not among them and would have welcomed the opportunity to sip on a beverage and flip through a vapid magazine with a social redemption quotient of nil astonishing deals on spiral note books notwithstanding this was not my milieu it was a case of a type z personality being imprisoned with a whole warehouse fulioftypeas many were deep in conversation on their cellphones no doubt wheeling and dealing with other hotshots while they hunted for colourcoor dinated paper clips in an impressive display of multitasking happiness in the nineties means never having to leave the office people can reach you in the car at the opera at the zoo or in the bath no longer constrained by a puny 9 to 5 schedule you can start work at the crack of dawn and continue through dinner and into the week end sometimes its hard to tell whether the beeping in your ears comes from the fax machine or the microwave as you attempt to zap dinner between reviewing contracts and kicking the cat you cant leave it all behind at the office because you live there on the bright side mr wallet- head picked up a nice desk with hunter green accents which goes perfectly with the wallpaper and if you cant reach me on the weekend its because ive unplugged the phone and already smelling smoke one mile away my heart started to pound and i clung at the thought once more that it must all be a big mistake all my children had was gone our memories of their infancy and growing up blackened and crumpled on the wet stinking floor that was once our home i remember andrew and his wife kim standing beside us in the driveway and asking us what we needed its a question ill never forget what can we get you asked kim please let us help and from the first time we left our beautiful lakefront prop erty i realized i didnt own a toothbrush deodorant or even underwear and the next day when despair pound ed in my head something amazing and wonderful happened people came to our rescue people i work with and eat lunch with people i have never laid eyes on and people i used to know came forward with the most tremendous flow of donations blankets clothes coats heaps of stuffed animals toys books movies baby equipment shampoo pillows fruit bagels and alarm clocks these people were and will always be our angels without their help we couldnt have coped and because of their generosity and kindness we have gained the most important thing of all faith and friendship love and trust the- building and the contents we can replace over time but the caring from family and friends can never be replaced thank you to my best-in- theworld family all the staff at st johns in uxbridge to all my friends at the tri- bunesand the markham economist and sun to the ladies at the consignment shop in stouffville and to everyone at the mirror and the etobicoke guardian bob and i kody and kendall are eternal ly grateful for everything youve done during this tough time stouffville tribune a merroland community newspaper patricia pappas publisher andrew mair editorinchief tracy kibble editor debra weller director of advertising mike rogerson retail advertising manager stacey allen classified manager barry goodyear director of distribution vivian oneil business manager pamela nichols operations manager about us ftp 56402100 t5 4 1 i ritaijsals 9056402100 classifieds 905 6402874 distribution 905 6402100 it 905 6405477 email i ihefribistarca s iy 6244 main st vtbyslauoiiuivilniw 4 xvtitiyway tniirvday and saturday v one of the metrofand printing pub- h lifhing and distribution group of com- m unity newspaper which include ajax pickrring now advorthnavvallu ion hrid comir barrt advance v barry bay tbi wek bolton ritr- pi isv brampton guardian burlington y shopping now burlington post city parent coiiingwoodwasaga beach j connection eot yorlt mirror erin j advocatttcoutry wue etomcufca guardian flamborough pot goorgfr town indfpcndenlaclon free prv9ji i kingston thi week lindsay this week markluua economist a sun mid l imtidpetxctmsigviubtaia mirror milton canadian champion mdtou shopping j nw mitiauga nawsj -nemnar- kelaurora er banner northumbw- land nowsv north york mirror oakvulf beaver oakvibc shopping nows oril- 3 u today xoahwawhltbyclarbig tonport porry tlu wiik potorbor- 1 ougb thu wwk itichmothl uiulvorn- hibvaujeban liberal scarborough mir t ror and uxbridgo tribuno tbday4 senior and city of york guardian content cannot b rprintd without i written pwrmiion from ih puuhklwr v prmit 1247 hwt mbllhr rworvm uurighl to rwfw or daxu an advr- tiecment credit for adrcrtifment inn itd to apaco ul error occuplod letters policy the tribune welcomes your letters to the editor please keep letters to no more than 300 words note that letters may be edited for space libel spelling grammar while we endeavor to print as many letters as possible we regret that not all let ters may be printed