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6 economist suntribune saturday feb 2 2002 stouffville tribune a metrolarid community newspaper 9 heritage rd markham ont l3p 1m3 publisher ian proudfoot general manager alvin brouwer editor in chief brenda larson director of advertising debra weller deputy editor debora kelly editor jim mason production manager pam nichols distribution manager barry black electronic communications manager john futhey classified manager ann campbell retail sales manager stephen mathieu inside sales manager stacey allen business manager robert lazurko office manager vivian oneil letters teachers deal with more reality than many other professions re teachers refusal to take tests is extrem ism gone too far letter to the editor jan 26 while there are many aspects of frank grays letter i could take issue with the one i would like to challengeis his insinuation that educators do not live in the real world im not sure what mr grays real world consists of but i would suggest that an edu cators world is far more reflective of the real world than that of many other professions is having to deal with the childrens aid society when signs of abuse or neglect have been identified not real is having to comfort children when a tragedy of some kind has befallen them or their family not real is having to balance the political ideology of politicians and policymakers whose concern tends to be with the bottom line or powerful lobby groups with the pedagogi cal research that shows many of the imposed reforms are actually detrimental to student learning not real is having to meet the needs of 25 to 35 individuals on a regular basis some whose only stable environment is a classroom not real i could go on ad infinitum but my point is made educators deal with far more of the rear world than can ever be realized in a board room or on bay street mr gray needs to take a much closer look inside a school before suggesting educators do not live in the real world scott gregory markham despite announcement moraine not protected by province the harris government held its big media event about the oak ridges moraine being protected in perpetuity right now people have had a chance to read the fine print surprise we find it is not protected at all the minister can doas he pleases as politics dictates there is no commission such as the niagara escarpment commission to safe guard the moraine in perpetuity so much for the wellbeing of future generations alarm bells should have been clanging when the environmental assessment for the moraine was completed in just a few weeks why it has taken years to do the hwy 404 environmental assessment north of newmarket it was only finished lately yet the huge moraine assessment- required only six weeks or so amazing strange it is too that developers were involved in the moraine study since when do we put people who have a conflict of interest on a panel that is supposedly impartial they had a right to give input they had ho right whatsoever to be involved in any final decisionmaking or formal recommenda tions on uses of the moraine shame nurses and teachers are well accustomed tothe treachery of this governmenthow nice we now get to share in it with them residents of walkerton know how well this government protects the environment not walkerton is a long way off the oak ridges moraine is right in our back yard perhaps we should be irate wquinlan keswick wilferts government as bad as provinces in spending habits re fedbashing over health care not help ful mp jan 26 oak ridges mp bryon wilfert claims the september 2000 federalprovincial pact con tributed an additional 212 million over five years to medicare these were not additional funds but merely a restoration of the money the liberals removed from medicare when they came to power in 1993 even at that its a smaller percentage of the federal budget than was the case in 1993 further mr wilferts berating of provincial premiers for their spending habits rings a bit hollow from a member of a government whose human resources minister lost track of more than 1 billion not to mention the scandal of inappropriate n spending in the prime ministers riding of shawinigan in excess of 1 million how many mris would that buy even at our devalued dollar lastly mr wilfert is quoted as saying i dont think anybody ben efits when there is bashing going on how soon he forgets allan rocks driveby sliming of albertas health delivery system vicstecyk richmond hill join our online discussions atyorkregioncom your opinion is important to us on our let ters to the editor pages and on our website we inviteyou to join the ongoing discus sions at yorkregibncom and youre welcome to launch your own discussion there too the site serves readers of the york region newspaper group which includes the economist sun stouffville tribune richmond hillthornhill liberal vaughan citizen newmarketaurora erabanner georgina advocate and stouffville sun letters policy stouffville tyibune welcomes your letters all 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much as it was law enforcement barely uncovered what is actually out there york regional police a driving force behind weedless wednesday have bust ed dozens of grow houses- in the past year but there are dozens more hidden in suburban homes from keswick to markham what the crackdown showed is theres a lucrative black market in the pot trade across the country one police say is far more sinister than the benign reputation of the crop police say marijuana cultivation can come with some serious crimes violent crimes such as home invasions police also worry about fires caused by faulty wiring and children living in grow hous es being exposed to chemicals they readily admit its not the mari juana smoker theyre after the guy who puffs a joint in his living room watching the simpsons with a bowl of chips in his lap- theyre after the criminals often vietnamese gangs who profit from the sale of marijuana its not the pot thats the problem here if you make something illegal a black market will emerge- it could be coffee or creamfilled donuts the com modity doesnt matter much stopping the crimes associated with marijuana shouldnt be difficult just legalize it regulate it andof course tax it merely decriminalizing pot so the smoker wont receive a criminal record doesnt go far enough since distribution will still be controlled by criminals in a society where alcohol tobacco and gambling are legal allowing crimi nals to profit from marijuana is hypo critical if not immoral those suggesting the black market be snuffed out through a police crack down including tougher penalties havent learned the lessons of americas war on drugs and the prohibition of alcohol law enforcement funding couldbe better spent elsewhere per- haps battling terrorism and highlevel organized crime of course its unlikely any govern- ment will pursue the legalization- of marijuana there are few political points to be gained and enduring the wrath of the right and moral crusaders simply isnt worth the effort perhaps operation green sweep helped the case for legalization its unlikely few canadians realized black market marijuana labs hot theerop itself could be so insidious v t vt f vf 1 111 t tt