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

sce533ss35sba3 tytiffapsstffl 6 economist sunsuntribune saturday june 24 2006 tstouffvillemm suntnbune a metroland community newspaper box 154 stoufmlle on l4a 7z5 publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director interactive media technology john futhey director advertising distribution barry black director circulation systems lynn pashkd marketingpartnerships director debra weller york region printing general manager bob dean letters to the editor nobody wins with cancellation of rural mail delivery re rural mail fight goes national june 3 being affected by this unusual decision of canada post to discontinue home delivery because of alleged hazards to mail deliverers i trust the concerned authorities are seriously examining the situation and the inconve nience to rural residents to think rural residents have to drive six to 40 kilometres round trip to reach their mail boxes should itself inform mary traversy lawrence cannon and kevin burtt how very frustrating this situation has become for them it is no use mr burtt making the observa tion that complaints have lessened because lets face it we are waiting for action from our representatives in parliament to take this up historically union leaders are quick to cre ate issues to establish their leadership whether it be by generating increases in wages andor perks or by reducing workloads they could not care less that while initially they may get away with reduced workloads good management will ultimately require the workforce be reduced or the workers be paid proportionately less after all it is always the rank and file who will suffer not the alleged leaders winter driving is always hazardous more so on the highways does that mean we should stop constructing highways how many accidents to mail carriers have been reported on the rural roads over the past years between aurora and vivian road there have been no accidents involving mail carriers on warden avenue for the past 25 years municipalities restrict rural residents and as a consequence the homes are few and far between say 20 per kilometre the rural roads have speed limits up to 70 kmh which can be reduced if necessary most residents have mailboxes at the end of their driveways which have enough driving area for mail carri ers to stop those who may not have such access can be asked to move their mailboxes to areas where such access is facilitated these are some suggestions which i would urge our representatives to consider nmecklai whitchurchstouffville event raised more than 13000 on june 11 more than 150 residents walked rolled and ran at the fourth annual rick hansen wheels in motion event stouffville helped raise more than 13000 fifty per cent of the net proceeds will come back into our community to help an individual with a spinal cord injury or be put toward an accessibility project this year we hope to put money toward accessible picnic tables and possibly a playground in memorial park this event couldnt have happened with out the support of our local sponsors the lions firefighters and volunteers who helped make this event a success as rick would say never give up on your dreams anything is possible brendalobraico stouffville event committee leader taxing question will discrimination ever end are you getting tired of dis crimination in canada are you tired of paying for it imagine a group of richmond hill residents blockading yonge street to demand money from the government if they wore ban danas over their faces dug up the roadway attacked photographers and police vehicles and sheltered criminals in their midst how do you think officials would react would the opp be ordered to show restraint would the province send a team of negotiators to secretly settle their grievances with a whopping cash settlement and let the lawbreakers go free or would our hypothetical protesters be carted off to jail in a matter of minutes substitute caledonia for richmond hill and consider the protesters are aboriginal and the law no longer applies for more than three months six nations members have held hostage a community near hamilton per petrating acts of violence while blocking a main highway in pur suit of their land claims your provincial government will give caledonia business owners 2 million in compensation and has cut a secret deal with the develop- ers who legally own the land val ued at 45 million claimed by the natives further local businesses and residents have launched a class action suit against the govern ment which may entail further financial compensation who will pay for this discrimi natory treatment you and i imagine markham passing a bylaw that requires all commercial signage to be in chinese first and in english secondarily employing inspectors to roam the town fining shopkeepers if their 100yearold family businesshappens to have an english name and dares to use it imagine markham declaring all newcomers must send their chil dren to chineselanguage schools rather than be educated in english think that would drive companies out of town alienate bruce annan englishspeaking residents and cripple the economy substitute quebec for markham and french for chinese and thats exactly what has hap pened most canadians are huge fans of the united nations yet we ignore the uns ruling that quebecs frenchonly laws are ille gal the discrimination continues and the province continues to rely on massive funding transfers from the federal government so who pays for this discrimi natory treatment you and i imagine york region provides funds to muslim groups to edu cate their youth in a religious set ting and denies funds to any other religion so youd have a choice send your kids to public or muslim schools paid for with your taxes or pay all over again to send your kids to a school that incorporates your particular religion substitute catholic for muslim and thats our reality the un once again has stud ied canadas special deal for catholics and ruled its inappro priate and discriminatory but the massive duplication of infrastruc ture goes on who pays you and i imagine if you will those of us descended from scottish immi grants were successful in lobbying the government for an apology and compensation over the highland clearances when hun dreds of thousands of poor scots were evacuated to make room for more profitable sheep farrning were generations removed from personal hardship and weve done pretty well by virtue of living in canada so why should we get any money well substitute the families of japanese interned during the second world war and the families of chinese immigrants who paid a head tax to come to canada both groups have successfully demanded apologies and the for mer received 400 million in com pensation from the federal govern ment the latter are awaiting details of an impending settlement guess who pays your neigh bours for their ancestors misfor tunes in 1961 tax freedom day fell on may 3 thats when canadians stopped paying all their income to the government and started earn ing for themselves this year tax freedom day fell on june 19 congratulations youre now working for yourself if not for discrimination youd have been working for yourself a lot sooner bruce annan is a york region writer and consultant he can be reached as bruceannangmailcom letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribunereserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the suntribune box 154 stoufmlle on l4a7z5 jmasoneyrngcom editorial editor jim mason jmasonymgcom assistant editor rick vanderlinde rvanderlindeymgcom interactive media marketing advertising manager dauma andrews dandrewsymgcom ivtllv ttf advertising retail manager staceyailen sallenymgcom classified manager ann campbell acampbcllymgcom assistant classified manager bonnie rondeau brondeauymgcom new business development manager mikerogerson mrogersonymgcom production team leader sherry day sdayymgcom editorial 9056402612 fax 9052941583 advertising 9056402612 classified 18007433353fax 9052941538 distribution 9056402612 3333 oncato pmt suntnbune a york region newspaper group community newspaper the economist sun published every tuesday thursday and saturday is a member of the metroland printing publishing and distributing ltd a whollyowned subsidiary of torstar corporation metroland is comprised of 70 community publications across ontario the york region newspaper group includes the liberal serving richmond hill andthomhill vaughan citizen the erabanner newmarketaurora stouffville suntribune georgina advocate ybrk region business times north of the city yorkregioncom and york region printing 4 j frat 1 chiv j mrt m m v 1 t m