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EDITORIAL Aur Geo ADVERTISING 9058538888 Fax 9058534626 DISTRIBUTION Fax Industrial Pkwy N Aurora ON Editorial Editor Aurora JeffBower jbower9yrmgcom Editor Newmarket Ted McFadden 9yrmg com Editor Geortdna Tracy Kibble Production Manager Jackie Smart com Advertising Retail Sales Manager Dave Williams Classified Manager Bonnie Rondeau Administration Office Manager Judy White jumite9yrmgcom Distribution Distribution Manager John MacKinnon jmackinnon9yrmg com Circulation Manager MeganPike mpi THE ERA THE BANNER York Region Media Group community newspapers The EraTrie Banner published every Tuesday Thursday and Sunday are divisions of the Media Group ltd a wholly- owned subsidiary of Corporation The family of newspapers comprised of 100 community across Ontario The York Region Media Group includes The Liberal serving Richmond Hill and Crtiren Economist Sun StoufMIe Sun Geonjna Advocate North of Die City and York Region LETTERS POLICY AD submissions must be less than words and include a daytime telephone number name and address The EraThe Banner reserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space Write Kuan to the Editor The EraThe Banner Box Newmarket L3Y Elsies NION Established 1853 THE ERATHE BANNER wwwyorkregioncom 580 Steven Crt Newmarket ON L3Y 4X1 250 Industrial Aurora ON 4C3 Publisher Ian Proudfoot Editor in Chief bora Kelly Business Manages Robert Lazurko DntBCToa Operations BarryBlack Director Advertising Distribution GordPaolucci Director Sales Marketing Classified Todays Homes DebraWeller LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Prorogue reveals Harpers arrogance While Prime Minister Stephen Harp er says the public does not care Parlia ment has been prorogued this Canadi an is very annoyed by the Conservative governments arbitrary and politically motivated tactic Given the Canadian and world economies are still fragile while the Conservative government is running a massive deficit and planning to cut programs and not raise taxes it appears the government cannot operate like an effective business The consequences of these actions will bring further hardship when col laborative planning with extensive con sultation with average citizens could generate potential solutions Parliament formally asked the gov ernment for documents about Afghan detainees By proroguing Parliament the PM chose to arbitrarily end the request for secret documents By choosing this action this govern ment reveals its disdain for Canadian laws I find it surprising the lawandOider Conservative government wants to fol low only those laws that work for its specific interests This means the aver age citizen is being abused in the same way as the Afghan detainees When Parliaments officials provide information why does the Harper gov ernment mobilize its resources to dis credit these appointed officials While this government speaks about accountability the behaviour of cabinet ministers and Mr Harper reveals the opposite These three reasons reflect my sig nificant displeasure with our Conserva tive government It appears Mr Harper believes Canadians will not be per turbed by his actions and will not hold him responsible I do not believe average Canadians will permit him to continue to dictate his control over them in the same way he smothers dissent and holds absolute power over Conservative MPs Fortunately Canadians value and demonstrate their commitment to free dom democracy and the rule of law I believe Mr Harpers arrogance has been revealed again and he will be punished by those who are not able to collect their pay when they are not working during a sevenweek break in employment FRANK BRATHWAITE NEWMARKET Avatar offers loads of fiin with green message One thing I enjoy about the holiday season is having time to go to movies For more than 40 years I have been involved in making TV pro grams to educate people about science and the natural world But people watch TV in a desultory way often interrupted by the need to help children with homework let the dog out or go to the fridge for a beer or to the bathroom for a break So we tune in and out often forgetting if we got a memorable factoid from The Nature of Things or Greys Anatomy Movie audiences are different than those in TV land For one thing people have to make an effort to go to a theatre They must then pay to watch and once they start they have to focus on the film There are no commercial breaks so the impact of watching movies is far greater than the impact of TV Years ago while camping on the Serengeti in Africa with my family I was astonished to meet three young Chinese- Americans who as I could see by their clothing alone were clearly not seasoned campers I asked what made them want to come and experience the wilderness Their answer amazed me Because we saw The Lion King Even an animated film had such a powerful impact that these urbanites David Suzuki with Faisal Moola were motivated to set off on a wilder ness adventure For me Dances with Wolves was a monumental experience as it present ed North American aboriginal people and their values in a way that was a big departure from the usual Hollywood stereotypes Which brings me to the latest movie blockbuster lames Camerons Avatar Some reports claim Mr Cameron has wanted to do an environmental film since he was 14 I dont know if that story is apocryphal or not but I do think he has produced an incred ible film Of course the 3D effects are dra matic and charming but the best part is Mr Cameron has created a world that is instantly compelling and believ able which is what good fairy tales do The indigenous inhabitants of Pan dora are clearly alien but not so pro foundly different that we cant identify with them All of the issues on this world are clearly the same as those on Earth when Europeans first contacted the indigenous people of the Americas Africa and Australia The invaders per ceive the natives as ignorant supersti tious and cultureless beings with far less worth than their own When the Eaithlings learn an ancient immense tree that is a sacred home to the native NaVi sits on a priceless resource nothing is going to stop them from exploiting it The movie is over the top as most fairy tales are with its conflict between the good guys the NaVi and a few Earthlings and bad guys the rest of the Earth people but its a ripsnorter of an adventure when the good guys fight back with flying reptiles Id give my right arm to have one of them sixlegged horses and a host of other ferocious beasts I wont give away the ending but I can say I left the the atre very satisfied Rightwing commentators in the United States and Canada have been apoplectic in their condemnation of Avatar They say it is antiAmerican depicts soldiers and corporations negatively is antiChristian promotes paganism and on and on One of the more amusing com ments came from someone who wrote a letter to the Calgary Herald claiming This movie will be the undoing of our children They will soon turn into a hivemind of radical environmental- ism puppets of their master David Suzuki Talk about confusing fiction and reality One US family moviereview site says Avatar has an abhorrent New Age pagan anticapitalist worldview that promotes goddess worship and the destruction of the human race Of course this anger is in reaction to the clear analogy of Navis with North American natives the way theyve been exploited and the ignorance of the oppressors about the interconnect edness of everything in nature Sure the movie has a great ecologi cal message but overall ifs just a lot of fun David Suzuki writes an occasional column forThe AdvocateThe Era Dc Mooters the daMdsu2ukiorg