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4 the tribune thursday may 13 17 i i i i i i dox bernard editor established 188s charles h nolan publisher f pamishdcvrytiwrsdayatmmaiastsrotiivilloattelm0-2hl- barre beacock toroofo pooe mm mo siogl copies mo subscriptions ja00 per year in advrlnff minm 9 caoalasumtuwtttr member of audit bureau ei circulation canadian omws manager a community newspapers associoloa jod ontario weekly newspapers association second class mail registration oumber mm the tribune is an a the inland publishing co limited group of suburban newspapers which includes the ataxwhitbypickering news advertiser brampton guardian burlington post etobicoke caielte markhara economist and sun newmarketaurora era oakville beaver oshawa this week and mississauga news i i i i i i time- wasting not necessar v thelength of council and planning board meetings has been slowly creeping up for some time and it is now not unusual for these sessions to carry on for 34 or four hours thankfully the situation has not yet deteriorated to the point as it has with the school board where only a portion of the agenda is covered but if things keep going the way they have it may eventually come to that part of the problem is an augmented workload due to more involved planning procedures and increased development pressures the other reason is that ratepayers have been coming in and wasting a great deal of council time on what are basically fact finding missions planning committee was held up for more than an hour last week by a group of ballantrae citizens who were seeking background information on the proposed j melvin baker subdivision in ballantrae these people had a legitimate interest and we are not trying to discourage this but we would like to point out that the majority if not all their questions could have been an- swered by the local ward councillor becky i wedley or by planning secretary ken aida in our opinion the whole point of having a ward system is that the ratepayer knows there is one councillor who has his or her ediwrs mail v particular interest in mind and they can refer to that person when seeking information mrs wedley we are confident- would have been quite willing to supply the ratepayers with the information they required and a long and unproductive hour would have been eliminated from last weeks meeting after taking this step if they still had doubts the residents could have appeared before the board and filled in the remaining gaps likely in a rnatter of minutes we are not trying to discourage citizen involvement but it would greatly facilitate council business if people would do a little homework before appearing as a delegation another complaint is with residents groups who insist on having- two or three people speak for them at a meeting there is nothing objectionable if each spokesman raises different points but unfortunately this is often not the case v it happens time and time again that- speaker after speaker will get up and drone on r and on over the same points that have already been covered ad infinitum and ad naiiseum x a particular group that can be singled out for blame for this particulartime squandering tactic is the vivian arid the 9th ratepayers group the process of municipal government is long drawn put and tedious enough for pur- tsvlgjptje- thought v f or the week will you be my prayer partners for the lord jesus christs sake and because of your love for me given i to you by the holy jspirit pray much with me for my work pray that i will be protected in jerusalem from those who are not christians v pray also that the christians there will be willing to accept the money i am bringing them then i will be able to come to you with a happy heart by the will of god and we can refresh each other and now may our godj who gives peace be with you all amen romans 153033 s sugar and spice backward approach to bilingualism by bill smiley municipal representatives without adding this 1 r these old adages might be type of aggravation j r closely related you cant ci ycbe chairman explains dear sir j in your paper of april 29 1976 you published an interview with mr harry bowes trustee of the york county board of education concerning the ministry of j educations decision to give sketch plan approval for an addition to orchard park public school i in yourarticle you wrote that mr bowes f said that the boardstaff had set the priorities v and did not let thetrustees know also the larticie quoted mr bowes as saying they tried to slip it in as routine approval and it j seems- to me that the administration has decided orchard park should go ahead and riot the trustees theriiselves since these comments could cause some doubts in the minds of your readers with respect to the manner in which their elected trustees make decisions i thought the following information would clarify this situation on oct 15- 1974 the board of education approved its five yearcapital expenditure forecast including a library resource centre and a general purpose room for summitview public school j priority no 3 at the estimated cost of l43972800 at the same time among other projects the board ap- proved the addition of a library resource centreto orchard park public school priority no 5 at an estimated cost of 18150000 v theestimates for all of the additions for thatycaf was 80000000 but the ministry allocated only 44800000 the trustees then mad to reconsider the appropriate allocation of- the monies it should be noted that anyboard has no assurance that money made available for one project willbe transferredto another ithie new project must be evaluated by the ministrys criteria the york- county board education has however always found the ministry sympathetic when changeshave v been requested as we felt it was worthwhile to proceed with three projects fatherthan one projectwe therefore decided to allocate that jmdney for the richmond hill highschool renovations the orchard park public school library resource centre and the eva l i dennis library resource centre and general purpose room we also decided to c attempt to get additional capital funds from the ministry to undertake the balance of the building projects as set- forth in the 1975 v capital expenditure this action was approved by the board at its meeting on april 14 1975 j later on sept 8 1975 the board reassessed its priorities and the eva l dennis project was replaced by an addition to georee street public school and the work required by the fire marshal for sum- mitview public school on september 221975 the board appointed the architect for sum- mitview public school project arid ap proximately the same date the request for approval in principle for these renovations for sumrhitview public school was submitted to the ministry principle granted by 31 1975 to follow the orchard park project the building proposal was submitted in july to the ministry of education and approval r received in september the board appointed an architect for the work in november- the board approved sketch plans for orchard park in december 1975 can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink you cant teach an old dogriew tricks you canfmake a silk purse but6f sows ear added create a fluent sparkling bilingual cosmopolitan out bfa- dull middleclass middleaged civil seryant i clniglad to see that some semblance of sense has seeped intothe senilitysurrounding the approach to bilingualism at ottawa keith spicer the grand poobah of bilingualism appointed by the trudeau government to wetnurse one of its favorite babieshas finally reached a conclusion that anayerage 12yearold could have arrived at without undue mental strain in about 15 minutes i- he decided and had the courage to admit that the- government program for creating bassack- say thatot- tdwjacivil servants have always spoken with a double tongueeven when they had only one language and why have them speaking jdoubletalk in two ivvvrinstead of pouring millions into con- verting stodgy civil servants jnto con noisseurs of french language and culture thr mniqirv-nf- mrspicer concedes the money should be education announced a hold on all sfetol- s ffench t0 projects- that had not passed thrbughthe sketch plan approval stage v in january1976 the board advised the ministry that because of the development around summitview public school a review of priorities would probably be required- during the samemonth the board received a v report from the staff showing all projects i which were affected by the delay j v v on march 26th sketch plan approvalsor orchard park public schoopwas received- from the ministry of education and this letter of approval came to the chairmansc6m- mittee meeting on april l91976t in retrospect the decision of the chairmans committee to put that forward as routine was children great thinking keith anyone with any knowledge of learning a second language could have told you that two years ago ordinary everyday common sense and experience shows us how true this istake an average family of immigrants to canada german italian whatever you like the parents have great difficulty in learning english and retain a strong accent all their lives their children even though their only- language is their native one when they arrive here and even though it is spoken almost exclusively at home are completely at ease in english within a year or two to hear them chirp and prattle away in the idiom youd- never know that they werent born and bred in englishspeaking canada for an adult learning a new language is horribly hard work and for a bureaucrat or civil servant it must be double difficult because their minds are constitutionally unable to admit anything new frenchcanadians who want to get somewhere- in canada whether its in business or pblitics learn english because they have to whatever the pundits say this is primarily an englishspeaking country most frenchcanadian cabinet ministers are at least adequate in english some politicians like pierre trudeau and claude wagner speak english beautifully far better than most of their anglophone peers and opponents but when an anglo politician speaks french however atrociously we look upon him or her with amazerhentas though it were a sign of genius what hypocrisy in a country that is theoretically bilingual i still wince every time john diefenbaker strays into what he fondly believes is french as you may have gathered i have strong feelings about bilingualism unlike a great many canadians i am all for it but the governments approach to creating that blessed state has been at best a farce a charade at worst a swindle of the taxpayers a of course thp beginnings must be with the children on the surface the study of french in our schools has been encouraged- by government in fact the moneys for- a practical realistic approach to learning french have been held back from the schools and poured into that bottomless pit at ottawa french has practically been abolished as a prerequisite for univeersityentrance as a result and because learning if requires some real effort students shy away from it and look for bird courses j result french classes in our schools have shrunk deplorably this despite the fact that frenchis being taughtbetter and ina more lively interesting and realistic way than ever before i studied french forgive years in high school three in university and can barely proposition let alone order a meal in french ok lets start all over again with our bilingual program and forget that painful failure in ottawa start teaching it to kids in grade lkeep it up make it a prerequisite for university viewpoint reatfidventure begins s by don bernard am a most ofyouare reading this v column i will be somewhere over the atlantic ocean heading for a- threeweek trip to unfortunate inasmuch as we had advised thehollarid however what started out as plans ministry that we wanted to reviewtour fp holiday has turned into a real ad- priorities if and when some money maybe venture you see when i walked out of the considered for york county v tribune office yesterday it was for the last fortunately mr bowes caught this error time as editor v arrived at by the trustees thestaff advised v- about three years ago my- newspaper us but the trustees made the decisionsmrjjrcareertooksomewhat of an upturn when i bowes is a hard working trustee and i do hot was asked to take over as editor of the write this letter to cast any aspersions on his markham economist and sun up until that good efforts howeversincehisstatement tirrie lhad toiled in relative obscurity as could beconsidered bouyas criticismoz the i editor of the newmarket era- boards staff or of the board as a whole i after a number of experiences including wished to set the matter straight much of meeting the woman who is presently my wife what has happened occurred before mr t felt that god was calling me out of bowes was elected and as i must accept a- newspaperwork in fact after 3 w months at great deal of the responsibility myselifelt theeconomist and sun i resigned the next an nhliaatinn in malro triic infnrmofiniv an obligation to make available to your readers this information douglas allen ycbe chairman wroa countdown 1 stouf f viile centennial 0i87 did you know j tstouffville as niariyf as blacksmith shops just sixty yearsago the late twilliiam jdickson operated a shop t about 500 yards east of summitview school on the south side of main st there was also jthe hill shop on mill st immediately to the rearof the present sound music store- the beebee shop adjacent to the stouffville bakery xgriffithiolinner operation in what is now smith welding stouffville was having problems forty j years- ago established awaste yard on property that is nowrose avenue- dumping and had stouffville- lions club received its charter away back in 1938 and the first meetings wereheld in the mansion house restaurant j jthe late jr hodgins local- cinr station agent was the first president week- johanna and i were married and we went on our honeymoon to holland cater a sixweek honeymoonwe returned to the hard realities of life and at that point i chickened out and took ajobas reporter at the a tribune still feeling that god had something for me i tendered my j resignation after sixmonths or so it was then that i found out that the editors jobwas coming open jim thomas was- movihg to the markham paper itcironically and i was offered his job at the tribune y f after some soulsearching and i mean soulsearching i decided to stay on and give viit ar try that was just over two years ago but ifgodtrulycalls an individual then that in dividual better listen to god or face the cbnsequences vimight savthat the first 18 months of my tenurel- as editor amounted to a virtual spiritual desert- as i struggled to master the job my spiritual life seemed to be in limbo vthen my sistercame to the lord last fall you might renvember i wrote about that and johanna arid ifelta new- urgency to pray a especially forrthosewhodid hot know jesus eversinceithcaigod seems to be revealing more and more of himself to us i 1 and gradually god began to lead me in new waysfor once in my life i felt the great bubbling power of the holy spirit ffelt great peace and assurance when talking to people about jesus for the first time i could testify confidently to my mother of gods lpve for her meanwhile i came to feel that none of this really conflicted sharply with my work at the tribune but it was the weekend of the sacred music night at st james presbyterian church that really turned the trick my wife was to sing second last on the program as the evening progressed i felt the spirit of god present therewas a welling up inside me while the quartet sang and i felt the lord telling me to introduce my wifes song that was too rhuch to push myself forward to speak when i wasnt even on the program just before she was to go up i whispered to johanna that i wanted to introduce the song i dont ask me exactly what i said god gave me the words but i knew one thing that i must point the people there to jesiis christ arid the call he places on each believers life never before had i a compulsion to speak and never before did god give the words it- was glorious- if nobody was iriinistered to that night at least i was both my own in volvement and my wifes song glorious as that was god was not yet through with riiesunday evening during the regular service at our church our pastor announced special prayer for people in the congregation with some physical disorder while the service went on i felt this same welling up in my stomach and felt god telling me that there was someone there with a hearing problem and pain in the spine not wanting to make a mistake i did not speak it out but it welled upgreater greater until i had to tell a few minutes later an elderly lady stood up to say that she had both of those ailments she went forward for prayer arid removed her hearing aid she testified later inthe service that she could hear and that god hah y her there was also someone facing a major business decision at least thats what god was telling me when i spoke it out nobody came forward i spoke later in-the- meeting about some of my recent experiences when i realized that i wasthe person facing the business decision the people prayed for me and i knew that i had to submit my resignation as to the future your guess is as good as mine but i have great peace about it arid know that god is in control ever since my decision was made i have had such assurance that it is gods will t but let me say thisone thing faith is a gift of god oiily when we have surrendered our lives to him can he give us the faith to do things out of the ordiriarymany of us have been led to believe that living a moral life is good enough but i feel god wants to do more for us in this time he can only do that in a people yielded to him jesus said to his disciples if i be lifted up from the earth i will draw all men unto fy me my prayer is that we truly lift up jesus christ 30 years ago this week excerpts from the tribune from may 16 1946 giving the initials k k for the middle- aged man who dropped into town last friday morning and asked permission to stage a bit of a show on market street early in the evening his display of art was to pull a five ton truck by his teeth with a rope the strong man did the trick all right during the day he visited thepublic school and told the pupils that he attributed much of his strength to the fact that he avoids sweets does riot use strong drink nor tobacco the stranger is said to be right at home as a swimmer and is not ad- verse to jumping in the pond when it is ten below zero a feat he performed at walkerton despite the short notice he had a goodsized audience and passed the hat for a reward 15-