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www.oakvillebeaver.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, January 28, 2010 · 6 The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5571 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate.The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Commentary Guest Columnist NEIL OLIVER Vice-President and Group Publisher, Metroland West DAVID HARVEY Regional General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution SARAH MCSWEENEY Circ. Manager The Oakville Beaver is a division of Wrong spin being put on proroguing Terence Young, Oakville MP Terence Young the ordinary. Some journalists also mischievously led Canadians to believe that MPs were on a two-month holiday. The truth is that prorogation is an ordinary tool of parliamentary procedure used by all parties and very important work is done when Parliament is not sitting. For example, both Alberta and BC prorogued their Assemblies over this Christmas holiday for 70 days each, only eight days less than our government. In fact, the only ways to end a parliamentary session are by prorogation or dissolution. In Canada's 142-year history there have been 144 sessions of Parliament and 105 prorogations, an average of every 16 months. The average legislative break in our six largest provinces this Christmas is 78 days, the same as my government. Ontario, as one example, has taken a 68-day Christmas break. Where are the protests about that? Is 68 days okay and 78 days is not? Manitoba's Christmas break is 95 days and Saskatchewan's 98 -- 17 and 20 days longer. Does that make the NDP Premier of Manitoba and the Saskatchewan Party Premier of Saskatchewan undemocratic? Of course not. There will be a key democratic benefit to prorogation of our Parliament. In the Senate, a handful of appointed senators accountable to no one, were delaying for weeks and undermining legislation passed by the elected House of Commons, in some cases passed by all four parties unanimously. By proroguing Parliament, the government will be able to reconstitute the Senate Committees to replace the Liberal chairs and put an end to that undemocratic practice. What is the Opposition record on proroguing? Jean Chrétien prorogued Parliament four times while in office, and as NDP Leader in Ontario, former Premier Bob Rae, who wrote a satiric song about this procedure in recent days, prorogued the Legislative Assembly three times: for 109 days, 124 days and 142 days. (Bob Rae is the leading contender to replace Michael Ignatieff as the next Liberal leader). But since prorogation is normal procedure, what is really going on? I believe it is the Liberal/NDP/Bloc coalition raising its head. I wasn't invited by the NDP, Green Party and other organizers who organized a "grass roots" rally outside my office last Saturday to explain these facts. (Why would the coalition let facts spoil their rally?) WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com Media Group Ltd. RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America R ecently, some Net-savvy Opposition organizers and journalists managed to convince a lot of Canadians the recent prorogation of Parliament was somehow out of THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville MICHAEL IVANIN / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER PITCHING IN: Special education students from White Oaks Secondary School`s Futures program collected and delivered more than 1,000 lb. of non-perishable food in more than 80 bags to Kerr Street Ministries Food Bank. Building on their ongoing efforts to get involved in and support those in need in the community, the students learned about those living with need here in Oakville and will continue the food drive with the view to making another donation. See Prorogued page 7 The age-old tale of a woman, a man, loud love and jail time I t's a story as old as time itself: woman meets man, woman marries man, woman and man consummate their relationship, woman is served by police with an anti-social-behaviour order, woman faces time behind bars for excessively loud love making. Poor Caroline Cartwright. She finally found her Mr. Right (or, at least, her Mr. Cartwright), and then things went all wrong. Not just for her, but also for her poor neighbours in Washington (near Newcastle, England), for random passers-by, and even for the local letter-carrier, all of whom unwittingly received an ungodly earful of Ms. Cartwright's vociferous vocalizing from the boudoir. To the point where they felt the need to unite and take their problem to police because the couple's lengthy and loud romps started to sound -- as a British court was told -- altogether "unnatural." Like the Cartwrights were in "considerable pain." Like someone was being "murdered." Initially, the 48-year-old Ms. Cartwright was served with an anti-social-behaviour order -- given to people deemed public nuisances; typically, disruptive delinquents -- an order which, the court heard, she violated. Almost immediately. Repeatedly. At their wit's end, the banded neighbours had the local coun- cil set up spy equipment in a neighbor's flat and recorded a session between Mr. and Mrs. Cartwright (granted, a little bit weird, but all in the name of justice). They recorded sound levels that climaxed at 47 decibels. Not off the charts, by any means, but loud enough to drown out Coronation Street on the neighbor's television. Andy Juniper Ms. Cartwright noted that the decibel count may indeed have been uncharacteristically low because, by that point in time, she was actually trying to muffle herself with a pillow. She also said that she could not fathom what the fuss was about in the first place. "I did not understand why people asked me to be quiet because to me, it's normal," she said. "I have tried to minimize the situation by having sex in the morning -- not at night -- so the noise was not waking anybody." She assured the court that this was "not something I am doing on purpose." Have you ever heard raccoons engaging in a territorial tiff? Well, the presiding judge determined that Ms. Cartwright's caterwauling was way worse. "I've heard a very short extract of the noise you make and can well see that your neighbours would be upset and distressed by this," said Judge Beatrice Bolton at Newcastle Crown Court. The judge handed Ms. Cartwright an eight-week prison term, suspended for 12 months. Which means that if she again engages in over-zealous, climactic caroling in the next year, she will be immediately jailed for the eight weeks. Ms. Cartwright is appealing the verdict, saying that her sex life deserves more respect and that she will produce a sexual psychologist to prove that she really can't help herself. Her neighbours are just hoping that she will refrain from keeping them up all night. Oh, and from scaring (and scarring) the kids walking by the flat she shares with Mr. Right. Er, Cartwright. It's a story as old as time itself, woman meets man, woman marries man... Andy Juniper can be visited at www.strangledeggs.com, contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, or followed at www.twitter.com/thesportjesters.