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Page 5, News, Tuesday, June'26, 1990 Keeping kids out of the sewers We, as mature and somewhat responsible adults must here and now come full face with a nation- al problem that is plaguing our children in a more menacing manner than say ingrown zits or even male Madonna look-alike contests. God knows kids today don't have it easy. Some live in homes where the parents cannot afford the barest necessities of life and these children, through no fault of their own, are forced to get up off the couch to change the television channel instead of zapping it with a remote control. Some of these same children are wearing shoes that do not require air pumped into the soles and clothes William J. Thomas unsigned by the designer. These kids will no doubt grow up to be maladjusted and resent- ful parents who will lecture their children with woeful tales of their childhood hardships in which, because, of things called "traffic laws," Domino's was not always able to get the pizza to their door within. 20 minutes and once the power was out for three days dur- ing an ice storm, the microwave oven wouldn't work and a brother and two sisters starved to death in front of a black Nintendo screen. But the most distressing and immediate problem facing today's children is the increasing number of dangerous incidents reported in newspapers this past week in which cars travelling at high speed are having to swerve to avoid kids who are struggling to remove man-hole covers in the middle of streets so they can go into the sewer and visit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I am not making this up. If I'm making this up, may Bugs Bunny develop gingivitis thus rendering him defenseless against an attack by (They're Back, Dammit!) Gremlins II Too Many. The hottest and latest phenom- ° ena from Hollywood is a movie called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in which the title charac- ters live in sewers, eat pizza and practice martial arts with nun- chakus strapped to their forearms. The also say "Cowabunga!" a lot, a tribal sewer word which means "cash on a half shell." This is a runaway box office smash hit even by the new and improved Hollywood standards in which the studios have aban- doned their struggle to create 'movies from historical events or socially significant truths and instead go right to comic books for scripts which the American public can actually understand. That's the same public whose continued on page 6 Expression freedom prostitute style Couldn't believe the old ears when I heard the latest ruling-by the Supreme Court of Canada about the solicitation by prosti-- tutes on the main drags of our major-cities. It wasn't the deci- sion which appalled me - as a matter of fact, I agreed most heartily with their upholding of the Anti-Solicitation law passed five years ago - but the fact that, of the six judges dealing with the matter, the two who dissented were women, They actually opposed this rul- ing on the grounds that it would go against the "freedom of expression" of these ladies-of- the-night. Holy cow! Either I'm crazy or the world out there is. Particularly the world of our legal institutions. I know, I know, the law is not supposed to concern itself with anything that is not pure facts; no emotionalism, nor any semi-religious things such as ethics and morals which are sup- posed to be the backbone and yardstick of our society. Oh no, nothing as mundane as this. The law is pure and cold and factual. And full of baloney, as in this Olga Landiak particular instance of the two women judges. Prostitution is a "form of expression, pray? Artistic? Well, I suppose some of these "ladies" are more talented than others in bed-gymnastics. I wouldn't know. Original expression? No way, when you consider it is the oldest profession in the world. The history of mankind is littered with the famous and not-so- famous courtesans, geishas, hand- maidens, and love slaves of the- past for any model, actress, or plain secretary of today to be very original. Professional expres- sion? Oh, I'll grant you that. They are very, very professional, but all they seem to have going for them is the claim, "It's my body and I'll do what I want with it, law or no law." Well, welcome to the Abortion Club who use the same tired cliche. Where are all the screeching Ladies of Liberation when it comes to addressing themselves to these lower forms of the female side of humanity? Screaming that these dear "ladies" are being exploited by male, chauvinist pigs, that's where. We are supposed to believe that each and every one of these sex-pros, has been bludgeoned and forced into entering the oldest profession around. More baloney. These "ladies" have willingly put their bodies out for sale because it is the easi- est and laziest way to make a few, or a whole lot, of bucks. Nobody, but nobody, is forcing them to Stay in such a degrading position (oops, bad pun not intended!), even if they have naively and unknowingly been coerced there in the first place. The Ladies of Liberation are always carrying on about the exploitation of women by men in such things as ads, but nowhere, nohow, do I hear them mounting the barricades against either these sisters-of-the-night, or their other sisters who willingly divest them- selves of their clothes for the Playboy centrefold, the big and little screens, pop-rock videos, and every magazine or tabloid newspaper under the sun. That seems to be okay with them as long as it generates publicity and oodles of money. Sometimes I literally don't understand my own sex when it comes to such things. Ladies, you can't have it both ways - act 'and dress on the daytime streets like your dear sisters prowling the nighttime ones, and expect men to treat you with respect and gen- tility as your feminine due. Where's all this feminine "mys- tique" in the flaunting Madonna- like over-sexism being thrown at us from all quarters by willing female participants in the Glitz Game? Nowhere, as far as I'm concerned. It's all hanging out there for everybody, young and old, adults and kids, to see day and night from all sides. _ This is "freedom of to See night and otherwise, you can have all the "freedom of expression" you want as long as you don't ask me to pay for it out of my taxpay- er's money when you get into trouble and start screaming for help, and as long as it isn't in the public arena. Go and do it in pri- vate where we don't have to look at you demeaning yourself and one whole side of the human race. Not to say that I have much sympathy for the kind of men who promulgate, push and pro- mote such "freedom of expres- sion" practices, but who pays any attention to the lewdness, crude- ness and sheer immorality of such practices nowadays. Only old- fashioned square fogies like yer ole Baba who believe in less so- called "freedoms" and more basic iesroneeee But who's listen- Nuclear waste in shield country Northern Ontario is asleep about this one. I hope we wake up quickly. A federal govern- ment task force 'has been set up to study the concept of burying high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants deep inside the Canadian Shield. This task force is just looking at the con- cept - not any particular location - at least not yet. Let's not confuse this one with the recent debates about "low-level" waste. We're talking here about the really hot stuff - the spent fuel bundles from nuclear power plants. Those bun- dles will give you a lethal dose of radiation within seconds, right after they come out of the reactor. Even after they've been in their swimming pool storage areas for 10 years, only minutes of expo- sure are needed to kill someone. The task force held Open Houses recently in Timmins, Sudbury and Thunder Bay. According to Bob Grail, a spokesman, for the federal gov- ernment's Environmental Assessment Review office, who organized the information ses- sions, attendance was lowest in YE ee Ee, a) See melee NORTHERN INSIGHTS Bay. Interest was high in Quebec City, New Brunswick, and Toronto. Ontario is the most likely place this material will end up. Ottawa and Queen's Park have already agreed in principle that the Canadian Shield is likely the safest place to bury this material, subject to the findings of this environmental assessment panel. They signed a federal-provincial agreement to that effect in 1981. AS well, Ontario is the largest user of nuclear energy, and thus is the most likely province to handle the waste for the other provinces. Outside 'Ontario, there are only nuclear power plants in Quebec and New Brunswick. Dr. Sidney Whitaker, ¢ a scien- . 7 =a Fe NE SS And yet, northern - by Larry Sanders Canada Limited (AECL) says the construction of the underground facility to handle the waste will cost millions, "so it really only makes sense to: build one, some- where in Canada, to handle all the country's waste from all nuclear power plants for the next 40 years." The proposal at this stage says the site will not be in an area with any mineral potential, since. we don't want future generations to go digging into this site by accident sometime in the next millennia. It also won't be locat- ed near a major city. It also must be somewhere in the' middle of the. Shield, instead of near the edges, since earthquakes are rare in Shield Country, but only hap- pen around the edges, not in the So - that means the site for all of Canada's high-level nuclear waste will be somewhere in Ontario, between James Bay and the Manitoba border. That makes the lack of attendance at the northern Ontario Open Houses _ about all this quite disconcerting. Bob Grail thinks the attendance was low because they are only studying the CONCEPT at this stage, not any particular location, so no one's backyard is under an immediate threat. But the process set up so far means that, if the north stays asleep, we could wake up in about five years and realize that many of the*decisions have already been made - particularly about the site selection process. cussions are going on all at once, So it's tricky to keep track. But here's what's happening: -the Ontario Environmental Assessment Board has launched hearings on Hydro's 25-year ener- gy supply-demand program. Among other things, this mega- plan calls for the construction of at least two more nuclear power plants. Building more nuclear power plants means there will be more waste to handle - well into the next century. -the federal government is holding public forums on its "Green Plan" for Canada. Details of how this Plan will actually be implemented are promised before the end of 1990. On energy, the Green Plan suggests that nuclear energy is likely more environ- mentally friendly than coal-fired plants that produce acid rain, or hydro dams, that flood aboriginal homelands and wildlife. The Plan also suggests that we need to cut down on all consumption of fossil fuels (like coal, or gas in cars and trucks) because Global Warming is caused by carbon !