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ulnr"t's---i--rir---ii-rr- Toll day best-yet Parade committee in Lakeshore seeks information Last Friday evening and Satur- day morning, residents and visitors to Lakeshore Village once again gave generously to our voluntary toil. Hopefully, by the time toil day rolls around again next year they will have come to realize this and be a little more courteous. This year was the best to date and we raised 81.509 in just under seven hours. While the majority of people stopped and donated willingly, we had some people who were quite upset when they were delayed for a minute or two and others who drove on by. _ To those people, I would like to' pointanst that our members donate hours of their time each month so that all children" in Lakeshore Village have a better community to live in - children of some of the people who wyuldn't stop. I hope everyone read the card that was given to them which explained how their money is being used in the community. On behalf of all of our members. 1 would like to thank everyone for their donation. My colleague. the Hon Flora MacDom ald, M.P. (Kingston and the Islands) called it a "sad commentary on our society". But like it or not. the derisive laughter in the male-dominated House of Commons which recently greeted MP. Margaret Mitchell's question about wife battering in Canada. drew public attention to the problem as nothing else could. Mrs. Mitchell's question followed on the tabling of a report from the Health and Welfare Committee which has been sys- tematically studying violence in the tamr ly. The report revealed some very shocking facts. After hearing expert witnesses. the Committee reported that It suspected that "every year in Canada one-tenth of the women who live with men as a couple are battered". The Committee also discovered a dir turbing lack of support for battered women in our police departments, courts, social services, and in society at large. it showed that most violence within the family structure is treated differently from other criminal ottences. The Committee dared to cross that thin and controversial line between the right of the individual to the privacy of his (or her) home. and the responsibility of the RoverTt- ment to protect its citizens. Wife battering has traditionally been considered a "personal matter", to be resolved between a man and his wife. Consequently. our professional and social mechanisms have been slow to respond to new ideas about the role of women in The Chronicle wel- comes letters to the edi- tor. Writers must identity themselves through their name, address and tele- phone number. We re- serve the right to edit. Letters policy WALTER MCLEAN Bruce Braid, President Lakeshore Village Optimist Club The 125th Anniversary Parade Committeir ls looking for names of commercial enterprises. retailers,» industries, etc. in business in Wa- terloo for the past 25 years or more. Please forward any information to PO. Box MB. Waterloo, NZJ Reader discusses fluoridation issue (LT, Harris disagrees with Safe Water Society and is, most certain- ly. entitled to his opinion, un- enlightened as it is. Harris, whether by accident or design, is still clinging to the outmoded idea that hydrunuohilicic acid as a "must" in our daily ration. His personal attacks against the young man who had the courage to oppose this outrage, are childish. Harris does not keep abreast of the times. . I Is it possible that lie has stock in the chemical waste disposal busi- ness? He so vehemently supports this toxic acid being added to the public water supply that one wonders. Concerned citizens in Illinois took 12 years to finally combat political pressure and succeed in their court bid to halt fluoridation in Alton, Illinois. The judge found fluoride hazardous to health and ordered it stopped. I do not doubt that many of these people. who opposed fluorida- tion. have passed away. or moved away, as young Riedel will do. But as far as fluoride being a benefit to poor people, it has been proven that those on poor or inadequate diets suffer the most from drinking this corrosive acid. society and their right to protection as citizens. The idea of a wife as the "property" of her husband is only begin- ning to fade. The report noted that the problem of wife battering is a complex one. It crrncluded,"that a battered woman is not simply an unhappy, frustrated wife who needs marriage counselling ... Wile bat- tering should be treated as a crime and not merely as a behavioural aberration". The Committee places tremendous re. sponsibility on government. our justice, system, voluntary and social service groups and the public to respond immedi- ately to the needs of battered women. The Committee recommended, nrstly, that R.C.M.P. officers. who may be responding to domestic dispute calls, should receive training specifically relat, ed and sensitive to the wife-battering issue. Secondly. it called on the federal gov- emmenl to set aside funding to provide adequate housing. emergency centres. and hall-way houses for battered women and their children. And thirdly, " suggested the need for research and 'ever,',".",',', Into treatments for the victims an perpetrators of vim lence in the home. Mayline Stubbs. president of the new Status of Women, endorses the recom men- detions put forward In the report. She sees an urgent need for ttoverttmmtts.to proceed on several fronts at once. "Women need to know right now that social support is there tor them." Stubbs Germaine Mageau P.0. Box 908, Guelph, Ontario L. Wattle I'.9. P" up Waterloo Well. the Grinch who stole Christmas is working overtime this year. In last month's budget, the minister of finance announced a whole series of taxes which will not only affect you, the already overburdened taxpayer, but now your children as well. The Davis government has told munici- palities to exercise restraint, but the Miller budget begins taxing building mate- rials purchased by municipalities and other public bodies. Not only that, elderly people on fixed incomes or Laid-off workers who may have hoped for something positive in the way of economic relief have been left further buried in a mom» of petty taxes fabric, ated to help pay for the governrncnt's pet projects like Suneor and the cabinet's private, custom-made jet. Further, the minister increases taxes on everything but matches. increasing the government's revenue while at the same time increasing his expenditures to the extent that the deficit has increased by $1 billion, if you can even begin to imagine that amount. A professed concern of the Davis government is that we "Preserve It, Conserve It," but yet the government taxes insulation, wind deflectors on trucks and storm doors. The treasurer cuts taxation on accom- modations from seven to five per cent, but levies a tax on items such as toiletries and tissue goods, which will increase the cost of staying in a hotel room. The Ontario government has been quick to criticize Ottawa for its failure to keep pace with inflation in the area of education and health care spending. yet Mr. Miller serves notice "to all recipients of provim cial Pt that they should not count on future f nding at or above inflation rates." The govemment has encouraged drivers to take to small cars to conserve energy, but will now charge equal régistralion fees with big-car operators. The Liberal finance critic said, "We have consistently argued that if the Conservative government had been com- mitted to policies which cut wasteful Family violence Quéen’s Park Report The House of Commons Committee discovered that most community-based shelters are drastically underfunded: under-staffed, and inadquately housed. A preliminary study in Ontario in mm. when 33 shelters were in operation, showed that they accommodated 10,322 women and children in the first to months of that year, and refused approximately 20,000! t! Sue Coulter. a volunteer and member of ' the Board of Directors for Anselmo House (742-5894). a local shelter for battered women. re-iterates the need for govern- ment to demonstrate its concern tor the plight of these women through direct, uncomplicated. and immediate financing of half-way homes. _ says. “It is outrageous to see how society has not responded to the needs of the peoplgwiut lesm r str.em1tlks". . rSt‘ubhs Ilsa pom pd out that violence in the home Is the most hurtful injustice to women. "If you can't feel safe there, where can you be safe?" A _ From my years in the pastoral ministry I know that existing hall-way houses make all the difference in providing a sense of security and protection to battered women who have been driven from their homes. Unfortunately. these emergency centres are currently preoccupied with tinartcial survival. Consequently, they haven't the capacity to get on with addressing the real needs of battered women in their commu- nitles. "'75; long} as we're chasing dolIars. we can’t even begin to think of long range WATSRLOO CHRONICLE. wemssmw, ”RE 2. "" - PA§E 9 Mr. Justice Charles Dubin of the Ontario Supreme Court has been appointed to head a review of procedures at the Hospital for Nick Children in connection with the unexplained deaths of " babies in the hospital's cardiac ward between July 1980 and March 19ttt, There has been consider able pressure for a public inquiry into the matter. Ontario Opposition Members and top criminal lawyers have called [or a royal commission into the deaths amid criticism of police investigation of the case. The only way to salvage the reputation of a top hospital is to have a royal commission investigate," said Ontario Liberal Leader David Peterson. spending - such as pointless investment in SUNCOR. unproductive accumulation of Iamibanks, spending on opinion polls and advertising to create illusions of action - there_would be no need for either tax increases or further increases in the deficit. tc. Ontario llydro‘s $1 billion export deal with General Public Utilities of the US. will not go to a public hearing.fonserva- tive members of a legislative committee have defeated a move for such a public hearing into Ontario Hydro', plan to export $1 billion worth of electricity, voting against a motion introduced by Liberal environment critic Murray Elston of Huron-Bruce. Hydro plans to sell 1.2 million kilowatt hours of power for to years, beginning in I985 to General Public Utilities of New Jersey, and hopes to make $1 billion prof, it. "Mr. Miller, however, has -takvn both steps - to the point of even taxing the kid,,' candy bars s-"" and his fiscal irrespon sibility must be roundly condemned." Opposition members have been demand, ing an assessment of how much more acid rain pollution Hydro's plans will cause, in that it proposes to supply its US. customer with coal-generated electricity from its Nanticoke plant on Lake Erie. via a submarine cable. The spin-oft died on children, wh witness continuing violence in the; homes, will be a society which more an more condones the exercising of physics power and eventually drowns in its own violence. A copy of the report is availabit at my Waterloo office, Mayling Stubbs worries that many in th. country will consider the implementatirr of solid soclal support tor battered wome to be too costly in economically har times. " the government doesn't at quickly. however, she says the cost I society will be "lncalculable". Options. an informative publication to eusing on the legal rights of batteret women emphasizes that women have i choice to make - they can accept violence in the home, or resist attacks on them selves and their children. Options i available at the Community lnlormatim Centre. It! Queen Street. Kitchener (579 In the Waterloo Region. women have other options available to them in addition to Anselma House. in times of domestic crisis they can go to the Family Crisis Centre in Cambridge. Ontario, as well. planning“. Ironically, the existence of Anselma House (the name means "Divine Protec tion" in Greek) is currently threatened with foreclosure as mortgage payments loom and government and public support dwindles.