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The curator of the Art Gallery of Ontario predicts a special "adult room" or even the complete removal of works of art by Rodin, Picasso, and dozens of other artists through the ages. Enough! This legislation is fundamentally flawed and e better reflects the morality of a past, obsessively prurient age than a pluralist 1980s Canada. PAGE 6 â€" WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 30, 1987 Christmas being the time of year when many of us receive books and magazine subscriptions as presents, it does well to reflect on a piece of impending federal legislation. Bill Câ€"54, the Mulroney government‘s second attempt at controlling the excesses of pornography has artists, curators, writers, publishers and distributors up in arms. And they should be. The bill is wellâ€"intentioned enough. There have been enough cases before the courts dealing with childâ€"molesâ€" ters, child pornography, and juvenile prostitution to alarm parents in at least the larger urban centres. It would be nice if pprnography could be wiped off the face of the earth. But it must be done through education, not through draconian legislation. Of course, there is also the problem of defining what pornography really is. Under current standards of moral behavior, child pornography and the violent, sadoâ€"masochistic pornograâ€" phy which is particularly exploitive of women should not be tolerated in any way. We need to control this through legislation. Second Class Mail Registration Number 5540 But the proposed legislation goes far beyond this, blurring the legitimate distinctions between pornograâ€" phy and erotica, between pornography and literature, between pornography and art. Bill Câ€"54 has a clause supposedly protecting works of artistic merit or material designed for educational or scientific purposes. â€" But it has been attacked by a variety of groups for being too subjective. The provincial justice ministers are opposed to the whole bill, having declared in May that it was too sweeping. _ â€" The Writer‘s Union of Canada, the United Church of Canada, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association have opposed it. An Angus Reid Associates poll found that more than 60 per cent of Canadian adults think the bill is too broad by including as illegal the depiction of anal, vaginal or oral intercourse unless the accused could prove the defense of artistic merit. â€" The onus of guilt is totally wrong â€" the State should have to prove any charge in a democracy. And what other sex acts are there for average Canadians other than anal, vaginal and oral intercourse? Writers predict that books by such writers as Margaret Atwood, Marian Engel, J.D. Salinger, Dr. Spock, Marâ€" garet Laurence, Plato, D.H. Lawrence, Petronious and Boccaccio would be effectively outlawed by the legislaâ€" tion. Librarians would be cast in the role of distributors of pornography. Draconian laws have no place in a functioning demogracy. This bill ghould be dropped from the agenda. Address all corn’:roldente to Waterioo office, 45 Erb St. E., Wateriloo, Ont. N2J 117. Telephone 886â€"2830, News and Sports line 886â€"3021 Waterioo Chronicle office is located in the Haney, White law office building (rear entrance, umfloory Parking at the rear of the building. Open Monday to y 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Publisher: Paul Winkler Waterioo Chronicle is published every Wednesday by The Fairway Group Incorporated Publishing address 215 Fairway Rd. S., Kitchener, O1 Cado Editer: Rick Campbel! Sales Ma er: Bill Karges _ _ Display Advertising: Helen Smiley, Paula Hummel, Gerry Mattice Classified Advertising: Maureen McNab Reporters: lan Kirkby (news) Mark Bryson (sports) Circulation: Je Fischer Typesetting -u"Z.-.-ug; Câ€"54 : Melodee Martinuk : Greg Cassidy Fairway Press One of the goals of government is to inform and educate society to rethink and modify attitudes, values and behavior in a changing world. It is, therefore, encouraging when young people respond and display initiative and a sense of responsibility and direction on their own. St. David‘s Catholic secondary school has decided to organize and conduct annual symposia on themes of national and global importance. In 1986 they organized a threeâ€"day study unit on Peace. This year the topic they chose was the environment; the title of their symposium was Ecolofest. This is a very timely topic. Clean air, pure water, healthy soil are slowly being destroyed. And a vicious spiral further threatens our world. Through the rapid consumption of the Earth‘s resources, and the degradation of our environment, the very elements of the biosphere essential to our survival, are in danger. Widespread global poverty has compounded this problem. There are, for instance, more poor and hungry people today than at any other previous time in human history. And poverty perpetuates a vicious cycle; in order to survive from day to day, the poor are forced to overuse the very environmental resources they need to eventually escape from their plight. ic growth has also had an ecological price. The natural assets of soils, air, water, forests, wildlife and fish have been depleted to pay for our growth. The students at St. David‘s are concerned about their environment: The following words from the Ecolofest Theme Song say it all! ‘"Oktoberfest‘s for drinking But Ecolofest‘s for thinking If the earth was a boat Then Baby we‘d be sinking" ... Our Common Future, the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, invites all humans to dream big about a better world. It speaks eloquently of the growing costs of our failure to integrate environmental and economâ€" ic decigions. If humanity is to survive, the report warns, then the world population must be stabilized, economic disparity reduced, environmental degradation reâ€" versed, and renewable energy sources relied upon to a greater extent. _ Happily, Canada is one of the most secure and prosperous nations in the world. Canadians are, however, increasingly rocognizing that our econom:â€" The World Commission, headed by Prime Minisâ€" ter Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway, states that the world needs "development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Canada strongly supports the Brundtland ethic. We called for the Commission. We generously funded it. Guest column Walter MclL.ean (P.C., Waterioo) Rick Campbell Chronicle Editor is on vacation The Government of Canada‘s strategy is to anticipate and to prevent environmental degradaâ€" tion. The Canadian Council of Resource and Environment Ministers (CCREM) was created in an attempt to meet the constitutional division of powers over the environment. Acting as equal partners, Ministers use the Council: i) to coordinate federal and provincial policies, ii) to resolve interâ€" jurisdictional problems, iii) to coordinate action on national issues, and iv) to exchange information. Students, government leaders, farmers, scientists are all encouraged to dream big dreams about a better world. We are faced with issues of universal concern, such as transboundary pollution, the management of our world‘s financial and trading systems, the oceans, and outer space. New international structures are needed to deal with pollutions, poverty and war. c) population â€" is projected to be at 1 billion by 2000 The World Commission calls for Canadian and global action. We need to heed its call. In 1986, CCREM became the basis for the creation of the National Task Force on Environment and Economy. This Task Force sought the advice and cooperation of senior executives from Canadian corporations, and from delegates of environmental advocacy organizations. Recently the Task Force issued its report. It recommended to the Ministers (CCREM): 1) techniques to assist in better underâ€" standing the links between the environment and the economy; 2) "conservation strategies" in every Canadian jurisdiction; 3) improved environmental education in the schools; and 4) envionmental codes of practice in industry. The report demonstrates that a Canadian agreement is emerging on the need to consider the environmental dimensions of develâ€" opment, at the same time as the economic, social and political dimension. Scientists, governmental decision makers, envirâ€" onmentalists, industrial developers and economists are all shareholders in a global future, and all must recognize their responsibilities Each must be committed to the sustainability of life on the planet and to the sustainability of earth‘s ecosystems as the overriding goal of economic development. Conservation has to become a mindâ€"set nationally and globally. Why? Consider these figures: a) forestry â€" one tree is planted annually for 29 cut in b) water â€" the world‘s use doubled between 1940 and This is not a future issue. It is a present issue. Already our world is marked by the persistence of dire poverty. Several hundred million humans live desperate and marginalized lives. We supported its work. We now commit ourselves to action.