The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

ecvoentniet repemnaieger mm areememitemntemens ne s n e My friend Greg Cassidy died last week. 1 want to use this colâ€" umn to remember him and to explain to those who didn‘t know him what a great loss his death represents. 1 first met Greg in 1991 when we were simultaneously elected to the Board of the AIDS Committee _ of _ Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo and Area (ACCKWA). The agency was in a state of crisis at that point and it was obvious that a major‘effort was needed !~ save it from colâ€" lapse. As was his custom, Greg leapt _ into the new role, sitting on the hiring commitâ€" tee for the executive position and then taking on the position of first viceâ€"president within his first two months on the Board. l developed enormous respect and affection for him over the two years during which we sat at the Board table together. h ilke â€"stubbies 1 had no hesitation in giving up the role of ACCKWA president when the time was right because 1 knew that Greg was more than up for the job. â€" Gregs contributions to this community were enormous and varied. He was a residence don at the University of Waterloo and active in student government. In addition to his involvement in ACCKWA, he sat on the Board of Kitchener Waterloo Oktoberfest and the Waterloo Public Library (culminating in his assumption of the position of Chair). I‘ve never met anyone who was as passionate as Greg about libraries. Most of Greg‘s adult life was spent working as circulation manager for the Chronicle. He was as ruthlessly efficient in that position as in every other aspect of his life. It was easy for some who didn‘t know him well to ignore his human side. Once the housing coâ€"op where 1 used to work had an ongoing problem with the Chronicle Goodbye to a friend and a hero Stan Rektor‘s letter of November 15 misrepreâ€" sents the government‘s proposals to recognize Quebec as a distinct society. "Distinct society"can mean many things. Certainly the statement "Quebec is a distinct society" is symbolic and does not mean that Quebec is a separate country. Quebec is distinct from the other provinces, something that any one who has travelled there knows, and it costs us nothing to say so. Quebec‘s distinctiveness has been recognized since the Quebec Act of 1774. 1 strongly disagree with the way Mr. Rektor has equated distinct society with apartheid. Under apartheid, blacks in South Africa could not vote in national elections, could not live where they wanted, could not enter urban areas without perâ€" mission, could not marry whites and could not hold certain jobs. There is no similarity between the old South Africa and today‘s Canada. Absolutely no one has suggested that English Canadians should be secondâ€"class citizens to French Canadians. If Quebec is distinct from the other provinces, it is only logical that the other provinces are distinct from Quebec. There is nothing racist about recognizing this. Lucien Bouchard has predicted that the rest of LETTER $ CoOMNENT ‘Distinct society‘ can mean many things Greg Cassidy ANOTHER delivery truck speeding through the playground area to drop off IER papers to one of Gregs carriers. w None of the direct complaints seemed to make any difference to the driver but one phone call to Greg eliminated the problem for good. Greg had a wide circle of friends, particularly in Kitchenerâ€"Waterloo, He liked to J bring people of diverging views P together just to listen to the inevitable debate, Differences of opinion never alfected his judgâ€" ment of people‘s character. Instead, he liked to enhance or laugh off those differences. A conservative with a conscience (i.e. one who couldn‘t bring himâ€" self to vote for Mike Harris), he used to call my eldest daughter "A.E." to demonstrate his belief that she would reject her upbringing and become a highâ€"flying corporate executive, Even a few months ago, he was teasing a mutuâ€" al friend (who works in the delivery of home care services) about all of the changes he wantâ€" ed to make to the home care system of which he was by then a client. Whatever Greg did and wherever he went, he made an impact on people. Two years ago he moved to Toronto to be with his partner and to pursue a Masters of Library Science degree at the University of Toronto. He led his class academâ€" ically and was soon named class president. This year, his faculty decided to name a newly built computer lab after him. American talk show host Rush Limbaugh (not someone whom I usually quote in this space) has complained that people who die of AIDS are made into heroes in North American society. As usual, he misses the point. Greg Cassidy IS a hero â€" not because of how he died but because of how Canada will not be able to agree on reforms that @ will address Quebec‘s legitimate grievances. If he @ is right, then the separatists are sure to win any «@ future referendum. The Prime Minister needs the @y support of all Canadians to make those changes o that will help build a better future for Canada. Opposing the changes that will help accommoâ€" & date Quebecers is playing into the hands of the © The Waterloo Chronicle welcomes letters to the editor They should be signed with name, address and phone number and will be verified for accuracy. No unsigned letters will be published and the Chronicle reserves the right to edit. LETTERS POLICY Andrew Telegdi @ M.P, Waterloo ee00 00000 cLIP & sayvE®®@0000 00000 uze & 1$50 e ______â€" _ _ CHmes s _ "0 22 _ _ se‘ e 1133 King E @ Ottama 576â€"1520 .. tr:\, P e« KITCHENER 576â€"5296 on commmag _ "fl ee0e000000 CLIP & SAVE ee0 000000 $100 (. Broken Windshield! _ We Pay _ 5_ Your U Deductible! S© AL Mfi WiklEAGIIVEe You Receive 20 Offer Expires Dec. 19/95 Black Forest m Ham from | Potato Chi ocmA _ PARTY PACK GRANDADS: _ from TOWNE BOWL Piece Barre] Free Games from of KFC! Ca Pannapagl s tR 0 Py 1 $