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WATERLOO CHRONICLE Carolyn Anstey Amy Hachborn Circulation Manager _ Circulation Publisher: Cal Bosveld 886â€"2830 Fax: 886â€"9383 Eâ€"mail: wchronicle@sentex. net 75 King St. South, Suite 201 Waterloo, Ontario N2J 1P2 (A division of Southam Inc.) Mailed subscription rate: $65 yearly in Canada, $90 yearly outside Canada. +GST International Standard Serial Number [SSN 0832â€"3410 The Waterloo Chronicle is published every Wednesday by The Fairway Group, a division of Southam Inc. The views of our columists are their own and do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper. The Waterion Chronicle welcomes letters to the Editar They should be signed with name, address and phone numâ€" ber and will be verified for accu racy: No unsigned ietters will be published Submissions may be edited for length. so please be brief Copyright in letters and other materials submitted to the Publisher and accepted for publication remains with the author, but the publisher and its licensees may freely reproduce them in print. electronic or other forms. Our mailing address is 75 King St S . Suite 201. Waterloo N2J 1P2, our eâ€"mail address is wchronicle@sentex net. and our fax number is BR6â€"9383 Letters Policy Iim Alexander Director of Advertising Andrea Bailey Reporter Cal Bosveld Publisher Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement Number 136379 Norma Cyca . Bill Karges Advertising Advertising Lynin Bartnl Audited urculation: 26,056 m > sm § Deborah Crandall Â¥ditor Gerry Mattice Retail Sales Bob Vibanac Sports Editor Manager The reason l say l was intrigued is because I wanted to know if it would actually raise the awareness of the effects of fear and violence, or would it merely be a free Halloween mask for the children, and an early Halloween parade. So I went along to the Sunnydale Resource Centre on Friday to investigate. The main mask which Ron Schweitzer and young Craig Wilkon were working on was that of a large birds head (beak included]}. It was to be painted white to symbolize hope of a vioâ€" lenceâ€"free community. A large shredded sheet was to be later attached to the back of the mask to give the effect of feathers, and on each feather positive aspects and hopes were then to be written. This is the mask that is to lead the parade, (time to be announced}. In talking with Ruth Thompson (Kâ€"W campaign coordinator 2000) I was surprised to find that the Week Without Violence Campaign is a world wide event, which is held in over 50 counâ€" tries, and this is the fifth YWCA have been involved in. But not all areas would do the same workshop â€" they have a list in which they would choose from. In Cambridge for example, they had a clothesline with Tâ€"shirts hanging from them, and printed on the Tâ€"shirts were written messages and pictures expressing their concern and fears of violence in the community. Being from Belfast Ireland myself, 1 wonder if Tâ€"shirts hanging from a clothesline could help our problems. A Sunnydale it was indeed, with an Indian Summer evening in full swing, which seemed to be bringing out the best in the children and the theatre artists, Ron Schweitzer and Tanya Williams. This was the second meeting for the theatre artists, for they had held a workshop at Trinity Village in Kitchener, where a great turnout of 40 participated, and at Sunnydale a turnout of 30 to 35. Jt was sad to see what small things [ | bs s * can generate violence amongst the i m PW children, for some of the fears of the o o9 children were that of getting bullied "& over something as simple as their * accents or other small forms of bigâ€" PHILIP otry. But what was promising was to see the ways in which the children VERNON were thinking in how to calm down, such as playing the computer, counting to 10 and playing sports, rather than putting their anger into ways of retaliating or into bullying someone else. 1 was also talking to young participants Jessica Mclean and AJ Kelly McDonald to show the need for these sort of workshops, they were to tell me that their classroom in Cedarbrae school was broken into, stealing a guitar and radio and also causing the usual unnecessary mindless damage. In the words of Jessica, "Whoever done it, they‘re in big trouble". Let‘s all hape so. Some of the children said they were just there for fun, but it all helps children in expressing themselves and community building. 0 e s The overall main aim, I believe, is to help children deal with their anger so something as small as bullying doesn‘t progress on to the use of guns and knives, which would then later cause a greater fear and threat to our community. Which all leads to the question, does fear evolve from violence or does violence evolve from fear? en 1 first heard the idea of Mask Making Workshops (sponsored by Community Safety and Crime Prevention council and YWCA) in conjunction with the Week Without Violence Campaign, ! was intrigued. The Mask Making Workshops are aimed to raise the awareâ€" ness to the effects that fear and violence have on the communiâ€" ty. They were offered in the Kitchenerâ€"Waterioo area, and with the help of skilled theatre artists the participants were to conâ€" struct masks that would symbolize the fears around violence and the hopes of a violence free community, which would later then be used in a parade. At the beginning of both workshops, Tanya and Ron had disâ€" cussions with the children and other participants to get feedback on what ‘râ€"â€"â€"‘â€"â€"‘l‘ their fears of violence entail, and what .Ms ATHIILGU hopes â€" everyone â€" had _ of â€" a “ IH} \\ :\‘l I ; violenceâ€"free community, all the parâ€" . SLE I I | ticipants views and opinions, along ‘\ | with suggestions of what they could [ | do to calm themselves down if they ) | were to ever feel angry, were all brainâ€" , ’ stormed on to large paper is es e In answer to my original thought of whether it will actually raise the awareness of violence in the community, I would have to say it was a success. Philip Vernon will be working at the Waterioo Chronicle for the next eight weeks as part of Lutherwood CODA‘s Wider Horizons program. He is visiting the Kâ€"W area along with 20 other young people from Ireland. He‘s a bit cheeky, but otherwise not a bad sort. We all wear masks VIEWPOLINT | THEwayI i SEE IT } vernon _| X Marks the Spot: Canada is headed for the polls Nov. 27, and punâ€" dits aplenty are bashing J. Chretien and Co. for pouring out the goodies and then calling an election. Of course, the new anonymity makes a joke of the folks who say that in a supercity you wouldâ€" n‘t know your councillor. Odds are 10â€"toâ€"one now that most voters wouldn‘t know their representative if they tripped over him or her. They cited the "nonâ€" [L____ sense" that comes with eight different standards and the ten dency to use "sewer and water capac ity as bargaining chips" With the silly claims made for the twoâ€"tier system, I‘m tempted not to vote. It‘d be great not to feel any responsibility for what happens in local politics. _ I suppose it‘s a measure of how the community is growing, but the new candidates come as mostly strangers. It‘s not that L ever knew all the candiâ€" dates, but in the notâ€"soâ€"good old days I tended to know at least a bit more about them. Say, hope you noticed that the Waterloo Region Home Builders‘ Association at a meeting of mayoralty and regional candidates _ urged _ a supercity but soon. Only Regional Chairman Ken Seiling and Kitchener Mayor Carl Zehr supported the supercity concept. Most of the others seemed enamâ€" oured of the bigâ€"frogâ€"inâ€"aâ€"smallâ€"pond ambition. Hurrah for the councils of yesterâ€" year! They used to throw nickels around as if they were manhole covâ€" ers. Ballot Balks: The entry list has closed for the municipal elections. The voters are underwhelmed, and â€" barring some excitement from someâ€" where â€" the turnouts will be pathetic. They‘re apt to be akin to temperâ€" ance lectures as an Oktoberfest feaâ€" ture. Only two emerge with credit ... it was an image thing, really. The people and the media just didn‘t see your benefits ! 4A :i +â€" MNSHMAEE SANDY Say, the Americans perceive Al Gore as cold while they think of George Dubyah as giving a feeling of warmth. So does a rectal suppository. Count Our Blessings: Canada and the Excited States will almost be voting together. The sitmilarity ends there because the American election blahâ€"blah has been going on for a couple of years. T L J _ Foreign Affair: Canaâ€" dians â€" and the PM has helped to create the habit â€" have a tendency to make a mock of our PM It‘s worthy of note, however, that the United States enlisted him to interâ€" vene in the Mideast mess. It‘ll be interesting to see whether the voters punish the Liberals for their opportunism in calling the vote a mere six months early. Don‘t forget what happened to David Peterson in Ontario a decade ago. Still, when most Canadians are asked about violence on TV they think they‘re being asked about what Mr Chretien does to the language Gosh, more than a halfâ€"century ago Walter Harris as Liberal finance minister was celebrated for his Sunshine Budgets which came every four years as a signal we were going to go to the polls. The critics must be young folk or else they‘d appreciate that dispensing the good stuff as the prelude to an election is in the fine old Liberal tradiâ€" tion. Still, the Canadian Alliance doesn‘t look attractive. It‘s wimped out on some policies including the flat rate (17 per cent) tax which Stock Day has put on the back burner. It‘s a burner which will apparently only be reached when the Alliance takes power at least for the second time. That may well be 10 years hence or never. The Alliance NTERI claim to be the littleâ€"man‘s AS) â€" party rings hollow when it NYR | holds a fundâ€"raiser at an incredible $25,000 a table Imagine the Alliance getting a gazillion bucks for a political dinner Gosh, all I ever got from them was gas. _ Oh yes, there were banks and corporations aplenty on hand, but how many average folk can spring for a dinner at those prices?