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It could happen to me guess it was about the time I Immed 16 that 1 began to think about getting my license to drive. For the next year I took the time and spent the money for driver‘s educaâ€" tion. When 1 felt that I was ready, 1 went for my G1 and passed on the first try. 1 began to put a year‘s worth of driving under my belt so I could get my G2. When my year was up, 1 went for my road test and passed. I was so excited to finally be able to drive by myself that 1 was always out driving around (my parents let me borrow their car and van). 1 thought I was invincible but I was soon to find out that old saying, "it couldn‘t happen to me", was very far from the truth. It happened on what started to be a typical day. My parents went out in the early afternoon to shop around for a new car. They took the car and left the van at home. Sometime around late afternoon my friends called and we decided to go driving, so I took the van. I picked up my girlfriend and then we went and picked up a couâ€" ple of more people. We drove around for a couple of hours and around 8 p.m. I called home to let my parents know that 1 was OK and that I would have the van home not too late. You said it We decided to take my friend home and were driving down Keats Way; I was going faster than 1 should have been. I hit a wet patch on the road as I was going around a corner and the van started to fishtail down the road. I had no practice dealing with this kind of situation and tried to regain control, but it didn‘t work. The tail end of the van was the first to impact the teleâ€" phone pole. It hit about half way along the side of the van on the pasâ€" senger side. The front of the van then hit a tree I got out of the van to see if everyone was OK and realized how bad I had hit. One of the passengers crawled over to a tree and was holdâ€" ing his arm. The police arrived and QUESTION HOW IS THE WEATHER AFFECTING YOUR MOOD? AaHIdL took him and my girlfriend away in the ambulance. Fortunately no one was killed or seriously injured. _ As I sat in the back of the police _ able lesson and I can thank God car waiting for my parents to arrive, _ I am still alive. L couldn‘t stop thinking to myself, Crystal Topt "It couldn‘t happen to me" â€" boy Wate had [ been wrong. Restaurants were filthy ® before the smoking bylaw This is a response to the letter written by Eric Boyd, published on Wednesday, May 30. â€" When I am in a restaurant where smoking is allowed, I do not sit there and worry if 1 am getting cancer from it. I‘m simply repulsed by the smell and poor air quailty. Then I look around through the haze and think to myself, "This resturant is filthy. e How can they be cooking food here and how can we be eating it?" Smokers just can‘t understand this fact. Try to imagine some disgusting smell floating in the air all around you. Then imagine that you and Province should protect Oak Ridges Moraine In North Battleford Saskatchewan and Walkerton, ON., people died and hundreds became sick due to a lack of provincial leadership in proâ€" tecting drinking water. Unfortunately the Ontario government‘s recent budget did not put a higher priority on replacing antiquated water treatâ€" ment systems. The Conservatives should thus make a commitment to protect the "free" and "natural" water filtration system known as the Oak Ridges Moraine In Southern Ontario, a prudent and proactive step to ensure safe water would be for the Ontario govâ€" ermment to pass a bill to protect the Oak Ridges Moraine. The Moraine sits over our reserves of drinking water. More than 250,000 people get "I‘m a little down. It started out strange this year. We went from winter to sumâ€" mer, no spring, and now it seems we‘re into fall. 1 don‘t know what‘s going on." _ RonAndrews "It would be better if it was sunny and [CO THE CHRONICLE Mariene Faleioni COMMENT Even though I have many conseâ€" quences to face as a result of the accident, I have learned a very valuâ€" able lesson and I can thank God that I am still alive. your small children have to eat while inhaling this smell. Since the bylaw was enacted, our family eats out more often. We try places that previously were too smoky, and we certainly get more enjoyment out of it. If Eric Boyd thinks that the sucâ€" cess of the antiâ€"smoking bylaw is "unsubtantiated _ hypothesizing" then why doesn‘t he fund an objecâ€" tive, statistical survey of all resturant owners to verify his claim? But please, don‘t use any of my tax money â€" it‘s all tied up paying for the health care of smokers. their daily drinking water from this supply. It is also a source for the headwaters of the 65 rivers and streams which flow into Lake Ontario and Simcoe. In turn, these lakes are sources of drinking water to millions. Currently, sprawling housing develâ€" opments and golf courses threaten the Moraine lands. The Safety of our drinking is the responsibility of the provincial govâ€" ermment. It is high time that they accept this responsibility and act now before another water crisis hits our _ community. _ Please _ visit www oakridgemoraine.com for more information on how you can get involved. "It‘s all right. It‘s much better than the winter." "There are pros and cons to it. I like to see the flowers doing well, but I‘ve also enjoyed staying in and visiting with my family." Josh Matlow, Earthroots campaigner Temeshwar Arjun Crystal Topham, Carolyn Beaton, Waterloo During the 1999 election campaign, Mike Harris "guaranteed" voters that he wouldn‘t create a voucher system to fund priâ€" vate schools. He‘s now trying to say that he didn‘t lie when he said this because "the tax credit is going to parents, not to schools". Nice try‘:“b;-iwi;e; the tax cvl"e‘diitvi;gzing‘fo peirems who are paying the money to private schools No one would ever be convicted of money laundering if Harris‘ mangled logic was accepted as gospel. t T M E2 Dommananascass y mm on e neeein e vo eidene ner en ce e i ieee T umt Funding private schools is part of two separate but related streams of Tory ideology. They want to undermine public confiâ€" dence in government‘s ability to deliver services and they want to reward their private sector allies by handing over public assets (such as school buildings that have been closed down) or rich govâ€" ernment contracts to perform those same services. That‘s the real objective with education, just as it is with corrections, transportaâ€" tion and just about every other area of government activity. To help with this task, the Fraser Institute released a report that laudâ€" ed private schools and criticized the record of Ontario public schools. The timing of the report was clearly intended to soften the landing of the Tories‘ controversial initiative, but its methodology was so embartassingly bad that it had to be withdrawn. The more the Tories can foster the belief that children cannot receive an adequate education fFOM hC _ mammmmmappapaaaae public system, the more pressure there . |f e ooan will be to expand the tax credit scheme \\()I Hl}\ | into something approaching full fundâ€" VIEW ing. John Vanasselt, director of commuâ€" J nications for the Ontario Alliance of | "ag Christian Schools, made it clear that his R group continues to hold this objective. $ "Is this enough? This is a tremendous a move, 1 think it‘s a move in the right " direction on the part of the government, and if it helps provide the education that m i most parents want for their kids then maybe the government will see their way clear to expand that in the future." SCOTT So, what‘s so wrong about a tax credâ€" PIATKOWSK it that the Tories claim is designed to § "tevel the playing field" and "give parâ€" =â€" _ _ es ents more choice"? Plenty. For starters, the public school system is so starved for resources that it is almost criminal for the governâ€" ment to divert an estimated $350 million to private schools. Secondly, the giveaway will encourage parents to abandon the public system altogether and exacerbate the trend toward "creamâ€" ing" the best students from the public system. Public schools will be for those students who can‘t get into private schoals. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty (who is behind the plan, and who reportedly didn‘t bother to inform the Minister of Education until a few days before he announced it) claims that the tax scheme will allow parents who are members of religious and ethâ€" nic minorities to send their children to a special school. What he either fails to realize or chooses to ignore is that the real beauty of the public education system is precisely that it is for everyone. We shouldn‘t fragment and marginalize minorities by encouraging them to school their kids separately. Alan Borovoy, general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association argues that "a province in which so many â€" perhaps even most â€" youngsters attended separate religious schools could well be a much different place from what it is today. The ordeals of the 20th century have demonstrated the fragility of interâ€"religious and“m;;r-e;il}nc coâ€"existence. Consider the bloody conflicts of today‘s world: between Hindus and Muslims in India, Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, E_nd among three separate groups in Bosnia, to name only a few. This is not necesâ€" sarily to predict such horrors for an educationally balkanized Ontario. But it is to acknowledge the endemic nature of racial and ethnic tensions. Unless interâ€"group relations are constantly addressed, tensions could surface at any time. Ontario‘s relative harmony likely owes a lot to the experience of interâ€"group collabâ€" oration forged in our public school system. When youngsters of various backgrounds coâ€"operate daily on a faceâ€"toâ€"face basis, they have a special opportunity to develop enduring habits of interâ€" group respect." 1 w 1 o W Bono ca enc io mc nbeat nsl Many defenders of the government‘s plan point out the unfairâ€" ness of funding Catholic schools while denying funding to other religions. The United Nations and others have criticized this disâ€" crimination. In my view, the best way for Ontario to deal with this disparity is to seek a constitutional amendment that would elimiâ€" nate all funding for religious education (in the past five years, this has already been done for both Newfoundland and Quebec). This step would take some political courage, but it would cause far less upheaval and lead to far better results than the proposed tax credâ€" it. I call on the Harris government to abandon the funding of priâ€" vate:choolsand instead fund a single quality public education system for all students. Tax credit is the thin edge of the wedge |ANOTHER | MTat mt a ® I | PIATKOWSK