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I am the mother of twin girls who have challenged me with their behaviour since their birth almost 18 years ago. 1 agree that no one is perfect, and 1 have certainly made my fair share of mistakes with these girls. One of my strongest arguâ€" ments against physical punishment is that the parent can lose control. My girls would have tried the as afraid to speak up and report abuse. Children are people too, they have rights, they make mistakes and they have a right to live without the fear of being hit. You seem a little "blindâ€"toâ€"reality" yourself. Do you know how many children are beatâ€" en, sometimes to death each year? On your visits to the grocery store do you ever see children being inapâ€" propriately disciplined? Where is the line drawn on what is "appropriate"? Someone has to decide what is acceptable because as children, all adults are different and have different definitions of what a "firmer hand" is. 1 too remember "the hand of corâ€" rection" across my face many times when I was a child, and perhaps the Children‘s Aid should have stepped in. My mother did the best she could and I am sure she felt she was disciâ€" plining me_ appropriately. The Children‘s Aid Society steps in more these days because people are not My opinion as a parent is that there is no such thing as "spanking done appropriately". Spanking is another word for "hit". A hand slap to a child less than five years old, running out into the street or reachâ€" ing for a hot stove, would be less severe than the natural conseâ€" quence. After this age, physical punishâ€" ment does nothing but teach our children to solve conflicts with physical violence. I could not resist responding to Paula Smith‘s letter of Aug. 1 with regard to disciplining children. _I agree with Ms. Smith 100 per cent that children need discipline and that every child is different. _ Physical discipline is not the answer You said it QUESTION WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE If 1 lived in Toronto and had to travel to Sudbury for treatment, as many cancer patients have had to do, I would have been eligible to have all my costs paid for. This would include my flight, taxis, hotel, meals and in some cases costs for a companion. Frankly, 1 think this is unfair and when 1 asked Ontario‘s Ombudsman, Clare Lewis to investiâ€" gate, he agreed with me. In his recently released report, Mr. Lewis calls this practice "improperly disâ€" criminatory" and urges the governâ€" ment to "provide equal funding." Think about the stories of babies being shaken, hurled against walls or similar tragedies of children being severely hurt because of their caregiver‘s frustration. 1 am sure these parents did not mean to hurt their children but acted in rage. I remember once when my girls were about four years old, 1 slapped one of them and left a huge welt on the side of her face. I felt terrible. Isince have tried very hard to never physiâ€" cally hurt them again. I can‘t tell you I never hit them again but I was able to learn to discipline my girls in other ways. I hear nothing but praise of how well behaved my girls are from other parents and teachers, so I must have done something right without the physical discipline. am writing this letter in response Ito a discussion I had with my daughter‘s friends who live in southern Ontario. It is a short note telling her how northern residents are being discriminated against when it comes to health care. As a cancer patient, I have had to travel to Thunder Bay for treatment many times. When travelling, 1 was eligible to receive 30.4 cents per kilometerâ€"one way. Premier Harris has known about this problem for years and has been asked by Ontarians Seeking Equal Patients deserve equal rights patience of God himself. RS TO T "I actually like to play outside. I play basketâ€" ball and a lot of other sports." "Basically sports. A great day would be to play sports, and come back home and watch some TV. Nicholas Hahnelt COMMENT dn For us parents who do want to discipline our children physical disâ€" cipline is not the answer. I don‘t think parents are afraid to speak up, parents are louder than they ever were these days. Cancer (Oâ€"SECC) many times to end this "health care apartheid", to no avail. How many northern cancer patients have to lose their lives, savâ€" ings or mortgage their houses in order to afford to travel for life savâ€" ing treatment before the premier steps in and ends this discriminaâ€" tion? Why is the government willing to pay a $1.30â€"perâ€"kilometre roundtrip to transport a body, but refuses to help living cancer patients in the north? I ask each of you with friends and family in northern Ontario to bring this to the attention of your local M.PP. All Ontarians deserve equal access to cancer care. Surely the time to act is now The Children‘s Aid Society is very fair in their dealing with families and their children. It is their policy to work with the parents to help them in caring for their children. The situation is usually very bad if the children are removed from their parents‘ custody. The Children‘s Aid Society protects children. I don‘t think people are afraid to discipline their children, I just think they don‘t. â€" Will it take a class action lawsuit by Oâ€"SECC to finally achieve equaliâ€" ty for Northerners? _ Hopefully Mr. Harris will listen to the Ombudsmen and bring an end to this discrimination soon. "I like soccer too. I‘ve actually been playing for two years. I like making friends through soccer, and scoring goals." "Soccer because I play it a lot of the week, and you meet a lot of friends through 3" Helen Protopapas Grace Protopapas Karen Stephenson, Southern Ontario r- I .Wwo weekends ago, I had the pleasure of watching my oldâ€" est daughter play in the Atom Girls soccer final on the fresh sod of Waterloo‘s RIM Park. It‘s a fantastic venue for local athletes and promises to get even better as more facilities open. What a pity that it will forever be tainted by a financing arrangeâ€" ment that, if a lawsuit currently underway does not succeed, may bankrupt the city. Given the now overshadowed controverâ€" sy over the naming of the park, perhaps RIM could be convinced to pay another $2 million to help out the city â€" this time, in return for the privilege of removing their corporate name from the park. Meanwhile, the good people of Woolwich Township must be heaving a collective sigh of relief. Their council rejected a proâ€" posal to locate what was then called the Millennium Recreation Project on the other side of the Woolwichâ€"Waterloo boarder. While this decision was probably motivated by other factors (e.g. lingering resentment over the Walâ€"Mart issue), it may have spared their taxpayers the possibility of being on the hook for the inflated lease payments that are hanging over the heads of taxpayers in Waterloo. The Record deserves credit for purâ€" | g suing a rare form of public service jourâ€" ANOTHER nalism, even when its reporters were es Mal being told by city officials and others VIEW (former councillor Mike Connolly j being the most vocal) that everything Pe was kosher about the deal. 4 According to its website, MFP Financial Services "finances technology infrastructure and facilities projects for large private and public sector organizations." In the case of the financing of RIM Park, MFP leased the facility, paid the city $48.3 million in "preâ€"paid rent‘, then leased it back to the city again. Finally, MFP sold the debt to Clarica, which then sold part of it to Maritime Life. This series of transactions was apparently necessary in order to earn MFP a tidy $4 million profit while at the same time moving federal tax breaks normally available only to municipalâ€" ities to the private company. Plenty of other municipalities and publiclyâ€"funded institutions are doing the same kind of "publicâ€" private partnership" {with MFP and with other similar compaâ€" nies). In all too many cases, these partnerships are proving to be extremely profitable on the private side, but extremely expenâ€" sive on the public side. Now the city is suing MFP and the company viceâ€"president who negotiated the deal (as well as Clarica and Maritime Life}. The lawsuit accuses them of "fraud, deceit and fraudulent misâ€" representation". According to the city‘s statement of claim, MFP made the city think that they were getting an interest rate of 4.73 per cent on a $48.3â€"million loan. The actual rate is around 9.25 per cent. This means that the city must pay $227.7 million over 30 years â€" more than double what it had calculated. Because the final agreement was not delivered until just prior to council‘s vote on the matter, no one at city hall had time to read the deal before it was signed. Waterloo‘s lawsuit has caused other MFP clients to start askâ€" ing questions. This weekend 1 was in Windsor and read about fears that the city had been similarly fooled in negotiating a financing deal for a new landfill site. According to The Windsor Star, "a financing contract for the regional landfill could dump a massive cost overrun â€" as much as $96 million â€" on municipal taxpayers. Land, buildings, equipment and interest that governâ€" ment officials thought would cost $94.4 million could end up running $190.4 million because of differing interpretations of a complex repayment formula in the 1997 agreement. The effecâ€" tive interest rate {according to experts contracted by the Star] is about 10 per cent. The city and county could have received a blended interest rate of about 7.5 per cent in 1997 by issuing debentures. Using the city‘s interpretation of the formula the effective interest rate is about 6.6 per cent." Sound familiar? City Treasurer John Ford told the Record that MFP (the company that j arranged the financing and the main e defendant in the city‘s lawsuit) was "a K very tight partner with us and they‘re j going to be with us forever on this." His boss, Chief Administrative Officer Tom Stockie went so far as to call the SCOTT Record‘s questions about the deal PIATKOWSKI "bullshit". The fact that, in view of the lawsuit, the city now wants to portray itself as an injured party rather than a naive or incompetent one may be the only thing protecting (for now) the jobs of Ford and Stockie. RIM Park financing 101 ANOTHER vIEW SCOTT PIATKOWSKI