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urely Canada‘s self esteem isn‘t so low that we have to trumpet our accomplishments in an American war halfway around the world, and that after we seemingly had to beg to take part. Way to grow, Waterloo Better to be a little fish in a small puddle To be proud of something called Harpoon, a mopping up organizaâ€" tion after Anaconda has squeezed the life out of Taliban and al Qaida fighters is to exaggerate our imporâ€" tance. Nonetheless, the media has a field day running pages of our snipers picking off unwary enemy and others peeking into longâ€"abanâ€" doned caves. A weak argument can be made that we aren‘t betraying our tradiâ€" tional role of peacekeeper, only being proactive in denying terrorâ€" ists a haven. We can take some heart in the fact that Chretien made it clear to George W. that we won‘t He should welcome informed discussion. Now in its third year, its goal is to plant that number of trees within the borders of Waterloo over a 10â€" year time frame. _ Fire chief should have welcomed discussion How could the fire chief suspend a 28â€"year employee for expressâ€" ing a useful opinion? â€" â€" e 10,000 Trees Project is the I annual Earth Day activity organized by The Waterloo in Bloom Committee. We are delighted to announce that the $4,500 cost of these years planting will be sponsored by the Canadian national head office of Home Depot. Funding for the prior two years came from the local Home Depot store. The escalating size and sucâ€" cess of the event has attracted the You said it QUESTION WHAT‘S DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT THE SPRING? M al M ES :t The 10,000 Trees project has garâ€" nered international attention as well by being chosen as the Team Depot Project of the Year by the world headquarters of Home Depot in Atlanta, Ga. be party to a preemptive strike on Iraq. It‘s all an obvious effort to ingraâ€" tiate ourselves with Bush who snubbed us when he took office by looking south rather than north to find a neighbour with preferred staâ€" tus, a clear snub since we are their treasure chest filled with goodies like natural resources and the lazy loonie. We whimper when our softâ€" wood lumber is abused and our fish stocks depleted but the truth is that we jump when D.C. calls, fearing a dead line. It would be better if we stayed with our strengths rather than our obvious weaknesses, the latter being legendary. Our British subs resemble sieves, our Sea King heliâ€" copters spend most of their old age in the shop our national sport has gone south to bask in the land of notice of the company‘s Canadian headquarters, which is thrilled with the opportunity to participate in this yearts planting day. Unfortunately, there are too many government managers and elected officials who cannot handle any ideas that are "outside This honour comes with a cheque for an additional $5,000 for the Waterloo In Bloom commitâ€" tee. Home Depot is the largest retailâ€" er of lumber on the planet and the biggest company of its type with the box" or "That you can go out and play sports like baseball and soccer." "Sitting outside and drinking beer." O THE CHRONICL] Greg Preston Phil Christie that contradict COMMENT retail stores in 26 countries. We are grateful for the help and able supâ€" port of Waterloo staff members Karen Anderson and Bruce Hawkins for their constant support in this fundraising success story. Thanks go to Brad Kalbfleisch, the manager of the Waterloo Home Depot and Mary Alison Pejskar at their Canadian division. We are absolutely delighted for the comâ€" mittee and the city as we continue to show our environmental leaderâ€" ship. Aside from providing a constant flow of comedians to the Hollywood scene, thanks to Second City, Canaâ€" da has much to offer Planet Earth. Our multiâ€"cultural character, partly forced on us by declining numbers in a vast land, is something to beat our chest about as we succeed in living in harmony together, although at times we‘re accused of being terroristâ€"friendly. Our manuâ€" facturing industry is world class trains, planes and automobiles to the globe, not to mention our edge in telecommunications. fullâ€"bodied dollars. Better to be a little fish in a small puddle than in a big puddle where the big guys might just choose to have us for dinner. Thank goodness that there are elections in 2003. their "accepted wisdom." Way to grow Waterloo! "It‘s warmer than now. You don‘t have to wear big coats and stuff to go outside." "Walking around outâ€" side and not freezing to death." 10,000 Trees chair Peter Mendler Carl Kaufman, Waterloo Jon Dosman Mark Whaley, Jim Newton, New Dundee n the midst of an extended holiday from the legislature, Tory Ispin doctors have had what amounts to free reign when it comes to advancing the government line in its dispute with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU)}. Accordâ€" ing to the government, it has made "a fair and reasonable offer" and OPSEU is just being stubborn in refusing to accept it. Meanâ€" while, management board chair Dave Tsubouchi seeks court rulâ€" ings regarding "essential services". As far as I‘ve been able to disâ€" cern, no one has ever disputed that 911 operators and prison guards are essential services, and there‘s no evidence that the current strike has led to a discontinuation in these services. Moreover, if these services are viewed as essential by the governâ€" ment, then why have jail managers locked out guards across the province? And, why did it take a mediator‘s recommendation to get the Tories back to the batgaining tabie after three weeks away? One could almost excuse the govâ€" H ernment‘s PR flaks for trying to keep i PCY . i. the truth from the public on this issue. R fj’ h ‘ After all, that‘s what they are paid to do. _ QP What is less clear is why the news _ dupafle media haven‘t done anything but s report the government line as if it were fact. I‘ve been scanning newspapers, TV and radio from across the province PIA%%(%’I‘;,TSIG and none of them has done a decent job of detailing what the strike is about, or devoted any space to reporting on OPSEU‘s negotiating posiâ€" tion. This is an absurd breach of journalistic standards. Nothing in the government‘s ubiquitous ads or its public statements mentions the fact that MPPs gave themselves a 36.6â€" perâ€"cent raise last year, in contrast to the 1.95â€"perâ€"cent annual increase being offered to a public service that is 23,000 smaller than in 1995. Not once has it acknowledged that it is trying to strip away $10 million in employment benefits and take away control of the pension surplus. Missing | y as well, is the fact that, after a fiveâ€"week e m 4 strike in 1996, public servants were ‘ ANOTHER | ordered back to work and got an J | imposed contract which raised their VIE“ 1 salaries by just 4.4 per cent over three & ‘fl% } years (their first raise in six years). ‘ 3e Bd . I "It protects your safety. It protects your money. It protects your interests. But after 6 1/2 years of cuts, layoffs, privatization., and mismanagement by the Conservatives at Queen‘s Park, the Ontario Public Service (OPS) is in crisis. In the Walkerton Inquiry report, Justice O‘Connor said that "budget reductions made it less likely that the MOE would pursue proactive measures that would have prevented or limited the tragedy." O‘Connor said the government‘s "distaste for regulation" meant that, after they privatized Environment labs, the new priâ€" vate labs were not required to phone the local public health unit or the Ministry of the Environment if they found samples of tainted water. This contributed to hundreds of people falling ill. _ _1 invite you to contact the union to find out more about OPSEU‘s position, and to contact your MPP to pressure the govâ€" ernment to take the steps necessary to reaching a fair settlement. "Water isn‘t the only area where our safety is at risk! Ontario now has eight fullâ€"time provincial meat inspectors â€" down from 150 in 1996. Ontario has laid off all its farm products inspectors â€" the people who used to check our fruits and vegetables for toxic pesticides. Ontario probation and parole officers have the highest caseloads in Canada, and can only meet with offenders for 30 minutes a month on average. "Ontario‘s provincial auditor has found that, in a $180 million contract with the Conservatives, the Andersen Consulting firm was charging taxpayers up to six times more than it would have cost to have public employees doing the same work. The director of the project for Andersen was making $575 an hour! The audiâ€" tor found that privatized highway maintenance cost more than the public system in three out of four cases he looked at. The priâ€" vatization of our air ambulance system cost the government over $2 million in severance pay alone â€" just to have the same paraâ€" medics perform the same service for the private operator... "We want to end contracting out, bring government work back to the public sector, and protect employees who blow the whistle on government waste and wrongdoing. A strong and independent public service will prevent another Walkerton. We want a fair wage and benefits so we can keep pace with inflation. We want to improve the lives of the tens of thousands of contract employees who occupy what should be permanent positions. And we want to continue early retirement possibilities so new people can build careers." In a small effort to remedy this imbalance in media coverage. I am reproducing below parts of an OPSEU pamphlet (available in its entirety at www.opseu.org). What you haven‘t heard about the OPSEU strike { 0 0 ] ANOTHER | VIEW I #i | leg l