Whitby Free Press, 28 Aug 1985, p. 4

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

PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 1985. WHITBY FREE PRESS Published every Wednesday whi tbyMcHEKNL by M.H.M. Publishing Community Editor and Photography Inc. Phone 6;8-61il VALERIE COWEN Advertising Manager The Free Press Building, 131 Hrock Street North. Second Class Mail Voice of the County Town Michael lan Burgess, Publisher . Managing Editor P.0. Box 2(m, whitby, Ont. Registration No.5351 The only Whitby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whithy residents for Whitby residents. Referendum needed on RC funding The new provincial government of Premier David Peterson has only been ln office a few weeks and has yet to face the gathering storm began by his decision to follow through on former Premier Bill Davis' policy to extend full funding to the Roman Catholic separate school system. Here in Durham Region, our public school board has decided to launch its own protest of Bill 30 and will appeal to the eight municipalities in Durham Reglon to hold a referendum this Nov. 12 on the Issue. We've said it before, and we'Il say It again - this entire issue has been mishandled and ABWIJOCB~MAW 7O~ GLOBAL Wl ~ I suppose there have always been books for those who have wanted to travel vicariously. But it seems to me that In recent years we have had some of the best travel stuff ever written. I'm thinking of Paul Theroux and Gavin Young. They are natural suc- cessors of the British writers of the 30's, Peter Fleming, Fitzroy MacLean and travellers of that lik. The books that make Paul Theroux's name a byword for armchair escapists are "The Great Railway Bazaar" and "The Old Patagonian Express." Both books describe Theroux's adventures in trying to get around the world by train. They're not simply about his experiences with the conductors of the world, but are full of the people, the topography and to some extent the history of the whistle-stops he went through. Theroux Is an intelligent and well-read American who writes well, and that makes both books ar- mchair treasures. I am less enthusiastic about Theroux's other books. His latest, "Sunrise with Sea Monsters", has some wonderful stuff in it, but it ls really just a collection of very short magazine pieces --not what I call a good, long read. And his book on Britain, "The Kingdom by the Sea", an account of a trip around the British Coast, is just plain ulcerous. What Theroux has in common with Gavin Young, who is British, apart from the fact that they are both educated men and wonderful writers, is that they have tended to travel alone and on an ad hoc basis. But I prefer Gavin Young, partly because his best known book, "Slow Boats to China", and his latest one, "Slow Boats Home", have to do with sea travel, and partly because I sense that Young is a kindlier human being. He becomes involved with simple people, while Theroux tends to remain the critic, standing aloof. Young's aim was to travel around the world in freighters, coastal cargo carriers, honest working vessels, if you lîke. But he wasn't obsessive about it. Sometimes he took passenger ships, and sometimes, perish the thought, he actually flew. As I recall, it took him about a year to get to China, and I was af raid that was the end of it. But my late, lamented holidays, were blessed by a second book, "Slow Boats Home", in which he con- tinues the Journey from Hong Kong to the Horn, if not actttally around it, and from'Africa to the U.K. l'Il be an armchair shipmate any time Gavin Young goes anywhere. mismanaged since the day David made the fateful announcement. The people of this province ex- pressed their disapproval of the government's policy during the recent election. They were so displeased with what every major party had to say that they refused to give any of them the clear right to govern. If one has followed the news over the course of the last few days, one will know that the Jewish community In Ontarlo will go to the courts, if need be, to secure the same rights that have now been won by the Catholic school system. The question this newspaper has to ask is: Where will it ail end? Our longtime readers know that we have often expressed serious concerns about the funding of education not only ln Durham Region but in the province as well. Increasing education costs represent the largest drain on the local property taxpayer and with so many unan- swered questions remaining concerning Bill 30, we cannot see this situation ending. We believe that the public school system should be exactly that - a public school system. It should be a system that respects the religious and cultural rights of ail Ontarians. It should not discrimate in Its admission, hiring or teaching policies. It should not reflect any religious or political biases. A service that Is paid for by ail taxpayers should be available to ail taxpayers. Separate school systems, be they Catholic or Jewish, exist for two purposes: to educate as the public school system does and to teach the values, principles and prac- tises of their faith. In our view, the teaching of a religious faith should not be funded by the state, which must respect the faith of ail its citizens. The Durham Board of Education's request for a municipal referendum ls.essentially a good one because it will bring into focus the views of the property taxpayer of Whitby and the rest of Durham Region. This information can then be communicated directly to the government and the three commissions it has established to study the question of extended funding. Maybe the gover- nment will listen to a referendum on this issue, they certainly don't appear to be listening to the voice of public opinion now. We have said this before, but it is worth saying again. If the separate school system is to accept full public funding, then It cannot refuse to admit our students or hire our teachers. It must, in essence, become another public school system. If the separate system accepts that promise then there is no point in it remaining a separate entity. There is no point in having two public school systems ln Ontario. If the separate school systems wish to stand apart from the public system, then they should be required to carry part of the responsibility for their own financial destiny as well. The old cliche of "He who pays the piper, calls the tune" should have some bearing on this Issue. The education of all our children is at stake. The principles of public education - free to ail and ac- cessible to all - are at stake here. Perhaps the best way to gauge the feelings of the average citizen on this Issue is by way of referendum. Their views wlll then be known without room for doubt. It will then become in- cumbent on our popularly elected provincial government to behave ln accordance with those views.

Powered by / Alimenté par VITA Toolkit
Privacy Policy