PAGE 4, THE HERALD, Tuesday, August 1, 1978 EDITORIAL The first item onseveral newscasts by the CBC on Friday and Saturday was a_ reported suggestion by the Law Society of Canada that the Queen should no longer be the Queen of Canada, and that a prominent Canadian should be chosen to replace the position she now holds as symbolic head of our country. Immediately following this item was a report on the visit of the Queen, in Canada. No ex- planation was made, although many Canadians do not realize it the Queen is here by invitation only; primarily to open the British Com- monwealth Games in Edmonton. . Third - great prominence was given to the different version of the Queen's speech in English and in French - as if the Queen had written the speech, herself (she never does). Her Canadian speeches are written entirely by Canadians, in the employ of the Canadian government and always checked over OTTAWA OFFBEAT by Richard Jackson : In Ottawa — as elsewhere in Canada when the § size of minority population warrants ~ it’s the § provision of federal government services in either “official language,” as English and French are bureaucratically known. ‘ But at one point at least in Ottawa, it means more than that. It means individual and exclusive service for each language group. On the mail box at the corner of Churchill and Avondale Avenues, the postal Pickup schedule is posted ... for English, 10 a.m.; for French, 11 a.m, Taken literally it would mean that the truck picks up the english mail first, then an hour later returns for the French. Where that would leave the. Kowalskis, the Chinkiwakis, the Mendozas, and all the others whose mother tongue isn’t one of the two official languages, only the Post Office knows. But if it does, it doesn’t seem to care. Because the two-time, two-language pickup schedule been there for weeks. But in other parts of Ottawa-Hull - now the ~The CBC: Irresponsible Journalism thoroughly by members of the diplomatic corps. To top this all off, of course, and add to the Queen’s embarrassment (again, remember, she hadn’t asked to come, she was invited by Canada) Canada's own prime minister stayed away on holidays in Morocco. " Now add all thisup, and what do you get? Was the suggestion by the Law Society the top news of the day? Really? Canada’s dollar had just slipped badly, once again. A major trade deficit for the first month in some time had just been announced. At least one major breakthrough in livesaving medicine had been released within the previoys 24 hours. Thousands of Canadian women yearning to have babies of their own were besieging medical authorities for information on how they could have a “test tube” conception that would them to bear a child of their own husbands and their “flesh and blood”, officially designated National Capital, and never f . mind what Queen Victoria decreed - ili ism means “speak French.” bilingualism And no kidding. It’s an order from Supply and Services |: Minister Jean-Pierre Goyer, who, with his 4,500 departmental employees, has moved from Ot- tawa to Hull. _ ‘They like some 15,000 public servants have crossed the Ottawa River to Hull where the federal government has spent nearly $t billion on a vast complex of new office towers and new streets, sewers, and other facilities to serve em. The overwhelming majority of Goyer’s 4,500- member staff ~ like the other departments that have shifted to Hull ~ speak English. But ‘Speak French in the shopping malls in the new _government buildings and on the street,” orders Goyer, “to show that you're open- minded about the language situation.” Never mind if you can’t speak French. “Try,” demands Goyer, “and show that two languages is not really a problem but a cultural plus. ' “The majority of people in Hull are French,” he says in a prepared speech to his staff, “and they are expecting that we speak French to em “So if we make the effort it will demonstrate that this region of the country is truly a bilingual national capital and serving well as a model and example to the rest of the country. “We have to make some sacrifices if we want to open minds and change attitudes. So now that you are in Hull, make the best of it and speak ne nad As the opening of the new Supply and Services . departmental headquarters was not exactly a social oceasion, nobody was called upon to respond to Mr. Goyer's call to bilingual arms. But the funny thing is that while Goyer exhorts his English employees in Hull to “speak French,” the newspapers and-radio and TV stations report the French shopkeepers in Hull are speaking English. “If we don’t,” a member of the Hull Chamber of Commerce was quoted, “if we don’t speak English, we don’t do much business with the thousands of English civil servants from Ottawa | who work here and live there,” Which perhaps only goes to show you that the dollar is stronger even than Jean-Pierre Goyer, and speaks English even in French Quebec. Alean Dividends MONTREAL - The directors of Alcan Aluminium Limited today declared a quarterly dividend of $6 cents per share, U.S. Funds, on the common shares of the company, payable 5 September 1978 to sharehold of record at the close of business 7 August 1978. This is the maximum divident permitted for this quarter under the Canadian Anti-Inflation Board. The number of Alcan Aluminium Limited common shares issued and outstanding is 40,446,694, A quarterly dividend of 43 cents per share in Canadian currency was declared on the remaining outstanding 4 %4 percent preferred shares of $40 par value of the company, payable 15 October 1978 to preferred shareholders of record at the close of business 29 September 1978. Ss, Throughout the Canadian arctic dramatic, exciting, death-defying drama was taking place - unnoticed. But, what did weget on T.V. and radio? That Canada’s Law Society thinks Canada should drop the Queen -~ announced right during the Queen’s visit, while she is being received and attending functions to which Canada had invited her! And not even our own Prime Minister in this country to do the Chivalrous thing by going to his lady monarch’s defense - even by way of suggesting that she had never ever asked for the job, anyway. Or thatif anyone thinks the Queen’s task of having to appear pleasant under the extremes of heat and cold of Canadian weather, never knowing when some separatist bomb or anti-monarchist shot might ring out - is a cinch, they should try it! The CBC has, not long ago, survived an Part Three A FLAME WITHIN Part Three of “A Flame Within The. Spearhead” -a poetic rendition of a prose speech to 40 teachers of Eskimos, given at Akudlik a number of years ago, reiterates the importance of the individual pupil’s name - to that individual, as well as to his people, and the importance of respect for the Native language and culture. The speaker, Professor Robert G. Williamson, a renowned “Eskimologist’’, who made himself fluent in the Inuit language in a remarkably short time following his arrival at Pangnirtung, Baffin Island, twenty or so years ago, is a recognized non-Native authority on the con- temporary Eskimo, and to some extent,. also, Eskimo anthropology. He has lectured at the Institute for Northern Studies, at the University of Saskatchewan at Saskatoon, Sask. He has You well may ask me - is - this true today? And I must teach a little anthropology ’ ba: cultural persistence, asking you to lock in on ourselves and back into our history, and trace carry on with us, though founded on a way of life long for a moment that your With his people Carried his beliefs into their minds But even so His basic call Made him Unlikely as a confident In this regard, Less likely yet Is this new eras’ paid ex- ponent of The System From The South, Identified as such name is unsure, and all F-", around the people speak it differently or give you dif- ferent names, or worst of all -are quite indifferent to your F name. ae are you, anyway, and w. mare - who cares? Doesn't all that frighten you a bit, and make you tone! , Insecure? [ ask again, then, why? Tae lente talk ebout pe about those old beliefs - About the soul, About the name? Think about the image of our culture; Imagine Where it causes doubts, Creates uncertainties And blanks of knowledge For those without com- parative experience. The missionary Set himself against that part ‘of olden thought Which he felt undermined the Christian word, But wrth his love and in- timacy Some Australians once believed that they coutd encourage their baards to grow by stroking their chins with a stone that resembled a long-whiskered rat. 2 ee Beer is probably the oldest alcoholic drink, according to The World Book Encycls- Pedic. The Babylonians and Egyptians brewed it more than 6,000 years age. . THE SPEARHEAD been a frequent contributor to “The Muskox” - the journal of the Muskox Circle, and a member of the Arctic Institute of North America. Professor Williamson had no idea at the time that his speech to the teachers was being recorded and transposed, und he expressed himself pleased by its publication in The TAIGA TIMES - every issue of which sold out each time the prose poem was reprinted. Native groups, such as the Dene Nation, the Canadian Cree Community in Canada, the Metis Society in Manitoba - as well as UNESCO and. iniversities around the world (including one in New Zealand) have expressed great interest in the epic, and sought reprints of it for use among teachers of indigenous peoples, including Australian aborigines and Maoris. By name ‘da, And house A team to build in every And daily classroom work. settlement | But some of us have heard To bring The ancient concepts well The northern child enough, Securely on his way, And atill can document And rescue him from Persistence, wandering -Reinterpretation Ambivaient And defense, - Between the flesh that made I tell you all of this him, and Because The teacher who controls his There yet remains a task life. ERMAN Bete ee Pa te “It we don't go to the zoo tomorrow, you'd better get yourself & good lawyer.” enquiry initiated, I believe, by Trudeau, himself, to decide whether it had been fanning the fires of separatism or disunity by slanted journalism. It appears to have ignored the biggest-ever crowds that turned out wherever members of the Royal Family appeared, in Canada. Above and in spite of the visual facts, the CBC gave prominence to lawyers recommendation Canada drop its Queen. And this is what it chose as its top news item, time and again, over the weekend. 7 Our hat goes off to Bruce Philips, CTV com- mentator, whosummed up the week as being one of “Good News” - and reminded listeners and viewers of the brave attempt by man to cross the Atlantic by balloon, the Pacific ocean in a dugout canoe, and the birth of a beautiful baby to loving parents. . Now that CBC is losing Peter Kent - perhaps they should make Bruce an “offer he can't refuse”’. Vancouver Board of Trade OPEN AND SHUT Sunday shopping - hardly an “open and shut’’ ] case in Vancouver these days. We can all be 4 forgiven for a certain amount of confusion: a | feeling, we believe, that is compounded by ac- 4 tions at City Hall. As usual, in any controversy attracting at- tention, there are many different points of view. 4 We have, on the one hand, businesses operating | as mini-department stores. They have been used to setting their own hours, in many cases seven days a week. They see themselves as offering convenience to shoppers. Certainly there are few of us who have not had occasion to bless their actions, either late one evening or on a Sunday afternoon. . . But for any convenience, be it shopping or packaged food there is a price tag. Longer hours for stores mean higher wage bills. Unless these can be offset by an increase in consumer spending (instead of the same amount spread over more hours) the cost will be passed on to us in higher prices. This is an argument that might be weakened in a booming economy but in the shape we are in today, a substantial increase in tonsumer spending hardly makes the top of the “ten most possibles’’! ; If the thought that longer hours eventually cost US, the purchasers, not the retailers, is not persuasive then we might consider the legality of the matter. The original arguement for closing was compliance with the Lord’s Day Observance Act. This statute is still on the books but is more honoured by its breach than its observance! who walk a different path. The relevance of the Act may be questionable but, we suggest, it would be better to either observe and enforce it or to repeal It. Those of us who look to City Hall for guidance and a firm decision have been disappointed but we should hasten to add that the City has its problems, It is in the position of a cowboy trying “o tope a steer with his hands tied behind his ‘The City of Vancouver is governed by a Charter issued under a special Act of the Legislature in Victoria. The Charter is reviewed annually and, if thought desirable or necessary, amended by a Private Member’s Bill in the House. Both the 1977 and 1978 Amendment Bills contained a clause which would have given the City real control over shopping hours within the city limits. Last year’s Bill did not complete its passage through the House. This year’s was proclaimed without the clause referring to shopping hours, it being removed during debate in the house. Since the city issues permits and licences to city businesses, it would seem that the control of other shopping conditions, eg.. hours of operation, should logically lie with the City. Without this authority, the City can only cajole the offenders into conformity. This is an un- dignified method and not likely to be effective. The City can bluster and hope that the Attorney General gives it permission to prosecute. It would seem that progress could be made if the Attorney General enforced the Act throughout the entire province or, if by public demand, the Federal Government repealed the Lord’s Day Observance Act. . We hope that concerned citizens might review the problem and, perhaps, through positive action, help to end this minviless bickering. 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