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With one contract dispute concluded by third-party ar- bitration and another that has regressed to the fact-finding stage. the York County Board of Education should be closely scrutinizing the labor hassle between high school teachers and the North York board. North York Board can learn from York A similar situation has developed there that existed here in August â€" both sides are at an impasse in salary negotiations. Monday night, however, North York trustees voted not to re-open the high schools after the Christ- mas break on January 3 unless a solution can be reached between now and then. Sound familiar? The reason, of course, is because of a crippling work-toâ€"rule campaign by teachers â€" something over which student council presidents took the initiative and called a three-day boycott of classes last week. Work-toâ€"rule by York County high school teachers was the im- petus for closing schools here for two days last September while final contract ratifications took place. In the opinion of the board, the operation of its schools under those kinds of conditions was detrimental to and unsafe for its students. So it exercised its right under the Education Act and closed the schools. Teachers immediately claimed it was an illegal lock-out and filed charges with the Ontario Labor Relations Board to reclaim two days‘ lost wages (about $250,000). There‘s lots of time for the North York dispute to come to an amicable solution. The question is â€" if schools are closed (presumably under the same section of the Education Act) will teachers be screaming about the money they‘ll be losing? Would there be an OLRB hearing about it? Sum-ulna" rates $26.00 new year c Editorial, Display Classified Circulation Toronto customers $26.00 new year oumde ‘ my tom weeks Smgle delwetv We came: sew Reglshanon Numbev 0‘90 Ron Wallace Edna- Fved Simpson - Soovts Edna Steve Peatlstem News Edm The contents, bolh edutoual and amen-sung o! The Liberal. Richmond Hil| ale ptolecied by coovnghl and any unaulhaized use us mohubued o! rMelrospan Pnnlmg The Woodbndge Vaugl PUBUSHEH JOHN C. FERGUS The leeval Is PAGE A4 Libéral METBQSPAN VOLUME 102 NUMBER 24 published every Wedngsdayvby Vau'g’ha-n Ngvs', ana The Bolton Enlefpnse TELEPHONES Libéral ml§1300 pet year In Canada ol Canada. By came- 5‘ 00 copy sales 25 cents No mail lice exists Second Class Mad :dnesdav by Melvospan Community News'papevs, a dmsmn le.‘ which also publishes The Banner In AuvovaNewmavkeL 884-8177 884-1105 8840981 881 ‘3373 Wednesday, December 12, 1979 The York County hearings continue December 18 through 21 and even then it’s unlikely they‘ll be finished. Trustees have been subpoenaed and so have tapes of the meeting where the decision was taken to close the schools. The tapes have been admitted as evidence but the Labor Board has chosen to hear them in private only. North York â€" you have been duly warned. There may have been only one Watergate but we‘re sure there‘s room for another Trusteegate. Recent radio reports claim all these current contract disputes were touched off by the first elementary teachers strike in the Province‘s history â€" the one in Peel. Think back. It was a bitter 8- week strike ‘in 1974 by York Secondary School teachers that spawned Bill 100. That piece of legislation, which forced teachers back to the class, is currently under Provincial review and the right of withdrawal of services is seriously being questioned. Teachers rely on Bill 100 as giving them not only the right to strike but also the vehicle of work- to-rule, also known as a strike with pay. Boards of education can rely on the Education Act to close the schools. Minister of Education Bette Stephenson said the two major contract disputes â€" North York and Brant County â€" can be resolved if the trustees and the teachers stop playing games with each other. Yesterday, she said she wasn't prepared to legislate an end to either set of negotiations because the education of the children in- volved isn’t severely affected. How far is the public willing to let these people go. It may be shameful to say, but the examples set by York County shouldn’t have to be followed. John C‘ Fetgus, Dink:th 0! Wing Ray PadIey Jv Advemseng Dwectov Newman Slunden Produchon Manage: Den-s O'Mea'a Cuculauon Divectot Rose Reynolds Accounts Menospan Community Newspapers publishes The Richmond Hillfl'homhill Ubefal. The Banner. The Oakville Journal Reoovd. The Halton Consumer, The Missixauga Tunes The Eloh'eoke The Embicoke Consume, The Norm Vork Minot, The Noah Vovk Cam. The Sca'bom Miror, The waom Consma. The Woodbridge 8 Vaughan News. The Bolton Enterprise. and The North Stat Consume METROSPAN ~ NORTH DIVISION EDITOR RON WALMCE 4. (I: A 4 - 7550‘“. Liberal Editor Last week wasn’t a particularly good week to be editor of this paper. Following hard on the heels of Murphy (everything that can go wrong, will go wrong) I began to feel the problems soon after the paper came out Wednesday. To wit: â€"In the Richmond Hill edition, we ran a picture of the Good Brothers on Page 1, and many of their fans were quick to point out we had given the wrong names to the wrong faces. â€" Also on Page 1, we gave Alf Stong, York Centre’s Member of the Legislative Assembly, a promotion to federal politics without an election. We said “Monday, in the House of Commons, Mr. Stong asked . . . " â€" We upset a few readers with other less serious but still embarrassing items in the paper- V Usually I have my guard up against any of the above occurring. I worry. Tuesday nights especially. When I worry nothing serious goes wrong. The harder I worry, the better the paper. This has nothing to do with physically finding or correcting errors. I simply go home when the paper is finished and I spend the rest of the night worrying about it. It‘s not unique. I had a news editor once who worried so much she’d make herself sick Wednesday morning. Last Tuesday night I guess I didn’t worry hard enough, because as soon as I got to work Wednesday morning, the “good morning” had been replaced with 3 “ha, ha, there’s a big mistake on Page One“. People Ioveito tell you when you‘ve screwed something up. It was at that point I knew it wasn’t going to be the best of days. Unfortunately, the calls didn’t end when Wednesday did. I was still getting them into the weekend. After 17 years, one would think the skin would be thick enough to handle it, but it still smarts when obvious errors get by me and are put on display for thousands to see. I guess I’ll have to increase my worry in- tensity. Winter has arrived (in form if not in date) and this week’s issue of your Liberal gives grisly evidence of it: Tw0 people died north of Maple Friday morning, a child was killed Sunday on Markham Road, another man died on the Bloomington, and other auto collisions too numerous to mention dotted the roads and highways. ' Moét were blamed on the weather, but the blame really lies with the driver who doesn‘t adjust to allow for the weather conditions: I encountered a hazard on two occasions over the weekend. In Whitchurch and in Aurora, my car was pelted with snowballs. Both attacks took place at night and on the By RON WALLACE Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong LIBERAL highway when I was travelling at aAf air clip That sudden thud against the car is a frightening sound, and had I caught the culprits, there would have been a sudden thud in other places, too. This has turned into a rather depressing column. Think I’ll go beat up the staff. I‘m going to start with Millie Stewart who has interrupted me 400 times since I began writing this. Letters Mr. (Ms.) Kelly challenges CAG tCitizen‘s Advisory Group) to use The Liberal as a forum more often. and what better way to start than by replying to his (her?) letter. I just went down to the cellar to search for last week‘s Liberal, to read again Marion Hohener's letter. Unfortunately the papers seem to have gone out for recycling this week, so I will never know just what it was that sparked such a vitriolic reply from RM. Kelly. I 'remember thinking that Mrs. Hohener had written a good letter! W 1 object to people who insist on judging the motives of those in our community who have the “audacity” to speak out. No one can really say why another person acts in a certain way. Sometimes even we. ourselves. are not truly sure of our motives. but until it can be clearly shovm that those motives are indeed less than admirable. I for one. choose to try to think the best of people. It is _a fnuch happier and healthier way to live. Is it too much to believe that people act according to what they believe in, and not for what they get out of it other than the satisfaction of having done so? She thought Hohener letter a good one if taking an active public interest is being “up front" then I wish more people Would be up from. But surely if Mrs. Hohener and many other “up from" people ALSO contribute behind the scenes. who is to know? By the very fact of being behind the scenes, their activities will not be widely recognized. Metrification for the nation -who needs it?? Once we measured things by the length of an arm or a foot, or the width of a thumb. True. a thousand paces of a Roman centurion did come to an awkward 5,280 feet. but this was something we grew up with. something we were used to. Someone had a better idea. We should measure everything in terms of a ten-millionth part of the distance from the north pole to the equator. A great lot of effort went into determining just what this distance might be. rrOrganicf HANDYW! Handy When they found it, they copied it down on a bar of metal and put that somewhere safe. this? time they found Rice b urro ws in for winter SNOW. SNOW, BEAUTIFUL SNOW YOU KNOW WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR BEAUTIFUL SNOW! Well gang, here we go again. It's that time of year when we wonder if there really is somewhere else we would rather be. Ive finally put away the patio umbrella and barbeque and as the ice forms on the pool cover I have once again resigned myself to a three month hibernation indoors. I think that last year I told you I plan to take up cross-country skiing this year but. . . Inow feel that I may delay that move for yet another winter. I made this decision just the other morning when I looked out the kitchen window at my nifty new thermometer and I saw it inching slowly toward the minus 15 mark (that‘s Celulouse . . not Frankengrade). I was not made for the cold! My idea of a perfectly neat winter is lying on a Caribbean beach, rum punch in hand, phoning in my traffic reports to CKEY and idly typing out my Liberal column with my big toe. Failing all of that, my second choice is to lock myself indoors and do the same amount of work whilst enjoying the benefits of a roaring fire. Ah well . . . such is not to be. To be sure, I have had a recent excursion to the South and, hopefully, will escape for a much shorter sojourn in early January but, for the most part, my poor body will have to suffer the bulk of the wintertime here in the confines of frosty York. Last week I dropped by Reimer Fuels on Centre Street and picked up several bags of cane] coal (it makes a much hotter fire than wood) and in a few more days I will be calling my friend Eddy Sokolof at Seagrams to order my supply of frostbite medicine. l’ll have plenty to do around the house to while away the frigid hours and this weekend [‘11 start my long delayed home improvements by splashing several gallons of paint on the living room walls. I'm also gonna make a stab at some other do- it-yourself projects and, if the past repeats itself, this will ensure continued springtime employment for the skilled tradesmen who will have to come and repair my mistakes! Who knows . . . mybe I’ll even get around to getting my model railroad working again. It has been several years since my miniature steam engines huffed and puffed over trestle and track and if I can just find that elusive 10 by 12 foot area in my house the Great Rice Regional will roll once again. I‘ve made some rather rash promises to my girls over the years about tobogganing and building snowcastles and, since they are get- ting as big as me, I fear that I will have to set foot outdoors once or twice to honor these commitments. Other than that . . . don't look for me on the streets. I‘m even considering buying one of those gadgets that starts the car by remote control. Should I procure said item, my neighbors will only witness a blur as I cover the distance between my back door and the waiting automobile. It is with some reluctance that I admit I still have a few years to go before I can retire to my island in the sun but you can bet your snowmobile boots that I am going to do everything in my power to make the wait as comfortable as is possible! The 01' MillpondVPhilosopher once said “A snowflake is a wonderous sight to see but such a darn cold thing to hold!“ How does one get to participate in a P.A. Day? I have certainly never been invited to do so. and have had no in- dication that an offer to do so would be welcomed. 1 agree that the Letters to the Editor can be an excellent forum for discussion and congratulate The Liberal for printing such lengthy epistles. especially when out that they had the wrong length locked up. it was too late. The meter ruled Europe. In Canada we stuck to the old system. We continued to pace off feet and yards. pour out ounces (or doubles) and buy pounds of butter. It was 90 miles to In": ....... A nnl‘ m1! nld signs. Metric Progress. 1 still drive 90 miles to Collingwood. because I still drive an old car. The highway signs are dif- ferent, though. measure is Ottawa. dear Ottawa. No matter which party is in office, strange things happen there. It was 90 miles to Collingwood. and my old car gave me about 20 miles to the gallon. Someone there decided that Canada should switch. Metric goodies would be easier to export. Never mind that our biggest market is the States, and they use the foot and pound. I know the paper 15 otten light for space‘ I trust that when CAG uses this forum. PM. Kelly will not be tempted to accuse us of “trying to gain credibility" or of being a "political power group that needs a con- venient place" to express itselft Never mind that it would cost fortunes to re- tool, to buy new scales and measuring cups and signs. Gas comes in litres, and mileage, or kilometrage. is given in litres per hundred kilometres. With conversion tables and calculator. I could probably figure it either way. I don‘t. 1 use the most meaningful unit I know. Miles per dollar. Janet Faer (‘hairman Citizen's Advisory Group Alec Bruyns Richmond Hill