By: Ish Theilheimer
KILLALOE, ON: We never said we were better in the country. We may just know each other better.
The big event in town this weekend was a party at Krazy Paul's. It's a wonderful little restaurant with outdoor signs so modest they make you wonder if the place isn't still the local bootleggers', like it was until the '70s. Now, the place has gone legal its charming owners have obtained - after years of struggle and red tape - a liquor license. Friday, they had a party to help stock the bar, and local residents were recruited to attend. We did our duty by drinking as much as we could. A pleasant time was had by all, entirely legally.
Enviro stand-off in the Hagary Hills. Not so pleasant is the stubbornness of the local township council that insists on using a toxic-laden chemical dust suppressor called "Dombind" on local roads. It's a by-product of a Trenton, Ontario, paper plant and it's nearly free for the taking. Originally, it was seen as a brilliant way to get rid of waste. Then it was exposed as a potentially cancer-causing hazard. In late 1998 Ontario's environment ministry gave the company a generous two years to end its sale.
Of course, most places gave up using it after Dombind was exposed as a hazard. Only a handful of municipalities still insist on using the stuff. The neighbouring township of Hagarty and Richards is one of them.
Why would the township council take such a perverse position? It's important to understand this is the same council that led the charge against any county regulation whatsoever of logging on private land, as detailed in a previous column. The end result of that episode is that unscrupulous loggers now have a license to clearcut in Renfrew County.
Our local councillors are not bad people. They tend to be ordinary folks who spend a lot of time doing the tedious task of public administration. So why do they do these crazy things?
Maybe it's the fear that people who make their living in resource communities feel as they see their livelihoods threatened. Forestry and agriculture have been going downhill in our county for decades. It wasn't "greens" or "from-aways" or "hippies" who clearcut the Valley's forests, but they're easy to blame for today's problems. Now, with few resource jobs left, local people feel very threatened. They react in odd ways, like deciding to spread cancer-causing pulp residue on their own roads almost to spite the rest of the world. Go figure.
Canada yawns. On the other hand, Canada and Ontario are bidding to host a $16-billion nuclear megaproject, as exposed by Suzanne Elston a few weeks ago at Straight Goods, and not one national newspaper or news service even ran the story. Last week, Elston reported on a leaked federal document showing Canada's borders and highways are wide open to traffic in illegal hazardous waste and the nation's media shrugged.
So Canadians as a whole have no right to feel smug. At least here in the hills, citizens express outrage when our local government attempts to poison us. At the national level, too often we all shrug.
Media file returns. Ranting at the news is a favourite past-time in these parts. It's a kind of ritual in our household. The news comes on the radio or TV, or a newspaper arrives and we start fuming about what's left out, about the media's latest darling or obsession, about reporters interviewing reporters…
Through the late '80s and until 1991, ranters-at-the-news had at least one friend in the news business. Bruce Wark, who we introduce today at Straight Goods, produced The Media File, a chippy CBC Radio show that stripped the spin off a lot of the news industry.
Nine years after the show ended, Wark is teaching journalism in Halifax, far from the Centre of the Universe, and the Media file is back - at Straight Goods. Bruce will be bringing his un-Central Canadian perspective to us several times a week with running commentary on the information industry and what it dishes out to us news consumers. Welcome aboard, Bruce.
Got a comment on the news you consume? Rant at Straight Goods by sending a note to feedback@straightgoods.com.
- Ish Theilheimer
- May 23, 2000
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