Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 23, 1998, Winnipeg, Manitoba 1 Winnipeg free july 1998 Brian Cole 6977044 editorials Freedom of Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights teaching tempest the arbitrators who must decide whether an Assiniboine South school teacher May or May not Tell students she is a lesbian have been saddled with an extremely difficult they should try not to make matters the Manitoba teachers society saw it As a ques Tion of the school according to the its and lawyer Mel was violating her human rights and squelching her academic Freedom of expression by telling her not to discuss her sexual orientation with the Assiniboine South school division and superintendent Howard Holtman saw it As a question of division teachers should not bring their personal lives into such teaching because that would shift the focus from the general Princi Ples in the lesson to the particular Case of the when the teacher asked if she might use the example of her own lesbian orientation in her the superintendent instructed her not to do she grieved the but an arbitration panel refused to hear the grievance since it was not a contractual when the its took it to Justice Scott Wright ordered the arbitrators to hear the different people teach in different some Tell stories from their own private experience which students find others Tell stories from their own private experience and make themselves if someone demands a Universal the safest one would be that teachers private lives should not be but such a Rule can often be broken without the teacher was obviously aware of the emotional and pedagogical mine Field before her when she sought advice from her the effect of a personal disclosure such As she proposed is hard for outsiders to know since it depends on the teachers relationship with those particular students and on the entire context in which she would present her individual Case to once the lawyers and the grievance procedures Are the nuances of context Are easily lost from the argument from human rights and Freedom of speech cannot go teachers rights and freedoms Are limited because of the Power they Wield and the responsibility entrusted to they speak to Stu dents not As equals but As respected Parent like Fig ures who Are presumed to know and understand the arbitrators should not wind new layers of red tape around imaginative teachers to prevent them from teaching in the most effective Way they since they have been ordered to Settle this they should seek the solution that does the least pos sible harm to students and to other they should find out whether the teacher could discharge her duties conscientiously within the limits Laid Down by the modest Progress reconstruction of the naval base hocs Chip Pawa will allow Manitoban to enjoy More fully their curious attachment to the if a ship standing High and dry in downtown Winnipeg and moored Between Broadway and Assini Boine Avenue seems it is no More incongruous than Prairie farm boys eagerly signing up for the yet people from the Prairies have a Long and distinguished record of service and sacrifice in the Canadian Navy and even with the old and dilapidated building it must now has drawn a steady Stream of Navy cadets into their first taste of the military renewal of Winnipeg downtown sometimes seems like an Uphill but it is happening by slow Winni Eggers with a View of some thing better easily fixate on the weak spots the few blocks of Portage Avenue lined with for lease signs and the rough Beer Parlours of the main Street but the Eastern half of Broadway is a magnificent and dignified Avenue and the streets running from Broadway to the Assiniboine River Are a Lively and interesting residential aging and decaying old Chippawa has been an Odd the reconstruction announced this week should provide an attractive new building and help stabilize the it will provide a better Home for the museum commemorating Winnipeg maritime of such modest projects Are great downtown Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Rudy email Nicholas editor Brian Cole editorial Page editor directors Harry Brown circulation sales and marketing Laurie advertising Perry Nixdorf technology Glenn Williams finance and administration 1998 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member of the Manitoba press Council vol 1ljunu218 cleanup rallies the clan it was an evening at the Lake i will always remember for it had All the elements of a Beautiful happening Spon warm fam ily relationships and a great sense of it constituted a Bee of extraordinary Vigour and organization by my family to clean up the damage left by a wild storm last the winds of Gale strength and Waves of frightening Power had swept a layer of stones and flotsam onto my front Lawn at the this Spring and summer the land was too soggy to allow use of a a machine with which a contractor gravely assured us was required for the then the alternative voiced was to hire the services of a grave Digger and his lighter this went its not As easy to get help Here As it is in Busy contractors we rent one promised to Send a Crew but that was not to my children whom i love dear secretly and quietly decided to take matters into their own at they appeared in a brigade marvelous to supported by two wheel an assortment of Spades and Chil now let me explain that this in my eyes was a formidable Val Werier the Sand and Stone was up to a depth of six inches or More Over an area about 20 by so there was tons of the they lost no time in tackling the shovelling the Sand into the then pushing it Over an improvised ramp onto a Concrete pad and releasing into the there was no leaning on they worked As if Dri Ven by a higher it was like a scene from a film cartoon set at exaggerated its the new Mode that women can do anything men can do and so daughter Judy and daughter inlaw Lisa shovelled in the style one observes of workers repair ing sewer the other stars were my son my son inlaw Leon and a father and hired to help in the my son Michael who had been in the City that Day was aghast when he came by and observed the he handed his dog swoosh to the kids warning them to hold on to the Leash and pitched swoosh was delighted and so were the dogs and kids have a special relation it was a Lovely evening just right for energetic a northerly wind blowing off the Lake cooled the and Clouds of moderate composition soft ened the rays of the Peli their Orange beaks caught in a Shaft of bobbed by the my Neighbour Harvey attracted by the brigade at work in my front came by and gazed in he had heard of our difficulty in Hir ing who is not Given to wild its quite amazing or something like he was also suitably impressed by the help As he pointed out one one one Law a Doc Tor and the executive director of the coalition to save the All in the it was a remarkable perform the Crew driven to demonstrate thata family United and determined can meet any sat on my front deck observing the occasionally pleading with Judy and Lisa to take a but like the men they didst Stop for a i have the old world idea that women need to be spared such heavy they paid no Atten Tion to my so i looked out on the full to the i had never seen it so High this time of my grandchildren displayed another form of ener darting though the around the never stay ing they subscribe to the philosophy that a kid can Only be defined As a being in they were looking for games to play and looking through draw i came up with a Large Cana Dian neatly folded in a plastic they promised to return it properly to the bag which ultimately they but in the i observed two of my granddaughters in an enchanting each held the ends of the Flag and waved it up and Down while singing 0 Canada in their Sweet it was not meant As a patriotic Dis just a manifestation of Good they were having fun and warmed by their Grace and it remains one of the memories of that extraordinary i kept Tab of the they had started at and Only 2 hours and 10 minutes later they had cleaned up the removing tons of Sand and and it was All in the i am sure the Story will be handed Down to future Val Werier is a Winnipeg his column appears on the Best of the worst it was a dark and Stormy despite the calumny perpetrated against Edward George Bulwer Lytton by the comic strip in which the dog snoopy has for years begun his attempts at fiction writing with that it is not a bad Way to Start a if it were not for in few among us would even be aware of who Bulwer Lytton was an otherwise forgotten 19th Century English he was no but if Unco ached by a comic strip were to come to that phrase at the beginning of a we would probably most of us find it As unremarkable As the first sentences of most it has the inspiration for the annual bulk Erly ton fiction which asks people to compose the worst possible opening line for a the results of this years Competition were announced this about the same time As the pub Lisher modern Library released its list of the 100 Best English language novels of this it was a serendipitous Cionci we will have a Little contest of our own right you pick which of the following quotations represents the Best writing from the entire body of English Litera Ture in the 20th Accord ing to the distinguished judges appointed by modern and which represents the worst writing of according to the jokers of the Bulwer Lytton con our first entry the Corpse exuded the irresistible Aroma of a Ancho Chili Glaze enticingly enhanced with a hint of fresh Cilantro As it Lay before coyly garnished by a Gar land of variegated radicchio and caramelized and impish by drizzled with glistening Tom Meson rivulets of Vintage Balsamic Vine Gar and roasted garlic Oil As he surveyed the body of the slain food critic slumped on the floor of the but nearly empty a Quick inventory of his senses told corpulent inspector Moreau that this in All like an inside and the second entry i thought Well As Well him As another and then i asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would i say yes to yes my Mountain Flower and first i put my arms around him yes and Drew him Down to me so he could feel my breasts All perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes i said yes i will the first of these quotations won the by worst writing award for an awful opening the second is the conclusion of James Joyces which was named the Best novel of the 20th to my the main difference Between the two is that the by Winner was deliberately written so that it is actually Good and it Only one sentence Long the passage from Joyce was intended to be great writing and we Are it is and to get to this particular part of Ulysses you have to slog through hundreds of pages of similar judging these sorts of things is a pretty subjective so in the interests of we should look at two other one from one from modern you get to guess which is did cant hear with Bank of All Thim Liffering Waters talk save us my Foos wont i feel As old As yonder Elm night now Tell Tell Tell three of James Joyces novels made the top me Elm night night win a worst writing award or was it my heart skipped a beat As the bearded Walrus gently nudged me in the Small of my Back with one curved expelling a warm breath of air into my upturned its smell of peanuts reminding me of that precious night on Coney Island the night when i became a woman a woman and a con the first quote is from another of the Best novels of the 20th according to modern Library Finnegan Wake the second is the by worst writing award Winner in the Romance category and if you Are hard pressed to figure out Why this is you can be pretty sure you Are not it does seem a Puzzle it is not my purpose Here to criticize or even to second guess the modern Library judges selection of the 100 Best novels of the Century although i feel compelled to Point out that a list that fails to include even one of the Freddy the pig books can hardly be considered to be bal neither do i quarrel with the Bulwer Lytton awards for deliberately bad writing there is an Art to being that the coincidence of the timing of the two does Lead one to conclude that there can be a pretty Fine line Between the Best and the in some com Mon ground where the two can comfortably perhaps the Best or the worst sentence of All time for a novel i May use it myself if i Ever find the time to write one might be it was a dark so Stormy that you could not even hear the bats my to head night Tom Oleson is a Fyee Piess Edi tonal his column appears on ;