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Page 4 The Chronjde January 25. 1988

Sunday shopping:
an employees nightmare
It would appear that Sunday
shopping is inevitable.
Opening on the Sunday following
Boxing Day was a dream come true for
management yet a nightmare for
employees.
The general consensus after that
historic day seemed to suggest Ontario
is ready to shop seven days a week.
But some people aren't ready to
work that seventh day.
People against turning Sunday into
another dollar spending day are now
speaking out.
Gerrit de Boer, owner of ldomo
Furniture, placed an ad in the Toronto
Star against opening and now has
become the leader of some 27,000
employees in favor of keeping Sunday a
day of rest.
It's true that other people in society
have to work on Sundays: doctors, police
officers, factory workers to name just a
few, yet retail workers don't make the
same wage as other people do.
Most employees earn minimum
wage or just above for the time they work
and the odds are, opening another day
won't change that.
Retailers won't make money
because consumers will still only spend

a litrlited amount since their work week
hasn't changed: its stlll five days a week,
not six.
In fact, economists have said that
goods may increase in price to cover the
cost of opening an extra day.
Shopping malls have to pay for
security guards, cleaning staff and
utilities which may cause the rent stores
pay to go up and in tum may increase
the cost of goods.
Regardless of the dollar amount
spent or the convenience of another
shopping day, it just isn't fair for
employees.
People in retail find their job hard
enough now with hours that are far
removed from 9 to 5 jobs.
Sundays guarantee thel'fl one day to
spend with their families.
Right now 64% of retail workers are
women, many single parents who have a
limited amount of time to spend with their
children.
It's time the people whose lives will
change the most by this decision are
heard.
We can't let dollars becomr
d
important than a day spent with families.

------•Andrea

Adair

Golden oldies and sugar frosted pop leaves listener sedated
Major market radio is abandoning its
future in preference to making a fast
buck. Mass quantities of MGolden Oldies"
and sugar frosted pop music are filling
the airwaves with what is essentially the
tapioca pudding of the music industry.
This kind of music, while appealing
to the currently large market of baby
boomers and others caught in the
endless time loop between 1972 and
1978, Is leading to a dead end for all
concerned. The executive of the radio
industry have latched on to this market
as their target and have every intention
of milking them for all they are worth.
For the listener, solid gold music is
a sedative, a background to their
everyday lives. They look at it as a nice
smooth noise to make dinner by. This is
all well and good, but sedatives like this
are addictive and that addiction leaves
. the listener In a soporific haze, not caring
as much about the artistic merit of the
music than getting their top forty fix.
All but ignored are the new music
and innovative sounds that are struggling
to assert their birthright as the new
generation of the next musical era. Bands
such as Vancouver's Grapes of Wrath,
and Toronto's Pretty Green are finding
their only accepfance on the non·mass
media college and university radio
stations. While these stations have a

devoted listenership, in most cases they
lack the power and and money to become
readily available to people outside the
campus.
It is a known fact that the creation of
new music runs in a constant cycle of
growth and stagnation. Stagnation
occurs when artists who· have had long
productive careers become too ingrained
into the fabric of society for people to give
them up in favor of new talent. While
lamentable, this is nonetheless a
necessary part of the cycle.
Soon, the Mkids" who wrote their
music for their own generation, reflecting
accurately the needs, wants and
anxieties of the time, have grown up and
are still writing the same music for a
different generation.
The cycle soon progresses to a state
of stagnation where the exact same
music is being written over and over
again.
In the next phase of the cycle, a
dissatisfied segment of music listeners
begin to clamour for something new and
different, and with luck and hard work,
catapult the the music industry into a
frenetic growth stage. And then the cycle
begins again.
We are now in a stagnation stage,
locked in a radio wasteland and bound
with a four-four drum pattern. Every day

Tiil

CllQgfilCoo~!l

The Chronicle is published by the Applied Arta Division of Durham College 88 a training
vehicle for students enrolled in journalism and advertising couraes and 88 a campus news
medium. Opinions expreued are not necesaarily thoee of the administntion of the college
or of' the Durham College Board ofGovernors. The Chronicle is also 'a member of the Ontario
Community Newspaper Aalociation.
Publiaber: Don Endicott
Editor-in-chief: Bill Swan
Editorial comultant: Ginny Colling
Advertising manager: Bill Merriott
fhototraphy editor: Ray Blomme
Editorial It.aft": Andrea Adair, Julia Aahton. John Doherty, Steve Gerqhty, Kathleen Griffin, Kimberly Hawley, Steve Pollock, Sherry R.ce, Robert Scott, Wayne Simpeon, Anita
Snyder.
Reporting staff: Cindy Cannavan, Tracey Cavanagh, A,nne Crinnion, Donna Donaldson,
Robert Gerlsbeck, Sonia Gyrmov, Nancy Harper, Robyn Hodpon, Shelley Hubbard, Tracy
Kibble, Jennifer Klaren, Christopher Lehman, Barbara Lopn, Anctrea MacKay, Barry
Maggs, Jennifer Pollard, Bryce Reid, AJ1iUS Scott, Lisa Slingerland, Kelly Storry, Andy
Warren.
Advertising staff: Tracey Busuttil, Susan Cockell, Don Findlay, Trevor Glaaaer, Jeff' Hamilton, Paul Hutchison, Karen Jaquith, Ru.uell Jones, Michael Lutz, Chris Mann, Kathleen
O'Malley, Alan Paten10n, Claudia Salazar, Ryan Sellick, Cindy Stewart, Peter Zaver.
Cartoooilt: Shawn Berry
Photocompoeitor: Pamela Colmer
Technologdt: Judy Olier

another nameless, facless band releases
a •new" single that you could swear you
heard last week. This is music made to
a formula and designed to appeal to the
passive listener, the listener who will
listen to anything that doesn't require a
great deal of thought or energy (ie
Loverboy, Honeymoon Suite) or who
refuse to leave behind the music that
reminds them of their youth (ie The
Beatles, CCR'). Many readers may take
offence to this, but when your music is
made into Muzak, it's time to move on.

listeners who regard music as more than
a sedative or the aural version of flowered
wallpaper. These are the people who buy
albums, make their own tapes (Damn the
copyright laws. Full speed ahead!) and
every once in a while, form bands of their
own. In short, they are people who don't
want music to die. They include among
their ranks Elvis Presley, The Sex Pistols,
and Led Zeppelin. Each of these artists
showed the world a new sound. But the
time comes when old artists should be
left to fond memory instead of the bland
mediocrity of endless airplay.

In order to revitalize the music
industry, we heed more active listeners, - - - - - - - s t e v e Geraghty

Innocent until proven guilty?
'

Journalists print the names of the accused
While the media have the responsibility to inform the public, they have no control over those who confuse the meaning
of the words charged and convicted.
However, the media should have the
responsibility to protect the innocent who
are charged with a crime.
When a person is arrested and their
names are printed in the paper, there are
some individuals who throw the meaning
of innocent before proven guilty aside so
they can blame someone.

was a rapist even though he was not convicted and he Insisted his innocence.
Why should the media have the right
to print facts which are potentially harmful!
to the innocent?
The publics wright" to have access to
Information should not take precedent
over the right of the accused to privacy.
If the Young Offenders Act guarantees the right of privacy for the young,
then there's no rationality for excluding
the adults an equal right.
The public are conditioned to believe
Claude Sitton, chairperson of the the media is pertectty ethical in Informing
American Society of Newspaper Editors the public the identity of those accused
Ethics Committee in 1980-81 said he can with a crime.
recall three or four cases in which the
alleged rapist was found to be Innocent
What good comes out of the publicaor the charged dropped, "but they suffe- tion of the names of accused when they
reddamagetotheirreputatlonsanyway." may end up being a victim?
Since the rights of the accused are
lf the answer has t6 do with the rights
preserved through our legal system, then of the media, then these rights are not
the rights of the media to publicize this justified.
system should not be threatened.
The rights of the media should not
However, there is no need to print be sett-oriented but protect the right of
the name of the accused, and it does ab- the public to be informed.
solutely no service to the public except
Just as the individuals' rights are Iito spread gossip.
mited to the peaceful co-existence with
Allen M. Linden, Justice of the Su- the rest of society, the rights of the media
preme Court of Ontario wrote in the book must not harm the public they're informing
The Media, the Courts and the Charter and the assumed innocent individuals
about an alleged victim of rape whose they're reporting on.
identity was withheld, while the name of
The media should design a more
the alleged rapist was reported in the me- consistent form of self-regulation in their
dla. When the alleged victim refused to crime reports and prevent this potential
testify, the accused man was discharged. harm.
'He gave the media an interview in which
he said his community still believed he - - - - - - - S t e v e n Pollock