National Post from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 20

A20 NATIONAL POST, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2000 i ft T.O. LAST NIGHT I mtm ifrK WS i pi ij i i up mi iii 1. 1 KiilllSiiiiiliwaf YVONNE BERGNATIONAL POST Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes, at Massey Hall, 8:00 p.m. Durham parents want Harry Potter banished Beijing will host 2008 Olympics: Sydney's mayor strictions went far enough. 'SPIRIT OF DEATH' In many cases, parents, often cit- I inir rplifHnns concerns, called for a I Heated debates erupt in lobby of senool board Tells Lastman not to get hopes up during meeting in Australia 7 done for this city, said that what he heard from his Sydney counterpart will not deter Toronto in its pursuit of the 2008 Games.

"I like coming from behind the mayor said. "This is just going to make us work all that much harder." Mr. Crombie was equally stoic. "The forces that have put Beijing in the strong position that it's in are forces over which we have no control," the TO-Bid chairman said. "All we can do is play our own game and do our own stuff." The mayor said he gets some encouragement from the fact that seven of the last nine cities favoured to host the Olympics did not end up getting them.

All the same, Mr. Lastman wants to stay in contact with Mr. Sartor in the hope of learning from him what it took for Sydney to come out ahead of Beijing for the 2000 Games. "As long as there's no bribery involved, I'm interested," the mayor said. Indeed, TO-Bid officials and their political supporters have been working overtime here to collect as much intelligence as possible for their uphill battle with the Chinese capital.

In a speech to the Business Club of Australia yesterday, Mike Harris, the Premier of Ontario, marvelled that Sydney had "figured out how to beat Beijing." "We're very keen on learning how to do that, too," the Premier said. He can only hope that the learning curve does not turn out to be too steep. National Post IOC delegates here. "I haven't heard a clunker. I've heard only good things." But Mr.

Sartor, who has close contacts with many IOC members, said Juan Antonio Samaranch, the international sporting body's president, will have considerable influence on the 2008 decision because he will be retiring once it is made. "President Samaranch's agenda is broader than just the technical arrangements for sport," the Sydney mayor noted. "He sees the Olympics as a powerful force in the world for peace and democracy. He may be of the view that the Games would assist China in making a better connection with the world." Indeed, Olympic insiders who spoke with Mr. Samaranch before he returned to Spain over the weekend to mourn the death of his wife indicated the IOC president was moved by the sight of North and South Korean athletes entering the stadium as a unified team during the opening ceremonies for these Games.

"Any city that wants to beat the Chinese has to show some compelling uniqueness and provide some added value to the Olympic movement," Mr. Sartor said. He also noted that cities expecting to outpace Bejing will need very strong support from senior levels of government because "the national government of China will be 100-per-cent financially and logistically behind the organization of the Games there." Mr. Lastman, who has been bowled over by the magnitude of what hosting the Olympics has Mr. Sartor, a key member of Sydney's successful Olympic organizing committee, said word coming out of the International Olympic Committee is that the Chinese capital's position as front-runner to host the 2008 Games is virtually unassailable.

"Beijing is clearly hard to beat," Mr. Sartor said. "That China will host the Olympics eight years from now would be the expectation." The fact the Chinese capital came in a close second to Sydney for the 2000 Olympics also works in its favour, he added. The IOC's ruling on which city will get the 2008 Games will be announced in Moscow next. July.

Members of Toronto's bid committee have long been aware that the city's strongest competition comes from Beijing. But they have become convinced in recent months that a compact venue-based bid catering to the needs of athletes could turn the tide against the world's most populous nation and combat the sentimentality attached to it never having hosted the Olympics. "We're doing exactly what we should be doing," David Crombie, TO-Bid's chairman, said yesterday of his group's efforts to lobby Don Wanagas City Hall columnist By Jennifer Prittie WHITBY The black magic of a fictitious child wizard was a hot topic in Durham Region again last night, as parents packed a school-board meeting to decry the use of Harry Potter books in public education. This month, Durham District School Board, east of Toronto, clamped down on the use of the books as a classroom tool after about 40 parents raised concerns about the topic of witchcraft in the phenomenally popular series. The books are still available in school libraries to the board's 40,000 students, but can only be used in a classroom if every student gets written permission from their parents.

Durham is the only known school board to have imposed such measures in Canada, but most of the parents who heckled the board or asked questions during an occasionally boisterous meeting last night clearly did not think the re- SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA The Lord Mayor of this Olympic city had some words of caution yesterday for the people behind Toronto's bid for the 2008 Games: Don't get your hopes up too high. "I don't want to discourage you, but I really think your problem is Beijing," Frank Sartor said during an hour-long meeting at the Town Hall with Mel Lastman, mayor of Toronto. complete ban of the books. "We want them removed immediately," said one woman in a raised voice, seemingly on the edge of tears. Another woman argued the books promoted the "spirit of death." Her often-interrupted speech to the board included references to high-school shootings in the United States and Taber, Alta.

She and others argued that if books concerning witchcraft are available in school, then the Bible and other religious texts should be used extensively in classes, as well. Heated debates also erupted among parents in the lobby of the school board's offices in Whitby after the meeting. Grant Yeo, a board director, repeatedly told the audience there was a process in place for parents who did not want their children exposed to the material to make alternative reading arrangements. "If parents have a difficulty with the book, there's a way to resolve it," he said. Parents can fill out a questionnaire detailing their objections to particular learning material and indicate that it not be used in their child's classroom.

During the meeting, a few parents questioned why the Harry Potter books were even being debated. One wondered about the dollar value of staff time the board had spent on the issue. Another asked why time and money were being spent on it when the region had inadequate funding for special education. "We read Harry Potter every night as a family," said Denise Pickett, an Oshawa mother. She said after the meeting that her three boys, aged eight, 11 and 12, were reading more because of the books.

Dianne Kelly, a Whitby mother, with a daughter in Grade 7, said after the meeting that the books are well written and draw the reader in. "It's just entertainment All this hogwash about sacrilegious beliefs is ridiculous. I just can't fathom it "I expected them to start fires in there and burn the witches, for crying out loud." With three million copies of the four Harry Potter books in print in Canada, the stories by J.K. Rowling, a British author, have become the most popular children's books in history. Ms.

Rowling is set to read at Toronto's SkyDome on Oct 24. National Post SCHOOL WOES Board charging community groups to use school rooms Running event will be cancelled unless help found PREVIOUSLY OFFERED FREE The school board charges are split between classroom rental fees and custodial services for each of the 12 classrooms rented for 42 Saturday afternoons throughout the academic year. "The bottom line is that the province gives zero dollars for community use of schools within the funding model," said Ms. Laskin, of the TDSB. "We've lost any ability to provide a service when we think it's valuable because the province doesn't give us the money to do this." The Ontario government changed the funding formula for public schools in 1998, taking away their ability to raise money through taxes.

All funding now comes from the provincial government and is based on enrollment numbers, leaving little leeway to subsidize community programming. "There is no money in the funding to pay for our schools outside of school time, period," said Ms. Laskin. National Post "Nobody's in my place to organize the event. Teachers have to pick it up or the event won't run," he said.

Extra funding is also needed for supply teachers to replace the teachers who participate in the event. Held on the bicycle paths at Ashbridges Bay, the race is for children of both sexes from seven toll. Jim Plytas, a physical education teacher for Jackman Junior Public School, said he and other cross-country coaches were blind-sided with the news at a recent meeting that the event had been cancelled. "It blows my mind that there was no real dialogue that this was in jeopardy. We certainly want it to continue and will do whatever is in our power." Shelley Laskin, chairwoman of the Toronto District School Board, said yesterday: "It's certainly not a decision I would make.

I can't believe we can't figure something out." National Post schools, according to Shelley Laskin, the board's chairwoman. "And we have thousands of permit holders," she said. Everything from sports to crafts to cultural programs is affected. The Toronto Japanese Language School, for example, received an invoice for $27,062.86 two weeks ago for scheduled use of classrooms at Orde Street Junior Public School. For the past 20 years, the TJLS has used the facilities free of charge.

According to the payment schedule, they will owe the school board more than $5,000 by the end of the month. "There's just no way we can pay that this year, or at any time," said Brefni Shuttle-worth, chair of the board at the 50-year-old language school. "It just came out of the blue." By Mark Goi.i.om A popular elementary school cross-country running championship involving 1,400 Toronto children will be cancelled this year unless someone comes forward to organize the event The Toronto District School Board inherited the event when the new amalgated board was created in 1998. Steve Dovaston, sports organizer for the TDSB, and the man who used to organize the cross-country championship for the defunct Toronto School Board, said amalgamation has left the event, scheduled for the third week in October, with no organizers and limited funding. By Shannon Black Community-based programs held in the city's classrooms and gyms after hours and on weekends have been served with invoices this month, some amounting to tens of thousands of dollars.

The Toronto District School Board is charging this year for use of facilities and custodial services, and jacking up existing fees, after decades of providing facilities to language schools and other community programs for free or at minimal cost. The invoices have been sent to any group permitted to use Toronto District Schools Board.