Harry Stemp was born in Uxbridge in 1934. He started his career with the Uxbridge Times-Journal as an apprentice typesetter at age 14. He soon began writing sports for the Times-Journal and eventually owned 10 community newspapers in central Ontario including the Times-Journal. He started writing his award-winning Stemp’s Stew in 1965. The column came to an end shortly after he sold his newspaper chain in 1989, but was rejuvenated in 2006 when Harry became a regular contributor to The Cosmos.
Before you complain
?By the time you are reading this I will be back home in Uxbridge having spent two enjoyable months in my favorite home away from home - Barbados.
Having visited Barbados for a lot of years. it has become more than time in the sun and daily golf. It is time to catch up with friends made from around the world as well as the many friends made with people who were born and raised on this beautiful island.
This year I leave with a lot of concerns for the future health of this country. It is a small society and the health of its economy is strongly affected by the outside world and not by the wealth of its natural resources, as we enjoy in Canada.
Barbados, like most islands in the sun, relies heavily on tourism and with the disastrous recession round the world has seen the visitor count drop drastically. And those visitors who do arrive on their shores are spending less on everything from accommodation to attractions to meals.
Harsh winters in North America, the UK and Europe spell good news for Barbados. Mild winters, with little or no snow, are never good news.
But even worse is the negative effect that tragic events, which happen to tourists visiting Barbados, can have on the economy. I think of the tragic killing of Ottawa resident Theresa Schwarzfeld back in March 16, 2009. She and her daughter were walking a secluded beach one late afternoon when a drug-crazed beach bum came out of the bushes and attempted to rob them. When that failed he chased them with a 2x4 and hit Theresa on the back of the head, killing her. He seriously injured the daughter.
Barbados, known as the safe island, saw its reputation battered in news reports around the world. Tough for a small economy of any country to battle back from an event of this magnitude.
And now, a year later, the event has reared its ugly head again due to what was seen as a lenient 10-year sentence handed out by the judge; negative publicity has flowed around the word, particularly in Canada, and will have a further adverse effect on the tourism industry.
What should be known is that the outrage over the killing at the time, and now the lenient sentence, reverberated through Barbados even more strongly than through Canada and other parts of the world.
Barbadians, who are a very law-abiding society and do not tolerate lax treatment of criminals, were up in arms and demanding something be done to correct the matter.
My friend, Charles Leacock, Director of Public Prosecutions, who had asked for a 16 to 20-year sentence, is extremely upset and has appealed the sentence to the Supreme Court.
The negative publicity and uproar in the Canadian press, especially in the Ottawa area, again cast a negative attitude suggesting that Barbados is not a safe place to visit. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I found all the uproar by Canadians interesting to say the least. I agree that the sentence is too lenient, and that the judge has been in error. But, as a Canadian, I see the other side of the reality coin and for the Canadian press and people to get their knickers in a knot over this 10-year-sentence in Barbados, when Canadian courts routinely hand out much lesser sentences for even more heinous crimes is somewhat hypocritical.
And longer sentences handed out in Canada are relatively meaningless - parole is available halfway through, and is seldom denied, so a 20-year sentence in this case would mean the killer is back on the street in 10 years. So why all the protests? Sounds to me it's the same thing in both countries.
And why are Canadians convicted in the USA begging to be transferred to do their time in Canadian jails? Because they know they will be far better off, and be out of jail much sooner.
So perhaps we should take a look at what is happening close to home before we are so quick to judge other countries. Especially those small fragile countries that need all the positive publicity possible just to survive.
