DO YOU agree with a News letter
to the editor that the Dr. Ruth
column is ‘‘a disgrace’’ and a
source for kids to ‘learn about
the kind of stuff that gets (them)

in trouble.**?

Logging, trees and what’s in between |

“LAST YEAR, I,
*‘youths,’’
Cypress Golf Course.

\

We had our cne-track views at
the time; loggers were bad, devel-
opers were only out there to make
a quick buck at the expense of the
environsment.

In all the excitement, no one to
my knowledge even considered the
other side’s opinion. We were all
crusaders, we had one goal in
rind, and rational thought had

along with
went to a rally protesting against the proposed

several hundred other

BACK TOGiz (i

Taleeb Noormohamed
a et eal at eat a ead oat ant al

no part in the activity once we
were there.
We won that fight, and we all

went about our lives, and { " per-
sonally didn’t even think about it
until when I was listening to the
news a few nights ago, an item
about forestry and the environ-
ment different from many of these
stories aroused my attention.

It said that a recent poll showed
that 66% of Canadians favored
restrictions on the forest industry,
“regardless of its economic im-
portance.”

In fact, only 2% of Canadians
polled believed that the Canadian

= COMICS

BIG NAT Ee PY Lincoln Pierce

THE.
TINIEST:
THINGS IN

THE

© 190) Unned Femme Bynaicete, tne,

1-800-361-1992

CANADA 125 has been set up to celebrate
Canada’s 125th anniversary throughout 1992,
and Canadians everywhere are joining in.

Register your activity with CANADA 125
and become an official CANADA 125 event.

Find out about other national programs
happening all across the country.

Our lines are open Monday to Friday
8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. EST. Service available
in English and French.

For persons with a hearing impairment call:

(rod) 1-800-361-5986

population can “*have its trees and
cut them too.’

The Amazon is slowly being cut
down, the rain forests of the
Sarawak are being depleted, and
in our own back yardl, rain
forests such as the Carmanah are
being threatened by these so-call-
ed heartless loggers.

But we must consider the other
side of the coin. The logging in-
dustry, while not perfect for the
environment by any means, is a
very important part of the Cana-

dian economy, and putting up
_ unrealistic barricades to the pro-

gress of the industry is unfair and
unintelligent.

That is not, by any means,
meant to say that it’s OK by me
for MacBlo to go into a rain
forest and cut it all down; rather
it means that there has to be more
dialogue between the two sides
and the governments, not only
federal and provincial, but also
municipal, and within this group,
which will serve all interests, the

' delegates must discuss the eco-

nomic as well as the environmen-
tal ramifications of the operations
of the forest industry.

If, somewhere amid the con-
stitutional bickering and economic

ineptitude of this nation’s gov-
ernment, there was a group set up
to discuss this situation, those
who would organize the event
would, in my opinion, have to
contemplate certain things.

The first is, if there were to be’
@ stop to all logging, what would:
the economic impact be? This sets
up the next point. What do you:
do with the out-of-work logger
who is a_ tax-paying citizen?

On the cther hand, what does
one do if ail the trees were logged,
and forests no longer existed?

Both roads lead to one point...
Regardless of which route is
taken, sooner or later loggers are:

going to be jobless. So, the focus
of the government,
sending money for pro. or. anti-
logging or whatever, should be on:

creating a new industry for when . ~

this takes place.

It has been that, over the. ages, -
loggers, logging companies and.
the like have become the bad
people in the debate, and the en-
vironmentalists are great saviors.
Instead of taking sides, it’s about.
time all of us started to consider
the other side of things, to reach a
middle ground good for: both.
sides, in that true Canadian spirit.

INVENTORY
LIQUIDATION

EVERTHING
MUST GO!
SAVE U
TO 80”
MEN'S WOMEN'S CHILDREN'S
SHOES
Kerrisdale Bootery

SHOES FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY

2182 West 41ST Ave.

261-6371

rather than .

USMS a tenting RET Ney) es AT Se