EOnSter

T sort of message does
North Vancouver District
council think it is has sent to
its prospective builders and developers?
Council has just approved two mas-
sive development variance permits for
new homes on Panorama Drive in
Deep Cove. Not unusual in itself.
Variances allow council some discretion
in approving development plans that
exceed what area zoning allows.
Common requests relate to house size
and where the home sits on the lot.
Past district councils have whip-
sawed back and forth on approving
large-sized variances, usually taking
into account neighbourhood opinion.
— approving some and not others
But “retroactive” variances have
never been considered in the same vein
— until now.. It is one thing for a

liESSage

gain permission before building starts,
it is something else entircly to start
building with one set of plans and end
up with something much larger. For
instance: installing a basement pool,
enlarging the main floor, converting an
attic into another bedroom and adding
a cantilevered balcony.

All of the above were rubber-
stamped by council with only Couns.
Ernie Crist and Lisa Muri voicing con-
cerns about beating the system.

New councillor Doug MacKay-
Dunn even argued the bylaw rules were
too complicated. Maybe for some
councillors, but presumably the plan-
ning department, who recommended
against approving the floor space vari-
ances, does understand both the minu-
tiae of the bylaw and the message
implicit in approval: it’s open season
for monster homes in the district.

builder to plead the need for size and

you said it

“This is going to be a non-smoking world one day.
We're just prolonging it.”

Andrea Doby, manager of the Raven in Deep Cove, on
the court decision that overturned a Workers Compensation
Board smoking ban. (From a March 24 News story. )

“It was like a scene out of Alex Haley’s Airport —
women and children screaming and arms up in the air.”

Pat Comey. is happy to be home in North Vancouver
after an incident’ on an Alaska Airlines flight from Puerto
Vallarta, Mexico, in which a man tried to wrest control of
the plane from the pilot. (From a March 22 News story.)

. ; agaa
“After £0 years in a wheelchair I don’t need feet.”
.. . 2 Wheelchair athlete Nik Nikzaban says he’s not disabled as
“>. be prepares to set a-24-hour wheelchair endurance record.
» (From a March 19 News Sunday Focus story.)

; - O00
- -* “Sometimes I got tired -— driving that slowly some-
"times it’s hard to stay focused, but I never got bored.
-. When you. ses. someone like that. going 80 strokes a
. minute, mife after mile after mile, I thought ‘Hac I am,
sitting in-a rinkside.seat at a great event which uo one
else is seeing.’ ” _
-: 3 West Van senior Bob. Milward, on his experience of dri-
:. ving’ Nik Nikzaban’s support vehicle the length of
"Vancouver Island last summer. (From the same News Sunday
Focusstoryy
. ope, .
re Q00 :
-: “It was a beautiful spring day. Dad and Mum were
- quite peaceful people. They were making tea after the
ig move and they were sitting out on their beautiful
: patio and suddenly the Royal Hudson went by. It was
‘nfiterally 25 feet from where they were sitting and they
~ didn’t know the railway was there. There was the train
|. and they nearly died.”
“cx: Jane» Adams, daughter of internationally recognized
- composer Jean Coulthard, recalls her parents’ retirement to
a small condominium development in Caulfeild Cove, where
they came to enjoy the eccentricities of living on a rail line.
* (From a March 24 News story. } :

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Good week at Supreme Court

HAVING become our de facto
ruler, the Supreme Court is now
being asked to

adjudicate on two

constitutional

issues with vital

ramifications for

Canada’s and
B.C.’s political
future.

First, the landmark
Nisga’a Treaty —
already steamroilered
through the B.C.

Legislature and the

Commons, and due to be passed within
the next month by the Senate. But not if
retired and highly respected Supreme
Court judge Willard Estey has his way.

Estey has now warned the Senate to
hold its hand until the Supreme Court
can rule on the validity oft the treaty
under the Canadian constitition.

Backed by fellow retired Supreme
Court judge William McIntyre and many
other eminent members of the legal com-
munity, he warns that the treaty as writ-
ten creates an independent Nisga’a state
able to make laws overriding those of
Canada and B.C.

He predicts the treaty would allow the
Nisga’a government to usurp Ottawa’s

-authority to make laws concerning the

basic rights and obligations of Canadian
citizens, including the power to amend
the Nisga’a constitution, to appoint
judges, to police citizens and to impose
taxes. ;

In short, it would create a third order
of government without going through
the required process of first amending the
Canadian constitution.

PETER SPECK Dee Dhaltwal
Publisher HAVPromotions Manager

985-2131 (101) 985-2131 (218}

ddhainval@nsnews.com

pspeck@nsnews.com

jorry
ography Manager
985-2731 (760)
ipeters@nsnews.com

dloot@nsnews.com

Volorie Stephenses
Classified Manager

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Entire contents © 1999 HCN Publications Company. All righis reserved.
t Pater Speck

ESSER operates We

“This bill,” says Estey, “could destabi-
lize the fegal framework on which the
Canadian nation is built.”

When he speaks, our
political and judicial
masters listen. At the
11th hour, a fresh hope
for sanity?
The second new battle
taken to the Supreme
Court last week by
Quebec’s seven-year-old
Association for the
Right to Work threatens
a nightmare scenario for
Canada’s labour unions.
Since 1985 the associa-
tion’s co-founder Andre Gareau has been
fighting the Quebec faw that requires any
construction worker seeking employment
in the province to belong to one of five
unions.

By refusing to join a union Gareau has
rung up $30,000 in fines and also faces a
jail sentence. The association is now ask-
ing the court to confirm that, under the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms,
Canadians are entitled to live and work
anywhere in the country.

More specifically, the court is being
asked to declare that “freedom of associa-
tion” guaranteed under the Charter also
means freedom NOT to associate, a
proposition that seems obvious to any -
sane mind.

But it also, of course, means the
unthinkable for organized labour: an end
to compulsory union membership — the
choice for workers to join or not join.
And what future then for B.C.’s NDP?

No wonder horrified union bosses are
unleashing their top legal beagles to fight
the association’s court application tooth
and nail.

Meanwhile, one precedent already
favours the latter. In a 1997 ruling ona
Quebec referendum law the court found
“forced association” was not acceptable.

Millions are poured into lawyers’
pockets by the games our nine “activist,”
ermine-robed Supremos play with the
Constitution and the the Charter. But ~
last week it still felt good to have them
around! a

000,

SICK OF BOGUS REFUGEES? If,
like many Canadians, you feel our refugee.
and immigration policies desperately need’
to be smartened up, don’t miss next
Thursday’s important public meeting,
7:30 p.m. March 30 at the North Shore
Conference Centre in the International -“
Plaza (Marine Drive at Capilano Rd.), .-.
sponsored by the Canadian Association
tor Immigration Reform. me

Guest speaker with a first-hand knowl-:
edge of Third World countries — the.
source of many of our present refugee >. ~
and immigration problems — is 2.)
Vancouver resident Martin Collacott, for-:.
mer Canadien High Commissioner in Sri :
Lanka and our former ambassador to’. '
Sytia and Cambodia. ne

There'll be ample time for. questions’:
to the speaker. _ ae

Admission and parking are free. Your. -
chance to put your views about refugees. ~~:
and immigrants on the record where they...
can be used to effect. ns oe

-, OOO.
WRIGHT OR WRONG: To handle |
yourself, use your head. To handle others, ©

use your heart. eo

—nwright@uniserve.com

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