6 — Friday, May 28, 1999 — North Shore News north shore news VIEWPOINT ard beefs E province is still suffering from labour pains. They haven’ been as public of late as they have been in the past; they’ve just been more internalized by B.C.’s long-suf- fering business communi. y. Consider, for example, a recent Coalition of BC Business (CBCB) sur- vey. It sought input from employers who have dealt with the Labour Relations Board (LRB) on the issue of perceived bias in how the board han- dles employers in labour disputes. Much evidence exists elsewhere to suggest that bias in favour of labour is far more than merely perceived. And the coalition’s,survey bears that out. According to CBCB chairman Suromitra Sanatani, of the 200 smal and medium-sized businesses polled, 53% said their LRB hearing “lacked respondents said they were cither com- pletely dissatisfied or dissatisfied because the board had not given them a fair opportunity to present their views. The survey's results should be of lit- de surprise. The NDP’s 1992 Bill 8¢ Labour Code changes were but an ominous harbinger of the unbalanced labour- feaning business atmosphere to come in B.C. The bill, for example, eliminated the basic democratic right of a secret ballot vote during union certification drives. That such legislation remains is tes- tament to the skewed philosophy of the current socialist government. That the effectiveness and non-par- tisan aspects of the LRB have been allowed to erode so badly is but anoth- er reason to replace that government. neutrality.” And half of the survey’s maibox Media the source of teenage angst Dear Editor: I’m an 18-year-old Grade 12 student and 1] am angry with the media right now. 1 am getting really tired of being labeled as one of soci- cty’s problems, because of my age. Recently there have been a vast amount of tragic events involving teenagers. The brutal murder of Reena Virk - shocked nte. I honestly can’t believe that a bunch of teenagers could do that. As if that wasn’t bad cnough, high-school shootings seem to be on the cover of every paper these days. Although the brutality of these teens is horrific, it is not what I am upset about. 1 am upset because thanks to the media the world thinks that these few violent teens are a good representation of my gencration. Well, they.aren’t. , Most tcenagers today are accomplishing really great things. The majority offtecnagers I know play sports, per- form in school plays and bands, have part-time jobs and still manage to achieve grades good enough to be accepted into universities. ©" We are the leaders of tomorrow and I think we are doing a job worth congratulating. It would be very refreshing to open the paper and read about some of the great teens that exist in our world. So I ask you to please print stories on some of the good teenagers, because they aren’t hard to find. S. Millard gazzer@home.com Mailbox policy LETTERS to the editor’ must be legible (preferably type- written), brief and include your name, full address and tele- phone number. Due to space constraints the ‘North Shore News cannot publish all letters. Submissions can be faxed to 985-2104 but.still must be signed and fully addressed. ‘ Werth Shore News, founded #1059 25 2n under Schadule 111, Paragraph 111 of the Excise Tax Act, is pubished each Wednesday, Friday and Sunaay by North Shore Free Press Ud and distributed to every d20r on the North ‘Shore. Canata Post Canaden Pubbcahons Mait Sales Procuct Agreement No. 0067238. Mading rates avatiable on request. SEMPER ema Barhara Distribution Manager 968-1337 (124) Creative Services Director 905-2131 (127) 61,582 (average circulation, Weunesttay, Friday & Sunday} Not all fr WELL, maybe I'll have to take back some of the nasty things Pve said about Allan Fotheringham. The Foth, in case you don't know, is far from Canada’s best journalist — a thousand are better — but he is incomparably the best carger-stcerer and shrewd self-promoter of the lot. He intuitively grasped the moment he sprang from the womb that the wellhead of the real jour- natistic gravy is not craft Sut contacts, nor sub- srauce but tone, not what you know bur whom you xnow (and who knows you), not exhaus- tive research but the idle gossip of the court. The latter required not only insinuating himself into the court — many have done thar. It also involved passing himself off as a left-wing pal of the common but intelli- gent man, clegantly betraying confidences and cynically mocking the Establishment —~ which appealed enormously to the intellectual equivalent of wrestling fans and bear-baiters —~ while negotiating such big capitalist bucks for his services that even Pierre Berton noticed. Foth also instantly grasped mankind's greatest weakness: Such is the nature of our petty little egos that public recognition — including negative recognition, even near-libel, borderline-slander and over-the- top scorn — is vastly preferable to being ignored. Indeed, if you were among the Big ‘people, there was an clement of flattery in independent suburban newspaper and quakied Human Resources Manager General 985-2131 (133) 985-2131 (177) Terry Photography Manager 285-2151 (160) Stepbenssa Classified Manager 906-6722 (202) being skewered by a Big journslist, contir- mation of your Bigness. Foth routinely dirceted some of his most vicious barbs at dutiful people in high places who simply didi’t share his slippery world-view or deepest convictions, which he carefully never defined but stylishly insinuated. What he despised most was dull decency. Buc I put all this in the past tense because Fotheringham wrote a courageous column in the May 24 Maclean’s. He backed retired North Shore News columnist Doug Collins’ right to freedom of expression in the notorious Case of the Four Columns — ruled by a B.C. Human Rights tribunal to have violated the provincial act forbidding newspapers from publishing anything “likely to expose a person or a group or class of persons to hatred and contempt.” The said persons being Jews. The said issue being the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust. Collins doesn’t believe the “six million” figure, and refused to stop ‘saying so. E don’t believe Collins* drastic diminishing of thar figure, and have no reason to question the 5.1 million cited by Raul Hilberg, who spent an academic career studying the records. T also believe in free inquiry and free expression, even obnoxious expression (except only for filth aimed at children), obnoxiousness being in the eye and mind Gf someone or other. Read Foth’s column. A brave piece, on oe m the Foth is froth a matter the more fickle friends of freedom are shrinking from. And here f speak with true respect for Fotheringham. ft couldn't have been easy to write. For, as Foth briefly relates, he was instrumental in The Vancouver Sun's hiring of Collins a quarter of a century ago, on the strength of Collins’ strongly established reputation as a left-wing terror. Surprise! Collins rather abruptly saw the light. And swung right. And also swung — hard, and ruthlessly, and jeering- lv — at his very benefactor, this little leftist twit, the Foth. The broadsides berween the two columns — well, you could have sold seats. Collins was crude, rude, devas- taring. Foth was icy, studiously keeping his Guceis and his Brooks Brother suits from being soiled and his abeve-the-fray demeanor unruflled. So, to those of us who witnessed this word warfare at the office level, Fotheringham is generously weighing in where it isn’t easy to weigh in, for a for- mer colleague who showed him no mercy. (Foth later called him “the roughest man Pye ever met.”) Maybe little Foth is Big after all. Bigger than I, with my own petty ego to contain, have given him credit for, ga090 Say it again, Sam: Relations between the West Vancouver Arts Centre Trust and the Ambleside and Dundarave Ratepayers Association have deteriorated into angry exchanges, including “without prejudice” letters. So I repeat: Notwithstanding Maggie Pappas’ apparent suspicions, ADRA’s Carolanne Reynolds definitely did mor give me a tran- script of their ¢-mail message that has caused much: fuss. NERC HEUS: Administration 955-2131 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must include your name, tull address & telephone number. VIA e-mail enshaw @ direct.ca Managing Editor 985-2131 (116) Entire contents © 1999 North Shore Free Press Lid. 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