6 ~ Friday. September 10, 1999 — North Shore News

DNESDAY’S announce-
ment by the province that it
} is granting a conditional

permit to allow Copper Beach
Estates Ltd. (CBEL) to fill a toxic
abandoned copper mine site with
toxic materials was long overdue.

Ca the surface the plan by Copper
Beach is an audacious one.

The mine site at Britannia has
been leaching metal poisons into
Howe Sound since 1974.

It’s widely considered one of the
continent’s worst pollution sources.
The ocean in the vicinity of the site
isa dead zone.

To date nothing of consequence
has been done about it. That could
change.

Acid rock drainage would be col-
lected or plugged tc prevent it from
flowing to Howe Sound. An open

mailbox

Always look on the
bright side of life

Dear Editor:

Re: Getting othzr people to accept you as an equal can
B peop’ |

be difficult (Aug. 27, News. story) ...

Yes it can, and-the News was also correct in adding
that it can be especially difficult when you're in a wheel-

chair...

» Face.

‘You name it, it is at times difficult to get others to see

“us as wé wish to be viewed. .. :

” Unfortunate as that may be, cach of us must makes the
best of our unique situations whether wea minority or

- It can‘also be bad if you're blind, deaf or of an ethnic

north shore news

VIEWPOINT

pit mine would be filled with conta-
minated but “less mobile” metal-
bearing soil as part of a commercial
lan-ifili. A water treatment facility
would clean up water owing from
the mine area before it reaches the
ocean.

West Vancouver politicians have
voiced concern regarding the addi-
tional truck traffic that could poten-
tially be generated by the landfill.
CBEL is committed to working with
the highways ministry to address the
issue. The company is also consider-
ing rail or barge delivery of soils.

This plan is expected to see results
in a year. It should be given a chance
to work.

The alternatives — doing nothing
or seeing provincial taxpayers pick
up the tab to make this open sore
safe — are less appealing.

TE CONTROVERSY ARousEeD BY
fA? SVEMP ROBINSON PRESENTING
A PETITION TO STRIKE GOP FRom Tuc
CONG TTuUTION CONTINUES AT THE
NEWS HE MAN TAKE A RUN AT
THE &.C. NDP LEADERSHIP.

Dave Stupich deserved no mercy

book, Two Scandals: The

Society Saga.

Oh, forget it. I don’t
have time to write it.

Two scandals?

The first began in -
1988 when police were
tipped by the brave,
forthright Jacques
Carpentier io dirty busi-
ness at the NCHS.

The police toc gin-
gerly gave a shove to the
NCHS rock. Out scut-
ued che slimiest wrig-
glers ever uncovered in
B.C.” :

DON’T miss my forthcoming
Nanaimo Commonwealth Holding

Stupich in the 1950s, was $955,000,
That, forensic accountant William Kinsey
testified, was the amount Stupich
advanced to himself up to end of 1989.
How much went to the NDP and its
party paper The
Democrat should be
made clearer when the
paper goes on trial next
month. Beyond that:
The long-promised
public inquiry.
Will it reveal how
deeply the NCHS ate
into the NDP’s entrails,
laundered stolen charity
moncy to fund election
campaigns and party
; payoits, co:rupted
democracy in B.C. for decades? I’m now

ee :

And moreover, we must also accept others who appear
or act differently.

That is all part of living in a cohesive, integrated com-
munity. = .
-.: As for this particular man and his particular differences
: with our, transit service, I cannot offer a comment for I do
neither use the bus nor do I know your friend Mr. Hunt.
.. But as a wheelchair-bound individual who has spent his

“. Iast 18 ‘years living.assuch on the North Shere, I have

- found my. fellow. residents to be kind, courteous,. and

éxtremely helpful to me and my particular needs. ~
“"" Tam proud to live in our community and only hope I
© ‘¢an give back equal to what the North Shore gives me.
«| However, if each of us goes around searching out hos-
"tility and discrimination we will indeed find what we are

looking for... -.-.. ; . ;

‘2 [cheose to look for a positive, giving, caring commu-
» nity and you know what? That’s exactly what I find. _

“It’s fisnny how that works.

~ N Jim “Mili

North Vancouver

“"” jenilina@istar.ca |

northishore |

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Friday and Sunday by HCN Publications

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Eleven years later — even after excel-
lent inquiries by Ace Henderson and Ron
Parks, even after convictions of the
NCHS and three related societies in
1994, even after intense police study of
145 boxes of financial records, even after
days of patient recitation in court last
week of the broken trail of thefts and
bingo kickbacks to NCHS from Nanaimo
charities (a nun’s organization was ban-
ished when she protested the kickbacks)
-~ the public still doesn’t know all the
facts and figures. Probably never will.

Dave Stupich, the chartered accoun-
tant who masterminded this fetid scheme
—— Dave Stupich, former New
Democratic Party provincial president,
MLA, finance minister and member of
Parliament — saw to that.

The hard figure produced in court for
this tangle of fraud and illegal operation
of lottcries by the NCHS, created by

| Al

PETER SPECK
Publisher
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Classified Manager
906-6222 (202)

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«. Entire contents © 1999 HCN Publications Comoany, All rights resereed.

rofoundly skeptical.
P The second scandal?

Stupich’s utterly inadequate penalty:
Two years less a day, served under the
“punishment” of tlie electronic monitor-
ing system at one of lis daughter's houses .

h (Hey —- just who's being punished,
ch?)
The daughter hasn’t been publicly
identified. Presumably it isn’t Marjorie
Boggis. She’s the one who, along with
Stupich’s common-law wife Elizabeth
Marlow and formez NDP orovincial sec-
retary Joe Denofrec, was let off the hook
in May when Stupich pleaded guilty.

Special Crown prosecutor Don
Sorochan said many clear things about
Stupich’s crimes. He said Stupich had
“lined his own pockets.” He said Stupich
deserved four to six years in prison.

_ But then Sorochan echoed defence
counsel Richard Feck.’s recommended

= mercy.

sentence, accepted by Supreme Court of |
B.C. justice Bruce Jose; ni. .

Sorochan didn’t challenge Peck’s
assertion — that poor Stupich, 77, is suf-
fering from the early stages of some senile
disease, for which Peck adduced two doc-
tors’ letters, unchallenged.

When Stupich made his surprise guilty
plea in May, the media reported it as a
“plea-bargain” situation. oo

I talked to Sorochan after thar tense
day, and he was livid when I repeated the
phrase. No such thing, he said. Ne such -
animal in Canadian jurisprudence, he
said. You people in the media spend too
much time watching Aracrican television,

he said.

_ Well, reader, you can call that animal:
what you will,” in j
Sorechan did rightly question Peck’s :
claim that his client has no assets and is...”
actually $23,000 in debt. Peck, said |.

Sorochan, didn’t meation, Stupich’s stun: |

ning $650,000 Gabsiola Island home.
‘or sure West Vancouver's Peck, one

of the city’s top lawyers, carned his fe

(He aitably refsed to tell mz who, if

. Stupich is broke, will pay it.)
ty

is client got a penalty appiopriat
third-rate fencer ef stolen, poods
the cunning author of a decades-long
fraud and kickback scheme that:stol

_ from charities and set off the biggest

Hitical scandal in 3.C.’s history. And:
ig, big fine was thoroughly justified too
Never forget: Suupich refieed to coop=":
erate with the police investi;

. legal action to frustiate it.’
-attered a word of apology. .

Dave Srupich didn’t deserve a shre d of

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