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" Hort ‘Shore Kews, founded j in 1969 as an :
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under Schedule Vil, Paragraph il of the

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’ Friday and Sunday by Norilt Shore Free Press

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pryvetcais Ancaeee ember: eaytnrabnytty

ORE!

--Eatie contents .
-@ 1995 Noth Shore
Free Press Lid.
All rights ceserved.

E ARE witnessing strange
times indeed on the local mari-
juana front..

The bust of a North Vancouver hemp
store operator last month raises some
interesting questions.

Ryan: Patrick Mawhinney is charged
with possession of marijuana following a
routine patrol by. the North Vancouver
RCMP bike squad. The police smelled .
marijuana coming from inside The Joint,
Mawhinney’s store at the time in the
Lower Lonsdale area of North

.. Vancouver,

The’ police subsequently raided the

ITE Ade ee St TG a

‘

Mawhinney had on hand for sale. ‘The
items included hemp products such as
fabric, soap, lip balm and clothing. Some
- of his otiser stock likely resided in a ‘Tegal
grey area.

But think about

this: What if

Mawhinney had been the manager of a .

hardware store and police busted him on
a charge of marijuana possession? Would
his stere’s inventory and business licence
have been seized as well? Likely not.

- The North Vancouver RCMP say the
seized store goods are being held as evi-
dence, yet the confiscation seems.an act’
of caiculated heavy handedness.

At the end of the day Mawhinney, still

Pyeng

Yayre i

faces only a simple|charge of. marijuana &
possession, something that a first offend

for when judged i in North Shore courts.
The store presented an easy target for:
police, -

against ‘hemp “stores throughout. the
province, He views the raids as a “willful:

store and confiscated most of the goods

“ARE columnists: allowed | pri

vate feelings?

‘This not quite the strange, ques.
tion you may think: On the surface,
columnists not only appear to do!

: that routinely, but often seem to ‘do :

nothing else. ;
The production, processing, :

packaging and publication of their *,
opinions — well, that's what their -

job* sall about. isn’t it? © j.'
After. which easy work, they
then repair for restoration oftheir .
delicate constitutions to another ~

“p" — the pub. (For a Pilsner and a

ponder about the next piece, pre-

sumably.)

But there’s something vaguely
bogus about that portrait. Behind
the public persona — that’s the last:
“p” of the series, thank you —
which can craftily create the illu:
sion of indignation, or joy, or even,

.God forgive us, intelligent inquiry’

into matters of solemn public
importance, there can actually exist
genuine feclings.

This is a long introduction to the
‘veritiable fact that this particular
columnist is bottom-fishing in the

‘ depths of depression at the moment
of writing.

Odd how it happens. A dark rev-

' elation. Though not of anything |

new. More like the tedious recital
of evidence in court of something

salready known.

_ & happened ata schoolground. if
saw it. ] saw how carly violence .

i

' Trevor
_ Lautens_

oe 7
toa 2 pick. 1s this where violence ;

- toward women’ — and God knows ie
: reject feminist ideology thatit’s. .:

endemic:among men.— will begin
with that boy?
* Example: Two boys strike some

- kind, of karate pose confronting a.

fat. boy. The latter. hunkers down,
calis toa friend. The four grab’

ee
_ atms, shove, The peaceful and the
/timid are put down.early.

Example: I catch a glimpse of.
boys kicking in the general direc-

tion of another boy backed up_

~ begins; how quickly children ~

innocent babes such a short time.

" ago — jump on the escalator of.

power; how soon you can pick out
the adults that you — 1, certainly
— dislike: the bullies who will
intimidate the docile, the muscular
who will elbow aside the weak.

Not that I saw anything that all.
of us haven’‘t-seen.

Example: Two boys having at
each other with long branches:
Wack, wack. All I could think of
was tyes. How one.thrust and —

-an eye gone, A young life changed.

Amazing that it doesn’t { happen’
more often.

Example: A boy zuns past a ‘girl.
Appirently on impulse, he gives
her arm a nasty twist. Continues on

“carelessly. Hve seen this particular

boy doiag something similar before

against a fence, Some time later 1 .
hear crying. It's that boy. f, an old
male, whatever that signals to boys .
so young — about seven — craw °
near.

“They Kicked me,” the boy
weeps. .

“He kicked us first,” the two
boys — both bigger than he —
declare. Other children (complicit
or just onlookers?) stand silently

. by. As this unhappy scene breaks °
.. up, the boy’s mother arrives and

says gently to the weeping boy,
“Did you get beaten up again?”
‘The boy keeps. weeping. ;

How do you imagine that boy
felt about going to school — surely
one of the friendliest, the best, with
some of the most skilled and dedi-

- cated teachers in the Western. ©

Hemisphere —- the next morning?:
My gnarled old heart goes out to.
him.

And I walked away feeling
almost as low as.he must have felt.

a

port, then again oni !-5 fro Seattle
I stop to the: B.C. borde

“my t trip home: At least so |

>From the border to, igi

2:30 ‘a.m. Gue *
“Westvion making ;13:to0 tgs ay
"99 north to Lions Bay il
‘total (55 mph max). j
From Tijuana to Blaine
“stop mye (55-80 han

can you teach your, child peaceful.
ness without ito him -vulnera:

‘his vost
» And: L also’ heard of a class:

Good tor Mark Sager.
‘among North Shore’ mays
Vancouver’ 's Sager. maintains ‘th

address every year N
in this age of thre year terms for
Ost municipal politicians,

vee, no ‘new council to introduce’and
. business i is pretty well as before.

_-The immediate outlook for,

was a AS en ‘07%,

’ He modestly noted without
being specific that the 1996 budget
thas been'restrained, but Maureen
Curtis has already reported thai

_ provisionally the net increase \ will
C average i a trifling 0.1%. :