north shore news

VIEWPOINT

is dream

EY West Vancouver: it’s time
to: buy. in to a dream. And it’s
ot about 2 new bridge.
-_/ Last week Magsie Pappas, the execu-
- tive. chairman ‘of. the. West Vancouver
Arts Centre Trust appealed to West Van
~. business’ iypes to .back an initiative to
builds $12. 5 million arts centre in the
. community. »

-Itsa grand | vision, and as such, will
“require , the long-terin commitment of
a many ‘in ‘the community to make it
“actually happen

The:. plan should fly in West
© Vancouver a place thick with moncy,
talent and artistic inclination.

- What is needed is a partnership of
> business, government and 1 private < citi-

Should the fiscal conservatives out
there ‘happen to balk at the hard num-
ti of: $12.5 million, they need only

uM ee me 's Apr 6 letter to ‘the editor deserved « a

ion tofu eon to his facts.
r. Fai

lub restricts’ the ‘operation of our gas-pow sed —
I "

the lowest of any

look to the findings of a 1997 report by
a Greater Vancouver Regional District
steering committee: the arts and culture
sector generated $3 billion in direct rev-
enue and employs more than 65,900
people.

Pat Patton, the founding president
of Nanaimo’s Harbourfront Centre
Society, told the West Vancouver
Chamber of Commerce members last
week of her group’s struggle to create
an arts centre in her city.

The group managed to secure $8.3
million from the federal/provincial
infrastructure program. Then she and
the team of 30 volunteers developed
fundraising strategies and went forth to
corporations and individuals in the
community for money. . :

An arts centre is a legacy for the
future. They know: that in Nanaimo.
West Vancouver should know it too.

IN the bad old days of the cruel
patriarchy that ruled the earth,
there was a weak, widely known

‘and now untellable joke.

Which was: The defini-
tion of mixed emotions is.
when you watch your

i mother-in- law. drive over
cliff in your new car.
___.Well; witnessing the
: anguish over the renaming”
-_» of North Vancouver’s ;
"Emily. Murphy House has:
* -afforded a certain amount:
of gentle amusement to
* ‘those of us’ who keep a
watch on so-called politi-
‘cal correctness.

sersesensennsersegeassasserererenere Mal, the hereditary

Wena Tats eh 9. ham Pte “a

fir wins
bs

the Great War had killed off so many of
the best and brightest —- was a trendy
belief of the 1930s that transcended class °
and ideology. Ir urged improvement of
the race by sterilizing mental and physical
defectives, chronic crimi-
poor.
It had a superfici appeal
to common sense: It ;
le bred their pigs,
cattle le and Labrador ~
retrievers to bring our

their best qualities, why. 7

not themselves too? A‘:
young student named : :

- Tommy Douglas wrote a
thesis supporting ecugen-”

ics. Academics — like a

~ certain bartel-shaped woman at the

omplaints about the noise of trucks dumping i in : the fand- -
~ championed white superiority and (b) was
~ big on eugenics. (As were two others of

fi

del aircraft operations in them,
‘and ‘districts have put aside areas for.

© operate from Safely and if he checks his
: he Lower Mainland that doesn’t have

cr “Radio. ‘Control Flying ’ “Club

iscuss his concerns with us as we try to

nthe best’ we can.

vmplaines, they check our noise level when a

; mplain is received.
Richard” Boulton, section manager’ for: the district ;

‘d has‘allowed that the district has received niore

in from our operation

“It’s'a: wonderful example of PC (Race
Division) grappling to the death with PC,
(Feminist Division). Sort of like a python
engorging on its own tail.

The history, in brief; Emily Murphy .
was one of the five women who success: |:
fully challenged the courts to win recog:
nition of women as legal persons in 1929
— the “Persons Case,” celebrated as a
great victory for women’s equality.
Murphy herself was a magistrate; later the

._ first woman judge in the. British Empire.

Horrors, as reported in the News, the
North Shore Crisis Services Society
(NSCSS), operators of Emily. Murphy
Housé, a transition house for abused
women, were shocked to learn some his-
tory: Murphy, this feminist icon, also (a)

the “Famous Five,” Louise McKinney

“University of Western Ontario who |

looked dangerously close to being a can-

. didate for cugenic éulling herself -—— and

well-placed officials argued for it.

- Both B.C. — over the honorable and —
~ humane objections of the Roman |;
Catholic hierarchy — and Alberta passed --

sterilization laws. Alberta is now paying a:
pretty price in restitution to the law’s vic-
tims (B.C. seems to have luckily lose its
records).

As for Murphy’s racial views, The
Vancouver Sun quoted excerpts from her
1922 book on the drug trade that today
would make the most politically correct
hair curl.

The fact that the NSCSS operated for
almost 20 years in blithe ignorance of-
feminist Murphy’s racial notions is testa-
ment to how history can be manipulated
to heighten or suppress what is “correct”

and Nellie McClung.)

Eugenics — bolstered by the fear that

orth Share Mews, tounde Jin 1969 as an.

subur ban newspaper

and qualified

independent
+ under Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of the

+ Eaton Tan Aad, ts published each Wednesday,

°, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press

* Ltd. and isinibuted to every door on the Mort

Barbara Emo

“Distsibtion Manager ©

. 966-1337 (124)

PETER SPECK Ore estoy
985-2131 (101). EIT ATH

. donathan Ball”
Creative Services Manager
965-2031 (127)

61562 (erie creation, Wrens, Friday & Sunday)
‘published by: North Shore Free Press Lt

or-“incorrect” at any given.time. .-
The NSCSS’s months of internal.

anguish over i the transition hoisse’ 's nam
pitted the liberal-leftish establishment's:
two holy of holies against one anothe
Feminism /anti-sexism v
The latter wone oye

At a deeper level, the ‘shallowness of it
all is apparent. The simple questions ar
Why indict the times and people of the
past before the Court of Current

Attitudes?

Whose reputation or work would 'su
vive intact?_ Not Lincoin’s or Churchill’
(who;-as Doug Collins used to point ou
never hesitated to make wartime appeal:

” “to the splendors of “this istand. race

Not Shakespeare’s or Joseph ‘Con ey
Not Plaro’s or Wagner: ss! Bu hi
ue the list? No one’s:

If it’s legitimate, even mpulsory;

: we the living to judge the dead by ou
official attitudes, we bette realize.ch

- our most “progressive” views today.

; Seem quaint‘at best, narrow, and, bigotec
at Worst, tomorrow.

‘Tfall ‘sands are shifting and we are liv

: ing in-a society that is Godless and with

out ethical norms or signposts, no life’ hi
value or meaning. Intellectuals are‘ capa-
ble of believing this; in fact it’s what-th
do best. Most of us'think that only ewits
can think any such thing:And so chan
ing.the name of Emily Murphy House. for

‘the reasons enunciated by the NSCSS*
-smacks of cowardice — not courage.”
00:

lm reliably informed thata =
Washington State pharmacy has filled pre-
scriptions for. Viagra from 200 Vancouver-
area doctors, Yes, you can have the pre-
scription filled in the U.S. :

What's that? You. don’t know wh

: ' Viagra is? Um, ask your grandfather. .:

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR -
Letters must include your name,
full address & telephone number.

VIA e-mail: trenshaw @ direct.ca

ag
Comptroller
905-2131 (133)

Galt Snsigrove .
Genera} Office Manager’
_ 985-2151 (105)

& Main Office Fax

Michael Becker - News Editar Coane
: 985-2131 (114)
Andrew McCredie - Sports/Co
985-2131 (147)