© get this straight ©

“BEING A trusting sort, 1 was not at first willing to betieve

your North Shore cable company had played jellyfish on the |

greatest piece of public enlightenment and fun seen in these
parts since Bob Edwards tried to finance his rat farm. But I

have changed my mind.
"The best and longest part of the
Great Immigration Debate was’
dropped from the version:
that was aired, you sec, Shaw /
Cable apparently not. being too
keen to show the North Shore to
‘the North Shore when the ‘gov. \
_ erning party of Wimpland i is being
. punched out. . ;
The original plan was ‘that the
whole thing would be carried.on
“Jocal cable. That was MP Chuck
Cook's understanding, too. He
said so publicly.:For that reason |
"didn’t bother to tape it myself.

way around the political scene
honed m 3 say. that sorneone

president of operations. He refer-.
red me to Martin Stubbs, who isin

; ing
point, I still didn't’ Think anything *

was 5 wrong My inf mant Jnigh ;

“have been peddling rumor. People
are quick to sce plots.
Stubbs confirmed that only the

‘panelists would be seen. The

reason, he said, was that there was
only space to show an hour, and |
the complete show took 2% hours.
Tasked whether] could have a
copy of the ‘‘outs,’? the pieces they
didn’t use. Sorry, says Stubbs, He
had told the cditar to wipe them,
His explanation satisfied me. I
don't go around looking for plats,
even though plots sometimes come
looking for. me, .

Then the phone calls began to’
. pour in. After the first broadcast, °
. dozens of.peoplé wanted to know
why the debate wasn't shown in
full. And Shaw Cable started ped-

‘dling different stories.”

*. One of the outraged was... .
businessman Don Shwery. When
‘hs phoned Shaw, he was told that:
the‘feason the show wasn’t run in ~
‘full was that members'of: the au-'
dience had made *!
libellous: ‘statements. oo
Meanwhile, a woman in Co-

quitlam called me to say she would. .”

‘like to'see the debate. Or as much
‘of it'as had been broadcast, I told

her to ask Rogers Cable to run it.
She said she had already done that
and had been told that Shaw
wouldn’t let them have the pro-
gram,

At this point even dull old Doug
pricked up his cars, because cabiec
companies regularly swap stuff. It
was also clear that it wasn't just a
matter of Shaw not having enough
time. They run hour after hour of
the dullest council mectings and
bake sales. So I called the pro-
gramming pcople at Rogers and
spoke to Diane Mar. ,

Miss Mar said that Stubbs had
refused to release the tape for
broadcasting in Vancouver and
area. He had said it ‘‘was not
available.’

But it was. ,

‘You don't have to be very clever
to see that cither someone really
did “get at’! Shaw Cable, or the.

company just didn’t have the guts

to put the whole thing on the air.
As for the “libel and slander**”
allegation, that is pure nonsense. A
Shaw executive later admitted to
the persistent Mr. Shwery that. no
lawyer had screened the program.
* Furthermore, the most controver-
sial statements were run on

perv’ 3 news, and if they could do .

+ so could Shaw.

Cable television's mandate Is to.

show the’ community ¢ to the com.’
munity, and here it had a golden.
.., Opportunity to do so.. For this was’
no ordinary meeting. It was a
true-cross section of the North:

. _ Shore i in which doctors, lawyers,
' senior. politicians, business people

“and bus drivers and their spouses

".. “joined in heated debate on a topic.»
; "of national impostance.

” Shaw Cable falled us all. No

“guts, It didn’t even show the final j

‘rebutials by the panelists...
a | suggest that it put this legend
 over.its door:

“Don't rock, the. boat.” @

. “Thursday tc to Saturday |

April 21 -

23, 1988

9» Wednesday, April 20, 1988 - North Shore News

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