Ant By Anna Marie 0'Angelo News Reporter SUZANNE Latta wants people to write their MPs about pernography. The West Vancouver mem- ber of the Catholic Women's League wants to see legislation to regulate pornography on the Internet. “It’s an easy thing to throw up your hands and say’ it’s beyond our control,” said Latta. The Catholic Women’s League supports the Ontario- based lobby group called Canadians for Decency. Graphiy crusade on Canadians for Decency is pushing for the federal govern- ment to address: @ child prostitution and the child sex trade; B® criminals profiting from crime. The = West Vancouver Catholic Women’s League of Canada wants; & child prostitution addressed; ® legislation to deal with pornography on the Internet; @ a classification sticker system for videos, West Vancouver Flicker’s Video store owner Gail Delaney said all videos are classified in Canada already. Every video has a sticker on it that indicates whether the video is appropriate viewing for someone age 18 and up, }4 and older, or for a general audience. “A lot of people choose to ignore the ratings,” said Delaney, Delaney said parents are called by the store if a child wants to take out a video rated for an older viewing audience. Parents sometimes approve videos for their children saying, “it's only sex, and not vio- lence,” said Delaney. The video store owner said new releases usually include the reasons for restricted ratings, such as content including sex scenes and coarse language. The rating system is some- times confusing because movies are initially rated for theatre release in the United States before they are rated in Canada for video release. Canadians for Decency is sponsoring a public awareness campaign called the White Ribbon Against Pornography (WRAP). The campaign con- tinues to Oct. 27. Latta said white ribbons will Wednesday, October 23, 1996 — North Shore News ~— 9 ve available at churches and through organizations. Capilano Howe Sound Reform MP Herb Grubel sup- ports the WRAP initiative and public education on child pornography. Grubel said that the fight against social deviancy often conflicts with people’s nghts to freedom of speech. Some mate- ral viewed by many people as being pornographic is argued by others as having artistic menit. The MP said the federal Liberal government could cause stricter enforcement of pornog- raphy laws, Grubel said the fed- eral government could also make sure stiff penalties are handed out to adults involved in all levels of child pornogra- phy. “The present government is too soft on criminals in general and those ones in particular,” said Grubel. He said one way to deal with Internet pornegraphy may be to make the service provider responsible for materi- al available to Net users. NEWS photo Mike Wakotietd WHITE Ribbon Against Pornography supporters include Margaret Chung (left), Caroline Blancard, MP Herb Grubel, Coun. Pat Boname and Thomas Slivinskl. ted white, m.p. advertorial, October 23/96 AN ELECTION UNDER MMP On October 12, 1996 New Zealand voters elocted a 1:aw Government using a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system of vot- Ing. MMP had been selected in a referen- dum in 1993 to raplace the First Past The Post system we are familiar with in Canada, and which is still used in most parliaman- tary democracies. I have been watching the New Zealand experience with interest, part- ly because it falls under my area of respon- sibility as Direct Democracy Critic for the Reform Party, partly because it is a once in @ lifetime opportunity to watch 4 major change in the way a parilamentary democ- racy operates, and partly because there is growing dissatisfaction in Caneda with our First Past The Post eyatem. In New Zaatand, MMP sets aside 65 seats to be won by the candidates of the various par- tles. A further 55 seats are awarded on a pro- portional basis to any party receiving at least 5% of the vote. This means that at the polling Station, each voter can cast two ballots - one for the candidate of choice, and one for the policies of choice, perhaps from an entirely different party. The theory behind MMP is that it encourages greater voter turnout, and com- bines stability of government with a Parliament more representative of voter preference. THE CHOICES Critics of MMP wamed that all manner of silly parties would try to win seats, and they were right. They were wrong, however, in their assertions that voters would waste their votes on those parties. Thirty-four parties were listed on the ballot, but only seven received more than 1% of the vote, and just five managed more than the 5% necessary to win seats in Parliament. Kiwi voters ail but ignored the Communist League, the Indigenous People Party. Blokes Liberation Front, Ethnic Minority Party, Aroha- Ngia-Tatou, The Dominion Workers, Asia Pacific United, and the World Socialists. Parties which received between 0.15% and 5% of the vote were Natura! Law (0.15%), Animats First (0.16%), Progressive Greens (0.25%), McGillicuddy Serious (0.27%), United New Zealand (0.91%), Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis (1.42%), and Christian Coalition (4.35%). In total, the twenty-nine losers attracted only 8.1% of the popular vote, but 4.36% of that went to the Christian Coalition. THE WINNERS After the votes had been counted, the gov- eming National Party had 30 candidate seats and 14 party seats for a total of 44, while Labour had 25 candidate seats and 11 party seats for a total of 37. Under First Pass the Post, Nationa! would have won another term in office, but under MMP, the combined 38 additional seats won by New Zealand First, Alliance, and ACT, will be tha key to whether National or Labour will be the new Government. Coalition talks were still under way at the time of writing, so | will let you know the final makeup of the NZ Government in a future report. One interesting aspect of the election was the fact that the New Zealand First party, which promised a return to the “good old days” of government control, import quotas, compulso- ry unionism, and restrictions on foreign invest- ment, received just 13.13% of the votes. This is one more indication that the vast majority of New Zealanders are not interested in aban- doning the fiscal and social reforms which have taken place in that country. (Maude Barlow and Murray Dobbin, please take note). It Is too early to tell whether the NZ test of MMP has produced the theoretically predicted stability in government, but it certainly achieved its other two goals. Voter turnout was an impressive 76.73%, and the new Parliament will definitely be more reflective of voting pref- erences. QUEBEC MEETING A number of people have calied me over the past weak to ask if } could tell them any- thing about Warren Kinsella, the man who tried a character attack on me during the public meating on Quebec separation. Well, he has apparently worked in the offices of Federal Liberals like John Turner, David Dingwall, and Jean Chretien. His interven- tion last Wednesday was probably an indi- cation that opponents of Reform intend to once again put innuando and persanal attacks ahead of serious policy discus- sions during the next eteciion campaign. "Ted White; MP. , #3021200 Lyna Valley Rd., North Vancouver, B.C. 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