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LIKE THE instantly leg-
endary Calgary-B.C. Lions
game last weekend, though

. quite without unseemly body
contact or violence, West
Vancouver’s public hearing
Monday night on the 419
Keith Road question had a
sensational ending.

’ It was over after it had barely
started, a 0-0 tie, no passes, no end
Tuns, just a single well-placed
block and the claim that all but one
- of West Vancouver's council mem-
bers are offside on the issue of
building a home for ailing old peo-
ple at the said address.’

- That claim was made in a letter
from Ladner Downs lawyer P. D. -
(Don) MacDonald. It scuttled pro-
ceedings until the Big Referee —
the Supreme Court of British -

* Columbia — makes'a ruling.

‘Thanks to the miracle of dead-
lines, that ruling could be made'by
the'time your eyes dance sensuous-
ly over these words. Certainly West
Vaticouver council expects so. It
has rescheduled the game — ah,
hearing — for next Monday in
expectation that the legal challenge
‘posed by. MacDonald, representing
eight area residents, will have been
speedily dismissed.

‘Tf it isn’t, as this dumb layman
sees it, local government wherever
there is a regional district or some-
thing similar is in one colossal
mess. Councillors who are also

(AY Savery, wen tr
GOINES TO UKION SUPPORT
WHE NEXT ELECTION.

GARDEN OF BIASES

members of a regional district
would be seen as serving two mas-
ters. When one master’s busines
involves the other, those councillors
would be forbidden to discuss or
vote on the matter.

MacDonald’s asserted that
“most, if not all” of the oral sub-

missions to council on this applica-

tion to rezone 419 Keith Road fora
“multi-level care facility” have

been made by West Vancouver

councillors.themselves. .

Since Mayor Mark Sager and
every councillor except Rod Day
also serve in some capacity with
the Greater Vancouver Regional
District, the applicant for the zon-

NOTHER EDUCATION ransom note
has been delivered in North Vancouver
District 44,

It says, in effect, “Pay up or your children
will be denied their rightful access to schools
and education.”

The note’s authors this time are members
of CUPE — the aides, secretaries and janitors
employed in District 44. Their deadline is
Sunday at midnight. If their demands are not
met, District 44 students will be without class-
es on Monday morning.

CUPE’s District 44 local is seeking a con-
tract similar to those won by the union’s
locals in other Lower Mainland school dis-
tricts: wage and benefits increases totalling
5% over two years.

But, as of Nov. 7, District 44 is tied to a
1.2% wage and benefits increase ceiling set by
the provincial government. District 44, $1

MERE ML ide Metteart

million in the give last year, doesn’t have the
money to cover CUPE’s contract demands.

So the ransom note is delivered, and we all
wait to see who will pay the financial
demands.

But those being held ransom — the dis-
trict’s students -—— will pay the real cost if this
dispute is not resolved quickly.

They will pay again in lost learning time
that is already interrupted too often by |
extended summer vacations, teachers’ profes-
sional days and pointless community interac-
tion days.

Public education is trapped i in a union vice
that is squeezing the vital juices from it.

Little wonder that more and more parents
are pushing for education alternatives,

The current public option has become
more concerned with those it employs than
these it is supposed to teach,

ing bylaw change that would allow
building of the facility (or hospital,
as its critics call it}, they’re pro-
cessing an application by an appli-
cant that they're joined to them-
selves,

MacDonald didn’t go so far as
to allege that this is a conflict of
interest — a claim that, if made,
again in the. opinion of this dumb
layman, would certainly fail — but
rather that it doesn’t pass the much
less stringent test of “reasonable
apprehension of bias.”

That test doesn’t require proof
of personal financial gain. All it
requires, the Supreme Court of
Canada ruled in 1990, is a “rela-

tionship” that niight influence the

exercise of an official’s public duty.
The letter, whether sound logic
or shrewd ploy by the neighbors
and the Cedardale Property Owners
Association, threw a block at
Monday night’s proceedings.

! Mayor Sager adjourned the
hearing — backed, he emphasized,
unanimously by council —- until
the municipality gets a declaration

‘ from the court on the “reasonable

apprehension of bias” issue. The
mayor apologized for bringing out
citizens for naught, saying that
council hadn't received the letter
until 7 p.m., 45 minutes before the
meeting.

Outside the meeting, Keith
Road resident Tom Rafael, who
says he’s sincerely trying to strike a
fair agreement, cited MacDonald's
record showing the letter was faxed

at 12:46 p.m. Bit of hair-splisting
there — and perhaps gamesman-
ship. It’s one thing for the fax to
arrive around noon, another to get
in touch with all councillors.
Anyway it was too late to call off
the public hearing. Skeptics might
wonder why the letter had to be
sent so late at all.

Regardless of the court’s ruling
on the bias issue, the facility's
backers face hard sledding.

Bruce J. Reid of the federal
Department of Fisheries and
Oceans has reiterated that the DFO
hasn't agreed to any encroachment
on the sensitive zone around
adjoining salmon-nurturing
Brothers Creek, and warned none
should be expected. No DFO
approval, no go. And this week the
Squamish Indians declared opposi-
tion too, fearing harm to their fish-
ery in the Capilano River, of which
Brothers Creek is a tributary.

Pretty tough defensive line.

Mayor Sager responded to last
Friday's column questioning
whether municipal managerial statf
should be compensated for over-
time. His view, roughly: In a per-
fect world, they weuldn’t be.
They'd be paid enough to obviate
overtime. In the real world, it’s a
marketplace out there. Frankly, our
town has raided — and been raided
by — other towns to get good staff.
Different perks for different folks.
Which explains why there’s been
no rhyme or reason to overtime.

mailex eg

Stamp out
violence:

Dear Editer:

Is the North Shore News schiz-
ophrenic?

It deplores Ernie Crist’s actions
to curtail TV violence (‘Misplaced
Vision,” Oct. 23). Then it urges all
citizens to “get invoived. Get edu-
cated. And help get rid of viotence”
(“Block violence,” Nov. 2).

Councillors are elected by us to
lead — to initiate action for our
general welfare. The community in
a democracy has a responsibility to
its children to protect them from

-role models that demonstrate vio-.

lence as a way of settling disputes
and as a way of behaving in every-
day life. Many European countries
have curtailed TV violence deter-
mining its ‘detrimental effects’ on
young minds.

Ernie Crist is to be commended
for promoting a resolution to
oppose TV violence in ‘the form of

entertainment, and for his efforts to
obtain support from the Union of
B.C. Municipalities.

If we are “still capable of being
appalled by violence” and “are tak-
ing to the ramparts” (North Shere
News, Nov. 2) support must. be
given to Crist’s resolution so. that it
is passed at the Union of B.C.
Municipalities neat year. This is
one easy way for each: of us to get
involved.

M. Shipley
North Shore Voice of Women

Teixl Agrios
Promotions Manager

885-2431 (137)

Linda Stewart
Sales & Marketing Director

980-0511 (319)

Valarie Stephenson
Classified Manager

986-6222 (202}

Petor Kvarnatrom
Display Manager
980-0511 (193}

Chris Johnson
Operations Manager

985-2134 (141)

Timothy Renshaw
Managing Editor

985-2131 (116}

"Peter Spock
Publisher
985-21 31,(101)

Doug Foot
Comptroller

985-2131 (133)

4 9 4 9 THE VOICE OF HORTK AND WEST VANCOUVER

1994 SUNDAY “WEDNESDAY « PriDAY

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