dig LY YY V/V) p Vif 4) A As OVE TO THE MORIN AFFAIR: WE. WILL BE ieee ah INFORMANTS... ity Ly Ul Yr of Public probe HE RECENT shooting of a 22- year-old North Vancouver man in a combined West Vancouver Police and North Vancouver RCMP drug raid raises some serious questions about how the war against drugs is being waged on the North Shore. : it also demands some public airing of the facts surrounding the tragedy. Daniel Fossee died after he was shot once in the chest by a West Vancouver police officer. According to police reports, Possee was holding 5 pellet rifle when four Police officers entered his North Van- couver basement suite searching for what they believed to be a substantial cache of drugs. He hed apparently been using the rifte for target practice shooting in his living "LETTER room. What Possee’s intentions were at the time of the shooting will never be known; in a split-second reading of the Situation, a police officer interpreted his intentions as threatening. it is always easier to second guess ac- tions taken during the heat of a high- pressure situation, especially in involv- ing the police and firearms. But there are some extremely troubling aspects to the Possee shooting: Daniel Possee was not named on the search warrant issued; the drugs seized in the raid amounted to a minimal 7% grams of marijuana; Daniel Possee wes not known to the police; he had aspirations to be a police officer. There sare enough serious questions without answers in this case to warrant a full public inquiry inte the shooting of Daniel Possee. NV outdoor school irreplaceable While many of us nope the Socreds are beyond resuscitation, we may well be looking for a tesurrected Liberal party next time Dear Editor: I am distressed that the North Vancouver School Board is being forced to close the North Van- couver Outdoor Schoo! because of under-funding from the NDP government. As a Brackendale resident, West Vancouver teacher and former North Vancouver student, | have often marvelled at the progressive minds which scored this jewel for North Vancouver. From salmon enhancement to First Nations culture, the environment, conver- sation, science and ethnological education that happens at Out- door School can never be duplicated in the classroom. The thought of losing this irreplaceable asset shatters one’s faith in that **kinder, gentler’? governinent we voted in. This is, of course, only the tip of the iceberg. Cuts to education this year include 800 teachers’ jobs, resulting in cuts to pro- grams, larger classes, fewer ser- vices ro children and more anxiety and stress for all concerned. around. It is nice that teachers aren’t being “‘bashed’’ any more (we aren’t being blamed for all the government’s woes), but whoever would have thought that life under an NDP government could look harsher than it did under the Socreds? Dorte Froslev Brackendate Possee tragedy inquiry vital or police, too THE ONLY thing clear about Psaniel Possee’s death by a police builet is ihat it should never have happened — al- though guaranteeing that such a tragedy cannot happen again may, alas, prove impossible. This time, however, it’s certain- ly not a matter to be left toa routine interna] investigation by the police involved. If Attorney General Colin Gabelmann knows his duty, he’ll delay no longer in ordering a full public inquiry conducted by a judge. There are two reasons — equal- ly important— why a probe under the floodlight of public scrutiny is essential. First, of course, common justice to Passee’s grieving family. How can a young man of apparently blameless character, froma respected home background and not suspected of any crime, be killed by police simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time — an unwitting drop-in visitor at an apartment they were about io raid for drugs? The many questions to be an- swered must, of course, await the inquiry. But the meagre informa- tion released so far by the police suggests that one, in particular, may hold the key to the tragedy. Did Possee deliberately point the toy peilet rifle — which he had reportedly been using for in- door target practice — at the of- ficers when they burst in? Or did he swing round to see what was happening with it still in his hand thus accidentally pointing it at them? In either case, was he ordered to drop it BEFORE the constable fired the fatal shot? The second pressing reason for a public inquiry is that it serves the best interests of West Van Police Department itself. In many North American cities today police are under fire as “brutal,’’ “‘racist’’ and “‘trigger- happy.”’ The last thing needed is for our North Shore forces — whose community relations to date have, on the whole, been ex- emplary — to be tarred with the same brush. An increasingly violent society makes their job more and more dangerous. A police officer threatened by a defiant armed criminal has no time for anything but a split-second decision, and split-second decisions are obvious- ly not always the best kind. We do NOT yet know if this is why Daniel Possee died or whether his death was inevitable in the bizarre circumstances of the case. But know we must and only a public inquiry can tell us. Neei Wright HITHER AND YON _ Even wers a tragic error of judgment revealed, complete openness with no suspicion of _ cover-up is also the only way to maintain vital public trust in the thin blue line that guards us from anarchy, : All too often nowadays at dire risk to the guardians’ own lives. ao0 TAILPIECES: Keynote speaker tomorrow Thursday, May 21, at the annual genera! meeting of Meals on Wheels in St. David’s United Church, West Van is Catky Redgrave — call 922-3414 for details ... Also tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. the monthly meeting of | the North Shore hard-cf-hearing takes place in St. Richard’s Church, 1398 West 15th, North Van -~ info from 980-2040 ... West Van’s Ridgeview Elementary kids are holding a Walk-a-thon Friday to swell the $1,000 they’ve already raised this year for Opera- tion Eycsight Universal — found- ed by West Van's late De. Ben and Evlyn Guilison to restore sight to the curably blind in de- © veloping countries ... And let West Van Firefighters wash your car Saturday from 10 to § at Bellevue and 13th — for the Children’s Hospital. WRIGHT OR WRONG: The trouble with sitting a jot is that you wind up with a fot more to do it with. . Distribution 986-1337 Subscriptions 936-1337 Fax 985-3227 Administration $85-2131 MEMBER S Printed on 10% recycled newsprint North Shore managed Display Advertising 980-0511 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom Publisher Peter Speck Managing Editor... Timothy Renshaw Associate Editor... ... . .Noe! Wright Advertising Director... Linda Stewart Comptrolier....... Doug Foot Nerth Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualitied under Schedule 111, Paragraph ill of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Fricay and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3685. Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per gar, Mailing rates available on request. ubmissions are welcome but we cannol accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addrassed envelope. 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 Entire contents © 1992 North Store Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. COLIN GABELMANN... does he DANIEL POSSEE... probe is know his duty? owed to family. $1,882 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday)