Alfalfa burns
on freighter

NORTH VANCOUVER City Fire Department firefighters were
called in to Neptune Terminals Sunday to put out spot fires burn-
ing in the hold of a freighter being loaded with alfalfa pellets.

The crew arrived at approximately 7:10 p.m. to shovel out hot
spots burning aboard the Hyundai No. 6.

Firefighters returned the following day to shovel out additional
fires located beneath the surface of the alfalfa load. As a result of
the fire, the ship’s hold was unloaded Thursday.

Driver slams into
service truck

ternal injuries after the car he was driving slammed into the back
of a highway service vehicle Monday morning.

The accident occurred at approximately 8:45 a.m. in the 900-
block of the Upper Levels Highway.

The driver, 65-year-old Ronald McAdam, was travelling east
when he ran into a Capilano Highway Services truck bearing Flash-
ing warning arrows and following a street cleaner just west of
Taylor Way.

The accident caused $5,000 damage to’: McAdam’s vehicle and
$1,600 damuge to the truck. The truck driver was not injured. West
Vancouver Police have charged McAdam with driving without due
care and attention.

A police traffic department spokesperson said motorists using
the highway should drive with caution while travelling in areas
under construction or along stretches of roadway undergoing
maintenance.

WV youth faces
mischief charges

A 17-YEAR-old West Vancouver youth faces two charges of
mischief causing damage less that $1,000 following a Dec. 28
wrecking spree.

West Vancouver Police were called to the 1455 Marine Drive
McDonald’s Restaurant just before 12:30 a.m. A shopping cart hed
been thrown through a glass door and two youths had been spotted
fleeing the scene.

Police brought in police dog Trooper to track the suspects.
Trooper tracked east on Marine to 13th Street, down to Argyle
Avenue and on to the pier at the foot at 14th Street.

Police found that two trees had been uprooted in a grassy area.
The suspects were nabbed nearby. One suspect was released
without charges.

Locals named to
NVD committees

APPOINTMENTS to various municipal committees were made at
Monday night’s North Vancouver District Council meeting.

Architect Roman Czemerys, development representative Lyall
Armstrong and Drew Burnham were appointed to the district’s
Advisory Design Panel, while Ron Beesley was appointed to the
Municipal Library Board.

Appointed to the North Vancouver family court committee were
Sue Bauman, Susan Funnell, Caroline Heshedahl, Salim Kaderali,
James Martin, Norman Vipond and Ald. Ernie Crist.

Viore Kinsmen
marchers needed

THE KINSMEN Mothers’ March needs more volunteers to par-
ticipate in the Kinsmen Rehabilitation Foundation’s annual fund-
raising drive. .

According to local Kinsmen spokespers:'n Susan van Kleeck, this
year’s North Shore drive requires approximately 2,500 volunteers.
So far the local office has lined up 2,000 marchers.

This year’s march begins Jan. 15 and runs through to Jan. 31.
Money raised is used to provide equipment and services to people
throughout B.C. who have physical disabilities.

Each volunteer is responsible for knocking on 20 doors. The
process takes about an heur. Marchers wear a plasticized I,D. tag
bearing the Kinsmen tree logo.

To contact the local Kinsmen office call 959-4691.

A WEST Vancouver man was sent to Lions Gate Hospital with in-

BATTLE OF

LGH BOARD

3 - Friday, January 12, 1990 - North Shore News

Shots in abortion

From page 3

that “‘pro-life call off its dogs,’

and not run any other candidates _

in opposition to the board’s can-

didates.

But Clark said NSPLS refused.

Donald, however, said Clark
turned her down before pro-life
had decided whether it would agree
to the committee's condition.

Following the board’s experience
with previous pro-life directors, its
trust of pro-life candidates was
non-existent, Donald said: ‘‘I was
like a skunk at a garden party.’’

Abortion remained an extremely
contentious issue locally.

In 1986, a North Vancouver
man staged a fast on the steps of
the Vancouver courthouse to pro-
test what he said was the murder
of babies in Lions Gate and other
B.C. hospitals.

The arguments from both sides
of the issue, as had become the
tradition, became louder as the
annual LGH board elections ap-
proached.

Fearing the possible majority
takeover of the elected portion of
the hospital board by pro-life can-
didates in 1986, following the 1985
pro-life victory, Clark, along with
such prominent local citizens as
Dave Brousson, helped establish
Pro-Lions Gate Hospital (PLGH).

The organization, whose stated
Purpose was to ensure that direc-
tors on the hospital board were
broadly based, was a major factor
in reversing the election's focus on
the single issue of abortion.

It provided a political middle
ground, Clark said. And it allowed
residents to support a board can-
didate without having to say they
were either pro-life or pro-choice.

“it: was the beginning of the
healing,’’ she said.

In Clark’s view, a_ pro-life-
dominated board would eventually
have destroyed LGH as a com-
munity hospital and a community
resource by alienating the hospi-
tal’s medical community to a point
where its members would have
withdrawn from representation.

The board, she said, would then
have become entirely provincially
appointed as had other Lower
Mainland hospita! boards that had
become dominated by pro-lifers.

The community’s control of the
hospital, she said, would then have
been lost forever.

Pro-Lions Gate candidates swept
the 1986 board elections.

The next year, NWVHS
membership jumped again,
ballooning to 4,728. A_ record
3,193 votes were cast, and PLGH
candidates again won all the avail-
able board seats.

But, in 1988, shots in the abor-
tion battle at the hospital suddenly
ceased.

After considering the good job
done on the board by Donald and

the other pro-life board member,
Victor Bennington, the NWVHS
nominating committee approved
both in its slate of candidates for
the annual elections.

It was the first time in the socie-
ty’s history that it had backed any
pro-life candidates.

It was also a major concession
by the board, and a huge step
towards defusing the abortion
issue at LGH.

Donald took the news to her
pro-life colleagues, urging them
not to run opposing candidates.

NSPLS chairman Ross Labrie
then issued a notice to church
groups that credited the hospital
board with having adopted a new,
conciliatory attitude.

battle finally cease

began to shift away from LGH
after Jan. 28, 1988, when the
Supreme Court of Canada ruled
that Canada’s existing abortion
law was unconstitutional.

The federal government’s pro-
posed new abortion legislation
makes no restriction against abor-
tion clinics, which Labrie said have
become the focus of pro-life abor-
tion oppositon.

NSPLS, he said, is also concen-
trating more on educating doctors
and the community to the alter-
natives of seeking abortions, ‘'to
see if this can produce the drop in
the number of abortions everybody
wants to see.”’

The abortion rate at LGH has
dropped slightly in the past 10

Following the

board’s

experience with previous
pro-life directors, its trust of
pro-life candidates was non-
existent, Donald said: “‘T
was like a skunk at a garden

party.”’

The pro-life group consequently
fielded no opposition to the
board’s nominees, and the five
available seats in 1988 were filled
by acclamation. And again in
1989, six LGH board members
were declared by acclamation.

Warne said Donald’s work on
the board and her ability to com-
municate the board’s message to
the pro-life camp was the key in
convincing the board to elect a
pro-life candidate and in pro-life
agreeing (o run no opposition in
the election.

Labrie said the NSPLS-backed

directors were nominated by the —

LGH board, ‘‘because they were
very qualified and were doing a
good job. They had not caused a
ruckus on the board. The board
discovered its business was not be-
ing ill-served (by the pro-life direc-
tors); it was being well served, I
think it was a bit of an education
for the board.”’

NSPLS, he said, has no plans to
field any candidates in opposition
to the board’s candidates in 1990.

The focus of NSPLS opposition
to the abortion issue, Labrie said,

DAMAGING MEDIA IMAGES
TV stereotypes criticized

From page 4
of control.”’

Killbourne, too, asserts that vio-
lent images in the media serve to
desensitize people to the violence
occurring in the real world.

Men also suffer from the de-
meaning images of women, which
serve to characterize males as
primarily aggressive and sex-seek-
ing. Because women are shown to
be unimportant, men’s feminine
side, including their caring, nurtur-
ing qualities, are also seen to be
unimportant and thus not en-
couraged.

Given this discouraging situa-
tion, Strutt doesn’t believe that
televisions are all bad.

it’s possiole for one to be a
critic of television and a devotee at
the same time,’’ she notes. It is
important, however, to help your
children interpret the messages re-
alistically.

She recommends the book Tele-
vision and Your Child: A Guide
for Concerned Parents, and says
thai the Ministry of the Attorney
General’s office has produced a
school program called Taking a
Second Look, aimed at helping 11

ears.

In 1979, 747 abortions were per-
formed at the hospital; from
December 1988 to November 1989,
508 abortions were performed at
the hospital.

Whether the drop is a result of
the abortion battle at LGH is open
to debate.

And whether that abortion bat-
tle is over is also open to debate.

Said Warne: ‘I would have
laughed at a prediction of a truce
in the ‘abortion war’ six months
prior to the 1988 acclamations.°*

“The issue of restricting or pro-
hibiting abortions is a major moral
question,”’ he said. ‘‘I just hope
the battle stays in Parliament and
the courts. Then we can let Lions
Gate Hospital concentrate on the
other pressing health-care issues of
the day.”’

Clark agreed that the political
arena was where the abortion
debate belonged.

“Somehow we have to put the
right to control her body in the
hands of the woman,”’ she said,
“chat is what it is all about.’’

to 14-year-olds become media it-
erate. ‘

Strutt says it is esssential to write
letters of complaint if you notice
media images that are damaging or
stereotypical. Through such ef-
forts, MediaWatch members, she
says, have managed to have a
number of ad campaigns halted.
Her Vancouver office publishes
gender stereotyping guidelines and
information on how to have your
complaint — or praise — heard.

For more information, cali
MediaWatch at 731-0457,