6 - Sunday. July 20, 1986 - North Shore News News Viewpoint Grim warning The NEWS has received three of four complaints from readers about our front page photo last Wednesday showing firefighters recovering the body of Kyle James Mallach from Lynn Canyon, where he slipped and drowned one week avo. It was a tragic picture and we took no pleasure in printing it. But it represents a tragic und ongoing situ- ation which cries out for further action by the com- munity and its elected representatives on North Van District council. Mr. Mallach was only the fatest victim of the so- called *‘killer Canyon’? which has claimed 1 lives in 10 years, two of them in the past two weeks. The fact that some fatalifies have resulted from visilors to the park ignoring warning notices and climbing over pro- tective fences sugpests that deaths will continue until more effective steps are taken to safeguard people apainst the results of their own recklessness. One measure might he unclimbable bharbed-wire fencing of the type surrounding prisons, maybe even harmlessly electrified. Another might be an increased number of more prominent and dramatic warning signs — possibly with pictures of the type which may have upset a few of our readers on Wednesday's front page. It’s better for one’s stomach to churn a fitde than to die. Ultimately, of course, it is up to park users to pro- tect themselves. ‘Our deepest sympathy goes to Mr. Mallach’s family, but if our picture succeeds — as in- tended — in giving others a grim warning of how tragically a single over-confident moment can end, it will have served a worthwhile purpose. ONE OF THE BEST run transit systems in history has been com- memorated for Expo, the transportation fair, in a book of more than usual interest to North Van. Now in local bookstores. The Story of the B.C. Electric Railway Company by Handsworth English teacher Henry Ewart was specially commissioned four years ago to appear during Expo, but this fascinating 330-page work with its 280 illustrations will continue to delight railway and transit history buffs long after Expo's gates close in October. }t covers all BCER‘s operations from their beginnings in 1890 to the final disappearance of railtrack vehicles in 1958. 'n_ its heyday the system had It} route miles of streetcar transit in four cities plus 141 miles of interurban tram lines extending as far as Chilliwack and. by 1947, was car- rying some 146 million passengers a year. The local appeal of the book comes not only from being written (most readably) by a North Shore HENRY EWART fame desired. streetcar neighbor but also from the generous section, with its period pictures and memorabilia, devoted to BCER operations in North Van itself — the Lynn Valley line via Grand Boulevard to Dempsey Road, the Lonsdale line to Wind- sor, the Capilano fine to the Suspension Bridge and the linking “crosstown’’ line along Ist Street. Published by Whitecap Books of North Van and selling at $39.95, it makes a handsome addition to any coffee table as a memento of this Expo year. The old photos alone, many in print for the first time, are worth the price. eee OKANAGAN and North Shore friends are mourning the death here last weekend, at 64, of Lionel Mercier, Vernon realtar who serv- ed as mayor of that city from 1965 to [967 before moving to North Van owo years keter to form Mer- cier Appraisals and Investments, Later he entered the provincial gvovernment service and. from 1OSL, was che man responsible for Ploperty acquisition for Skyteaia on behalf of B.C. Transit. A SUNDAY WE DNE SDAY . t DAY 1139 Lonsdale Ave. North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 ST Las0 MATS Be 57,656 «1.5 ‘ io Sutdiae Display Advertising 980-0511 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 Distribution 986-1337 Subscriptions 986-1337 Notth Share Naw: ' r Publisher: Editor-in-Chief News Editor Advertising Director Peter Speck Noel Wrgtt Barrett Pinner Linda Stewart Entre contents 1986 North Shore fiee Press Lid AW ngits reserved NEWS photo Mike Wakollold DOUBLE HONORS ..,. top student and top athlete, honorary fire truck driver Sarah Pike receives trophy fram West Van Fire Department's Capt. Barry Campbell (1) and Jeff Oates. Noel Wright long-time Rotarian, and member of the Legion and Vernon Yacht Club, he’s survived by wife Janice, sons Emel, Rene and Brian, daughter Yvette Pifer and three grandchildren. SHE LEARNED to drive ai age 75 and kept right on behind the wheel until she was 89. A Dundarave pi- oneer since 1926, wartime Red Cross worker and ardent West Van Lite Theatre member, Coralie Gray oo formerly of 2828 Haswood —- cut the cake June 29 on her ty one-double-zero. birth. day in Altamont Private Hospital. Many bapps three-digit’ returns, teens een A NEWS photo Tom Burley DRIVING INTO A NEW CENTURY |... Coralie Gray €) cuts ter 100th birthday cake, watched by activity aide Jackie Angel. LETTER OF THE DAY e fair to nurses in fairness to public Dear Editor: The B.C. Nurses’ Union rejects the inaccuraci “Nursing a Strike’. an unsigned editorial in your June 29th pews- paper. 1. Your editorial suggests thar and innuendo of BONU has not tried to negotiate when this is all we have done tor {1S inonths. Our object is not a strike, but a fair contrac. It lakes wo sidvs fo negotiate, however, and we can't do if alone, 2. You say that “the mones is not available’? for a raise. This is not so. The provincial government has set aside $120 million this year, in addition ta other health fun- ding. that by jaw can be used to supplement the budgets af hospitals and other facilities. Only a small portion of that would © sunday brunch e Coralie, as you drive into your se- cond century! WRAP-UP: West Van's Bill Dow has no doubts now about the News readership. Wednesday evening, after his fetter to the editor on South Africa appeared, the honorary Lt.Col of 6° Field Enginecr Squadron fielded 35 phone calls) from like-minded ECONOMICS KNOW-HOW pays off... readers —— who'd first had to look him up in the phone book ... Con- grats to Sentinel’s Sarah Pike, West Van’s best overall 1986 stu- dent plus top Grade 12 athlete in B.C. — which rated her a trophy and an honorary helmet from West Van's athletic firefighters ... The same again to North Van’s Alyssa Hodgson of St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the two B.C. students chosen to present a paper on economics to the Canadian Foun- dation of Economics in Ottawa and winner of a $250 Guaranteed Investment Certificate from Cen- tral Trust ... And Red Cross lady Miriam Thompson reports LGH is really desperate for blood. They need at feast 425 donors at the clinics tomorrow and Tuesday (Ju- ly 21-22) from 2 to 8 — got the message? see WRIGHT OR WRONG: Neither side will ever win the battle of the sexes, There’s too much fraterniz- ing with the enemy. t. es NEWS photo Mike Wakefield Alyssa Hodgson being pres- ented with $250 investment certificate by Central Trust Company man- ager Sydney Mentiply. resolve our dispute. Instead — of stonewalling the negotiations, the emplovers should have vone to Victoria and made the case for a fair nurses’ contract. They know it is needed. Without a reasonable settlement, the provincial nursing shortage will become a crisis with direct effects on the people nurses care for. Fair treatment of nurses means fair treatment for the public. Jerry Miller Communications Coordinator B.C. Nurses Union