INSIGHTS UNSPEAKABIE TORTURE! mann CODES TOO? Fol NEWS VIEWPOINT Away into the health impact of fast spring’s serial gypsy moth spray assanit on the Lower Meiniand underline the needless health hysteria generated by some environmentalists over the program. Bat the repert’s findings should not be us- ec to justify further aerial bombardments of the Morth Shore. According to ie study commissioned by the environment and kealih ministries, the negative health impact to humans from the contreversial spray program was minimal. From April through June, the pesticide BtK was dropped from aircraft and dispensed by ground crews on a 17,760- hectare srez that included the North Shore and other Vancouver port conimunities. The decision followed the discovery of T HE RECENT findings of a study spray Asian gypsy moth larvae aboard freighters from Siberia that had called at Vancouver grain terminals. Small numbers of European gypsy moths had previously been found oa the North Shore each year since 1988, when a single male moth was trapped in the Brit- ish Properties area of West Vancouver. The threat to lecal foresis posed by gyp- sy moths is substantial, but thus far the evidence of gypsy moths on the North Shore has been limiied to isolated findings. No major egg mass has ever been found. Further raulti-millioa-dollar aezial pypsy moth spray assaults on the North Shore wilt therefore need far more justification than assurances that they pose little threat te human health. Institute’s teamwork ensures success Dear Editor: Re: High Profiles, Sept. J.C. Braconnier: One could not help but notice that there was no mention of the achievements of faculty and those staff who provide educational support in the above two-page feature. The Pacific Marine Training tn- stitute is ‘a successful iastitu- tion.’? Furthermore, it has an im- portant part to play in the future of British Columbia and that of 43, young Canadians across the coun- wy. ft has not achieved this status due to the efforts of a single per- son. The reputation of the Pacific Marine Training Institute has been established because of the high standard of education delivered here in North Vancouver and at our campus in Maple Ridge. To ensure continued success at a time when the marine industry faces dramatic changes, we need the support of an_ enlightened board and administration that can work with us as an integrated group. Together we can develop the type of programs which will en- sure marine proficiency and allow portability of qualifications into other industries. Teamwork will take us to the year 2006 and beyond! Mike Egan, president Marine Training Faculty Associa- tion Publisher Peter Speck Managing Editor... Timothy Renshaw Associate Ed Noel! Wright Sales & Marketing Directer. Linda Stewart Comptroller Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an é it suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph Ili of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday Friday and by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and , oy distributed to every doors on the North Shore. re Class Mail Registralion Number 3885. Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year. Mailing rates available on request. Submissions are welcome bul we cannot accept tesponsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. Newsrcom V7M 2H4 Display Advertising — Real Estate Advertising $85-6982 Classified Advertising $86-6222 Fax FONE CONCH OP aT Ano OST aE north shore 960-0511 Distribution 986-1337 Subscriptions $86-1337 98s. 985-2131 Administration $85-2131 MEMBER 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, ~~ North Vancouver, B.C. 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday. Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Self-rule and ‘sovereignty’ threat to B.C. § AMBIGUITIES IN a deal have a habit of working both ways, according to which side you’re on. And nothing is more ambiguous than the aboriginal self-government clause of the Charlottetown Accord. It enshrines native self-rule as an “inherent right,"’ maxing the principle itself clearly non- negotiable. The trouble being that nobody knows what it means in practice or, alternatively, will yet come clean about it — with the one exception noted below. Up to five more years of negotiations on details are scheduled. Many non-native Canadians are unhappy about the possibilities of such an open-ended commitment. But the shocker came last week when native chiefs from across Canada, meeting in North Van, simply walked away from Ovikde Mezvredi’s plea to endorse the ac- cord. They, too, were unhappy -— but for very different reasons. A good many aboriginal leaders apparent- ly fear the deal in its present form won't give them nearly ENOUGH. That fear was underscored dur- ing the North Van powwow ina full-page newspaper ad by the “Okanagan Nation.”* The gist was that it and other Indian bands are “sovercign nations.’” It therefore refuses even to be part of Canada’s Constitution. It will negotiate with Canada only on 2 *‘nation-to-nation’’ basis. Among other things, we're talking here — inevitably — about numbers. OVIDE MERCREDI... walked away trom him. B.C. has some 127,600 of Canada’s total 715,000 native peoples. Canada’s 21 largest bands, ranging from 16,000 down to 2,600, do not include a single one in B.C. So it’s a fair guess that the ‘‘Ckanagan Nation’* — claiming the same negotiating status as the U.S., Russia or Japan — numbers all of about 2,000 members, if that. They are obviously not alone in their uncompromising national- ism. And if you add outstanding native land claims — potentially to over 75% of the B.C. landmass — it makes a scary picture. Land administered by self- governing native ‘“‘municipalities”’ with the same rights and powers as all other municipalities is at least a realistic concept, as the Sechelt Band has demonstrated. Handing over much of B.C. — its resources, infrastructure and non-native citizens — to the sole jurisdiction of dozens of indepen- dent, village-size “sovereign na- tions,”’ each no doubt sceking 2 seat in the UN, is a fantasy in technicolor. Nonetheless, the only limit the chiefs Noel Wright _ M, HITHER AND YON accord places on native powers is to require the preservation of “‘peace, order and good govern- ment’’ — something which (depending on what you mean by “*good"") China and many other non-democratic regimes can legit- imateiy claim to uphold. Presumably it would entitle aborginal governments, within their own territories, to replace federal and provincial laws of ali kinds with native laws, And by invoking the ‘“‘notwithstanding’’ clause they couid even, it would seem, override the Charter of Rights. If Ovide Mercredi has a saner view of how it should all unfold, he has yet to sell it to his people. Meanwhile, Mike Harcourt — who seems eager to give away the store in land negotiatiors — has already shown in Ottawa that he can’t even count until nudged. Unquestionably, a majority of Canadians want long delayed justice for vative peoples. But a draft deal so dangerously skoppy that it could either put most of B.C. under total aboriginal rule — or ese be a cruel hoax on natives — deserves a resoun- themselves ding *‘No.” eaco WRAP-UP: “Of no fixed abode”’ is now official for West Van Chamber of Commence, facing a bomeless future as council in Canada’s richest community dickers over renting it a vacant municipal house. Monday was the deadline for re-ordering chamber envelopes. They’re being printed with no address. ... ‘The Planet’s on Your Plate” tomorrow, Satur- day, Oct. 24, at 11:30 a.m. when Victoria Hogas lectures on that theme at West Vam Arts Council’s Sitk Purse, 1570 Argyle — for in- fo call 925-3605 or 922-1110. ... And a big thank-you from Nerth S&ore Community Services to the Seniors Lottery, West Van Foan- dation and North Yaa Kiwanis for photocopier donations - and to Kwantisn College and Confedera- tion Life for providing a new telephone system. WRIGHT OR WRONG (looking ahead): The most dangerous of all the social arts is choosing tactful gifts. EC