G — Sunday, Sepiember 7, 1997 — North Shore News T’S 2 North Shore celebration in the best sense of the word. It pays tribute to a local resource that is increasingly under threat from all quarters. It is the annual Coho Festival, and it needs your enthusias- tic involvement and financial support. The festival began 18 years ago — _another good idea generated by the forces of community and business that are combined so effectively in the West: Yancouver Chamber of Commerce. Its goal was to celebrate salmon and the myriad benefits it provides to local economies and culture. But paying tribute to the annual return of salmon to local rivers and Sstreams.is only a part of what the Coho Festival is all about. Far more important is the work it does in raising funds that are used HE Ne Fund continues to grow. ‘To, press time Friday, donations from News readers: and: free, speech supporters to the fund $126,129. Legal fees expended thus far by the ‘Shore News Free Speech Defence north shore news VIEWPOINT Celebrate salmon year-round to protect and repair the North Shore’s wealth of salmon streams. But, as the current West Coast fish war has illustrated, our salmon resource, once so abundant, is finite and falling. An Outdoor Recreation Council of B.C. survey released in early March, estimated that 142 stocks of wild B.C, salmon are now extinct — many of those stocks once originated in Lower Mainland streams — streams tike the ones on the North Shore. Community efforts like the Coho Festival are invaluable in helping focus attention on and raising aware- ness about salmon. They also hammer home the need to get involved to ensure that salmon remain a vitai part of the economic and cultural structure of the North Shore and the rest of B.C. ; CALIFORNIA i is hardly famous for turning back the clock on trendy modern idiocies. But a new state law goring one of today’s most sacred oxen has suddenly changed all that. over 1,800 exceeded $200.0 000. The final bill will funds received: will, help. defray the ’ News in its battle with ver a complaint he newspapet and its columnist Jewish Congress. ; : 8: a 1, which . be, May 12; concluded. on June 27 with fin ments at the Century Plaza Hotel, 1015 Burrard The decision from Nitya Iyer, ‘the tribunal of the complaint, is expected some Rights. Trikun ‘the Cas “one. hearin time later this year. The recently enacted Jaw in question (hold "your breath!) bans affir- mative-action hiring practices for public - employees. Hiring according to set quotas defined by sex, sexual orientation, race, ethnici- ty, age, disability, etc. is now illegal in the Golden State. a on' More excerpts from the hundreds of respondents ‘0 > the catise: 000 j with many hundreds of thousands of onng men, I was told by politicians that we were gbting for freedoms. Among which the freedom speech was held high. Of course, like almost all polksicians all of the time, they | lied to us. Again, the best of Iwck, Keep Sighting.” — H. Layton Bray of Saturna Island -900 “We fully ly support the purpose and actions of the North Shore’ News tn i allenging, and hopefully correcting, exist- ing statutes and current government leadership policy, _ which is a blatant invasion "Of “free speech.” - — Walter and Iris Saxton of No Vancouver Donations to the. fund can be sent to: 1139 Lonsdale - Ave.; North Vancouver, V7M 2H4. Cheques should be ; made out to the North Shore News Free Speech Defence — trenshaw@direct.ca Werth Store News, founded in 1969 2s an independent suburban newspaper and qualiliod under Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of the Excise Tax Sct, is published each Wednesday, Fnday arc Seinday by North Shore Free Press (U6, and distributed 50 every door on the Mortty ‘Shore. Canads Post Conadan Publications Mad Sales Product Agreerrumt No, 0967236. Human Rescurces Manager Salee Maing sates avatable on request, Instead, they've reverted to that " wicked old idea of giving the job to the best qualified applicant-——whether it’s a 30-year-old heterosexual white male born in Sacramento or a wheelchair-bound, coi- ored homosexual paraplegic with a 120- plus 1.Q. There’s been quite an uproar over this, of course, especially from dear old-fash- ioned San Francisco—whence shrieks of outrage are arising from marching gays, militant fems, Hispanics, Afro-Americans and professional rent-a-mob mercenaries. Although the law may eventually be chal- lenged in the US Supreme Court, it has already survived a lower ap court. Moreover, more than of the other states of the Union already have similar draft laws waiting to be passed. In this po! politically correct age when individual rights take precedence over everything — including ‘dividual respon- 8 Mataing Distr @N HONORAPY DeGRee TO CHINESE PRESIDENT JiaNG ZeMniN : sibility — ~ affirmative action (or “employ- ment equity”) stands logic and common sense on their heads even more complete- . - ly than most P.C. biatherings. Allegedly avoiding discrimination by hiring to main- tain rigid quotas of X% of women, Y% of gays, Z% of ethnics, etc., automatically discrimi- fates against anyone, including white males, who would upset the quotas even though could well reject the person most capable . of doing the job in question. If the job market were simply a game of Monopoly tor the entertainment of soci- cry, but. with no effect on its well-being, tive actiun would be the fair and obvious way to pick the players, But in real life the latters’ individual abilities (or .-. lack of them) affect everyone. Thus, affir: mative action can all too easily reduce the: awarding of jobs vital to the public to the level of buying a lottery ticket. So hail California — North America’s unexpected leader on the march back trom PC. ro sanity! O00 NEVER have British Columbians been made so aware of our precious’ salmon heritage as during the battle of recent months with the US over the allocation of this annual bounty along our shared coasts. a That heritage + of course, is the theme of the North Shore's week- -long Coho Festival, now in its 18th year, which cul- minates this Sunday, Sept. 7, in Ambleside WHY THO UNIVERSITY’ OF VicTORIa p GIVING day rng the < popular Coho Run‘and Coho Waik,: * stop entertainment, the, fam aa lene salmon barbecue and much more. This ing salmon spawning su * rivers and creeks, Hence this yeas Soh . Festival | Family Pundraiser (details ' *s North Shore News nd at row, Sept. 8, to Highlands | Beb Booth ... Say it again Tu 5. to longtime North Van pesident 7 ; 000 WRIGHT « OR WRONG: Do the who inherit the earth stay meek after? they’v ve got it? North Shore News believes "strongly in freedom of speech and the righ of all sides in a debate to be beard. The columnists published in tie News presen differing points of view, but those views not necessarily those of the newspap stsel LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must include your name, tull address & telephone number. Vid Intemet: trenshaw @ direct.ca Comprar S251 177) = 0-511 me “sshist (101) 6-2131 i) Prometions & Acting Display Manager General ice Manager” 985-2131 (105) Ascrow McLredie - Spoite/Comiannity Edita : laterest- kttpy/erunw.nsnews.com 985-2131 (194) 985-2131 (147)