S - Sunday. August 4. 1991~ North Shore News INSIGHTS HOW-TO STAGE A SuccESSFUL n-otf charter AND PEACEFUL FESTIVAL LIMIT FESTIVAL TIME. SPREAD OUT EVENT SITES. ELIMINATE BEER GARDEN. HAVE A SIGNIFICANT POLICE PRESENCE. NEWS VIEWPOINT Liquor bicker This time they want to put cau- tionary labels on alcoholic beverages women about the substances T HE SAFETY nazis are at it again. to warn pregnant dangers of consuming said while gestating. No one will argue that such caution or abstinence is a wise practice. But the issue joins a score of others in the insidious ac- cumulation of laws, bylaws and regulations that slowly whittle away our individual freedoms. No longer can you smoke in most fed- eral, provincial and municipal venues, nor drive a car without being belted in, aor tide 2 motorcycle sans helmet, or skateboard down 2 sidewalk — these activ- ities are either unlawful or illegal. And at one American university a regu- lation forbids ‘‘inappropiately-directed laughter.”’ It’s enough to make one laugh inappropriately in exasperation. Labelling alcohol is yet another case of the safety tyrants scrambling to protect us from ourselves. It's for our own sake, they say. Even the B.C. Medical Association wants to jump on the bandwagon in sup- port of the labelling campaign. Luckily, federal health minister Benoit Bouchard is not listening. It would make more sense to focus ef- forts on educating women about proper care during pregnancy (who better than the B.C. Medical Association?) rather than in- flicting upon citizens yet another mini- violation of civil liberty. If the label lobbyers have their way what’s to stop them from establishing a law that stipulates 20 minutes of exercise per day, to ensure the collective health of Canada’s citizens? NEWS QUOTES OF THE WEEK “if you talk to the aldermen, some of them are so out of touch with young people they talk about them going to some place, throw- ing paint on the walls and having some place that they could trash...under the benevolent pro- tection of social workers — basically they were saying they wanted ther baby-sat by social workers.’’ Sanctuary Investments Ltd. partner James Islaub, on the at- titudes of North Vancouver City Publisher . Associate Editor Advertising Director Comptroller wee Peter Speck Managing Editor... Timothy Renshaw Noel Wright Linda Stewart Boug Foot Council members after council voted against a youth dance club on Marine Drive. “We're choking on growth in the Lower Mainland.”’ Premier Rita Johnston, on Lower Mainland prosperity and justifying a move of BC Rail operations out of North Van- couver. “Someone was smiling on him that day." Display Advertising 980-0511 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 Distribution Subscriptions Administration Squamish RCMP Cpl. Chris Stewart, after a man survived a four-car collision on the Squamish Highway. “There were a fot of times I wanted to give up. But every time I tried 1 would hear the voices of people who phoned the (cancer) information line.”’ North Vancouver volunteer Joanna Tudan-Sainberg, on con- tinuing to volunteer despite her battle with cancer. 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 985-2131 Nortn Share managed tells us much about ourselves SO CIGARETTE ads are legal again, 2 Quebec judge hhav- ing ruled that the ban on them violates the Charter of Rights. But only until a battery of taxpayer-funded Jawyers decide what ‘‘reasonable’’ means. As in: ‘*...subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demoastrably justified in a free and democratic society.’” Thus reads Section | of the Charter — making Pierre Trudeau's pride and joy a docu- ment that starts out by guaran- teeing you every desired freedom except when someone else says otherwise. What the legal! beagles are now exploring is whether Ottawa can appeal the Quebec judgment on the grounds that stopping people from receiving messages from manufacturers of a perfectly legal — even if potentially lethal — product is more ‘treasonable’’ than the guaranteed freedom of the manufacturers to communicate with anyone they wish. Not that it matters much in the end. Appealing Justice Chabot's tuling --- if it comes to that — is merely a polite first step. That's because Section 33 of the Charter puts teeth into Section | by allowing Parliament or any province to cuntinue enforcing a law ‘‘notwithstanding’’ the fact that it contravenes ihe Charter. The hidden message from uti 10 governments which signed the hallowed document is: ‘‘Don't do as we say. Do as we tell you!"’ The textbook example, of course, is Premier Robert Bourassa’s infamous law banning English outdoor signs in Quebec — which cited the **notwithstan- ding’ clause even though Quebec did not sign the 1982 Constitu- tion. B.C. Solicitor General Ivan Messmer would invoke the clause to get rid of criminal refugees. The feds may face that temptation when their botched new abortion law is challenged —- as it will be. What with protest groups of every hue growing like mushrooms, government appeals and the final **notwithstanding’’ option, the possibilities of our on-again-oft- again Charter are endless. Especially as a licence to print money for lawyers. And it’s also truly Canadian, telling us much about ourselves. Both-way bettors by instinct, our most conspicuous national trait is an eternal hunger for compromise. Only a nation afflicted by chronic compromise-itis could devise a loftly declaration of basic princi- Noel HITHER AND YON ples that shoots itself in the foot in the opening paragraph. But not to worry. History is lit- tered with the graveyards of those to whom the word ‘‘compromise’’ was unknown. Canada's obsession with trying to please as many people as ‘reasonably’ possible, whatever the cost, may look pretty good to future history students, eee SIGN-OFF: Welcome donation of almost $1,000 to the North Shore Home Support Services Society comes this month from the good guys and gals at West Van Legion Branch 69, The money will buy a new meal service cart and help with transportation costs for the NSHSS Congregate Meal Pro- gram, which provides healthy $4 meals for seniors at central loca- tions, to which they are taken to socialize and dine in the company of others ... Meanwhile, next Fri- day, Aug. 9, is the evening to grab your stetson, mount your faithful Hyundai or BMW and mosy down to the 2400 block Marine in West Van — where the annual Dundarave Hoe-Down with western fun galore will be going full tilt from 7 to 1 p.m. WRIGHT OR WRONG: Don’t get too big for your britches — you're sure to be exposed in the end. MEMBER 1139 Lonsdate Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M OHA North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an tadependent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph !l of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid and distributed to every door on the North Shore Second Class Mai Registration Number 3895 Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year Mailing rates avaiable on 12 Submissions are welcome but we cann .! 4 responsibinty for uncddcued matenal mManyscnots ang pre aoe accompamec by a stampens it SDA DIVISION 61,582 (a.erage citrulition Wednesday Pretay & Sundiave aera mare Wednesday Trai * Sued ROBERT BOURASSA... English PIERRE TRUDEAU... all your sign rights ‘‘notwithstanding’’. Entye cortents > 1991 North Snore fee Press ctu. All nights reserved. freedoms - except when not.