“UDY Prendergast works on a portrait of shipbuilder Clarence Wallace, one of 18 panels the North Van artist has painted for display on the Versatile Pacific shipyard site. The community art project, called Shipyard Stories, also features panels painted by Sutherland students. Shipyard Layne Christensen News Reporter Echristensen@nsnews.com LOWER Loasdale’s Versatile Pacific shipbuild- ing site is the focus of Heritage Week activities in North Vancouver City. Slated for development, the former industrial site plays host to acommunity art project that celebrates che ship- yard’s boom years during and following the Second World War. Tweaty-eight painted plywood panels affixed to the win- dows and doorways of the oldest building on the site, the former administration offices for Wallace Shipyard, depict shipbuilding activity and the history of the area. The building is located at the southeast corner of Esplanade and Lonsdale and dates back to 1911. It is one of several structures on the site slated for demolition to make way for a planned condominium development. Panels affixed to the windows were painted by students of heritage advocate Dorothy Foster’s Grade 11 and 12 art class at Sutherland Secondary. North ‘Inappropriate’ sexual question chal Fromm page school district again abstain from participating on the grounds that many of the survey questions dealt with “inappropriate” topics for the intended age groups and represented an invasion of family privacy. She also criticized the practice of not allowing parents an opportunity to preview the questions that would be asked of their children. “Parents have serious considerations about many of the questions asked within the survey itself,” she said. “The fact that we are not allowed to review or even see the questions ahead of time raises a huge red flag with parents.” Participation in the survey, however, is voluntary and must stay within the lines of the district’s research protocol, namely, active informed consent of parents regarding any sensitive issues. A copy of the questionnaire would also be made avail- able in the offices of schools selected at random as survey sites. Brown — who was able to obtain a copy of the confidential questionnaire — included several sample questions in her assess- ment. One such question reads: People have different feelings about themselves when it comes to questions of being attracted to other people. Which of the following best describes your feel- ings? 1) 100% heterosexual (attracted to persons of the opposite sex)5 2) Bisexual (equally attracted to males and females); 3) 100% homosexual (“gay/lesbian”, attracted to persons of the same sex); 4) Mostly heterosexual; 5) Mostly homosexual; “Part of what I wanted to capture was the roughness (of work in the shipyards) and the community spirit. shipyards in the 1940s. so, — Arlist ‘art of what I wanted to capture was the roughness (of work in the shipyards) and the community spirit,” said Prendergast, who teaches a class in watercolors at the West Vancouver Seniors’ Activity Centre. The painted panels will remain on view until the building's demolition, when they'll be moved to the construction hoarding. The project will be unveiled this Saturday at 11 a.m. The Sutherland School Jazz. Band will pertorm. Lyan Valley Lions will provide refreshments. North Vancouver Museum staff will be at the PGE Station, at the foot of Lonsdale, to Judy Prendergast answer questions. 6) Not sure. Brown challenged the question, stating that same-sex attrac- tion is a normal development stage and that by answering, stu- dents are forced to label themselves at an unsteady time in their ives. Roger Tonkin, executive director of the McCreary Society, stated that his organization had no intentions of sneaking the survey past unsuspecting parents. “We have never ever held parents back from seeing the ques- tionnaire and I object strongly to anybody saying we are not ethical in our approach.” He also refuted the claim made by the NVPAC that asking controversial questions of students might lead to an increase in those activities simply by suggestion. For example, despite questions on both the 1992 and 1998 surveys regarding suicide, he pointed out that suicide rates across the province have remained the same, while deaths from suicides and incident attempts actually declined. “There is nothing in the data that we’ve been monitoring to support the notion that this survey has done bad things to kids in this province,” he said. “We believe in the survey. That’s why we do it.” Both times the McCreary Centre Society conducted the sur- veys, it also implemented a telephone hotline that concerned parents, teachers or students could access. Tonkin said that che phone didn’t exactly ring off the hook. Students also have the option of skipping any question they don’t feel comfortable answering. Tonkin said that he would be willing to sit down with the NVPAC to discuss the process and determine whether there The 46-year-old artist created five murals, each approxi- stately two metres by three metres, that depict shipyard workers such as machinists and chain makers as well as 99 company founder Clarence Wallace. The images were taken from archival photegraphs. Friday, February 25. 2000 —- North Shore News - 3 Harvest gathers support Anna-Louise Pentland Contributing Writer THE North Shore Harvest Project received a financial helping hand from North Vancouver City on Monday. The city voted to grant the group rent and parking relief for Bee months, amounting to about $3,000. The organization will use the money for a relocation study. It will attempt to raise enough funds te build its own building, but Coun. Darrell Mussatta also asked that a leasing option be explored. The organization has out- grown its space ar 166 West Esplanade. The site is also slated for eventual redevelop- ment. The group is considering space in the flea market on Esplanade as a temporary home, but David Foster, one of project's founders, said he wanted to call on the North Shore community for other ideas as well. “There may be an existing building that we don’t know about,” he said. The group has enlisted the support of a number of busi- nesses and community orga- nizations, including Prudential Sussex Realty, the Royal Bank and Face the Wortd Foundation. NEWS photo Mike Waketield Vancouver artist Judy Prendergast was commissioned through the North Vancouver Community Arts Council to create an additional 18 panels. Price Waterhouse Coopers Inc., the site's receiver provided funding for the project. Prendergast said she took a personal interest in the project, called Shipyard Stories, because her father worked at the HARVEST David Foster received geod news on Monday. Project's enged might be a better way to design the survey or even customize it to better suit North Vancouver's needs. Trustee Tim Morrison delivered a lengthy address to the board on why he was opposed to the survey, citing inappropri- ate questions as his main concern. . “The reality is that this survey will cause far more damage than good to the physical and mental well bring of our impres- sionable youth,” he said. Trustee Guy Heywood disagreed. Heywood has two children of his own in grades three and six and said that between the pervasive influence of the Internet and talk in the schoolyard, he can’t possibly control at what age his kids learn about such sensitive issues. “FT want (my kids) to see this matter addressed in an intelli- gent, clinical way,” he said. “Not just by their parents. They need to see us dealing with the issues and not running away from them.” The survey will again be up for debate at a public meeting of the Education and Program Committee tentatively scheduled for April 11. Following that session the board can give its formal consent to the survey at its next regular meeting. Heywood welcomed the opportunity for further discussion on the subject and hoped that a compromise could be warked out whereby an amended survey that had the approval of all par- ties could be agreed upon for the district. “We need to ask how we can get the best value from the actual exercise and talk abour all the issues that can be addressed, short of not doing the survey, We want the best pos- sible product.”