{ CAN see her face now as
I write. I remember her
talking to me with her hand
on my shoulder and me
backed against the wall. I
was scared to death of her
in Grade 6 that year. She
was the prettiest girl I had
ever seen.

By Terrance Armstrong
Contributing \Vriter

Her face was a beacon for me
in class. | remember her smile and
short laugh when she caught me
staring at her.

Our teacher read tier suicide
note to us. | heard he got in trou-
ble for that.

She had written him saying
goodbye. She said goodbye to all
of us and she said ‘*1'm sorry,
Coocum (Cree word for Grand-
mother) | just cat see the
point."”

Our class went to her funeral. 1
was embarrassed when | burst out
in tears, but [wasn’t the only
one.

It was the memory of her smile
that made me ery. As shy as | was
of her laugh when she fad caught
me looking at her, | wanted her to
laugh at me again. But knowing
that she never would again forced
my tears.

I know now she is a statistic.
One of many who make up the
highest rate of suicide per capita
of any group in Canada. Native
children are killing themselves so
fast that | could go to a funeral
every day of the week across
Canada.

The reasons are many, of
course, and most relate to genera-
tions of unfair politics towards
native people. Unemployment,
racism and flack of opportunities
are the ledge from whick our
children jump.

Native people couldn’t vote in
this country until the °60s. It was
against the law to practise native

Dear Editor:

I write this letter to plea for
tolerance. There have been
demonstrations recently in North
Vancouver by people concerned
about racial intolerance as sym-
bolized by a cross burning in the
Seymour area.

The first demonstration on Dee.
1 at North Vancouver District
Hall was attended by 75 people to
call for greater progress in the in-
vestigation into the cross-burning
incident. To the best cf my
knowledge, no person or group
has come forward to link that ug-
ly incident to a racial statement. It
could be the isolated work of one
or two sick individuals.

The second demonstration on
Dec. 7 in front of the News was
attended by over 100 people to
protest the News carrying the of-
fensive opinions of a local colum-
nist.

The that

freedom of speech

Canaries in a cage

culture such as the potlatch system
and the sundance.

We are all finally learning about
the atrocities that were committed
against native children in the resi-
dential schools, generation after
generation.

Every other culture was invited
into this mosaic of Canadian
culture, Native people were forced
to ‘‘assimilate.”"

Collins enjoys carries with it a re-
sponsibility that many of us feel is
ignored. I have previously written
urging the News to provide equal
space to a talented columnist who
would provide alternative views,
and 1 again make that request.
Rather than allowing reaction to

INSIGHTS

JEST COLUMNIS:’

Native children, for generations,
were grabbed by the scruff of
their neck and told that what their
ancestors have lived and stood
for, for thousands of years, was
**no good.”

Ask yourself, English, Chinese,
frish or French, if, when becom-
ing Canadians, you were told that
your culture, your identity was
“*no good.”*

MAILBOX
Need alternative views to
celebrate our differences

dominate our energies, it is time

to promote racial harmony
through positive actions which br-
ing people together. Now it is time
to not only promote tolerance but
to celebrate differences,

David D. Schreck, MLA

North Vancouver-Lonsdale

Freedom of speech or nothing

Dear Editor:

f find it ironic that, at the same
time you are writing about
freedom of specch (Dec. 6) and
the “rent a mob’? are dancing in
the streets in front of your office
protesting Doug Collins, the Gov-
ernor General's Literacy Award is
being given to Bob Hunter.

Bob's book is, if anything, even
more ‘racist’? than anything
Doug Collins has ever written, the

only difference being the color,
language, religion, etc., of the
immigrants.

Those who protest Doug Col-
fins’ treedom to write as he
believes forge: that they have
equal freedom to write an oppos-
ing view,

You either have free speech for
everyone or you do not have free
speech.

Donald M. Currie
North Vancouver

Andrea Abramson

I suppose what amazes me is
that native people are still alive
today, considering what they have
had to go through since their
homeland became Canada.

That the culture is suill alive is a
testament to thousands of years of
culture which, in simple terms,
worked in harmony with the
world around it.

What can [ say? She is dead. A

byproduct of Canada. | will miss
her forever. Across Canada others
are missing the smile of a son or
daughter or friend who is also a
casualty of this thing called
Canada.

fam angry and ! am hurt.
Canada, the country I was born
and raised in, is suffering the
same fate that every country in
the world is suffering since mov-
ing away from aboriginal values.
We find ourselves at the brink of
destruction because of en-
vironmental abuse, war and social
conflict.

Is that a long way from missing
an old school friend? 1 don’t
think so. She ended her fife, as
are other native children daily,
because she could not ‘see the
point."” Her life and the lives of
many native people lost its mean-
ing.

Some would say that our native
children are like the canaries in a
cage that miners used below
ground to warn them of danger.

The children are telling us that
something is very wrong. Their
message of danger is not only for
native people,it ts for all Cana-
dians. Our dying lakes and
streams are giving this same
message. Canada’s poor and
homeless sing the same death
song.

We can Jook at the problem in
broad terms or small. The warn-
ing is that the policies that pro-
duce the tragedy of native suicide
and cultural collapse are also
resulting in the social and en-
vironmental collapse of the nation
asa whole.

twill not completely know the
sadness my friend held. The dying
environment and the poor and
homeless probably didn’t even
cross her mind. She just looked
around her and could not see the
point of living.

Terrence Armstrong is a com-
munity development worker and
program director with the Interior
Indian Friendship Society. He is
of Cree ancestry.

Many journalists would
welcome the opportunity
to address News readers

Dear Editor:

{ wish to address your In-
sight column (‘‘The trouble
with Doug, Dec. 6).

lt certainly sounds as though
you've received your fair share
of ‘train of fire’’ regarding
Doug Collins. As uncomfort-
able and upseiting as I know
Doug Collins has made you
feel at times, I respect your
defense of him on behalf of the
basic democratic issue of
freedom of speech.

1 respect the bold position
the News nas taken in regard
to its publishing philosophy
which, as you stated, ‘ls not
published to help you doze off
in front of a fire.”’

But | seriously question the
premise that the News is truly
an accurate chronicle of fife on
the North Shore or serves as an

open forum for ideas and opi-
nions from all sides of its
readership.

I therefore propose — no, |
challenge — the North Shore
News to put its money where
its philosophical mouth _ is;
namely to bring on staff a rep-
resentative journalist of its
gay-feminist-native-earth-
firster readership) whose in-
flammatory style of stepping
on toes and bloodying noses
would truly equal that of Col-
lins and thereby broaden the
field of discussion.

1 would be happy to make
available to the News an ap-
propriate list of prospective
journalists who would certainly
welcome the opportunity to
regularly address your reader-
ship.

Jerome Irwin
North Vancouver