6 - Sunday, July 5, 1992 ~ North Shore News INSIGHTS CD | NEWS VIEWPOINT Principle lost privately-operated group-care home housing mentally-ill adults in North Vancouver does little to alleviate the press- T HE RECENT forced closure of a ing need for mental-health care living op-. tions on the North Shore. The incident also raises disturbing q,ues- tions about how the mental-health care system is administered on the North Shore. :. ‘The operator of Fairway Place fosi her licence based on allegations made to health Officiais by two fermer employees. Throughout the investigation the opcrator was unequivocally supported by the fami- lies of the clients she cared for as well as the local branch of Friends of Schizophrenics. . . Both groups maintain that investizators, whose task it was to weigh. the merit of allegations made against the cperator, did mot consider their opinions regarding the level of care provided to clients at Fairway Place. The hearing itself was not open to the media. During the course of the. investigation the group home operator was restricted access te her property, the house she own- ed. When the decision was made to pull the licence, a North Shore Healih licensing worker backed by police literally pulled the Heence, and hours fater bewildered resi- dents were sent packing with possessions hastily stuffed into garbage bags. The long-term health and safety of men- tally-i}l people in the community is a con- cern all parties in the case share. But the principle seems to have been lost in a larger struggle between health-care bu- reaucrats and private operators of group- care homes. NEWS QUOTES OF THE WEEK one another.”’ ‘1 am optimistic. I think everything’s going well because the generation of today is making the necessary steps, to the best of their ability, to filter Canada’s air. Graduating Handsworth sec- ondary student Shafiq Dahya, in response to the Inquiring Reporter’s question: Are you op- timistic about your generation’s future? “It was a great experience, but my one disappointment came when my mother found it and said to me, ‘I read your play. It was stupid.’ I found that shocking and debilitating. But in a way, it was good training for the reviews I’ve gotten.” Publisher Peter Speck Playwright Peter Eliot Weiss, on reaction to his first play, which "he wrote when he was 12. “They're asking for a guarantee that economic decisions won't impact on their incomes — well, I think we'd all like that; but it’s not read fife.” ; Health Minister Elizabeth Cull, on one of the reasons the B.C. Medical Association and the pro- vincial government are at odds over health-care funding policy. “We want to invite other cultures, We don’t come together often enough as a community for fun things — eating, celebrating, dan- cing. We make assumptions about Display Advertising 980-0511 Distribution Burrard Chief Leonard George, on a celebration held by the band this weekend to bring together the community, “Then I started chasing down scandal after scandal. You'd be surprised at the enormous infor- mation that came out of the research. I guess Pav! and Mr. Vander Zalm’s biggest problem will be how much to teli.”” - Greg Richmond is working with Bill Vander Zalm and author Paul Nielsen in writing Vander Zalm’s authorized biography, A Test of Faith: The Odyssey of Bill Vander Zalm. 986-1337 Managing Editor . . . Timothy Renshaw Associate Editor Noel Wright Advertising Director .. Linda Stewart Comptroiter Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualitied under Schedule 111, Pasagraph Ill of the Excise Tax Act, is publishad each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday North Shore Free Press Lid. and distributed to every dcor on the North Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per ear. Mailing rates available on request. ibmissions are welcome bul we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envetope. Newsroom V7M 2H4 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Fax Tes VOICE OF noerty ane WET WNCOLVEA Subscriptions 986-1337 z 985-3227 Administration 985-2131 MEMBER Printed on 10% recycled 985-2131 . North Share managed 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. 61,582 {average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) - Entire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Ltd. Ail rights reserved. | Time for to refocus on its power base HAS THE Reform Party peaked feo soon, as some na- tienal media are now suggesting? Will Preston Manning — despite his spectacular start — end up as 2 mere footnote in the history books of Canada in the 1996s? You'd be smart noi to bet the farm on it. The skeptics have plenty of fig- ures to back them — like the lat- est national poll placing the RP fourth with 12% behind the Tories with 20%. Another inter- pretation, of course, is that a par- ty with only a single MP, yet more than half the nationat sup- port enjoyed by the ruling party with more than 160 MPs, must be doing something right. Over the past 12 months the RP has spent much.energy on expan- ding into Ontario, Although Manning originally opposed the move on the grounds that it would stretch the resources of his primarily Western party too thin- ly, he was swept along on last year’s wave of euphoria as party membership headed for, and passed, the 100,000 mark. Now at 135,000, it’s almost double the 70,000 figure of June (991. . Some 35,000 of them are in On- tario. But that’s less than 0.75% of the province’s voters and far short of firmly guaranteeing any Ontario seats. Preston’s first in- stinct may well have been right. At the same time, progress lags in Saskatchewan and Manitoba with only about 7,000 RP members each. Given their strong NDP roots (Liberal, too, in Manitoba), neither of these “thave-not’’ provinces is an easy sell for Manning’s tough-love economic policies. Which brings us back to Reform’s true power base in Alberta and B.C. — where the party is currently backed by 40% | and 20% of decided voters respec- tively and still has nearly two- thirds of its members. Facing a federal election at any date between four and 14 months from today, Preston is running © out of time for the expansion needed to ensure a significant number of scats outside the two westernmost provinces. Focusing on these latter is his safest bet right now. Given concentrated hard work there, the frustration of Alberta and B.C. voters with the Mulroney gang and ail its works could realistically enable the RP to win up to 16 of Alberta’s 24 Tory seats and as many as eight from B.C.'s 11 Tories and one Liberal. Add present Alberta MP Deborah Grey plus, say, a modest five ‘““bonus”’ seats from the cen- PRESTON AIANNING... first in- stinet correct? Neel Wright. HITHER AND YON tral Prairies and Ontario for a 30-seat Reform Party in the next Commons. Which is enough — with the almost certain gains by Lucien Bouckard’s Bloc Crebecois —- to make Preston Manning a key power-brokxer in a Howse where no party has a majority. That's a mighty long way from being just a historical footnote! TAILPIECES: Stirring again in West Van’s bushes is that politi-_ cally correct animal calling itself Citizens for Good Governmeat (what citizen isn’t?) whose 13 . directors -— now headed by presi- .. dent Lloyd Wrean — tell Tid- , .- dlycove’s Great Unwashed how to vote at municipal elections. 1f you happen to be thinking of running | next year, first check with Lloyd and colleagues whether you’re The. Right Stuff! ... Succeeding Jean Coull as 1992-93 president of West Van Legion Branch 60 is. . Dick Davenport, installed last . month with veepees Michael | Woed and Peggy Allen, and trea- surer Ivis Andrew ... Meanwhile, Capiisso Community Services’ Seniors Hub needs volunteers to phone seniors and drive them to appointments. If you can help, please call Jean at 988-1129 and make her day. . WRIGHT OR WRONG: Never assume anything, advises David Kindred — except a 444% mort- gage. Te LUCIER BOUCHARD... Reform Party’s helper.