6 ~ Friday, April 17, 1987 - North Shore News News Viewpoint Smoke and money HE furor over pollution from the Port Mellon pulp mill is a classic confrontation that pits industrial against environmental well-being. Canfor’s 79-year-old mill has doddered precariously beyond retirement into the outrage of residents who can afford to value the purity of their surroundings over the smoke and haze of industrial production. In years past, the smell, smog and irritation from such mills were considered the price of prosperity, the smell of money, the visible evidence that things were booming and all was right with the world. But environment sensibilities unearthed in the 1960s and the advent of such insidious environmental cankers as acid rain have permanently changed those perceptions. The 3,000 signatures collected on a focal petition demanding the Port Mellon mil! adhere to provincial pollution standards attest to the concerns of North Shore residents for the beauty and mortality of their surroundings. Though Canfor, as the Port Mellon mill’s owner, must try to balance pulp production and modern air quality standards with a mill constructed in times when pollution was a distant concern, continued delay in solving that dilemma will only further entrench the forces on opposing sides of the battle. The problem can neither be swept aside with large public relations brooms nor wrestled to a standstill with environmental cails to arms. It is no loxger business and its. profit versus hippies and‘ the environment.-It has become man’s greatest challenge: to prosper alongside, not at the expense of, his fragile environment. Noel Wright @ friday folktales @ A HOMEGROWN CHAMPION has been signed on as 1987 head. coach of the North Van Cruisers Summer Swim Club in the person of former club member Janet Oakes, now a third-year phys. ed. student at UBC and a member of the university swim team. In her former Cruiser days Janet broke the 100m freestyle record at age 12 - in the B.C. Provincials where, four years later, she went on to score the top points in all four strokes. Last month, in the University Western Championships, she plac- ed second in the 100m freestyle and her UBC team won first place overall. All of which promises great things for the Cruisers when Janet takes over their training May 4 for the summer swim competi- tions — prior to which the club is holding an open house and regis- tration April 26 at Ron Andrews Pool. Call Ann Strench, 986-5577, for info. ak THE GERITOL SET turned out in force last Saturday at Ridgeway Elementary when some 200 former i students of 1910-1920 vintage gathered to celebrate the school’s 75th anniversary. None of the alumni more enthusiastically than the four brothers Les, Lloyd, Norm and Gord Hunter who, with | JANET OAKES...homegrown champ. absent fifth brother Frank Hunter, were born and raised in a house just three blocks away. The first of them entered Ridgeway in 1914 and the tradition was later carried LETTER OF THE DAY College of Teachers is badly needed Dear Editor: The President of the Teachers’ Federation, Elsie McMurphy, claims there is no reason to create a College of Teachers to deal with the discipline and competence of public shool educators. Oh, yes, there is and she knows it! Admittedly, first impressions from the BCTF Members’ Guide B.C. would make it seem that there is ample internal legislation and pro- fessional concern for this purpose. What the. public -— and most teachers —’do not understand is that most. of this governance is there for ‘oublic relations purposes only: iu almost all cases, the policies are not binding upon members. Nor are the Students’ ‘ Rights of any protective use to 1139 Lonsdale Ave, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 58,287 (average, Wednesday Po Friday & Sunday) on by the next generation, with Les’s three sons and Frank’s son and two daughters also eventually enrolling at the school. e eer POSTSCRIPTS: Wedding bells will ring May 23 at St. Monica’s, Horseshoe Bay, for a member of a well-loved West Van family when Jeanette Roop, longtime leader of the Sunday School and other parish activities, and property nianager Edwin Cahill tie the knot before Rev. John Robertson. Jeanette is the daughter of the late Frank and Lydia Libby, Yemembered for their long associa- jtion with the venerable old Dun- jdarave Pharmacy and com- memorated by name in the Bay’s Libby Lodge home for seniors ... Only 25 years younger than West Van, former alderman George Morfitt takes his membership of its 75th Anniversary Committee seriously. Last weekend George, a lefthanded player, won the veterans’ competition in the Evergreen Squash Club Champi- onships bringing the total number of squash tournament ti- tles he’s captured to 75! ... Mean- while, our grapevine correspondent has a story about an elderly Ambleside ex-business man, much involved in the last election cam- paign, who boasts: ‘“‘I control West Van’’ — just thought Mayor Don Lanskail would like to know! .. And lonely sufferers of Parkin- son’s Disease may lil: to know that fellow victims and their fami- lies on the North Shore get together every month to socialize while swapping experiences and students. Students do not even know these so-called rights exist. It is true that there are. some government limitations on the powers of the BCTF. However, the federation has not used one hun- dredth part of its existing powers to discipline its delinquent and/or incompetent members. On_ the contrary, it uses its massive finan- cial and legal resources to shelter SDA DIVISION Display Advertising 980-0511 Classitled Advertising 986-6222 Nawsroom 985-2131 + ; . , Distribution 986-1337 Managing Editor . Barret! Fisher Subscriptions 986-1337 Advertising Director. . .Linda Stewart North Shore Newa, founded in 1969 as an independent Sututbidn NewebApe and qualtasd under Schedule IH, Patagraph WI of the Bacese Tar Act. 15 putiated each Yadnesday, Puday and Sunday by Month Shore Frew Press Ud and distnbuled 10 every daca on the forth Shore Second Chass iad Ragistrahon umber 3885 Sutscrptons North aid Viest Vancouves, $25 per ynat Maihing tates aeaitatiles OF fequest Gutttissiots ace weicame bul ee Canna! accent responsdrity for unsolicied matenal mciuiting Matarcagts AND prclures atch whould be accompanied 4a Stamped, ere Publisher: j Editor-in-Chief Peter Speck Noel Wright © 1987 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All tights reserved. helpful ideas. They meet at’ 7:30 p.m. on the first Thursday in the Seminar Room at Lions Gate Hospital, and Dorothy Wilson (987-5447) will be glad to tell you more about it, WRIGHT OR WRONG: Nobody can be as persuasive as the person who’s hampered by neither facts nor the truth. . THOSE WERE THE DAYS!...alumni brothers (I-r) Les, Norm, Lloyd and Gord Hunter at Ridgeway Elementary’s 75th Anniversary reunion. look after themselves. If the public wants an account- able education system and if parents want to protect their children, two items of legisiation are essential: the setting up of a “College of Teachers’? and the ex- clusion of school principals from the teachers’ union. Peter D. Croft Nanaimo and cover up delinquency and in- competence. When students rights have been grievously violated, and shown to have been so, the BCTF concerns itself only with the pro- tection of the violator and ensuring that he/she shall remain ‘a respected member of the federa- tion.’’ And the student victims, who have not even been told of their Student Rights, are left to