f GONG 10 FORCE AN END TO THe BE BAL SIME? GRAN SILOS ARE BIRSIG WATH NO GAN'TD GET IT TANOFES ARE HAPTENING A A NUMBER, OF NORTHERN By. INNSTRES.. THEARD A BUNONE MAG BLO NEEDS TD SHIP FA GRO THE COLECTNE BARGAINING PROCESS DOES TAKE A LITLE TTME Y NOW, WE ALL HAVE 1 MAKE DACRIFICES. VKNOU, | KNOW). TIS A SAD THING "WHAT ABE YoU WAITING Fap?] MRT ARE WANG GETTHINGS MOWING AGAIN! NEWS VIEWPOINT False charges T’S TIME to get tough fabricators of false sexual stories. The latest example, as reported in ihe Vancouver dailies, involved a 12-year-old Surrey girl who claimed that she had been abducted and repeatedly assaulted by three ’. shen in a maroon van. _ The initial story had Surrey, the rest of the Lower Mainiand, up in arms. Lynch mobs of right-thinking citizens were no doubi ferming. in neighborhoods, focal pubs 2nd backyards. Women feared to tread Surrey streets. The police had. even produced a com- posite drawing of one of the villains based “on the girl’s horrifying story. Men in maroon vans were unwittingly thrown into muci: potential public danger. with the assault But ‘done. subsequent determined the girl’s story to be just that, a story, which had been concocted to cover up a missed curfew. The damage, however, had already been police investigation Added to, other recent stories fabricated about sexual assauli, this latest and wildest and likely rage. i Xt also underlines the willingness of socie- ty to accept the worst about male behavior. False accusations, especially of sexual assault, need to be deali with severely, for they can, ‘ruin the reputations and lives of those ‘accused, regardless of whether. those false. allegations are eventually proved to be ‘LETTER OF THE DAY __ New library addition a ‘monstrosity ‘Dear Editor: In your July 30 issue we read, with great interest, Trevor Lautens’ article on the extension of the West Vancouver Memorial Library and, sad to say, how true. The existing library has charm ard is pleasing to the eye, whilst the addition .can only be described as a monstrosity. | > Dark grey relieved by trim of “s brick red“is certain to raise the Spirits when seen through the mist, which is our weather for most of the year. Not that sunshine makes it any ‘more prepossessing. One can only assume that the designers were either color blind Publisher _. Managing Editor .. Associate Editor .. Peter Speck Timothy Renshaw Noel! Wright or did not wish it to frivolous as, surely, serious pastime. Considering that flowers usually bloom in the spring and summer, what glorious riot of colors do we await with bated breath this com- ing fall and winter? “The splendid interior’? matches the outside perfectly so one can honestly say that there is a con- tinuation in the theme: dismal. Bookshelves of light wood and the colored book covers, at least, raise one’s hopes. The exterior lighting was cer- tainly not well thought out, as nearby residents were able to read en balconies and in their living rooms without the benefit of their appear Display Advertising 980-0511 Reai Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 books are a Distribution Subscriptions 986-1337 Fax own lights. ° Trying to sleep was a waking nightmare — it may have cut down on the Hydro bill but the _wear and tear on nerves was ex- hausting. After complaints, these fights have been toned down, How unfortunate that so much money was expended. to erect a functional but extremely un- prepossessing building that will be here for decades. We trust that future generations will not judge us by this and think what a grim and artistically joyless people we must have been. Rosemarie Block Ethel Moore West Vancouver Red = ue This newspacer f contains recycled fibre 986-1337 985-3227 Sales & Marketing Director Linda Stewart Comptroller .Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph Iki o! the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shorea Free Press Lid. and distributed to every door on the North Shore, Canada Pos! Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 6087238. Mailing rates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility fer unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a clamped, self-sell- addressed envelope. : Administration 985-2131 3 MEMBER Newsroom 985-2131 brennan firexwetz SUNDAY - WEONESOAY = FRIDAY 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 Entire contents © 1993 Nortii Shore Free Press Lid. All rights reserved. SOA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday. Friday & Sunday} Time to bring our Christine THERE ARE three sound reasons why Ottawa should seize the very next opportunity to bring home those two young Canadians who have been languishing since 1989 in stinking Brazilian jails. None of the three reasons has anything specifically to do with the guilt or innocence of Christine Lamont, 34, of Langley and her New Brunswick travelling compa- nion David Spencer, 29. Indeed, there are suggestions that they were hardly a boy scout-girl guide duo. Politically idealistic, they went adventuring in Central and South America. There was apparently some monkey business with false passports at one point. Last month — long after their present woes began — a Toronto Star ar- ticle tenuously linked their names with a hidden cache of arms and kidnapping gear uncovered i in Nicaragua. Be all that as it may, they were convicted 34 years ago by a Bra- - zilian court for playing anon- — ” violent part in the gang kidnapp- _ing of a rich Sao Paulo businessman. Though not charged with éither planning or executing the kidnapping — only with some alleged involvement with the gang — they were sentenced to 28 years | with no parole in shockingly overcrowded, AIDS-riddled pris- ons, Every country has its funny lit- tale will cast doubt on genuine reports of Ue ways, and sovereign nations do not normally meddle in one another's judicial or penal systems. If you drink Scotch in BARBARA MCDOUGALL... con-" tused about what was going on? Saudi Arabia or peddle drugs in Indonesia, check first on the prescribed penalties (respectively flogging and death), because in most cases you’re on your own. What distinguishes the Lamont/Spencer case is, firstly, the excessive sentences relative to the alleged crime. A conviction of mere association with kidnappers brought the pair three years longer | than a Canadian “‘life’’ sentence for first-degree murder. In Canadian terms that’s cruel and unusual punishment, and in at least one connection Canada cheerfully obstructs the judicial and penal systems of other coun- tries in order to prevent it. We have no hesitation about refusing to extradite foreign criminals to their homeland, if their conviction there could result in their execu- tion. For Lamont and Spencer the: penalty is so extreme compared with the alleged crime that it of- fers every justification for using the same logic as in capital » HITHER AND YON punishment cases. That’s the reason No, 2 to act. The third reason is the Brazil- jans’ own apparently cooperative attitude. Oné almost gets the im- pression that they would welcome a face-saving excuse to be rid of the Canadian couple. - Last year they indicated they'd be happy-to ‘expel’? Lamont and_| Spencer if Canada requested it. . | Yet despite the urging of an all-party Commons justice com- mittee, former external affairs minister Barbara McDougall — who often gave the impression of being confused about what was’ going on —- refused to make any such request. | Meanwhile, a new extradition Lot treaty would now allow the couple © to serve the rest of their sentences. | in Canada, close to home and f with early parole. Again, all that’s. needed is action by Ottawa. Lamont and Spencer have broken no Canadian law. Any offences they may have committed abroad other than their Brazilian convictions are irrevelant to their. current plight. The punishment ‘they’re suf- feriag is in conflict with Canadian values -- which we doggedly uphold in other international contexts. And Brazil itself seem- . ingly confirms that there are no“ insurmountable obstacles to” repatriating them. Unless being Canadian no longer means a damn, what are we waiting for? - & TAILPIZCES: North Shore resi- dents have a special reason to at- tend Kini Campbell's Grouse ~ Mountain picnic Sunday, Aug. 29, 1 to 6 p.m. If she’s clodbered on . election day in Vancouver Centre, . she’ll need a saie Tory seat elsewhere -- and few in Canada - are safer than Capilano and North Van. Call 922-0793.pronto for’ your $5 ticket and a chance to meet your possible future MP1...Salute six more West Van -.: Branch 60 Legionnaires honored with long service pins — Wiliam Opilyie and Basil Favelle (35 yrs), . Doreen Ogilvie and Gliver Beattie - (30 yrs), Maurice Butler (25 yrs), George Dungey (20 years)... Tomorrow, Aug. 28, hap- py birthday to West Van Kiwanian Ted Schootman...And the same again tomorrow to retired North . Van City clerk Ron Gibbs.