O diversity p

———— (Council to meet former committee members

Marcie Good
Contributing Writer

NINE months after the previous
council sacked a committee that
designed a controversiai diversity
policy, North Vancouver District
councillors have decided to look at
the document again.

While the issue bas dogged the district since
1992, no policy has ever been adopted. The
work of the committee received a barrage of
harsh criticism from the previous council.

“E would like to sit down and complete the
work because F think a diversity policy is within
our grasp.” said Coun, Janice Harris, referring to
a new document re-designed by staff “We've
been dealing with this for a long cime, and it’s

Memorial
service on
Thursday

From page 1

1917 in York, England. He
graduated from Cambridge
University in 1939 with a
bachelor of arts degree in
modern languages.

He taught briefly in a
Liverpooi school in 19-40 until
enlisting in the British army.
His fluency in French and
C>eman was put to use during
the Second World War as a
captain in the intelligence
corps. He received an hon-
ourable discharge in 1946 and
returned to. teaching in
Watford. He put country
ahead of career again with the
British Occupation authority as
an intelligence officer in post-
war Germany.

When bis duties were done,
he moved with his family to
Vancouver in 1955 and
worked as a weekly newspaper
editor and photographer. He
was recruited by O’Brien
Advertising and spent 11 years
as’ vice-president and creative
director.

In 1976, he approached
Speck with ideas to improve -
_ the News. Speck hired Noel

~ Wright on the spot. “That led
‘ta many years cf happy associ-
ations,” Speck said.
“Noel Wright retired as edi-
tor-in-chief in 1987, but con-

- tinued to write columns until
last week when he became ill
and was hospitalized.

He married =| Olwen
“Bunny” Isabel: Owen in July
1941 and the couple had three
children: Susan Caroline Wells,
David Wynne Wright and

«Sarah Jennifer Adams.

« David. Wright, an assistant
. Crown. attorney in Toronto,

was inspired to follow. his
father’s footsteps and became a
newspaper reporter, editor and

hotographer before studying

w.-“Noel stressed the impor-

~, tance of asking good questions

_ and keeping going until he got
“good answers,” he said. +

Adams, a West
Vancouverite, worked with her

" nf petition.
_father ‘at OBrien Advertising

2 ;
win Wi
THE North Shore
News picked up

two awards last
Thursday in a

national communi-

ty newspaper com-

been 2 process of exhaustion. Now F teel revital-
ized.”

In October 1999, the cight-member
Community Diversity Advisory Committee pre-
sented a draft policy for council's review. Among,
the recommendations way one that would: have
the district “promote zero tolerance of discrimi-
nation throughout the North Vancouver District
community.”

Also raising the ire of several councillors was a
line which was interpreted to promote hiring of
minorities over other qualified candidates.

In order to “identify and reduce barriers to
providing effective service to all District of North
Vancouver residents.” the policy recommended
that staff “consider the needs of the diverse com-
munity when recruiting for municipal job posi-

Wednesday, July 26, 2000 — North Shore News - 3

Hons.”

At Monday's meeting, Harris referred to the
drat pofiey’s wording on the use of district facil-
ities: it recommended that they “will aor be
made available or accessible to individuals or
groups for the purpose of espousing hatred or
promoting discnmination,”

AI three of those contentious recommienda-
tons have disappeared in a reworking of the draft
policy by distnet staff.

Instead of “zero tolerance,” the policy sets
forth an objective that the district “reflect a cor-
porate attitude that will not condone racism,
prejudice, or intolerance of diversity.”

Tt also recommends that council and. statl,
“through leadership, support and participation,
promote acceptance of diversity throughour the

Cy revi

North Vancouver District community.”

Coun. Dong MacKay-Dunn brought for-
ward a motion to re establish the committee, and
wrote in his report that council’s dismissal ef the
dody “was not only wrong, itsent a message that
the district is not a tolerant place in which to
Bye.”

Mayor Don Beli, who did not support the
disbanding of the committee, suggested instead
of icestablishing the committee thar council
mcet with the former members to discuss the
new drati poliey, That motion was unanimously
supported. Coun. Ernie Crist, however, que
tioned whether the district needs such a policy.
“In the district, we already have tremendous
amounts of policies in place that would protect
people of mincrities,” he said, referring to the
Canadian Constitution and the Charter of Rights
and Freedoms.

—_ | Noel Wright:
In his own words

THE following is Noel’s encapsulation of his

life to 1946:

Noel Wright, born Nov. 17, 1917 in York, England,
only child of Alfred and Mary Lilian nce Henderson
Wright. Father owned his own meat and delicatessen busi-
ness. In 1928 the family moved to Scarborough, England,
a seaside resort town on the North Sea coast, 40 miles
northeast of York, where his father again opened a meat
and delicatessen store. :

There Noel atrended Scarborough high school where
he matriculated in 1933 and graduated in 1936, after
winning three scholarships to Cambridge University. A
scholar of Gonville and Caius College Cambridge major-
ing in modern languages and receiving his BA honours
degree in 1939.

According to Cambridge practice he was presented an
MA degree in 1943. As the outbreak of war loomed in
the late summer of 1939 he attained his first position at
a prestigious north of England school.

However, after six months as a modern languages
teacher at Liverpool Collegiate School, he enrolled in
the army in .he spring of 1940, graduating from the
officer training unit one year later as second lieutenant in
the West Yorkshire Infantry Regiment. Meanwhile he
had met and wooed Olwen (Bunny) {fsabel Owen, a
nutritionist with Britain's wartime ministry of food and
daughter of a Welsh parson. They married in a civil cere-
mony with a one-day honeymoon in July 1941. In 1944
he was transferred as a result of his language proficiency
from infantry to the intelligence corps as captain. Aftez
the 1944 invasion of Europe by the Allied Forces he was
engaged full time in the interrogation of German prison-
ers of war until VE Day in May 1945. A year later Noel
and Bunny’s first child; Susan Caroline, was born in
Hampton, just south of London.

After an honourable discharge in mid-1946 Noel took
a language teaching post at Watford Grammar School, -
but three months later he was offered and accepted an

NEWS columnist and editor emeritus Noel Wright: writer, linguist, traveter, father.

News scores double

th CCNA awards

Kingston
(Ontario)This
Week/Weekend.
Renshaw and News
publisher Peter Speck
were in Magog,
Quebec near Montreal
for the CCNA conven-
tion and awards’ pre-
sentation.

and later was an account exec-
itive with regional and nation-
_ al business magazines. Wells, of
“Invermere, fondly recalls her
father’s humourous drawings.
~ Noet Weight had 10 grand-
_ children. He was predeceased
by “Bunny” in 1980 and sec-
ond wife Jeanne in 1984. He
wed his third wife Dorothy in
. 1993. “What a wonderfull man
he was,” she said. “We had so
much fun together.” A memo-
rial -service is set for 2 p.m.
Thursday at Highlands United
> Church, 3255 Edgemont
- ~ Blyd., North Vancouver.

Executive editor
Timothy Renshaw won
for the second year in a
row in the Outstanding
Columnist category in
the Canadian
Gommunity
Newspaper Association
(CCNA) competition.

“It’s very much an

TIM Renshaw first
place columnist
in national com-
petition.

honour. It’s gratifying,” said Renshaw. Last
month, Renshaw stepped down from the news-
roon’’s managing editor position to concentrate
more on his writing endeavors.

Renshaw bear second place's Joan Ransberry
of the Markham (Ontario) Economist and Sun.
Third place went to Lynn Rees Lambert of the

News photographer
Julie Iverson placed
third in the best sports
photo competition for
a women’s rugby: pic-
ture taken last’ year.
Iverson competed in a
category for newspa-

. pers with more than
12,500 circulation.

The winner in the category was the Oakville
(Ontario) Beaver. Chilliwack Progress came in
second.

More than 2,00G entries were submitted to
the wide-ranging competition from newspapers
across Canada. . ,

JULIE Iverson,
third place for
best sports pho-
tograph.

intelligence appointment with the British Occupation
authority in Allied-occupied Germany. ;

. NEWS photo Julie iverson:

AWARD-winning photo of a'1999 B.C. Provincia
Women’s Rugby game at Klahanie Park. . -:

wg