@ — Sunday, May 23, 1999 — North Shore News OOD news. Contrary to pop- ular perception, there are peo- ple of child-bearing age in West Vancouver. How else to explain the letter, run in these pages Friday, complaining about baby strollers on the seawall. Of course the driver of the offend- ing vehicle that painfully rammed the ankles of a senior West Vancouver burgher could have been an interloper; a country bumpkin from neighbour- ¥ ing North Vancouver City or District - « both too poor to boast of anything like the paved magnificence of West Vancouver’s famous stroll *twixt high Z rise and shingle. But that would imply somebody from North Vancouver actually succeeded in penetrating the splendid isolation with which our western municipality cloaks itself. north shore news VIEWPOINT of the few remaining young folk in that fair community that has still to learn good manners. Council, well aware of its elder citi- zen’s preferences, has already banned bicycles, skate boards and reller blades from the sea wall, but this obviously doesn’t go far enough to deal with the required gheitoization of the ages. If it’s not going to implement driver training and testing of baby buggies or, at the very least, the installation of rubber bumpers on said baby buggies, then bylaw officers should be sta- tioned at either end of the seawall to prevent their perambulations. While they are there, they could also check for appropriate dress standards and enforce a speed restriction of, we suggest, something close to inertia — which is what happens when you con- tinue to compartmentalize society. No, the likely culprit would be one you said it - “You can’t ¢ a great Canadian opera to come along if we don’t do Canadian opera day in and day out.” . ’ Composer and Vancouver Opera’s chorus director Leslie “Dyeda, on the daily and obscure grind of her work. (From a lay 21 This Week story.) . ; 000 : “You can be quite safe in discussing safe issues but you cannot be quite safe in discussing issues that are not ' quite so safe. What are we going to do? Discuss Mozart and the daisies in the spring?” Retired News columnist Doug Collins, commenting on the free speech aspects of the province’s Human Rights - Cade. (From a May 19 News story.) aaQaQ._. ": “You don’t have to be very offensive in order to offend the politically correct.” a Doug Collins, in the same story. B00 If you vote in favour of this motion ¥:-u will live to regret it. It’s like defusing a nuclear bomb.” ; . North Vancouver District Coun. Ernic Crist, debating a _ request for staff reports on the implications of decommis- soning the Capilano watershed. (From a May 19 News story. ; aa “We feel misled and mistreated.” West Vancouver’s Arts Centre Trust chairman Maggie Pappas, on a 4-3 West Van council vote against setting aside any land. in principle for an arts centre. Pappas had earlier asked council to stop considering a contentious Ambleside Park site. (From a May 19 News story.) 000 “Now most of the parents get to stay home and watch prah.” North Vancouver RCMP Sgt. Bob Beaudoin, on the suc- cess of the “walking school bus” program. (From a May 14 News story.) - Rorth Share Hews, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and quaidred under Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of te Extsse Tax Act, is pubsshed each Wednesday. Friday and Sunday by Nortn Shore Free Press Ltd and detibuted to every door on the Hoth ‘Shore. Canada Post Canadian Publications Mat Sales Product Agreement tio. 0087238 * Mailing rates availble on request : aoa Mark Fancher Creative Services Director 905-2131 (127) 61,582 (average curculation, Wednesday. Faday & Sunday) Distribution Manager 986-1337 (124) Natives seek best of both worlds SO what do you get for making your first sensible public state- ment in years? If your name is Glen Clark, you get flung into the First Nations: doghouse — that’s what. Commenting last week on that grey whale slaughtered Sy the Makah Indian tribe in Washington, our embat- tled boy premier declared he’d use “what- ever leverage we have at the bargaining table and the treaties to ensure there is no whale hunt in British Columbia.” The Indians were not amused. “Backtracking ... the stand taken to extinguish aboriginal rights ... the same colonial attitude,” fumed Chief Joc Mathias, a First Nations executive mem- ber. He hinted darkly about abandoning, the treaty process altogether in order to “protect our interests through the courts.” It’s still unclear whether whale hunt- ing is legally an aboriginal right. But that's beside the point. The real point being the inability of so many aboriginal leaders to compromise on any viewpoint other than their own. Representing only about 3% of B.C.’s population, their atti- tude is, at best, abysmal public relations, and at worst a guarantee of endless ongn- ing strife with their non-native fellow Canadians. Meanwhile, basic non-native goodwill PETER SPECK Publisher 885-2131 (101) Classified Manager Photography Manager 585-2131 (160) 990-6222 (202) Entire contents @ 1999 North Shase Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. is not in question. According to the poll- sters, the “template” Nisga’a Treaty, now awaiting Ottawa’s blessing, is backed in principle by at least 50% of British Columbians — despite their being denied a referendum and despite the railroading of the treaty through the legislature with clo- sure. But Clark’s sur- prisingly firm stand against whale hunting undoubtedly cchoes the sentiments of a huge majority of non-native British Columbians. The news photo of Makah tribal members butchering that magnif- icent mammal on the beach of Neah Bay made many of us want to gag. Sorry, Joe, but that’s the way we non- natives are. W this gruesome ceremony — and any similar ones by other bands in other parts of B.C. — are vital for maintaining and establishing spiritual unity with ancestral cultures, we clearly have a fundamental relationship problem with our First Nations. Non-native Canadians also cherish ancestral cultures, but with no wish to repeat some of their more dubious activi- ties in the world of 1999. The ancestors of European Canadians crucificd people on crosses, threw Christians to the lions to entertain stadi- um-size crowds and burned heretics at the stake — not to mention public hang- ing and guillotine sessions. Ancestors of some Afro-Canadians got their spiritual jollies (and dinner!) by cooking white LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must include your name, full address & telephone number. VIA e-mail: trenshaw @ direct.ca Managing Evitor 985-2781 (116) & David Whitman Display Manager 880-0511 (317) Gail Snaigrove Generat Office Manager 985-2134 (105) internet bttp://enew.asnews.com missionaries alive in stew pots. But should these practices be continued today? For every race, its past is good to keep alive, because history tells us where we came from and where we're going. But the key words are “came fom” and “going.” Life moves on for our native fel- low-Canadians and all of us. Today none’ of us live in the world of 5,000 years ago, nor should we. : We can still honour our roots there through art, literature, music and dance ~— without physically repeating the savage activities of the past that are neither acceptable nor needed five millennia later. Not that our native fellow-Canadians reject the rnodern western world, any- how. They make the most of all it has to offer, too — and why not? The Makahs murdered their whale not in the historic manner with canoe and harpoon, but with a speedboat and rifle. Much more - efficient that way! If your many non-native friends some- times get a bit ticked off with your “cul- tural” posturing, Joe, I hope these thoughts may help you understand why. 900 MANY HAPPY RETURNS of today, May 23, to North Van City Mayor Jack Loucks ... Ditto this Sunday to Diaconal Minister Ross White of Highlands United Church ... Tomorrow, May 24, wish happy birthday to News managing éditor Timothy Renshaw ... And on Tuesday, May 25, send greetings to North Van birthday gal Irene Strong. B00 WRIGHT OR WRONG: Why is advice that’s most needed always the least heed- ed? _ awright@uniserve.com TOOREAC Administration Display Advertising Real Estate Advertising Classified Advertising Newsroom Distribution Display & Real Estate Fax Hewsroom Fax Classified, Accounting & Main Office Fax Michael Becker - News Editor 985-2137 (114) Andrew McCredie - Sports/Community Editor 985-2131 (147) The North Shore Hews is publishad by North Shore Free Press Ltd., Publisher Petar Speck, from 1139 Lonsdale Avenwe North Vancouver, B.C., V7M 2H4 ,