& — Wednesday, September 16, 1992 - North Shore News

Back to the good earth
for an education in kind{

BY ABOUT 11 a.m. Friday morning, the day before the
Labour Day weekend, I was being strapped into a harness
and hoisted 100 feet in the air.

It was quite beautiful up there
above the Canadian National Ex-
hibition grounds, looking out over
the entire fair to Lake Ontario
and beyond to the Niagara
Escarpment, with the panorama
of the Toronto skyline to my left.

The trick was to not look
straight down to the asphait.
below. No net. Nothing.

i was doing a television news
spot about recycling at the CNE,
and had noticed that the bungee
jump, which had been banned by
officials, had been replaced with
something called the Skycoaster, a
two-crane hook-up whereby the
victim is dropped and swung out
in a huge arc so that one gets a
taste of real flight.

That was close enough to
“‘recycling’’ for me to use it as an
excuse to grab a free ride.

_ . Sol was up there with my
remote microphone and batiery
pack, taking to a camera on a
tripod far; far below. After
delivering the introduction to my
piece, 1 pulled the ripcord.

- What was amazing, watching
the tape jater, was to hear the way
‘my voice changed abruptly from

_ cool and casual to a guitural
death-howl. .

:For the first few seconds of the

, plunge, the sensation is exactly

. what you'd get if you fell off:a
100-foot building. Straight down!

DIALOGUE: “‘ARRRRGGG-
GGHHHHHHH!!”

Followed by much relieved-at-
being-alive giggling.

“A few hours later, having cut
the.s:ory, [leave the station early
and drive out ono the crumbling
Gardiner Expressway, headed for
Toronto’s Pearson Aizport. Lotsa
time. No panic.

_ » But I take'a wrong turn. Have.”
to circle back. Enid up on the in-
ward-bound lane, which is barely

ue moving. Having had a taste of

. what it must be like to be a bird; 1
” am now experiencing what it must
- be like to be a turtle.
. E tell myself not to panic. I’ve
got three hours before i have to
, board the plane... -
. CUT TO: Three hours minus
’ five minutes latet. See Bob gallop-
ing down the corridor at Terminal
2, ‘gasping and cursing, swearing
that the time to move back home
is NOW!.
.. I make it onto the flight and
settle i in n for the three-hour haul to

Bob
Hunter

STRICTLY PERSONAL

Edmonion, trying not to brood
too heavily on the fact that it will
take as long to cross half the
country as it did to make it from
downtown Toronto to the airport.
It’s an Air Canada jet. I
discover, to my dismay, that you
now have to pay for drinks, at
least in economy. Something to do’
with saving the outfit from going
bust. Makes sense, of course. .
But still, sad. { drink to the end
of the Golden Age of Flight. It s

_ all downhill from here.

: Lexpect within 20 years max |
two-thirds of the jets will be
grounded for one reason or
another. Might as weil enjoy it
while I can, and try not to think
of all the nitrogen oxide we're
adding to the greenhouse gas stew.

We land in Edmonton in the
midst of snow.

It is the same snowstorm that,
unbeknownst to me, is wiping out
the Bryan Adams concert in Big
Valley, to the south.

All know is I came dressed in
running shoes, with no long
underwear or gloves. Heck, it had

. been summer in T.O.!

lam picked up and loaded into
a van by several natives who are
bringing me and a few old ecowar
buddies to a meeting on a ranch
some three hours drive west of
Edmonton, high above the
Athabasca River.

By the time we clear Edmonton
on the Stony Plain Road, the
snow has worked itself up into a
fulf froth of blizzard.

A Metis woman into planet-'
healing is at the wheel. I can’t tell

if we’re going uphill or down.

We almost run out of propane
and have to find a dealer in the
middle of the night, somewhere in
the foothills of the Rockies.

It all comes together, as they
say. And the next thing I know
for sure we have pulled off the
highway into some kind of an en-
campment, where the teepees are
lit from within by open-pit fires.

They are standing out in the
snow-whipped darkness Jike fabu-
lous jewels.

Out of deference, perhaps, to
my age, lam guided into a huge
log house and given a bed ina
room by nyself. 1 don’t insist on
sleeping in a teepee. Bang. I’m off
to slumberland.

And the next morning awake,
still somewhat jet-lagged, to find
that the log house has filled up
with some 60 or 70 natives and
white ecowarriors from ye olde
days, many of whom in both
camps I have gotten to know over
the years.

It is still snowing outside.

After much sentimental reunion
stuff, we are gently shooed over
to the barn, where everybody set-
tles onto bales of hay, wrapping
themselves in dlankets and sleep-
ing bags, forming a circle. We can _
hear horses clunking around
downstairs while the wind rattles"
the windows and dogs bark.

There are natives here from as
far away as Manitoulin Island,
with representatives of the Cree,
Saulteaux, Shuswap, Gitksan,
Carrier, Metis and Ojibway, to
mention but the few I can
recognize.

Comes my turn and I am passed
the sacred eagle feather and asked
to stand up and speak. Well,
that’s never been a problem.

1 offer my overview of the
destruction of the planet, how.
much longer we have before all
the boreal forests in Canada are
aflarae thanks to global warming,
and how long it will take for the
ozone layer to heal, assuming it

“The eagle feather in my hand
reminds me of the massively-
polluting jet I’ve just ridden, and,
indeed, the Skycoaster ride
yesterday morning with its simula-
tion of flight.

Cops, I sense metaphors bun-
ching up on the horizon like an
incoming storm. !s this going to
be a mystical experience? Could
well be.’

An education, at the very least. ;
Stay tuned.

oe WwW V three-storey development
raises traffic, parking concerns

PLANS: FOR. a three-storey mixed-use building on the
‘north:.side of the. 1800-block of Marine Drive in West
Vancouver: raised: concerns Monday night at West Van-
couver District hall over what impact the 18-suite structure
would havé on the area’s traffic and parking problems.

. « *"We are supporting this pro-

: posal because we believe that it is
the most sensitive development we
+ can imagine for the site,” said Ed
. Guy, a resident of a neighboring
building. .

_ Gay said at Monday night’s
public hearing that he would be
happy to see the delapidated ex-
isting Hampton . Court building
that -is on the site replaced with a
nice development.
. He said many- of his concerns
over parking, views and privacy
« had been assuaged.
The new, mixed-use. building,

By Maureen Curtis.
Contributing Writer

oe
which has been designed by ar-
chitect Robert Burgers, has un-
derground parking.

Said Guy, “What particularly
frightens us is a rezoning that is
later used to build something else.

“Burgers and his client have
given us their assurances that this
will not occur.’’

But Jo Carney, of 730 Duchess
Ave., pointed to developments
that had denuded local lots of

- balance between developers and

been collected from 1730 Duchess

. mostly favorable.

pee eee
WEST VANCOUVER.
DISTRICT COUNCIL -
greenery and replaced it with
‘concrete landscaping.’’
“There should be a_ better

long-time residents,’’ she said.
28-name. petition had also

Ave. residents who objected to the
site’s rezoning. .

But the comments from Robert
Harrington of the Ambleside
Merchants’. Association were

The association particularly ap-
proved of the commercial part of
the building being set to the side
facing the. commercial space on

Marine Drive, with the apariment -

See Lane page 14

rie aaisieia

“SAT. SEPT. 19th

Your favourite backyard bird feeding store and
@ nature shop will open in the Modern Image.
B Plaza, 1190 Marine Drive, North Van. (Next to.
@ Chintzy’s & Burritt Bros.)

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