erth shore news

MAIL B

OX

Kids need positive input

Dear Editor:
On the
Wednesday, Mav 12, North
Shore News, there 1s 4 pic-
ture of young people per-
forming dangerous precision

stunts with bicveles.

The bold caption suggests
“Hey kids: don’t try this ar
hone.”

Returning home after a
long day on the wail, I
looked at this picture and the
words below and thought,
“Holy doodle! What a thing
to be suggesting or the front
Page of the paper.”

Studies in behavioural
psychology propose chat the
subconscious mind does not
register negatives. [ can see it
in young children.

We say, “Don't cross the
road, Billy.” and Billy thinks
to himself’ as he plays con-
tencedly in his sandbos,
“What's the read and why
would [ want to cross iv”

He might find a reason
why.

Think about how many
times a day we say. especially
to children, “Don't do this or
you can’t do that.”

Nine times our of 10, the
child will hear only the sug-
gestion, the new idea, and
completely miss the word
“don't or “can’t” or “should-

nas

Those who hear the nega-
tive command and obey it,
might wonder what the heck
they can do.

We need to tell children
what they can do. We need
more “ves-and” and less “no-
bur™ in our communication,
We need more “we can, we
will and we are.” FE ask that

front: page of

vour paper be aware of the
impact of the wordy vou put
into print, especially if they
are on the front page, and
most especially, if they are
accompanied by a colour
photo.

Ub were a child and saw
Wednesday's cover photo and
caption, F might think, “Holy
doodle! Look what those kids
are doing. That is radical,
totally awesome!” (or what-
ever the current jargon is
these days) and set about try-

Mailbox policy

ing to perfect this skill.

And thar's OK provided
the child is skilled, focused
and responsible, the instruc:
tion is well-supervised and
the learner practises with
inanimate objects for a good
long time before trying any-
thing close to what they see
in the photo.

Perhaps the organizers of

the festival could tell us
more.

Peggy Stortz
West Vancouver

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> ‘BM perce hbo wa Sos pe
‘“ Kop Sight 1999 Sete Comads lec,”

Wednesday. May 19, 1999 — North Shore News —

ted white, m.p. ativertonal. May 19/9999
"CWO 2 TREES
NORE FROM THE AUDITOR GENERAL

Canada's Auditor General released
his latest report just a few weeks ago,
and, as we have come to expect, the
report is not exactly bursting at the
seams with praise for the efficient oper-
ation of government departments. The
following examples stand out as being
particularly dismat evidence of a lack of
accountability in certain areas of the
Department of National Defense, Health
Canada, indian and Northern Affairs,
and Corrections Canada.

BAD MEDICINE

Some government foul-ups, it seems,
tequire the complicity of two or more
departments. The Auditor General's report
implicated both the Department of
National Defense (DND) and Heaith
Canada in the failure to control and moni-
tor the distribution of an unproven drug to
Canadian troops during their deployment
to Somalia in 1992 and 1993.

Mefloquine, an experimental anti-
malarial drug, was made available to the
Canadian Forces through a safety moni-
toring study designed to gauge its side-
effects and efficacy. Included among
the side effects identified by the
manufacturer were gastro-intesti-
nal, central nervous system, and
psychiatric disorders. Under the
guidelines for experimental use of the
drug, the informed consent of all users
was required. and the efficacy and safety
of the drug for each user was to be report-
ed to the manufacturer.

Unfortunately, it appears that DND
ordered the use of mefloquine by approxi-
mately 900 soldiers without seeking their
consent, while at the same time taking the
position that any soldier who refused the
drug could be charged. OND then failed to
properly monitor the side effects experi-
enced by each of the soldiers, and did not
even report the use of the drug to the man-
ufacturer as required by the protocol of the
Study. For its part, Health Canada
took no measures to ensure that
the study protocol it had approved
for the use of the drug was in fact
being followed by DND. The use ot
mefloquine was subsequently implicated
as a cause of psychiatric disturbances in
some soldiers, leading to speculation that
it may have been a contributing factor to
the scandalous abuse and murder of a
Somali prisoner by Canadian soidiers.
However, because DND failed to follow
the protocr’ for the experimental use of
the drug, its role in the "Somalia Affair"
may never ve fy known,

National L -fence officials claim
to have believed at the time of the
drug's use that Health Canada had
exempted DND from the "informed
consent” and monitoring provisions
of the study protocol. However, no
evidence of such special considera-
tion could be found by the A.G.,
and it seems illogical that exemp-
tions in consent and monitoring
would ever be granted by Health
Canada for a drug still under study.
Health Canada, of course, has the author-
ity to terminate any study it feels is not
being conducted properly, but in this case
has taken the position that monitoring the
study was the responsibility of the manu-
facturer, despite the fact that the manufac-
{urer was noi even advised that the drug
was being administered!

Reform MP Join Cummins played a key
role in heiping draw public attention to the
mefloquine mess, but even years after the
event took place, the culpable parties con-
tinue to dodge and deflect responsibility.

INDIAN AFFAIRS IN DISARRAY

Each year the federal government
spends up to $6.6 billion on the
Department of Indian and Northern Affairs,
bui if you: were under the impression that
great pains were being taken to ensure the
proper and efficient allocation of such a

huge amount of taxpayers’ money, think
again.

Back in 1996, the Auditor General, and
the Royal Commission on Aboriginal
Peoples, both expressed grave concerns
regarding the cost-effectiveness of funding
arrangements between the federal gov-
emmeni and indian bands. As a result,
and in order to “assure Parliamentarians
and First Nations that an adequate system
af accountability for the delivery of funded
programmes is in place", the Department
of Indian Affairs attempted to implement
"a requirement that every First
Nation self-assess and report its
accountability and management
regimes to the Department as a pre-
‘requisite to receiving departmental
funding."

Unfortunately, according to the A.G.,
only a handful of bands have completed
self-assessments so far, perhaps at least
in part because guidelines for the pro-
gramme were not made available until two
years after the requirement for seif-
assessments came into effect! However,
the A.G. also reported that "Some
First Nations are unable or unwill-
ing to assume the additional
responsibilities...", that nearly halt of
the 38 bands audited believed that they
did not have sufficient input into the terms
and conditions of funding allocation, and
that a similar percentage felt that the
department's reporting requirements were
overly burdensome.

The Auditor General concluded
that if improvements to funding
arrangements are not achieved, it
will be more difficult for the depart-
ment to successfully manage the
tisk of abuse of funds, it wiil fail to
improve living conditions on
reserves in a cost-effective way, and
the ability of some Indian bands to
Strengthen their capacity to become
more self-reliant will be hindered.

CRIMINALS WITH BUS TICKETS

Some recent questions in Parliament
by Reform MP Randy White were directly
related to concerns raised by the Auditor
General about the lack of supervision of
offenders in the community during 'reinte-
gration’. Randy demanded that the
Solicitor General, Hon. Lawrence
MacAuley, answer for the disap-
pearance of a number of convicted
criminals who were given bus tick-
ets by prison officials and asked to
transfer themselves from one cor-
rectional institution to enother,
completely unsupervised. The
Minister's response was, as usual, virtual-
ly meaningless. ("...public safety is the
number one priority for this govern-
ment. That is why I have asked
Correctional Service Canada to con-
duct a full review of this procedure.")

The Auditor General, meanwhile, has
reported that there were nearly 9000
offenders “under supervision” in the com-
munity in 1998. This number represents
about 40% of all criminals in the Canadian
correctional system, but the words “under
supervision" must mean different things to
different people because, according te
the Auditor General, as many as
20% of high-risk offenders under
community supervision are not
being contacted by Corrections
Canada representatives with the
required frequency.

ft seems that every time the Auditor
General visits a department of the federal
government he is virtually guaranteed to
uncover embarrassing examples of
waste and mismanagement. Thank good-
ness we have him on the payroll though,
because without his work the waste and
mismanagement would almost certainly
go unchecked and unexposed.

‘Fed White, M.P. , 2302-1200 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver, B.C. V7j 242
__ Tel: 666-0585 Faxt 666-0509, Internet: htrp://www.reform.ca/white-f