On the air

myEDNESDAY marked Take Our Kids To Work day, which saw thousands of Grade 9 students across Canada
Seeccomparty family members to work to fearn about various career choices. Three participating Rockridge
Beudents found themselves in a C-FOX radio studio during the moming show. Above, left to right, Larry
annessey, Allen Manser, Lars Vedo, Pat Hennessy and Willy Percy. See stery on page 13.

2

paign
cked off Saturday
$ households across
North Shore

For a single day, chil-
and adults runed out

in music, movies and
co games as well. The
mmunity . initiative is
ased on'a program devel-
boed.six years ago in
innesota.
Campaign coordinator
ranca Bertoncin said the

May without violence was

cant to raise awareness
bf:the. prevalence of vio-

Memence. in. the media and

er sources of entertain-

“We can’t always pre-
ent it (violence) being on
the media, but at least we
an make people aware

for about five minutes

ee RE =

at it permeates,” said
Bertoncin.
e: Bertoncin cites statis-
tics ‘revealing that by age
18, a child has witnessed
@200,000 acts of violence on televi-
ion, including 18,000 simulated
urders.

Studies have showed that violent
entertainment can contribute to vio-
Went behavior, said Bertoncin.
Turning it off for a day, she said, is

Baone way we caf monitor our expo-

sure to violence. —
’ §aid Bertoncin: “We’ve been

exposed to violence so long, we may

not even recognize it and thar can be

ja problem.”
- That’s what the .Hallorans of

B West Vancouver discovered Saturday

when they spent a day without vio-

Rlence. For Katie, 15, Patrick, 13,

Conor, 1] and Emily, 9, that meant

Mno computer games, very little tele-

fae vision and keeping conilicts in check.

# Television viewing is regulated in the

Halloran household — no more

LEFT to right are Emily, 9, Conor, 11, Patrick 13,
father Mike, mother Donna, Katie Halloran, 15.

than an hour at a time — but much
of the viewing is unsupervised, as
both parents work full ome. Donna
is a preventive nursing consultant.
Mike runs an advertising ageiicy.

The day without violence has
altered the way her kids view televi-
sion, said Donna. Even the
Saturday-morning routine of watch-
ing cartoons did not escape scrutiny.
The prevalence of violence was not
lost on the eldest of the Halloran
kids.

“It (violence on TV) stood out a
lot_ more than we would have
noticed it before,” said Katie.
Normally, “we'd just sit there and
watch it without realizing that it was
happening.”

That realization was not as imme-
diate for the youngest Halloran.

“Emily actually watched cartoons

in the morning” before
concluding “there’s no
violence here,” said
Donna, who replied
“Look at how they just
blew his head off.”

The television was
switched off.

Son Patrick was
required to fill out a
checklist during his
viewing of a Saturday
morning, show on YTV.
Supplied by Together
Against Violence, the
list provides space to
indicate the number of
violent acts, words and
attitudes that are
encountered during the
program.

“He ticked off near-
ly all of the boxes with-
in half an hour,” said
Donna, who was sur-
prised at the nature of
the program, which
had aired on a youth
channel at 10 a.m.

But the lessons
didn’t stop at televi-
sion.

Computer games
were off limits because
the majority had a com-
bat theme. Katie used
to view games like
KK&D (Krash, Kill &
Destrov) and
Command & Conquer as just “strat-
egy games ... games where my
brothers just get on the computer
and push a lot of buttons.” Now she
realizes “it’s just flashing before their
eyes, a whole bunch of violence.”

Bertoncin says these revelations
are good. Though there’s no way of
measuring how many households

articipated in the day without vio-
lence, feedback has been positive and
several participants, including the
Hallorans, pledged to monitor
future consumption of violence on
TV and other media.

“This is not a censorship project.
We’re not there to censor television.
We’re there to create awareness and
hope people will become involved,”
she said.

— See Together Against Violence
events: page 4

Friday, November 7, 1997 — North Shore News — 3

Clean-up costs
for vacant site
to hit $10m

News Reporter
ian@nsnews.com

THE feds will fork out
between $8 million
and $10 million to
clean up contaminants
such as copper and
zinc from a site east of
the Lions Gate Bridge.

That brings the federal govern-
ment’s total tab for the 22-hectare
parcel of land to between $43 and
$45 million in the past 23 years.

And there’s still little but a pile
of tarp-covered contaminated soil
on the site sandwiched between the
bridge and Vancouver Wharves.

The federal government had
hoped to build a Pacific
Environment Centre (PEC) on the
site, but the Trudeau Liberals
pulled funding for the project even
though the 71-year lease with the
Squamish Nation still had decades
to run.

The federal Public Works
department is working on a plan to
develop the site. That would bring
in more revenue to offset fease pay-
ments that currently take $4.4 mil-
lion out of the govermment’s tll.

“I don’t think we will ever get
off the hook but I think we can put
a huge hole in the annual nut and
that’s what we’re trying to do,”
said Public Works regional proper-
ty manager John Westwood.

On Wednesday, site manager
Liz Gordy told the News that envi-
ronmental testing at the site will
likely lead to the installation of a
wall in the late spring. She said the
wall of material will capture ground
water and filter out the heavy met-
als before the water drains into
Burrard Inlet.

Currently, testing on the system
is under way at the site.

The wall will be between 10 and
18 metres deep and approximately
400 metres long. Gordy added that
the exact location of the wall has
yet to be determined.

“The metal of concern is cop-
per. Copper is highly toxic to
aquatic organisms,” said Gordy.
“Sediment sampling that has been
done at Burrard Inlet docs not
indicate high levels of copper in the
sediments in front of the PEC site.
The ground water is still moving
underground.”

Meanwhile, 17,000 metric tons
of contaminated soil has been iso-
lated and is being stored on the
PEC site. Under provincial govern-
ment regulations, the the soil is
deemed “special waste.”

Gordy expects the contaminat-
ed soil will be moved within the
next six months to a hazardous
waste facility in the United States.

She estimates the soil and
groundwater cleanup will cost the
federal government $8 million to
$10 million.

Westwood said that in the
furure, the federal government will
look at where the pollution comes
from and try to recover costs from
someone else. But he added it’s
premature to comment on that
now,

He said he doesn’t have cnough
information to determine if the
pollution is coming from right next
door or a quarter of a mile away.

“The Indians weren't in the
business of storing ore concen-
trates,” said Westwoad. .

Before the federal government
signed its lease, the land had been
used by Vancouver Wharves.

That company still uses four.
hectares of the site in return for a
$420,000 payment to the feds each
year.

Only after environmental cor-
cerns have been addressed will any
development on the site be allowed
to proceed.

Westwood said Environment
Canada needs 100,000 square feet
of office space on the site and some
storage.

Developers would be asked for
their ideas on what to do with the
balance of the site.

Three developers have answered
a call for expressions of interest, but
the project has been in limbo for
more than year due to the environ-
mental cleanup, said Westwood.

He expects the federal govern-
ment will also have to cough up
$15 million for developing infra-
structure such as roads, sewers,
water mains and a bridge over the
BC Rail right-of-way on the site.

When asked when construction
would start, Westwood replied: “I
don’t know. I’m hoping within the
next calendar year.”

In the spring of 1995, the feds
said they hoped construction
would begin that fall.

The lease payment is renewed
every five years and has historically
gone up.

The government pays rent }
based on a complex formula that
includes hotel, commercial, retail
and office space uses. However, the
only permitted uses include an
environment centre, environmental
studies and conferences.

Approximately $35 million has
been turned aver to the Squamish
Nation under the terms of the lease
signed in 1974, said Westwood.

—— See Timothy Renshaw, page 7

Stolen goods seized

NORTH Vancouver RCMP caught
two break and enter suspects on Oct.
30.

According to a police spokesman,
two men were observed smashing
store windows in the Lower Lonsdale
area at approximately 2:46 a.m. and
placing items into a car trunk.

Eddie John Nelson, 22, and
Shane John Baker, 26, face charges of
being in possession of stolen proper-
ty over $5,000 and break and entry.

Police, armed with a description
of the vehicle the suspects were dri-
ving, caught up with the car travelling
east on Main Street near Brooksbank

Eddie Nelson Shane Baker

Avenue.

The car turned out to have been
stolen in Burnaby. Police also recov-
ered $4,500 worth of stolen sports
clothing.

— Michael Becker