€ — Friday, August 20, 1999 — North Shore News

Vandal

ST Vancouver-Capilano
MLA Jeremy Dalton is on
the money regarding the

issue of young vandals on the Bowen
ferry.

A proposal to hire a youth worker
or “mentor student” to defuse
cretinous kids bent on demolishing
and defacing public property would
be nothing more than a spineless stab
at social correction.

Rather than tossing another
$10,000 worth of taxpayer moncy at
a pseblem that has cost $25,0000
and counting over the past six years,
we should be looking at the responsi-
bility of parents.

Too. many parents have shirked
their responsibility to teach their chil-
dren to respect others ard the prop-
erty of others. It’s as simple as that.

It’s no big mystery why some kids

_ mailbox

Ferries expansion

: would ruin bay

Dear Editor:

If Gordon Wilson and BC Ferries go ahead with the

.

north shore news

VIEWPOINT

Ss cost ai

do what they do. They are without
the necessary ethical compass points.

And it seems we are willing to sup-
port the status quo. Trash a ferry? No
problem, no real consequences, no
accountability.

An empathic youth worker will
simply talk it through with the mis-
creant in a “non-punitive” way.

As the region gets busier and big-
ger our tolerance for vandalism and
its attendant costs seems to be higher.

Most kids are good. Most are
responsible. Those who aren’t must
be held responsible.

If they happen to be venting ado-
lescent angst on the Bowen ferry,
there are options.

The vandals could appropriately be
charged with mischief and they could
be barred from the privilege of riding
the ferry.

Rafe tied in

THE grumpy news:

the Chinese “refugee” issue.

All right, three North Shoreans have
spoken out leudly on the matter. Expect

one to be tossed off the
Christmas iist of the
other two,

The North Shore is deeply divided by

He has completely banished the
Reform party trom his sympathies, hav-
ing formerly shared much of their con-
stitutional and aboriginal views, and now
flails what he calls its racist wing. (In his

Aug. 12 broadcast he
denied calling anyone
racist, ‘stating that he

expansion of its terminal operations in Horseshoe Bay it will
- be drastic news, noe just for Horseshoe Bay and Gleneagles
 pesidents, | ||. ;

_sThousands of people in Greater Vancouver have long
“> prized this azca for its remarkable beauty, and will be appalled
‘at any plan Mr. Wilson might have to compromise it perma-

nentl, me, a

. Te has been suggested that, if such vandalism is perpetrat-
, acairn be erected to commemorate Horseshoe Bay as it
_once was, and that Mr. Wilson’s name be deeply engraved
pon it. Rebuke for such reprehension should be as perma-
nent as the damage that would be done to a beautiful com-
munity 5 *.
Tom Taylor | ><
West Vancouver ;
'.. ttaytom@concentric.net

| Letter clarified

letter published in'the News on Friday, Aug. 13 in

which Gordon Wilson, ‘Minister: responsible for BC —

Fetries, responds. to. a’ letter written by MLA. Ted

Nebbeling was incorrectly. published in the News. -

<7: The” Wilson: letter: was responding
_Nebbeling published in, another newspaper.

# Mort Shore News, fovaded in 1969 as an
independent suburban newspaper and quatified
under Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of the
Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, ”
Faiday and Sunday by HCN Publicahons
Company and distributed to every doce on the

"North Shore. Canada Post Canadian Publications
Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 0087238.

Distribution Manager
__ SBGATST (124)

Reform party MPs
Ted White and especial-
ly John Reynolds, the

acty’s immigration crit-
ic, have thundered
against the Liberal gov-
ernment’s reaction to
the dumping of avo
rusty boatloads of
Chirese on ont coast.

(Also a third Canada- .
bound boat load has been turned aside
in mid-Pacific, while ‘a fourth, at this
writing, is aimed for the East Coast from
Lithuania.)

And North Vancouver’s Rafe Mair

’ has done his own dumping- on
Reynolds and White - and, from my seat _

in the bleachers, assumed a contorted. ”
position on this issuc. _
I admire Rafe as indispensable listen-

_ing on CKNW, conscientious, fighting,

toa letter by". E
_ *  -him helplessly tied up in his own logical

Creative Sorvices Director
885-2131 (127)
61.582 (average circulation, Wednescay, Friday & Sunday)

furious and flawed - his self-deflating -
humor ard revelations of his personal *

’ problems are richly human. °

But Rafe’s take on this matter leaves

knots. .
He advocates - a weak word for his

. passion - adhering to Canada’s rule of
-- Jaw, for example not prejudging whether
’ the arrivals are here illegally, but deter-

mining through due process whether or
not they are legitimate refugees.

PETER SPECK
. _. Publisher
2131 (191)

General Manager
$2S-2131 (133)

Stepboneca
Classified Manager
. 986-6222 (202)

Entire contents © 1999 HCN Publications Company. Alf tights reserved.

had accused Reynolds
of “pandering to
racists.)

As for the arrivals’ lack
of documents, which

of course they destroy: .

“T have, from the out-

set, been troubled by

that.” However, all

claimants, he insisted,

. should be given “the

benefit af the doubt that the law pro- -
vides” in the (long, costly) exercise of |
determining whether they are bona-fide
refugees.

. But he also said, as if self-apparent:
“Of course these laws should be
changed.” oo, :

Now, if you follow the bouncing ball
of his logic, and you're even half aware
of years of Liberal intérnationalist

__please-love-us-ism and Conservative |...

me-too-ism, plus the utterly insane ~
Supreme Court of Canada ruling in. . ©
1986 that conferred the rights of |.

. Canadians on anyone who puts a toc on
. Canadian soil, you are.a witness to

Rafe’s reverse-Houdini feat - a freed
man miraculously tying himself up in
knots. oo .
Because his logical conundrum is:

_ B follow the law; .
- @ the law should be changed;

WH

=

:

= tl
{
e
VR:
AAA

#
Ny AN =
Wn

B\\
me \\\\\\

knots over refugees

promises to change the law - is hereby
expelled to the outermost Stygian dark-
ness; : : 8
@ conclusion: The law will never be.
changed. : ene
Meanwhile, Vancouver's big, ethnic
Chinese community, while understand:
ably divided, on balance is angry that |
the queue-jumpers slipped into a coun-'*
try that they entered only by long and
difficult proper process. | - a
And I hope Rafe - currently on vaca-
tion - read his good friend and frequent:
CKNW guest Diane Francis’s Aug..14 -
column in the National Post . rue
Ms. Francis describes the plight of: .:
Vancouver doctor Maria Hugi, herself an.”
immigrant, who contracted tuberculosis:
trying to save the life of a Burme:
refugee who had full-blown AIDS tco..
Refugees arriving en masse.are, med-

ically examined, Dr. Hugi notes; but

individuals aren’t. Her poignant and

eatedly.to our c

P
“ mice-Nelly (to everyone bu

middle-class: Canadians)

B the Reform party - the only party that F :

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Tenothy a
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