WE HAVE A SECRET PLAN TO PROTECT BCS ECONOMY AND CREATE JOBS... i YOURE RESIGNING? Jim NEWS VIEWPOINT Not all men created equal the North Shore and across Canada of the one-year anniversary of the slaying of 14 women at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique has once again raised the erroneous suggestion that mass killer Marc Lepine somehow represents the unleashed hatred of men toward women. It’s time we laid that misguided idea to rest. If anything, the incident exposed the tendency of feminists to point the finger before deeply reflecting on a subject. To insinuate that Lepine’s anger * latent in a!l men is denigrating and unfair to men, many of whom have rallied for women’s equal rights. Such flimsy arguments do nothing to further the cause of equality among men and women — they may even Te OBSERVANCE Thursday on inadvertently add fuel to the fire. A positive outcome of the Lepine kill- ings was a heightened awareness on cam- puses of women’s treatment in traditional- ly male areas of study just as an incident of child slayings might have led to increas- ed awareness of children’s sefety. (But would we find in a mass slaying of children the latent urge in all of us to kill children?) Lepine’s actions, however premeditated, were those of a crazed person. To state, as one Vancouver Sun reporter did, that ‘“We (women and men) didn’t speak out, and 14 women paid the price,’’ is ludicrous. The point is womer tiave been speaking out, and Lepine’s aztions, as a disturbed indi- vidual, were spurred by these challenges to equal treatment 2ad employment. NEWS QUOTES OF THE WEEK “The trees are like our grandfa- thers. They have more right to be here than we do.”’ North Vancouver painter Drew Burnham, on the massive old- growth trees in the Tsitika valley. ‘In Vancouver you have a smal} group of people, most of whom are students, unemployed or on welfare, and that’s (opposing the fur industry) their supposed cause. But there’s a contradiction: a lot ef them wear leather and eat meat."” Constantine Furs president, on lobby. Pappas, Pappas the anti-fur “I stood theve basically crying Publisher Associate Editor . envelope a . Peter Speck Managing Editor Timothy Renshaw . Noel Wright Advertising Director . Linda Stewart North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent ‘suburban newspaper and quaithed under Schedule 111. Paragraph IN! of the Excise Tax Act. is published each Wednesday. Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd and Gistibutes to every door on the Nortty Shore Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885 Subscrptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year Mailing rates avadable on request Submissions are weicome but we cannot accepl resporuibihty for unsoliciled matenal including manuscripts ang pictures s which should be accompamed by a stamped, addressed my eyes out, watching everything going up in smoke.” Fire victim Barbara Van Meel, who lost approximately $15,000 worth of goods, including an- tiques and family heirlooms, in the Oct. 18 fire that destroyed Ferguson Moving and Storage in West Vancouver. ‘It’s obvious you’re going to be more comfortable with people of your own age group than with people fike (Ald.) Pat Boname who are in municipal hall and aren't exactly the peopie you pour out your guts to.°” Megan Fullerton, a 15-year-old Grade 10 student at Sentinel Sec- ondary School and member of the West Vancouver youth advisory committee, on youth committees. **Before I got elected I had ali the THE VOICE OF RORT“ AND WEST VANCOUVER SUNDAY « WEOWESDAY © FUIDAY | 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 §9,170 (average, Wednesday Friday & Sunday) SDA DIVISION Display Advertising Classified Advertising Newsroom Distribution Subscriptions Fax answers, and after four months 1! had none of them.” North Vancouver District Ald. Rick Buchols, reflecting on his first term as alderman. “If the community is willing to both temper its expectations and criticisms and we on council are willing to put our best efforts forward, | believe we can, in a very small way, do our part, at least at the local level, to turn the tide on cynicism.” West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager, on restoring public con- fidence in elected officials. ‘Bed for a few days.”’ Outgoing North Vancouver District Mayor Marilyn Baker, on her immediate plans after stepping down as mayor. 980-0511 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 Relax-we'll all survive the CBC ‘massacre’ YES, I will miss getting Down to Earth with Terry Glecoff. I’ll miss Forum and sometimes even Sportsline. And I truly sorrow for those 1,200 suddenly jobless TV pros from St. John’s to Victoria. My channel-zapper rarely strays from ‘‘03."’ The universe unfolds for me via Pc‘er, Kevin and Gloria. | came from the land that gave civilization the BBC. To me, CBC is the next best thing. But I can shed few tears for its management over the years — now forced at last into a savage $108 million budget cut after liv- ing far too long in a dream world where tax dollars grew on trees. Today Ottawa is under fire from every side to deal with Canada’s frightening $350 billion debt before it sinks the whole country. The $78 million lopped from the CBC’s $1 billion budget is only a tiny drop in the ocean, but at least it may mean Michael Wilson is beginning, however modestly, to catch on. For the record, that $78 million cut comes in four slashes. First, a direct expenditure reduction of $32 million. Then, $18 million the CBC vainly sought to offset infla- tion. A $12 million chop to top up its pension fund. Finally, $16 mil- lion extra in new taxes and costs of government employmeni standards. A $30 million drop in advertis- ing revenue accounts for the rest of the corporation’s $108 million shortfall. The fact, however, is that de- cades of wallowing happily in the public trough have resulted in a wildly extravagant coast-to-coast network. Even last week’s cuts merely bring the number of CBC regional operations roughly into line with its CTV rival’s 22 sta- tions. Several of the 10 centres now being closed down would never have been opened in the first place using investors’ money. Their disappearance won’t deprive a single Canadian home of national and regional CBC programs via repeaters. But as one industry observer asked: ‘*What the hell is a full-service station doing in Goose Bay or Corner Brook?”’ Nor am | worried by the wails of the unity-mongers. If the coun- try collapses, it won't because Trois Rivieres viewers miss the odd 10-second clip from Terrace. I trust the professionals in the new, leaner CBC to still bring us the essential face and voice of Canada. The one area where CBC management may rate a crumb of sympathy is the role of union featherbedding in the sky-high cost of TV operations — the rigid one-function-per-employeee rules that can mean four people doing what two could perfectly well handle. But THAT problem, of HITHER AND YON course, is not limited to the CBC. Had its bosses begun to lick it into shape 30 years ago when CTV emerged ~— by cutting back gradually on the taxpayer’s free lunch — much human grief would have been saved last week. But never fear — we’ll all sur- vive! POSTSCRIPTS: Bird-watcher highlight locally is the annua! Xinas Bird Count next Sunday, Dec. 16. Call Lynn Canyon Ecology Centre, 987-5922 to regis- ter and have a checklist and in- structions mailed to you — though it might be safer at this season to pick them up in person ... Xmas Countdown Dept.: Not too late to order your large or small Xmas Candy Wreaths from St. Catherine’s Church, 1058 Ridgewood Drive, North Van — call 985-0666 ... But only four days left to help the world’s under-everything-ed kids by buy- ing those attractive UNICEF greeting cards, available at West Van Library only until Thursday, Dec. 13 ... The number for any old Tecumseh-ites this week is 327-0204 — where principal Stanley French and vice-p. Heather Gascoigne are hoping for a big turnout of former students and staff Thursday, Dec. 13, at the 80th birthday party of Van- couver’s venerable east side school. Call them for full details ... And a better-late-than-never 50th birthday card yesterday, Dec. 8, to Stong’s boss-man Bill Rossum. eee WRIGHT OR WRONG: To forgive but not forget means you bury the hatchet but leave the handle out for future use. NEWS photo Nell Lucente TAKING OVER ... Major Vincent Larocque (right) assumes com- mand of 6 Field Engineer Squadron from Major John McKay (left) at arecent Fell Armoury ceremony, with Brigadier-General Stuart McDonald (centre) supervising the paperwork.