. 6 ~ Wednesday, July 7, 1999 — North Shore.News

north shore news

VIEWPOINT

NONE OF THE MONEY

retrospect, the near-sinking of
the new North Vancouver RCMP
power boat at Deep Cove last year
was a fitting act of foreshadowing.
‘At the time North Vancouver
’ District firefighters used two pumps to
save the day and remove the water
‘from the $25,000 boat.
‘But it will take more than a few
‘pumps to get the boat back into ser-
“ vice. The police have provided summer
« patrol of local waters for the past
" decade. This summer, however, the
: boat sits high and dry due to an
: RCMP staffing shortage.
« The problem is compounded dy the
* fact that we are also without Ports
Canada Police service. Before the fed-
: eral government decided that ports
| police were expendable, the force per-
4 formed basic policing on the water-
i front. ,

Waters (omc
m TICKET? WHAT THE

HECK 15 THIS?

Municipal police were subsequently
assigned to maintain standard police
services at the ports. It’s a bad time to
be thin on the water in terms of safety
patrolling and enforcement.

There are new boating regulations
to enforce this season. Boaters must be
at least 12 years old to operate a boat
‘with an engine up to 40 horse power
and 16 or over to operate anything
more powerful.

Last boating season over 200
Canadians lost their lives in boating
mishaps. Young aduit males 18 to 24
years of age are the high risk group.
Almost 90% of boating fatalities are
caused, in part, by personal flotation
devices not being worn or not being
worn correctly.

Vancouver Police will pick up some
of the enforcement slack. We can only
hope it’s enough.

iibox

(Plug condo leaks

Who's in charge: MPs or judges?

FOR. the moment John Robin
Sharpe is free once more to pri-
vately enjoy his kiddy-porn pho-

cratic government to what Calgary politi-
cal science professor F.I, Morton blasts
-as ‘judicial supremacy and the. rule of.
lawyers ... the Court Party.”

ut when J last checked, our elected

“rights” — as in the Charter — while
ignoring completely the responsibilities -
that, in any civilized seciety, must bal-
ance those rights.

oe :
3 :
: with purchase tax
4 Dear Editor: .
:..Why should the offended leaky condo owners be
-required to beg the’ B.C. government for loans when it’
was combined governments who were mainly responsible
1 for the leaks in the first place? The taxing of overhangs,
prescribing unsuizable stucco, encasing buildings in plas-
ue, and reducing air vent flow, All serious mistakes in this
* ¢limate.. _
- And why ‘shouldn't the I1l-year-old B.C. Property
4. Purchase Tax, which has collected hundreds of miliions of
‘dollars, ‘be used for. these repairs, rather than just disap-
‘pearing into general ‘revenuc? This unjustitied tax gouge
as applied to every house, condo or lot, old or new, every
‘time it-was sold since the late "80s: 1% on the
200,000 and 2%.on the balance.

It’s sneaky ‘and doesn't sound fike much, bur when we

sold our 30-year-old house for $550,000, it cost the pur-

chaser an extra: $9,000 in B.C. tax.-And then, when we |

bought.a 24-year-old townhouse for $381,000 we paid an
extra $5,640 in B.C tax. A combined transaction that put
$14,620 into the: provincial government’s wasteful cof-
fers, cash up front. ;

“This tax imposed by Bill Vander Zalm and enjoyed by.

the NDP since 1991 has collected hundreds of miilions of
dollars, many more than is needed to repair all the condo
problems. . ~ coe .

But what purpose, apart from an unjust moncy grab,
does this tax serve if it is not to be used unreservedly to
help those at the source. from which it was collected?

2 Governments in general-can be faulted for this disaster,

and_ the ‘BC.: government in particular for this unique

property tax grab. Conclusion: no loans are required, all

leaky condo ‘repairs should be covered from the. proceeds
» Of the B.C: Property Purchase. Tax. |.

Denis‘Mason .

West Vancouver..°

first

tos. So says Justice Mary
Southin ina major-
ity ruling of the
B.C. Court of
Appeal.

Sharpe, you may
recall, was acquitted in
January on kiddy-porn
charges by B.C.
Supreme Court Justice -
Duncan Shaw, who
raled that to convict
Sharpe for the mere pos~
session of photos of
naked children would be to violate his
rivacy rights under the Charter of
ights end Freedoms.
This ruling has now been upheld on
appeal — leaving a final appeal to the
Supreme Court of Canada as the las.

“hope for Canadians who still value
* morality and individual responsibility.

Justice Southin didn’t offer much
comfort to the latter with her off-the-
cuff philosophizing about Brazilian child
prostitutes “doing it for the moncy.”

’ Her Honour might have been better
advised simply to note that, in this case,
Canada’s porn laws for the protection of

’ children had once more run head-on

into the Charter’s privacy guarantees —
and tlise-since Parliament was responsible
for both the porn laws and the Charter,
it had better sort out the conflict accord-
ing to its democratic mandate.

The Sharpe case is a textbook example

’ of the folly of atrempting to'codity

In this respeet the Charter is the dia-
. metric opposite of our
800-ycar heritage of
Engiish Common Law
which, in essence, sim-

ply says you may do
anything you wish,
provided only that you
cause no harm to any-

one else in doing it.
Sharpe's lust for child :
pornography clearly
caused harm" to the

. child models in ques-
tion simply by virtue of

their bzing photographed for such pur-_

SES.

poses. ; .
.- This would not have happened, fiad

there riot been a market for such pictures -
— and a market (whether or not it

included Sharpe for the moment} that is...

interested in doing much more than just
looking at the pictures privately. In short;
every kiddy-porn photo Sharpe drooled —
over meant that somewhere a child’s
innocence had been stolen. ~

This latest example of the perfects
clear intent ef the law being defeated by
the wretchedly flawed.Charter as inter-
preted by skilled legal word-twisters is a

+ signal thac Parliamene must quickly

reassert its supremacy. That means cither
revising and “Charter-prooting” affected
laws, making far freer use of the _
Charter’s “notwithstanding” clause, or...
launching a constitutional revision of the
Charter itself. ;

The alternative is to hand over deme-.

» repairs. i
the falsest of false cconomies.: For a tri- |
~ fling 1.6% of the price of the new. truck
‘they can also fix the cld‘one — and the:

.Gordon Gibson Golf Gal

Parliament was the ultimate court in the. .
land. It must reaffirm that role — fast!

oa QaQ os
TIDDLEYCOVE file: Ordered by West
Van Fire Dept. is a new $1.2 million
long-iadder’ fire truck to replace the orig-.
inal aging model, which needs $20,000 in
at word “replace”, sounds ke

day could well come when they'll be glad ' .:
to have two long ladders available simul- ,
tancously. Get out your. calculators:and
think again, fellows! 1/500
Meanwhile, the recent.12th annual ~~:

n Was WOM;
with a nine-hole score of 26, by 1.5.7:
Gleneagles Ladies Captain Lois Maguire
and partner Ker Kellogg — but only’
just: In-second place, a mere one’ strok

off with 27, came the late Gordon's

widow Gertrude Gibson and partrer.

Bill Ray,

. : . inyeqe) - i
A’°100-CANDLE salute to Evergree

House birthday girl Irene Manning, who:-

tomerrow, July 8, celebrates the: start of.

her second century. *... :

- goa)

WRIGHT or WRONG: ‘Trouble causes,

some people to, buy crutches — others to

Brow wings. "©

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letters rust inofude your name, >
full address & ielephane fuumber. ~ 3
VA G-mei trenchaw @directca °  Ghassivied

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