6 - Sunday, April 13, 1997 — North Shore News The Marth Shore Mews ts published ty Marth Shore Free Press Ltd., Putisher Pater Speck, from 1139 Leesdaie Aveaze Worth Vaacowver, 8.6., V7M 214 ’ 1 DON'T WANT THE PEOPLE AT HOME 70 THINK I'M You-$0, WHEN ' COFFEE I 10,000.00 A a CREAM § SHUAR INCL You SAY “Fume PETER SPECK Publisher 985-2131 (161) quotes of the “The loss of view is small unless you’re the one losing it.” Lawyer Michael McMahon, dur- ing debate in West Vancouver Council chambers over development and views. (From Trevor Lantens’ April 11 Garden of Biases column.) O00 _ , “I do not ask people to love me. I do not ask people to agree with me ... I ask only that opin- ions should remain unfettered and that the ‘true north strong and free’ should be, not just an anthem, but a fact. Freedom also involves the right to be wrong.” News columnist Doug Collins, addressing North Vancouver District council on the issue of free “speech and the newspaper’s fight to protect its right to publish differing opinions. (From an April 9 News Story.) (ites a7 905-2131 (218) S85-215 ¢ Barhara Beas path g00 “Distribution Manager . - ~ Creative Services Manager “Collins obviously writes to 986-1337 (124) 995-2131 (127) || offend folks like you and me. But ae ecasuced | to me, what’s more frightening #\| than some cranky old coot over on the North Shore is a govern- ment that thinks it can censor people it disagrees with.” Reform party supporter and _ Jewish lawyer Ezra Levant, as quot- ed in the April 4 Jewish: Western Bulletin, on News columnist Doug, Collins and the NDP government's Human Rights Tribunal. (From an . April 9 News story.) O00 : “You're either for freedom all the way or you’re not for it at all. That’s the way it is. You're either pregoant or you're not.” - Becker-News Editer 985-2131 (114). McCredis-Sports/Community Editor 986-2131 (an . Pei bs oe Letters must include your name, ful address & telephone number. VIA Internet: trenshaw @ direct.ca COMPUTER B85 - 980-8027 User ID:mailbox * Password:lettsrs . ee te cn he week North Vancouver District Coun. Trevor Carolan, on supportin Doug Collins and the North Shore News in their battle against the NDP’s Human Rights machinery. (From an April 9 News story.) 900 eons “You want to change some- thing, you have to have new voic- es and new ideas and new every- thing. You need to get a new broom in there.” Axel Duch, political neophyte and Reform party hopeful in West Vancouver-Ganbaldi, on cleanin political house 2c getting rid of the old guard in West Vancouver. (From an April 6 News story.) O00 “Duch is a pilot — a profes- sional one. Would you recom- mend anybody get in 2 plane and fly with somebody who didn’t have experience? [ think politics is as important as anything else. Experience counts.” Veteran politician John Reynolds, another Reform party hopefll in West Vancouver- Garibaldi, on his opponent Axel Duch and the need for political experience. (From an April 6 News story.) O00 “We feel like a ship without a rudder, cast adrift under the Lions Gate Bridge. We’re goin, out with the tide.” Bois Hospital Employees Union chairman Kathie Anderson, on the firing of Lions Gate Hospital administrator Lynette Best. (Frem an April 9 News story.) FATAL AN SORE PART ERG A POH. ‘Business as usual’ dicey in Hong Kong SO you think it will be business as usual in Hong Kong after the union jack is hauled down for the last time on June 30? ; Isn’t this what Tung Che-hwa, that jovial- looking business tycoon appointed by Beijing to succeed Britain’s Chris Patten as Hong Keng’s chief executive promises us? Didn't the charming Madame Anson _ Chan, his top civil servant, come visiting in Vancouver only last week with the same soothing story? And hasn’t Beijing — which knows a sucker when it sees one — just given our see-no-cvil Foreign Affairs Minister Lioyd Axworthy “strong assurances” about China’s commitments to international human rights agreements? Dream on! Or if sleepless, check Beijing’s threats to tiny Denmark. Annually since the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre the European Union has presented a resolution condemning Beijing’s human rights |... abuses to the UN Human Rights Commission. This year Denmark is the , sponsor, . wt Peat Denmark insists on ... this, it will end up the biggest loser,” snarled. _ China’s government spokesman last week. “I can say relations will be :~ severely damaged in the political and economic trade areas.” . a France, due to share in a $2.8 billion Airbus order from China, had *. already refused to back the 1997 resolution — as have Germany, Italy and. : Spain. If trade bucks beckon in Asia’s economic colossus, to hell with . *< human rights. Just ask Jean Chretien and his Team Canada hucksters. To its credit the U.S. wii! support the resolution and wants “a full public debate on the human rights situation in China.” Ic almost makes . one feel better about the U.S. crackdown on trade with Cuba. At least ‘ you always know where the Yanks stand, and big can sometimes be beau '- © ti ; Meanivhile, despite Tung Che-hwa’s and Anson Chan’s not-to-worry | messages, Tung is now conducting talks aimed at restrictions on Hong.’ Kong’s civil libertics. These would reportedly include police licensing of : demonstrations, curbing (or even possibly banning) political parties and . -: gutting Hong Kong’s liberal Bill of Rights. Hong Kong media — shifting _ to survival mode — are already practising self-censorship. From July 1 a Beijing-named legislature takes over. “Elections” have been promised eventually — but would they be western or Beijing-style? As much as one respects the Chinese people and their civilization, the | - simple fact is that, politically, China has never known democracy. Down - through history it has been ruled by one strictly authoritarian dynasty after another. In their single-minded pursuit of power at any cost there’s no basic difference between the Manchus and Mao Tse-turig’s _ Comrnunist bullies, still firmly in charge today under Jiang Zemin. : Unlike Taiwan, Hong Kong is not protected by 150 km of the East: ..: China Sea. If business does continue exactly as usual in the former UK: colony after midnight on June 30, nobody will be happier to eat crow than your scribe — because something extraordinary and heartening will have happened to Beijing’s ruthless bully-boys. That’s the way to hope: But remembering Chinese history and Beijing's appalling human-righ record, it’s not yer the way to bet. . a | 000 Lo es WISH HAPPY 79th birthday today, April 13, to veteran broadcaste’ Jack Webster ... Ditto today on his 53rd to Mt. Seymour Lion Tom Lucas ... And birthday wishes Monday, April 14, to fellow Lion Al | > Cummings ar 58. . Qoo0 © . oe WRIGHT OR WRONG: Ears that hear are common. Ears that listen are’: rare. — The North Shore News betieves strongly in freedom of speech and the . right of all sides in a debate to be heard. The columnists published in the News present differing points of view, but thase views are not necessarily those —~ of the newspaper itself. SOF Ait REE APU SAAD ee Atte” TINT RTRSY aR bik RAP RIP ten ERO BEANE LO A TARO AC ER OEY MAPLE A ARCH, ery ix s UR North Shore community y hospital has just been rushed to the intensive care ward. Prognosis from this side of the ward glass: critical. The past week’s revelations in the News about the firing of another top LGH administrator and the subsequent vote of non-confidence in the North Shore Health Board and its head Inge Scharaborzki from North Shore doctors underlines the critical situation. - What’s at stake here, citizens, is your community hospital and your say in how it’s being run and how it will be run. Citculation, Wainesdzy, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1997 Noith Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. LGH alert | : Lynette Best is only the latest victim of Victoria’s ill-advised plan to rule hospitals by centralized board burcaucracy. Her predecessor, Bob Smith, one of the best and most widely respected CEOs LGH has ever had, was the first to walk the North Shore Health Board plank. With the establishment of the new North Shore Health Board and its role in taking over the management of all North Shore health operations, North Shore res- idents have steadily had their direct link with Lions Gate and its operation eroded. There are, for example, no elected rep- resentatives on the 15-member North Shore Health Board. There is, therefore, no public accountability here at all. There is only a collection of appointed board members led by a CEO who herself was: appointed by a selection committee of which she was once the head. Approximately 63% of the health board’s $160 million budget is taken up by Lions Gate Hospital. The comniunity ~ should have a say in how it’s spent. The current system makes no allowance for that. Get the health board out of the hospi- tal. Set up an elected hospital board. Give us back our community hospital.