6 — Friday, October 3, 1997 — North Shore News north shore news VIEWPOINT Get serious little too late. That’s the obvious reaction to the charges laid against Rajdecp Singh Khosa, the driver of the truck that filled pedestrian Bjorn Bjornson last The brakes on Khosa’s truck failed, and the excessively-loaded vehicle screamed down 22nd Street in West Vancouver before hitting vehicles and killing the 58-year-old North Vancouver father. For all that, Khosa’s recently been charged with driving without due care and attention and driving with- out consideration. mean many things. people enforcing the law, cannot adequately deal with such such as Burnaby resident Wayde- Police, truck driver Baljinder Singh, and Reta and Shawna of Etobicoke, Ontario’s Pestell family, all died for no reason. Police and Singh died during a bloody six-vehicle crash after Singh’s dump truck’s brakes failed and his truck mowed through traffic on the Cut. The Pestells were killed by a dump truck that lost its brakes on the descent to the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal. Nothing of real substance has been done following their deaths to pre- vent similar tragedies, such . as Bjornson’s. It’s time the provincial and munic- ipal government seriousiy tackled this problem. We can’t let Bjornson die ‘But* most of all ‘it means people THE North Shore News Free Speech Defence “Fand continues to grow... | %To press time Thursday, donations from over 1,960 News readers and free speech supporters,to the fund stood at. $137,140. Legal fees expended thus far by the News - have already exceeded $206,000. The final bill will be much higher... All funds received will help defray the legal costs 2°. », faced by the News in its battle with the Human “Rights Tribunal over a complaint laid against the newspaper and its columnist Doug Collins by the ~ Canadian Jewish Congress. The hearing into the matter, which began on May 12, concluded on ’ June 27 with final arguments at the Century Plaza Hotel, 1015 Burrard St. The decision from Nitya Iyer, the tribunal of one hearing the complaint, is expected some time later this year. “Extra copies of the News’ Free Speech Supplement, which was originally published in the Aug. 20 News, are now available at the News _ , Offices. More excerpts from the hundreds of . respondents to the cause: e U P Qo00 *T thank you for your stand, on my behalf, on free speech, and Iam concerned by and apologize for the Sact that only some 3% of the kouscholds that you reach are sufficiently concerned to offer help. The *. other 97% are, no doubt, members of the GCAP . _ (Great Canadian Apathy Party), for whom Canada ts known world-wide, and who seem quite content to be pushed about by an out-of-control government duly elected by a minority of voting citizens.” . — P. Lisle Plaskett of West Vancouver g00Q : "Thanks for your defense of freedom. God bless you.” . fe — Lila O. Stanford . Donations to the fund can be sent to: 1139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, V7M 2H4. Cheques should be made out to the North Shore News Free Speech Defence Fund. — trenshaw@direct.ca cy can - : north ‘shore North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and quabfied under Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of the ‘Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by Nosh Shove Free Press (Lid. and distnbuted to every door on the North ‘Shera. Canada Post Canadian Publications Mat ‘Sales Product Agreement No. 0087238. . Distribution 906-1337 (124) 61,582 (average circutation,, Wednesday, Frnday & Sunday) for no reason. Separatist notions many layered. VIVE La Columbie Britannique libre eh? I was in Ontario when my old friend and former Vancouver Sun colleague Senator Patricia Carney mused alcud that British Columbians should con- sider independence as one of their constitution- al options. Patricia didn’t just touch a chord here. She played on some long-sup- pressed B.C. sentiments like a violin. I empathize. Hell, I say that if B.C. can’t get minimal recognition — putting the “distinct Paradise” clause into the Constitution — then let’s get outta here. But hold on. If B.C. can separate, then it’s divisible. Right? That’s what we’ve smugly been telling Quebec. And that could prove, um, awkward. Once you stir up separatist notions, it’s hard to know where to stop — or to begin. But you’d have to be blind (or, as the “human rights” czars no doubt would have it, differently abled visually) not to know that the first fracture would be at the first join. Vancouver Island would definitely insist on repatriation. With Britain, of course. The old island colony has been deeply humiliated since 1866 when it united with the raw upstart mainland to form present British Columbia, and PETER SPECK Publisher twa! Unda Stewart Human Resouces Manager Sales & Marketing Director 965-2131 (177) 980-0511 (319) 985-2137 (101) “Terry Peters Photography Manager 985-2131 (160) Entire contents © 1997 North Shore Free Press Lid. All rights seserved. sank into tea and crumpets. It’s still grumpy, even though it got the consolation prize of being the capi- tal. . After that, fe deluge. . B.C. would shatter like a cheap vase on a par- quet floor. : Port Moody has never extinguished its burning anger that the Canadian Pacific Railway rejected it as the terminus of its rail line and instead chose the lumber site of Granville, popularly called Gastown. Known today as Vancouver. © Surely it would choose its own course. Ditto New Westminster — the “Royal City” — still fuming thar its sta- tus as capital of the mainland colony, conferred in 1859, was snatched away from it in 1866. Fort Langley would bitterly recall its even older aspirations in the Hudson’s . Bay Company’s heyday. Goodbye. And you wouldn’t expect the Kootenays to join the new People’s Republic of British Columbia. (Or would it be a monarchy, under King Glen The First?) Eastern B.C., in a different time zone from the rest, is furious that it keeps hearing radio types who seeming- ly can’t read a clock. The Peace River country in the northeast is just as alienated. Geographically, agriculturally, it belongs with Alberta. Would Fort St. John’s popular mayor, Steve Thorlakson, appeal to Premier Ralph Kiein for: annexation? : omy Prince Rupert is too wet to stay..The: other Prince, name of George, boasts its own huge hinterland. It seems odd that the Queen Charlotte Islands were ever included. Another world, 7 . The vast Cariboo and Chilcotin ranchlands are also light years away from anything else, a “distinct society” -. ; for damshur. . The Okanagan looks with contempt... on the Wet Coast and could fly on its |--. own as “the Sunshine State, Northern | - Division.” eee And God only knows if the Fraser” | -:- Valley Bible Belt would distance itself from a sovereign B.C. and form a theo - eratic state. : : ne We haven’t even touched on the »: matter of B.C.’s 200-odd Indian bands claiming sovereignty — one of them * consisting of a single person. - ; Or protecting minority languages.". =. J Anyone for separatism? . Q00 Removing tongue from cheek: West -- >. Vancouver needs no real-life lessons on . ©: divided jurisdictions. This week, in the face of a tough, well-organized protest against “big- box” stores, Park Royal shopping cen- tre, its south flank sitting on leased Indian land, politely told West Van council to get stuffed. — The North Shore News believes . strongly in freedom of speech and the vight of all sides in a debate to be heard. The columnists published in the News present differing points of view, but those views are not necessarily those of the newspaper itself. . " a aert Ls EACHEUS: oak ve 3 fates bal LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must include your name, full address & telephone number. VIA e-mail: trenshaw @ direct.ca Doug Foot —Tinathy ienshaw Comptrotler Managing Editor $85-2131 (133) 985-2131 (116) 965-2131 (105) Internet- bttp://www.nsnews.com Classitied, Accounting & Main Office Fax peter pane Michael Becker - Hews Editor 985-2131 (114) . Andrew McCredie - Sports/Cemmunity Editor 985-2131 (147) The North Shore News is published by North Shore Free Press Ltd., Publisher Peter Speck, from 1139 Lonsdale Avenue North Vancouver, 8.C., V7M 2H4 «ss 4s