1139 Lonsdale Avenue Worth Vancouver, B.C. WIR 24 PETER SPECK Publisher 985-2131 (101) ” Deng Foot _/ Chris Johnson Comptroller * Operations Manager 9e5-2131 (33) $85-2131 (168) “©. Promo *, Photogeaphy , Seta ey SSE) Jonathan Bat: . Berbers Esio . aie, a) Dtaptey & fond Estate Fax Neseereces Fax Clensifisd, Acceasting & Moin Gtfioe Fax Werta Chere Mews, founded in 1969 as an + independent suburban newspaper and qualifies under Schedule 111, Peragragh of the oil | cpiotes of the _ “An unwerranted and unprecedented attack on free , Speech and a free press in British Columbia.” B.C. Press Council chairman Robert Yanow — in a letter to. Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh — . describing the NDP’s amendments to the Human Rights Act. (From a March 13 News story.) “The best antidote to offen- "sive material, published in a newspaper, is the freedom to dis- agree, to rebut, to debunk. lin _other words, thé best antidote is treedom of expression itself, not a cumbersome, inept inquisition _ by civil service bureaucrats.” Lawyer David Sutherland, of ‘Killam, Whitelaw and Twining, on the NDP’s amendments to the Human Kights Act and the free- . -dom of speech. (From a March 13 tax tales THE CANADIAN taxpayer is cur- rently. being compelied to pay multi-million-dollar subsidics to the Liberal, Conservative, NDP. and Bioc Quebecois parties. Even the Reform party, which opposes these handouts, took the money. It's a per- fectly. legal rip-off. Under the Canadian Elections Act, the major parties are entitled to have 22.5% of their ‘campaign expenses reim- bursed by taxpayers after each elec- tion. Canadian political parties took a weelk News story.) “We don’t know if we are safe. I’m really ixsecure. I don’t want rocks coming through ry living room wails.” Janette O'Flaherty, expressing fears that her upper Capilano area home will be hit with another flood from Mackay Creek. (From a March 15 News story.) “This is really the federal gov- ernment beating up on the tax- payers of North Vancouver. They took it at the front end and now they are taking us at the back end.” Sierra Legal Defence Fund lawyer Greg McDade; on govern- ment pressure being broughi to bear on the Mountain Forest issue. in North Vancouver District. ( From a March 10 News story.) ) total of $7,561,142 in direct tax sub- sidies as a result of the the 1993 federal election. In addition, candi- dates who received at least 15% of } the popular vote in their ridings ” received a taxpayer subsidy of 50% of their campaign cosis. That cost the taxpayers $14.9 million in 1993. The total taxpayer subsidy to all political parties and political candi- dates for the 1993 general election was $24.9 million, — From Tales from the Tax Trough Ii, a National Citizens’ Coalition publication. news viewpoint. Lost a - > J pig breeders: DEMOCRACY, AS Winst 5 Churchill wryly observed, is the Noe i worst form of government -— Wright except for all the others that have been tried. One of its most reprehensible features is its capacity for bribing us with our own money. Recently the “Tax Tales” items on this page have been having some grim fun exposing how the system works. Need the golfer vote? The Industry Department's “business” grant of $100,000 for an 18-hole golf course in Sudbury . should help. ; Cosying up to ethnics? That $115,805 the Multiculturaiism Minister pid _ consultants “To advise on portraying minorities in advertising” proves how.’ Liberals love *em. Want more academics on side? Give them $30,600 to 7 study “Reform and popular fiction in late Ch'ing China.” . These and dozens of similar handouts are chronicied in the third - editio of Tales From The Tax Trough, 2 periodic National Citizens’ Coalition pubh- cation. The booklets track the federal government's outrageously wasteful , : spending to woo special interest groups. ; Over the past two years or less such groups have gobbled up over f wo billion tax dollars — the lion's share handed out by Ottawa's various “busi ness development” agencies — often to businesses so ill-conceived or ‘baully managed they could never make it on their own. : Other guzziers at the trough were no stouches, either. During 1993-94 the unions received almost $24 million for “labor education,” while’ the. arts. wer nurtured by Canada Council to the tune of $7. 37 miltion. The political par ties in the 1993 election were subsidized by over 7.5 million taxpayer dollars and in 1994 assorted political interest groups raked in a cool, $4.06 iillion.-, But even these were modest payouts compared to the $70.8 million sper by the feds since 1993 on promoting multicultaralism and the $34. _lavished on chasing the feminist vote. Can we ever stop such obscene misuse of our hard-eamed tax dollars - For generations the realistic answer. has seemed to be “nd. in a democracy the polidician’s first duty j is to get elected. Then tled to demand from us the money nesd- ed for good government. And to a tradi- tional politician the first goal of good government has always been to get re- elected—no matter how much each vote . costs. This is democracy as practised until yesterday by virtually all politicians, ©, |-, Tales From The Tax Trough for Liberal years read exactly like those for Tory’. :. years. But at last there are glimmers of | hope. Ralph Klein i in Alberta and Mike Harris in Ontario act as if they don’t « give a damn about re-election, provided they bring provincial into the black and everitually cut taxes..- : Federally, Preston Manning and his Reformers (all but one of whom rejected lush partiamentary pensions) make similar noises. Is a brand new; species of politician finally emerging —~ one who sets out to win by guarding our money instead of squandering it? .. Can politicul pig breeders eventually switch to honest work? : Was Churchill too pessimistic, after all? : eee HAPPY 79TH birthday tomorow, March 19, to West Van's Sybil { — in the pink of condition from swimming haifa mile every single day eeu - . WRIGHT OR WRONG: A smile goes a long way, but! ‘you have to ; on its joumey. im a fog Entire contents © 1996 North Shore Free Press Ltd, All rights reserved. PIOUS FOG continues to cloud political thinking when it comes to the NDP’s. dangerous Human Rights Act amendments. The B.C. Press Council has fired a. blistering shot at Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh expressing outrage over his refusal to amend the NDP’s legislation, which the council has rightly called an ‘dnsult to the people of this province, ts its free press, and to one of the bedrock ° principles of a free and open society,’ For ’ those who might have forgotten what the rhubarb is all about: @ Bill 33, the 1993 Human Rights Act, restricts the publication or open discus- sion of material that “indicates discrimi- nation” or is “likely to expose a person or group of persons to hatred or contempt.” & Bili 32, the new Human Rights Amendment Act, empowers an cdious Human Rights Commission to harass the press and other media by seeking out alleged Human Rights violations or cem- plainis about discrimination without a complainant. B.C.’s residents should be collectively up in arms about such blatant and unnecessary infringements on their democratic rights. Residents Iccally should be up in arms about the response to it from iecal politicians. North | ‘Vancouver-Lonsdale NDP MLA David Schreck, of course, backs the changes ¢o the hilt, saying “poor. people need ‘an agency like this (the ‘Human: Rights Commission).” Never mind that news media with Hmited resources not afford te fight a protracted battle with the government over disputed areas: of. discussion. But for voters seeking alternatives to the NDP, alarm: bells*. shouid also be ringing over the response | to the legislation from West Vancouver: . Capilano Libere! MLA Jeremy Dalton, », He supports it. Beware: The pious fog of political do- goodism is spreading. _