6 — Sunday, August 9, 1998 — North Shore News

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ORTH Vancouver’s councils

will soon be considering a

request to increase the cost of
crime prevention — in municipalities
where crime is actually decreasing.

e irony has apparently esca
local RCMP Inspector Gord Mckee
who is hoping North Vancouver City
and District will pony up $47,946 (to
start) towards adding a helicopter to
the Mounties’ response capabilities.

A group of businessmen and citizens
calling itself the Vancouver Regional
Air Patrol Society is trying to raise $4
million to buy two helicopters.
wiiybinds and maintenance of the

lirlybirds is pegged at an annual $1.4
million which the society hopes will be
shared by 13 area police departments.

.:Make that 12. ‘The citizens of West
“Vancouver are as likely to pay for a
noisy helicopter with searchlights and

you said it

north shore news

VIEWPOINT

pier caper

bullhorns clattering over their commu-
nity at irregular hours as they are to
endorse night clubs in Dundarave.

McRae bemoans the difficulties of
restricted high-speed chases and the
taunting of car thieves who believe they
are immune from pursuit, but where
are the statistics that apply these hypo-
thetical situations to the North Shore?

Local crime statistics are shrinking.
The highest crime-producing munici-
pality (North Van City) ranks only
slightly above the provincial average
and its crime stats are acknowledged by
the RCMP to be influenced by visiting
shoplifters — a crime that is difficult to
police from the air.

But then a force that used to rely on
horses, but now wants to emulate the
Los Angeles PD will doubtless be ask-
ing for sunglasses that see through
walls next year.

“THINK HARD...
JHERE MuST BE

1A CHEAPER WAY TO

DEAL WITH THE PAY
EQUITY ISSUE

Are You Nursiz
HOW COULD ANYONE
LIVE ON “THAT ?.

Two problems with Nisga’a d

jy She was down in San Francisco every quarter in one

Vancouver-Seymour MLA Daniel Jarvis questioning
health minister Penny Priddy in the legislature sbout
et expenses racked up. by former North Shore Health
J Inge Schambou7Xi- (From an Aug. 5 News story.)

_ + “The church is weak because families are weak and fam-
». <flies are weak because men are weak.” ,
‘-.- Vernon : Robertson, North: Vancouver meat cutter and
‘-, €oOrdinator of Catholic Evangelization raining Ministrics, on
. the role men need to play in sir families as they re-examine
: their relationship with God. (Epeas an Aug. 5 News story.)

To 05.
*ASBatically, (they said) pick up your pace or pick up your
8 pper Hans Brewer daiming he was hassled by
at Northlands Public Golf Course. (From an
story.) ‘
cao

i ns t doesn’t give a choice to the patient.

Th for medicine that me worse, but not this,
~, “£Cancer fighter Sedi Dashti on provincial health policies that
will pay for chemotherapy and the pain killer morphine but not
“for natural: medications. that. Dashti says have made her
‘stronger, (From an Aug. 7 News Bory)

“We have a STOP sign on the street right in front of the
school ..: Fully 50% of the vehicles that approach ‘this sign
_ Off or picked up their children at school. You might think
that keeping children safe might be important to them.”

“Traffic _safety volunteer Jan Bryant on driver attitudes
towards STOP signs. (From a letter quoted in driving corre-
spondent Shaun Conlin’s Aug. 7 column.)

‘Merth Skere ews, founded in 1959 2s an
‘Suburban newspaper and qualified

Distribution Manager
908-1237 (124) .

LET’S get this Nisga’a referen-
dum thing straight.

By no means are all referendum sup-
porters mean Nisga'a-bashing rednecks.

: And referendums come

in more sizes than one.

As noted recently in
this space, the Nisga’a
Treaty itself ~— initialled
last Tuesday at a colorful,
genuinely moving cere-
mony 760 kilometres
from Vancouver in the
Nisga’s village of New
Aiyansh — is nothing for
the non-native 96% of
the B.C. population to:
lose too much sleep over.

True, it’s quite rich. A total value of
nearly half-a-billion dollars in cash, road-
building and land (almost 2,000 sq.km of
it) — representing some $80,000 value
for each of the 6,000 Nisga’a (only 2,500
resident on the land, the rest scattered
elsewhere in B.C.). Plus municipal-type
self-government with certain senior gov-
ernment powers added, for which non-
natives would have no vote. ‘

Still, the patient, dignified Nisga’a
have been seeking a settlement for well
over a century and actively negotiating
this one for 20 years. Only about 100
non-natives share their distant territory
north of Terrace. By way of righting
undeniable past wrongs of the colonial cra
it’s a deal the rest of B.C. could, and
should, be able to live with -— aside from
two key problems.

First, the “constitutional” wrangle.
Treaty supporters argue that the deal does
not amount to a constitutional amend-

ment (which must automatically be pre-
ceded by a referendum) because all it docs
is expand in greater detail the existing
clause in the constitution guaranteeing
aboriginal rights.
Be that as it may, in one
practical sense the
treaty is nevertheless
exactly the same as a
constitutional amend- _
ment. It is no ordinary
law. Once passed by ~
Viet oria and Ortawa, it
could not be repealed
or changed by any
future government.
Theoretically (though
unlikely in practice) it
could only be altered by

invoking the full constitutional amendin

formula — “seven provinces plus 50% o:
the population”

¢ same graven-in-stone permanency
will apply to all the other 50-plus treaties
still to be negotiated with B.C. Indian
bands, which leads to key problem No.2:
Premier Glen Clark's assertion that the
Nisga’a agreement will be the “template,”
or model, for all those treaties yet to
come.

This, of course, is lunacy. How could
the Nisga’a formula apply, for example, to
densely built-up Metro Vancouver, where
three overlapping claims cover the North
Shore, City of Vancouver, Burnaby,
Coquitlam, New Westminster, Richmond
and half of Delta? If cash is sought in lieu
of land, how astronomic would the bill
be? What would Nisga’a-type self-govern-
ment mean for the Squamish, Burrard and
Musqueam bands — not to mention their
nearly cwo million non-native “subjects”?

So stand back, take a deep brea
everybody, and THINK.=~ you
Glen Clark! :

Agreed, we don’t need a retere:
on the Nisga’s Treaty as stich. Wh:
do need — before even that
acceptable deal finally beco
~— is a one-time referendum
principies it embodies, defining als
those principles would be adapte
future to differing non-native si
(e.g. vital agricultural ae
metropolitan communities

Drafting the referendt
would be a unique challen,
erate lawyers. To cover all
inevitably. be a coniplex
ing to be. clarified in'n
to become understan
torate in “yes” or “no” term:
extended public debate. -

Ie’s not a process to b
in a few weeks, It mi

“WISH HAPPY 70TH birth

Aug.9, to indefatigable: .
Legionnaire Jim Irvine.
ee 6

WRIGHT OR WRONG: The borids’
matrimony aren’t worth much if the intef:
est isn’t kept up. i

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