THEY’RE a SLAPP-
happy bunch in
Victoria these days.

How else to explain
recent legislative forked
tongue work trom your
NDP (Now really Desperate
Party) government.

Consider, for example,
Attorney Genera] Andrew
Petter’s recent introduction
of legislation aimed at pro-
tecting the province’s citi-
zens from SLAPPs (Sirategic
Lawsuits Against Public
Participation) — legal bully-
ing strategies commonly
used by corporations to
intimidate citizens into
silence.

According to Petter’s
announcement unveiling the
government’s Protection of
Public Participation Act,
SLAPPS are “usually not
filed to be won, but to
intimidate defendants by
forcing them into costly and
time-consuming court
cases.”

In short, to stifle free
expression.

Sounds on the surface to
be legislation grounded in
good intentions.

From any other govern-
ment it might be.

But the NDP is the lead
promoter of another more
insidious acronym: STAFS
(Strategic Tribunals Against
Free Speech).

STAFS are promoted by
the province's anti-democra-
tic Human Rights Code,
which authorizes the prose-
cution by government-
appointed tribunal of any
person or group of persons
expressing opinions or ideas
that “indicate” discrimina-

.tion or are “likely” to expose
a person or group of persons
to hatred or cuntempr.

. - Read: any opinions or
ideas that special interest
groups don’t agree with.

Petter is further quoted
as saying that “SLAPPs put a

: chill on free speech by drag-

. ging legitimate public debate

-into the courts. These kinds

* of lawsuits send the message
that speaking out could get
you in legal trouble — and
that’s wrong.”

’ ”” His press release also pro-
fesses concern for the legal
costs incurred by SLAPP

.. defendants.

‘-. Of course, legal fees are
not something government

: officials or Cabinet ministers

~. Rave to worry about. Since

‘1996, the NDP government

. has increased the. indemnity

* coverage for Cabinet minis-
ters facing legal action -——

. thereby sticking, the public
with any legal bills that min-
isters might incur bullying

- those critical of them or
their government.
~~ And Petter, in a summary
quote of singular hypocrisy,
states that “the government
is serious about protecting
free speech in B.C.”

. If that were anywhere
near the truth, Petter’s gov-

* ernment would long ago

. have amended the aforemen-
tioned Human Rights Code
to allow for the free and
open exchange of ideas in

__ this province. .

It would have done away

“with costly tribunals that
deliver government edict in

_ place of justice and in which
such common law defences
as truth and qualified privi-
lege have no standing.

It would have levelled the
currently skewed human
rights playing field that auto-
matically covers the legal fees’

eTenre
eee

of human rights com-
plainants but provides no
similar government largesse
for those accused, even if
said accused are exonerated.

It would, in short, have
placed real value on free
expression in B.C. not just
paid it political lip service.

o00

Further evidence that
medicinal marijuana has
been OK'd for use by B.C.
MLAs is Premier Ujjal
Dosanjh’s Balanced Budget
gambit.

His legislation to improve
government budgeting
accountability was passed
immediately prior to the leg-
islature’s summer break.

Balanced budget legisla-
tion is a motherhood issue
for anyone remotely con-
cerned about government
finances.

Who in their right fiscal
mind could be against it?

But, as with its born-
again interest in free speech,
the NDP has no credibility

h in:
Full of frome

wwwathepantry.ca

Real Food, Real Value.

when it comes to budgeting
of any kind fet alone the bal-
anced budget variety.

The socialists have proved
fiscally challenged from
birth.

For example, one of the
newly-eleceed party's first
actions in 199] was to abol-
ish the Taxpayer Protection
Act, which, apart from any-
thing else, required the gov-
ernment to deliver balanced
budgets.

Since then, the NDP has
delivered nine consecutive
deficit budgets, helping, in
the process, to push the
province’s debt from $17.3
billion to the current $36.5
billion.

And while the Taxpayer
Protection Act would have
instituted a tax freeze and
required a debt reduction
plan from B.C."s finance
minister, the Dosanjh plan
addresses only deficit reduc-
tion.

Protection of taxpayers
from new and higher taxes is
also missing in action.

And, according to
Dosanjh’s timetable, the
province would not sce a
balanced budget until 2004.

With the NDP at the
helm that might as well be
3004.

Talk, as they say, is cheap.
Pre-election talk is valueless.
o00

On 2 more positive note:

ey

bONSBIKE

®
RESTAURANTS

+

No vacant slap happiness in
Edgemont Village these past
couple of Friday nights.

Just happiness unadulter-
ated by pretension or other
social pollution. Happiness
in community; joy in living
in a place that values family,
fraternity and good spirits.

The second annual
Evenings in Edgemont
Village series kicked off July
7 with Sugar Mountain Way
playing a boisterous brand of
country music at the inter-
section of Highland and
Edgemont boulevards to
crowds of Edgemont vil-
lagers and other area resi-
dents.

{t generated an impromp-
tu electricity of human inter-
action, spontaneous
applause, even some free-
form dancing.

Village life free, for a few
hours at least, of computer
games, video drivel and digi-
tal intrusions of any sort.
Reality TV without the TV.

The series continues
through to Aug. 18.

Maybe it will catch on in
other local neighbourhoods.
How about west of the

Capilano River?

That would be cause for
some real North Shore-wide
slap happiness.

—trenshaw@nsnews.com

Real Taste.”

Sunday, July 16, 2000 - North Shore News - 7

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