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VIA internet: tenshaw @ direct.ca COMPUTER 88S - 980-8027 User 'D:maitbox * Passwoi Morte Shore Mews, founded in 1969 indoperatent ‘suhezban newspaper react qualified under Schedule 11, Paragraph Itt of the Excise Tax Apt is pubtishad exch ‘Wolneakry,Frikyy anal Suratay by North Shore Froe Pros Lid. * and distntused to every dour on the North Shore. Careata Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreeinent No. 0 7238, Mating taal A ‘Cs SDA OIMSION ; * co Entire contents © 1996 North Shore : Free Press Ltd. ‘Al ights reserved. GENERAL BOYLE CONSULTS HISTORICAL MILITARY STRATEGY _ IN PREPARATION FOR THE SOMALIA INQUIRY news view point ‘light to extradite “senna te em cindy haematite er streetcar tenant remem arte nT Kangaroo court for columnist Dear Editor: An open letter to Doug Collins — Bill 33. Any day now, the NDP “pollies.”’ free of voter back- lash will trot out their Human Rights hotseat for you and. give it and Bill 33 an airing. Don’t be discouraged. Doug. Try to. imagine ‘the makeup of their “kangaroo court.’ : Most likely you can expect to witness multicult at its best, in the composition’ of. the”: panel. But Doug,-such people” have to-be born Canadians or: at least have been here: five years to become Canadian ci izens before they. can’ con- demn you. »; wg ft ; You might find’ a succes: ful Iranian-Canadian: business: man sitting around the:“‘dni head” of your “court-martial, . Such a chosen: person: coiild ‘well favor you.’ Recol ‘of his own escape from similar. oppressions enacted by: the successors {to the. late Shah could provide ‘a: ‘modifying influence. in decidin ; Then ‘again: Doug, :D |HIS time federal Justice Minister Allan . Reck is on the right track. Atif Rafay - and Sebastian Burns shouid stand tria! in the United States. Full stop. No strings attached. The -two young North Shore. men are charged with aggravated first-degree murder . _ in Washington state in connection with the brutal killings of Tariq and Sultana Rafay,— Atif Rafay’s parents — and Basma Rafay —- Atif Rafay’s mentally handicapped sister. In his decision, which. was_ released last “Friday, Rock said. Canada can’t afford to become a safe haven for suspected criminals - seeking to aveid the death: penalty, regardless ‘brutal murders, Rafay and Burns have been -seeking to avoid extradition to. the United States to face their murder charges. ‘Information presented at their extradition © “hearing. included confessions that Burns wielded a baseball bat while Rafay watched his fasnily being killed. Tie alleged motive for the killings, according to the police, was a simple matter of greed. The two accused were - Jooking to collect insurance money and inher- . itance worth about $350,606. - The brutality of the murders demands 2. reckoning with justice. If Rafay and’ Burns are found guilty they should face whatever : the American “justice ‘system deems apprepri-.- Schreck, reported to be.a fai minded man, is out. of:a. job and might be cailed upon’ by friends to sit on. the “council As we say in'\"The Land of th Kangaroo” ta fair, go ‘seems Meanwhile. Doug,” even though you have'suffered four years. imprisonment. by: ‘Nazi regime: keep before:you hi the fictional. words: of ’ Japanese prison’ camp cori »mandant - “ British troops in . addre World War movie'The B ridge ‘onthe happy in your work! of their nationality. Amen to that. ; . . Rafay’s parents and sister were found. ‘bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat in their Bellevue, Washington, home last July. '* Since their arrest in connection with the ate. and clear. Of course,: there's a Mr. Rock i is right: this case and others like it are matters of justice without borders. A messuge that criminals need to hear loud Is US. the only sinner in C IF ethics are your sport, the worldwide uproar over the Helms- Burton Act recently passed by Congress is as good a game as you’ ll find. The act penalizes foreign companies whose Cuba opera- tions involve use of former U.S. property pinched from its origi- nal owners by Castro. It bars executives of offending companies and their families fyom visiting the U.S. Seven top brass at Sherritt International, a prominent Toronto-based mining corporation, have already received letters denying them entry. It also enables Americans to sue individuals and com- panies benefiting from confiscated American property in Cuba — though this may yet be sus- pended for six months by President Clinton. Canada is not alone in its anger over 1 U.S. law punishing citizens of another country out- side the U.S. borders for their technically lawful activities in a third country. Equally outraged is the entire European Union, which, like Canada, is threatening strong retaliatory measures, Why would the U.S. put such valued international * relationships at tisk? The answer has nothing to do with Senator Jesse Helms himself, the dominant co- sponsor of the bill, who has something of a reputation as a blustering, buffoonish polit- icul know-nothing. It has everything to do with the November presidential elec- tion. High among the key states that will determine who occu- pics the White House until the year 2000 is Florida — with thousands of Cuban exiles who exercise cnormous influence there. For both Bil! Clinton and Bob Dole. his Republican challenger, Florida votes are | absolutely vital. But meanwhile, the ethical questions refuse | io go away. Starting with our justice system, | which treats possessors of stolen property as criminals unless they prove they had no way of knowing it was stolen. Aren't Canadian and European corporations using facilities in Cuba that Castro stole from Americans in exactly the same position? Though technically innocent under Cuban law, such cor- porations are obyiously benefiting from the use of stolen property -~ and aware of the fact. To that exten: alone the U,S. clearly occupies » the high moral ground, Where it has gone woe- and yon fully wrong is in attempting to to browea. hithe friendly independent nations beyond its, frontiers ; into obeying U.S: law. Stopping Stierritt’ 's CEO and his wife from taking the. kids to Disneyland won't restore a centsworth of Cuban’ property, to its original U.S. owners. All it promises is trade wars with America's angry former friends, * Ina perfect world the U.S. could seek the’ redress to which it is morally entitled before-an. international court with real teeth. But the fail ure so far to haul even Serb war criminals " before the Hague International Tribunat sho how far away globui justice still is. So Uncle Sam feels forced to play his téast lovable role — that of the world’s bully-boy. Not helped by the hypocrisy of simultaneously trading with China, whose human rights’ abuses far exceed Cuba's. : All of which, however, doesn’t alter the ct that the technically blameless foreign companies being bullied are in the same moral league‘as the guy who knowingly buys my stolen car from, the original thief. ood A 98-CANDLE salute today, July 17, to lege. 5° endary cinematographer Osmond Borradaile of a West Van ... And many happy retums of tomor- . row, July 15, to former West Van “first ney" . Margaret Humphreys. GOO WRIGHT OR WRONG: Every patient isa doctor after the cure. re