“1139 Lonsdale Avenue ” Nortti Vancouver, 8.C, mM aH4 ~~ Boug Foot °':, Comptrolter =.” “Operations Manager “Unda Stewart Sales & arketing Director OBHO511 (319) °° Managing Editor “e85-2131 (116) : _Wetorle Stophocéva Classified Manager. °° 986-6222 { Photography Manager.” $85-2131 (186) * Dy Month Shave Nes. ‘ind in 1969 as an (independent suberban f newspaper and qualified | under Schedule “111, Paragraph 11}: of the | Excise Tax’ Act, is published each Wednesday, <7) Friday and Sumday by-North Shore Free Press +, Ltd. and distriitsied to every door on the North | hore, Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail ales’ Product Agreement: No, 0087238. Mailing mites s available on Fequest . : Chris Jahnsun ', 985-2134 (166) URPRISE! “THE ND P budget has run off the rails. A spot of bother J brought on by sluggish economic l ' growth and the cancellation of a major: ‘deal with - the Bonneville Power Adniinistration in the U.S. Unfortunately, for most British - Columbians, the revelation, of fiscal ‘unpleasantness in: Victoria’ will not be much of a surprise at all... Finance. Minister Elizabeth ,Cull’s ‘announced spending cuts of $300: mil- lion to balance the budget will do iittle to ease taxpayer fears that, ‘contrary to: what they consistently preach; the NDP dangerously deeper into the debt quage mire. Another reality. shart 0 on surprise. With its payoffs to Big Labor under the guise of such boondoggles as the Fair - Wage policy, and its penchant for push- pace revenues, even though those, rey: “enues are higher than expected. The result is that British Columbia is” ‘now. burdened with a $167: million 7 deficit. . “i : The NDP preachers “of pleasantness: ing government’s sneut into the lives of and _fiscai’ bunglers ” have successfully British Columbians and the free market system at every opportunity, little wore der that the cost of g government contin- ues to spiral out of control and that - ed, J AS detailed in the government's recently. released first quarter report,: interim budget Band-aid fixes are need-- ~ steered the province to a net government oe debt of $30 billion. 2... a Considering that they: started with an = already massive $20 billion debt when - they took office in 1991, the new fi igures : “are disgraceful. - They also again underli r ‘the need to send the NDP socialist horde packing in’ - Socialists are driving British’ Columbia, ‘YOU'VE READ everything “that can be said about the ~ Paul Bernardo trial. “Almost. . “But the horror of being there —— of having your skin exposed to. "the same air as that obscene. piece -. ’ of;human offal, of going away. ’ feeling that you' ‘could never wash | Off the foul stain of that experi- “ence as long as you lived — is - indescribable. 1°11 try. I attended proceedings on Aug:' . 21. At least one reporter wrote ... ~ that was the most significant day “' of the three-month trial. Long : “years ago I was’a court reporter. - There was nothing like this. “No need to-repeat the testimo-. ony. ‘that day. But'a little’scene-set- ting is in order. It was a Monday. Bernardo had been on the stand * four days the previous week. He’ d been cocky. So reports. said. Know ihis, though it hurts. °- Bernardo” was far superior io . Crown counsel Ray Houlahan in a juickness ‘of mind, in cconomy of ye ‘words, in self-control, in that most prized of attitudes in the “popu- lar" juvenile culture generated by - film and TV violence: that i is. in _ Sheer cool. ‘Only once did he correct what . he: said, Never. mind what it wis. It. concerned Tammy Homolia, 14- -yéar-old dead sister of. Bernardo’s then- wife, Karla Homolka. : government spending coniinues to out-' 1 . Dear Editor: - A oh On behalf.of Hans Bentzen &. Associates, I'd like to publicly con- gratulate“ Coun. Ernie. Crist. and three Of’ his. colleagues..on: North : Vancouver District Council for. their : wisdom in. supporting a regional:.. Hopefully, their decision will’ get . the attention of . the other” North the, Greater, Vancouver’ “Regional District; Vancouver, City Council, * B.C. Transit and. the provincial » ' Highways Ministry. ; rapid. transit Jink between the north, Such a link has been ant integral ' part of the _ proposal * by “Hans Bentzen: and: his, colleague Kurt © Heiin’ for a.tunnel crossing of the inlet along the. Lions Gate: : Bridge 4 - Mr, Bentzen has recognized for?” “many years. that a tunnel crossing is the best option to take commuter _Araffic out of Stanley. Park: and off” West End sireets, and that a transit “ ‘Bernardo “believed himself supe-_ : “rior to Houlahan. (He) had the'air -. ‘of a high school clique. leader: who - “had rejected Houlahan as a Hope: : less, sexless dweeb who just didn't get it!” °" “But on the fifth day of Bernardo’s cross-examination, the : day. I was there, the chemistry. : . somehow changed. . - Houlahan. was tenacious. ‘He. doggedly kept going after” - Bernardo. 5, And it suddenly hit you.: tt worked. Houlahan’s underlying €S © moral outrage, as if he'd been * Verbally flailed by Houlahan, :: Bernardo unemotionally: amended - » his answer::“That's inappropriate” Wy and I shouldn’t have said’it, sir. ° He ended all his answers with “sir” He began all his' answers “witha “quick, ‘straight-down dart-. ing of his-tongue. In between his, eyes sometimes roved the higher’ _walls of the courtroom as if “searching for an invisible clock. “Houlahan was like us. Like, you. and T-would have been. - Sometimes he lost it. He was sick- _ened and outraged: [t showed. It; “wasn't just. lawyerish playing to the gallery. He is a 60-ish man, a, long generation older thar fe Bernardo... Columnist Paul Cheney; ‘of the Toronto Star measured that gap = perfectly: it was, he wrote, as if elected for a righteous cause bya revolted community, was far more . effective than. if he’d been slick -and clever like your average TV" tawyer. ; Rae *' replayed the tapes.’A dozen times _ che called for excerpts from the ©. tapes to make a point. ‘The tapes. ” The tapes... a : And no one who, heard those. tapes, reader, will ever forget “them, or: < They were rade especially ; ‘hideous by their horrible back- drop: recorded rap music. Against ‘that backdrop, sometimes almost: “made inaudible by those vile - ‘sounds, were the voices of the two Syoung ‘girls:in their final, brutal hours of life. = fds uP ‘promised you a personal tes ‘tament. Judge it’s you will. : First, I felt: an irrepressible. the next t provincial election: “facility should be included i in “that crossing. The Bentzen proposal. “tunnel. -with- six : vehicle: lanes two light rail transit tracks.” the Lions Gate debate thal “pay for itself. “And with the work he s already ‘done,: there can be’no quicker, way and no. more.:affordable :way,:to chieve: the desired’ results. than aaerith the ‘Bentzen Project oh A. Peacock « -ten) and include} your name; address and telephone num _ Submissi "nostalgia for the rope. Yes, fora’ ‘hanging — anda double one a “that, the hideous'‘Karly’Kurls”: ‘reunited on the gibbet with’ her ~ Satanic erstwhile husband i in a | st ~“dance on the air.’ : Second, I stared at Pau Bernardo. Hard. Harder than any gaze [have ever fastened on human being. threw a digital. curse at him.” ” T wished it could release some ‘terrible punishment, I yearned to have him enveloped on the spot i a cylinder of supernatural fire’ flames that’ would have him ‘screaming in indescribable pain,” so that he would beg. for a dog to} lick his'sores.::- Third, | wished for him to live: Live in fear, Live with nightmares _ unprecedented, Live in dread that : . every quick shadow ir ‘the grey. corridors of prison had‘ an earthly avenger behind it.: °~ js: Then | wished. for all three. -Sonichow, : ; You can call that irrational. You can call it unprofessional. : : Journalists'aren't supposed to get: that close to a’ story. Destroys “de: objectivity and all that. But no teport, including this one, can convey the reality of. the agerieved and life-shattered par. ents, the sounds of those: grotesque tapes, and the memory ‘of thé piece of human slime who