6 — Friday, May 1. 1998 — North Shore News e fate of the Robertson House has hung in the balance for far too long. . The 1912 craftsman-style cottage is included as ‘one of 57 buildings in North. Vancouver District’s secondary . heritage list. To some that automati- cally means the old home is part of our heritage that should be preserved with pride. To others, it’s some 85-year-old windows and a 2 porch that could be re--. - used. ° Right now, ‘that secondary designa- tion ‘doesn’t mean much’ in practical .. terms, unfess it’s that the home is less _Worthy: of | preservation than the 24 buildings on the primary heritage list. - District politicians need to stop treating’ heritage’ conservation like a _ photo: opportunity at election time “along. with, motherhood, trees and lower taxes, north shore news VIEWPOINT heritage Council. decided over 18 months ago that the: imposition of heritage designations on private property own- ers in Upper Lonsdale was not worth the political fallout. Since then, it has happily: left the thorny questions of preservation in the hands of a volun- teer working group. Even their recommendations’ were somehow overlooked in council’s haste ‘to deny a subdivision that would have re-sited and saved the Robertson House. . Most of us are more concerned with paying for the double glazing in our .own homes than. the multi-paned wooden sash casements in the 1912 ‘shack down the road. But’ council needs-to grapple with what it wants to preserve. of our. coi- lective heritage and how, collectively, ws we are going to pay, for it. mailbox ‘Closing.the Ross case : Dear Edito cee “The, libel judgriene i in ‘favor of former teacher Malcolm Ross‘ war?ants public attention. Mr. Ross lost his job‘after human rights complaints were made by the’Adantic Jewish Council concerning books he had written, After years of litigation the Supreme. Court of _ Canada. ruled thar he could write books but he could not be ‘employed in any capacity. by the Moncton school board. Like many other rulings by that court, it was a decision that ; defied logic. ._ fe. Demonized’ by. the media, Mr. Ross was the subject of _ about a ‘dozen cartoons by Josh Beutel,-a Jewish cartoonist on the: ‘Telegraph. Journal, in whose pages Ross was pictured __as a‘Nazi. The New Brunswick Teachers Association, which — should have defended himi, chose instead to piliory him. One cartoon showed.a grotesque looking Ross with a up bis sectumh, Another asked, “What is the difference . - of Dr. ‘Goebbels: and Malcolm’ Ross?”. f in Gerinan and the other in English. ob Lhe judge: awarded Mr./Ross’ $7,500 in damages, plus some costs. The tedchers association was ordered tO pay an : additional $2,170 in costs, . The court, found thar w hile thé plaintiff Was ‘a Christian p. beliefs, he.was no Nazi. But it also wént out of its - say ‘that. the cartoonist held “an honest belicf” and Was no malice i in his presentation.”. foons Weren't: malicious; then what is?-Any ea oonist rtraying a Jew in such a way would probably po “have been awarded hundreds of thousands, not thousands. "The Canadian Jewish Congress has complained. that the ~~” verdict will put a ‘chill on commentators who wish to criticize public figures. 2 But Mr, Ross was not 2 a public figure until the Atlantic Jewish Congress‘made him one. And the CJC should be the last to complain about “chills,” considering i its eager support ‘for the. B.C. Human Rights Code. ‘Loffer this letter as a conclusion to the columns T wrote © . on:the persecution of Malcolm Ross: | “Doug Collins West Vancouver | north shore § Worth Shore News, founded in 1969 as an __ independent suburban newspaper and quakhed Under Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of the Excise Tax Act, it published each Wednestay, Frutay ant Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and autributed to every door an the Novth Shore. Canada Post Canadian Pubbcations Mail ‘Sales Product Agreement No 0087236 ~ Maikng rates avadable on request. Distribution Manager 986-1337 (124) ‘NOW here’s a kindly suggestion to the authorities: Nese time someone clambers high on Lions Gate Bridge and it is sincerely sus- pected that he or she might j jump — just stand back, please. Don't stop traffic, <2. Don't royally screw up the - schedules, the work, the . business, the plane- -catch- ing, the ferry-connecting . or even the illicit noon- hour assignations of thou- sands of people while some Hamlet sitting on a ‘steel beam ponders: “To = Jump | or not to jump? That is the ques: *