Dear Editor: T would like to respond to a portion of Doug Collins’ May 20 guest column that appeared beneath the headline “Book seizures signal police state.” In it he mentions that a booklet he wrote years ago was seized by customs officials at the U.S. border when it’ was brought from the U.S. to Canada. Mr. Collins writes thar the customs inspector seized this material “stating thar it might be hate literature.” Mr. Collins argues that this seizure should ‘ — not have been made. He also implies that customs officials seem to be unable to differennate his writing from hare literature. T think this is exactly the point thar Mr. Collins seems to be missing. 1 think, when it comes to Mr. Collins’ w: Titing, customs officials are erring on the side of caution. And I’m per- sonallv happy thar they do. Ir.seems to me that Mr. Collins has put himself into a position much like that of the . teenager in the U.S. who was aiming a plastic replica of a deadly revolver at a passersby. When confused police arrested him, he :com- the police state. “He demanded, “Can't people even tell the plained that he was being unfairly harassed by, north shore news MAIL Box Collins too close to hate difference between my replica and a real gun?” The answer, of course, is, “No.” Obviously, the safest thing to do for the community was to first arrest the man with the gun and ask ques- tions later. In Mr. Collins’ case, I find it difficult to see whether his writing is only a replica of hate lit- erature or the real thing. His imitation is too close to the real thing to be distinguishable. And [ have university education. But perhaps Mr. Collins’ writing is just too subtly harmless for me to notice. Is it any wonder that those “deep thinkers,” (as Mr. Collins sarcastically labels customs offi- cials) can’t see the difference berween what Mr. Collins writes and hate literature? Can you blame them for acting on the side of caution? Who would fault the police officers for taking precautions with the teenager and his revolver? If Mr. Collins wants customs officials not to be confused about what he publishes, he should perhaps stop “aiming his gun” at peo- ple in our community. If he wants to avoid what. he feels is harass- ment maybe he should stop writing material thar seems like hate literature. Peter B. Raabe raabe@unixg.ubc.ca North Vancouver - Jokes offensive to Christian Me Dear, Editor: . : Re: Trevor Laurens’ Friday, a May. ‘9,:North Shore News: - seolumn,’ I. think. we as . Christians have just about had énough maturity.'to-laugh at ourselves: We. chuckled when ~ they banned. Our . Lord’s ~.Prayer from the schools; had a real-: laughing . fit. when “Christ” was Faken out of ‘Christmas and. Wwe were: not. - allowed — ‘say “Merry m Christmas.” T take great. umbrage at his idea_of'a joke! Whey. didn’t he tell the. swell- ‘known .one about the nwo Dea ar ‘Editor: . “May. 17. Ripping Yarns col- umn, paints a very bleak pic- ‘ture *of the aboriginal land -- -velaims process. | Fortunately, reality i is not “as black as he fears. -' First, privately held land “is not on the negotiating “rable. are ‘not unsolvable. principle is “close to ccoming a full-fledged » treaty with a settlemens: that’ _ covers only about 10% of the ». Jand that the Nisga’a consid- tr-as their traditional territo- ry. ae > Also, in the last week, the McLeod Lake band has reached an agreement in i,. principle, Finally, as the Laurier ~~ Institution’s_ recently. pub- lished book, Prospering Tagether: The Economic Impace of. Aboriginal Title Settlements in B.C. shows, » settlements will greatly increase investment, jobs and“ economic activity in “this- province, not only for aboriginal people, but for call the rest-of us as well. Roslyn Kunin, Ph.D., . Executive Director Laurier Institution Ce Se re eatata ’ ane ww Meee Rabbis and the Sikh, and let us “Timothy Renshaw, in “his Second, land claims issues “The Nisga’a agreement in | see how much humor that generates. I feel it is about time we Christians stood up and said “No more.” I think the joke is in very poor taste when I think of all the wonderful clergy I have known in my lifetime. I am very tired of maturity and laughing at ourselves. We want to be treated with political correctness just as our Jewish and Sikh neighbors are. Jessie Mackay : North Vancouver jmackay@istar.ca sorth Fancaurer Recreation commission ” Summer » . 988 Leisure : Activities “2, ps ‘Guide SUMMER REGISTRATION Registration numbers handed out at 7:30am {8:15am at N.S.Neiqhbourhood House) Registration starts at 8:30an at Griffin, Delbrook, Lonsdale, Magnussen, Andrews & N.S.Neighbourhood House REGISTER TODAY - For Fitness Programs, Art, Sport, Theatre & Day Camps, register at all recCentres ADULT HOCKEY Register June 5, 5:00pm at Magnussen 987-PLAY(7529) Register at a later date for programs that do not fill © immediately. Call M987 -PLAN(7529} for details ted white, m.p. Wednesday, May 27, 1998 — North Shore News — 9 advertorial, May 27/1998 WHAT DO MPS DO ANYWAY? itis a few years siz.ce | wrote a North Shore News report about the day to day job of a Member of Parliament, a job for which, you may be surprised to learn, there is very little in the way of a job specification. In fact, an MP could, theoreticafly at least, sit at home and do nothing between elections, with a smal! reduction in pay being the only punishment administered by the system. Of course, the majority of MPs do not sit at home and do nothing, although there are major differences in the way MPs use their time. | personally strive for two days a week in the Riding and three days a week in Ottawa, while some MPs spend virtually all of their time in Ottawa, and a few spend almost ail of their time in their Ridings. Only one MP, to my knowledge, has attended every vote since the last election, while most make it to between 35% and 75% of the votes. ONE WEEK No particular week is “typical” for me, but ! wrote this report in early May, so | have used Wednesday April 29th, to Tuesday May Sth, as the sample week. Wednesday mornings are usually set aside as the time for Caucus meetings in Ottawa, but because | had been invited to be part of the citizenship ceremony held at ° Balmoral Schoo} on April 29th, | took a 9am flight out of Ottawa io Vancouver that day, arriving around 11:30am. | then drove to the office to sign some letters and to deal with a part of the mountain of Paperwork which always seems to be waiting for me on my return, before heading off to Batmoral Schoo! shortly after 1pm. Back in the office around 4:30pm, t unpacked the filing. and paperwork | had brought back from Ottawa, and updated our database with letters and the North Shore News report I had typed on my laptop computer during the flight to Vancouver. Thursday was spent in the North Vancouver office, starting at 7:30am because, as anybody with an office job knows, you can get.the most work done before or after norma! business hours when the interruptions are few and far between. Apart from meeting inthe late moming with a man who came to the office to talk with me about the way visitors’ visas to Canada are issued at the Embassy in Cuba, the day was devoted to returning phonecalls and catching up with correspondence. We receive large numbers of letters, faxes, phone calls and email messages from constituents, so it is nice to get an occasional day when 20 or more repiies can be processed, and numerous phone calls can be returned. Friday was a similar day, researching for and answering correspondence, meeting with a constituent who has ongoing negotiations with Parks Canada; and handling the never-ending flow of telephone calls about everything from leaky condos to native land claims. In the background of course, as on any day, we monitored the Parliamentary channel! in order to keep abreast of Question Period issues and the deiails of any debates. Around 6pm, | left the office to attend the opening session of ‘the CIVITAS conference, which had on its agenda a discussion about direct democracy — my area of critic responsibility within the Reform Caucus. THE WEEKEND AT LAST On Saturday, | spent the day at the CIVITAS conference, and the evening attending one of three separate events to which | had been invited. Unfortunately, - most MPs receive more invitations to dinners, celebrations, and other functions « than they can attend, and it is usually a case of accepting the first invitation received. In other words, plan early if you hope to have your MP attend an important function. The CIVITAS conference continued on Sunday morning, but! spent several hours in the office catching up on a backlog of reading, as well as preparing for an Elections Canada public policy forum which { would be co-chairing in Ottawa on May 7th. Late on Sunday aftemoon, much to Sue’s delight, | managed to get home and deal with some long overdue “fix-it” jobs before packing my suitcase ready to return to Otlawa. , BACK TO OTTAWA My flight back to Ottawa. was at 3 pm Monday, so | managed to get a few more hours in the North Vancouver office before leaving for the airport at 1 pm. | try to catch - : the afternoon flight whenever | can because it arrives in Ottawa at about 10:30 pm, which helps with the three hour ‘time zone adjustment. By the time I get to the hotel and unpack, it is close to midnight (9pm Vancouver time), making it easier to get a good night’s sleep. On the flight over, | had typed on my laptop a number of letters and email messages, and started one of my weekly reports for . this newspaper. Partiament, of course, was in session that day, but there are no votes held on Mondays because the Liberals,'‘who have the power to defer any vote to a day of their liking, have selected Tuesdays and, Wednesdays to be the main voting days. In addition, each Party in the House . divides its Caucus into groups: with assigned “Duty Days”, and my Duty Day is presently Thursday, so it is neither’ necessary nor productive for.me to bein the House on other days, except during © the daily Question Period: My oppor- tunities to intervene, either with a speech or a question, on days other than my duty day, are very limited and unpredictable, while such activities on my Duty Day are expected and facilitated. _, ‘ALMOST THERE | , Tuesday May Sth was an, NDP. “Opposition Day” (the NDP were permitted to choose the topic of.debate that day) and | » (had.agreed to do duty for Reform MP . Gary Breitkreuz in exchange for my ‘Duty . Day on May 14th. This meant that I had to. be in the House from 9:45am until at least _ 5:30pm, sol arrived at the office’ around 7am (4am: Vancouver’ time) in order to make a dent in the 4 day buildup of Ottawa paperwork before the House opened. During the day | .was in constant contact. with North Vancouver, returning constituent calls, and. answering letters, before returning to my office at 6pm to sort: through the day's mail. At 7pm, two North ” Vancouver constituents arrived for a previously arranged meeting, tour . of Parliament, and dinner, and 1 was back in my hotel by around 9:30pm. A week was * over, and | was ready to begin the process . all over again. The total number of hours would be similar, but the next week's. activities would be entirely different. -The long hours go with the territory, the 5 hour plane flights twice a week go _ with the territory, and insufficient time at home (and with friends) goes with the territory, so ! am not complaining. | chose to take on this role as your representative in Ottawa because | am committed to making the system more representative and more democratic. However, | thought you would find it interesting to learn that there is a lot more to the job of an MP than simply standing in Parliament and giving speeches.