6 - Wednesday, September 17, 1986 - North Shore News

News Viewpoint

Lovely as a tree

ontrolling tree heights isn't as simple as. it

might at first

seem.

In West) Van—where

council, somewhat reluctantly, is now petition-
ing Victoria for control legislation—it's a special pro-
blem, due not only to the superabundance of trees but
also to the steep and varying undulations of the ter-

rain.
The latter factor makes

nonsense of proposals to

legislate a uniform tree height, comparable to the

building height regulation.

There are places in West

Van where 25-ft alders obsiruct a neighbor's view and
other locations where 125-ft evergreens rob nobody of

a view.

As well, individual tastes vary greatly. One comes
across a surprising number of residents who value the
peaceful greenery of a forest-like setting more than an
ocean or harbor panorama. So neighbors are some-
times at odds with one another over personal prefer-
ences. One man's tree is another man’s protest.

Finally, of course, there’s the question of cost—and
cost-sharing—which may frustrate amicable private
solutions to tree-vs.-view conflicts. Topping can be an
expensive and ONGOING commitment. In our tush

climate it speeds up growth

and the operation must be

repeated at regular intervals to be effective.
Council’s petition contemplates, as a last resort,
binding arbitration where conflicts can’t be resolved on
_an informal give-and-take basis between parties con-
cerned. But friendly compromise over the backyard
fence remains infinitely preferable and more in keeping
with the West Van style. Neighbors shouldn’t need to
be kept in line with a big stick over a thing as lovely as

a tree!

Crusader fuming over fanatics iahe

WHAT A RELIEF it is to suddenly spy one familiar,
friendly face in a cocktail-hour crowd of complete strangers

who look as if they don’t

I got the same feeling last week
when the public relations kit from
Michel Bedard of Montreal landed
on my desk—packaged in a glossy
folder that Air Canada or the
Royal Bank wouldn’t be ashamed
of,

It’s no secret that Wright hasn’t
yet managed to kick the weed, or
even very seriously tried. Put it
down to my handicap of being
born with a stunted backbone, a
kind of moral paraplegic. So M.
Bedard really lit up my day.

His kit introduced me to the
recently founded Smokers
Freedom Society (SFS), of which
he’s president, and it soon became
obvious that someone had done a
lot of hard digging in defence of
today’s embattled minority of puf-
fers.

‘Freedom to smoke, with
respect for others’' is the constant-
ly repeated SFS slogan throughout
the presentation. Its 15 pages of
background material detail the
reasons why smokers, in turn, are
entitled to a little more respect
than they presently get from those
“‘others’’.

The SFS, explains M. Bedard,
aims ‘‘to defend and promote the
responsible freedom to smoke.
From this, more comfortable and

really want to know you.
peaceful coexistence between
smokers and nonsmokers should
emerge.”’

TE VOICE OF MONTH ANG WEST VANCOUVEH

. WEDNESDAY .
1139 Lonsdale Ave.
North Vancouver, 8.C. V7M 2H4

ray

57.656 ta eege Wee Poesy

Fotay & Satay

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There’s more on the tolerance
theme, including a bit about
smokers showing courtesy to
nonsmokers who dislike the smell.
But the really solid stuff for us
unrepentant sinners comes in the
claimed debunking of conventional

Noel Wright

Chiefly, he’s against the fanati-
cism of many nonsmokers whose
“srowing number of allegations,
each more exaggerated than the
last, have tended to compromise
and erode the freedom to smoke.
The accusations, often based on
the results of studies which are not
always accurate, have given rise to
a profound change in the outlook
of some nonsmokers for whom
smoking has become more than a
personal weakness—it has become
a social offence to be eradicated.’”

Great stuff, M. Bedard. Don’t
we hostages of Rothman and Ex-
port Light know all about it!

LETTER OF THE DAY

How can council

Dear Editor:

So! B.C.E. (Daon) has reapplied
for a commercial zoning of the
Park and Tilford Site! This begs
many questions.

Firstly, can the current council,
morally, ethically and legally sit in
judgement of this project when
four of the seven members of

council had campaign support paid
for by this developer and when
both council and the A.P.C. have
already voted unanimously against
the project? Can they vote with a
clear conscience on behalf of all of
us under such circumstances?

Secondly, the technical aspects
of the project must be examined.
In the face of a well thought out

@ focus @

wisdom about smoking and health.

M. Bedard gives chapter and
verse from 15 or more professional
sources whose research has found
virtually no evidence that
“downstream” smoke does any
real harm to the health of
nonsmokers forced to breathe the
tainted air of smokers.

As well, some of his sources cast
doubt on the extent to which
smoking alone—relative to all the
other nasty things in our modern
environment—harms smokers
themselves.

They note that the vast majority
of Canada’s seven million smokers

back

community plan; a plan that calls
for commercial development prin-
cipaly in Lower Lonsdale, will not
the addition of 250,000 sq. ft. of
additional unplanned retail space
retard redevelopment in Lower
Lonsdale?

Redevelopment there is an-
chored by the newly completed
Lonsdale Quay Development and

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Distribution 986-1337
Subscriptions 986-1337

Nonthk News.*
fee sts

die of causes other than the weed.
And there’s even some research
that suggests colon cancer, Parkin-
son’s disease and diabetes afflict
smokers less often than
nonsmokers.

The authorities cited by M.
Bedard for this cheering news
aren't exactly lightweights. They
include a medical vice-president of
the American Cancer Society, two
doctors from the U.S. National
Institute of Health, doctors from
the Universities of Arizona and
Toronto, members of a World
Health Organization seminar on
“ambient smoke’’ and researchers
at a Geneva University symposium
on indoor air pollution.

Also quoted is the Canadian
Council of Yobacco Product
Manufacturers wise members
generate 61,000 jobs, $6 billion in
sales and $4 billion in taxes.
They're kicking in $100,000 to help
the campaign, but M. Bedard in-
sists he’s nobody’s puppet and says
he needs public donations to keep
the Society alive.

To learn more about his crusade
to ‘re-establish the social respect-
ability of smoking’? contact the
SFS at 8615 St.Lawrence Blvd,
Office 300, Montreal H2P 2M9,
phone (514)384-5860. Membership
dues start as low as $2 a year—and
they welcome nonsmokers too.

Never accuse us harassed nico-
tine junkies of intolerance!

P&l devel

Lower Lonsdale Revitalization
Project.

Do we rip up the community
plan and let commercial develop-
ment go where it chooses?

And why does B.C.E. choose
the P, and T, site? Is it because of
a desperate desire to save the
gardens? If so, why not buy land
in a presently zoned commercial
area in Lower Lonsdale, close to

Publisher:
Editor-in-Chiet
Managing Editor
Adveitising Director

Peter Speck
Noel Wright
Barrett Fisher
Linda Stewart

fu heey

Entre contents
1986 North Shore
Free Press Liu All
aghts reserved

EARS
AGO...

(From the North Shore News dur-
ing the week of Sept. 13, 1981)
SUSPECTED arson fires gutted
the Old Country restaurant on
Marine in North Van and heavily
damaged Shoppers Drug Mart in
West Van. They were the sixth and
seventh suspicious North: Shore
fires in five weeks.

** *

MISSING, presumed killed, was a
24-year old man who tried to dive
from Lions Gate Bridge (240 ft.
above the water) in the early
hours. Police said he was ‘known
as a daredevil’? who had dived
from up to 150 ft.

see

PRIVATE GARBAGE oollection
in West Van moved a step nearer
as council voted to receive bids
from interested firms.

+ee

AN INQUEST jury ‘irged licensing
of crane drivers fellowing the
North Van death of a man run
over by a mobile crane.

oper?

the Seabus and other tourist at-
tractions and re-establish a
garden? Or is it a 37 Million Profit
on the industrial to commercial
zoning change that is B.C.E.’s
motive? Isn't THAT why they
have tried to buy themselves a
majority of four votes on City
Council.

Rod Clark

North Vancouver