'

sold to a new owner,
employees retain their employment
: ~ because they have successor rights. .

eral

“and . awarded .
" ; Amantea says that, as a result of

JUST ADD WATER

WEST . VANCOUVER

Mayor Mark Sager is ‘“‘left

specchless.’?

Denny Boyd warns us in the
Vancouver Sun that the socialists
running our provincial govern:
ment are ‘‘misery merchants’'
bent. on taking away. everything
we've worked for in life.

And outraged citizens tell
reperters at. rallies that there's no

wner’s treatment of

@
®

point striving any more because
the government will take most of
it away.

With peopie revolting all over
Lotus Land, I've asked myself
why I'm not also foaming at the
mouth at the mere mention of Fi-
nance Minister Glen Clark's
name.

After all, I'm a homeowner,
and I'm certainly as cynical about
all politicians as most of my
fellow Canadians (have you
forgotten so soon why the line-
your-pockets Socreds were turfed
out, Denny?),

And | can get as worked up as
the next person about government
spending and inept attempts to
make our tax system more fair.

(Come one, West Vanconver,
you seriously believe Glen Clark is
lying awake at night wondering
how he can force you out of your
homes?)

I'm also concerned ‘about peo-
ple on fixed incomes, such as
seniors, for‘ whom increased prop-
erty taxes will not only cause con-
siderable financial stress, but also.
the emotional stress of agonizing
over a move from familiar
surroundings.

So why am 1 not foaming at the

Park Royal janitorial
staff is scandalous

Dear Editor: ;
-For ‘all’ of Rick Amantea's
arguments (Mailbox, March 17), [

believe that’ the cleaners at Park

Royal are probably angry over
their terminations. ;

These janitors experienced sev-
years of relatively \ secure
employment with Park Royal and

* then Ultra Tech.

then re-bid
Rick

The contract was th
to Marriott.

Park Royal’s -arrangements, and
“sense Of fairness,’’ over 15% of

“the. present cleaners are’ former
‘ Ultra Tech employees.

In other words, about 85% are

~ gone.
This insecurity plagues all con-

“tracted workers, ° .

Contrary to. Rick Amantea’s

statement that staff changes are. 4
inevitable in any new merger or:

when a ‘business is
the former

‘acquisition,

Employees of a. cleaning con-
: tractor lack the job security of

direct employees. -
Janitors who work for contrac-

‘ tors are in a desperate downward-
ly mobile competition - fuelled. by -
“fears that another contractor will
“always be willing to cut a ‘‘bet-

“ter”? deal when the contract is

re-bid.

Janitors in commercial buildings
and *malls “are often invisible
workers ,who. work long | night
hours for very low wages cleaning
facilities. that are both income-
‘.preducing and worth ‘millions of

dollars as real estate. :

Most of the approximately
5,000: janitors in Vancouver. have
come fiere from other countries,
from Latin America, the Philip-

“pines, southern and eastern Asia,

etc.
In this world of global: trade,

business can always find another
pool of super-exploited labor 10

‘ draw on. And then, using tenders,

pick and choose among thei.
Some may defend’ this situation,

but to call it fair is’ stretching
credibility.

F ankly, the situation of most
janiors is not sensational, The
building owners’. treatment of
them is, instead, scandalous.

Stuart Crombie, paralegal .
Justice for Janitors Organizing
Committee

Stop. buying
securities.
asa protest

Dear Editor: ,

I believe there is one very
effective way in which we as
taxpayers can revolt against
the ‘one-sided and cynical iax
grab of the NDP government.

As one of the very few
provincial governments that is
making no attempt to control
expenditures, we should deny
them the one thing they need

‘to spend $3.1 billion more of
than they ar? getting from the
taxpayers.

This is, of course, borrow-
ed money. |

Many of. us have hard-
earned savings.

We should all make a point
of. not buying any new B.C.
government and government.
‘guaranteed securitics, and sell
those we have.

We should ‘also, afl of us,
try to persuade decision-
makers for corporations,
mutual funds, pension funds
and other financial institu-
tions todothesame.. |

We do not need to wait for
the rating agencies to apply °
our own D- to a government
that seems to be putting the
interests of its friends first -
before anything else.

W.S. Phillips
West Vancouver

mouth and cursing Glen Clark at
every opportunity?

Because frankly, folks, | don't
believe most of the people af-
fected by the tax increase will
have to endure real suffering.

When you're sitting on real
estate that has appreciated ter.fold
and up, when you and/or your
spouse ‘are pulling down in excess

$80,000 a year, you simply
don’t have the right to apply the
word ‘“‘suffering’’ to your cir-
cumstances.

Sure, go to a rally and curse the

“NDP, but take time to remind

yourself what real suffering is. all
about.

Real suffering is living in places
like Bosnia or Somalia.

Real suffering is losing your job
in a one-industry town, :

Real suffering is trying to find
affordable accommodation in a
Lower, Mainland that has become
increasingly unaffordable to. Joe
and Jane Average,

Real suffering is being a single
parent trying to work and raise
kids. ;

Frances Wasserlein, a Van-
couver East Side resident, summed
it up nicely when she recently told
a Vancouver Sun reporter: ‘But

Pesticide too dangerous for spraying -

The. remainder is made‘up of.

Dear Editor:

Later. this month, parts of Bur-
naby and Richmond will be aerial-
ly sprayed for gypsy moths with
Foray 48B, a Bacillus thuringiken-
sis (Bt) formulation. aa

Bt forms an. aerosol when
sprayed and its spores remain in
the atmosphere for at least 17
days after spraying... — '

This chemically produced
bacteria ‘can travel -for up to 50
miles from point of ‘application,
which means it will affect
everyone in the greater: Vancouver
area.

A 1990 Japanese study ,: ‘found
that Bt is too closely linked to'a

toxigenic organism of | food
near

poisoning to be
humans.

Russian

sprayed
oh

scientists |

‘still testing positive for’ Bt.

have,

somebody who fives in a mil-
lion-dollar house on the west side
of town who makes $200,000 or
$300,000 a year, or even $80,000 a
year, who's facing a $1,500 in-
crease in their housing costs ...
Gosh, ery me a river."

The current tax revolt confirms
the age-old truth that nothing
galvanizes people like self-interest.

! wonder if 4,000 people would
have turned up for a rally in sup-
port of affordable housing, decent
public transit, or reduction of the
Violence on television dished up
daily to our kids — all of which
could have effects on our lives
just as profound as the tax
changes of one government.

How many Lower Mainlanders
sitting on a real estate gold mine
have said to somebody else, ‘This
is a stupid, ill-conceived tax, but
I'm still better off than most peo-
pie**? Not many, 1 bet.

Last week, when the media
coverage of the tax revolt peaked,
| found it interesting to read a
story by the Sun's religion
reporter, Douglas Todd, about a
massive effort to clean up Los
Angeles called Operation Rescue.

People from churches across the
city are picking up hampers and

i

. discovered that Bt alters the im-

mune systems of guinea pigs, and
an American study found -that

these bacteria cause fiver and lung:
: damage in rats. :
‘A number of ground sprayers

from. last year’s spray program are
Fin-
ding a host condition under which
it could thrive and multiply, these
bacteria have cultured -and colo-
nized in their bodies.

' Health and Welfare Canada has
issued a warning that Bt should
not be sprayed near, bystanders
and to-avoid inhalation when the
city they live in is being sprayed is
to stop breathing!

Although Bt is the active ingre-
dient in’this pesticide, it accounts
for. only 2.1% of the, total for-
mulation.

- so-called I
which are often more toxic. than |:
the active ones. Because the for-.

«ly jearned that‘one of;the ‘

offering food and homes to
rebuild the city after. the riots last
year related to the Rodney King

In case you’ve been on Mars for
the last’ decade, Los Angeles is
strugeling with crime, poverty,
racial tension and rising costs ona
scale unknown in these parts.

1 refuse to go into a- volcanic
tage about property. taxes because
much of the behavior around it
reminds me how privileged and
self-centred people in Lotus Land
can be,

1 don*t know where exactly this
selfishness comes from, but 1
didn’t see it in the three other
provinces ['ve lived in,

It’s as if peopie in the Lower.

Mainland say to themselves, ‘I
live in Paradise and d--- well
deserve this lifestyle."’

It manifests itself in the way
people spend, theif time, drive
their cars and yes, consider their
right to property to be absolute.

Great individuals and great. cit-
ies emerge out of the fight against
genuine suffering. |

The tax revolt might mean the’

end of the NDP government. But
it won't make Vancouver a city of
greatness.

‘‘inert’’ ingredients

mula ‘is protected by theTrade
Secrets Act, we are not allowed to
know what these, “Sinerts”” may
contain.

However, despite : this immoral
shroud of secrecy, we have recent-
inert”’
ingredients in Foray 48B.is methyl

paraben, a chemical which. causes °
birth

defects mice and

hamsters.

in fats, ,

In view of. this, only an indi- *
‘vidual totally lacking in conscience’ ‘

would even consider. spraying this

pesticide all over a human popula- :
pregnant.

tion, which includes
women,

Christopher Lewis