6 - Wednesday, April 28, 1999 - North Shore News

Firing
HE dismissal of West
Vancouver municipal manager
Doug Allan is but the latest
episode in the municipality’s long-
running Cuff Chronicles.

Space does not permit the retelling
of all previous episodes. Suffice it to
say that George Cuff’s report into the
organization and management of
West Vancouver District was critical
of the district’s operation. It was also
critical of key municipal personnel.

But release of the report followed
the lines of a bad theatrical farce.
Following initial delay in that release,
key portions of the report were miss-
ing in action — white-out having
been applied with great zeal by
municipal lawyers.

Appalled at the editing job done to
his report, Cuff promptly disowned

north shore news

VIEWPOINT

and running.

Most of the offending paragraphs
focusing on senior management,
except those dealing with Allan, even-
tually came to light.

What became apparent with each
Cuff update and what was apparent
from the start of the Cuff Chronicles
was that something was fundamental-
ly amiss in the upper echelons of
management at district hall.

Doug Allan from all reports was.a
good person and a well-liked man.
But his dismissal is far from surpris-
ing considering the mishandling of a
report that was commissioned to pro-
vide insight into how district hall
could improve the running of
Canada’s richest per-capita communi-

ty. ;
In the end, it was the right thing to

( Just HAD

TURNS OUT You
Owe ME MonNeY.

MUSQUEAM

_ it, and the Cuff Chronicles were off do.

matibox

iP reveals cost of
kidnappers’ return

Deur Editor: .

During November 1998 there was considerable public
controversy over the return to Canada from a Brazilian
prison of Christine Lamont and David Spencer.

At the time, questions about the cost of the exercise were
frequently raised on radio talk shows and in letters to the
editors of newspapers.

Asa result, on Nov. 24, 1998, | placed a written question
on the Order Paper in the Parliament of Canada requesting
that the government reveal the total of all expenses incurred

_ Since 1995 in association with the return of Lamont and
Spencer to Canada.
I finally received the information on April 13, 1999.
- According to a summary provided by the government,
“taxpayers contributed a total of $131,415 to the
s: Lamont/Spencer project, $13,337 of which was related to
* the translation of documents, while RCMP costs amounted
: to $118,078.
Ic is not clear whether other “hidden” costs accrued
* because of the involvement of persons who work for the
government in roles which may have required a passing or
occasional involvement in the case.

Neither is it possible to estimate any future custs that may

. be related to resettlement, social assistance, or other taxpay-
_ er funded programs for which Lamont and Spencer may
’ qualify as a direct result of their long absence and possible
;, lack of employment.

= J leave it to your readers to judge whether the actions
i;taken by the government in securing the return of Lamont
and Spencer were appropriate, and the money well spent, or
¥ whether we, as Canadians, should have respected the sen-
¥ tence imposed by a Brazilian court on two of our citizens
: who committed crimes in that country.

» Ted White

; North Vancouver

orth Shore faws, tounged in 1969 as an
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Garbars Emo
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‘onathan Beil
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51,582 taverage circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday)

THE 1789 French revolution —
the inspiration for all later strug-
gles against tyranny and injustice
— unfortunately got it all
wrong. We are still

suffering from its

sloppy thinking.

Its watchword, you'll
recall, was “liberty,
equality, fraternity.” And
no decent citizen would

. ever quarrel with that

third ideal. Fraterniry —

treating your fellow

buman beings like broth-

ers and sisters — is an

admirable goal to strive

for. Among other things, it’s the very
basis of Christianity.

But 210 years later we're only now
starting to grasp the fact that “liberty”
and “equality” are diametrically opposed
concepts. Nothing illustrates that better
than Canada’s Human Rights
Commissions — those natural descen-
dants of the 1789 knitting women in the
Paris execution square, getting their daily
jollies trom counting the latest guillotine
victims arriving in the tumbrels.

Consider this recent comment by chief’
human rights commissioner Michelle
Palardeau-Ramsay on her 1998 annual
report. “It’s not that [the] individual
complaints [process} is not a good way to
handle things, but we see now a lot of
systemic discrimination. We perceive —
we have no hard evidence — but we per-
ceive that there are problems over there
and we don’t have the tools to deal with
it.”

PETER SPECK
Publisher
985-2131 (101)

4a
Dee Shaliwal

Human Resoutoes Manages
985-2131 (177)

Peters
Photography Manager

Stepheason
Classified Manager
885-2131 (160) 986-6222 (202)

B Wright

General Manager
985-2131 (133)

Entire contents © 1999 North Shore Free Press Ltd. Atl rights reserved.

ADIAINIGTRATION

Whar she means is that she and her ilk
in the provinces are thirsting to punish
people for violating human rights without
the bother of proving such violations
actually happened. In human rights cir-

cles the crime is called
vex “institutional bias,”
Noel enabling folks to dis-
criminate without
knowing they’re doing
so. Which brings us
back to “liberty” and
“equality” — in prac-
tice as compatible as oil
and water.
Liberty means freedom
of opinion and belief,
freedom: of movement
and association, tree-
dom of expression and, of special impor-
tance, freedom to excel. All of them capa-
ble — for humais rights fanatics — of
leading to “discciztiation.” Not to men-
tion, quite often, “reverse discrimina-
tion.”

Religious people opposed to gay sex
“discriminate” against homosexuals. Bur
don’t gay pride parades and the promo-
tion of gay sex in school books equally
“discriminate” against the religious?

Freedom of movement and association
“discriminates” against the disabled and
under-privileged. Should that freedom, in
the name of equality, therefore be denied
to the fit and self-retiant?

Human rights censors reject all tree-
dom of expressio.. — the cornerstone of
democracy itself — that they decide may
“expose a person or class of persons to
hatred or contempt” or “affront the dig-
nity of any person,” despite the more
than adequate safeguards of our libel and

bither
and yon

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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Gsil Snalgrove
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Internet. dttp//ew.osnews.com

The scary world of human rights

defamation laws. Their progress in muz-
zling the democratic media is already
alarmingly advanced.

As for treedom to excel, that’s fine for
women, ethnic minorities, aboriginals and
the handicapped. Help them all along
with “equal-opportunity” and “pay-equi-
yy” legislation. Just as long as vou ensure,
says the human rights industry, that capa-
ble, qualified white males go right co the
back of the queue.

Rigid equality for every member of
the population — with no hint of crid-
cism for any of them — is the only possi-
bility in the scary world of human rights
zealots.

A world with no room for natural
leaders, geniuses or over-achievers who
make everyone else feel rotten.

A world geared to its lowest common
denominators, because anything superior
“discriminates.” The world of Statin and
Mao.

Equality of opportunity for evervone
— YES. Burt with that once firmly pro-
tected, et the best people run the show.
Individual freedom within the law has
created the world’s top living standard.
Freedom can achieve-far more than
equality, while still remaining the latter's
surest guardian.

gga

GREETINGS today, April 28, to North
Van MP Ted White and Sue on their
23rd wedding anniversary ... And many
happy returns of Friday, April 30, to
Mount Seymour Lions birthday boy Bill
Harbourne.

Q09
WRIGHT OR WRONG: Always do
what vou always did, and you'll always
get what you always gor.

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