6 — Wednesday, October 22, 1997 — North Shore News north shore news VIEWPOINT Stalled ferries ELLED by more NDP eco- nomic flim flam, our highly tout- ed fast ferry project is fast headed for fiscally troubled waters. This bodes ifl for a revitalized water- front shipbuilding industry along the North Vancouver waterfront — news the industry could do without at this point. Nor does the BC Ferry Corp. need any. more bad financial news. According to an Oct. 19 News story, the corp. announced a $76.5 million ‘loss in the 1996-97 fiscal year. The fast ferry project, meanwhile, continues to be dogged by missed com- ‘pletion deadlines and cost overruns. BC Ferries originally announced that ‘the first fast ferry would be in service in the fall of 1996. Delays have pushed back that date ever since. The Crown corporation now esti- “THE North Shore News Free Speech Defence Fund has moved beyond the $140,000 mark. “2's. press time ‘Tuesday, donations from over 2,000 <1. News readers and free speech supporters to the fund stood at’ $140,292. Legal fees expen “have already exceeded $200,000. The final bill will be ~ amich higher. All funds reccived will help defray ‘the legal > “costs faced by the News in its battle with the Human Rights Tribunal over a complaint laid against the newspaper and its columnist Doug Collins by the Canadian Jewish Congress. The hearing into the matter, which began on May 12, ments at the Century Plaza Hotel, 1015 Burrard St. The deci- ‘sion from Nitya Iyer, the tribunal. of one hearing “the complaint, is expected some time later this year. Extra copies of the News’ Free Speech Supplement, which was originally published in the Aug. 20 News, are now available at the News ‘concluded on June 27 with final offices. ‘More excerpts from the hundreds of respondents to the cause: * will miss Doug’s columns. Now it will be up to the silent majortty to carry the torch for our rights — T. Howe to free specch.” 000 *The gradual erosion of freedoms of expression * Bills 28, 32 and 33 and the it meention of the sch judicial process in their application is extremely disturbing. As so many others bave pointed ont, the removal of freedom e first step to a totalitarian state.” John and Margot Rawsthorne of West Vancouver of speech is Donations to the fund can be sent to: 1139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, V7M 2H4. Cheques should be made out to the North Shore News Free Speech Defence Fund. — trenshaw@direct.ca ed ‘thus far by the News mates 3 fast ferry launch in the spring of 1998, which is another soft deadline if ever there was one. In addition, the original cost esti- mate for each of what was originally to be three fast ferries was $70 million. The three-ferry plan’s cost has now jumped from $210 million to $222 million. The latter number will likely be much higher when and if all three are ever built. All this for an aluminui.t catamaran ferry that would shave an estimated half hour off the Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo run if it is running at optimum speed. One of the selling points of the fast ferry program was the international marketability of the ferries. With the delivery track record of the first three, that selling point has been seriously undermined. Our fast ferries appear to be headed nowhere fast. East Europe catches up on today LIKE the spy in John Le Carre’s thriller, east Europe’s former Soviet satellites — Poland, Republics — are still “coming in from the cold.” Slowly in some ways. Their eyes now fixed on Brussels instead of Moscow and on eventual membership of the European Union and NATO, they are still weighed down on their journey back to today’s world with odds and abiding impression a 14-day romp scribe. Hungary, the Czech and Slovak ends of Cold War baggage. That’s the through the four earlier Warsaw Pact countries and East Germany left on your You meet that Cold War baggage head-on at their border crossings. Our bus never managed to clear one in less than an hour. Once it took almost twice as long, Cameras had to be hidden and we were told not to talk or do anything to upset the grim-faced army types who collected our passports and disappeared with them for the next 50 minutes or more. ; In contrast to the ease of movement between EU countries in the west were the seemingly endless truck line-ups along the roads leading to the border posts. Approaching cach crossing, we passed big rigs parked, sometimes for kilometres, awaiting their turn for clearance some- fegee WUUUNtEeTE | & A hi dita ia ll Sty al MARITUANA IS THE BIGGEST CASH CROP IN B.C.7 a A ds. ee eds tZ SANE RECOM ATYE me BULLINOY time in the next day or so. On the Polish side of the Polish-German border I counted over 450. Polish villages still have the loudspeak- er posts once used by local Communist bosses to issue their daily orders to the peas- antry. . On the outskirts of every town and city loom huge, grey, dehu- manizing apartment blocks of the Soviet “oblong-box” school of architecture. Smog from coal-burning plants blankets industri- al areas and the neigh- boring countryside. And everywhere we are warned not to wander around city streets alone — a sure recipe for being robbed or mugged, we are told, “because the ordinary people are still so poor.” The natives should know — but nev- ertheless poverty is often hard to discern in bustling downtown Budapest, Warsaw or Prague. Stores and shopping centres overflow with consumer goods of eve kind, from haute couture and elegant fur- niture to sports equipment, cameras and computers. Never far away are the friend- fy McDonald’s Golden Arches, a Pizza Hut and the ubiquitous Coca-Cola bill- boards. The big worldwide hore! chains— Hilton, Radisson, Marriott, Intercontinental, Holiday Inn—pepper the downtown streetscape. Then there’s that other icon of free enterprise: the automobile. In every major city we visited, total downtown gridlock can only be a few short years away. Nor are we talking about shabby Soviet-era Ladas or East German Trabants. Today’s bumper-to- bumper traffic snarls feature late-model Mercedes, BMWs, Audis, Toyotas, - Hondas arid Volvos. As the former Soviet satellites stumble toward a free market economy, it’s clear that not everyone is rr. Hungary, the most entrepreneurial of the four even under Russian domination, undoubtedly leads the pack. A national joke boasts that only a Hungarian can fol- low you into a revolving door and emerge ahead of you. Meanwhile, Poland and the Czech and Slovak Republics have also clearly grasped . the free enterprise concept and are run- ning with it, even if not yet fully up to speed. But whether their new goal of part- nership in one big, happy, prosperous European family will eventually work out remains anyone’s guess. The EU has its own headaches right now and some of the present 15 members oppose any early expansion of the club—especially co weaker economics. More on the hopeful Soviet cast-off, and the current view from western Europe and booming Britain (where we spent a further week), in a future column. O00 WISH MANY HAPPY returns of this Saturday, Oct. 25, to Mount Seymour Lions birthday boy Glen Muri. 009 WRIGHT OR WRONG — To succeed you need three bones: wishbone, back- bone and funay-bone. “HOWTO REACH. US Administration 985-2131 900-0511 north shore LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must include your name, tull address & telephone number. VIA e-mail: tcenshaw @ direct.ca ‘Mort Skace News, founded en 1969 as an independent Suburban newspaper and quatfied under Schedule $11, Paragraph 111 of the Exose Tax Adi, is pubkshed each Wednesday. Friday and Sunday by North: Shote Free Press, Ltd and destriputed ta every door on the North ve! PETER SPECK Publisher 985-2131 (101) ‘Sales Product Agreement No. 0087238. Managing Editor 965-2131 (116) ice Dhaliwal Linda Stewart Doug Foot Human Resources Manager Sales & Marketing Ottector Comptroller 985-2131 (177) 980-0511 (319) ‘985-2131 (133) Michaal Becker - News Editor General Otfice Manager 985-2131 (114) 985-2131 (105) Andraw MoLredie - Sports/Cammunity Editor internet: http://wwra.nsnews.com 985-2131 (147) | sdale Avenue Horth Vancouver, B.C., V7M 284 . Creve Sev Managet Photagreptty Ma Pomel hea esa og Creative Services lograp! nager M ing Disp! f 985-2131 (127) 985-2131 {160} 985-2131 (278) Cotire coments © 1997 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Distribution Manager 908-1337 (124} 62,582 {average carculation, Wednesday. Friday & Sunday) Classified Manager 986-6222 {202}