6 - North Shore News — Sunday, October 15, 2000 $$ View PoInt—— Race rel ISTEN up out there. Contrary to the judicial comment quot- ed in Friday’s North Shore News, there is no hard evidence of a race war. happening in North Vancouver. There may indeed be a declared “war” between a few individuals — some white, some of Iranian descent —~ although we are not even sure of that. ‘And while that has erupted into three separate incidents of crazy vio- lence, the best way to describe it is “stupid.” ~The need to protect the public ~ from the threat of violence is para* ‘mount. and Judge Jezome Paradis "! must be applauded for his actions in. "keeping one’ of the alleged fighters under lock and key Thursday. “Tt is s,also understood. that learned “y know what I have to do to compete with a pri- vate club: — we're’ on: the same playing field. But no way on 2 God’ 's ‘earth I can compete with pub- thicre “Hic money.” - belie co: about unfair publi recreation facilities. (Frou : an Oct. 11 News sory. ) Qgo9. wner Roy Baumgartner | is concerned mpetition because of the subsidization.of |. ations judges must provide reasons for detention. But it would have been helpful if His Honour had clarified the fact that the “war going on out there” he spoke of seems to apply to only a handful of misguided hot heads. . We have said it before, and we'll repeat it now: There are good and bad in every race; far more of the for- mer than the latter. Unless the information is directly relevant to a particular news story, this newspaper does its best to avoid reporting material which encourages discrimination on the grounds of race or colour. Violence is ugly. Racism too. Let’s not get carried away in link- ing the two here on the North Shore without broader proof of organized, antagonistic factions. No rel HOWE Sound’s acid nightmare i is back playing at a Britannia Beach site near you. - As far as focal envi- 7 . ronmental horror movies go, this one has § got to “You can have an industrial site or a school, but you can’t have both.”.: .: Jeff. Peterson’, of : ‘Gleneagles : Concerned Parents Cominiittce on ‘reasons for the group secking an injunction: © ‘halt BC Ferries expanding their Horseshoe Bay termi- (Froi an Oct. 1 1 News ns story) : “If we want to keep our agricultural land we ¢ have to “Support our farmers. We need to sce cows: out there, : Wine promotions expert Christine. Coletta ‘of Coletta : be on everyone’s Top 10 list. - a Consider the plot summary thus far: ‘opper ore flows by ; then milhions of tonnes for close to. 70 years from © ._ what, for a time, is the largest copper mine in the British Empire. Following the mine’s closure i in 1974, : up ‘took a swing ati it. That swing has ‘ Consultants'‘cn the need to support local growers. (From : at Oct: 13,This Week story) ga0Q0 Pda rather have a car windshield that’s clean’ and: ‘go, ‘rather than’ some car going down Mt. Seymour’ Parkway using’ the: ‘Braille’ ‘method, going. - ready- from one lane to another.” orth: Vancouver District Coun. Doug “MacKay-Dunn successfully ‘fora five-minute car idling time. The district Voted to set the time at three minutes before a It's a sacred space, a green s ’t fit there by the wild ocean ‘An anonymous West Vancouver resident’ says ys the foot of. no place for.a millenniaéim floral clock. (From ae an, 5th St. -crunoff from the exposed minerals in 80 km “- of underground mining tunnels carries heavy concentrations of copper, zinc, :*, arsenic, lead and cadmium into area creeks - and, ultimately, Howe Sound. The highly. acidic metallic stesv is deadiy to fish and all other marine life. It creates a vast marine “dead zone along Britannia Beach. : _. - Alarm bells are tung sporadically over | the next two decades, but, beyond fur- “wringing, fothing i is done to stop the pol--. futon =". A complicating factor here is the desir- “ability of the Britannia Beach area as a" _. development location and the growing *" on the Howe Sound corridos ‘Oddball schemes for tapping Batam’ S: potential abound.” =, In the late 1980s, for example, the “community was set to be the site ofa $350 ~ inillion pulp mill, A petrochemical plant... : -was also being considered. at that time for ‘the Furry Creek area south of Britannia ‘ those plans and others have all ' <1. said facility by establishing a nearby landéil: + for contaminated soils. ., rowed brows and anguished political hand: - persuasive. And at least the plan appeared ~. - to revolve around cleaning up what has © “ministry itself as the “worst source of met- vals pollution to the environment in ‘North: ‘that it too bears responsivility. for the més : population pressures being brought to bear. . Bie far more spin to CBEL’s pitch than - alread dangerous S Sea~ to shy Highway WELL, You KNOW WHAT THEY SAY: EASY.cOMmM ief for r heavy metal Soun with the 150,000 tonnes of contaminated soils needed annually to keep the fandfill in business; Bi the long-term i impact the landfill and i its: contaminants would have on Britanni: Beach and Howe Sound-area groundwater, i the impact the landfill would have on’. any future residential dev velopment i in the : Britannia Beach area. That spin and assorted other unksiowns have left CBEL without the financial back-" ing it needs to finance the landfill project. The plan has therefore been relega ,.to the scrap-heap of other misguided Howe Sound megaprojects * So we're back to the epic Britannia “Beach horror movie. The current episode inv Ives hi corporate litigation. Talk about scary stuff. ‘Both CBEL‘and the provincial govern ‘Ment are pursuing several major Can: and U.S. companies for ¢ compensation, t dean up the mine... : ‘+c: | The corporations, w Catizineo Ltd. and ‘Alc -ered to be’among the '.. Britannia Beach mining ig opera -+ 4, CBEL is seeking-$150 millio: The provincial goyérnmeiitt, it ~ rate action, wants submissions from the: “corporations ; derailing why, they should 'no’ be considered parties responsible for the “mine pollution: Victoria als ng come to naught. Copper Beach Estates Ltd. (CBEL), which ‘acquired 1,650 acres of Howe Sound property in the Furry Creek and Britannia Reach area from Anaconda Mines in the mid-70s, is a key’ player in seeking to - ” _ ¢Xtract some develop- ment dollars from area. . Last year, it pitched a “2, knuckleball of'a Britannia _mine cleanup plan to the ; Provincial government. ie myopic Victoria line-" proved to be costly on’a host of fronts. ~. CBEL’s pitch: build a $10 miilion facili-. ty that would neutralize the mine effluent | with lime and finance the construction of "So: attend to one source of « environ mental contamination by imparting, anoth er. I doubr that pitch would have made it: past most students of common sense.» + - Still, the CBEL folks are riothing if hot . been described by the B.C. environment. : - - "4 But cc court arid oes glacal tionally: progress at a glacial pacé. In the. -meantime, the mine effluent America.” : “But fiscal and other Trealities have - ie investment ‘community could handle. : Spin such as: -: aa : 8 the commercial viab what is an extremely competitive marker; : : the isipact on transportation safety from ~~. Sound ahother. year in the:fi ‘an estimated 26 trucks per day plying the:,.:"".area of a serious pollution source cpirenshe “LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must inchide your: ama, full. address‘ and , telephone - number.’ Submit via e-mail to: to: mbecker@nenavs.