8 - Wednesday, July 17, 1985 - North Shore News

Media has duty to aid justice

Mistakes do happen, and Sunday’s Doug Collins column was little testy, and kept
a victim of error when the wrang lead paragraph appeared on

the story. Following is the correct version of that column, Our

apologies to Mr. Collins and his readers.

WHEN BOB Persowich was gunned down last
year in Park Royal, a wave of horror swept the
North Shore. We didn’t know who the killer was,
but we knew he had given the Brinks guard no
chance. He shot him three times at point-blank
range without warning.

Doug Collins
CE

I lamented at the time that
such a killer could not be
hanged, and said that our
politicans
were barmy for thinking that
the death penalty was no
deterrent. It was no deter-
rent, I said, when a killer of
the Park Royal sort knew his
own precious neck was safe,
no matter what. — .

I believed. that‘in a case ©

like this one every citizen
would without question help
the police find the killer. But
when Detectives Stuart

and do-gooders.

Leishman and Colin McKay
of West Vancouver showed
up at BCTV they got no
co-operation,

They knew that Evan
Clifford Evans had been in-
terviewed at the 1983 Grey
Cup game, and that he’d
been shown on camera.
Could they see the tape? The
photos they had of him were
of poor quality, and the tape
could be important for their
investigation. (Evans, who
was found guilty of the

murder last Monday, had fe

not yet been arrested.)
The detectives spoke to
Bill Elliott, vice-president in

* charge of production, and to

station boss Ray Peters.
And, no, ‘they couldn’t see

’ the tape. Goodbye.

The policemen had a
search warrant, but were
reluctant to use it. Cameras
were in the offing and they
could see themselves appear-
ing on that night's news. But
the last thing they wanted
was publicity. Evans would
hear about it and bolt town.
So they left, full of wonder
at the ways of the media.

“TI guess you guys have
your own code of ethics,”
Det. Leishman commented
when | was discussing the
Evans case with him, ‘‘but
that business really fried me.
Only a week before, a man-
had been shot down without
mercy.’* ‘

1 phoned Elliott. The
BCTV man seemed to be a

Second vote on—
shopping planned

From Page 3 .
lion, of which an-estimated
$18 million. will have been
generated by. West. Van-
couver residents.” a.

- Addison’s . letter «cited ‘a
recent, survey. that showed 42
per cent. of West. Van resi-
dents shopped. in Greater
Vancouver on Sundays.

The letter also pointed to
a $20 million expansion and
renovation project currently

underway at North Van-.

couver’s Capilano Mall and
proposals .for. new North

Shore shopping centres in .

Deep Cove and at the now
vacant Park and _ Tilford
distillery location as exam-
ples of the mounting battle
for North Shore retail

dollars,

Ald. David Finlay said

that though the-1984 Sunday |

shopping referendum vote in

West Vancouver, which was . |

defeated 5,65! ‘against and
5,185 in favor, indicated the

feeling of the public at the

time, ‘‘changes in shopping

habits and attitudes towards .

Sunday shopping suggest
that we should bring a new
referendum to the people as

* soon as possible."

Finlay added that if the
referendum were brought
forward to September the
input of all merchants and

other interested associations

was vital to avoiding a
disappointing result for all
parties.

Boy recovering
after struck
by vehicle

A SEVEN-YEAR-old North
Vancouver bay is recovering
in Lions Gate Hopital after
he was struck by a car while
riding his bicycle Monday
evening.

According to North Van-
couver RCMP, the boy was
riding his bike southbound
on Sunnyside Drive when he
drove through an uncon-
trolled intersection. ‘

At the intersection, the
boy was struck by a vehicle
heading westbound on
Gladwin.

The boy was rushed to
hospital by ambulance,
where he was admitted with
head injuries.

The driver of the vehicle,
also a North Vancouver res-
ident, was not injured,

No charges have been laid,

police said.

repeating: ‘‘Our news
department is not an exten-
sion of the police depart-
ment.’” Even I knew that, of
course.

He also said: ‘‘We don’t
want the people involved in
creating a crime to think that
the news is automatically a
part of the police depart-
ment.’’ And the police lied,
he said, when they claimed
they had a search warrant. (I
checked back with Det.
McKay. He told me the war-
rant was issued July 6 in
West Vancouver by Mrs.
Mary Epps, J.P.)

The warrant is largely ir-
relevant. We are not talking
about legalities, of which
Elliott made much. We ore
talking about common sense
and the moral duty of citi-
zens to aid the course of
justice. (The detectives in-
sist, by the way, that they
did not barge into BCTV
like a bunch of Keystoners.
They wanted help, and
spoke and acted according-
ly.) ‘

A case can be made for
news organizations’ denying
information to the police. it
is also true ~- as Elliott im-

plied — that news people are
not there to he coppers’
narks. But, without stating
beforehand that BCTV was
involved, I asked two TV
news executives whether they
would have helped the police
in an instance of this sort.
One was CKVU news
director Dave Biro. The
Other was Lawrence
McDonald of the CBC. CBC
policy, said McDonald, was
, to let people screen anything
“that had been on air if there
‘was good reason for them to
see it. Biro also said he
would show the tape.
_ Here are a couple of

“Offer till’duly.31/85 a

thoughts for Elliott and
Peters:

Would they rather see an
Evans walking the streets
than provide information
from BCTV’s sacred
newsroom that might lead to
such a jerk’s conviction?

Would. they deny such
assistance to the police if one
of their own relatives had
been gunned down?

Whatever the answers,
they can have this column as
a news story. it's theirs. Plus
a headline for Tony Parsons
to read:

“BCTV Denied Cops Aid
in Evans Murder Case.””

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