6 - Sunday, December 21, 1997 - North Shore News north shore news VIEWPOINT Young bucks to Canada’s financial rescue. A Despite being brainwashed in the predominantly socialist school system, younger generations appear to be getting the economic message: Canada’s fiscal house is far from being in order. Conservative fiscal thought is on the rise in the younger set. Or is it just fiscal common sense coming to the fore? According to a recent Southam News-COMPAS poll, today’s crop of under-thirtysomethings — let’s call them Generation Debters — are more inclined to back the economic policies of right-wing parties than those of the less fiscally responsible left-wing parties. Little wonder. And less wonder that Generation Debters ‘share an advanced sense of E VOLUTION could be coming eke anxiety about the fiscal state of the country. Even though the Liberals have recently helped drive the country’s deficit down from $42 billion to what could be $3 billion this year, the country still labors under a stagger- ing accumulated debt of $600 billion. That works out to about $20,000 owed by every man, woman and child across Canada. Young folk are becoming an increasingly savvy lot. They have lived a life-time with wasteful and ineffec- tive federal government programs. And, in the process, watched their their buying power as Canadians plummet. Hard economic realities will have to be faced sconer or iater. Generation Debters appear eager to make that sooner. THE North Shore News Free Speech Defence Fund is closing in on $150,000. To press time Friday, donations from over 2,050 News readers and free speech supporters to the fund stood art $145,397. Legal fees expended thus far by the News have already exceeded $200,000. All funds received will help defray the legal costs faced by the News in its battle with the Human Rights Tribunal over a complaint laid against the news- paper and its columnist Doug Collins by the Canadian Jewish Congress. The hearing into the matter, which began on May 12, cencluded on June 27. The decision from tribunal chairman Nitya Iyer was handed down on Nov. 12. Full coverage of the decision appeared in the Nov. 14 News. Iyer found thar Collins’ column was not hateful, but also ruled that, while the legislation under which the News was prosecuted infringes upon the Charter’s guarantee of free expression, it was constitutionally valid. Extra copies of the ‘News’ Free Speech Supplement, which was originally published in the Aug. 20 News, are available at the News offices. Another excerpt from the thousands of respondents to the cause: Qa “The government seems to want to mollycoddle everyone from the cradle to the grave, and a lot of people think that is just fine. Perhaps they will wake up one of these days — but it will be too iate: our thoughts and our words will be governed too.” — Trish and Bill Tomlinson of West Vancouver. Qo00 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. north shore | — trenshaw@aivect.ca Worth Shore Hews. tounded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and quaktied undet Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of ihe Eacise lax Act, 15 pubwshed zach Wednesday, Friday ard Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ok... WE GOT EVERYTHING? BASEBALL BAT, Lawyers love land claims ruling THE classic Canadian approach to tricky political issues used to be Mackenzie King’s famous wartime ruling: “Conscription if necessary, but not necessarily conscription.” The Supreme Court of Canada has now out- done him. Its ruling 11 days ago on the Delgamuukw native Indian land claim by the Gitxsan and Wert’suwet’en tribes ensures that a chunk of northwest B.C. the size of Nova Scotia — including the towns of Smithers, Burns Lake, Houston, Telkwa and Hazelton — will remain in economic limbo for years to come. A quick explanatory flashback. In 1984 the two tribes asked the B.C. Supreme Court to confirm their aborig- inal right to this 57,000 sq. km. of prime northern real estate. Three years later the court ruled that aboriginal right had been extinguished at the time of colonization. Rejecting “no” for an answer, the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en —- backed by $7 million of taxpayers’ money for their lawyers — took their case to the Supreme Court of Canada. The latter found the B.C. court had erred in refusing to accept as evidence ORAL histories of the tribes (apparently the only kind they have, there being no written history). So a re-trial in the B.C. court was indicated, said the learned judges in Ottawa, with oral history this time being admitted. But “not necessarily,” added the learned judges in the same breath (here we go again, Mackenzie!). The issue, they sug- gested, could better be settled by political negotiation — as is already under way in B.C. with some four dozen other Indian land claims. Setting the pace in this costly, taxpayer-funded new industry are nego- tiations with the Nisga’a, another northwest B.C. band, which earlier this year finally reached the draft treaty stage after six years of talk. The B.C. Treaty Commission hopes to ratify that draft (read, engrave it in stone for all time in the Constitution) within the next year or two. But in giving the Nisga’a jurisdiction over a mere 2,000 sq. km., plus hunting and fishing rights over another 7,000 sq. km., it pales into relative insignifi- . cance compared to the 57,000 sq. km. of the Gitxsan and Wet’suct’en claim. Add the more than 40 other native Jand claims still in the very preliminary stages of the negotiating procedure and the prospect is for the overall treaty process to drag on for years to come — not least because the total claims, some of which overlap, cover more than 110% of the B.C. land area. Meanwhile, government lawyers are still grappling with the many subrleties —~ and shadings of the Supreme Court rul- ing. As just one example, the court did- - n’t say native Indians actually cwned their ancestral lands. But it did declare their land rights to be more sweeping than ever yet defined, including the right, in most cases, to much more “than mere consultation” on land use. That’s a loaded phrase, if ever there was onc. At the end of the day whe makes the final decision? If nor non-natives, does that mean effective NATIVE control of all land use, including land owned by the Crown or private interests? In a province still heavily dependent on trees, minerals and fish, native land- use rights that extend well beyond “mere consultation” can obviously keep economic development in the claimed. territory on hold indefinitely. If our nine top judges didn’t mean that, what did they mean? Maybe only Mackenzie King, his mom and his dog up there in heaven’s orchestra stalls know for sure. But one. |‘ thing at least seems beyond all doubt..:-:: For the foreseeable future the only. ~ earthly beneficiaries of the Supreme... Court ruling will be the lawyers! - - Q00 PLAY AN INSTRUMENT? For info about West Van Adult Pops Band call Rick Walkey, 925-2513 ... And many happy returns of today, Dec. 21, to” West Van Kiwanian Harry. Martin. Qo00 Q WRIGHT OR WRONG: Trust your hopes, not your fears. ; SHEACHEUS! tS Sidi LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must include your name, full address & telephone number. 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