6 - Wednesday, July 24, 1985 - North Shore News Editorial Page Race vs. merit JOB DISCRIMINATION in favor of ‘‘visi- ble minorities’’ was a recommendation of the Abella Commission last fall. It ignored some important realities. Nevertheless; Ottawa has now taken the first step towards implementing a policy of hiring and promoting its own employees on the basis of race. A recent questionnaire to federal civil servants asks them to declare if they are one of 19 visible minority races. In the name of ‘“‘empioyment equity’’ the government has also issued guidelines re- quiring similar ‘‘affirmative action’’ plans by Crown. corporations, federally rcgulated businesses (and private firms with gov- ernment contracts worth more than $200,000 -- covering in all about one million Canadian employees. ; oe, . How muck thought, one wonders has Ot- tawa given to some of the backfiring im- plications of the policy. ; : Verifying the origins of individuals seeking favored treatment will obviously call for “race officers” to check on blond, blue-eyed Metis and on light-brown skins claiming to be ‘‘black’’... Will a successful colored job applicant in a community with 15% unemployment wonder whether he is really good enough or was hired merely because he came from Uganda? How will his: fellow. workers and rejected ‘applicants react? Will such cases isolate visi- ble minorities even more in Canadian socie- ‘ty, subjecting them to increased hostility and abuse? — ; ' "Merely replacing discrimination with reverse discrimination . won’t . work. True employment equity, regardless of race, can : be ‘achieved: only. by. hiring and~-promoting © : strigtly on MERIT. Bye-bye Yuppy! . THE PENDULUM never stops swinging, its ‘latest: victim being those Young Urban Pro- » ‘fessionals, Cartoonist Garry Trudeau led the attack when Doonesbury, the adman in his |: strip, started to cringe at that dreaded “‘Y . . ‘word’, Now ‘Yuppie backlash’’ is sweeping “the U.S., ‘driving guilt-laden Yuppies into © hiding. So. whst’s: new next?. Could it be = -§*¥unnies’’ (Young Urban Normals)? Olsplay Advertising 980-0511 “Classified Advertising 986-6222 -. | 4939 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 ° Publisher Peter Speck : , .. General Manager Roger McAlee Operations Manager Berni Hilliard — tarketing Director Advertising Director - Sales Bob Graham "Dave Jenneson Circulation Director Advertising Director - Admin. Bilt McGown Mike Goodselt Production Director Editor-in-Chief Chris Jonnson Noel Wright Photography Manager Classified Manager Terry Peters Val Stephenson North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified usder Schedule 111, Part Il, Paragraph ttl of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday. Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North ’, Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Entire contents © 1985 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Subscriptions, North and West Vancouver, $25. per year. Mailing rates available on request. No responsibility accepted for unsolicited matenat including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. Member of the B.C. Press Council TSIEN 56,245 (average. Wednesday SDA DIVISION Friday & Sunday) THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE ; . Newsroom 985-2131 Circulation 986-1337 Subscriptions 985-2131 Try Calona an CANADA'S WINE INDUSTRY is in trouble. That’s bad news for wine-producing B.C. which is in more than enough economic trouble already. Yet if Victoria’s morality police would only straighten up both their thinking and their backbones, there’s a sim- ple, proven solution. It should appeal, in particular, to the MLA for Okanagan Scuth, one Bill Bennett. , The industry crisis pushing numerous Canadian’ pro- ducers to the brink of bankruptcy has been caused * by. the love affair of wine- bibbers with imported foreign . Jabels at bargain prices. The blame lies with naughty European Common Market governments, which subsidize their own wine industries by a ’ total of around $2.7 billion a year. That, ‘combined with the ‘nosedive in the value of the French franc and the Italian lira against the Canadian dollar, has brought the market share of Canadian vineyards slithering down from 51 per cent in 1982 to 47 per cent fast year — and it’s still on the skids. Not many companies can survive more than three years of drooping sales. As a result, more than. a few vineyard owners these days are talking earnestly to rea! estate ap- praisers while kneeling in prayer on their bank manager's carpet. Other firms are exploring alternative products with an - eye to getting out of the table wine business completely if. things don’t soon improve. The answer, of course, is grocery store sales of domestic wines. Calona and cornflakes sharing shelf space. Quebec introduced it in 1978 and sales practically doubled within two years. On- tario's new Liberal Premier David Peterson has promised it there. In B.C., by contrast, three bids to get wine into grocery stores (the latest one this spring) have all foundered — thanks to vigorous lobbying by the liquor store union and groups like MADD (Mothers Against Drunken Drivers). The union, as you'd expect, is concerned purely with job security for its own members and to hell with job security in the Okanagan Valley. But with all due respect to MADD by Noel Wright - oa and its wholly admirable ob- jective, the argument that domestic wine sales in grocery outlets would increase alcohol abuse doesn’t add up. Agreed, even one drunken driver is one too many, ditto one drunken wife-beater. But habitual drunks can already buy as much booze as they want, anyhow. The reality is that the great altogether. :- d_ cornflakes majority of wine. customers are moderate, self-controlled drinkers, They’re not going to increase’ their’ consumption simply because they have the choice. ‘of. Safeway. or-Lee’s corner store as alternative to the LCB grog shop. 3" “AS to juveniles, the grocery store operator would likely be even tougher. than the. LCB clerk. If the ‘latter ets an under-age kid slip through, nothing happens. The:former- could lose his lucrative licence. Nor would the government’ forfeit a-cent of its current $350 million earned’: from liquor. The :LCB would re- main the only wholesaler, with Victoria still collecting sales tax while cutting. back on: liquor store. payrolls: and overhead, ho _ Union opposition is at least - logical. But logic is lacking al-' together in the “temperance” case. against. privatizing, domestic wine sales. The ac- tual effect: should be greater customer convenience, more. sales of very. drinkable. Okanagan: Chateau Plonk, correspondingly less of Kress- mann Blanc, and smiling faces again all the way from Kelowna to Penticton. Isn’t that the B.C. Spirit you want, Mr. Premier? LETTER OF THE DAY A grieving trio. gave her second chance to live again Dear Editor: 1 would like to write and share an emotional experi- ence with your. readers that may help someone else ‘‘out there’’. I am currently a patient at LGH Psychiatric Ward A4 and have been for longer than I care to admit. When I first entered it was because [ wanted desperately to com- mit suicide because ‘‘no one needed me and [ didn’t mat- ter.’? The fact that I had a husband, and three teenagers made no difference to me, | figured they would be better off without me. Over the course of my sta; 1 suddenly realized this week what was wrong and how I could fix it. [ couldn’t sleep for over 22 hours and even then I was sick when I woke up. I came home for a visit and was so scared I had to rush back to the hospital. The next day I was physi- cally sick, and while trying to recuperate from this looked though my window, © (there was no other view, because if I moved my head 1 knew FT would be sick again) and saw a man and two teenage children sobb- ing. The picture of grief was so evident I felt that God was giving me a view and saying, “Lady, this is what you wanted so badly for the past weeks.”’ All of a sudden I realized how badly I wanted life and that I would do anything to be well again. | couldn’t sleep all afternoon it was such a profound sez- sation for me. All I know is I hope there was someone to help those people, and to all those women or men who are suffering, please seek help, life is far more precious than they realize. 1 am home on another visit and hope to be home soon on a permanent basis, I want to live every day to my fullest. A woman who really feels like she has been given ‘‘a second chance’’. Name withheld North Vancouver