3 cheers for boys in brown CONGRATULATIONS, GUYS! We're button-popp- ing proud of each and every damn one of you. Magnifi- cent men, one and all. Our boys in brown. The Royal Canadian Army. Now that the silly summer season at Oka has finally come to an end (but not necessarily to a conclusion), as the army pulls back to its home bases by the end of the month, it is time to raise a few loud and hearty cheers. And our loudest and fongest cheer should go to cur Canadian soldiers for a job well done. Yes, you wimpy bleeding hearts. This also means you! Get up off of your asses and stand and salute with the rest of us those stouter hearts and steely-nerved men who kept the peace with the absolute minimum force and bloodshed, not one single death, or even one life-threatening injury on either side of the barricades. Show enough brains and char- acter, to say nothing of honesty, for once, to give credit where due, and thanks to these wonderful guys for keeping a firestorm from escalating and raging further, spreading, and turning this troubled country into an exploded powder keg of savage native fury, terrozism, and anarchy. The fact that the Indians would lose out in the end of any such conflict is irrelevant, for even in their losing they could give Canada some deep and hurting wounds, where the scars would show and shame us all forever, We're not talking about who’s right or wrong here. We're simply saying that no matter how you look at or measure it, the Cana- dian army took over a bad and dangerous situation that they had no part in creating (setting history and philosophy aside), defused it, and brought it to a peaceful con- clusion. You would have to have a very sick mind or low level of in- telligence not to at least respect and salute them for that. Oka. Before this summer that conjured up in my mind mental images of robe-cloaked monks busily working away at large vats of a somewhat costly and gourmet cheese-in-the-making. But now, after the hot summer of 1990, whenever I hear the name Oka I will forevermore see two other images. The first is of a Mohawk war- rior in a mask and camouflage dress, standing defiantly ina cinematic, picturesque pose atop the overturned, white-painted, blue-trimmed metal carcass of a Quebec police car, an AK-47 rifle held high in his challenging, upraised left arm. You may not have agreed with his politics or his actions, but it was a powerful image all the same, and you had to admire him for it. The second image is that of the same warrior, or another like him, standing toe-to-toe, eyeball-to- Candidates meet in WV AN ALL-candidates meeting for the upcoming West Vancouver municipal election has been set for 7:30 p.m., Thursday Oct. $8 at Hollyburn Elementary Szhool, 1329 Duchess Ave. The meeting is being sponsored by the Ambleside and Dundarave Ratepayers Association. Norm Severud OUT OF THE NORM eyeball, with a young Canadian soldier. But this time it was the soldier who captured, held, and won our atiention and admiration. Hardly old enough to shave, this voung man showed the heart and courage Of a lion. As did all the soldiers ¢urced into similar en- counters and confrontations. You couldn't have been more proud of them all if they were our own sons. And in a way, they were. The army inherited a powder keg where the fuse had already been struck and lit by the stupid actions of the Surete du Quebec. This is not an attack upon police forces per se. I have many con- nections with the police, including a son-in-law who is a police of- ficer. But I lived in that area for some 10 years, and I know the reputation of the Surete. The Quebec police mishandled and badly bungled the situation at Oka from the very beginning. Sure, that’s easy for me to say, sitting way out here on the West Coast, with no first hand knowl- edge or experience of the situa- tion. But that’s how I saw it then, and still see it now, and no follow-up, whitewash commission of examination is likely to change my mind on that. An Indian bullet may have kill- ed one of their fellow officers (for which some native person should be held accountable), but it was the Surete who aimed and cocked the weapon, and pulled the trigger by their own stupid actions in im- plementing a gun-blazing, cowboys and Indian assault that was doomed to fail. It was ill- advised, badly planned, and even more poorly executed. What was required then was a stand-off seige, as carried out by the army, and not a shoot-em-up at the OK Corral. But when the army rolled into position, we all knew the game was up. Ht was just a question of time, and whether or not the In- dians on the other side would be stupid, angry, or fed-up enough to commit suicide. The army did everything it could to prevent this, and suc- ceeded, with absolure brilliant planning and execution, as they stowly and steadily tightened the screws, forcing the remaining remnants of the Indian defenders into their final hole where sur- render was inevitable. Once the soldiers had arrived and settled in, most of the so-call- ed warriors Med the scene, in what could be described as a mini- Berlin airlift. We may never know, but I suspect the majority of these escapees were Americans, and they no doubt took a goodly-number of sophisticated weaponry with them. There is no dishonor in retreat, but this group was simply fleeing from justice, in that they had been there to make trouble, and to provide support for their criminal activities already known and documented. Lost in al! this mess were the legitimate claims of the native people at Oka for fair treatment and the proper resolu- ition of long-outstanding griev- ances. Yes, we saw it all. On our TV screens, and in our newspapers. Our soldiers who were there to keep and ensure the peace, being kicked, shoved, pushed, spat upon, screamed at in the foulest language imaginable, and even assaulted to where death would have been certain without the in- tervention and rescue of other soldiers. And the Mohawk women were as much involved in all this as the Mohawk men. The mentali- ty of mob rule became the Mohawk norm. Many people | know reflected my own feelings when they told me they couldn’t have taken the abuse our soldiers did. They would have, they said, countered in kind, and given the Indians a sound thrashing. But our soldiers did not. They kept their cool and held their ground, and won the day without any real losses on either side, apart, perhaps, from our own col- lective innocence. And for that magnificent victory, not of right over wrong, but of peace over civil war, we should all be bloody well grateful. Congratulations guys. You done good! Damn good!! CLEAN AND ADJUST BRAKES 50 PT. BRAKE INSPECTION CES - Buches expires Nov. 3199 BRAKE CHEC ~ OFF YOUR N 1350 MARINE DR. NORTH VANCOUVER K CUSTOMER EXT BRAKE CHECK *20.00, PURCHASE OPEN WEEKDAYS BAM.- 6PM. 986-8180 SATURDAYS one eS ACCEPTED 4PM. CANADA'S LEADING BRAKE SPECIALIST && Wednesday, October 17, 1990 - North Shore News - 9 CANADIAN CLOSET _., Ey Free nome estimates 986-4263 1385 Crown St. N Van. “Safety is no accident, so PLAYSAFE!” th A CAPILANO lursenyianl and Florist uo. Corner of Keith-Bewicke-Marine, N.Van. 988-6535 or 988-8082 S. 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