1969-1994

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Ser eee ies

October 12, 1994 68 p

| Inside |
the news

® Auto
& Budget Beaters.

Business.

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& Cuisine Scene..........

& Entertainmenr.t...........21
@ Fashion.

Bh Insight...
& North Shore Alert...12
8 Sports 16
B Sunshine Girt. 38

B TV Listingg....................32

8 Catering to good
food fanciers: 27

& Choose B.C. root
veggies for fail: 36

G@ Mazda 323 retains
its thrifty style: 54

® Listings for new
and used cars: 55

Weather
Thursday: cloudy with
sunny periods.

High 14°C, low GC.
Canadian Publications fat sates,
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REACHING E

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High times

SEISMIC UPGRADING at North Vancouver's Seymour Dam is keeping 55 men at work six
devs a week. The crew is placing concrete walls to reinforce the imposing 29.4 metre-tall
(96 ft.) dam, which stretches for 450 metres (1,476 ft.). The upgrade began in late July and
is expected to continue until early November.

“4

VERY DOOR ON THE NOR

The shooting may have
stopped for now, but
terrors continues to
fam down on the people
of Northern treland.

ae
PICASSO'S WOMAN |
ions Say 1 ge ;
author
Rasalind
MacPhee’s
jatest,

WEST VANCOUVER’?’S
Matheson family had a lot
more to give thanks for over
the Thanksgiving weekend
after Friday’s B.C. Supreme
Court decision approving
their petiten to adopt a 14-
month-old infant.

By Robert Galster

Contributing Writer

The court also dismissed an
application for custody made by
the infant's father and denied him
or any member of his family access
visits for six years.

Jo-Anne and Steve Matheson
originally adopted Matthew when
he was I! days old, after his bio-
logical mother Jennifer Landry.
then 17, picked the couple from a
variety of hopeful families.

Landry's pregnancy was the
result of a single sexual encounter
with Tony Juhnston, 25, who is a
member of the Squamish Indian
Band. Although Johnston did not
initially know he was the father,
Landry informed him after the
adoption.

Johnston told the court he was
not initially concerned with the
baby or its future.

Landry's relationship with the
Mathesons had always been good
and in keeping with the premise of
an open adoption she visited
Matthew once a month.

Later, at his request. Johnston
met Matthew at a social worker's
office and continued doing so for
two months.

Johnston then attempted to
rescind the adoption consent forms
he signed and sought custody of
Matthew, claiming that he signed
the adoption papers under a condi-
tion that he and the Mathesons
come to an acceptable visitation
agreement,

In dismissing Johnston's uppli-
cation for custody, Madam Justice
Mary Ellen Boyd called Johnston
“an immature young man,” adding
that “there is nothing on which |
can base a hope for er on which |
predict a Yikelihood of maturation
in the immediate future,”

In acase that has become highly
politicized due to the recent auen-
tion given the issue of native
Indian adoptions by Bill 46, The
Child. Family and Community
Service Act. the judge did not shy
away from discussing the subject in
her decision,

She noted that Matlhew's genel-
ic makeup is no more than approxi-
mately os to % Squienish Indian in
addition to a multitude of other cul-
terael influences including
Uhrioman. Dulen and Hawaiian.

“Matthew has a right to know
and deata about all ot the distinct
cultures underlying has genetic
Makeup, without fostering ore to
the exchuston ot the others.”

gw

E SINCE 1969