New

From page
News publisher Peter Speck. “And he'll be
missed.”

Speck said one of the keys to Collins” popu-
larity and staving, power is his engaging style and
unflinching honesty.

“He has a sense of firness and while the peo-
le he has pricked may howi st that, the fact is
© does have a sense of fairness and he doesn’t

deviate from that,” said Speck.

And howl they did.

Leiters to the editor aad complaints to the
B.C. Press Council were two of the most popu
far venues.

“f can honestly say it’s the end of a cottage
industry for the press council,” said B.C. Press
Council Executive Secretary Gerry Porter.

Every year the press council receives about
five letters of complaint from readers incensed
about Collins’ colunins. Several have resulted in

official complaints complete with a hearing.

“Doug was very yood at pushing the so-
called envelope,” said Porter. “He seemed to
touch a nerve in people that very few columnists
in Canada seem to do anymor

One of those complaints was made by Lionel
Kenner, who said he won't miss Collins.

“E think he’s a mentally unbalanced, uncon-
scionabic man,” said Kenner. “Once or nvice,
no more than thar, he has written a humorous
article.”

But evidence to the contrary is present in
nearly every paper as Collins’ fans continue to
write in with notices of their support.

News Managiag Editor Timothy Renshaw
estimated haif-a-dozen such fetters arrive every
week.

Collins started writing for the North Shore
News in 1984 when he penned the first Ger This
Straight column. Five years and 700 columns
larer, he called it quits to ger away frum dead-

Collins barbs and blasts from

From paged

but media folk go on par-
roting what everyone
‘knows’, T used to do the
same.”
(From the notorious
- $200,000 March 9, 1994,
column Hollywood

.. Propaganda.)
ae ooo

: “Black savages used to
put bones in their noses .
white savages put rings in
their noses. How they blow
then: I don’t know. Ferhaps
they don’t.”

. “TFrom the Dec. 18, 1996,
column’ Lunacy loosed in
England.).

“Thed Oo sis

¢ degree 0: ness
rises ‘itaily. The mad, not
the ‘meek, shalf inherit the
éarth, Pa

; - (Erom the July 14, 1996,
colunin Mad | and setting
madder)"

O'Neill ZEN 3/2 \
’ Wetarsits
Reg. $490
5245

O09

“Welcome to beautiful
British Columbia. There
are more freaks, weirdos,
nincompoops and would-be
censors here per square
mile than in any other state
or province on the conti-
nent.”

(From the Aug. 25, 1996,
column Welcome to BC ana
have a nice day.)

O00

“When two white men
meet in those shopping
malls out in Richmond,
they nod and smile to each
other just like if they were
abroad. That’s your future,
friends, you read it here
first.”

(From the April 10, 1996,
column Strangers at home. )

oa
“In the court of public
opinion, it is my accusezs
who are seen as guilty. Bu
that (court) doesn’t include
the many freaks and men-

Mica Wetsuits Wakeboas

0 I7i)%
ne Clear

~ and era
- squeak;-voiced meddling

But ~

Priced te

tally handicapped who
write for the Vancouver Sun
and Province.”

(From the Sept. 4, 1997,
column Refiring not quit-
ting.)

000

From further back in the
Collins vault:

“In our nutty liberal
world, ‘human rights’ take
precedence over human

sense.”
(Let's all get AIDS.)
o00

“Listen, you Greenpeace
lunatics. You arrogant,
cocky, pompous, beanheads
ckpots, you

nincompoops, ninnics, wets
and public nuisances:”
(The Greenpeace Goulash.)
000 |.
“I say that revenge is
sweet, And proper. And I

All Sumner
Clothing

2 for1

in ‘84

lines and to travel.

But as newspaper
writer’s heart grows fond
of deadlines as soon as
they're gone and Collins
found himself stroking
the kevs vet again two
months later --- this ¢me
under the On The Other
Hand bannez.

“I think this is really it,
the final act.” said Collins.
“I shall now be reduced
to wniting letters to the
editor like all the rest of
the people out there.”

A decerated Second Work! War veteran,
Collins has been working as a journalist in
Canada since 1952 when he started at the
Calgary Herald. Upon coming to Vancouver he
has had stints at both the Vancouver Sun and

the past

say, with the folk in
Ambleside, that killers of
licemen and prison
guards should swing ... and
that the same fate should be
meted out to contract killers
and other human slugs.”
(Cn death and penalties.)
000
“What these nobie souls
really mean, of course, is
that freedom of specch is
all right provided that they
are doing the talking.” -
(Chased bv the Archbish!)
ooo
“Listen men. If you don’t
rise up against the atroci-
ties that are being commit-
ted against you in the name
of human rights, you
deserve to become cunuchs
arid hermaphrodites, pan-
sies and transvestites.”
(To the barricades men!)

NEWS photo Faul McGrath

THE Collins clan poses for a Father's Day shot iast June.
They are (left to right) Jerry, Doug, Reger and John.

Province.

He offers the following words of advice for-
the future generations: “Speak up without fear
or cven with fear because uniess you take a stand
on the important issues, there's no hope for the
future.”

n Wine Festival iimiets
ae.

=A

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Wine Masters' Dinner _
Saturday, October 4, 1997
Tickets $85 pp
(Proceeds to the United wey)

5 Course Dinner
Black Tie

Host: Harry McWatters

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