10 — Sunday, September 27, 1998 — North Shore News

Ticked off
by house
tax grab

Dear Editor:

Before tevying an addition-
al $3,000 tax to protect new
homeowners, why don’t they
use some of the unique B.C.
House Purchase Tax that has
amassed many millions with-
Out stated purpose for the fast
nine or 10 years? By now this
colossal unwarranted tax grab
on initial and repeat housing
sales must total far more than
all the leaky condos and house
repairs put together.

And as one who has paid
more than $6,000 House
Purchase Tax to the provincial

overnment I would like to

ow the grand total collect-

ed, where it is, and what it’s
being used for,

I realize that this particular
tax grab was imposed by the
Vander Zalm government
(one of his isasters to
remember). But it's still in
force, a disreputable tax mab
the NDP hasn’t repeale
seven years, an a propriate
source of funds the Barrett
commission overlooked, and,
to_my knowledge, Municipal
Affairs Minister Jenny Kwan
has never mentioned.

Denis Mason
West Vancouver

north shore news

MAIL BOX

Women don’t need
to whine to Mary-Woo

Dear Editor:

Re: “Violence
Questioned”.

Ms, Stewart’s response to
my column on the vielence-
against-women statistics is part
of the problem. To that end
Pd like to address her rebuke.

Ms. Stewart designates her-
self an “educated middle class
woman”. As such she should
know that credible research is a
function of solid methodology,
in particular random selection
of subjects and strict design of
measuring instruments. The
CanPan’s research doesn’t
conform to this standard.

As I] said in the column, the
information solicited by the
CanPan is vatuable, but cannot
be generalized beyond the sci-
cntifically biased populations
trom which it was gicaned. Key
here is that the information
was solicited, rather than ran-
domly collected.

Ms. Stewart mentions a

Column

gathering she attended of

“educated middle class
women” in which they tallied
the number of “molestations”
cach had suffered.

I'm not sure how they
detine molestation. A lot of
whar is part of the natural
interaction and tension

between men and women is
now being, redefined as aber-
rant and criminal.

It is a puritanical backlash,
driven ironically, to a large
degree, by middle class clois-
tered women.

I grew up in the Middle
East where men are far more
overtly machismo and chau-
vinistic than) their Canadian
counterparts.

Ms. Stewart counted six
unpleasant. encounters of her
own. can’t count the number
of oats [ve had to put in place.

Grow up.

Strong women know how
to take care of themselves.
Strong responsible women
who are cognizant of their sex-
uality don’t have to go whin-
ing to Mary-Woo Sims (the
head of the B.C. Human
Rights Commission) to take
care of business.

Is it our aim to emasculate
all men or alternatively to turn
them all into sensitive, folk-
singing —_Lilith-worshipping
clones?

The kind of discourse Ms.
Stewart engages in is the kind
whereby you call those you dis-
agree with names
(“dinosaurs”), instead of
addressing their arguments. Ic

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WESTVIEW CENTRE, HWY 41 EXIT. #17

F Hough iy opinion was
very evident in the column, the
intention was to inform. There
is a multitude of opinion out
there but not enough informa-
tion. It was my hope to engen-
der a more critical approach to
the shoddy figures of violence
the women’s movement. is
popularizing.

By claiming to suffer
endemic sexual violence, we in
North-America atfront and
make light of real horror, the
kind experienced by women in
places like Bosnia.

We also trivialize what it
really means to be molested or
raped. [t does not mean count-
ing on your hand the number
of times some idiot made
untoward = comments — or
advances, however persistent.

As for the North Shore
News running my column...
As always the North Shore
News doesn’t shun unpopular

»pinion and as such is a vital
forum.

Ilana Mercer
mercer@ipsy.mot.com

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