Wednesday, December 4, 1991 - North Shore News — | Racism protest —= | held at NVD municipal hall Cross-burning incident raises outcry in lranian community AN ACTIVIST working with a coalition of anti-racist groups believes that last month’s cross-burning incident in front of the North Vancouver home of a group of Iranian students was a simple act of scapegoating during an eco- NEWS photo Terry Peters A MOUNTAIN of ad mail. A North Vancouver tandlord had a rude awakening when he discovered a bedroom full of advertising flyers in the apartment of a tenant who had moved out of the building. The tenant was an Ad Maii carrier and had left a pile ‘‘three feet deep’’ in his apartment before moving out. Canada Post is now investigating the discovery. Flyers fill NV apartment Ad Mail carrier leaves legacy of undelivered flyers in suite A NORTH Vancouver landlord recently discovered an apartment knee deep in advertising flyers left behind by an employee of a company that does contract delivery work for Canada Post. Landlord Floyd Tremblay in- spected a suite last week after a tenant had moved out of his building at 135 West 21st St. He was shocked to find the suite’s bedroom filled with flyers. “There was a huge pile of flyers in his bedroom; it must have been three feet deep. He’s just destroyed all these flyers, they’re all ripped up,’’ said Trembiay. Tremblay said the tenant, who was in his early 20s, delivered flyers for the Ad Mail Co., which would drop between 20 and 30 bundles of flyers off at the apartment for the carrier. “I knew this guy used to keep some flyers in his bedroom and I thought that was all right; he’s young and just trying to make a buck. But this is just amazing what he did,’ said Tremblay. ‘‘It shouldn’t be allowed. It’s going to cost me money to clean it up.’”’ -Tremblay. By Surj Rattan News Reporter Tremblay said the carrier had obviously not been delivering the flyers for at least three weeks. “Somewhere there’s a whole area that has not been receiving these flyers. Stores like Wood- ward’s and Park Royal have been paying a lot of money to advertise in these flyers and this is a busy time of year for them,’’ said “It’s just not right what he did.’* Canada Post contracts the delivery of flyers out to companies in areas where letter carriers choose not to deliver flyers. Ad Mail has the Canada Post contract to service North Van- couver. ‘When informed about the inci- dent by the News, Canada Post sent an investigator to Tremblay’s apartment to view the scene. “‘We're looking through the ad mail now and it does appear that some of it was ours,’’ said Canada Post spokesman Ilona Beiks. ‘‘There are less than 1,000 pieces, but some of it was delivered for us by the Ad Mail Co.” . She added that Canada Post will contact business customers who paid to have the flyers delivered and will reimburse them for printing costs. Beiks, who said the flyers were left over from the Nov. 23 weekend, said Canada Post will also contact the Ad Maii Co. to question them about the tenant. “If he’s still employed by them then we will look at that, but it looks like he has left town,’’ Beiks said. Asked if Canada Post is con- cerned about the incident, Beiks replied: ‘‘Oh God yes. It’s a big business for us. If it was Wood- ward’s or Lumberland, for exam- ple, they pay a lot of money for it and it would be something we would look at very closely. “We certainly will investigate _ this incident.” nomic time of crisis. Said Iranian student Siavash Alamouti, ‘“‘I believe that this could have happened in any other community. But in the North Shore for years, people like (News columnist) Doug Coilins and the Reform party have paved the way for this type of sentiment. It’s no accident. They’ve created the en- vironment.”’ But he said that he is happy that cross-burning incident has ‘topened the eyes’’ of the North Shore Iranian community. Said Alamouti, ‘‘They thought the Chinese community and the East Indian community would be the target of racism. In fact the irony is, a lot of the Iranians on the North Shore consider themselves Aryans. Even the Shah of Iran called himself Ariamehr. There was a history of collabora- tion of the late shah with the Nazis." “The elite types in the Iranian community on the North Shore, they didn't want to have anything to do with political issues around racism and they didn’t want to give any support to organizations that were working on that. It comes simply from them being part of the business elite and the fact that they thought they were not targets of racists in this coun- try because they consider themselves whites,’’ Alamouti said, adding, ‘‘We’ve been trying to tell them that they are colored people — whether they like it or not they can’t erase it from their faces."" A rally to support the victims of the cross-burning was held Sunday in front of the North Vancouver District municipal hall. By Michael Becker News Reporter The rally was attended by about 75 people, including repre- sentatives of the North Shore Multicultural Society, the Affilia- tion of Multicultural Societies and immigrant Serving Agencies, the B.C. Organization to Fight Rac- ism, North Vancouver District aldermen Ernie Crist and Janice Harris and West Van- couver-Capilano MLA Jeremy Dalton. Meanwhile North Vancouver Distvict Council will consider next week a motion condemning the cross-burning and pledging that the municipality will ‘‘endeavor to promote good community rela- tions amongst its residents of dif- ferent cultural heritage." Said Ald. Harris, ‘‘We are say- ing the community is larger than this incident and we are an enlightened community.”’ B.C. Organization to Fight Rac- ism spokesman Alan Dutton cail- ed for faster action on the part of North Vancouver RCMP and its investigation of the cross-burning case. "We would like to see a little bit more of an investigation and a speedy conclusion to the case.’’ “The victims feel very, very disturbed. ! don’t want to go fur- ther than that because I don’t want to sensaiionalize. It’s very important for the people of the community to give support so that the perpetratoys don’t feel like they are getting away with any- thing,’”’ Dutton said. Youths sentenced in Pattison kidnapping THREE MALE youths were sentenced Friday in North Vancouver youth court for their part in the kidnapping of West Vancouver millionaire Jim Pat- tison’s daughter. A 16-year-old youth was sentenced to three years in secure custody, while the other two, both 17, were sentenced respectively to 27 months in secure custody and nine months probation and two years in secure custody and one year probation. The youths’ names are pro- tected under the Young Of- fenders Act. They had earlier been raised to adult court, but an appeal reversed that deci- sion. The three entered guilty pleas on Sept. 25. The charges range from kidnapping and unlawful confinement to possession of stolen property. A publication ban prevents disclosure of evidence from the hearing because it could pre- judice the upcoming six-week trial of three adult co-accused. The adults, Christian Snelgrovz, 19, of North Van- couver, Chadwick Shayne Mulvahili, 22, of no fixed ad- By Elizabeth Collings News Reporter dress, and Chad Kar! Dafoe, 20, of Richmond, will be tried in B.C. Supreme Court in January. Snelgrove and Mulvahill are charged with crimes ranging from kidnapping and unlawful confinement to extortion. Dafoe is charged with posses- sion of stolen property. Eight people were charged in connection with the kidnapp- ing. A 16-year-old girl was placed on two years’ probation last March for possessing a small amount of the ransom money that was paid. An adult male is also charged with possession of property. On Dec. 21, 1990, Pattison’s daughter was abducted from her North Vancouver home. She was lIater released after $200,000 in transom money was paid.