6 - Sunday, July 27, 1986 ~ Nos.h Shore News

THE VOICE OF NOHTH AND WEST VANCOUVER
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SUNDAY » WEONESDAY + HIODAY

1139 Lonsdale Ave
North Vancouver, B.C. VIM 2H4

Shi d polit
HERE are our Vory MPs when the North
Shore needs them? Wringing their hands in
sympathy,

Instead, if Mary Collins and Chuck Cook are on top
of the job for which they were elected, they should
currently be raising hell in Ottawa over the S350 mil-
lion Polar 8 icebreaker contract.

Firstly, to urge an early go-ahead decision on the
project, secondly, to ensure that it's awarded (o the
hard-hit North Van shipbuilding industry, which in
normal times pumps an annual $125 million into the
local economy.

tt isn’t pumping very hard at the moment. Over the
past five years the North Shore shipbuilding work
force has dropped from 3,000 to 1,000, as B.C. ship-
yards have been excluded from major federal con-
tracts. In that period B.C, has received less than 10°
of government orders, compared to some 62% given to
Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes.

The biggest North Shore shipbuilder, Versatile
Pacific, reputedly possesses Canada's top icebreaker
expertise. One of three Canadian shipyards bidding on
the Polar 8 contract, Versatile says its modified design
could trim $100 million from the original program
cost. It’s estimated that the contract would generate
900 jobs and $180 million in wages alone here over
four years.

The North Shore badly needs — and richly deserves
— a break on this one before continuing delays erode

seat teenty,
hearth Shot

57,656 1.
; a ild All

Noel Wright

@ Sunday brunch ®

was a manufacturer’s agent, and
a4

have lived in West Van for 22

still further the community's core of skilled, hard-to-
replace workers. But Ottawa's big goodies tend to go

where the big votes are, and politics
too often decides the answer.

rather than merit

Politics being your trade, Mary and Chuck, what are

you DOING about it?

BEAUTY QUEENS dating back to
1948 will grace next Saturday's
35th Miss North Shore Pageant
reunion dinner and ball, cospon-
sored by the Moodyville Lions.
Designated an Expo Special
Event, the forma. gala affair runs
from 9:30 to 2 a.m. (following the
crowning of Miss North Shore
1986 at a Centennial Theatre spec-
tacular from 7 to 9), with buffet
served at 11 and ample room for
the expected 700 or more revellers
to dance to the Bobby Hales band
around the waterfall and totern
poles of the refurbished Capilano
Mall. The evening will also be a
special tribute to Madame North
Shore Pageant her: ‘f, guest of
honor Gertie Todd, founder of the
annual glamor event in 1961 and
its tireless president ever since.
Remaining tickets ($15 a head)
are going fast. Cal! 987-4592,
985-2587, 985-0555 or 929-3125 -—

GERTIE TODD ..
night.

+ & very special

like NOW!!! — if you don’t want
to miss the fun.
* a

CHARTER cruising isn’t just for
millionaires, as Bob Evernden of
North Van, one of the latest
small-scale operators, demon-
strated to us last week with his
sleek 36 ft. ‘‘Lowry Lady II'’ ber-
thed at Mosquito Creek. Powered
by twin diesels, sleeping six, with a
luxurious cabin and a big upper
deck, it’s yours for sightseeing,
entertaining or fishing trips
anywhere from Indian Arm to
Sechelt at a basic $75 an hour —
$690 per full day — including ex-
navy man Bob at the helm. Divide
that by, say, 10 passengers and the
price of exploring our breathtaking
coastline in privacy and superb
comfort becomes a pretty good
deal. When you get the urge, Bob’s
number is 929-4421,

sow

BIAMOND WISHES to two oc-
iogenarian couples from the
Prairies wedded for 60 years this
week. Rowland and Jean Astbury
married in Melfort, Sask., soon
moved to Vancouver and have fiv-
ed in North Van since 1956. He's a
retired naval Lt. Comd and social
services administrator, she an ex-
teacher and talented needlecraft
artist. Two of her three daughters
still living, plus 11 grandchildren
and six ‘‘greats."” And Kenneth
and Lola Macpherson who tied the
knot in Souris, Man., came to
Vancouver in 1931, where Kenneth

LETTER OF THE DAY

Selective infanticide ‘experts’ way out!

Dear Editor,

lam writing in response to your
July 11 editorial ‘Death Rights’.
The writer seems confused, or am
‘?

Are you really saying that
because a child is born with a
handicap, that denying life saving
treatment simply because he is
disabled would be a_ dignified
death? To allow a human being to
suffer and die by withholding nec-
essary treatment because his func-

tionality is in question strikes me
as anything but compassionate.
Your article is full of flowery
descriptive terms, ‘existence caged
in pain and suffering’, but, J ask
you, do you have a crystal ball that
enables you to see into the future
of an individual to establish this
certain conclusion? Personally 1
feel that you insult the resource-
fulness of mentally and physically
disabled peuple with your conde-
scending attitude of psuedo-com-
passion,

years — with two sons and a
daughter, and four grandchildren.

wee
HIS HANDWRITING $ (or hers)
can tell you whether or not to hire
that job applicant and business
people are invited to learn about it
at a public panel 7:30-9:30 p.m.
this Tuesday (July 29) in Robson
Square Media Centre. Moderated
by B.C. Business Council president
Jim Matkin, it’s part of neat
week's international graphologists
convention at UBC, with
graphological gurus like New
York's Felix, Klein participating.
Tickets $5 and further details from
Renate Griffiths (926-9642) or
Robyn Smith (922-4714).

ee
LIGHT DESSERT: Congrats to
North Van’s Catherine Feniak,
teacher of handicapped children,
who’s been awarded a $15,000
Rotary International Fetlowship
that takes her next month to Lan-
caster University in the U.K.
Nominated by’ Lions Gate Rotary
Club, she beat out other applicants
from Oregon, Washington and
B.C. ... Salute West Van architect
David Weiser, named Citizen of
the Year by West Van Chamber of
Commerce for spearheading the
Horseshoe Bay Downtown
Revitalization program And
O.A. (it stands for Overeaters
Anonymous who operate exactly
like A.A.) hold their first provin-
cial convention August 1-3 at the
Surrey Inn, Surrey. For info on the
150,000-member worldwide  belt-
tightening organization call the
lady (anonymous, naturally!) at
681-3644,

see
WRIGHT OR WRONG—famous
last words for July: ‘*No, I didn’t
lock the back door. I thought you
did.”’

f support Mr. McGuire's efforts
to alert the public at large to the
growing practice of selective infan-
ticide that is beginning to affect
our society. In the U.S. a five-
year ‘experiment’ took place in an
Oklahoma medical centre.
Newborns with spina bifida were
‘assessed’ according to six criteria,
all of which must be met, to decide
whether to actively treat them or
leave them to die. One of the
criterion was the perceived emo-
tional, mental and financial

DIAMOND WEEK for ex-Prairie couples...

North Van's Jean and

Rowland Asthury (upper photo). West Van's Kenneth and Lola Mac-

phersan (lower photo).

isk! fhe te Os

PRIVATE CRUISING that doesn't cost an arm and a leg ...

photos submitted

“Lady

Lowry IP" with North Van skipper Bob Evernden (right).

resources of the parents.

Some of the parents informed of
the ‘No treatment’ decision, vetoed
it and demanded aggressive treat-
ment. All these children are alive
and well. Those who accepted the
‘experts’ verdict, unaware of the
ominous sixth criteria, allowed
their children to be tended till
death, denied antibiotics, surgery
to relieve increased pressure in the
brain and any surgery to close the
open spine. Some changed their
minds a few months later and of

course the children are alive, but
suffer far greater problems than if
they had been treated at birth. All
non-treated infants died, all
treated lived.

Do you think this is comnas-
sion? This seems to be the way we
are headed unless we reaffirm the
basic civil right of life to all our
children, not just those we predict
can ‘make it’ in our society.
Remember Helen Keller?

J. Chobaniuk
North Vancouver