~WOUG

T TR TEN

COLLIN re]

THE NUMEROLOGY nonsense peddled by The Province
newspaper and plommed on to by other media is one of
those irresistible larks that are amusing for everyone — ex-

cept the guy who is the target.

We have seen such things be-
fore. A few years ago it was the
“‘lettergate’’ affair. Editorialists,
columnists, lowly reporters and
newsroom coffee boys went crazy
over a few phony booster letters
sent to the papers by Socreds. You
would have thought someone had
stolen the Rights of Man.

On another occasion, a left-wing
former columnist on the same
morning scandal sheet had the
RCMP “hunting down’’ question-
able welfare cases in the northern
woods. Headlines. Excitement,
And all balls. ‘‘What.can | say?”
he asked when the truth came out.

Whatever other sins Vander
Zalm may be guilty of (like putting
his foot in his mouth twice a day
and liking his friends too much),
there is not the slightest reason to
believe he is using numerology to
tell him what he should do on the
morrow. Yet that is the impression
that has been created.

Cotton has a
chequered history,
and I do not take
his version of this _
comic-opera.story as
being the whole
truth and nothing
but the truth. Still
less, however, do I
accept The
Province’s version.”’

There. was a letter of agreement
for the man who now calls himself
Jud Cyllorn to give advice to the
premier’s office on financial mat-
ters and immigration. It had
nothing to do with numerology,
but the way the story was played,
you could be forgive for thinking
it did.

Some weak-minded editorialist
on The Province added to the cir-
cus effect by stating (under the
headline ‘‘Wrong number for the
premier’), that ‘the full extent of
Vander Zalm’s involvement with
this mystery man is still emerg-
ing.”? True enough, but not in the
way the writer thought. (For more
background on the affair, see my
column of Friday.)

Here are a few more details:

I was not there when The Pro-
vince reporter interviewed Cyllorn
{formerly Killoran), so cannot tell
you who said what. But ! can tell
you what Cyllorn told me after
The Province’s big ‘‘scoop”’ ap-
peared. If only for the record, it is
worth repeating.

The original story had it that
Cyllorn ‘‘calls himself a
soothsayer.’’ CyHorn told me he
has never used that word in
describing himself and did not use
it when talking to The Province
reporter.

The “‘soothsayer’’ bit is an ex-
ample of what might be called
press impressionism, because the
reporter did not actually state that
Cyllorn said he was one. In other
words, someone else could have
told the reporter that. But an im-
pression was created.

It was created again when, in the
same sentence, the story had it that
Cyliorn ‘‘said in an interview that
he had met personally with the
premier....’” Here, the casual
reader might easily get the impres-
sion that Cyllorn had said in the
interview that he was a soothsayer.

Cyllorn also denies saying he
“thas a magic show like nobody’s
ever seen.’? As to whether he did,
your guess is as good as mine.

‘All this and more occupied a
two-page spread under the
headline ‘‘Magic Man Has Zalm’s
Number,’’ and there was a sub-
story, or ‘‘side-bar’’, in which
Cyllorn described Vander Zalm
flowering into a statesman on ac-
count of the right numbers. It was
also reported that Cyllorn had
given ‘Bill V’? a month-by-month
breakdown of the numbers. But
somehow I doubt that a courier
arrived monthly at the premier’s
office with a package labelled ‘‘Bill
V’s Numbers. Urgent!’’

Cyllorn has a chequered history,
and I da not take his version of
this comic-opera story as being the
whole truth and nothing but the
truth. Still less, however, do I ac-
cept The Province’s version.

Cyllorn also told me, by the
way, that he has talked about fi-
nancial and constitutional matters
to Premier Grant Devine of
Saskatchewan, Premier Don Getty
of Alberta, and former premiers
Bill Bennett and Peter Lougheed.
If he has, does that make them
numerology fans, too?

A final thought: even if the
numbers story were 100 per cent
correct, so what?

Didn't we have a Canadian
prime minister who ruled quite
well for 22 years while consulting
his dead dog and his mother in
heaven? @

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§ - Sunday, July 17 1988 - North Shore News

This week at councils

NORTH VANCOUVER CITY
COUNCIL: now into its summer
schedule, North Vancouver City
Council is scheduled to meet again
Monday, July 25, at 6 p.m.
NORTH VANCOUVER
DISTRICT COUNCIL: now into
its summer schedule, North Van-
couver District Council is sched-
uled to meet next on Monday, July
25.

922-1123

WEST VANCOUVER DISTRICT
COUNCIL, Monday, July 18, at
7:45 p.m.: policy and planning
committee re: development
variance permit 2450 & 2458
Bellevue/ the Heritage Canada
Foundation Annual Conference/
noise — garden equipment/ tem-
porary school facilities Coll-
ingwood School/ Westhill subdivi-
sion extension I/ development

permit Cypress Bow! Road/
development permit 1650 Marine
Dr. Council re: Mayor Don Lan-
skail — statement on 320 Taylor
Way-680 Marine Dr.

Published agenda items in this
column are included as space per-
mits. For a comprehensive agenda,
residents should contact the
respective municipal halls.

The Board of Directors of North Shore
Credit Union has declared a dividend
of Equity Shares equivalent to
a rate of

per annum calculated on the minimum rmonihly
balance for the second quarter of 1988.

Dividends were paid as of July 1, 1988 as an
additional atlocation of Equity Shares or in cash if
Equity Shares equal $1000.00.

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