6 - North Shore News - Friday, September 2¢,

2900

isky recreation

HE tragic death of a scuba

diver last Sunday is a reminder

that you don’t have to be fool-
hardy to lose your life in the North
Shore outdoors.

Marciano Chua was one of five
students taking part in an advanced
open water diving class
Whytecliff Park.

It is not clear what happened to
the 27-year-old Richmond resident.
Police say two registered instructors
found the visibility poor during the
so-called deep dive at 27 metres.

It was time for all seven divers to
go to the surface. Chua lost his life
trying to execute that safety measure.

His body was found on the ocean
floor.

_.. Fellow student Frederick Dee, 28,
of Burnaby, almost lost his life dur-

off

Diving, as diving experts have said
at coroner inquests, is safe. Deaths,
when they rarely occur, are due to
inexperience and not usually from
equipment failure.

The last fatal dives occurred in
1996 when three people died off
Whytecliff Park.

In 1992 off Indian Arm, a 21-
year-old Coquitlam woman fost her
life during an advanced diving class.

We, on the North Shore, have
become used to recreational misfor-
tunes attributed to people forgetting
to pack common sense.

Snowbearders intentionally go out
of bounds to their unintentional
deaths. Ignorant hikers hopelessly
get lost off cold mountain trails.

Last Sunday’s death shows us that
a tragedy outdoors can happen to

: ing the same outing. anyone.

What a a erence a day makes. And yes, what a whale of
‘difference‘a few years make.

Eread ‘with great interest, the Sept. 17 story of Dale
Weidman, one the policemen who patrol the Downtown
Eastside area in Vancouver. And congratulations to Anna
Marie D'Angelo on her grand rendition..
if: My interest in the Hastings.and Columbia area goes

ack. some 70-odd years. 1 was attending night. school at -
4 King Edward high school. I took the famous Fairview Belt
Line on Broadway.
As I got off the streetcar at Columbia, I always started
poping for. the Norta Vancouver Ferry, high heels, books,
petal...
: 2°  Old-timers ‘will remember the “sinking feeling” when
one saw the gangplank being lifted — and 20 minutes of
ne’s life being frittered ‘away...
3 And T-still had the #3: Capilano, streetcar to take, almost

“the end of the line.”

On. Columbia, I saw ONE, only one, “down- and-out”
lumbering in a corner. :

eorey afterwards; Ii was stoppéd by a policeman emerg-

in the dark; from a cobblestone lane. (Are the alleys stil
“eal blestone?) 7

I've forgotten his question, ‘but I said, “I can run faster

an any drunk man.” .
He walked with me:a short distance towards the. ferry
wharf and again I told hin:-I had no fears.

Drugs were something one bought at a pharmacy.

J._knew there were opium dens, for one of our residents -'

ould disappear for a few days, then return to pick up his /
gardening. tools. We. all liked him. (Name on request and |
here’s a sequel.) °

Bur drugs. It is years since I saw Columbia and Hastings;

nd now, at my age, it is improbable that I ever will.

es the passing of about 70 years has a difference made.

Ann MacLeod; age 91°." - ; . ;
Capifano resident :

orth Wanicouver .

North Shere News, founded in 1969 as an independent
suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedste

M1, Paragraph a4 of the Excise Tax Act, is published a
each ‘Wednesday, Friday: and: Sunday by, CN
Publications Company and distributed fo every door

‘North Shore, Canada Post Canadian ae

Publications Sales Product Agreement No.
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B Newstoon; Editor
985-2131 (116)
B mbeckerensaews com -

PLAY it again, Sam:

A coda to last week's column on what
Canadians think about abortion.

That column was followed by the pre-
dictable smears and eth-
ical dodging.

I quoted Walter
Szetela, emeritus profes-
sor of mathematics at
UBC and <eitor of the

ampaign Life
Conley. C. newslet-
ter, who challenged an
Environics poll in

. August reporting that

66% of thase questioned
favour (legal) abortion.

- Period,

Szetela has tracked the spranddaddy of
all poltsters, Gallup, on this issue. And he
declares that the Environics poll i is
extremely misleading.

The Environics poil, in August, posed
the statement: “Every woman who wants
to have an abortion should be able to
have one.” Response: 66% “Yes.”

I have the Gallup poll published Dec,
13, 1999 — not some selective digest of
it — before me. It’s headed: “One-in-
four Canadians Favour Legalized
Abortion Under Any Circumstance.”

Gallup asked, as it had 16 times since
1975: “Do you think abortions should
be legal under any circumstances, legal
under only certain circumstances, or ille-
gal in all circumstances?”

_. Let’s note the circumstances under
which Gallup found respondents believed

‘-abortion was acceptable:

If the woman’s health is endangered

. (highest, 96%), if conception is due to

rape or incest, if there is a strong chance

of serious defect in the baby, if agreed

mH Tony

IN THE INTEREST

OF FuTURE
DRUG-FREE
OLYMPICS:

upon by the woman and her physician, if
within three months of conception, if the
family has a very low income, if within
tive months of conception (low est, 22%).
Now, the envelope please: Of those
Gallup asked, 28% said
abortion is acceptable
under any circum-
stances; 55% only under
certain circumstances
(as listed above); 15%
under no circumstances
(3% had no opinion).
Here is where, as stated
last week, the way the
question is designed
can influence or even
determine the answer,

- and the answer is vari- |
ously interpretable. .
Add the 55% and the 15% and you

can conclude that 70% of those polled .
are opposed to — by any name — abor-
tion on demand.

You can also add the 28% and the 55% :

and declare that'83% of those polled find
abortion acceptable in some circumstances
— bat the exceptions are profound. —

What's clear is that Szetela was on
firm ground in stating, as quoted last
week, that “70% do not approve abortion
on demand, the policy prevailing i in”
Canada today.”

Whichever “side” you ‘take, Gallup’s
figures indicate that many Canadians
don’t support the current abortion law.

Which is no law at all. Canada has not
a jot or tittle of protection for the fetus: .

— in the unforgettably chilling words of
Joe Arvay, one of the. New Democrats’
favourite lawyers (abortion, gay rights,.
the B.C. Securities Commission’s case
against former Socred premier Bill
Bennett, etc, "1 “less than a baby : seal” -

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4 Editorial Manager

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Valorie

Classified Manager

Creative Services Director ;
885-2131 (127)
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Classified Advostiaiogy

at Dy iy
ey

‘) CG

jA_A

But no law is precisely what 5 wante
by the Canadian establishment, influ: ::
enced and populated by powerful, stat
funded feminist groups that can hav.
anti-abortion free speech shut down with:
impunity, assured of the support
indeed the enthusiastic 'c ecrleading
of most of the media.

If anything, I’m surprised, that the
under-informed public is as troubled about
the abortion “law” as it is. How many.
Canadians even know of the barbaric p:
tial-birth abortion, in which the fetus is!

» partly removed, its brains vacuumed ou

and then — - legally-delivered dead:
The U.S. House and Senate passed

‘legislation against this horror.'It:

vetoed by that pillar of moral rectitude.
the president of the U ited States,’ Bill
Clinton. :

To me, the issue has som Parallels

with slavery in ‘the monumental debat

and court cases in the U.S..before'186.

‘ Billions of words were expended, bu

only three were necessary lavery
wrong.

Just as drinking and driving

mpaigning — is wrong. Jus
smoking.in someone elsé’s face — 3
er aes b:
often a.

Pores still on paper: whe
here 37 years ‘ago, were wron
“And, not to be holie one

“as I was wrong until, begir
‘) years ago, I came to ‘reali

reluctantly, what wiser heads hac
all along: Abortior: is wrong: No ma
“what “any. poll sayss

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