4 — Sunday, September 8, 19S1 - North Shore News Greenpeace: an image whose time had come I WASN’T going to write anything about it, but then these calls started coming in from radio stations and mag- azines in Ireland and Japan and places like that, asking for interviews. Ah, sez J, that was something that happened a tong time ago... Twenty years, as it turns out. This Sept. 14 marks the 20th an- niversary of the launching of the original Greenpeace voyage from Vancouver’s False Creek. Seems like yesterday, eh? It wasn't that auspicious a beginning. Several of us decided at the last minute to go have a beer at the Cecil Hote! while the final details of boarding were taken care of. Probably a ton of stuff still had to be loaded, but discipline was non-existent, so it was easy for half the crew to sneak away fora last wetting of the lips on home turf. We were babbling away around a table when we looked up on the screen above the bar and saw our boat, the Phyllis Cormack, back- ing away from the dock. people on board waving, the crowd ashore waving goodbye, the horn blasting, and a television reporter saying: ‘‘There goes the brave lit- tle Greenpeace..."’ Whoops! Brave my ass, we were half-cut, wondering what the hell we would do now. Swim after it? Charter another boat? I should note that a couple of old North Shore boys, Ben Metcalfe and Lyle Thurston, were involved in this caper. Desperate phone calls netted the information that the boat had gone around to Burrard Inlet to top up the tanks. All we had to do was find our way to the right STRICTLY PERSONAL _ dock. Unfortunately, by now it was dark. Sereeching taxis later, we even- tually cliinbed over a hurricane fence into the railyards and stumbled accoss the gravel and tracks, crawled under parked freightcars, dodged rolling stock and reached the dock with minutes to spare before the angry captain, John C. Cormack, was going to leave without us, or miss the tide. And off we chugged into the darkness. And into, well, as it turns out, some kind of history. { have just read in Rolling Stone that Greenpeace is now the biggest environmental group in the world, with five million members in 23 countries, a budget of $150 million a year, and over 1,000 full-time staff. If nothing else, these stats deserve to be dropped on a desk at the Province, where the edito- rial writers back then predicted a short, inglorious career for the Greenpeace loonies. The Sun, for whom [ was work- ing at the time, took an incredibly positive view of the situation. I think there is some truth to Alan Fotheringham’s claim that the Sun ‘*made’’ Greenpeace. Although, in fact, it was the media at large, with maybe the Sun setting the tone. The attitude of iocal papers influences the na- tionals, which in turn influence the international wire services. Such is the ecology of media. Thinking back, the most significant thing about that laun- ching 20 years ago was that our media image sailed out long be- fore we could actually push ourselves away from the shore. At the time, as a student of Marshall McLuhan, J understood a little bit about mass media, or at least | thought [ did. In fact, my mastery of the mechanisms of the modern communication system was theoretical and amateurish. The master was Ben Metcalfe, former newspaperman-turned-PR. But even he was a trifle agog at the swiftness with which the media image of Greenpeace had lifted off. There was something at work here that he had never en- countered before. Instead of having to push and Hikers rescued in Elsey Lake area THE NORTH Shore Rescue Team (NSRT) was called out for the fourth time in less than a weck early Friday morning to search for missing people. Last Saturday, searchers were dispatched to Elsey Lake at Mount Seymour to locate overduc hikers. The team used a helicopter to gain rapid access to Elsey Lake cabin where the two men were believed to have been. Team members found a note in the cabin saying they had left that morning. The hikers had been in the area for several days. The hikers were subsequently located as they were walking out of the area. Said NSRT coordinator Ross Peterson, ‘“‘They were delayed by high creek waters in Elsey Creek. They did the right thing and stayed put rather than risk per- sonal safety by attempting to cross dangerous waters.” Last Sunday, the team was alerted by North Vancouver RCMP to assist in the search for a missing three-year-old and a four-year-old child. The childcen were reported missing from their homes in the Mahon Park area. The team was just getting under way when police called and in- formed the them that the children had been found safe. On Tuesday morning the team brought three hikers to safety after the trio lost their way in the Mosquito Creek area. Meanwhile on Thursday evening two hikers on Grouse Mountain became separated from a iarger group of hikers and aiteinpted to reach the area at the top of the Grouse Mountain gondola. By about 8 p.m. the two men were unable to locate a_ trail leading safely up a bluff to the top of the gondola. They attemp- ted to back-track and crossed a creek gully. According to Peterson the pair decided to hike down the creek and found themselves in difficult terrain. By this tirne it was dark, so they decided to stay put. The NSRT West Vancouver Youth Band ‘Ne Accepting New Members Come and join the band experience: Travel, Concerts, Parades, along with great satisfaction oS Registration Monday, September 9th, 7:00 pm Irwin Park School Band Room Minimum Age Requirement - 10 years or grade 5 For Further Information Phone David Suomi-Marttinen at 985-8897 was called shortly before 1 a.m. Friday. Searchers made voice con- tact with the hikers by 3 a.m. in a difficult canyon section of the creck. Said Peterson, ‘‘They’re not the first people to be caught in these creek gullies either. It’s easy enough to happen.” With rope rescue assistance the team managed to bring tin Van- couver pair, Scott Kerr, 21, and Timothy Alleyne, 28, to safety by about 5:30 a.m. Friday. NORTH SHORE PUBLIC GOLF COURSE SOCIETY shove and spoon-feed to get the media to react, the media had taken hold of this new thing and launched it without waiting for us. The boat had left the dock at the insistence of the cameramen, while there was still good available light, as it is called in the trade. Without lighting, the launch of Greenpeace would have been vir- tually invisible. The fact that half her crew were too befuddled to be on deck was neither here nor there. The image was what counted. An image is a strange beast. Peopte can be attracted to an im- age for a million different reasons. When they leap on board, they assume cveryone else is there for the same reason. But that’s never the case. In reality, everybody who takes an image to heart does so to make it serve what was already their own personal agenda, We all thought we had a simple goal, for instance: the end of the American nuclear test program at Amchitka Island. {n reality, Amchikta was just a flash-point that happened to fit in with a fot of different ideas about what had to be done to salvage a planetary biosphere. After Amchitka (which was something none of us could see too clearly beyond at the time), the entire Pandora’s Box of ecolegical problems was waiting. The agenda, as it turned out, was bigger than any of us had en- visioned. But then, so was the response. So was the drive of so many other people that none of us had heard of yet. Did any of us expect it to get as big as it has? Oh yes, definitely. We were dreaming big. How cer- tain we were that it would work is another question entirely. NVD celebrates with a heritage weekend NORTH VANCOUVER is celebrating its heritage Sept. 13 to 15 with the ‘*Heritage Sea to Sky Weekend."’ This event offers 10 different ways to discover North Van- couver’s past and showcases North Vancouver’s heritage and heritage groups. A highlight of the event will be free Heritage Harbor Tours sponsored by the Vancouver Port Corp. Tours on the S.S. Constitution will depart hourly from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14 at Water- front Park. Tickets will be available at the park that day. Other events include: © the Heritage Garden Show on Sunday, Sept. 15 at 7 p.m., with Cyril! Hume, one of B.C.’s leading landscape histo- rians; *a North Shore Museum ex- hibit ‘‘The Versatile Dilemma’’ which examines the history of the Versatile Pacific Shipyards Ltd. site; © quilt-making demonstrations that will also be presented at the Museum on Friday to Sun- day from 1-4 p.m.; an Historic Lonsdale Walk- ing Tour on Saturday, 10 a.m.; ethe Hamersley Estate Walk- ing Tour, Sunday, 1:30 p.m.; ea Heritage on the Ridge Walking Tour, Sunday, 1:30 p.m.; ea Deep Cove Walking Tour, Friday, 1:30 p.m.; ®a_ city Cemetery Walking Tour, Sunday, 1:30 p.m.; *a Maplewood Farm Fair, Saturday and Sunday, !0 a.m. to4p.m.; © and a heritage plaque unveil- ing at the Christie House. For more information, pick up a Heritage Sea to Sky brochure which is available throughout North Vancouver, or call North Vancouver City Hall at 983-7351. The event is co-sponsored by the North Vancouver City and District. GOLF ON THE NORTH SHORE The 1,912-member North Shore Public Golf Course Society con- gratulates the North Vancouver District Council and the Northlands Goif Course Review Committee on the selection of a design consul- tant for the Northlands Centennial Municipal Golf Course in the Nor- thlands neighbourhood. The selection of “one of the top golf course architects” in the country, Graham Cooke & Associates, plus an ex- cellent design team, assures a well-balanced design for Northlands that will satisfy the wishes and concerns of the North Shore and enhance Y, the quality of life we all enjoy. We look forward to the presentation of the Plan in January ‘92. We thank the Mayor and Council for their hard work and ask that they do everything in their power to expedite the construction of this much needed municipal golf course. Attention all members and interested golfers: Reserve Wednesday, November 27th/91, 8 p.m., Windsor School Gymnasium, to attend the 2na Annual General Meeting of the Society. JOIN US in our efforts to promote public golf courses on the North Shore. Please complete and mail the form below to the North Shore Public Golf Course Society, c/o 142 West 15th Street, North Vancouver, BC. V7M 1R5 fe mee eee NAME NORTH SHORE j ADDRESS PUBLIC | GOLF COURSE SOCIETY | do 142 West 15th Street North Vancouver, B.C. V7M ARS felephone: 980-3655 DATE MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION ‘CD TELEPHONE. BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE SOCIETY —— POSTAL CODE EVENING ___ Enclosed (3 ) $5.00 per membership {§ . -) donatian (HEREBY MAKE APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP IN THE NORTH SHON, PUBLIC GOLF COURSE SOCIETY | UNDERSTAND THAT i WILL NOT BECOME A MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY UNTIL THIS APPLICATION (tS APPROVED BY THE A SS “SIGNATURE