INSIGHTS

Quebec — a province
or a foreign state?

FETUSES AND MEECH LAKE got all tangled up this
week when a Quebec Superior Court judge forbade 21-
year-old Chantal Daigle to have an abortion.

Not just in Quebec. ANY-
WHERE. So if her appeal failed
and she popped over the provincial
border for the operation, she could
face a contempt of court charge on
her return home.

Whether or not her appea' suc-
ceeds is unimportant for the future
of Canada. Not so, however,
Justice Jacques Viens’ thinking in
upholding the injunction sought by
her ex-boyfriend.

MARY Macdonald ...legc! pace-
setter. :

The Jearned judge based his rul-
ing on Quebec's PROVINCIAL
Charter of Rights, defining an un-
born fetus as a ‘Shuman being,’’
whose life must therefore be pro-
tected. Moreover, he appears in
effect to have ruled that -— for
Quebec citizens ANYWHERE in
Canada — a Quebec court decision
can override a decision by the
Supreme Court of Canada, which
has declared previous limitations
cn abortion to be unconstitutional.
That’s where Canadian law pres-
ently stands.

Judge Viens’ thinking, of

course, reflects once again the
*‘distinct society’? concept. Last
year the same thinking overrode
the Canadian Charter of Rights by
banning English signs. And
Quebec's ‘‘right’’ to override ANY
Canadian law or constitutiona!
guarantee it doesn’t like is precise-
ly what Brian Mulrorey’s in-
famous Meech Lake accord would
formally enshrine.

So the question today, class, is
NOT whether abortion is right or
wrong. It’s whether Mile. Daigle is
a Canadian citizen protected by
Canadian law — or solely a
Quebec citizen, punishable by
Quebec, should she invoke Cana-
dian law.

And if the latter, whether
Quebec is still a Canadian provice
— or already a foreiga state, link-
ed to Canada only by its appetite
for financial handouts?

ken

LEGAL LADY: Back in Canada
this month with her LI.M. degree
(Honors in International Law)
from England’s prestigious Cam-
bridge University is North Van's
Mary Elizabeth Macdonald,
daughter of School Trustee Anne
Macdonald and tlie late Judge
Malcolm Macdonald. Since
graduating in 1976 from Carson
Graham she’s had a busy and
varied career — attending UBC (a
B.A. degree), the University of
Victoria (a law degree) and finally
Darwin College, Cambridge. In
between whiles she took a year out
to teach English ro Portuguese
students in Lisbon and latterly
worked as a Crown Counsel in
North Van Court House, the loca-
tion of which has a stroag family
link. It’s the site of the former
North Van High School, whose
longtime principal was her grand-

Tree victory

REES ON the North Shore are beginning to
win some legal respect.

father, the late Mickey McDougall.

This week in Ottawa Mary started
her latest job — a major research

project for the Justice Department.

At the pace she’s set so far, she
could well wind up as its boss!
eee

WRAP-UPS: North Van City Fire
Dept., one of the 30 entrants in
this Sunday’s Great Clam
Chowéer Contest (11 a.m. to 5
p.m. at Waterfront Park) is beef-
ing up security. Intelligence has
been received that a competing
team’s James Bond plans to coax
— don’t ask me how! — a

firefighter’s wife into revealing the
secret recipe!... Congrats to Hand-
sworth grad Kathryn Patterson on
receiving the 1989 scholarship
awarded by the Capilano-Howe
Sound PC Women’s Association
to a female student showing a con-
tinuing interest in community,
social and governmental affairs...
Flappy anniversary today, July 21,
to North Van’s Don and Helen

Preston... The same again to
North Van’s Les and Nellie Hunter
on their 52nd... And also today,
birthday greetings to North Van
Kiwanian Terry Rutledge.

ghee

WRIGHT OR WRONG: Scientists
don’t know precisely how old the
human race is, but one thing is for
sure: it’s old enough to know bet-
ter.

NEWS photo Cindy Goodman

DREAMING OF PUPPY CHOW...three patient mutts await the return of their mistress outside Super Valu,
Park Royal. What better way to spend the Dog Days?

i

i

In a recent B.C. Supreme Court civil suit,
owners of a British Pregerties estate were awarded
$60,000 after a yrove of hemlock trees on their three-
acre property was removed by «= neighbor who wanted
more sunlight in his backyard pool area.

The judge hearing the case called the destruction of
the trees, which was carried out while the property
owners were away, “high-handed, perhaps outra-

geous’’ and likened the escalation of legal action in

what had begun as another backyard incident to world
warfare.

The sizable damages awarded should be clear warn-
ing to other residents contemplating removal of trees
on property net their own that such urban en-
vironmental terrorism is unacceptable.

Trees are becoming too valuable s commodity, and
their benefits to urban environments too numerous.

But pursuing a neighbor in court on behalf of lost
trees takes time and money, and most North Shore
residents do not have the same financial resources as
the successful plaintiffs in this most recent tree suit.

Their victory, however, should provide encourage-
ment for those similarly victimized to make an invest-
ment of both time and money for the benefit of their
own immediate environment and the detriment of
those who would violate it.

NADIAN AIR FORCE
ANTENA DEPOT

{HE VOICE OF ORTH ANO WEST WANCOUVER

980-0511
986-6222
985-2131
986-1337
986-1337
985-3227

Display Adveriising
Classified Advertising
Newsroom
Distribution
Subscriptions

Fax

Publisher Peter Speck
Managing Editor... . Barrett Fisher
Associate Editor Noel Wright

Advertising Director . Linda Stewart

Nesth Shore News, iounded in 1969 as an independent
suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111,
Paragraph tll of the Excise Tax Act, is published each
Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free
Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North
Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number .
Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year.
Mailing rates available on request. Submissions are
welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for
unsoticited material including manuscripts and pictures
which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed
envelope.

SUNDAY + WEDNESDAY « FRIDAY

1139 Lonsdale Avenue,
North Vancouver, B.C.
V7M 2H4

59,170 (average, Wednesday
Friday & Sunday)

SDA DIVISION
Entire contents © 1989 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved.

MEMBER

North Shore owned and managed