A8 - Friday, June 22, 1984 - North Shore News Civil liberties and Solidarity a queer mix E ARE ALL IN SUPPORT of civil liber- ties. Very few people want the cops charg- ing into their bedrooms in the middle of the night looking for subversive literature. Nor do we want our mail opened by Nosey Parkers. But civil liberties are one thing and politics another, unless you’re living in the U.S.S.R. or a banana republic, that is. We deal with these profun- dities today because the B.C. Civil Liberties Association 1s out scrounging for funds. worthy cause, you might think. And so it is — or was — as originally conceived. But if its latest newsletter is anything to go by, the BC- CLA has become a trumpet for the Left. It has even join- ed Solidarity. Consider: Solidarity was and is devoted to the downfall of a government that was duly elected by the people of British Columbia. That was why it was out there screaming for a_ general strike. Solidarity bigwigs — notably Art Kube and Mike (‘There's going to be a rum- ble.’’) Kramer — were yelling for wholesale defiance of the law. Yet we find the B.C. Civil Liberties Association cuddling up to Solidarity just as if Bill Bennett were King John resisting Magna Carta. The BCCLA 158° stuffed with professors and | am only a humble North Shore redneck, but there must be something wrong here. What do the principles of Solidarity have to do with civil liberties? Give the crazies of Solidarity their heads and in the end there would be no civil liber- ties. What there would be is a million Hunky Bill cases and a monopoly for the building trades unions. STREET NOISE The excuse the BCCLA puts forward for joining Solidarity is weaker than Chinese tea. ‘‘The Board decided to become a member of Solidarity Coalition to in- crease the chances of our views being taken into ac- count by the government ...”’ Can you believe it? In the first place, the government has taken no discernible notice of Solidari- ty. Nor should it. How many people voted for Kube and Renate Shearer? Secondly, does anyone who makes enough noise in the streets warrant support from_ the BCCLA? Would a bunch of stormtroopers also be all right? get this Doug Collins Further peering into the newsletter removes all queries as to why the BCCLA loves Solidarity. The thing reads hike a Solhdarity pamphlet. Whatever the Socreds are for, these guys are against, be ithe efforts to cut the size of the provincial civil service, or the new Human Rights Act. Which 1s OK if the group is openly political, but not if it's pretending to be neutral. It also comes out on parade ES mailbox | <| Discrimination against gays Dear Editor: In Doug Collins column ot May 30, 1984 he nominated NDP MLA Rosemary Brown for the ‘‘gigajyoule prize”’ because she defended homo sexual schoolteachers with the statement that hetro sexual males are the ones who should be kept out of the classroom since 90 percent of cases of sexual abuse are committed by heterosexual males against female children) 1} don't quiet see the logic in his rhetoric Ot course Ms not advocating that all teachers should be home sexual as Me Collins seemed to imply She was stating the obsious, thing Mr Collins as certainly well aware of that hetero males are oa Brown was merely some sexual much gicater threat to women and fofuldiren that hrormose xual decide which was best for me, so I consulted Big O Tire in Dundarave.’’ males. She was responding with understandable anger to the irrational, immature and Neanderthal fear of homo- sexuals displayed by several Socred MLA'‘s (during the debate Mr. Parks of Maitlardville-Coquitlam spoke of not wanting to meet with the homosexual com munity at night) Mr Collins would be mak ing much better use ot his skills as a writer and journa list sf he would report to his readers a complete instead of a dangerously selective sum mary of the debate that on cured in Victoria on May 4 The debate government's rights lepistation allows tor comcerned the now huthnan whit open discruimina tron against the bLO% of thre populabon whe are of a dit ferent sexual o1rmenbatiac frome Che mrayority poop who | should add, for the benefit of those and others like them mentioned above, are just aS good and just as bad tor society as everyone else The NOP was trying to have a debate with the Socreds about the iwsue Phe Socreds refused to debate, tefused to acknowledge the blatant fact that sexuals ate no homo more dangerous and no more de viant than heterosexuals and refused to provide any Jogical atgument for not making ot Wepal to disctiminmate on the basis of sexual onentabon Mer Collins would do well to remember WW Iban whieh | have tearad tie dis tinguished obimiself as oa defender of troedom Joseph Stet West Vancouver for the so-called Canadian Farm Workers Union in the Fraser Valley — another cause dear to the Left — and stops by to take a couple of kicks at the Ministry of Human Resources. SOCIALIST LINKS Altogether, you might think that Hannah Jensen and Laurier LaPierre drafted much of this stuff, and perhaps they did. The BC- CLA even followed the NDP line in not supporting proper- ty rights in the Constitution. But there is no screaming about the infamous decision to prosecute James Keegstra in Alberta. asked them about this and was told they prefer- red to concentrate on B.C. issues. But Keegstra is a B.C. issue. He’s a national issue. Most revealing of all is the list of honorary directors. Of 34 names, | could find only six who have no socialist con- Nections (one of them was Hugh Curtis, who can’t be a \ reading what they’re writing). For the rest, it was the Dave Barretts, the Allen Garrs, the Mike Harcourts, the Tom Bergers, the Harry Rankins, the Darlene Mar- zaris and the Homer Stevenses. Thanks but no thanks. paw check it out. 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