IED | gun fire 8. Score. KILLER: NOVICTIM 100 YOUNG. 1 oR 100 NNO an RELOCATE. BOK Fammligh OF FAT PERSONNEL wo ae CL UL IRS 5S | sre VQND TINGS. BOK 200 _ RULERS OR HIRE yao: REP | RATES WILLING T Be Wai WOK, TIONTHY | eKRERIENCED. BOM 122 cr PSYCHOPATH LOOKEros GUT Os | Te, 6OK 3 FO GUL CAN parent ORES: fel FOR SMALL CNL WAR. | peveneg GUNTNAN: | TiN. uit TRAVEL. Striking out | AMENT not sports fans. The forces of greed may have applied a headiock to . major league sports in this approach- ing winter of athletic discontent, but sport- ing alternatives abound. Major league baseball, mired in an inter- minable five-week strike, appears to be on the verge of deing the game some real dam- age by shooting itself in the foot for 1994. With players and owners locked in a major league impasse, the balance of the 1994 baseball season is toast, and for the first time in 90 years, the World Series has " been cancelled — hijacked by the almighty dollar: - The National Hockey League, meanwhile, looks to be heading down the same tiresome road. . League owners are already making noises about locking out players before regular sea- son play really gets rolling. One major league can’t finish its season; one looks as if it won’t even get started. But who in the real world cares anymore? Athietes earning millions of dollars per season, und thousands per hour, and owners lavishing more millions on the latest super- star of the decade are getting harder and harder to muster much sympathy for. Besides, with major leagues stalled in the money swamp, sports fans will have more time to take in the rich and varied schedule of amateur-sporting events that take place on grass and gravel fields, and in arenas and gymnasieias every week around the North Shore and the rest of the Lower Maintand. It’s an opsortunity to experience sport as it should be: The kind played for the sheer joy of competition. Money be damned. LETTER OF THE DAY Reformers fooled again by prissy Preston Dear Editor: I was sadly satisfied to read Noel Wright’s criticism of the fed- eral Reform party in the News on Aug 4. I say sadly because I am a Reform party member but recog- nize the truth of what Mr. Wright says if the party is to survive. His use of the old saw, “if you stand for nothing you fall for nothing,” aptly insinuates the malaise the Reform party suffers. Preston Manning was elected leader of the party simply because Sales & Marketing Comptroller... of his family name. It lent a notion of stability and credibility to a core of voters, hun- gry for change, that had hitherto been viewed. As a Splinter group among whom most usually got cold feet and voted for a traditional party at the last moment fearing they'd only be wasting their vote other- wise. Now they find Preston Manning is busy wasting their vote for them! Prissy Preston’s phony, con- Display Advertising Classified Advertising 986-6222 Fax Newsroom North Shore News, founda in 1969 as an independent +." urban newspaper and qualified Paragraph 111 of the Excise each distributed to e. Product Agreement No, 00877° available on request. Submissic . ednesday, Friday and Shore Free Press Ltd. and ‘ty door on the North Shore, Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales 1 139 Lonsdale Avenue = North Vancouver B.C. = . Mailing rates ee ‘vg welcome but we cannot accept responsibilty for unsolicited V7M 2H4 North Shore Managed Matenat including manuscripts a1.4 pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed | envelope. 980-0511 Distribution Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Subscriptions trived, methodical, “I am home- spun” propaganda has been exposed showing that he is just an other “status quo” politician who rode the shirttails of a popular movement into office. Now we know why he shied away from einphasizing much of the party’s blue book policy dur- ing the election. It’s not his policy. He like Mulroney fooled many of us. M. Schlichter Burnaby 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 985-2131 Administration 985-2131 MEMBER CNA SSiN"4 SOA OIMSION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) SE njsiaa es Aenean ueneowee SS Entire contents © 1994 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Local! bear | Slaughter looms CITIZENS of the North Shore! Do not panic! No, Fam not tatking about the results of Ge Quebec election. I speak of something much closer to my heart, OF those who were here in this fand thousands and thou- sands of years ago -~ yes, even before Noel Wright and Derrick Humphreys. Of those whose shar- ing of our wilderness should be respected. Of those who shouldn't be deprived of their heritage, even though it may sometimes be incon- venient. Oh. no, Not the First Nations. Older than them. f'm talking about the First Species. Specifically, the bears. { am anguished that the bears are again being hunted down and shot on our slopes. { have a soft spot for bears. This week West Vancouverite Tony Whitney, the knowledgeable automobile critic for The : Vancouver Sun and other media, spotted a bear in broad daylight in the Wesport Road area. Tony brought this news to Eagle Harbor school, hours after a black bear made the radio news by wan- dering around Sherwood Park ele- mentary school, at the base of 66 J am anguished that the bears are again being hunted down and shot on our Slopes. 99 Mount Seymour in North Vancouver. The pupils saw it at recess. They made a lot of noise. Apparently that scared the bear away. Poor thing. Tony also said he came upon a momma bear and two good-sized cubs while cycling —- Tony, not the bears. Momma looked at him. I sus- pect that having a bear look at you while you are armed only with a bicycle makes you feel somewhat vulnerable. You can’t roll up the windows or anything. 1 believe that if a bear approach- es you while you are cycling, the proper procedure is to offer it a bicycle and explain you are a talent agent for the Moscow Circus. While the bear is distracted trying to learn the gears, quietly tiptoe away. Yes, I shouldn't make light of it. But I really do feel sorry for the bears. They were here first. The really disgusting story involved a bear who was shot and killed last week because of a lie. A visitor (a damned Ontarian, wouldn’t you know) claimed that a bear had attacked him near Whistler Village. The man, aged 20, had some broken teeth and was bleeding. His story seemed plausible. The “dangerous” bear was up a tree. It began coming down, An RCMP officer shot and killed it. Later the man admitted he'd again Trevor Lautens GARDEN OF BIASES concocted the story. His injuries were the result of a fall. There’d been complaints of rowdy drunken youths earlier. I regret to say that an outbreak of bear hysteria is possible. 1 hope we won't have a repeat of the disgusting “Bear Year” of 1986. That year, apparently because of a shortage of berries at higher ele- vations, a great many hungry black bears came down the slopes and frightened some people simply by hangirg around their gardens. The usual authorities were fran- tically called. And, in the environ- ment ministry's Lower Mainland region, roughly from Coquitlam to Whistler, a shocking 432 bears were killed — even though the ministry's regional director couldn’t recall a single case of injury let alone death caused by bears in the area in the previous 35 years. Some people were outraged at the slaughter. Some declared that they were more at risk from the officers’ gunfire than from the bears. The problem of course is that the bear’s size is his undoing. Also his claws and teeth. Man can push around other First Species or —- rather condescend- ingly -- even protect and encour- age them if they aze small and pret- ty and harmless. A bear, in contrast, inspires a certain amount of respect and fear. Bears are powerful enough to manhandle people. The fact is, they seldom do. Statistics show that fewer people are kilied by bears than by light- ning. Recently, an upsetting commer- cial has been shown on CBC televi- sion, paid for by an anti-bear-hunt- ing B.C. group called Bear Watch. It shows a bear being shot and writhing frantically in pain on the ground. I'd think twice about reaching for a gun — or a phone — if you see a bear. Unlike Quebec and other “problems,” he'll probably just go away. Speaking of pushing Nature around, I sympathize with residents around the Caulfeild Plateau school site. They had a summer of noise and clouds of dust. Dynamite blast- ing at the site has taken far longer than planned, and it still looks like World War Two. A little late to wonder, but I wonder whether this awkwardly- accessed and rocky site was a suit- able one for a school. 22019 2 B} eo 20 \peme