beema SUPE res ah Pha This is perfect, Wey al nO A ree, tee AN ALC ae satbnga ag: F claim to work for ICBC mm C TRANSIT has rightly stepped forward to accept the responsibility wae for the Jan. 6 SeaBus, collision with Canada Place pier. Kt has also’ announced several steps to improve SeaBus safety, but it has a long way to go in repairing the tarnished image of the ferry transit service. . A BC Transit investigation |; report inte ‘the collision, released Tuesday, concludes ‘that the colli- sion, which occurred in heavy early-morn- ing fog, resulied ‘from human error. “Specifically, a dispute between a SexBus maie: and the vessel's master, another mate, who had been temporarily promoted to that position in the absence of a SeaBus captain. The! mate disregarded two orders ‘from. the vessel’s - temporary master, with neither crew member appearing to have a full grasp of where an incoming Royal SeaLink ferry was. The result: a. SeaBus_ collision with Canada Place, eight passengers injured and two crew members. facing disciplinary: ae. tion. BC Transit has apologized to its passen- gers. It has also apologized to Royal SeaLink for earlier implications that it was involved in the incident. ’ But even though the accident was only the second since the service began in 1977, it has shaken public confidence. in SeaBus safety and has raised questions about SeaBus crew morale — two factors that will take more than public relations to right. ‘NEWS QUOTES OF THE WEEK ‘As the Bible says, an eye for ay tye, a tooth for a tooth, Our system: is rotten. Our socicty is rotien.”’ I Rudolf Von Schlack, after the driver of a car that killed his wife on a West: Vancouver Street was sentenced to a jail term of two years less a day. ; they give you a diploma, get a good frame and hang it where you zan see it every day.”’ Simon Baker, a Squamish Na- | tion elder, addressing the recent band graduates of a marine train- ing course. “TE feel like a second-class citizen when I fish with barbless hooks, ‘release. this,’ ‘don’t fish here,’ checked by 3 federal fisheries of- ficer, opposite me on the far bank a native snags fish after fish with a stainless steel butcher’s hock, 100-pound aylon line, a carbon fibre rod and 2 multiplying reet from Sweden.”* ‘Marvin James, secretary of the North Shore Fish and Game Club, on what he says are the inequities “When you go to school, when Peter Speck . Timothy Renshaw Noel Wright Publisher .... Managing Editor . . Associate Editor Sales & Marketing Director. .Linda Stewart Comptrolier Doug Foot Nerth Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualitied under Schedule 111, Paragraph ilt of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd, and - distributed to evety door on the North. Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year. Mailing rates availabie on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accepl responsibility for unsolicited material inciuding manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. Newsroom V7M 2H4 and yet whilst I have my licence Display Advertising . Real Estate Advertising 935-6982 Classilied Advertising 986-6222 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North. Vancouver, 8. c. of the current native food fishery. Distribution 986-1337 Subscriptions 986-1337 Fax : $85-3227 Administration 985-2131 ° MEMBER 930-0511" Printed on 10% recycled 985-2131 Cewsprint © SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Lid. AN rights reserved. ne ai C | THE TROUBLE with Canada is that we want the lot, we want it NOW -—- and though we love sharing Uncle Sam's good times, we hate to kow-tow to him. That’s the real message of this week’s Angus Reid poll. What else when the two parties panting to give us the lot right away (and to hell with deficits) are backed by a whopping 64% of decided voters — while the two concerned with smartening us up enough to survive in a dog-eat- dog world languish with a com- bined 24%. Since last July the Liberals have jumped four points to 46% (in theory enough for a majority gov- ernment) with the NDP holding steady at 18%. The Tories are down five points to 17%. The Reform Party has slumped three points to 7% nationally — but in its western stronghold the last two month’s figures look even bleaker, Since December, Reform sup- port in Alberta has dropped to 21% from 26%, in B.C. to 14% from 24% and in the Prairies to 4% front 16%. For realists, the one bright spot revealed by Mr. Reid's latest quiz is the 29% of the electorate still undecided, It’s NOT just a case of “anyone but Mulconey. '’ Canadian eyes are also giued now on President Willlam Jefferson Clinton —- the leftish new American Messiah who vows to lead the U.S. out of its slough of despond after [2 years of right-wing Reagan-Bush eco- nomics. in addition to long needed na- tional health coverage he prortises Americans big federal work pro- jects (o cure unemployment and restore galloping prosperity, which — one fine day — will theoreti- cally look after all the fresh debt his plans entail. . Aside from health care and the other social services Canadians al- ready have, this is the philosophy dear to the hearts of Liberals and, NDP: make jobs NOW regardless of the astronomical cost in debt- servicing and taxes — worry later about half-trillion-dollar bills. If “Slick Willy’? says it will work, let’s go that same route, is what the pollsters seem to be hearing today from Canadian voters. : At the same time the latter are perennially wary of being pushed around, especially in ‘‘free trade’’ matters, by the towering neighbor on whose coat-tails they like to ride. So today’s jubilant Grits — the traclitional Yankee-bashers of Canadian politics — win further brownie points at the moment on: that scoretoo. . With nearly a third of the PRESIDENT CLINTON... Spend now - pay (maybe) iater. : HITHER AND YON voters still wavering, much can change by clection day. But Feb- tuary started badly for Preston Manning and every other realist who knows that when you've sunk neck-deep in the glue, there's only one way to dig yourself out before f drowning. By spending less and working smarter. SCRATCHPAD: “Investing in Mexico” is on the 7:30 a.m. menu of West Van Chamber of Cons merce at its Tuesday, Feb. 9, breakfast meeting inthe’