3 - Sunday, Aoril 29, 1990 - North Shore News Woman offers adoption aid NV RESIDENT RETURNS WITH ROMANIAN ORPHAN MONIK ‘LECLERC is set- ting up an agency to help Canadians adopt Romanian orphans after she successful- ly returned last week to North Vancouver with her adopted eight-month-old Romanian daughter. By ELIZABETH COLLINGS News Reporter The North Vancouver resident Says she wants Canadians to be able to adopt Romanian orphans as she has done, and she also wants people to know that, con- trary to some media reports, healthy Romanian babies are available for adoption. “I saw a lot of beautiful children, healthy children over there,”’ Leclerc said. After her recent five-week expe- rience in Romania, Leclerc plans to set up group or individual trips to that eastern European country. For a $1,000 fee, she said she will advise prospective parents on the legal papers needed before leaving Canada and will also ar- range flights, translators, hotels and contacts in Romania. ‘I did all the process myself and I know how to go through. I know which road to take. I know what papers to take,"’ Leclerc said. Leclerc has already established a Romanian contact from her trip. She said Cristina Stanciu, who returned to Romania yesterday, will help visitors to Romania with the necessary papers and the or- phanages in that country. She will also help find the pro- spective baby's parent(s), whose permission is required before their child can be adopted. But Leclerc said the biggest NEWS photo Paul McGrath JAMIE THESIGER of the 8th West Vancouver Cub Pack picks up a piece of polystyrene littering Ambleside Beach during the cubs’ recent annual cleanup. community stumbling block hopeful parents will encounter in Romania will be the Canadian Embassy. “It’s not complicated over there with the Romanian government. They’re going to have problems with the Canadian Embassy,’’ she said. After obtaining the adoption papers and a passport for Adriana, Leclerc, as chronicled in the April 20 News, was denied a visa by Ca- nadian officiais in Romania because she didn’t have a health certificate from a Canadian doctor for her baby. Leclerc said Adriana was given a clean bill of health by a French doctor in Romania, but the Cana- dian Embassy insisted on a Cana- dian health certificate. She eventually left without the visa and, upon arriving in Toronto with Adriana, was given a permit for st by immigration officials. Meanwhile, Leclerc said, Euro- peans who are adopting Romanian babies are automatically given a visa after the baby gets a Roma- nian passport. Leclere said she will attempt to talk to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney about the health certifi- cate problem. She said the Canadian govern- ment should either send a Cana- dian doctor to Romania or recognize certificates from a French team of doctors in Romania. “It should be changed because there are a lot of babies waiting for family and family for babies,’? she said. “Time is important for babies.” Leclerc estimates a two to three-week trip to Romania would cost approximately $4,000, including air fare, hotel and her ee. She added that she was upset by some media reports that made it sound like she was ‘‘selling babies.”” “I don’t want to make money on this,’’ she said, “‘but 1 have to live too.”” Leclerc’s husband, Dan Car- bonneau, said the fee is to cover expenses incurred while organizing the trips. “i know some people who have adopted overseas who have paid $20,000, $30,000 40,000,’" he said. “Face it, it’s very difficult to adopt a child here in Canada.”’ To contact Leclerc, send a stamped self-addressed envelope to the Adriana Foundation, #1139- 1124 Lonsdale Ave., North Van- couver, B.C., V7M-2H1. NV school board rapped opping music group NORTH VAN STUDENTS’ PEACE | RALLY PERFORMANCE CANCELLED THE NORTH Vancouver District 44 School Board policy that wouldn’t allow a student rap music group to perform at the April 21 Walk for Peace rally in Vancouver has got to be changed, says End the Arms Race president and walk or- ganizer Frank Kennedy. By KEITH DAMSELL Special to the News “If there are policies that deny kids and teachers the right to do things on behalf of their school, that will better the kids, some- thing’s wrong,’’ Kennedy said. When Kennedy announced at the rally on Sunset Beach that the rap group would not be perform- ing because the school board said the event was ‘‘too political,’’ the crowd of thousands responded with boos and jeers. Cleveland Elementary students of music teacher John Palmer were to take part in the event by per- forming rap songs they had written themselves. Palmer approached End the Arms Race organizers and school principal Audrey Hobf in March about students’ involvement in the event. Council gives thumbs up to 18-storey NV highrise THE PROPOSED Lions Gate Centre, a large retail, of- fice and residential complex scheduled to be built at 17th Street and Lonsdale Avenue, received second and third reading Wednesday night at a special North Vancouver City Council meeting. “As far as I’m concerned it’s done,” said M&M _ Investments development manager Bruce MacFarlane. Construction of the develop- ment could begin as soon as the summer. The project will include two levels of retail space, three levels of office accommodation and an 18-storey, 98-unit residential NORTH VANCOUVER "CITY COUNCIL condominium complex. MacFarlane said a Super Valu store occupying a portien of the site will remain open until the developer concludes a_ lease buy-out. A day-care facility will be pro- vided rent-free to a non-profit operator. Said MacFarlane, ‘‘We con- cluded our public hearing on Monday night and gave in on the day-care issue and we made it a charity. It was a non-economic situation anyway. We thought that as a matter of principle, the individual who ran the day care should at least pay a nominal fee for heat, light and water. But given the size of the project, the overall value of it, it just didn’t make sense to delay it. It's just not worth it.’” its not my role to tell parents what their values should be.’’ —Cleveland Elementary school principal Audrey Hobf Hobf said she didn’t think it was appropriate for the school to make a political statement through the students’ participation. “As a principal, I feel that polit- ical reasoning should be a parent’s decision ... it’s not my role to tell parents what their values should be,’’ said Hobf. She said she spoke with assistant District 44 superintendent Tom Carlile. and he agreed with her decision. Carlile said the decision was “appropriate.” “It’s not the prerogative of the school to take part in the event. We've got to make certain that no preference is given to any cause,’’ he said. Superintendent Robin Brayne said Kennedy’s remarks were un- fair because the board has no in- tention of discouraging people from taking part in the Walk for eace. The board had distributed in- formation about the walk to stu- dents and their parents at the re- quest of End the Arms Race and were thanked for their efforts, he said. Music teacher Palmer said the misunderstanding between the school board and End the Arms Race came about because rally or- ganizers did not find out until April 20 that the group could not perform the following day. Kennedy’s comment at the event about the board’s decision only made matters worse, he said. “He put the school board and the school in not a very favorable light ... it was a matter of policy that needed clarifization,’’ he said. When contacted on April 20 by End the Arms Race, the board decided to support the group per- forming, but by that time it was too late to rehearse with students, he said. Palmer said it was the first time he has had problems when asking - students to take part in the walk. His students performed rap songs at walks in 1987 and 1988. THE NORTH Vancouver-based developers of a large project slated for the Central Lonsdale area, heard North Vancouver City Council give second and third reading of their proposal Wednesday night. M&M Investments development manager Bruce MacFarlane says the Lions Gate Centre will set the (one for future development along Lonsdale.