@ - Wednesday, August 5, 1932 - North Shore News ‘coeerave white, Ezeadion _ acc: Tle PARACHUTE. SD INSTRUCTIONS must BE IN j THESE ENVELOPES! INSIGHTS “NEWS VIEWPOINT Bureaucratic bumf N ITS present form, the NDP gov- ernment’s new Freedom of Informa- «| tlon and Protection of Privacy Bill (Bil SO) will achieve one of that party's pet agendas: cut the flow of information to the media and the general public and therehy reduce public discussion of un- pleasant subjects. It is another examp!e of the politics of : plezsaniness in action. Bill 50 is a half-hearted delivery of the NDP’s election promise to bring in some kind of freedom of information legisiation, bat i¢ is a patchwork document that uses wording from the Socred’s Bill 12 and in- put from NDP officials from. Ontario, which already has similar legislation in place. And while Bill 50 would give greater mandatory access to provincial cabinet documents, it provides broad and am- biguous exemptions to the disclosure of such information as law enforcement re- cords. The experience of the media in Ontario has already shown that the legislation has made the police more secretive and reluc- tant to pass on basic information, which can take up to 30 days to be released. - As currently written, Bill 50 places far more emphasis on privacy than on freedom of information. It is the baiiiwick of the bureaucrat. It is the agenda of the NDP: more bu- reaucracy, more files, more forms, imore secrecy, less discussion, less openness, less distasteful detail. ‘LETTER OF THE DAY — watc! Diving less dangerous than the street Dear Editor: ‘Pm of two minds as I write this letter, Do I write a polite and infor- mative letter to win votes for my side of the Lynn Canyon debate? Or do I let my emotions contro! the pen and berate those, like Coun. Ernie Crist, who would cut down the cherry tree because a Publishe. Faanaging Editor . Associate Editor fAdverlising Director . . Comptretier Peter Speck .. Timothy Renshaw Noe! Wright - Linda Stewart Doug Foot child fet! out of the tree fort? People have been swimming and diving in Lynn Canyon for over 100 years now. My parents started going there before 1920. Many families, such as mine, go to Lynn Canyon to swim and play in the water. Hundreds of dives each day become thousands each month of Display Advertising 980-0511 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Newsroom 985-2131 Distribution Subscriptions 986-1337 _ Classified Advertising 986-6222 Fax Administration 985-2131 the summer. What the statistics don’t show is that out of those thousands of dives, the majority of the deaths and injuries are drug- and alcohol-related. Seven- teen deaths in 12 years makes this sport far less dangerous than crossing the street. Don W.L. Hunt Delia 986-1397 & Printed on 10% recycled hewsprint North Shore managed 985-3227 MEMBER North Shore Nevis, founded in 1969 as an indep2adent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph Ill 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 3885, Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year, Mailing rates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. V7M 2H4 por ttt shore’ ie < SUNDAY + WEONESDAY = FRIDAY 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. ay SKI TN [ccob SDA DIVISION = 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Lid. All rights reserved. Fight violence with ‘10,000 ing eyes’ THE GOOD NEWS — everything being relative — is that Canada has ‘‘only”’ the second highest violent crime rate in the western world (after the U.S.). And it’s “‘only”’ three times higher than western Europe. The bad news is that Vancouver is Canada’s violent crime capital, with the equivalent of nearly 5% of its population aged 10 to 64 committing violence last year. Trailing us are Edmonton and Ot- tawa, with Toronto and Montreal way down in sixth and seventh places. The first figure comes from a recent French government survey of crime in industrialized nations. The second is based on prelimi- nary 1991 data from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics. Both of them shriek at us the question: What are we going to do about it? Ottawa's top criminal investiga- tion cop, Supt. Bol: Kelly, says the only long term solution is to treat violence in the same way as drunken driving and smoking in public places are now treated — by making it socially unaccep- table. It’s not quite that simple, of course, because violence — once it happens — is already socially unacceptable, Moreover, some acts of violence, especially the domestic variety which result from sudden, unpredictable bouts of uncontrolled anger, are virtually impossible to forestall. What society must first concentrate on are deliberate, cold-blooded or mindless acts of violence -— and their roots. The starting point is to recognize that prevention of vio- lence is society’s responsibility — not just that of the police, whom society can never afford in large enough numbers to do the job unaided. This was the message of yester- day’s Night Out against crime in ‘DERRICK HUMPHREYS... urged community watchdogs. MAYOR MARK SAGER... celebrating Dundarave roots. Noel Wright HITHER AND YON North Van, All law-abiding citizens need to become the constant watchdogs of the police ©. in their own community. The * main deterrent to crime is not the. : possibility of punishment but the_ inevitability of discovery — by * what former West Van mayor Derrick Humphreys, who once urged a similar program, used to call ‘10,000 watching eyes’’. The other attack has to be on the escalating problem of teenage: thugs —- weaned on violence as. . normal and acceptable by. TV and movies, and strangers to disciplins': at home or at school. Society’s job in such cases isto hold _ parents and school authorities ac- countable to the community —- — with sanctions, if they fail to coo- perate, to make them accountable to the law for acts of violence by. the young. : “Tough love’ and extra work for already busy citizens. But if. we are ever to shed our infamous title as a leading world centre of 2 violent crime, there’s no other : . practical answer. We all have to become our brother’s -- and, once again, our children’ s—. keepers. TAILPIECES: Returning to his - Dundarave roots Friday, Aug. 7, Mayor Mark Sager — once presi-. dent of its Business Association — will open the Dundarave : ©. -: Hoedown at 6:30 p.m., along with’ _ MLA David Mitchell. Wear your. . stefson and jeans to this annual - fun evening of western perfor- 23° | mers, square dancing, western fare . and other western hi-jinx galore: — plus lots of fun for the kids, . beer garden, live music and raffie prizes ... And goad news for” seniors seeking information on _ anything from home support help; care facilities or ‘‘phone buddies’ to legal advice, Meals on Wheels, adult day care or support groups. — and dozens of other needs. ~ There’s now a North Shore Seniors’ One-Stop Information | Line where you can get it all fast,’ so note the number right away: 983-3303 WRIGHT OR WRONG: If you feel you’re not getting the atten- ~ tion you deserve, try making a whopping big mistake.