ber 26, 1997 — North Shore News north shore news VIEWPOINT Trust tested HE not so little matter of trust is at the core of the challenge now facing West Vancouver Police. : A Dec. 21 News story outlining how the policing agency is itself under investigation regarding allega- tions of criminal misconduct within the department takes us to the core of the issue of trust. The attorney general’s ministry is looking at incidents of alleged ticket- fixing by high ranking West Van Police officers. For our sake, the hope is that the investigation will reveal the truth. As matters stand, trust is being sorely tested. We can take no comfort in the ini- tial responses of Chief Grant Churchilt or Mayor Pat Boname. Of course they’re in the hot seat. There is much they can’t say due to legal con- siderations. But Churchill’s defensive response to the News reporter’s questioning, “I know where it comes from ... You have been speaking with him,” reduces a very serious issue with widespread ramifications to the level of a disagreement with a disgruntled employee. Boname’s zather flippant response to the allegations of ticket- fixing, “It never happened to me,” speaks for itself. The old cliche — trust must be earned — holds true for individuals and organizations alike. Until the attorney general’s special prosecutor returns the findings of his investigation, a cloud of doubt hangs over the heads of the West Vancouver Police. It’s not good for them and it’s not good for us. » tty Wy \\\ \ Ws ( ( —(( society’s new elites playing God a ae THE North Shore News Free Speech Defence Fund is closing in on $150,000. To press time Tuesday, donations from over 2,050 News readers and free speech supporters to the fund stoad at $145,397. Legal fees expended thus far by the News have already exceeded $200,000. All funds received will help defray the legal costs faced . by the News in its battle with the Human Rights _» Tribunal over a complaint laid against the news- paper and its columnist Doug Collins by the Canadian Jewish Congress. The hearing into the matter, which began on May 12; concluded on June 27. The decision from tribunal chairman Nitya Iyer - was handed down on Nov. 12. Full coverage of the decision appeared in the Nov. 14 News. lyer found that Coilins* column was not hateful, but also ruled that, while the legis!ation under which the News was prosecuted infringes upon the Charter’s guarantee of free expression, it was constitutionally valid. Extra copies of the News’ Free Speech Supplement, which was originally published in the Aug. 20 News, arc available at the News Offices. Another excerpt from the thousands of respon- dents to the cause: Qo00 “Enclosed is a small contribution to help fight dictator- ship. It should not be only a North Shore News item. It’s every citizen’s duty to fight against planned world slavery.” ‘ . — Paul Nickel of Victoria, B.C. . O00 Donations to the fund can be sent to: 1139 Lonsdale Ave,, North Vancouver, V7M 2H4. Cheques should be made out to the North Shore News Free Speech Defence Fund. — erenshaw@direct.ca north shore ‘s) Worth Shore News, founded in 1969 as an ‘EWEN ca Sia & under Schedule 121, Paragraph 111 of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday. Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press ‘Sales Product Agreement No 0087238 Maiing rates avaiable on request Barbara Oistinution Manager 988-1337 (124) sndependent suburban newspaper and qualified Lid. and destnbuted to every door on the North Shore. Canada Post Canadian Pubscations Mat -: in IF you missed Rick Ouston’s superb journalistic spadework in the Vancouver Sun, you are ill-informed about the case of Robert Latimer — beneficiary of yet another example of creative law-making by the “progressive” wing of the judicia- ry that harbors the illusion that it’s Parliament, or big- ger. Latimer is the Saskatchewan farmer convicted by a jury — for the second time — of second- degree murder in the asphyxiation of his disabled daughter Tracy, aged 12. You could easily predict the outcome merely by examining the way the major media — which I’ve known, loved and been paid by for a mere 44 years — treated Latimer in these days of the rising Kervorkianization of society’s ethics. Maclean’s magazine, for instance, ran a cover story with a picture of Tracy looking disabled and pathetic, and her father looking anguished and con- science-turtured, In large letters over the photo Maclean’s — rivulets of tears running down its hardnosed journalistic face — asked: “Should Robert Latimer go free}” Anyone who answered negatively was virtually invited to publicly confess thar he/she was an uncompassionate skunk PETER SPECK Publisher 985-2131 (101) 985-2138 (177) Photograpty 985-2131 (160) 61,582 (average circutation, Wednesday. Friday & Sunday) Goug Foot Comptroller 985-2131 (133) —- compassion being Latimer’s defence. Days later Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Ted Noble whipped up an innovative ruling: To sentence Latimer to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for 10 years — the statutory penalry for second-degree murder — would be punishment violating his constitu- tional rights. Latimer- will serve less than a year in jail, unless the Crown succeeds in its appeal of his two-years- less-a-day sentence. Almost instantly a poll materialized indicating that a majority of Canadians favor assisted suicide in certain — naturally, undefined — cir- cumstances. Predictable. Canada started on this path — and we’re only a short way down it — when it legalized abortion and stripped the fetus of the smallest protection in law. And it’s guaranteed that once the elites had softened up citizens to accept that killing innocent fetuses is a “right” and without any moral significance, it would only be a matter of time before “assisted suicide” and euthanasia would be accepted too — the decision about who will live and who will die, the old and the sick and the disabled and even- tually the unwanted and the “irrele- vant,” being made by elites playing God. This rests on the arrogant and totali- tarian premise of “the life nor worth liv- ing,” which the doctors of decadent Weimar Germany formulated and then taught to the Nazis, as Prof. Patrick Derr told the North Shore Right to Life Society in a speech in the 1980s. Had reporter Ouston’s findings been known before the Latimer sentence, they might have influenced the judge and subsequently the poll. Ouston found that Latimer had been convicted of rape in 1974. The conviction was overturned on appeal and the Crown decided not to proceed further. Latimer was also convicted years ago on other, lesser charges. Maclean’s and other media were silent about thar. Maybe they didn’t know, These facts, however, were well known in Latimer’s area. But it wouldn’t be the first time that selective reporting and a public kept in just the right shade of the dark have helped to further the agenda of the “progressive” clites. Anyone who wanted to give the usual radio fare a rest in the run-up to Christmas should have listened to Jimmy Pattison’s station, The Bridge, 600 on the AM dial. If you missed it, mark your calendar for next year. It offered an incredibly creative range of music, like arrange- ments of Silent Night such as you've never heard, including what I presumed were black singers of astounding virtu- osity. If you think that “Christmas music” stopped developing around 1950 — listen up, as the cool say. Or, as they also say, be there or be square. ‘HOWSTO!REAG! LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must include your name. full address & . moiay Rersiaw Managing Editor 988-2131 (116) 985-2131 (218) Internet- htip://www.esnews.com telephone number. VIA e-mail: trenshaw @ direct.ca Michael Becker - News Editor 985-2131 (114) Andrew McCredie - Sports/Community Editue 985-2131 (147) 985-2131 (105)