VIEW POINT: children crossing away” for a white. Of course when the funding was discontinued in favour of a province-wide school safety program the district was once again facing fear- ful and angry parents. In the course of writing another story about the issuc, this paper found North Vancouver RCMP Sgt. Bob Beaudoin and then-school superinten- dent Doug MacKay-Dunn to be sym- pathetic to the possibility of training students. With: seed moncy from BCAA, a pilot project was set up to train stu- dents at Upper Lynn elementary for September 1999, and four more schools have since joined the project. The RCMP are now hoping most ele- mentary schools in North Vancouver will have crossing guards safely trained by May. Congratulations to all involved. Massive ‘no’ te DEFYING their political bosses, THe SNOWFALL QND RESULTING POWER OUTAGES HiT VANCOUVER ISLANDS PRODUCE PRICES HARD... ANGNteor METCHOSIN GOLD?! NOWAY, DUUDE! ALLY, it seems, parents, edu- cators and school administrators are beginning to comprehend the merits of student crossing guards. Regular readers may recall that we first profiled the possibility of training older elementary-age children to patrol crosswalks two years ago when a retired Calgary policeman appeared before North Vancouver District coun- cil to pitch a program similar to the one he had operated in Calgary with- out injury to the children involved. Council at the time was dealing with the political fallout created when adult crossing guards were eliminated from the North Vancouver school board budget. City council picked up the tab for adult guards at six of its schools but the district did not. However, ICBC stepped in with a one-year grant and the problem “went Se ee or Por tr oy you said it Nisga’a Treaty — 44 think we believe our kids learn values and beliefs . g vee y from us through osmosis. But if we don’t talk about it, Callers without touch-tone phones - and that the 1-900 charge cost cach were also Gut of luck. : share it, what we believe in, ther. nothing happens. Values aren’t passed on automati-ally.” _- «Principal Dave Pearce on why parents must talk to their children about values. (From a Jat. 12 News story.) 900 _t. “Staff recommends that you rewerd this blatant dis- fegard of existing bylaws aad issue a variance permit “together with ‘after: the fact’ building permits. It would scem that it is easier to beg forgiveness than to ask perziistion.” : : (From a Jan: 14 News story.) . ‘00 “That’s like saying that Churchill could have ended ie bombing of London just by letting Hitler in.” Linda ‘Morgan, fighting for an end to UN sanctions in q, on the notion of Saddam Husscin being able to stop the sanctions at any time by letting weapons inspectors into the country. (From a Jan. 7 News story.) O90 “My mother, she was a darling person and so tal- and raised us all by her- Miller. . t ‘k. But she didn’t know a chkel. a dofiar. Sometimes we zimost starved.” . ‘Marjorie Bezanson. remembers her childhood after -News pubtisher Peter Speck reunited her with a niece she ever knew she had. (From‘a fan 9 News story.) ented. She sewed for a livin Lf with ‘alot of hard work impress News story. Kask force chairman Maureen Bragg speaking against council permit approval to regularize a Deep Cove home ‘built beyond the required setback from the waterfront. British Columbians finally had a chance to vote last Monday on the Wisga’a Treaty — and rejected it by 99.11%. A 1-900 phone-in referendum sponsored by the Coalition for Accountability in Government Expenditures via Telus received 3,000 NO votes and 27 YES votes for the treaty as now written. The final resuits in about two weeks, after Telus has analyzed cali patterns to - ensure there were no call enomalies, will be sent to the Senate in Octawa for action, as well as to Prime Minister Chretien, Opposition Leader Preston Manning, B.C. Liberal leader Gordon Campbell and (though with no hope of any effect) acting NDP Premier Dan The Senate will be asked to return the - treaty to the Commons and calf for a Canada-wide referendum after a series of . meaningful public input sessions. | Liz James, chairman of CAGE’s B.C. Chapter, makes no bones about the votre being less scientific than one conducted by Elections BC would be, with a poten- tial 1.75 to 2.5 million voters participat- ing. S Nevertheless, in view of the obstacles * CAGE had to battle, the immediate result . is remarkable;especially remembering | that over 3,000 respondents are a sample three to six times bigger than those o many Gallup and other reputable polls —_ respondent $1.99. Shortage of funds meant the CAGE bone-in referendum fad to be launched with hardly any advance pub- licity. Aside from this column, a donor even- tually provided enough ° dollars for modest last- minute ads in the Province (which also ran a brief news item) and the North Shore News. According to Ms. James, the Vancouver Sun wouldn't touch the story with a bargepole. To compensate, however, the power of Internet ¢-mail switched in, On the Sunday before voting day I personally received one such e-mail with 30 addressees, asking each of them to forward it to another 30. ; But it’s obvious there were other simi- lar “chain-letter” e-mail operations publi- ; cizing the poll. ; This person-to-person publicity, plus the Province, is the only explanation of the large number of calls CAGE received |‘ during Monday’s poiling period from =: 0 ha people all over B.C. who had only just earned about the referendum. There were also calls from 2 good many disappointed British Columbians who, for a variety of unavoidable reasons, - tried but never did get to register their vote. The Telus 1-900 lines frequently became overloaded, returning nothing - but a busy signal (the lines can be increased in future phone-in polls, sa Ms. James). Phone subscribers who’ given their business to Sprint found it a apparently doesn’s handle 1-900 calls. All in all, therefore, it’s clear chat the. final count could, ideally, have been - much higher than the 3,027 votes suc- cessfully recorded — possibly even dou ble. Granted, this could have changed somewhat the 99,11% NO vote. © 7 But to Suggest that vote could have <7: been reduced to anything less than a stil}: ” unarguable rejection of the Nisga’a -. |: Treazy as written is totally unrealistic. - The concise and restrained CAGE” *- pitch before you were invited to press 2." “1” for NO or “2” for YES emphasized - that CAGE supports iand claim treaties as - long overdue. But to succeed, they must .. be equitable, affordable and beneficial to’: individual aboriginals, not just aboriginal °. governments. 9 ee The present Nisge’a Treaty fails chat. test. Which is why the provincial NDP. : and federal Grits dared not put it to a re erendum, knowing it would suffer.ch ‘same defeat as the Charlottetown Accord. ” ... Now their fears have been convin ly confirmed, some fast rethinking by Chretien seems in order if his party is retain even its meagre seven-MP standi in B.C. — let alone ever improve on it: goa... 2 WISH HAPPY BIRTHDAY tomoz * Jan. 17, to North Van Kiwanian Rick college classroom door: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Nort Shore News, fourded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspayer and quakfied | under Schedule 111, Paragraph: 111 af the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by HCH Publications * Company and distnbuted fo every door on the North Shore. Canada Post Canadian Publications Maa Sales Product Agiesn.cat No, 0087238. Mading rates avaiable on request. 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