& - North Shore News -— Wednesday, August 2, 2000 Se VIEW POINT— | response of some migrants to their recent deportation from Canada is right on the money: a single-digit salute. Cur immigration and refugee sys- tem deserves that and more. The salute accompanied the removal from B.C. of another 90 migrants who were among the close to 600 illegal aliens who arrived on the province’s coast in rust-bucket fishing vessels last sumumer. The return trip to their coun- try of origin will be far more luxurious than the trip that brought them here. The tab for the chartered Boeing 747 back to China: an estimated $700,000. The Canadian taxpayers’ tab thus far for processing and detain- . ing the migrants since their arrival: $36 million. — Worthy of a one-finger salute, don’t Well, how about this: press reports state that Canadian immigration offi- cials hope the deportations will deter other prospective illegal immigrants. Get those fingers ready. Real deterrence would require real changes to this country’s immigration and refugee system, such as detaining all illegal arrivals until a decision on their status has been made; speeding up the process of making those decisions to days rather than months; and imme- diately deporting those who have been rejected. Buc such changes would require making difficult decisions, something Ottawa is incapable of doing when it comes to immigration. So until then, expect more one-fin- ger salutes and other signs of contempt from the international illegal immigra- tion industry. They’ve got Canada’s - you think? Not sure? ‘mailbox Drug war a failure Dear Editor: "Re: Leo Knights, July 19 column, Free drugs for addicts would be Kwan’s folly. Acknowledging the failure of the drug war is not tanta- “mount to admitting defeat, Likewise, attempting to redress this failure does necessarily entail the outright legalization of all drugs. We've tried zero tolerance, with little to show for -it. Criminalizing public health problems drives them under- | ground and makes them harder to treat. If drinking alcohol were a felony pursued with zero-tolerance zeal the turnout ~ at AA meetings would be dramatically lower, for obvious reasons. The drug warriors riding the anti-drug gravy train need to step aside and allow policies based on pragmatism “*~. replace the counterproductive preaching of the past three ; decades. * “" o By registering hard drug addicts and providing standard- ©, ized doses in a treatment setting, the public health problems * associated with addiction could b be eliminated. For example, - the high prevalence of HIV among intravenous drug users is a direct result of zero-tolerance drug policies that prohibit . the sale of needles. If able to purchase drugs at cost instead * of inflated black market prices, addicts would no longer ‘need to commit crimes to feed their habits. More important, rganized crime would lose'a lucrative client base. This “would render illegal drug trafficking unprofitable, destroy the. black market and thereby spare future generacons the ‘horror of addiction. This harm reduction plan may sound : defeatise, but if permanently protecting future generations from hard drugs is defeat, I for one am willing to surrender. Robert Sharpe. : . Students for Sensible Drug Policy. : George Washington University’. - -Washington, DC USA - ~ rsharpe@gwis2. circ.gwu. edu ; BO VOU RAVE A STORY IDEA? Business Hours: Sharon Cocomiie Editorial Assistant SOLE, | @85-2131, local 120 Send ata r. .. 985-2104 - E-mali:.. -- scocamile@nsnews.com Contributions must inctude your nama, North Shore News, (ounded ia 1969 as an independent number, but good. Kinsel ORDINARILY, I don’t publish reader’s letters or e-mail messages in this space. Bur, the column of two weeks ago depicting the e-mail exchange with Warren Kinsella generat- ed a ton of response, some direct to me and others to Kinsella and copied to me. Most of the letters were exceptionally thoughtful and well- expressed as diametrically opposed to the rantinj; of Kinsella. Some readers ivere kind enough to forward Kinsciia’s responses to them which, I should add, were typical of the arrogant attitude he displayed in the e- mail messages to me published here two weeks ago. In a couple he announced he was going _ to sue me and this paper, though, for what he doesn’t say and for the life of me I can’t figure out. They were his exact words, 1 just just printed them so you could sec at first arrogance and disdain emanating _ from this federal Liberal hack. in another, to Edmonton talk-show host Rob - Breakenridge, he said he was instructing his solicitor because the e-mails were “pri- vate” communications. Evidently, he doesn’t quite grasp the concept of writing to a columnist. Thanks to all who took the time to write. I wied to = respond individually, but being on the road for a couple of weel:s and working from Internet cafes, I undoubtedly missed some. To those I apologize. To all, thanks for the comments and thoughts. I have selected two of the letters written to me to share with you. They are typical YEAH, WE BOUGHT THEM IN RECORDSIORES. of the sentiment in the feedback I received. Dear Mr. Knight, I must say I was horrified, but thor- oughly entertained by the dialogue you were forced to carry out with Warren Kinsella via ¢- inail. Ifanyone needs to know why many lifelong Liberals (myself included — Iwasa fresh-faced nine-year-old at a 1968 Liberal rally with Pierre Trudeau and Jean Marchand) are fining that there is no ajierna- tive but to support the Alliance, perhaps the infantile nonsense wiht by a member of the Liberal party fer some clue. ner is S mind. -boggling indeed to have someone who wants to lead us resorting to mindless personal attacks on a journalist’s appearance, not to mention his overly aggressive disdain for anyone who publicly supports any views other than the Liberals’ party line. Indeed, being a recent trans- plant from Quebec, T cot atucst to the fact that many easterners sneer at the Alliance, - wrongly thinking it is made up of a bunch of corn-husking, Jesus-loving halfwits. Mr. Kinsella’s rantings beg the ques- - . tion: Who, exactly, are ne troglodytes here? As you have noticed, I am attaching this response to Mr. Kinsella. He would be wise to remember that you should never e- mail anything you would not want on the first page of the. Globe and Mail. Further, : any time you spzak or write to a journalist crime and punishment you are never “off the record,” especially if, . ~" agree the comments in these letters are’ ’ great deal more thoughtful d than the i invec- tive he produced,’ ; you are a politician. Mr. Knight, I congratulate you for tak- ing the high road in the discussion'and ~ tee wer uane? Frit + WE $6234 ary 4 YG: CaO) SAust] EBA D SCR” la’s e-mails sesalled sharing it for our enlightenment. Mr. : Kinsella’s childish and highly un rofession- *: al level of discourse is unacceptable for any-" one secking public office. He is quite « .. ” representative for the Liberal party. He makes the opposition look better and bet- - ter all the time. ; Yours truly, : . David Findlay Dear Leo, T do want to ‘thank you sincerely for printing the e-mail correspondence you had with Mr. Warren Kinsella: It was truly ‘ enlightening and much more informative: ° than if you'd simply summarized and: reported your interpretation of what he. said. Thank heavens the majority of North Shore voters had the good sense and intel- ligence to elect Ted White rather than this ' unbelievably ignorant, rude; crude, and arrogant litde man from Toronto. - If I recall correctly, he was suing, o . threatening to sue, just about everybody who made fair political comment at the time (Doug Collins; North Shore News Ted White> and others). He also com:"" plained to the Human Rights Tabunal / Commission, if I remember. rightly. And now he is threatening mu Incredible. eee . Anyway, thanks for listening, thanks fo the best laugh T've had in a long time, and : keep.up the great work — your column i is always i interesting (if a litde disturbing at? : Cornelius. RB Rea, Ph.D Despite what Kinsella thinks about this paper and its readers, 'm sure you ‘will. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include j your : name, full address and telephone number. Submit via e-mail to: mbeckeransnews.cm suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of the Excise Tax Act, is published "" each’, Wednesday, Friday: ané' Sunday ty HCN Publications Company and distributed to every door Of, the North Shore, Canada Post Canadian, Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. f 0087238. Mailing rates available on request. Entire contents © 2000 HCN Publications Company. All : tignts ° reserved. Average circulation “for “Wednesday, Friday and Sunday is 61,582. Momber of: Ay Timothy mm Executive Editor Mf Distribution Manager - 886-1337 (124) By bemognsnews.com « Creative Services Directo ea 8 Newsroom Editor | 985-2131 (127) S85-2131 (118)