6 - Friday, February 28, 1992 - North Shore News . HREE YEARS ago a Saskatchewan . teacher removed a Robert Munsch . book from a school library because woh it portrayed a chitd who questions the x; authority of a school principal. an Last year, a Canadian group asked that A Huckleberry Finn be banned from schools ; because they said it characterized a micor- ity in a negative light. In recent years there have been several attempts to have books removed from : public view because some people find them 4 morally offensive. : It is little wonder, then, that librarians, North Verses. 8 booksellers, publishers, writers and teach- i ers feel so strongly about Freedom to Read : Week, which runs until March 2. The week is dedicated to raising public censorship is munication is. NEWS VIEWPOINT Open books awareness about freedom of expression and the continued threats posed to it from libel threats to publishers, customs con- fiscations of printed material and attempts by parents to have books banned from school libraries. Vancouver District libraries are commemorating the week with an essay contest and a display of books that have been banned in the past. The display in- cludes such classics as The Merchant of Venice, Lord of the Flies and The Satanic While some parents might believe that censorship should be used to protect their children from sexism, violence and racism, never the solution. Com- . Ls LETTER OF THE DAY Why is there so much litter and dog mess on the sidewalks and in parks? The merchants rely on tourists eating at their restaurants and cafes, but they don’t seem to have any pride in cleaning up lit- ter from around their eateries. There are litter receptacles on the streets but nobody bothers to use them. sf : Dear Editor: I am a new resident of Deep % . Cove. We chose to move here x mainly because of its scenic beau- at ty, but after living here for only a year | am appalled and disap- pointed at how nobody seems to care about keeping it as lovely as & it deserves to be kept. { Publisher .............. Peter Speck PAanaging Editor .. . Timothy Renshaw Asscctate Editor........ Noel Wright Advartising Director .. Linda Stewart Comotrolier Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1569 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph lil of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distubuted to every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Subscriptions Nerth and West Vancouver, $25 per year. Mailing rates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripis and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. Display Advertising 980-0511 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 ‘Tied VORCE 09 ORTH AMD WEST WAMSOUYEA north shore’ Fax SUNDAY © WEDNESDAY - FRIDAY 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 Distribution Subscriptions Administration 61,882 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. 3 = Appalled at state of Deep Cove There have been many im- provements made in Deep Cove and I believe it could be a beautiful {little place and a source of pride to the community. So let’s shape up and clean up. B. Scherbaty North Vancouver 986-1337 North Shore 986-1337 managed 985-3227 985-2131 MEMBER SDA DIVISION INSIGHTS Suites defender presses forward to yesterday TIDYING UP TIME. First with North Van District Ald. Janice Harris who protests that she has no jackboots of any kind in her wardrobe. This, despite voting with jackbooted council ostrich-heads last week on the closing of secondary suites (Hither And Yon, Feb. 23). Cn the contrary, ‘‘I support the retention of secondary suites by a return to the pre-1986 state of af- fairs,’’ she assures me. Pre-1986 was when all non- family suites were ‘‘illegal’’ but, in practice, were left in peace unless someone beefed. Then came former mayor Marilyn Baker’s holy war to close by 1985 all suites whose owners (297 so far out of the estimated 3,000-4,000) were virtuous enough to pre- register, So to speak, for their own execution day. The motion that Aldermen Harris, Gadsby, Buchols and Cuthbert defeated would have postponed the deadline for regis- tered owners to the vear 2000. Ald. Harris says she couldn’t support a motion that continued to confirm the closure policy she opposes, Some might think voting to re- tain the existing deadline amounted to the same thing. Not so, she says, because keeping the original Baker policy unchanged as now enabled council to call for a staff report on its implications. The findings, she figures, will provide the ammunition she needs to press for a return to ‘‘pre- 1986."’ Good luck, Janice — but “‘pre-1986"" hardly spells progress. As the French say, the more things change, the more they stay the same! THEN THERE'S taxation and cohabitation. They may be bad mixers, says a Financial Post writer commenting on the new DON MAZANKOWSKI... if only everybody behaved. WILLY BRUECKEL... celebrating a ‘‘re-birthday.”’ Noel Wright * HITHER AND YON budget’s treatment of common- law couples in the same way as married spouses. Common-law units are defined as a man and woman who've lived in a conjugal relationship for at least 12 months — unless they have a child, in which case there is no time condition. In marriages, capital gains on any transferred property are taxed to the partner making the trans- fer. But common-laws, Arthur Drache notes, can split up merely by one walking out, with no separation agreement or divorce. So what happens if the recipient then sells such property and the pair afterwards move back together? No tax? And what about common-law “‘polygamy’’? The definition allows a woman to have two hus- bands in a single tax year, provid- ed she has a child by each and lives some portion of the year with each. Do the tax benefits kick in for BOTH fathers? For that matter, what about men who become fathers every month with different women? Dear, dear . . . how much simpler Don Mazankowski’s life would be if only everybody behaved like Revenue Canada auditors? WRAP UP: Chosen to represent the North Shore at the B.C. Fes- tival of the Arts in Vernon, May — 27-31, are artists Boomer Jerritt, Donna Fraser, Lyla Bessner, Ken Nicholis, Rita Rowbotham, Lisa Kiepak, Barbara Bartholomew, L.A. Mohr, Gordon Finlay and Drew Burnham . . . Register for North Shore Boys (6-17) Softball tomorrow 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday noon ta 4 p.m. at Lynn Valley Mall... To Ambleside Inn’s Willy Brueckel many happy returns of this Feb. 28 — his fourth ‘‘re-birthday”’ since the heart transplant operation in Ed- monton that launched him on his “second life’? in 1988 . . . And special happy birthday wishes tomorow to West Van’s Irene Lit- tle, along with all other Feb. 29- ers in these parts who get to blow out candles only every four years! WRIGHT OR WRONG: Clear consciences often accompany fail- ing memories.