6 - Sunday, Ju Ta da... kinda Be prepared YHE WILDERNESS doesn’t suffer fools gladly. But focis continue to challenge that maxim. Sometimes with fatal results. Members of the North Shore Rescue Team were at Lynn Headwaters Park last Sunday on-a mission to educate hikers and other outdoor recreation enthusiasts about the ever-present dangers of communing with nature as if it were just another manmade diversion. - : Last week another hiker died in the North Shore wilderness. She ignored a basic wilderness tenet — never hike alone — and paid the ultimate price. Other basic tenets of wilderness survival as recommended by B.C. search and rescue advisory committee chairman David Brewer: hikers should leave a detailed itin- erary with trusted friends or relatives prior “The fix is in. The cart is not be stopped.” before the horse.” North Vancouver resident A. W. Wilson, opposing North Vancouver Iraj Rezaei — a North Shore businessman who claims a blaze was set deliberately in his office to their departure; they should also fill out a form describing each member of their hik- ing party and leave it with those same trust- ed friends or relatives. Hikers should also stock up on common sense, of which you can never have too much in the great wide-open, but which always seems to be in such short supply. Last year, 940 people in B.C. failed to stock up on the foregoing items and required the help of search and rescue teams. Thirty- eight were found dead; 38 remain missing. Already this year on the North Shore 38 peo- pie have needed search and rescue assis- tance. To the great credit of the local search and rescue team, most of those people have lived to tell the tale. Qne hasn’t. A walk in the wilderness should never be taken lightly. So when you do, be prepared. it could save your life. ize I’m not supposed to park here, but I’ve never gotten a tick- et before so why should I have one now?’” District’s Montroyal connector plans during debate over the issue. (From a July 20 North Shore News story.) “] believe here in Canada everyone should be in a safe and democratic environment. I must because editorials he has written in a local Jranian newspaper have spo- ken out against the fundamentalist regime in [ran — on freedom of the press. (From a July 17 North Shore News story.) “I got one guy saying, ‘I real- West Vancouver sununer bylaw officer Rob Goehring, on one of the excuses he has heard as to why he should not issue parking tickets to bylaw violators in West Vancouver. (From a duly 17 North Shore News story.) ws. Peter Speck .Timothy Renshaw .Noel Wright Publisher Managing Editor ... Assoclate Editor... Sales & Marketing Director... .Linda Stewart Comptroller... ceesscsssssnsesseeene ..Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban nowspaper and qualilied under Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to Gvery door on the North Shore. Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 0087233. Mailing rates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures whicti should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. Newsroom V7M 214 Display Adverising Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Subscriptions Classitied Advertising 1139 Lonsdale Avenue North Vancouver B.C. North Shore Managed 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 985-2131 980-0511 Distribution 986-6222 Fax 985-2131 Administration MEMBER CNA SIR SDA DIVISION 61.582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) samcourga anes Entire contents © 1994 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. ‘independence’ not about to | kill Canada! WHY DON’T ALL we Canadians learn to live in harmony with one another and the magnificent land we share by following Quebec’s example? That's the gist of onc of the most simulating ideas ve run across on the Quebec “problem.” it came the other week ina letter to a Vancouver daily from one R. Anderson in Abbotsford. “Why are we so upset,” asks the writer, “that Canada’s oldest child is mature enough to seck its inde- pendence from Canada? Isn't it time B.C. did the same thing? We should all be seeking sovereignty association, We can't go anywhere. We would still be in Canada, but we need a new deal. “Let's serap the Constitution, which gave all power to the central government. ... We should be able to run our own fisheries, control our own resources and keep all of our taxes except the share needed for the peacekceping forces, per- haps the RCMP, search and rescue and foreign affairs. ... “Each independent economic unit of Canada,” Anderson contin- ues, “could send one or two repre- sentatives to Ottawa four times a year for a discussion of problems affecting the entire country. We don’t need a Senate or a House of Commons — both have been an unjustified expense. Let's work with —- not against — Quebec.” What reader Anderson’s plan sounds like is a Canada trans- formed, politically, into something akin to a monster-size Switzerland ~— where “people power” in the municipalities and the 26 cantons keeps a strict, ongoing control over the relatively limited activities (by present Canadian standards) of the central government. They’ ve had that control since 1848 through regular referendums and citizen initiatives which nor- mally take place four times a year. A petition signed by 50,000 eli- gible voters within three months forces any law proposed by the . central government to be put toa binding referendum (they killed their government's GST bill that way!). A citizen initiative for a new law needs 100,000 signatures col- lected over 18 months, after which it, too, must go to a binding refer- endum, along with any government counter-proposal. In practice, it means cities and cantons enjoy an enviable degree of autonomy based on direct, grass- roots democracy. In a few places citizens even still vote in the city square with a show of hands. To the Fathers of Confederation, a strong centralized government inherited from Britain's [8th centu- ry parliamentary model seemed the obvious way to go. But 127 years later the days of the all-powerful nation-state, which that model symbolized, ure every- where numbered. The unprecedented mobility that people. money and property enjoy today is ushering in a new Age of the Individual. As a result, power will shift increasingly to smaller, largely independent governmental units —- voluntarily cooperating for common economic und social goals, Thus in Canada, might not 10 independent provinces collaborat- ing freely with one another for their mutual benefit possibly work far better than being forcibly held together by the heavy hand of debt- plagued Ottawa, with its arrogant, ruinously spendthrift habits? What I liked most of all in read- er Anderson’s letter was the bit that said: “We can’t go anywhere. We would stil! be in Canada.” That's a mighty comforting thought for all us neighbors who share these rich and beautiful 3.9 million square miles of real estate! SCRATCHPAD: Seeking volun- teers to plan and organize a “‘Jail- ‘n’-Baii’’ fundraiser this coming Nov. 2-3 at Park Royal is the Canadian Cancer Society — if you can help, please call 985-8585 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. ... All Star Sports Camps (boys and girls) are available July and August in North and West Van for basket- ball (Grades 5-10), Pee-Wee “Plus” (Grades 1-3) and volleyball (girls only, Grades 5-12) — call Irene, 925-3759. ... For info on the Windsor Class of °74 reunion this fall phone 1-940-9390 (I.adner) or 1-599-0002 (Newton). ... A 100- candle salute to North Van's Constance Evans who today, July 24, celebrates her first century with family and friends. ... And Monday, July 25, welcome North Van’s lat- est happy recruits to the “Golden 50 Club” — Woodcroft residents Bob and Barbara Miller. WRIGHT OR WRONG: Some people are good losers. Others sim- ply can’t act. Photo submitted 50 YEARS LATER... Barbara and Bob Miller.