EOnSter

T sort of message does North Vancouver District council think it is has sent to its prospective builders and developers? Council has just approved two mas- sive development variance permits for new homes on Panorama Drive in Deep Cove. Not unusual in itself. Variances allow council some discretion in approving development plans that exceed what area zoning allows. Common requests relate to house size and where the home sits on the lot. Past district councils have whip- sawed back and forth on approving large-sized variances, usually taking into account neighbourhood opinion. — approving some and not others But “retroactive” variances have never been considered in the same vein — until now.. It is one thing for a

liESSage

gain permission before building starts, it is something else entircly to start building with one set of plans and end up with something much larger. For instance: installing a basement pool, enlarging the main floor, converting an attic into another bedroom and adding a cantilevered balcony.

All of the above were rubber- stamped by council with only Couns. Ernie Crist and Lisa Muri voicing con- cerns about beating the system.

New councillor Doug MacKay- Dunn even argued the bylaw rules were too complicated. Maybe for some councillors, but presumably the plan- ning department, who recommended against approving the floor space vari- ances, does understand both the minu- tiae of the bylaw and the message implicit in approval: it’s open season for monster homes in the district.

builder to plead the need for size and

you said it

“This is going to be a non-smoking world one day. We're just prolonging it.”

Andrea Doby, manager of the Raven in Deep Cove, on the court decision that overturned a Workers Compensation Board smoking ban. (From a March 24 News story. )

“It was like a scene out of Alex Haley’s Airport — women and children screaming and arms up in the air.”

Pat Comey. is happy to be home in North Vancouver after an incident’ on an Alaska Airlines flight from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in which a man tried to wrest control of the plane from the pilot. (From a March 22 News story.)

. ; agaa “After £0 years in a wheelchair I don’t need feet.” .. . 2 Wheelchair athlete Nik Nikzaban says he’s not disabled as “>. be prepares to set a-24-hour wheelchair endurance record. » (From a March 19 News Sunday Focus story.)

; - O00 - -* “Sometimes I got tired -— driving that slowly some- "times it’s hard to stay focused, but I never got bored. -. When you. ses. someone like that. going 80 strokes a . minute, mife after mile after mile, I thought ‘Hac I am, sitting in-a rinkside.seat at a great event which uo one else is seeing.’ ” _ -: 3 West Van senior Bob. Milward, on his experience of dri- :. ving’ Nik Nikzaban’s support vehicle the length of "Vancouver Island last summer. (From the same News Sunday Focusstoryy . ope, . re Q00 : -: “It was a beautiful spring day. Dad and Mum were - quite peaceful people. They were making tea after the ig move and they were sitting out on their beautiful : patio and suddenly the Royal Hudson went by. It was ‘nfiterally 25 feet from where they were sitting and they ~ didn’t know the railway was there. There was the train |. and they nearly died.” “cx: Jane» Adams, daughter of internationally recognized - composer Jean Coulthard, recalls her parents’ retirement to a small condominium development in Caulfeild Cove, where they came to enjoy the eccentricities of living on a rail line. * (From a March 24 News story. } :

Month Shore Mews, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and quakbed under Schedule 113, Paragraph 111 of the Encise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday. Friday and Sunday by HCN Publications” Compny and distributed to every door on the North Shors. Cazods Pos! Canadian Publications Mail Saies Procuct Agreement No. 0087238. Mating rates avaiable on request.

Barbara Emo Diswibution Manager 986-1337 (124) bemo@nsnews.com

. By , . 51,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) oa The North Shore News Is published Sy KEN Pub

miancheré@nsnews.com

Good week at Supreme Court

HAVING become our de facto ruler, the Supreme Court is now being asked to

adjudicate on two

constitutional

issues with vital

ramifications for

Canada’s and B.C.’s political future.

First, the landmark Nisga’a Treaty — already steamroilered through the B.C.

Legislature and the

Commons, and due to be passed within the next month by the Senate. But not if retired and highly respected Supreme Court judge Willard Estey has his way.

Estey has now warned the Senate to hold its hand until the Supreme Court can rule on the validity oft the treaty under the Canadian constitition.

Backed by fellow retired Supreme Court judge William McIntyre and many other eminent members of the legal com- munity, he warns that the treaty as writ- ten creates an independent Nisga’a state able to make laws overriding those of Canada and B.C.

He predicts the treaty would allow the Nisga’a government to usurp Ottawa’s

-authority to make laws concerning the

basic rights and obligations of Canadian citizens, including the power to amend the Nisga’a constitution, to appoint judges, to police citizens and to impose taxes. ;

In short, it would create a third order of government without going through the required process of first amending the Canadian constitution.

PETER SPECK Dee Dhaltwal Publisher HAVPromotions Manager

985-2131 (101) 985-2131 (218}

ddhainval@nsnews.com

pspeck@nsnews.com

jorry ography Manager 985-2731 (760) ipeters@nsnews.com

dloot@nsnews.com

Volorie Stephenses Classified Manager

986-6222 (202) vslephensonepnsnews.com Entire contents © 1999 HCN Publications Company. All righis reserved. t Pater Speck

ESSER operates We

“This bill,” says Estey, “could destabi- lize the fegal framework on which the Canadian nation is built.”

When he speaks, our political and judicial masters listen. At the 11th hour, a fresh hope for sanity? The second new battle taken to the Supreme Court last week by Quebec’s seven-year-old Association for the Right to Work threatens a nightmare scenario for Canada’s labour unions. Since 1985 the associa- tion’s co-founder Andre Gareau has been fighting the Quebec faw that requires any construction worker seeking employment in the province to belong to one of five unions.

By refusing to join a union Gareau has rung up $30,000 in fines and also faces a jail sentence. The association is now ask- ing the court to confirm that, under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canadians are entitled to live and work anywhere in the country.

More specifically, the court is being asked to declare that “freedom of associa- tion” guaranteed under the Charter also means freedom NOT to associate, a proposition that seems obvious to any - sane mind.

But it also, of course, means the unthinkable for organized labour: an end to compulsory union membership — the choice for workers to join or not join. And what future then for B.C.’s NDP?

No wonder horrified union bosses are unleashing their top legal beagles to fight the association’s court application tooth and nail.

Meanwhile, one precedent already favours the latter. In a 1997 ruling ona Quebec referendum law the court found “forced association” was not acceptable.

Millions are poured into lawyers’ pockets by the games our nine “activist,” ermine-robed Supremos play with the Constitution and the the Charter. But ~ last week it still felt good to have them around! a

000,

SICK OF BOGUS REFUGEES? If, like many Canadians, you feel our refugee. and immigration policies desperately need’ to be smartened up, don’t miss next Thursday’s important public meeting, 7:30 p.m. March 30 at the North Shore Conference Centre in the International -“ Plaza (Marine Drive at Capilano Rd.), .-. sponsored by the Canadian Association tor Immigration Reform. me

Guest speaker with a first-hand knowl-: edge of Third World countries — the. source of many of our present refugee >. ~ and immigration problems — is 2.) Vancouver resident Martin Collacott, for-:. mer Canadien High Commissioner in Sri : Lanka and our former ambassador to’. ' Sytia and Cambodia. ne

There'll be ample time for. questions’: to the speaker. _ ae

Admission and parking are free. Your. - chance to put your views about refugees. ~~: and immigrants on the record where they... can be used to effect. ns oe

-, OOO. WRIGHT OR WRONG: To handle | yourself, use your head. To handle others, ©

use your heart. eo

—nwright@uniserve.com

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letters must include your name, full address & telephone number.

Timothy Reushaw Managing Editor 995-2131 (116) frenshawé@nsnews.com

David Vhiirna Gall Snelg Display Advertising Manager 980-0511 (317)

dwhitmangasnews.com

yas

Geneva! Office Manager

985-2131 (105) gsneigrovegensnews.com from 1139 Lonsdale Avenue North Vancouver, B.6., V7 26:

Se ee ee ee ee el ee ee

VIA e-mail: tenshaw@nsnews.com

Michel Becker ~ Hews Editor 985-2131 (114) Hews tps fine (after hours). 985-2131 ipress 3)

Sete oa

thos