6 — Friday, November 6, 1998 — North Shore News

Naughty bi

he good folks at North Vancouver City hall ought to lighten up.

Handsworth secondary school art teacher Helle Simonsen’s brush with prudery shows us just how fragile the right to express ourselves freely in public really is.

An Artists for Kids exhibition organized by the North Vancouver Community Arts Council and the North Vancouver schoo! district was on display at city hall recently.

Teachers from across the school district were invited to submit pieces for public display in a public place.

Simonsen answered the call with a life-size ceramic sculpture of a nude woman.

The piece was displayed for a week before she was asked to

north shore news

VIEWPOINT

is

remove her work from the show.

It seems some city employees had trouble with the replica of a naked woman sprawled in the hall.

Simonsen correctly points out that the naked human form is an ubiquitous sculptural theme throughout the world.

The fact that the artist’s natura!- istic depiction of a supine woman did not even hint at, say a heraldic theme — demure nude triumphant- ly raising North Vancouver City coat of arms skyward with inspira- tional flair — may have reduced the art work’s chance for extended shelf life in the public place.

Censorship by any name, whether it be couched in terms of sensitivity to taste or concern for safety, is just that, restriction based upon moral

tyranny.

Just AS THey FEARED, THE

FRADE SECRETS OF THE TOBACCO COMPANY ARE REVEALED To

A COMPETITOR:

NICKEL, LEAD, oP MERCURY, BENZENE O FORMALDEHYDE? ° WAY DIDN'T 1 THINK OF THAT?

AW ee,

Ss Cy SVM, plage ¢ w ‘ud Af uM

.

30

maiibox —————-— Matters to discuss with Mr. Mair

NDP’s jobs initiative could cost taxpayers

Dear Editor:

I found it very disturbing to read that one of the central components of Glen Clark’s latest economic strategy is his ill-conceived Power for Jobs initiative.

The Power for Jobs initiative is a false bill of goods that could cost BC Hydro ratepayers nearly $1.5 to $2 billion in subsidies over 20 years.

A 82 billion subsidy on the backs of BC Hydro ratepay- ers will not get this province out of its NDP-made reces- sion.

The premier’s Power for Jobs scheme relies upon employment growth from new aluminum smelters lured to B.C. by the offer of cheap, surplus electricity from the Columbia River Treaty.

However, it is now well-established that there is not cnough surplus power to run the smelters that the premier has boasted abour.

In fact, Hydro has made it clear that B.C. requires new electricity generation just to handle normal growth in demand — let alone the three smelters outlined in the new ccononiic strategy.

With no cheap, surplus electricity to offer, the only alter- native available to carry out the plan is to build a new gen- eration source, sell the electricity to the proposed smelters at below cost, and pass the buck on to B.C. ratepayers.

It is clear that this is what Glen Clark intends to do.

What is really needed to revive B.C.’s ailing economy is a bold economic recovery plan that aims to make B.C. com- petitive again through personal and small business tax cuts, the climination of red tape, truth in budgeting legislation and debt reduction, and the enactment of fair and balanced labour laws,

Ted Nebbeling, MLA West Vancouver - Garibaldi BC Liberal critic for employment and investment

north. shore. _ i . North Shore News, sounded in 1969 as an : a independent suburban newspaper and quakhed AE under Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of the

. Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press. Uw. and distnbuted to every door on the North ‘Shore. Canada Post Canackan Pubkcations Mai

SEMIEEMEE a

Distribution Manager 888-1397 {124}

Excise Tax Aci, is publshec each Wednesday,

I have something to say about Rafe Mair.

Also, I have something to say to Rafe Mair. Actually, the first is about his book. It’s called Canada: Is

Anybody Listening? (Key Porter Books, Toronto, $27.95). And I urge any- one whose work, hearing loss, location beyond CRNW's signal, ete., and is therefore unfamiliar with his indispensable show, to buy the book.

Also, I urge those who regularly hear North Vancouver's gift to broad- casting, and assume that they’ve heard it all before, to buy the book.

I'm sure Rafe could use the money.

Aw, just funnin’. Doubtless he can. But the book stands on its own.

Part memoir, part dissertation, it’s full- time readable. The anecdotes flow (though I'm sorry he didsi'x relate the one about a brand-new female producer whose first act was to demand that Hafe’s boss vacate his office for Rafe).

It enshrines in print discourses, anxi- ctics, troubles and quarrels that otherwise would be lost in ephemeral radio. Which is one of the virtues of print. And here I stop stroking and start smoking at Rafe. Or, as Pil call him now, Mair.

When, confounding the many skeptics, the National Post matcrialized on Tuesday, Oct. 27, Mair had it critiqued by one Murray Dobbin, who is a Saskatchewan NDPer.

Dobbin’s writing trail twists predictably ieftward, An carly book slammed Preston

Pe Piblster 985-2131 (701)

Creative Services Manager 985-2131 (127) 61.582 (average citeuiation, Wednesday, Faday & Suncay)

Entire contents © 1997 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved.

Manning and Reform.

Dobbin is a communications guy with the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, a New Democrat farm club. He is so far up the NDP that he is lodged somewhere in its

throat —~ and he didn’t enter by mouth. (Declaration of self-inter- est: My bread is earned at Papers owned by Southam, which also pub- lishes the Post. So I too have my biases. But I can still be correct about the following. Which I will demonstrate.) Yes, Dobbin does some journalistic work, but his qualifications for analysing the Post eluded me. Especially when he complained — twice ~— that the new paper, unlike the Globe and Mail, had ignored a story alleging, corpo- rate pressure oi federal health protection branch scientists to approve a controversial drug that increases cows’ milk production.

Maic often jabs newspapers for running old news. Which is fair. Only the week before he happily joined in newspaper- bashing by tormer Toronto Star staffer John Miller, who was flogging his book about newspapers precisely titled Yesterday's News.

So Mair chucklingly gave free rein to Dobbin (no horse jokes, please) as he ram- bled through his woolly criticisms.

And — amazing coincidence! — the interview was bracketed between promos for CKNW and commercials for the CBC television —— both Past competitors for advertising dollars.

But move on. As stated, Dobbin beefed that on its very first day of publication —

reminder: Tuesday, Oct. 27 — the Post hadnt covered the milk story.

With, he should have been gently told, good reason. That story had broken six dayss earlier — Thursday, Oct. 22. Like vir- tually all Canadian dailies, The Vanconver Stn ran the story the following day, Friday. Then an editorial on the issue the Monday.

If the Post had run it on the Tuesday, it wouldn’t have just been “yesterday’s news.” It would have been archival. Had supposed newspaper analyst Dobbin read it? Neigh!

Hey, stop that horsing around!

My conclusion: The milk story is big among kettists and environmentalists. So it’s probably one of Dobbin’s hobby-hors- es. Look, didn’t I say: No horse jokes?

o00

The trouble abour being publisher of 2 Paper is that you don’t get your own story printed.

News publisher Peter Speck is lucky to have a functioning arm after an accident six weeks ago at his Clam Bay resort and farm:

He and an employce were saving a ° piece of wood when the saw jumped and sliced into his arm.

“I was lucky,” he says. By which he means that, all along the way in what fol-_ lowed — starting with a clean handkerchief in his pocket — he got the right first aid, right transport by helicopter, right medical help, and right plastic surgeon. Had the saw bitten just a little deeper ...

The wound is healing nicely and, ?'m relieved to report, Peter can still sign . cheques.

QOQQ

As for The Three Divas ... Damn. Next week.

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