6 - Wednesday, October 13, 1999 — North Shore News

causeway cause is not about

to go gentle into the good night.

And regardless of the current

intransigence on the part of the

Vancouver park board, something has got to give.

A recently released Vancouver City staff report, for example, confirms what West Vancouver Garden Club members and other North Shore resi- dents have been howling about for months: the causeway’s lanes are too narrow and present a safety hazard to commuters. That safety hazard will increase when the Lions Gate Bridge vanes axe widened and newly widened standard lanes on the bridge wil) be fannelling into existing substandard ~ Sauseway fanes,

The boand, however, is stend- ». ing firm on keeping those lanes sub- Standard. -~ saying that it will allow no

olunteers make good: crossing guards

respondin sandra Hanis’. “feeling” that “yolun- ec could not be ted upon,” (Cal for crosng guards, Oct. 1

0K News story.) -

“Volunteers are great until bad weather hits or they have other commitments :.: enue score i ” This was in refez-

temattmelable

north shore news

VIEWPOINT

king

more green to be carved from Stanley Park. This even though current cause- way work will widen the thorough- fare’s sidewalks and the additional six feet needed to bring the lanes up to safety standards will have no impact at all on the quality of the park.

The logic of the whole affair boggles the mind.

If the width of the current causeway is inviolable, then both sides in this affair should look at the existing cause- way sidewalks. The two currently rep-

‘resent just over eight feet of the thor-

oughfare’s width. Expanded they will represent 13 feet.

Eliminating one of the sidewalks would provide virtually all of the need- ed traffic lane space. Surely the safe conveyance of 65,000 vehicles per day should take some precedence over the occasional pedestrian and bicyclist.

CORK EVANS FOR PREMIER

ANG! THAT P GONNA BE )o,

~ Nothing, yes nothing, is foreve

THE ugly clashes in New

Brunswick fast week between MPkmag Indians and ron-native

fishermen raise a rather vital question about the role of history in today’s world.

The trouble was sparked, you'll recall, by . -.a Supreme Court ruling ‘that a 1760 treaty between the natives and © the British colonizers of the day, giving the for- mer._unrestricted fishing rights, is still valid. T..5, despite the fact that the

“ seeneesencensersascons:

of Noxth Van: i¢ cones, nests, “stip” paddics and hard hats.

bows consent to us rerouting the traffic flow

around the School -aind.the, RCMP trained us. Mornings and

cyery schoc! day we close off an entire street, mak- motorists with the use of 30 orange ing number of students walking © Feast on Siac to

" taf “Tf thére.isn’e enough Money in the va nicia coffers for paid then doesn’t it bchouve all of us: parents, unions, mem- the ‘public and clected officials ux cnable and encourage

‘fill the ; ce a tea thos: of us committed to keeping our children in Sationed bet velabk: poopie :

239-year-old treaty isin direct conflict with recent federal fishing restrictions imposed in Gr. der to conserve depleted stocks,

Bound by the federal regulations . while their Mi’kmaq compstitors remained free: co harvest the ocean .

_around New Brunswick 365 days a year,

the non-native fishermen obvicusly faced ~ ‘a very real threat to their livelihood and got very angry abdut it. As a recipe for racial harmony the verdict by Canada’s top court was a local disaster — though -

"by no means the first of its kind.

Some two yeart ago the Supreme

Court issued its famous (or infamous, as__

you wish) Delgamuukw ruling which, in effect; supports aboriginai iand claims to- 111% of the B.C, landmass. Nor, *

declared the learned judges, does abo-: .- °

‘riginal ticle: qeed to be formally docu- mented, Oral‘and anecdotal history _:

“passed from generation to generation is

- the world of NOW, not

Her Sve Mtr, Sunded 1566220 a indepindent suburban newspaper and quaied © under Schedule 111, Paagragh 117 ofthe

Creative Serves Dien < 283-2131 (127)

.@ perfectly acceptable basis for claims. Backed by this decision, Westbank Indians in the Oxanagan recently took the law into their own hands and defied | the treaty process by illegally lo opging Crown-owned forest. Elsewhere in the’ Okanagan a premiurs ..

ski resorc development,

“Dankrupted because -- “Indians iliegally and repeatedly blockaded -

‘the only access road, is “¢,

om Then, i in Vancouver, don’t forget those 73: non-native leaschold ;'

residents on

" seniors — who were suddenly hit by: their Indian landlords with fens of thou: sands of dollars in:“catch-up” les rental hikes. By the ead of thi they face. eviction action’ for 1 hon- jay ment. Without any vote or voice in band council decisions, this wil! presumably ‘leave inany of them no recourse Dut to -. walk away from their homes and declare _ bankruptcy. No fair-minded non-native Canadian

to ishabit an entirely differen world. Treaties made in good faith two

- half centuries ago can be totalls

“ vantin this age of jet travel, satellite T

. and the Internet. Natives and hon-

natives today are equal Canadian ci zens. And Canada’s reputation as a t crant multicultural society. is internation-

‘cally acclaimed.

As décades and 'centu pass, 2 * human Contracts and.treaties have a ce tain finite shelf life. So. they should “never, ever be “ graven in stone,” but

; origi 1ow stand, ‘completed: into the. Constituti

‘disaster. ‘The biggest:

Supreme Court could vender : he it has sworn erve Wi id Be :

“today would contest the claim of natives. -

“s have wrongs inflicted on them by car- - lier white settlers righted to.the fulles .- extent practicable;.But that doesn’t “mean history. must aatomatically take + precedence over present-day t realities. he world in which we ail mast live nd hopefully ly Prosper ~ “then” -That’s why the ermine-robed supre-:

‘together

“mos on. the Rideau fen seem nowadays :

‘thing about egetists.

talk about other. people: