6 - Wednesday, April 28, 1999 - North Shore News

Firing HE dismissal of West Vancouver municipal manager Doug Allan is but the latest episode in the municipality’s long- running Cuff Chronicles.

Space does not permit the retelling of all previous episodes. Suffice it to say that George Cuff’s report into the organization and management of West Vancouver District was critical of the district’s operation. It was also critical of key municipal personnel.

But release of the report followed the lines of a bad theatrical farce. Following initial delay in that release, key portions of the report were miss- ing in action — white-out having been applied with great zeal by municipal lawyers.

Appalled at the editing job done to his report, Cuff promptly disowned

north shore news

VIEWPOINT

and running.

Most of the offending paragraphs focusing on senior management, except those dealing with Allan, even- tually came to light.

What became apparent with each Cuff update and what was apparent from the start of the Cuff Chronicles was that something was fundamental- ly amiss in the upper echelons of management at district hall.

Doug Allan from all reports was.a good person and a well-liked man. But his dismissal is far from surpris- ing considering the mishandling of a report that was commissioned to pro- vide insight into how district hall could improve the running of Canada’s richest per-capita communi-

ty. ; In the end, it was the right thing to

( Just HAD

TURNS OUT You Owe ME MonNeY.

MUSQUEAM

_ it, and the Cuff Chronicles were off do.

matibox

iP reveals cost of kidnappers’ return

Deur Editor: .

During November 1998 there was considerable public controversy over the return to Canada from a Brazilian prison of Christine Lamont and David Spencer.

At the time, questions about the cost of the exercise were frequently raised on radio talk shows and in letters to the editors of newspapers.

Asa result, on Nov. 24, 1998, | placed a written question on the Order Paper in the Parliament of Canada requesting that the government reveal the total of all expenses incurred

_ Since 1995 in association with the return of Lamont and Spencer to Canada. I finally received the information on April 13, 1999. - According to a summary provided by the government, “taxpayers contributed a total of $131,415 to the s: Lamont/Spencer project, $13,337 of which was related to * the translation of documents, while RCMP costs amounted : to $118,078. Ic is not clear whether other “hidden” costs accrued * because of the involvement of persons who work for the government in roles which may have required a passing or occasional involvement in the case.

Neither is it possible to estimate any future custs that may

. be related to resettlement, social assistance, or other taxpay- _ er funded programs for which Lamont and Spencer may ’ qualify as a direct result of their long absence and possible ;, lack of employment.

= J leave it to your readers to judge whether the actions i;taken by the government in securing the return of Lamont and Spencer were appropriate, and the money well spent, or ¥ whether we, as Canadians, should have respected the sen- ¥ tence imposed by a Brazilian court on two of our citizens : who committed crimes in that country.

» Ted White

; North Vancouver

orth Shore faws, tounged in 1969 as an independent suburbs: ssaspaper and quakhed under Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of the Exerse Tax Act. is petashed each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday izy Yorth Shoes Free Press, (Ud and distnbuted to e.or oor c. 11.2 Nord Shoe Canada Post Canadian Pubrcations Mat! Sales Product Agreement No (067238 Making rates available on request

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THE 1789 French revolution — the inspiration for all later strug- gles against tyranny and injustice — unfortunately got it all wrong. We are still

suffering from its

sloppy thinking.

Its watchword, you'll recall, was “liberty, equality, fraternity.” And no decent citizen would

. ever quarrel with that

third ideal. Fraterniry —

treating your fellow

buman beings like broth-

ers and sisters — is an

admirable goal to strive

for. Among other things, it’s the very basis of Christianity.

But 210 years later we're only now starting to grasp the fact that “liberty” and “equality” are diametrically opposed concepts. Nothing illustrates that better than Canada’s Human Rights Commissions — those natural descen- dants of the 1789 knitting women in the Paris execution square, getting their daily jollies trom counting the latest guillotine victims arriving in the tumbrels.

Consider this recent comment by chief’ human rights commissioner Michelle Palardeau-Ramsay on her 1998 annual report. “It’s not that [the] individual complaints [process} is not a good way to handle things, but we see now a lot of systemic discrimination. We perceive — we have no hard evidence — but we per- ceive that there are problems over there and we don’t have the tools to deal with it.”

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Entire contents © 1999 North Shore Free Press Ltd. Atl rights reserved.

ADIAINIGTRATION

Whar she means is that she and her ilk in the provinces are thirsting to punish people for violating human rights without the bother of proving such violations actually happened. In human rights cir-

cles the crime is called vex “institutional bias,” Noel enabling folks to dis- criminate without knowing they’re doing so. Which brings us back to “liberty” and “equality” — in prac- tice as compatible as oil and water. Liberty means freedom of opinion and belief, freedom: of movement and association, tree- dom of expression and, of special impor- tance, freedom to excel. All of them capa- ble — for humais rights fanatics — of leading to “discciztiation.” Not to men- tion, quite often, “reverse discrimina- tion.”

Religious people opposed to gay sex “discriminate” against homosexuals. Bur don’t gay pride parades and the promo- tion of gay sex in school books equally “discriminate” against the religious?

Freedom of movement and association “discriminates” against the disabled and under-privileged. Should that freedom, in the name of equality, therefore be denied to the fit and self-retiant?

Human rights censors reject all tree- dom of expressio.. — the cornerstone of democracy itself — that they decide may “expose a person or class of persons to hatred or contempt” or “affront the dig- nity of any person,” despite the more than adequate safeguards of our libel and

bither and yon

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The scary world of human rights

defamation laws. Their progress in muz- zling the democratic media is already alarmingly advanced.

As for treedom to excel, that’s fine for women, ethnic minorities, aboriginals and the handicapped. Help them all along with “equal-opportunity” and “pay-equi- yy” legislation. Just as long as vou ensure, says the human rights industry, that capa- ble, qualified white males go right co the back of the queue.

Rigid equality for every member of the population — with no hint of crid- cism for any of them — is the only possi- bility in the scary world of human rights zealots.

A world with no room for natural leaders, geniuses or over-achievers who make everyone else feel rotten.

A world geared to its lowest common denominators, because anything superior “discriminates.” The world of Statin and Mao.

Equality of opportunity for evervone — YES. Burt with that once firmly pro- tected, et the best people run the show. Individual freedom within the law has created the world’s top living standard. Freedom can achieve-far more than equality, while still remaining the latter's surest guardian.

gga

GREETINGS today, April 28, to North Van MP Ted White and Sue on their 23rd wedding anniversary ... And many happy returns of Friday, April 30, to Mount Seymour Lions birthday boy Bill Harbourne.

Q09 WRIGHT OR WRONG: Always do what vou always did, and you'll always get what you always gor.

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