Page M — Terrace Standard, Wednesday, JUNE 26, 1981.

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= ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, yaaa | ; .
Editor:

Reglatration No. 7820 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C., ‘vea 198 (604) 638-7288, Red Link

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_@

Publisher:

Production Manager.
Edouard Credgeur

* Spel at tits io al.
“our contributors. and
correspondents for,

: a .! Sheir:time and "
}. talents.

~ EDITORIA |

“Ther sa” fine old fable: about an
emperor -who orders a new: set of
clothing’ ineant to be the best in the land.
As the story’ goes, there is no" set. of
clothing. The,‘emperor is deludéd into
thinking there is and his loyal subjects
fall in line. He’s finally exposed — as it
were — during a regal parade with cries
of “the emperor has no clothes.”

That fable is about being vain and
self-serving. It fits city council’s code of
ethics. Passed last year with suitable
hoop-la, the code lays out what council
members should and should not do in
their conduct of the public’s business.

In the case of alderman Mo Takhar,
the code has failed council and council
has failed the code. Mr. Takhar owns 25
per cent of a company which last year
bought apartments. This year, Mr.
Takhar voted on two rezoning proposals
to build two more apartment buildings.
Those proposals were defeated. Mr.
Takhar voted against both. .

Clause 3 of the code states a council
member should not deal directly or in-
directly in property within the city
without . first informing council in
writing in an open council meeting. This
Mr. Takhar did not do. He says the
apartment block is. 2 business. and not
‘property. : se

Clause 6 of the code states an alder-
man should report any conflict of in-
terest or potential conflict involving him
or herself. It also states a council
member should report the same of other
council members. Mr. Takar says he did
so and was told he was not in a conflict,
potential or otherwise.

The problem here lies in the intent of
the. code. It’s been called a set of
guidelines, particularly for new council
members. Guidelines is a peculiar
description given that the wording of the

Ethics gap

uses the word ‘shall’’ in laying out the

~ COVER UPS,

code is quite specific and it’ Ss) been
adopted as city and council. policy. It

clauses — not “‘might”’, “‘perhaps’’ or
‘*maybe”’.

And if the intent of the code is shaky,
there’s even worse news in how the code
is applied. There are no provisions for
deciding if a council member did or did
not follow the code, there are no
regulatory provisions and there no en-
forcement provisions. Council merely’
passed the code, filed it and went on to
other things.

All of this combines for the code’s
greatest failure. It’s the concept of
disclosure, the principle that the public
has a right to know what things or cir-
cumstances may affect a. politician's Ss
decisions.

Individual council members cannot
and must not decide for themselves or
with other council members what is a
business and what is a property, what is
a conflict or potential conflict and what
is not. The element of trust established
between elected officials and the
citizenry requires an open and impartial
disclosure process. This trust removes
any question of allowing council to
police itself.

bey oA

half of council and half.of the town
knew of Mr. Takhar’s dealings in no way
justifies what happened. Neither are
comments from other council members
that they won't bring up the situation or
that whatever might happen is up to Mr.
Takhar.

Council is not a tidy little clique that
can keep things to itself. It is a group of
people elected to make decisions for the
greater good. Just as with that emperor,
council has no clothes. Time to call in a

new tailor.

The few do add up

Politicians live by rule of

thumb. For every person who
bothers to speak up on an issue,
50 others think identically but
suffer in silence.

So when a 66-name petition is
slapped down in front of a city

Through

Bifocals
by Claudette Sandeckl

council and 22 seething citizens
cram council chambers,

‘aldermen know they're voting
on thin ice.

It’s surprising sometimes how
few. voices it takes to tip the
balance. . .

A year ago Canadians gaped
at the power of one word ut-
tered by a member of the
Manitoba legislature: Elijah
Harper’s soft spoken ‘'No’’
‘killed three years of hectic
. government manoeuvering.

Of ‘course, Harper’ 5 denial
packed the clout of the Cana-
‘dian constituion and. live na-
‘tional TY, But even ordinary
citizens can influence the course
of events without breaking any
‘law or making dunces . of
’ themselves. ©
. For example, a week ago just
‘six rape victims speaking out
together persuaded the National
‘Parole: Board: to cancel
. Takahashi’ a weekly golf pass, a
recreation he had enjoyed since

1989 despite. being sentenced in -

1984. to three fife ‘sentences and
73 years for. 14, assaults... ......

Chances are the parole board
is, more resistant to public opi-

nion than any local council;
then’ list week in’ Vicotria, a

Supreme Court judge sentenced

a 31-yeat-old n man to three years

pon)

in prison for sexually assaulting
a teenaged prostitute.

The judge said in determining
a sentence, he considered public
revulsion over recent attacks on
Victoria-area prostitutes. And
while unable to penalize so-
meone for crimes committed ‘by
others, the judge noted ‘the
courts cannot sentence in -a
vacuum."

‘How . much revulsion was
shown, and how was it express-
ed? Probably a few letters to a
city newspaper, a column of
two by an outraged reporter,
maybe a front page story in the
Vancouver Sun.

With that much evidence of
how a few voices can divert the
course of history, why aren't

Terrace renters doing more to

pressure for solution of this’ ci-

ty’s housing crisis? Terrace has |

a housing shortage no one is do-
ing much“to: ease. Yet when
‘would-be developers ask councll
for rezoning, no renter speaks
up in support of their efforts.”
Renters ‘could take up their
own petition in favour of multi-
ple dwelling rezoning; write let-_
ters to newspapers; phone radio |
talk shows, They could pack.

- public hearings and council

meetings and relate horror tales
of inadequate or non-existent
apartments for rent.

Digs-for- rent ads bring 60 tp
70 inquiries. Some people who
sell their homes find themselves
out in the cold without interim
housing. One welfare family is
living in a barn.

Every political issue is a tug-
of-war. Each side musters its
strongest arguments and
burliest: team members. From
there on, the wheel that does the .
squeaking...

Trouble is for the rope pull at. :

public hearings and council
meeting, only the “Nay” “side

shows up,

raeee’s awe! =

“HIM

.. YOU WILL NOT REMEMBER auR BLINDIOVALTY .
TO BILL VANDER ZALM, YOU WILL NOT REMEMBER
ANY-SCANDAL...YOUWELNOT REMEMBER ANY
-’SHUDY DEAL...VOU WILLNOT REMEMBER THE
HANKY PANKIES AND. WAITEWASHES
r MOLE WiLL Nov TT REMENER Li

yi

oo ee

Leadership crawl
slowly moves on

VICTORIA — It occurred to
me last week that I hadn't
written one column about the
Socred leadership race. [ |
wonder why.

At the risk of boring you ta
tears, however, 1 would like to
endy my silence on the topic
and offer some observations
on what is more of a crawl
than a race.

First off, ali those who

: «: Tecognize the, name-Barry j
cone -Mayor Jack Talstra’ § ‘comment that

Blow, raise! your hand.c* ‘
‘Nobody? Well, I’m afraid | :
don’t know much more about
the gentleman, except that he
lives in Duncan, used to be
president of the Chilliwack
Social Credit Constituency
Association, wants to be
premier, but has, so far, not
been able to raise the $9,000 it
takes to be officially in the
race, pardon me, crawl, for
party leader. ;

Next, is Duane Crandall,
MLA for Columbia River, Not
having received an awful lot of
publicity, except for the brief
period during which he and
two other backbenchers left
the Social Credit caucus, Cran-
‘dall hasn't exactly electrified
the leadership contest.

I never understood why
former premier Bill Vander
Zalm didn’t take Crandal! into
his cabinet, but then, I didn’t
understand a lot of things
Vander Zalm did. ©

Initially a supporter of
Vander Zalm, it didn’t take
Crandall very long to develop
a sound understanding of what
parliamentaty.democracy is all
about. After that, it took even
less time for Crandall to
realize that Vander 'Zalm's ap-
proach to public office was
wrong,

Crandall’s main platform i is
his vow to ‘‘demacratize”’

. government, to end the cen-

tralization of power in the
premier’s office, In one of his
press releases, he said he sees
the premier’s role as that of a
conductor rather than a one-
man band.
. He followed up on that
theme in another press release.
If elected premier, he said,
“there. will be much more

BILL FOR THAT,

“ car “Me LAST FALL? |

OKAY BUSTER! WHERE'S

From the
Capital

by Hubert Beyer -

democracy in the government’s
j, decision-making process.) .::

“Phe third leadership con"

” tender is former finance |
minister Mel Couvelier. He’ 5
the one who wuats to be
adopted by an Indian band so
he can ‘‘get on the gravy
train,’”

Aside for being somewhat of
a loose cannon, Couvelier is
definitely long on experience,
albeit short of charisma. Then
again, after the chaos wrought
by the charismatic Vander
Zalm, lack of personal
magnetism is probably an
asset. ‘

The fourth and, so far, final
contender is Premier Rita
Johnston, who was handed the
job by her caucus when

‘| Vander Zalm resigned and

would now very much like to
keep it. a

To date, the foursome has
not been, setting the world on
fire. The campaign for the
leadership has been pretty low-
key. The. only one who occa-
sionally lashes out at the in-

cumbent Johnston is
Couvelier. Crandall ignores the,
current premier: -in his bid for
the leadership; ‘and Blow, I
suppose, is still looking for his -
$9,000 deposit. - :

The leaderstiip campaign, it
seems is destined to keep mov-
ing-at a snail's pace towards
the non-event, billed as the *
leadership convention. That
antl-climactic phenomenon will
take place July 18 - 20 at the
Pan Pacific Hotel in Van-
couver, —

But wait, there are still a
couple of potential candidates
who could upset the old -
leadership apple cart:— Grace
McCarthy and none other than
Bili Vander Zalm. oh

True, McCarthy. has sald

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KAY!
f you REAL BUGH,

over and over again that she is
didate for the leader.

other party; bat even

There are two scenarios that
could and probably would pro-
mpt McCarthy.to throw her .
hat into the ring. One is the
universal ballot, the other i is.-
Vander Zalm.

If Vander Zalm decided to-
go after his old job again, and
he keeps saying hé doesn’t rule
out that possiblitity, he will
split the delegate vote that is
now behind Johnston, which -
would give McCarthy a chance
to come up through the mid-
dle.

Adoption of the universal
ballot by the party would
almost certainly bring her into -

‘the contest, because she would

have a genuine chance of win-
ning the leadership contest, on
the convention floor. =.”
Selecting ihe leader by way
of universal ballot would, mean
that every ‘qualified card. «
carrying party member. could
cast a ballot for the. leader’, ~
rather than just those-who
have been selected to: attend
the convention as delegates. - t
McCarthy still has BR lot. of

“clout in the party, a ‘lot: more, ©

than Johnston; but the:
delegate-selection process ds *:
stacked in favour of ‘Johnston,
and McCarthy has no injention .
of losing her bid for the: “
leadership a second time,

The irony of it all is that |

_ McCarthy is the party’ s ‘best, if.

not only chance to give the’

‘NDP a serious run for-its ..

money, With McCarthy.as -

leader, the Socreds would at.
east have:a fighting chance,

but it appears they are more

_ interested in playing games

than winning ‘an election.
4 me Y

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