Page 4, The Herald, Wednesday, August 6 1980

_THE EDITOR: _)icerstetais

Dear Sir: .

[see that my friend, Chris ,

Johnson, is: at me again
about the issue of “pairing,”
attendance in the House, and
soon, He takes issue with my
reply to Frank Howard who
wrote a letter to most
newspapers. in British
Columbia stating plousiy
that no pairing should be

allowed because every |

member should be In his seat
to vote when issues arise.
You may recall my reply to
him pointed out the voting
record. of the NDP in this
Session. 7

What Chris apparently
cannot understand is that I

am not eriticizing the NDP

for absenting themselves
from a vote if, in their
wisdom, they're better able
to serve their constituents in
some other manner. What I
am complaining about is the
twofacedness of their ap-

proach. On the one- hand .

they’re saying that voting In
the House is such a sacred
obligation to constituents
that pairing would be an
abdication of an MLAs
. responsibility, and then they
absent themselves from the
House whenever they damn
well please. =.

. Inthe four anda hal years

T’ve been in the House I have

never been absent from .a

single vote without. per-

mission of the party whip -

and never have I sought

permission. for other than |

|VICTORI

immediate and .important

government business. When |

you consider that the bills
upon which I'm called upon
to vote are goverament bills
and therefore bills which I
have given my awn approval
for in cabinet and in caucus,
the fact that I may not
personally vote in the House
on that bill because my job
sends me elsewhere is
relatively inconsequential.
On the other hand if I were
-in the Opposition surely” it
would be my. obligation to
vote against a bill that J
didn't agree with if only to
Sbecord my position, Hawens
{fhe NDP vigorotmly — Jina
tempted to say viciously —
debate against a bill in
prinelple and then be nine.or
10 members short when it
- gomes time to vote?
Apart from

their

philosophy, the big problem

with the NDP is that they

think that. they have a-

monopoly on virtue. They
constantly portray them-
gelves as the only ones who
¢are dbout people and
‘ characterize anyone who

doesn't agree with them as.

some sort of heartless, ogre
in the. pockeis of muitl-
national companies, and 30

on. This characteristic, so -

amply demonstrated
wherever socialist parties
exist, has curious little
ramifications.

It's perfectly all right for a
member of the NDP to

criticize a member of the.

government for his ersonal
appearance, his natlonal or
cultural background, or even
slur people of Japanese
ancestoty by calling them
"Japs;” but Lord help any
member of the government
who makes the slightest off-
handed remark about one of
them.

FLASHBACK: John

’ OTTAWA (CP) — It was,
without rival, . John
Diefenbaker’s finest hour.
Aug. 4, 1990. Just before
4p.m. Prime Minister Die-
fenbaker stood to cast his
vote for a bill that had
consumed his not in:
considerable energy and
determination for almost 20
years. .
The Commons came to B
standstill for almost two
minutes while Diefenbaker
walted out his Progressive
- Conservative party's desk-
thumping. Liberal and CCF
(Co-operative Com-
monwealth Federation)
members sat impassively.
Moments later, the
recorded vote was an-
nounced, A unanimous 186 to
Qin favor of Bill C-79, an Act
for the Recognition and
Protection of Human Rights
and Fundamental Free-
doms, or what has become
better known. .as_ the
Canadian Bill of Rights.
Its pasaage was a personal

eae

ae =

. This self-proclaimed piety
really is ‘a result of’ their
being in opposition 50 long
that they have no experience
in taking a positive approach -
to things. Because they
always have to say no to °
everything the government
proposes, they must find
reasons even though they
may not exist, What better

‘way than to infer that they '

are the only ones that care”
for people, the only ones that
have a sense of morality, the
only ones who are -really .
prepared to defend God,
motherhood .and. apple “pie
and therefore that their
opposition should be taken to
have substance,
automatically.

The public is no longer
fooled, if it ever was, by this
rubbish. They. know who. .

brought in hospital in: |

surance, medicare, lang
term care shelter, aid for the ©
elderly,andon andon the list |
goes. ‘They know that the*
well-heeled Socialists from
Fyint Grey who represent
their Vancouver ridings that,
they only visit from time. to
time when absolutely °
necessary, are not the MLAs
who -fruly care about
people's concerns. The
public knows’ that talk is
cheap and that you can’t pay

for needed social services ”

. be

unless: you “have: a atrong f

vibrant economy, The public.
know that without’ orderly:

sho need and are entitled to |.

help.

The public Is atill waiting |
for the New Democratic |

Party to have sufficient
maturity to offer alter-
natives instead of . ob-
struction, , and: criticism
which is constructive rather
than carping: They’re atill
waiting for the NDP to break
out of their philosophical
straight-jacket and stop

trotting out old slogans.

designed to underline

problems which were elther —
solved long ago, or never

existed in this country in the
first place but only across

the ocean. In stiort, the

public ia entitled to know, not’
what the NDP are against — ”
we all Know that they're
against everything thelr
political foes are in favor of
—- but what they stand for.
You get short term “Brownie
points” by making much of

‘the human failings which |
beget a government but you

only get. long term public
support when. you have a:
positive al
problems and fléxibility to
meet changing

cumstances, ‘Th

“political
negativism. “ a ee | a
; ', _ RafeMair, |. °

fF.

REPORT

‘by FRANK HOWARD’
| Skeena MLA ©

Theothér day-in the Leglslature-| leaned back

In my chair, closed my
voice telling

eyes, and listened to:a

the House why the government

needed power to do things by Order in Councl!

rather than by legislation. 1. was
back Inctlnie:totheryears | sat In:the House Of ©

Canimong, it; was’ the same volce-! (heard. 30\-

many times in Ottawa.

transported

It was the same

argument that Liberal cabinet ministers used. It

-was the.same Liberal Party reasoning. ~

The voice | was listening to was that of Energy

federal Liberal {all the

Minister Bob McClelland. He sounded |ust like.a

provincial ones having

been vacuumed Into ‘the Social ‘Credit govern-

ment as McClelland’s buddies).

The Liberals in Ottawa have, over the years, .*.
gradually given the government more and more —-

to do things by

pawer n
those who may not know about Orders In Council -

they.are decisions made

Order In Council. For

In secret, behind closed

doors, by the Prime Minister of. Premier and his
fellow. ministers. There Is no debate. in public

‘about reasons; and no

position or public point of view to be expressed.

There Is no examination of the merits such as,

there ts in: the legisiature. .

One of the results of government by Order In

Council is -.
bureaucracy.

a .-blg-and-getting-bigger-
More and more public servants

are needed to administer the Orders In Council.

‘A companion result is a

budget, More and more of the taxpayers’ dollar -

Is being soaked up.

~Energy Minister (or

Czar) McClelland ts leading us In exactly the.

same ‘direction as the

blg-and-getting-bigger-

should | say Energy
federal Liberals have

been leading us for years. Energy Czar Mc-

Clelland seems to think that-blgger government -

Is better government. He is wrong.

vietory for Diefenbaker, who
later described it as his

- masterpiece, but also for

three other politicians who
shed ‘party affiliation to
bring the bill to reality.

Diefenbaker celebrated
quietly in his office after
third reading with one of
those men — David Walker,
then his public works
minister, and now a senator.

Walker, who remained
Diefenbaker's best friend
until the former prime
-minister’s death last aum-
mer, recalls that the prime
minister was emotional, but
under control.

“He never lost his cool or
wept in hie life as far as I
know," Walker sald in a
recent interview. “But he
may have had tears in his
eyes thiit night.” .
“Gix days later, at precisely

. bp.m., by the Peace Tower . .
clock, Mr. Justice: JH.

Locke of the Supreme Court
of Canada gave formal.
aagent.

Canada hada bill of rights,

271 years after the Britlsh

Parliament. passed a bill
protecting the civil lberties
of its-citlzens and 169years:
after the United States
passed an amendment to Its
constitution guaranteeing
human rights.

The bill, deliberately kept’

simple by an adamant Die-
fenbaker, spells out: two

basic rights and four
freedoms - for every.
Canadian. ae

Tt guarantees every in-
dividual the right to life,
liberty, securlly of person
and enjoyment of property,

plus the right to equality.

before the law. and the
protection of the law. .
The freedoms It promises

are those of-religion, speéch,
assembly and + association,

and of the préss.

-Japariese-Canadians ‘during
the Second World: War.

approach: fo .
cir

m The NDP find |. |
themselves: imp’ soned J" ost)
within their own ph phy f° |

-and Infected’ wif’ a gfatal J:
disease  — "|...

*

os

ay .
Oye

REGS A MPN Pet
sd Spagponps ~

‘PEPPER

tinenetey ZO

(oe CAYENNE!

a cern NN — nares 700

ORE. = tapascor: |. LESS “Garict. _ TOO - +00 al

re eres Lo eg ae / BLAND!

_ | SALTE Less |. MORE SALT! > /PINCH OF SPICY! MUCH mt
SoD 9 CURRY! aay VINEGARL.

a

doing It. ph,
Agricutture MAlnister Hewitt did:the-'same

" ghing with the. Livestock Brand Act. He took all’ “>
- the guts out of the Legislation and now: has the.

of pro
taken away f
Awesome!

about. our ‘futur
_ desperately we in
rescued from-the excesses of

vv

“Ofcourse, It tsn’t all his fault, He Is only doing
what Premier Bennett tells hlm to.do. But, he ts

power, by secret Order In Council; to do such ws

unlimited amount of mon
incidentally. Under the B.
perty In B.C. can be taken.
piece of property In the province can be
er, Without appeal. And

Any’

20S” Y!
vera
dalla

that : incl

powers. An

an

rom its own

as being Insignificant, but how about-the’Bill to.’

.. set up the B.C, Place Corporation? |. °.

“Under the B.C. Place Bill there ‘can be ‘an 7.
BF EET lees ae

Place Bill.any plece

nfand, your. home.’

EV Quapet itiey-are: awesome -
1 ‘then brought to you courtesy.
of the ’Soclal Credit government, =

So When 1 leaned back.and listened.to those.
‘Liberal volces speaking from the lips of Energy...
Czar McClelland. | became more apprehensive-
e under Social Credit. How. -
the wolful province need to be

Social Credit. ~

co _ oo ; Loe ,
dai AT J )

opportunity for.an op:

| General Office- 635-6357

Circulation 635-6357

* BYBLISHER: Calvin McCarthy
E DITOR- Greg Middleten

"* |. CIRCULATION - TERRACE : 635-6357
Published every weekday. at 3212 Kalum

‘Terrace, B.C, Authorized as second class mail.
Registration number 1201. Postage pald ndash, return

. postage guaranteed, Sy

swede te ‘ aba

_ >. \" Pubthhed by.”
Sterling Publishers, 7

Street,

The campaign for the bill
of rights was sparked by the -
government's treatment .of ©

een NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT |.
The Herald retalns full, complete and sole copyright in
_ any édvertisement produced and-or any editorial, or
~ photographie content published -in the ‘Herald.
Reproduction Is not permitted without the written
{Permission of the Publisher. .

Thousands were herded

com their hommes in British .
Columbia to resettlement

camps because of their
supposed threat to the
country.

Civil rights advocates
atgued the action — taken:
under the War Measures Act
— was intolerable.

Diefenbaker took up the
cause in 1946 wheri he moved

. hig first amendment to the

Citizenship Bill ~ without

Success,

‘

~~ He: was joined by three
others — Walker, who did -

much of the leg-work; David
Croll, then a Liberal MP,
now a senator, and MJ.
Coldwell, national leader of
the CCF. (now New Demo-
cratle Party), whose party

had passed ' repeated .
a restore calling for a bill
oft

in

ghfs since its foundation

.iGne o¢ the other of us put: -

it én. the order paper every
year; hoping that it would get

“a chance to be heard," Croll

Diefenb

—

recalled in a recent in-
terview. © 7
“Unfortunately, it seldom
did.” . . 4
Croll, who‘ later became
the first Jewlsh’ senator,
conceded that his ‘own
Liberal party. ‘wanted
nothing todo with it (the bill)
in those days.” i
~ But when Diefenbakér de-
feated the Liberals in 1957,
then swept fo a huge Con-
servative majority. a year
latex, the way was cleared.

Tt was firat introduced as
Bilt C-60 in 1958, then allowed
to stand over for two years
for public consideration:
After debate ‘by several
national conventions and
representations to
Parliament. by some 30
groups, it was-reintroduced
as Bill C-79 on Dominion Day
1960. mo

: An agreement among the
parties that che bill would be
passed that summer didn't

stop the’ dpposition from

That's right.

things as establish the constitution of the Board © - *

: * of Brand Commissioners. You may scoff at that

HARGESIA, Somalia
“(AP) — They come in
droves, 750 a night, with little
more than tattered clothes
on their backs, crossing the
desert plains on foot toavoid
the stidden and violent death

that stalks their homeland.

Once they. reach safely,
_they spend endless hours in

. windswept makeshift

communities, digging in dry
riverbeds for a féw precious

' drops of water

“They are refugees from
the Ogaden — some 1.4
‘million Somali tribesmen
who have fled the continuing
guerrilla war Ir
sdutheastern Ethiopia
- between Cuban-backed
government troops and
independenceminded rebels
of the Western Somali
‘ Liberation Front.

Refugees in Somalia, one

aker’s

proposing a host of amend:
ments. .- : , Al . ,
. Among the 19 amendments
moved. by Leater-Pearsat’s
. Liberals was a proposal to
remove arbitrary powers
from the War Measures Act.
-'The ‘motion was defeated,
with Diefenbaker arguing
there should be a full review
of the act later,
In ‘his memoirs he
_defended his decision,
saying: “Canada was. ilving
in dangerous times: in-
ternationally and hanging
over the world was the fear
of an atomic holocaust."
Ironically, the government

headed by~ Pearson's atc: --

cessor as Liberal leader,
Pierre Trudeau, used the
War Measures Act during .
the Quebec crisis of 1970.

. When his bill passed, Die-

fenbaker described It aa “a

major change for freedom in
this country,”
But others were more
eritical.. .

They argued — and many

of ine world's five poorest
countries, form the single
largest concentration of the
dispossessed anywhere in
the world, according to
Somali and international
refugee workers.

More than 600,000 of them
live in 22 isolated camps and
another 900,000 live among
friends or relatives in
Somalia. -

An estimated one of every

four persons in Somalia is a °

refugee and dependent on
Somali and international
largesse for survival, ac-
cording to conservative
estimates. The country's
population, excluding refu-
gees, is estimated at 38
million,

* There are no cases of mass
starvation or malnutrition in
camps here, thanks to So-

finest

still believe — that the law is
too simple and adds no new
freedoms or guarantees to
those already possessed by
Canadians,

They say that since it
-covers only matters under
federal jurisdiction, it has
little authority in the courts,
They point out thatit took the
courts 10 years to recognize
the bill as the cornerstone it
was meant to be,

Among the critics was
Bora Laskin, then a
professor at University of
Toronto and laler chief

. Justice of the Supreme Court

of Canada. In 1956, he de-
scribed a bill: ~ virtually
identical to the one that
became law — as “timid and
tepid.” ‘ a
Aspokesman for the Cana-
dian Labor Congress called
it ‘a legal Cheshire cat, with
nothing left but a smite.”
But Diefenbakér described
the critics as pious and in-
effective. And:i6 years later
he boasted in his memoirs

They come in droves _

malia’s massive diversion of
food and medical aid.

The Ethioplan Ogaden,
along the border with
Somalia, is home ‘for
primarily nomadic livestock
breeders or subsistence
farmers. They'are ethnically
and culturally Somali and

consider the Ethiopians

colonial oppressors.

Ceded to Ethiopia at the

turn of the century by
European powers, the
Ogadenis have waged
guerrilla war since the early
1960s, The rebels and Somall
regular forces aiding them
were defeated in con-
ventional warfare in 1978,
but fighting continues, Each
new skirmish adds to the
number of people fleeing to
Somalia for safety. ,

hour.

that no government had
passed legislation containing
the words “notwithstanding
the bill of rights,'”

And while he was dis-
appointed that the courte
sometimes indulged in
‘Juridical acrobatics to
avoid having to dea! with it,”
he argued that the. bill's
Greatest effect was ‘‘in
building up bulwarks’'
around freedom, =.
_ Pressed by opposition MPs
in 1860 to place the freedoms
as -amendments to the
British North America.Act,
Diefenbaker chose instead to
enact a separate bill. The

time waen't right, he said, to-

try to amend the constitution
by bringing it home to
Canada. : ,
‘“My experience with the
provincial governments
indicated that they were’ too
jealous of-their jurisdiction
over property: and civil
rights to support any
amendment applicable to
themselves,” he wrote later.

VEYTy ees

ee

: Sas asity a tlle a i ware pera: a Sn ahead