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