Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, August 4, 1999 TERRACE STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 PUBLISHER: ROD LINK ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G SR2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 + FAX: (250) 638-8432 EMAIL: standard@kermode.net Uncle Al PERHAPS [T’S the relative isolation of Kitimat where, not unlike other towns in the north or in rural places, an unlikely kind of bond is forged between people who might otherwise not get along. . Experts who study human relationships call it co-dependency, how people react to and need each other even though the results are not always attractive. Whatever word you want to use, the relationship between Alcan management and the company’s unionized workers at Kitimat and Kemano is difficult for others to understand. At midnight on July 23, Alcan’s unionized workers hit the bricks, rejecting a three-year con- tract of .5, 1 and 1 per cent wage increases over three years. They also rejected a performance in- centive bonus which, although unguaranteed, could have paid up to an additional 2.5 per cent a year. Even though the workers are at or near the top. of the unionized scale in B.C. at an average in- come and benefits package of $75,000 a year, workers wanted to retire earlier with fuller pen- sion benefits and made that a big part of negotia- tions. The company said it couldn’t negotiate pen- sions because workers are part of a larger com- pany pension plan also taking in Alcan workers elsewhere, Alcan did, however, offer the pos- sibility of a separate pension plan. After a mere four-hour shutdown, the two sides reached a deal giving the workers more money, a guaranteed annual bonus, a one-time signing bonus and a guaranteed minimum annual pen- sion for those who leave at age 55 with 30 years of service. But the- mist-important- aspect to the workers’ was the formation of a committee to study the pension issue. So you have to wonder why a union and company, both ready for a long strike, agreed on a settlement keying on the formation of a committee. The answer is simple. Despite all the huffing and puffing on both sides, Alcan and the union need each other in much the same fashion as a couple in a marriage that’s lasted decades, And perhaps the union needs Alcan more, It’s a‘ big step to tisk a job that already provides for a high standard of living. Consider the committee to study the pension issue. There’ll be recom- mendations for change within the existing larger pension scheme. Workers appear to have chosen to stay wilh what they knew and were comfort-. able with instead of the possibility of striking out with their own, Kitimat-only plan. Alcan managers also took great pains to praise WOULDNT IT BE BETTER 10 WAIT UNTIE IT IS CERTAIN GORDON CAMPBELL, WILL BE THE NEXT PREMIER, - Clark doesn’t deserve this VICTORIA — Whatever the reasons for Premier Glen Clark’s low voter esteem, his search warrant troubles shouldn’t be among them. On March 2, RCMP showed up at the premier’s home with a search warrant. For still unexplained rea- sons, a BCTV crew ac- companied police and filmed the proceedings. The search followed revelations that a friend of the premier’s had built him a sundeck, at a good price. The friend, it turned out, was also under considera- tion for a casino licence. All of which may not look good on the surface, but was hardly the basis for a police search of the premier’s home, But the search did. “ake! place, ‘while -a’'shaken. Clark and his family looked on. Five months have passed and nothing has come of the search. No revelations of skullduggery. No announce- ment of further police inves- ligation. And certainly no charges. In fact, RCMP have said the premier was not and is not under investi- gation. But the search warrant question ‘won’t go away, For five months now, law- yers for the media have argued, unsuccessfully, so far, that the contents of the search warrant be made public. The premier’s law- yers maintain that it should ? FROM THE CAPITAL HUBERT BEYER be thrown out because it was improperly issued, For the premier one is as bad as the other. If the war- Tant is opened and contains allegations, he looks bad, no matier how spurious and un- substantiated they may be. If his lawyers succeed in keeping the. contents from _ . being made public, a public wary of politicians will remain suspicious. So far, the premier has made the best of a bad situa- tion, He has co-operated with police, not that he had much of a choice, consider- ing that search warrants have the weight of the law and a judge’s signature to back them up. But he hasn’t said any- thing nasty about the RCMP and frankly, he may have goad reason to do so, Scarch warrants are far too easily obtained, often on the flimsicest of allegations, Tf a friend of mine were under investigation, police could . premier, show up at my house with a warrant and turn my home upside down without a shred of evidence that I might somehow be in- volved. Fishing expedition is a fairly good description of many search warrants. This. one, I strongly suspect, falls under that category. Someone linked friend, sundeck and casino licence and drew the wrong conclusion. Had = their = conclusion proved ight, charges against the premier would, by now, have been laid. Since the RCMP pro- ceeded on the basis of what now appear to be preity flimsy and unsubstantiated allegations, even gossip, al- low me to engage in what may. appear,. to. be un-, “substantiated speculation. - I can, for instance, not shake the thought that the search warrant had a slight- ly political feel to it. And if not the warrant itself, then its execution. Television crews normally don’! ac- company RCMP on house raids, unless someone in- forms them. The affair has inflicted severe political damage on the premicr. The public is given to believe that there must have been pretty good Teason to get a judge to is- sue a search warrant for the premier’s home, But for reasons [ explained above, that isn*{ necessarily so, * More reputations and lives are ruined by insinuation and wrongful accusations than hard evidence. Thou- sands of people, mostly men, have had their lives ruined as a result of deliberately false allegations of sexual offences. And the harm can never be undone. It will be similarly im- possible for the premier to undo the harm done by this search warrant. And it won’t matter whether or not the contents will be made public. Still, I tend to agree with those who would have the warrant opened, even though it might give the media fodder for further character assassination, Given a choice between secrecy and openness, I[ ‘+,,would choase openness. It “* would give the premier al least a chance to defend himself against whatever asinine allegations are in the arrant. But quashed or made pub- lic, the search warrant has done its dirty job, and that, from al] we know, is some- thing Glen Clark didn’t deserve. Beyer can be reached at — Tel: (250) 920-9300; e- m a i i : hubert@coolcom.com; Fax: (978) 477-5656 web: http://www. huberibeyer.co — m/ Help us the professionalism df the workers when they walked out to begin the shert strike. Other unions elsewhere with different employer rela- tionships would sooner have blown up their workplace, In Kitimat, Alcan is known as ‘Uncle AI’, the benevolent person who: takes care of his own. This contract says that and more. PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS Jeff Nagel * NEWS/SPORTS: Christiana Wiens NEWS/COMMIUNITY: Alex Hamilton FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Carole Kirkaldy ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Bedford, Bunnie Cote, Mark Beaupre TELEMARKETER: Tabatha Orange DARKROOM/COMPOSING: Susan Credgeur AD ASSISTANT: Julie Davidson, Andrea Malo SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $57.30 per year; Seniors $50.75; Out of Province $64.39 Outside of Canada (6 months) $158.25 (ALL PRICES INCLUDE GST) MEMBER OF B.C. AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION. CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION G CNA AND BC. PRESS COUNCIL Sarving the Terrace and Thombill area, Published on Wednesday of each week al 3210 Clinton Streat, Terrace, British Columbia, vaG SA2, Stores, photographs, Illustrations, designs and typestyles in te Terrace Slandard are the property of the Copyright holders, Including Cariboo Press (1969) Lid. ils illusiration repro services and advertising agencies. Reproduction In whol or in part, without writtan parmissian, ig spacificaly prohibited, Authorized as sacond-class mail pending the Post Office Department, for payment of postage in cash, Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents ‘for their time and talents 1598 WINNER CCNA BETTER NEWSPAPERS COMPETITION An open letter ta: Moe Sihota, Minister of Social Develop- ment and Economic Security. Dear Moe: When Premier Clark put you in charge of this new ministry you explained its role as “helping British Columbia to get ahead.”” You were vague on specifics. So I’m hoping you can help us here. In this community we have residents fearful to leave their homes, even for the few minutes it takes to go buy Broceries, because area thugs might break in once more while they're gone. One resident has been broken into four times. Another could use a Rolodex for RCMP busi- ness cards. Tacked on the wall beside his phone he has the WHY bo HUMANS Have Sucd LerTle NOSES AND EARS 7 EVOLUTION! LONG AGO THEY Loadép Ndemat! THROUGH BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI business cards of cight RCMP, plus the names of five other of- ficers who have allended when his home has been targeted. Rocks hive been thrown about on lawns, empty beer cans strewn in driveways. Tools have becn stolen from workshops and graffiti spray- please, Moe Sihota painted ou shed walls. In one instance, young men jumped over fences and sprinted through back yards to nab a ride witha car idling in the next stré&et. Whal crime scene were they escaping? Several of these residents have confessed -—— though they wear no striped pajamas, no steel doors clang behind them, and no 12-foot fence topped by razor wire surrounds their lot ~— they feel imprisoned. Instead of relaxing in their living room or enjoying a bar- becue in theic backyard, they tense at every squealing tire, tinkling glass, or barking dog, Police have been unable to help, though often the culprits are known to them. Some, I’m told, bave prison records, Parents of the culprils are useless. They've long since abandoned control of their off. BUT AS TRE CLIMATE. | JANP NOWAPANS COOLED THEIR EXMSED 1 [iTS SO BADTHE PARTS KEPT FREEZING || YOUNG ONES... Spring. Some parcnis en- courage their chiid’s illegal be- haviour. Police records show only 2 per cent of the population is responsible for 98 per cent of crime. But, oh, what a bloody | bother that 2 per cent can be. Even if these culprits reach court, the law coddles them with token community service. Even that they may not serve. Ideally, these thieves and vandals would be made to at least pay restitution, Then we'd make them wear ankle bracelets until they're too old to lift a foot over a linoleum seam. , Sa, Moe, what can your min- istry do to cradicate this neigh- _ bourhood blight? At least make it illegal to sell spray paint in anything nifticr than a 45 gallon drum? Or outlaw beer cans in favour of kegs? We're counting on you, Mac, HAVE To KEEP THE PIECES PINNEP TOGEr Hee wWitd RiTs OF METAL! re