. ~ ~ lan. ie Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, August 9, 2006 : TERRACE - TANDARD | ise » |, ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 _ PUBLISHER: ROD LINK . ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. - V8G 5R2 _ TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 - FAX: (250) 638-8432 WEB: www.terracestandard.com EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard. com” ‘We’ re special, t too WITH A July.posted unemployment rate of 4. 7 ~ per cent, better than the national average and right “up there with other parts of B.C. ., you would think ? + things are.going well here. Well, they‘are — for those who have work. But * the reality. is that the low: unemployment rate is. “made possible because people, who need. work . ~ have left: The fewer people left who | are unem-— | a ployed, the lower the rate is.’ . : turn. One of the reasons for this is the general demise “of the forest industry. The collapse of Skeena Cel- lulose first in 1997 and again | in 2001 devastated ok «this area. ~ The move by the provincial Liberal government rs = to. sever the connection between wood licences and sawmills, in hopes of creating a free market for wood use, hasn’ t Prought on the expected r¢ re- One of the challenges is what foresters call "the wood. profile. Compared to other areas of the | province, the wood here is hard to get at and when “that does happen, it’s generally better for pulp as - “ opposed to higher value saw Noes. And that drives Up costs. An. attempt ata solution requires a full-on effort _ _ "by ‘the provincial government. The list includes * Gutting the amount it receives in royalties, help ~ with building toads to the wood and intensifying - ~ fsilviculture to aid replanted forests which will | = “have higher value trees than what is here now. ‘Taken together t this list and more would happen “in what experts call.a special economic. zone. It” sounds like a remnant of the Soviet Union or a: description of areas of modern day China, but the “intent is to have’specific efforts happen within it. ‘to restore a suffering industry. ~ - There have been several reports backing the ‘creation of such a zone. It’s being called a nec- -essary step by people outside of the region, no “small accomplishment given the prevailing view _of northwesterners that this is a forgotten region. ~ tablishing the right conditions involving the right. ‘When people outside of the region say something ‘should happen, we should enlist them in the cam- “paign. | | -, Given the right approach, the provincial gov- ‘ernment should be willing to sign on to a special | ~ economic zone. That’s because it would follow ‘the current provincial government’s theme of es- kind of infrastructure to allow private enterprise to do its thing. ‘( It’s not as if this. kind of thing isn’t happening elsewhere i in the province. Numerous incentives exist in the oil and gas industry. And the biggest O special economic zone of all has been created on ~ the Lower Mainland resulting i in better roads, bet- ter transportation and more recreational facilities : all designed to help businesses. _ .B.C. AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION, - Its title? The 2010 Winter Games, of course. , PUBLISHER/ EDITOR: _ Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach , . PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur * NEWS: Sarah A. Zimmerman : - . COMMUNITY: Dustin Quezada. Tus NEWS/SPORTS: Margaret Speirs "FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping, Carolyn Anderson ‘CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Alanna Bentham ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Bert Husband, Ellie Higginson 2008 WINNER _ AD ASSISTANT: Sandra Stefanik ._ NEWSPAPERS COMPETITION » PRODUCTION: Susan Credgeur - SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $57.94 (+$4. 06 GST)=62.00 per year: Seniors $50.98 (+$3.57 GST)=54.55; ‘Out of Province $65.17 (+$4.56 GST)=69.73 | Outside of Canada (6 months) $156.91(+10.98 GST)=167.89 +cna_ MEMBER OF - wry Newsrarses _ CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION . AND | ~ B.C. PRESS COUNCIL (www.bcpresscouncil.org) reved Cofemdle aad Yebow Serving the Terrace and Thornhill area. Published on Wednesday of each week at 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace, British Columbia, V8G 5R2. ' Stories, photographs, illustrations, designs and typestyles in the Terrace Standard are the property of the copy- right holders, including Black Press Ltd., its illustration repro services and advertising agencies. Reproduction in whole or in part, without written permission, is specifically prohibited. Authorized as second-class mail pending the Post Office Department, for payment of postage in cash. Special thanks to ail our contributors and _ correspondents for their time and talents c 6S Black Press ry” WHEN ( WAS” YOUNG, SUMMERS WERE SO HOT We coup FRY EGGS ON | THE SIDEWALK NN co REALLY 7 HOW Dib You KEEP THE EGGS FROM COOKING ‘ bapa You” ‘Her grandmother deserved more IN THE 1940s my -grand- mother, a sensitive “woman, married a man 20 years her ~ “senior. They moved to an acreage in the country and she gave birth ‘to three children. _ Unfortunately, my grand- | ‘mother discovered that. her husband was an abusive man with a need to control. Her choice to stay meant | taking.on repercussions for ‘herself over many years from ~ this man. ~ ' But when,my grandmoth- | er discovered this man was - ‘sexually abusing her small children, she immediately ap- proached RCMP and govern- ment officials and informed them of this crime. Already beat down and weakened by the mental abuse. and ‘ ‘need to control’ ‘by her husband, on top of her sensitive nature, officials with.a lack of understanding chose to lock my grandmoth- er in a mental institution. Her children were placed ’ back into the care of their fa- ther on his isolated acreage. The institution file states that child caregivers refused to stay at this acreage for more than a few days due to my grandfather’s abusive _ manner. And nurses stated they would not allow a pig to live there. . However, changes were SHELLEY SAWATSKY never made and my mother. -and siblings grew up.in the abuse that my grandmother had tried to stop until their early teen years when they were sent to‘a youth home. My grandmother was forced out of reality simply. by her inability to protect her children and at the mental in- stitution where she was kept for over 20 years. She endured more abuse as stated in newspapers dur- ing this period. She was given electric shock treatments, she was sterilized after her husband was allowed into the insti- tute to impregnate her twice more, and she: was labeled ‘with every type of mental ill-, ness. _ After leaving the mental institute. ¢ over 20 years later, her children: wanted. nothing . ' to. do with my grandmoth- er due to the fact that they never knew what really hap- pened. ' They. only had the, one side of the story that they had grown up with consisting of lies by. those trying to cover their backs due to, tremen- dous pasterror. - By the year 1974, my grandmother’ s one son born in the institute (that was also sent’ to. my. grandfather’s acreage. of horror) had shot himself in the head-on my 14th birthday. - ' Another * son’ obsessively took up skydiving until his 400th jump in Oregon when - his parachute failed to open. And my mother has been » a “missing person” in..the . RCMP files never to be heard from again since September of 1973 when her car was found on a deserted road near Canmore, ‘Alberta. After spending many years trying to find my fam- ily, I received a call from the Public Trustee six years ago stating that they had found my grandmother. In her 70s, she was living on the streets as a bag. lady in another city. _On visiting her, she never. spoke. Any mention of her children would cause her She é to break into a rage. would begin to shake, begin mumbling, throw v my gifts at me, and order me to. leave. However, I would often — ‘find the deteriorated roses I ‘had brought her three months - earlier still being. watered so I knew my visits meant something before she’ died : two. years ago. My grandmother did not. .« have mental. illness. She suffered over 50 years of misunderstanding and se- . vere injustice by those who unfortunately make. assump- tions towards those they: do not understand... = ° They feel they have a right. to control other human. be- ings when not even God in Heaven does so. He loves - each person deeply. I often wonder if my grandmother could ~ have found_a day of joy in her life by another person giving her | an ear to listen without mak- ing wrong judgments, an arm to comfort her tremendous losses, or above all the time to help her fight for justice in the first place. . Since coming to Terrace, my children and I have been greatly blessed by those who have come into our lives, who did not even know us, and just continue to pour out their love and kindnesses on | us. My hope is this, that we will remember there is. al- ways another side to every story. “THE CRIMINAL element doesn’t want to be known,” _ Says RCMP Constable Carl | McIntosh, quoted in The Daily. Courier, a Powell River news- paper. ‘Criminals don’t want’to, face their neighbours or their community. They prefer to ‘operate in anonymity, right under our noses. “But now they have to face. the community, .” says. Con- stable McIntosh. That’s the case in Powell 7 River.and in Maple Ridge, two communities who have orga- nized Court Watches. These have citizens who volunteer to sit in court and follow tri- als to witness what takes place that we don’t read about in our: newspapers or hear in media’ reports. _ This would involved the weak excuses: for cases being . postponed time after time; the lax sentences; the repeat of- fenders who show up in court with the regularity of ticket buyers at a Lotto outlet. Statistics tell us 98 per ‘cent of crime is committed by a mere two per cent of the population. Yet those two per cent are allowed to overwork our police, swamp our courts, plunder our neighbourhoods, and squander about one quarter of local taxes, taxes that would be better spent on education, /THROUGH BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI health care, and rebuilding of infrastructures. _ But thanks to the Internet, even communities without a court watch can now acquaint. themselves with who's in court. on what offence. Anyone with access to a computer can log in every morning to read the lineup of charged adults scheduled to appear in court that day. (Our laws prevent juveniles being listed; to learn which juveniles will appear, you must attend at | the ‘court house.) Civil cases, too, do not appear on any com- “puter posting. By 7 a.m. the day’s list of scheduled appearances is post- ed, giving you time to attend court which begins at 9 or 9:30 a.m. usually. - To access these court lists, ; “go to Google, and type in ; Province of B.C. Criminal: Court Lists. You'll get a page headed Court Services on a burgundy background, with Province of _ B.C. Criminal Court Lists un- derneath, then two black dots (bullets) = 8 The first bullet: reads: “* Adult Court Lists . and *Adult Supreme Court Lists which show scheduled court appearances for today”. The ‘second bullet reads: “*Adult Completed Court Lists (Provincial) and *Adult Completed Court Lists (Su- preme) which list results of Court from the past five days”. This totals four lists as I’ve noted with a star. Work through one list at-a time. Click on Adult Court Lists. You’ll see a list of cities. Click on Terrace. You'll get the list of today’ S court cases .in Terrace’s Adult Court. Click back:two screens and click on the next choice, Adult. Supreme Court Lists. Again choose Terrace. You'll get the list for Supreme Court. (Su- preme Court does not sit every day. Some days have no Su- preme Court cases.) To check into the results of cases heard within the past five days, go to the second bullet. | Track criminals from your home > Click on Adult Completed Court Lists (Prov.) and.work | | that through. Next, if you click on Adult Completed -Court Lists (Supreme) you'll see results from ‘any Supreme Court trials, , To understand the many ab- breviations used in the lists, go back to the first page, Court Services. It lists column head- ings and descriptions for daily court lists, right down to Name of Justice. One ata time, click on the five underlined areas marked by a red design: Bail status. . Process. Plea. Election. Pur- pose of Appearance. (Print out these abbreviations if you plan to read the court lists every day.) - To find an explanation of the various criminal code offences ‘cited in the trial lists, Google. Criminal Code of Canada. Click on the first site shown.. - _ From there you can.work your way to the numbers used i in the court lists. Court watches bring more accountability to our justice | system. Instead of griping over cof. _ fee, they observe court, and re- port their findings through the _ media. “Sometimes public scrutiny is an effective crime-preven- tion tool,” says Constable Mc- Intosh.