A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October 8, 1997 STANDARD 4647 Lazella Ave., Teaco, B.C. V8G 188 (604) 838-7283 Fax (604) 638-8492 ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 4 Division of Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd. ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432 EMAIL: standard@kermode.net Never again AMIDST THE mountains of paper and piles of. pills, powders and lotions for headaches, stomaches and other pains cluttering deputy min- ister Dan Miller’s desk concerning the Skeena Cellulose deal is information vital to the north- west. And that’s how we all got into this mess. What jead to months of uncertainty, millions of dollars lost and now the investment of nearly $200 mil- lion in tax monies to rescue the northwest’s major employer. How did something happen that shouldn’t have happened from those heady days in 1986 when Repap founder George Petty rode into the north- west on a white charger to scoop the Prince Rupert mill the last time it was owned by the province. How did two very different provincial govern- ments — the Socreds and then the NDP — permit one company to tighten its grip on the regional economy to the point its fortunes be- came the fortunes of the region. Way back in the early 1980s, when the last major forest industry depression hit the area, solemn vows were taken for a major overhaul of the system. That didn’t take place and once again we found ourselves in a situation causing im- mense pain to thousands of people. Since we now own a piece of the action the re- quest for a report on what happened should be treated as any normal shareholder request for in- formation. As shareholders, we now have the opportunity to learn more to stop this from occurring again. It’s better to do so from the position of share- holder rather than be content in the knowledge that the northwest’s economy is now reliant on one big government social welfare project. SE March on HAVING MEN shout, honk and otherwise con- duct themselves as if they were on a tetesterone overload isn’t new. But it’s disturbing when it happens as women marched past during the annual Take Back the Night event Sept. 27. One man, frustrated by being behind the marchers spread across the road, wove dangerously close before gunning his truck past them. Teen boys hanging out near McDonald’s, sneered. They looked like they wanted a confrontation — if there had been fewer women. These underline the need for the march and to keep speaking out against violence against women. If making statements against violence makes people uncomfortable — too bad. So far this year, local RCMP say more than 60 sexual assaults concerning everything from rape to unwanted sexual touching have been reported. - The shooting death last month of a woman and her mother in Summerland and the bludgeoning to death of a woman and her children on. Van- couver Island point to a continued illness in our society. oe t r 1 ' ' y 1 4 t a 4 1 ’ ‘ 1 ' t 4 PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Sam Collier PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS Jeff Nagel « NEWS SPORTS: Dave Taylor COMMUNITY: Cris Leykauf STUDENT REPORTER: Salwa Farah OFFICE MANAGER: Sheila Sandover-Sly ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Janet Viveiros, Brian Lindenbach TELEMARKETER: Tracey Tomas ADVERTISING ASSISTANT: Kelly Jean TYPESETTING: Syivana Broman DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur CIRCULATION MANAGER: Karen Brunette , SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $53.50 per year; Seniors $48.15; Out of Province $60.99 Outside of Canada (6 months) $149.80 (ALL PRICES INCLUDE GST) MEMBER OF B.C. AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION, CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION i" « Commer Nrewarees Serving the Terrace and Thornhill area. Published an Wednesday of each week by Cariboo Press (1969) Lid. at 3210 Clinton Street, Terraca, British Columbia, V8G 5R2. . Stories, photographs, illustrations, designs and typestyles in the Terrace Standard are the property of the Copyright holders, including Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd,, Its Illustration repro services and advertising agencies, wo, : : Repreduction in whole or in part, without writtan permission, Is specifically prohibited. Authorized as second-class mail pending the Post Office Department, for payment of poslage In cash. Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents -." for their time and talents . AND B.C, PRESS COUNCIL ee oF = Tt AA 2 we IRBAGE 4, 7), Se SSN NER A g 5 ESD _ here we dont collect. here we deliver... % OP LEE EME.” wa: IRs MATE A VBS iD ey pens ZA, ay reed a Reform B.C. VICTORIA — It’s not fair to kick a guy when he’s down, but Wilf Hanni is practically asking to be publicly chastised. When Hanni, immediately following his election as leader of the Reform Party of B.C., attacked the party’s only two silling members — Jack Weis- gerber and Richard Neufeld — I called him a fool. Instead of tapping into the experience and political talent of the two, particularly those of Weisgerber, to build support for Reform and himself, Hanni laid into them for having sup- ported the NDP’s same-sex benefit legislation in the last session. For that, he richly deserved to be called a fool. Now he’s trying to run the party by remote control, and that makes him an even bigger fool, Everybody has to earn a living. Hanni does so by hiring out his talents to the oil patch. Nothing wrong wilh that, ex- cept that there’s very little oil exploration going on in British Columbia, where his second job as party leader urgently re- quires his presence. So to keep the wolves from he door, Hannij is currently working on an oil rig in Sas- katchewan, not the best place from which to organize the party's fortunes, leave alone to FROM THE CAPITAL. HUBERT BEYER keep it from disintegrating. A couple of things happened while Hanni was toiling in the oil patch a thousand miles from bome, and neither served to. boost his or his party’s chances for survival, First, David Secoid, the un- successful Reform candidate in the recent Surrey-White Rock byelection, publicly advocated a grand scheme for the unifica- tion of the free enterprise forces in he province, All party leaders, i.e, Gordon Campbell, Hanni and Gordon Wilson, Secord suggested, should resign. The parties Should then elect one leader who could carry the free enter- prise banner in the next elec- on death tion and slay the NDP dragon. Needless to say, this little scheme didn’t go down well with Hanni who, after ail, had just been elected Reform leader. In a terse long-distance statement, Hanni said, ‘Mr. Secord is expressing his own, personal opinion. His com- ments do not reflect the pasi- tion of Refarm B.C.” To add fuel to the fire that threatens to reduce the Reform Party to ashes, Neufeld was heard saying on the CBC that be thinks the party’s days are numbered, ‘Sunless Mr. Hanni can pull a rabbit out of the hat.” The likelihood of the fearless Reform leader performing such a neat trick is very slim, espe- cially when he’s up to his keesters in oi], far from home. ‘Sa all Hanni could do was is- sue another long-distance mis- sive, saying that suggestions such as Neufeld’s ‘‘are actual- ly weakening our bargaining position with the Liberals,”’ What bargaining position, may we ask, Mr. Hanni? With only two MLAs ia the lepisla- ture, both of whom have been publicly humiliated by their leader, and one of whom is al- teady saying it’s curtains for Reform, no self-respecting Liberal is even going to con- sider any bargaining. C And a leader who doesn’t know his gluteus maximus — from an oil well, isn’t going to change that, , The fact is Reform B.C. is on ils death bed, and Campbell; who himself isn’t any great shakes as a politician will in- herit the free enterprise earth, at least the part that covers Beautiful British Columbia, Weisgerber is going to pack it in after this term, so he won’t make any rash decisions. He’ll just coast towards well- deserved political retirement. Neufeld, on the other hand, * scems to be poised for a move. Expect Neufeld to confer: with his constituents and come to the decision that, in the in- < terest of a united front against * the NDP, he will switch rather than fight the next election asa Reformer. And that pretty well leaves our stalwart Hanni by himself and Reéforta no longer a force to reckoned with. Wilson will not throw his lot ~ in with the Liberals, but he also won’t have enough sup- | port to split the free entorprise vote. The coalition that served ~ W.A.C. Bennett and his son so well, is, therefore, nearly com- plete. Beyer can be reached at Tel: (250) 920-9300; Fax: (250) 385-6783, hubert@coolcom.com E-Mail address: ° Authors’ minds an open book LAST THURSDAY evening at the Terrace public library | at- tended my first author’s read- ing, along with four others. (It was parents’ night in local schools and ER live was on TY). By comparison, Dease Lake marshalled six. Prince Rupert — ona Saturday afternoon — rallicd 13, including a nine- year-old sprouting writer. Caroline Woodward, who grew up on a Peace River homestead, lives in New Den- ver where she and her partner operate a family bookstore. Monday to Thursday she writes in a private studio above the former liquor store, cooks Suppers for her nine-year-old son so she'll ‘‘feel like a good Mom’’, and grocery shops. Fridays and Salurdays she takes her tum. running the Motherlode. - © ~ Since 1968 when the daily Alaska Highway News pub- lished her first work, she’s ~ been a paid writer. Now 45, she has three books published, a fourth duc out soon, a DOGS ARE So DumB!: aye THROUGH BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI mystery Publish and Perish, From her short story collec- tion, Disturbing the Peace, Woodward read a lively tale of two girls’ summer working as waitress and chambermaid in a northern truck stop. Next she read an excerpt from her first mystery Alaska Highway Two- Step. , Like a child listening to a bedtime story, I. ‘‘filmed?’ the action in my imagination while she intoned the words. I found that harder to do than when I read the words for myself. Naturally, her stories reflect her experiences. As a younger person, she waitressed in vari- ous cities. She also traveled, in 1981 to Sri Lanka and India as a group leader for Canada World Youth. On a trip to Nepal, she learned bow to make rice paper, wrote about it in The Blue Fabie, a wafer-thin chap- book available only from the author for $3, She’s given many readings as you can tell from her easy manner, briefcase weighted with crisp copies for sale after- ward, and her layered clothing — black pants, purple turt- leneck, cozy vest. I shivered, hugging mysclf in a fuzzy-lined jacket, as a chifly draft undulated the board room’s vertical blinds like wind chimes. This reading — one of five including Stewart and Kitimat on a tour organized by Prince Rupert’s public library — was sponsored by a Writers in Li- “TROUBLE You'rRE HAVING WITH THAT DISH !! braries government grant Which pays the author, her travel, and her accommodation expenses, Each library also contributed $100, ~ How does Woodward prime her daily writing? By penning one page of freewriting on a. topic related to her current pro- ject, before switching to com- puter for the rest of ber daily four hour stint, . She writes a complete biography for every main, character, even if few facts may actually be mentioned in the story, She’s convinced her knowing everything about 4 character “resonates” throughout the work improving | ibe quatity for the reader. Often visiting authors are asked to offer a workshop for struggling writers, many of whom seldom get to meet a live author, Next spring children’s writer, Jan Fuller: Moulton, will be reading in Terrace, She'll be asked to offer a writers’ work shop. ] intend to be there. DISHES ARE A STUPID HUMAN ‘ INVENTION! wn 7 al 4] TT “\' t ra = : 4 = ; ’