A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 20, 2006

~ STANDARD |

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

PUBLISHER: ROD LINK |

ADDRESS: 3210 Clinion Street Terrace. B.C. - V8G 5R2
TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 -. FAX: (250) 638-8432
". WEB? www.terracestandard.com _
EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard. com

~ School days

, THEY’ VE BEEN visible on Terrace and area

roads for several years now. A w ‘hite passenger
van marked “Kitselas Head Start” and.a little yel-

low school bus marked “Kermode Head Start.”

_Each day they carry pre- school native children:
to programs designed to Prepare them for enter-

ing school.” r
- It's the start ‘of. what governments. educators
and parents hope is the path to correct what has

been going ‘on for far too long — native students |

: generally don’t do as well in school as others.

~.. ‘Once those children are in kindergarten they
go for a full day. Others go for half a day. And
as they.move up the grades, there are a series of

other programs designed to keep native students ©

~ from dropping out, to improve their overall per-
. formance.and, ultimately, to have them graduate.

All that and more is no,doubt behind the cau--

tionary words of school district chair Lorrie Gow-

en as the school board contemplates a major shift.

in education i in Terrace.

Right now, southside Kiti K’Shan Primary and

| Cassie Hall Elementary carry both English and

French i immersion classes.

- On the table again is a proposal to convert Kiti
K’ Shan to all- French immersion from kindergar-
ten to Grade 7. The idea is that French i immersion

* will flourish i ina stand- alone, magneét-type. facil-

ity.
- » » Cassie Hall would then be an all-English school. |
-. But because the large majority of French immer-_

sion students are non-native and because of the

~ demographics of its catchment area. Cassie Hall

would become a magnet-type school of its ow nas
the majority of students would be native. |

As Ms. Gowen points out, this would be a
wholesale changing of the social, cultural and
racial mix. She fears it might result in a “have”
school and one that is “have not” in any number
of areas.

A full-on consideration of this is proposal won't
come until the end of this year — if-at all - when

enrolment numbers determine if a change is phys-

ically possible. |
But the debate needs to start now and Ms. Gow-

en is correct in, saying a lot of thought must be’

| “applied.

‘Schools are the first. — and arguably — last level-

ler of society. They need to be a place where there ;

is a core set of values, of history. of how things
work and of what is needed in order to grow indi-
vidually and with others.

For that to happen. schools need to be a place

where students from all backgrounds gather. They

cannot be a place where a move, as well-inten-

tioned and rational as it is, to benefit one stream

of students in one program may adversely affect
other students.

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2. Pu ses ie Weeresoz,

Nore 2 25 Secere-Ciast Ta) oe -g Te See

Speciai thanks to all our contributors and
correspondents for their time and talents

Wo:

‘AND AS THe EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER "1
So CLEARLY ILLUSTRATE —- “THESE HORRORS

CANNOT BE STOPPED UNLESS SOME AMONG
US ARE WILUNG To AcceRT ENORMOUS |
SACRIACE AND RISk To THEMSELVE, "

OF Course
THAT We

WOULDN'T
Be Me... .

APPROVAL
/RATING

Visa. entrants need to be honest

CANADA. IS known to have

one of the best immigration

“models in the world because of
its openness and fairness when |

dealing with applicants. from

abroad. Is the system working

or does it need overhauling?

' The reports of fraudulent

marriages have created red

flags, and Canadians are ask-

ing for tighter regulations.
Here's a typical scenario: A

Canadian goes abroad and gets

- married and when their future

difficult because the issue of .
trust is placed in the hands of

|. partner arrives on Canadian
* soil the marriage dissolves.

The issue of enforcement is

people who are building a fu-

ture together. When one part-

ner turns love into opportunity
it Creates a mess.

There is a heavy burden
placed on the sponsor if things
don’t work out as planned.

Speaking with a few dis-
enchanted people who have
lived through this unfortunate
circumstance. supporting the

person up to three years is an

unjust policy that needs gov-

_ emment reviewing.
If individuals choose to go’

“on government. assistance the

sponsor is footed with the bill.
A Vancouver-based Canadian
Marriage Fraud Victim’ So-

“ clety is petitioning Ottawa to

“KEN HERAR

change the policy if marriages
fail before three years so that
the immigrants be deported
back to their country of origin:
I totally agree.

We don’t.. want

‘ers going underground. Many

countries have adopted such a
policy like United States, Brit-
ain Australia and New Zea-
land. However. some Canadi-
an politicians disagree. stating
this is not the Canadian way.
Abbotsford MP Ed Fast
said, “we had approximately
800.000 immigration applica-
tions in process at the time of
the 2005 election. At the same
time, approximately 35,000

illegal residents disappeared

into the woodwork.”
“When you: combine this
with the problem of ‘marriages

of conv enience’ and ‘the work

" necessary to determine the le-

_ Punjab, India.

~ gitimacy of spousal re-unifica-
. tion applications, you can see

that we have significant prob-
lems to overcome.”

Fast’s office is dealing with —

a file of an individual who is
going abroad to get married
for the third time. Unfortu-

nately, most of these cases are

occurring from the region of

Pitt Meadows-Maple
Ridge-Mission “MP Randy

Kamp says the Immigration

Act should perhaps. be - re-

viewed as to whether legis- -

lation should be amended to
include additional deterrents

. to discourage applicants from

foreign-~
v enience in order to obtain le-
gal status in Canada:

sing=?

n-marriages of con-.

With all the heightened
security and red flags appear-
ing, visa applicants are being
screened much more care-
fully.

If there is any doubt by im-
migration officials that a per-
son may not return to their
home countryafter their visit
they will be declined entry.

Maple Ridge-Mission MLA
Randy Hawes disagrees ‘with
over screening of visa appli-

cants.

He says people have been

denied permission, to. attend .
» weddings or funerals in Cana-
‘da because someone in a con-

sulate seems to believe there is
a risk that they will not return
to India.

“Based on the behavior of |.

a few, we seem to have devel-
oped a national policy to apply
against the many,” said Hawes.

He also says he’s received no
requests for reference letters:

from Caucasian residents. __
“Tt ‘appears that Canadian
Consulates in other parts of

the world do not see the same

“risks and screening is some- =
- how much less stringent. It is.
difficult to conclude that the
current policy is based upon ~~

anything but racial prejudice?"
said Hawes.

Along with these concerns’

the immigrant mix has changed
dramatically over the decades
from European to Asian mar-
kets which has left some Ca-
nadians unhappy.

Regardless of where you
are from, immigration makes
Canada strong. But safeguards
need to be in place to protect
Canadians ‘from foreigners
who want to abuse the system.
The current system fails to do
so. oe
Ken Herar lives in the Fra-
ser Valley. His email is Ken
Hérar@yahoo. ca.

A

Anti- clothes line dry rule is all wet

FREE THE Sheets! was coun-
cillor Phyllis Morris’ battle
cry Sept. 12 as she led her
Springmaid troops into Au-
rora., Ontario’s council cham-
bers fighting for citizens’ right

‘to dry their laundry on a back-

- vard clothesline. -

. Despite Ontario's energy
shortages. many Ontario resi-

dents aren't allowed to air drv —

their laundry outside in their
own backwards thanks to re-
strictive covenants subdivi-

_ sion developers have added to

‘easements to allow for roads.

’ thetically desirable.”

- Jand deeds..

‘Regularly. restrictive cov-
enants dictate setbacks of
homes from the street and

or powerlines. rule out raising
livestock and ‘cluttering lots
by parking mothballed recre-
ational vehicles in driveways.

Aurora’s restrictive cov-

enants outlawing pole-to-pole

backyard clotheslines have
been put in place by original
developers to standardize ap-
pearance and protect property
values of a group of homes or
lots in a specific development
or subdivision. —

“Clotheslines are not es-
Says Fra-
ser Nelson of Metrus Develop-
ment Inc. Cant vou hear the
sniff in his tone?

THROUGH BIFOCALS 7

CL AUDETTE SANDECKI

If councillor Morris and
her Right to Dry forces suc-
ceed in ironing out this energy
wrinkle. I suspect Nelson and
his fellow defeated dev elopers
will, at the very least. wring

their hands and call for laun-. .
dry to be hung in a more orga-

nized fashion.

Perhaps by length, long
Sheets to short towels. Or by
colour — whites, pastels, earth-
tones. blues, blacks. They
might even agitate for unmen-.
tionables to be hung inside pil-

lowcases as genteel folk once

did.

Rather than drying laundry
outdoors — weather permitting.
such as this hot, dry summer

.-+ developers have sabotaged

\

Kyoto’s climate saving mea-

sures ‘by writing in covenants ©

forbidding. outdoor drying
for. in some cases. “anywhere
from 21 to 40 years’. coun-
cillor Morris says, depending
upon the mischievous bent of
the developer.

Benefits of natural outdoor

laundry drying are many:
Clothes dry faster. smell better.
and energy costs are shrunk.

At B.C. Hydro’s rate: of.

$.0712 that would be $5.98 for
my Admiral dryer to dry one
load a day for a month. Fami-

‘lies with kids dry many more

loads per month. ~

' Besides the naturally fresh
smelling laundry. you get the
bonus of gentle exercise. bend-
ing to lift each damp garment,

stretching to attach the pins.

as you breathe fresh air, sur-
vey your neighbourhood, -and
maybe exchange a smile with
the saucer-eved tad observ-

ing your unusual behaviour.

through a chink in the fence.
With both Ontario and the
city of Aurora trying to reduce
energy consumption by every
sensible. economical means.
covenants condemning out-

door clotheslines flap in the

face of both levels of govern-
ment.

Aurora’s Environmental

Advisory. Committee initiated

the idea of outdoor laundry
‘drying. heartily supported by

Ontario Energy Board, only to
see their idea hung out to dry

by developers’ restrictive cov-

enants. ;

Morris aims to scrub these

energy-wasting _ restrictive
covenants from Ontario land
titles, saving homeowners the
bother and expense of filing

individual civil suits against —

existing and defunct builders
and land development com-
panies for the right to string
clothesline in their own back-
yard. _

Her motion asked the prov-
ince to quickly proclaim its
Energy Conservation Leader-
ship Act 2006 into law. The
act permits the province to
remove barriers to

restrictions deemed to be in
conflict with energy conserva-
tion aims.

. Morris isasking thatclothes- |

lines be named a technology
in the act. With clotheslines
identified. as a technology.
Ontario could then review all
land titles for restrictive cov-
enants forbidding clotheslines,
identify the covenants. over-
ride and nullify them in the in-
terests of conserving energy.

energy
conservation and to address