AA - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, July 8, 1998

TER.RAGE

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

PUBLISHER: ROD LINK
ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2
TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 + FAX: (250) 638-8432
EMAIL: standard@kermade.net

Seconds count

A WOMAN collapses with a heart attack at an

airstrip near Kitimat. Her husband calls for an

ambulance from a pay phone.

A thousand kilometres away, at a centralized
dispatch centre in Kamloops, a dispatcher ans--
wers the call. .

He listens to the husband explain three times
that he’s calling from Kitimat and that they need
an ambulance at the Kitimat Air Park.

But the dispatcher thinks he must mean the
Terrace-Kitimat Airport parking lot and confirms.
that as the final destination. The frantic husband,

probably no longer paying attention to anything ;

earth

but his stricken wife, says “‘right’’. _
So began a tragedy on June_7-that’saw Kam-
loops dispatchers send- Tefrace paramedics on a
wild-goose chase to the Terrace airport while Ar-
lene Moloney lay dying in Kitimat.

By the time the error was caught, 20 precious
minutes were lost and Moloney arrived dead on
arrival at the Kitimat hospital.

Her family, angry by the delay that could have
been the difference between life and death, say a
loca] ambulance dispatch service should be es-
tablished to prevent further deaths.

Had the dispatcher even realized that a phone
call from a 632- prefix means Kitimat, not Ter-
race, the problem could have been solved.

At one point dispatchers phoned the Terrace
airport to ask for the firefighters — firefighters
who haven’t been based there for six months —

_ betraying a further lack of local knowledge.

Terrace city council three years ago went to the
wall with the B.C. Ambulance Service over
Kamloops dispatchers’ failure to consistently no-
tify the fire department’s first-responders, who
often reach the scene ahead of the ambulance.

. After a comprehensive review and a-stries'of |".
~meetings, the service promised to ‘call the Tér-

race first responders every time.
It’s time to have an even closer look at the way
ambulance dispatch service is delivered here.

Fish first

FEDERAL FISHERIES MINISTER David
Anderson is taking it from all sides for his
punishing crackdown on virtually every type of
salmon fishing in the province to protect
endangered coho stocks.

The medicine here is terribly bitter.

Sports anglers — who turn fish into dollars at a
fat more productive and sustainable rate than the
commercial fleets — are being sidelined, It’s
true they had little to do with creating the prob-
lem, but the politics of fairness demands they
share the pain now. —

While this seems overkill to some, we should
be thankful for one thing. It appears Anderson i is
determined not to let coho and other endangered
stocks go the way of the Atlantic cod,

That’s a sea change from the previous style of

fisheries management that allowed the commer--

cial fleet to inhale everything at the river mouth
and had wild steelhead and coho destined for
certain extinction.

PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link
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Gay pension

VICTORIA — There’s an old
story about a Canadian show-
ing up at the U.S. border at the
height of the Vietnam war, as-
king for political asylum.
Asked why he wanted to
leave Canada, when thousands
of American draft dodgers
were going in the other direc-
tion, the Canuck said: ‘Well,
there was a time when
homosexuality was illegal.
Then it was tolerated, Next it
was legalized, I'm getting the

hell out before they make it -

compulsory.”’

The problem with writing
this column is that it will al-
most certainly be mis-
construed, leaving me open to
accusations of gay-bashing and
being in league with the reli-
gious far right. Nothing could

be further. from the truth. .

measures to protect the rights
of homosexuals. I abhor dis-
crimination of any sort, be it
based on the colour of skin, re-
ligion or sexual orientation.
But extending pension bene-
fits to homosexual couples,
however, as the bill introduced
in the legislature this week
proposes, has nothing to do
with the protection of basic hu-
man rights, Instead, it puts a
legal, moral and ethical stamp
on homosexuality as just an-

I -fully support :any.-and all--.

FROM THE CAPITAL

HUBERT BEYER

other, perfectly normal life-
style. Well, it isn’t.

This latest advancement in
gay rights, entitlements and
benefits comes a year after At-
tomey General Ujjal Dosanjh
introduced legislation giving
homosexual’ couples the ‘same
rights. as *their’: heterosexual:
counterparts on ‘child custody,’
access and maintenance issues.

Same-sex partners were also
included in the definition of
spouse in the Family Relations
Act. There was strong reaction:
last year from religious groups
and others advocating ‘‘tradi-
tional family values,’? 1 expect
similar reaction this time.

The changes to pension
benefits would affect the pro- .
vince’s 235,000 public sector
‘employees, including teachers,

RELAX, B c Te OPERATION WAS
A SUCCESS AND AFTER SOME REST

librarians, municipal workers,
college staff and bus drivers. —

Now, what possible harm
could the proposed legislation
do? Directly, none, but as I
said earlier, I have a real
pr0oblem with the increasingly
popular portrayal of
homosexuality as normal. And
the legislation before the
House now, reinforces. that
trend.

With apologies to Ted Neb-
beling, Liberal MLA for West
Vancouver-Garibaldi, and Tim
Stevenson, NDP MLA for
Vancouver-Burrard, both of
whom are openly gay, and
both of whom I know, like and
respect, homosexuality is not a
normal lifestyle.

Again, I have no problem
with people being gay, openly

-- or in'the closet, It’s the gradual.
shift-in.our ‘society, towards.

giving homosexuality a status
equal to that of heterosexuality
that a cannot accept. _

There is a distinction be-
tween acceptable and normal.
Heterosexuality is the norm. It
is nature’s way of assuring
procreation and, thereby, sur-
vival of the — species.
Homosexuality is not the

norm. It is the exception. I ac--

cept homosexuality as some-
one’s chaice, but don’t try to
convince me that it’s normal. It

THE RASCAL WILL BE BACK ON THE ERNE,
AGAIN. .

plan is wrong.

isn’t. And saying so doesn't
make one a bigot and
homophobe. 7

There’s another aspect that ©

ought to make politicians

thinks twice before giving’ ~
‘same-sex couples the same

pension rights as heterosexual

_ ones. at
If the surviving partner ofa -

homesexual relationship - is.

entitled to ‘pension benefits,
why not a brother or a sister?’

Sooner or later, the law would

probably have to be changed to

allow the allocation of survivor

benefits to anyone. , ,
HOUSE ANTICS _

’ Summer is the silly season in

the legislature. The MLAs

lighten up and there’s the oc- :

casional flash of humeur. -
One day, this week, Liberal

.MLA Bonnie McKinnon,-was

on 2 good old-fashioned rant,
laying into the NDP with. all
she’s gat, when a baby started

crying in the spectators’ gal- >

lery.
“Now look what you've
done,”’ NDP MLA Helmut

Giesbrecht shouted across the -
floor. It was enough to make
including McKin- .--

everyone,
non, break into laughter.

Beyer can be reached at: *
Tel: (250) 920-9300; Fax: -
E-mail:

(250} 356-9597;
hubert@coolcom.com

af

y boss eyes Cassiar

**B.C, has the dubious distinc-
tion of having one of the worst
job safety records in the coun-
try,’ according to Tradetalk,
published by B.C. & Yukon
Territory Building and Con-

" struction Trades Council.

‘Between 1990 and 1997,
1,181 workers were killed on
the job. Every working day,
751 workers are injured on the
job; 16 permanently disabled.
Three workers are killed each
week.’”

“The construction industry is
one of the most dangerous In
the province; second only
forestry.”

Maybe it’s BC's high rate
of worker deaths that’s altract-
ing the former manager of
Nova Scotia's Westray coal
mine where 26 miners were
killed in an explosion May 26,

1992. He sees profit to be |
made retrieving magnesium |

from the tailings of a closed

Cassiar mine, He probably also - °
sees his poor safety record .
being ignored for the sake of .

fH THROUGH BIFOCALS-

:_ CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

to MLA Dan Miller, minister
of northern development. Mil-
ler came away from the meet-

Maybe {t's B.C.'s  .
_high rate of worker... .
“. deaths that's attract '**
ing the former mate
ager of Nova Scotia's
Westray coal mine
where 26 miners were
>» killed In an explosion...
' May'26, 1992.

even listen to a man with 26
dead employees haunting him
beats me, unless Miller, too,
cares more for creating jobs
and profit than for worker
safely,

Last week Nova Scotia’s
chief prosecutor announced he
can't lay charges against

Westry management for the
loss of 26 lives because he
“Yacks sufficient evidence to
obtain a conviction."
Lacks sufficient evidence!
An inquiry into the Westray
mine explosion taok most of

six years, cost millions of dol- -
"Jars, and heard testimony from

dozens of mine employees,
government inspectors and
bureaucrats, and independent
mining experts.

Witnesses told of too high

‘levels of coal dust, of methane *

gas buildup, of machinery used
underground when it shouldn’t
have been because it produced

, “sparks, of safety regulations ig- »
-nored, of failure to upgrade to.

derground explosion was the
predictable and preventable
result of human failure at al-
most every tum. The disaster,
he said, was a story of in-
competence, of mismanage-
ment, of bureaucratic bungling,

of decelt, of ruthlessness, of . :-
coverup, of apathy, of ex-.
pedicncy and of cynical in-  ~,'

difference. Only the miners
were free of blame,

“The fundamental and basic
responsibility for safe opera-
tion of any industrial undertak-
ing rests clearly with mattage-
ment.’ Judge Richard wrote in
his four volume report naming
names, He made 74° recom-
mendations 16 prevent such a
disaster repeating itself.

During the lengthy inquiry, -
Nova’ Scotia’s § government:
promised to hold responsible
parties accountable for any
ctiminal negligence, Yet
despite Judge Richard's report,
the chief prosecutor has let the
matter drop, ;

Now: ‘the; former ° manager

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