AG - The Terrac Standard, Wednesday, sul 8, 1995"

TERRACE

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

ADDRESS: 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C. * V8G 188
TELEPHONE: (604) 638-7283 » FAX: (604) 638-8432
~ MODEM: (604) 638-7247 .

‘Suite and sour

THERE’S PROBABLY no more vexing probe

lem facing council than that of illegal suites.
Forget. freebies for spouses. of council. members,
ignore . that. ‘stuff about a.second shect of .ice.
Squirelling away: people in basements or corners
of houses is where the action is.

That’s. because council; as with. others around
the province, have turned. a benevolent blind eye

to’ illegal ‘suites. ‘Faced with high demands’ for
housing and little or no other supply, particularly

lower cost accommodations, councils have more
or less allowed the problem to develop. ‘There
was 10 way any ‘council member wanted to be
seen as tossing anybody out on the street in a city
where accommodation was 2!most non-existent.
But. that. was, before tougher. building and fire

code regulations came in and before people who.

lived beside ‘houses with ‘suites wanted: better
definitions. of what was allowed in their r neigh-
bourhoods. and what wasn’t, . : |

The ‘city is now embarked upon a ‘correct and
prudent. course that’s seeing it ban suites from
the prime Residential 1 zone and gather informs-
tion on existing but hidden suites,

But the danger rests in the city’s zeal in pursu-

ing “its objective. Some ‘residents sent. Tetters”
about illesal ‘suites feel they are ‘assumed to be

guilty without first having a chance to defend
themselves. .Others.. worry. about _ the - tactics:
employed: to gather information: -

The city, which represents all. people i in the. city,
has a-special: obligation tc to treat a everybody equal-
ly 3 and fairly, a |

Cop out |

FIRST IT was a bunch of 1950s ‘B
handsome. male Mounties in scarlet and da
in distress wearing buckskin skirts; Then it was a
slightly ridiculous TV show featuring a Mountie.
in Chicago whose best friend was a dog named
Diefenbaker.

But the’ latest effrontery is is ; too much. ‘We? re

speaking, of course, about Walt Disney scooping
the rights to market the RCMP’s trademark red
uniforms, Stetsons and other paraphernalia

around. the world. What’s worse is thatthe. im- -

petus comes from the Mounties themselves.

To have’ such a venerated piece of Canada
_ reduced to a’ Hollywood-prompted i image on cof-
fee mugs, ball hats and T-shirts is to put the
Mounties on the same level as Batman, the:
Flinstones, Rambo and all the other cartoon
characters of today.

To be’ sure, the RCMP says it'll return any prof-
its from this enterprise to community policing.

But has the level of police financing descended . :
to the point where the RCMP must sell itself to

provide an operating budget?. Why not put a sur-
charge onto fines handed down by the courts in-
stead, At least that would be more honourable,

In the, end, the marketing move leaves ob- ©

SCIvers thinking it is — to borrow a Disney
character — Mickey Mouse.

tt

eis. PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link" er
ADVERTISING MANAGER: Mike L. Hamm
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur
NEWS Jeff Nagel * NEWS SPORTS: Malcalm Baxter ™
: COMMUNITY: Cris Leykauf
OFFICE MANAGER: Rose Fisher, Terry Miller
“.. ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS:
Sam Collier, Janet Viveiros, Tracey Tomas

CONTRCILED

COMMUNITY SERVICE/TELEMARKETER: Monique Belanger

ADVERTISING ASSISTANT: Helen Haselmeyer
DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur COMPOSITOR: Shannon Cooper

CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Karen Brunette
, MEMBER OF 6.C, #RESS COUNCIL
sonig the Terrace end Thamnhii! area, Published on Wednesday of each week by Carboa Presa (1969)
Ud. al 4647 Lazelle Ave, Terrace, British Columbia,
Stories, photographs, illustrations, casigns and typestyles in tha Terraca Standard ara tha property of the

copyright holders, including Cariboo Presa (1968) Ltd, its illustration repro sarvicas and advertising

agencies.
Reproduction in whole of bi pari, without written permiestan, is spacifcally prohibited. :
Authorized as second-class mall pending the Post Offica Department, for paymant of postage in cash,

Special thanks to all our. contributors and correspondents:
‘for thelr time and talents

* movies. s with. 7

CCNA

Bie wR AS fue

What S up with down there

VICTORIA. _ “Could you
possibly overcome your reser-

vations about a holiday in:

Mexico?’’

I have a fist. of countries I

refuse to visit because of their
dismal: human. rights record,

~ Mexico is'on that list, although.

things. have been improving
lately, and ‘the ‘one-party sys-

tem that has ‘ruled the: country

- with an-iron fist-and state-of-
the-art...corruption for more
than. four decades is slowly
“crumbling.

The phone cali from my wife
had ‘come from. the travel

‘ agent's office,'and-the tone in
her Voice told me that, maybe,
it was.time to fold my. hand.

‘What. with’ NAFTA, which
makes. Mexico a close trading

partner. of Canada, anda...
week's holiday in the sun,
~ which was nothing the sneeze °

o at, Mexico: it would be, Puezto
‘Vallarta, to be exact,

_ Dight from Vancouver, seven
nights: at a beach’ resort hotel

~'s called- Las Palmas, all meals:

and unlimited drinks. included
-- for a grand total. of less than
’: $900 per person. Hard to beat.

The flight aboard ‘Royal Air-
lines, a Montreal-based charter
company, was ‘everything a
holiday fight should be, Good
food, great service, com-

All children need to

UNDER B.C.’S. ‘proposed
new Adoption Act - adopted

children will finally be-given |

as much rights as a poodle:
_ parents who put their children
up for adoption will have to
register their names and other
blological information.

B.C.’s privacy commissioner
says the proposed Adoption
Act takes too many rights
away from natural mothers.
How’s that? The rest of us
have admitted we gave birth to
the teenagers who try to dis-
own us in public by lagging 20
feet behind. It’s time for a

~ jevel playing ficld,

Until now, mothers who gave
up their offspring without so

’ much as a name tag on their

wrists avoided all the

responsibilities that go with

motherhood -—— — sieepless:
nights, diaper changes, anxiety
over playground bullies.

They sidestepped expensive
daycare, driving lessons, and”
grad, They | lost n0 peace of =.

-
t

_..... Vo top it off, it seemed like a.“
great vacation package: Retum

3 MONTHS LING
THE PURE Lee

-FROM-THE\CAPITAL

HUBERT BEYER

plimentary drinks, the works.
On arrival at Puerto Vallarta,
a Dus was wailing to take us to
our hotel, which tumed out to

- be not everything. a. vacation...
_-hotel should be like: eg de tes

- The whole place. was not
“very: clean, even ‘allowing for
the humid air which gives
’ everything a bit of moldy smell
and fook. The only public
men’s washroom off the lobby
was downright filthy. -

The meals could charitably
be described as slop, the un: |
limited drinks applied to a
third-rate beer — Corona was
out — and a wine neither of us
were able to drink, available
only in plastic cups you had to
pick up yourself at the bar.
Service was non-existent.

Once I was able to wrestle. a

“THROUGH-BIFOCALS
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

mind over skinned knees,
tonsillectomies, or science
projects. And they never baked
muffins at midnight, ac-
companied their kids trick ‘or
treating, or cleaned up after.
sleepovers,

The least they can do is tell
the kids who they are, Adop-
tees never asked tobe born, or.
‘to be given up like. unwanted
kittens. “As one adult adoptee:

Ey) put i, » “Tiving a as an adoptee is

COUNTRY foo
LUKE Moose,

ke ee ee, OP

gin ‘and ‘tonic from the
bartender, but only after some

talking, He didn’t” “like my —

choice one bit
The first day, neiiher of US

“ got up the courage to say to the

other that this was un-

acceptable. The second mom- -
thinks pot interesting, ©

ing; et
however. When my~ wife
turmed on the air conditioning

in our rcom, acrid smoke bil- |

lowed out of the unit. A fire
seemed not far behind.

_ We.tumed the thing off and —
- called the front desk. Someone
thet .

would check later
afternoon, and if: the air con-
ditioning — still - smoked, . we

would be moved to another -
room. Great. I could see the

obits back home now: Victoria
journalist and. wife. perish , in

It- was a question of staying

and ruining our holiday or

moving. We decided to cut our

losses- and. moved to the
Sheraton Buganvilias Resort

‘.\ Hotel, blowing the vacation —
- budget right out of the water.
- We didn’t regret it. :

Headquartered ia a beautiful

. hotel -with ‘a couple of goad

restaurants, good food, superb
service, and air conditioning

units that didn’t blow up on us,

we Were now ready to enjoy

_ Puerto Vallarta,

like walking into a movie 15:

minutes after it starts.’’ The
child never knows the full
story.

Nor
responsible for whatever. fix
their birth mother was ~~ or is
— in, The least mothers can do
is arm their babies with basic
knowledge of their biological
background.

I’ve suffered this lack of con-

nection ina child. .
In 1952, five-year-old Kenny

“was dropped off at our farm by

his social worker. He arrived
wearing washed “out overall
with suspenders lengthened .to
the max, a striped jersey with
the elbows out,
canvas sneakers.

He was undersized, with the
flat facial features typical of
fetal alcobol syndrome. He had
various nervous habils proba-

bly stemming from a lack of ~
self-esteem. In bed at ‘night be .~

rocked violently form ‘side’ to.

side ‘or thumped his” a head,

“days before we arrived in Mex-

_ against the wall until exhaus- ie

should adoptees be ©

. He had no family photos, no -

and frayed |

' He was 30 years old-then.

- The new Adoption A
- Teacue, many cehitd

For all the tourists who flock.
to Puerto Vallarta by the oe
hundreds of thousands’ every.
year, the ‘town has somehow :
managed to remain untouched |
by the progress foisted on i
Tourist traps selling “‘T shirts’
and souvenirs are pretty. well
confined to the main ‘street
meandering along. the
shoreline,

From there, the town’ ‘8 nar." i.
row sirects wind up a. steep.
hill, the red-tiled, white-
washed houses” representing’
the epitome of a Mexica
townscape. ,

We took a tour of Vallarta;
and our guide, Ramon, told. us:
that locals divide , the town's
history into “Before-and- Affe
the-Movie,’ the movie’ being
John’ Houston’ s Night, of the
Iguana.’?

Before’ the movie, Ranton
said, Vallarta was a sleepy
fi ishing | village, and. very. few:
tourists found there way there,
The movie changed that almost,
overnight. .

One more. thing: A coupte of

ico, a judge who had been an_ ;
outspoken supporter of trade”
unions was shot to death by an -
assassin, and while we were’ . :
there, a busload of tourists got “.
held up and robbed near Val- e "
larta by some banditos. But -
hey, give it time, amigos,

know

tion stilled his underweight ie
body. A
A .wobbly, “fiddle-sized
cardboard suitcase held all his.
possessions, with room ‘to. :
Spare. — threadbare underwear’. -.
and jammies, shrunken socks, ;
and a wheel-less toy truck, |

fond memories of Christmas or -
birthdays. No visitors linked: *
him to his first years of life.’ °s
‘He stayed with our family
until he was 13, when social 7
services moved him halfway:
across Saskatchewan to a fam- -- a
ily where be would-be the -:
oldest We never saw bins
again, except Mom and. Dad:
ran ‘into him at a farm auction

Rick Ouston, in his. book
“Finding Family,’? does
good job-of explaining how.
feels to grow up” rootléss;: N
child deserves a life |