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A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 21, 1988

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

PUBLISHER: ROD LINK
ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G S5R2
TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432
EMAIL:.standard@kermode.net

An insult

THOSE SUPPORTING Helmut Giesbrecht have
a job not unlike stepping on jello. Gooshy stuff
squirts all over the place and it’s impossible to,
grab hold of anything.

Compared to a normal election where the job is .

to convince people to do something eg. vote for

somebody, opposing recall is quite different. The

job is to convince people not to do something. .
That’s a tricky prospect particularly when recal]

is so easy — all you have to do is put your name'
to a piece of paper.

Whereas the Crash Helmut gang can muster.
scores of reasons, real or imagined, to pull the
plug on the Skeena MLA, the Skeena Taxpayers
Association bedrock position is to say ‘‘Well,
gee. He’s a nice guy.”’

So what the association has done to keep their
man safe from recall is to bring forward any
number of nefarious allegations. The most con-
sistent and persistent of these is to claim that
“outside interests’’ are at work in promoting
recall. |
That sounds kind of sexy but tends to insult the
intelligence of the local voter. To accept that
premise is to accept the notion that local voters
are being swayed by unseen forces at work in
some top secret bunker in Vancouver. It alleges
that Helmut Giesbrecht has enough legislative
stature to be the target of a deep, dark con-
spiracy. It’s to suggest that voters — heck, and
northerners at that — are so gullible they’ll buy
any kind of snake oil sold by some southern
dandy.

In truth, this is more or less a milder version of
the favourite right-wing rant that the internation-
al money supply and economy is being manipu-
lated by a coterie of Swiss banking gnomes in
Geneva...

fibpbens Ais al

In any battle there a are “casualties ‘and com-: [>

batants have to learn to live with them. But to
treat northern voters in such a cavalier fashion
will have unfortunate consequences down the
road.

A change

NOW THAT Mr. Tim Down has officially
pulled the plug on his Terrace council seat, the
way is open to elect a replacement.

While there’s strong support to elect somebody |
from Thornhill to begin the bridge-building with’
that community, there are also suggestions that
it’s time to change the mix of council.

History, economics and culture have worked to-:
gether in the past to breed a certain type of per-
son to sit on municipal councils. This is not to
suggest those people should not have run, but’
municipalities in the 1990s are far different from
the 60s, 70s and 80s, Issues go beyond the
pothole and sewer line variety.

In today’s world a perfect council candidate
would not a) be a male, b) be white c) wear a
suit, d) be in business e) be a Catholic or a
Protestant f) be a member of a service club or g)
be all consumed with filling potholes. Any
takers?

a a eS a Ese
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Serving the Terrace and Thornhill area, Published on Wodnesday of each week at 3210 Clinton Street,
Terrace, British Cotumbla, V8G SA2.

Slories, photographs, illustrations, designs and typestyles in the Terrace Standard ara tha property of the
pesca holdars, including Carboa Press {1969} Ltd., its illustration repro services and advertising

Reproduction in whole o¢ in part, without wrtion permiasian, Is specifically prohibited,
Faoacimnateaenpa ek winning Rey pee
Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents
for thelr time and talents

VICTORIA — Soon the war
on drugs will surpass the 30-
Year War in duration, and
what have we got to show for
the vast amounts of money
spent? Nothing.

More and more resources are
committed fo the war on drugs.
Yet, people continue to die in
ever greater numbers from the
horrors of cocaine and heroine
addiction. And crime to pro-
vide the money that fuels the
addiction is rising. °

Vancouver's downtown east
side is the worst spot in the de-
veloped world for the rapid
spread of the AIDS virus main-
ly because there are so many
dnig addicts sharing dirty
needles.

Vancouver is also believed to

_, have 10 times as: many drug
re ralickess! ‘as ‘anys ‘other place’ in
‘Cantidad. In ‘thé’ past five' yeais;
1,470 people have died in Brit-
ish Columbia from drug ‘over-
doses,

To stop the wave of property
crime that invariably  ac-
_companies a rise in drug use,
_ Vancouver mayor Philip Owen
‘is moving an additional 100
.desk-bound officers to the
streets,

It should be clear to any
thinking person that the war on
drugs is lost and that a radi-

“Some men are born
mediocre, some men achieve
mediocrity, and some men
have mediocrity thrust upon
them.” Joseph Heller.

The RCMP is about fo thrust
mediocrity on all cadets by
dumbing down its qualifying
exam to meet the requirements
of the kind of people they’re
especially looking for
visible minorilies
aboriginals.

Women have no trouble
passing the existing exam, nor
do Caucasian males, a group
over-represented in the federal
force,

Currentiy the RCMP is
rewriting portions of its
entrance exam after some
aboriginals and members of
visible minorities scored lower
than other potential recruits.
“Aboriginal applicants to the
RCMP tend to have sig-
nificantly less formal educa-
tion than applicants from other
groups,’ says a [ederal
employment equity report.

The RCMP explains this in-

and

HOUSE IS
FINALLY DONE!

WELL! STELLA'S

. recommended

FROM THE.CAPITAL

HUBERT BEYER

cally different approach is
needed to battle drug addic-
tion. And the first step must be
to tackle drug addiction as a
health issue, not a crime.

Last year, the province’s
chief - coroner, |

the
decriminalization of drugs. He
also said one way to stem the
tide of rising property crime is
to take the profit out of drugs
by making them available to
addicts free of charge.

Another voice spoke out last
week in favour of a new ap-
proach to the drug problem,
The voice is that of Gil Puder,
a Vancouver police constable
who has spent most of his law-
enforcement career fighting the
‘war on drugs.

CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

tellectual deficiency by saying
those who grow up in remote
northern communities are dif-
ferent form recruits form
downtown Montreal. Well,
sure, And recruits from Regina
aren’t the same as those from
Yak. Siill, those differences
necdn’t add up to intellectual
ignorance,

All have access to television,
videos, Internet, libraries,
newspapers, books, school
field trips, vacation travel, and

_Vince Cain,

THEN SHE LEFT 41M FoR
CHUCK THE CARPENTER
AND AFTER HIM WAS
PETE THE PLUMBER , THEN
DAN ThE ORYWALLE R
AND Nol) SHE'S WITH
PAT THE FAINTER !

For 15 years, Puder has been
busting drug dealers. And for
15 years, he has seen people
die in the gutters from the ef-
fects of hard drugs.

In a letter to The Vancouver
Sun, Puder called for the
dectiminalization of heroin and
cocaine, saying that drug abuse
is a health issue rather than a
criminal one,

It takes guts for a police of-
ficer to do what Puder did, and
he admits that it was probably
not a good carcer move, but
then, he adds, ‘'P?m not trying
ta be chief.’’

Puder says he is tired of the
violence and death that are the
hallmarks of the war on drugs.
A few years after he had joined
the force, he shat and killed an

get-tough stance than by the
horrific drug problem. And
B.C. Attorney- General Ujjal
Dosanjh, he said, would
“rather talk tough than count
the bodies.’’

Puder says his views are
quietly shared by many of his
fellow officers, many of whom
congratulated him on going
public with his views.

Unfortunately, there is no
sign that the law makers are
going to listen to people like
Chief Coroner Vince Cain and
police constable Gil Puder, but
there are ways to make them
pay attention. It’s called public
pressure.

If there’s anything politicians
are aware of: it’s the mood of
the public. If the proponents of

_ addict who robbed a-bankz-In!" viewing drug addiction as a
‘1987, Sérgeant Larry Young ChdalthGesue and indtia® ‘eriminal « !

good friend, was'shot during a: ‘ one succeed in-convincing ‘the

drug raid.

Last November, a young
drug addict had died and he
had to break the news to his
mother, an immigrant from
Eastern Europe who had al-
ready lost her husband and was
now ail alone.

Puder didn’t pull punches in
his letter to the newspaper. He
accused the federal govern-
ment of being more frightened
by the Reform Party and its

correspondence courses. Any-
one keen to become a Mountie
could first upgrade for a year
or two. Plenty of Caucasians
must upgrade before they
qualify for career training of
their choice; no one
downgrades entrance require-
ments to ease their path.

The RCMP point out visible
minorities may have difficulty
with second language issues
Yet the Province’s front page
headline January 8 read “ESL
Students at Top of Class.’? Ex-
plain that.

Since 1994 the RCMP has
run a program to help
aboriginals upgrade their skills
and education prior to being
recruited as a cadet. Why not
expand the progam to include
visible minorities. Upgrading
the minorily makes more sense
than downgrading the majori-
ty.

Coast Mountain and Nisga’a
school districts make unusual
efforts to accommodate and
encourage aboriginal students
toward high school graduation

public, the politicians will scon
make for the front of the line
and say: follow me.

Puder should get a medal for
having the courage to speak his
convictions. And the rest of us.
have every reason to take him
seriously, because the conven-
tional war on drugs is lost.

Beyer can be reached at:
Tel: (250) 920-9300; Fax:
(250) 385-6783; E-mail:
huberit@coolcom.com

Don’t mess with the RCMP

and secondary education. Any
aboriginal who ignores such —
opportunities shouldn’t Jook to
an easing of entrance require-
ments to make his goal more
attainable.

Mounties can be called upon
to perform 731 separate func-
tions from dog-master to gen-
eral duty to pilot. Driving a
cruiser in high speed chases,
controlling unruly crowds, res-
cuing hostages, liasing with
communities —- all are pos-
sible tasks in the daily routine
ofa Mountie.

Each task demands sound
reasoning, optimum training,
and personal discipline. The
last thing any Mountie in a
tight corer needs is a partner
with inferior qualifications.

We wouldn’t choose a
surgeon who failed sutures, a
mechanic with little knowledge
of transmissions, or a taxi
driver who gets lost in his city,
Why would we encourage un-
qualified RCMP applicants? -

Universal mediocrity isn’t -
my idea of equality. .

SHACKING UP

TO GET THAT Buier!! J
hy : }

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