Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 18, 1998

TERRACE .

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

PUBLISHER: ROD LINK
ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. » V8G SR2
TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 » FAX: (250) 638-8432
EMAIL: standard@kermode.net

Ruthless

IF WHAT’s about to happen to silviculture

workers in B.C. was going on in Bosnia, we’d
call it ethnic cleansing.

In this case it amounts to labour cleansing.

Hundreds of non-union workers who plant trees
and space replanted forests are about to be dis-
placed — the economic equivalent of being
shoved into cattle cars and sent to some Stalinist
gulag —- to make’ way for out-of-work TWA
members. ;

The government’s ‘grand scheme to unionize the
entire silviculture industry under the [WA banner
is truly devious.

The government needs to spend large amounts
of Forest Renewal B.C. (FRBC) money every
year no matter what.

Incremental silviculture —- the brushing, thin-
ning, and spacing work that dramatically ac-
celerates young tree growth — is largely paid for
with FRBC cash.

So what Victoria will do is require that alli
FRBC contracts are filled by contractors
unionized by the [WA.

Those companies can only hire workers from a
pool assembled by a new mutation of FRBC,
called New Forest Opportunities Ltd. And it ap-
pears at least half of the spots would be reserved
for IVA members who are out of work from log-
ging or mill jobs. Those silviculture workers who
are able to get in under the new order will be re-
quired to join the IWA.

The ultimate effects of all this?

Mill workers who’ve never handled a chainsaw
in their lives will end up in the bush, getting paid
union hourly wages.

Many skilled silviculture workers who are used
to working hard and efficiently — and getting

paid for precisely what they produce —— are...

ow eo

sidelined. flyby i

Owners of silviculture companies are expecting
productivity to plunge, prompting some to talk
about throwing in the towel.

The productivity problem also means each
FREC dollar spent won’t go as far as it used to.
And the IWA? Its members are insulated from

the troubles of the forest industry. But more than
that it gets exclusive organizing rights over an
entire industry — a princely payoff for the big
union’s aid in securing NDP election victories.

Tree planters and ‘silviculture workers, mean-
while, aren’t merely digging a big hole and

jumping into their own mass grave.

They’re vowing to fight this with everything
they’ve got.

And under the circumstances it’s understand-
able why they might view Premier Glen Clark
and IWA boss Dave Haggard as the economic
equivalent of war criminals.

The wonder of it all is that there has been rela-
tively little publicity elsewhere on the issue.
Mind you, a lot of people have been pretty busy
because of a lot of mills closing. But it’s precise-
ly due to those closures that this latest experi-
ment in social enginecring is to become more
prominent.

ek a) s

a
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(RECEIVE LESS PAY THEN THE WORST PLAYER INTHE NUHL..--

BUT THEN AGAIN...
THE WAYNE GRETZKY
OF POLITICS |'M NOT...

BY

VICTORIA — When our son
Raderick died suddenly these
two years ago, one of the first
to call me to offer emotional
support was Jerry MacDonald.

Jerry was the edilor of the
Quesnel Cariboo Observer for
years. Jerry was a newspa-
perman’s newspaperman. No,
he was more. Jerry had no time
for the destructive cynicism
that seems to be a job require-
ment for most journalists these
days.

When the Feb. 4 issue of the
Observer arrived at my desk in
the press gallery in Victoria
last weck, the first thing that
caught my cye was a picture of
Jerry on the front page. My
first thought was that he snared
yet another journalism award.
It was not to be.

The story that went with the

picture of a smiling Jerry in-.
_dormed, me.that he was dead,
., Jerry had collapsed. on the -ice

while refereeing a senior hock-
ey game between the Quesnel
Kangeroos and the Williams
Lake Stampeders.

Jenmy was a fabulous writer.
His style was eloquent, in-
cisive and what comes most
difficult to any writer, he could
use humor to get his point
across.

What set Jerry apart from
most other journalists was that
he offen put his actions where
most others’ mouths are. When
in spite of his most biting

Jerry was one of th

Today, my heart goes out to
Jerry’s wife and his three chil-
dren. ‘You lost your husband.
and father far too carly, I know
it isn’t fair. I also know from
personal experience that the

searing pain will sooner or
laier give way to a more

bearable sorrow.
One of these days, you will
catch yourselves laughing

about something Jerry did or
said, And your hearts will be
rejoicing in the memories he
left behind, You will still cry,
but not as often, You will still
be sad, but life will once again
assert itself, And that’s how it

FROM THE CAPITAL
HUBERT BEYER

editorials and columns, the lo- should be.
cal school board wasn’t run to And Jerry, wherever you are,
his salisfaction, he ran for it youll find there’s always

and won,

Like few other journalists }

have known, Jerry was always

sinvolyed .in bis. community,

:Perhaps that's what.sets com- ,
munity. newspapers apart from

the soulless big-city papers.

Detached crilicism = =comes

easy. Backing up criticism by

selting a good example is a

little more difficult.

Jerry liked a good party. For
years, we would meel al the
annual convention of the Brit-
ish Columbia and Yuken Com-
munity Newspaper Assovia-
tion, where he and the paper
under his stewardship, would.
regularly clean up on awards,
And later, we would party.
And great parties they were.

room for you at the inn. You
were not only as good newspa-
perman, you were a good man.

The same: day 1 found out.:-

, about. Jerry's..death,'-I-- met+«+
dozens of people whose paths
had crossed mine for a few
years, then branched off again
into different directions.

On the occasion of the 100th
amniversary of the Parliament
Building’s completion, all for-
mer MLAs had been invited to
a special one-day session to
honor their contribution to the
province,

Unless you're a complete
cynic, you can’t help but form
a bond with some of the people
about whom you write, the
MLAs who come to Victoria to

best

do the people’s business for a
few years and ihen disappear
again, cither defeated or retir-
ing voluntarily.

I hadn’t seen Tony Brummet,
education minister until 1991,
for years, An honest and solid
man, Tony was the stuff good
politicians are made of.

There was Cyril Shelford,
agricullure minister in the cab-
inet of W.A.C, Bennett. Again,
politicians just don’t come any
betier than Cyril, who has
turned his talents to writing
books about life in the North.
From Snowshoes to Politics is
worthwhile reading for anyone
who’s under the mistaken im-
pression that British Columbia
revolves around Vancouver
and Victoria.

Bill Hartley, public works
minister under Dave Barrett,
dropped: in for the celebration.
Now. nearly blind, Bill has ‘a
hard time seeing ‘the splendor
of the Parliament Buildings
over whose renovations he
presided,

There isn’t enough space to
list all the former MLAs, many
of whom I am proud to call
friends to this day, but it was
good to see them all.

Extreme sorrow and preat
pleasure in one day. That’s
life.

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

Good idea to unmask violence

TERRACE’S RATE of family
violence is high. Much too
high.

Last year, 79 spousal assaults
were reported ta police, up
from 68 in 1996. And in De-
cember, 425 placards stapled
to wooden stakes stubbled the
arena = hill. Each placard
represented one assault
reported to police during the
last four years.

Police plan to deal with our
high rate of family violence by
publicizing it more.

More publicity is welcome
news. Too often friends and
neighbours who could inter-
vene — especially when a
stalker skulks — are kept in
the. dark by both police and

victim,

Victims keep silent. out of

~ shame. They shouldn’t. It’s ‘we

as a communily who should be
ashamed. By our silence we al-
low abuse to go on.

_ Last fall on national radio a

Calgary city councillor owned
up to years of abuse at the
hands of her drunken husband.
She was about to cal] his bluff

en Hel, Heh Vic? sunt
Bee 100 SHALLOW
Ms even Get Nuten

ing. Nation wide. Emboldened

disclosure encouraged young
men to blow the whistle on
abuse in hockey, the council-
lor’s confession _ liberated
dozens of abused women from
years of vicious torment,

Whenever an abused woman
gocs public, she not only
breaks the cycle of violence in
her own family, she also res-
cues her children. Boys who
grow up watching their
mothers being are three times
more likely to abuse their own
wives.

A depressing statistic. It

THROUGH BIFOCALS

CLAUDETTE SANDECKI means we can expect the rate
of spousal assaults to continue
climbing.

RCMP point out assault isn’t
in courl.

just a police issue; il’s a social
issue. The whole community
has to deal with it, just as the
whole community suffers from
it through broken families,
runaway kids, health care costs
for treating broken bones,
psycholagical counselling, so-
cial assistance for families
without a breadwinner and
even murder,

While publicizing incidents

Response to her disclosure
was immediate. Overwhelm-

by her public confession,
abused women of all ages and
social strata came out of
hiding. They visited her city
hall office to thank her in per-
son, phoned her, e-mailed.
Some wrote io CBC radio.

Just as Sheldon Kennedy’s

of family violence to draw at-
tention to ils prevaleace, I
hope police also educate us on
how to recognize abuse . and
how to intervene,

Besides hearing a woman
screaming, being bounced off
walls or getting out of the car
next morning on crutches wilh
one foot in a snow white cast,
what outward signs do we
watch for? How should we in-
tervene Besides calling eh po-
lice? And what can we do to
tid our sociely of violent be-
haviour?

Fifteen years ago | had scar-
cely heard the expression
‘family violence.’ No longer.
Pve been on the phone with
police while they closed in on
a man bealing his wife in view
of my kitchen window. I’ve
whisked a rifle from an
abuser’s house to the first
responding policeman in the
driveway. I woulda’t want to
tepeat either action. But I
would,

Publicizing family violence
is the first step to ridding our
community of it.

Heh Heh! MARTENS
FISHIN “Too DEEP!
HE'LL NEVER Catctl
Auten’! ! \f- -