AA - The Terrace Standard, Wednesda August 27, 2003
a

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988
PUBLISHER: ROD LINK
ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. « V8G 5R2
TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 « FAX: (250) 638-8432
WEB: www.terracestandard.com
EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard.com

A new look

NEARLY 20 years ago, during a previous eco- .

nomic downturn, the city took a major step for-
ward by restoring what is commonly called the
4600 Block, the downtown stretch of Lakelse
running from the corner of Emerson east to Ka-
lum. .

Aided by senior government help, that block is
now not only pedestrian-friendly, but offers a co-
hesive and uniform look. .

Perhaps such ideas come only during hard eco-
nomic times, but city council has now developed

the outline for another step forward, a general

sprucing up of the block of Lakelse running west
of Emerson to Ottawa St.

M@ Converting the fenced in former Esso station |

on the northwest corner of Lakelse and Emerson
so it has some kind of public use, perhaps a small
park.

l@ Across the street, working with Safeway and
its plans for a gas bar and store expansion so that
when both happen, there are more trees and land-
scaping. Along with that, working with the own-
ers of the Bargain Shop property for more land-
scaping and parking lot improvements.

@ Finding a way to fix the dog-leg intersection
where Ottawa St. meets Lakelse from the south
and Sparks meets Lakelse from the north.
Straightening this intersection would involve us-
ing the former 7-Eleven convenience store loca-

tion so that Ottawa St. curves in to meet Lakelse

and Sparks in a more traditional traffic pattern
fashion.

City council has obvious reasons for wanting to
do something. Fenced in lots aren’ t eye- appealing
and the. vacancies:don‘t fit inWith the. .city*s posi-

tion as the northwest’s shopping and services an--

chor.

Easy? No way. While any reconstruction’

would have public use benefits, it involves private
property and has to at least make a certain amount
of economic sense.

But there should be ways, given the will of all.
concerned, to make something happen. Esso, for:

instance, has told the city it has no current devel-
opment plans for its property. Rather than con-
duct extensive environmental work, it is content
to let hydrocarbons from the property’s gas sta-
tion days break down gradually, That will take
years and should provide some kind of impetus
for a deal amenable to Esso and the city.

Some of what is possible is already taking

place. The work-in-progress at the Tim Hortons
location along that block will bolster its customer

attraction and provide a small town square. Fur- ‘
ther west down Lakelse, there are improvements —

to the Skeena Mall entrance.

The key thing to remember is that any work
done now will position the city to take advantage
of a renewed local and northwestern economy.

PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link
ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur
NEWS: Jeff Nagel
NEWS/SPORTS Sarah A. Zimmerman
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Bert Husband & Denise Young
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Serving the Terrace and Thombill area, Published an Wednesday of each week at 4210 Clinton Streal,
Tartace, British Columbia, V8G 5R2,

Sterias, photographs, Illustrations, designs and typastyles in the Terrace Standard aro the propery of the
copyright holdars, including Carlboo Press (1969) Lid, its illustration tapro services and advertising
agancias,

Reproduction in whole of in part, without written parmission, is specilicaily prohibited,

Authorized as sacond-ctass mall pending tha Post Olfice Dapartment, for payment cf postage in cash.

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

OF COURSE SAME SEX
MARRIAGES POSE A
“THREAT To OUR FAMILY

VALUES ANO WAY OF LIF€

GIVEN A CHOICE
BETWEEN A JUDGEMENTAL,
INFLEXIBLE, PURITANICAL

MATE AND A FUN-
SHOW TUNE HUMMING MATE
WITH A FABULOUS SENSE

5 OF PERSONAL STYLE

/ AND A FLAIR FOR
INTERIOR DECORATING...

focus

— OUR SIDE
DOESN'T STAND

LOVING,

ID cards are not oart of Canada

VICTORIA — In Germany,
the country of my birth,
when you move from one
town to another, you have to
report to the local police au-
thorities, informing them
that you now have taken up
residence in their jurisdic-
tion, It’s called “ potizeiliche
Anneldung,” or police reg-
istration.

Nobody thinks anything
of it. Peaple are used to it.
That’s the way it was done
when the Kaiser was in
charge, ditto for Adolf Hi-
tler’s regime. And nothing
has changed from the time
Konrad Adenauer became
the first chancellor after the
Second World War to Ger-
hard Schroeder’s govern-
ment today.

Polizeiliche Anmeldung
is, after all, what is required
of an upstanding citizen.
How could it be any other
way? eo

‘Well, it could, if you have
lived in Canada for some 45
years, like me, never mind
people who were born here.

The question that arises
is: why the hell should I
have to tell anyone, least of
all the police, where in Ca-
nada I decide to live?

Am 1 a bank robber? No!
Am Ia child molester? No!

SAVING

WOULD YOU believe a
shoe box full of used post-
age stamps can fetch $25 to
$30 from a stamp collector?
Selling collections of used
stamps is one way B.C.
Guide Dog Services funds
the training of seeing eye
dogs for blind British Col-
umbians.

Gathering a shoe box full
of used stamps is no longer
as quick as it was before
email and courier service.
Much of today’s mail is put
through a postage meter,
making stamps unneces-
sary.

The reduction in stamped
mail is so pronounced, out
of 22 letters received just re-
cently, only one carried a
stamp. It will take me years
to fill a shoe box.

If you, too, wish to collect

~ used postage stamps for the

Service just tear of the corn-
er of the envelope with the
stamp and store it in a bag.
When you have a sizable ac-
cumulation, arrange to get
them to the Services in Van-
couver. The Services also
makes use of aluminum

amy S0'LUEARD
A {HERE ARE

Me COUGARS IN
m YOUR CooNTRY

“FROM THE CAPITAL
HUBERT BEYER

Have I defrauded the gov-
ernment? No! So, why
should J have to tell anyone
where [ live?

Not that the federal gov-
emment wants us to tell the
police where we happen to
live. That would be a tough
nut to crack even by the
standards of our agreeable

_. citizenry. | .
” Instead, the federal, gov-..

ernment is floating the idea
of introducing a national
identity card Canadians
would be required to carry
at all times.

Denis Coderre, the citi-
zenship and immigration
minister, says the federal
cabinet is split over whether
to adopt the scheme, even
though a new poll says that

stamps

THROUGH’ BIFOCALS.
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

pull tabs from pop, beer or
any other cans,

Since its beginning in
1996 B.C. Guide Dog Servie-
es has graduated 28 guide
dog teams, a vision impaired
person matched to a suitable
guide dog. Their Services
hopes to graduate six more
teams by the end of August,
2003.

Seeing eye dogs are still a
relatively new aid for the
blind, the United States got
its first seeing eye dog in
1928 when a 19-year-old,
Morris Frank, brought back
a seeing eye dog from Swit-

GLOBAL WARMING!
FIRST MULE DEGR
HEAD NORTH THEN
COUGARS FoLLow!

most Canadians are in fa-
vour of the idea,

Well, this Canadian is
definitely not in favour of
the idea. In fact, I’m reso-
lutely opposed to it.

The state has already far
too much information about
Canadians. We all have a
Social Security Number. We
carry drivers’ licences. We
‘have health care cards in
our wallets.

They all have these black
stripes on the back that con-
tain what our governments
decree to be pertinent infor-
mation about us.

Statistics Canada knows
what every Canadian earns,
how many bedrooms his
home has, and God knows
what else, all contained in
the census we have to fill out
every so many years.

And now, Ottawa wants
to foist yet another card on

to hide, I’ve got nothing to
worry about. That leads to-
wards the slippery slope of a
police state,

Of course, Ottawa is try-
ing to sell the idea as a nec-
essary security measure in
the post- 9/11 world.

Coderre said whether Ca-
nadians want a national ID

‘us. And let nobody"tell’ime”
that'if'I don’t Have anything”

card or not, they need to start
discussing and debating the
issue so they do not get left
behind in a fast-evolving
world in which citizens’ con-
cerns about terrorism, na-
tional security and identity
theft are beginning to out-
weigh privacy protection,

May I remind Coderre
that every tin pot dictator has
used the excuse of national
security concerns to strip citi-
zens of rights and liberties. It
would certainly not be in the
interest of Canadians to in-
troduce such measures.

Well, Mr. Coderre, you
asked for a debate,

I’m starting it and I hope
when it’s finished the nation-
al identity card idea will die a
merciful death.

One outspoken critic of
the idea was former Privacy
Commissioner George Rad-
wanski. He called the ID
card ‘proposal ‘a hare-
brained' scheme,” saying it
would likely cost taxpayers
up to $5-billion and lead toa
police state.

And if the equally hare-
brained gun registry is any
indication, $5 billion will be
nowhere near the final bill.

Beyer can be reached at:

E - m a iil
hubert@coolcom.com.

has a reward

zerland. Switzerland, fol-
lowed by Germany, were two
of the first countries to train
guide dogs.

When Frank arrived in
New York city, newspaper
reporters challenged him to
demonstrate his dog’s abili-
lies by stepping into traffic.
The path they chose was to
cross from New York’s piers
to the other side of West
Street. (West Street was
nicknamed Death Street}.

Frank's dog Buddy per-
formed like a champion.
Frank later wrote about his
dog’s guiding abilities in a
memoir titled First Lady of
the Seeing Eye,

Recently New York City
was named one of the top
four cities in America for
blind people to live. The
American Foundation for
the Blind ranked New York
City behind Charlotte, North
Carolina, Berkeley, Califor-
nia and Kalamazoo, Michi-
gan.

What makes New York
hospitable to the blind? The
cily has a neighbourhood
feel, a grid-like layout, side-

NoTuUKE Wolwes! nor
AFRAID OF HUMANS!
JUST DRoP ON 700
FROM A B1G BRANCH!:

es

Neh:
ih Nereis

walks everywhere, takeout
everything, and widespread
réliance on public transpor-
tation, It’s subways operate
seven days a week, around
the clock.

Besides these objective at-
tributes, the city’s residents
are awarded high marks for
being helpful and respectful.
A contradiction, surely, given
the city’s reputation as a
hurrying, scurrying place
where people are bent on get-
ting somewhere fast despite
the crush of traffic.

Puppies destined to try out
for guide dog training are
farmed out to willing families
called Puppy Trainers who
foster the pup for a year,
making him part of the fami-
ly. They introduce him to
everyday sounds and situa-
tions such as traffic, con-
struction, sky trains, buses,
crowds, and emergency si-
rens. Identified by a little
jacket that say they are
“Puppies in Training” the
pups are legally allowed ac-
cess anywhere,

One shoe box of stamps
buys on bag of puppy chow.

PAIBACK TIME FoR.
PSOUTHEN NICTINS OF

ences rene