AG. Terrace Review ~_ Wednesday, October 17; 1990

_ EDITORIAL

do as they wish with deeded ground, is one of the

basic conventions of our society, often reaffirmed with
solemn and somewhat tired cliche "a man’s home is his
castle”.

But what about the man from a distant kingdom who buys
the castle and sends in the bulldozers?

It seems remarkable that a proposal for a subdivision is
subjected to minute scrutiny by city authorities and that deve-
lopers are made to stand up and reply to all comers at public
hearings, yet a massive tract of undeveloped property within
the municipal boundaries can be stripped of timber without so
much as a single clearance or notification to the city or any
other authority required.

To people who live here, things seem out of control when the
forest next door is pillaged by some stranger who has no
responsibility other than slash removal for what is left behind.
Weil, if things seem to be out of control, that’s because they
are.

Both the Ministry of Forests and our municipal council, for
historical reasons, are fearful of looking too closely at either
logging or development. The boom and bust cycles that
encompass both the forest industry and city development have
gotten council out of the habit of saying "no" and made any-
thing to do with logging virtually unassailable. Both agencies
were unprepared for the extended spate of economic prosperity
that we seem to be making our way out of, with the help of

the federal government, and the events taking place this week
on District Lot 978 bring the shortcomings of both into clear
focus.

The efforts of existing pulp and timber mills to seek fresh
supplies of wood are now bordering on desperation, and as a
result treed parcels of private land and — let’s get it out front
— Crown agricultural leases are being snapped up by com-
panies with suitable equipment, logged, and flipped over with a
minimal clean-up effort. It’s time the Ministry. of Forests took
another look at its hands-off: policy toward. logging on private’
land; ministry figures for cut and mill production for 1989
show that one log out of every five that went through B.C.
mills came from areas other than Crown forest lands, areas

_ outside sustained yield regulation.

' Although council can legally do nothing to hait the chain of
events on District Lot 978 — and perhaps there is no reason
to, if the owner’s intentions for a subdivision are carried out
—~ anyone who walks into this town to clear-cut 80 acres in an
established residential area should be required to present some-
thing more than a deed and some ephemeral intentions.

T he sanctity of private property, the rights of owners to

Second-class mail
registration No. 6896.

All material appearing in the Terrace Review is
profactad under Canadian copyright Aegistra-
flon No, 362775 and cannot jagally be repro-
duced for any reason without permission of the
publisher.

Errors and omissions, Advertising is accepted
on the condition that In the event of
typographical error, that portian of the advertis-
ing space occupied by the arroneoys itam will
not be charged for, but the balance of the adver-
tlsamant wlil be paid for at the applicable rate.
Advertisers must assume responsibility for er-
rors in any classified ad whichis supplied to the
Tarrace Review in handwritten form.

In compliance with the B.C, Human Rights Act,
no advertisement will be published which
discriminates against a parson due to aga, face,
raligion, color, sex, nationality, ancestry or place
of origin.

Established May 1, 1985
The Terrace Review Is published
each Wednesday by
Close-Up Business Services Ltd.

Publisher:
Mark Twyford
Editor:
Michael! Kelly
Staff Reporters:
Tod Strachan, Betty Barton
Advertising:
Marj Twyford, Todd Vogt
Typesetting:
Carrie Cison |
. Production Manager:
Jim Hall
Production:
Charles Costello, Gurbax Gill,
Linda Mercer, Ranjit Nizar
Office: .
Carrle Olson
Accounting:
Marj Twyford, Harminder K. Dosanjh

4535 Grelg Avenue,
Terrace, B.C,
V8G 1M7

‘Phone: 635-7840
Fax: 635-7269

One year subscriptions:
In Canada $39.00
Out of Canada $100.00
Seniors In Terrace and District $30.00
Seniors oul of Terrace and District $33.00

a a
Letters to the editor will be considered for publication only when signed.
Please Include your telephone number.
The editor reserves the right to condense and edit letters. Opinions:
expressed are not necessarily those ot the Terrace Review.

cm
WIDIEEOFRS USN EAN
ue SN

Hd oe

SSNS

WH

ASN

VANCOUVER — One thing
which was consistent — and
predictable — about this year’s
Social Credit Party convention
last weekend was who the prin-
cipal target was.

No, it was not the New
Democratic Party opposition
(although it and leader Mike
Harcourt are getting bashed
around pretty well); it was The
Media.

Led by their premier, Bill
Vander Zalm, Socreds of all
stripes, from Cabinet ministers
and delegates, to young
Socreds reeling from being
labelled as ‘‘fascists’’ and
‘““brownshirts’’ by one irrespon-
sible Province writer, many of
them were, and still are, mad
as hell at us.

And on Friday, some decided
they were not going to take it
any more.

They presented a motion to
have the media ousted from the
convention during debate on the
constitution and amendments
to the Christian principles
clause. It very nearly succeed-
ed.

In fact, had it not been for
the quick thinking of the wily
political veteran Grace McCar-
thy, spurred on by the Zalm’s
principal secretary Jerry .
Lampert, it would have. Im-
agine the image of a party
allegedly in favour of ‘open

. government”’ trying to ban the

press!
After the first motion passed
— including support from
Richmond delegate Lillian
Vander Zalm — saner and
much wiser heads prevailed.
Even the most naive political —

_ people realized just how close

they had come to looking very,

Nl!
_) THOUGHT THERE Wis

The view from
Victoria —

by John Pifer

very , stupid,

A second vote taken after
McCarthy challenged the first -
count was narrowly defeated,
much to the relief of the
MLAs.

But it won’t end there as
long as Mr. Vander Zalm is in
the chair.

One prominent Cabinet
minister told me the media was
“out of control’ in its attacks
on Mr. Vander Zalm, and there
was no group with any powers
to curb it or to penalize it.

The inference formed was
that freedom of the press or no
freedom of the press, maybe
the government itself would
have to step in to set up and to
enforce a code of ethics for the
press.

The Premier himself has
spent considerable energy in
lambasting the media, or refus-
ing to respond to our questions
unless we asked about what he
deemed to be the issue or topic
of the day. °

This is such an exceptional
contrast from the man who just
four, no, three short years ago
eagerly sought the spotlight at
every opportunity — whether
to shill for Fantasy Gardens or
merely to announce govern-
ment plans and policies.

Please note, dear readers,
that quite simply, there is no
great conspiring entity out
there called the media, with its
own private agenda. I'll tell
you why.

In the press gallery alone
there are journalists who have
little regard for some of their
colleagues’ work. The same at-

titude prevails in the highly-

competitive world i in Van-
couver.

It just is not all buddy-buddy
and ‘‘how will we get this.
guy?’’ plotting.

Expecting ‘‘the media’’ to be
capable of collectively conduct-
ing a vendetta against anyone
or anything is laughable — yet
that is what Mr. Vander Zalm
wants you to believe, as he
spelled out in his somewhat
sanctimonious seven-page letter
which tried to explain or to ex-
cuse the Fantasy Gardens
fiasco.

The premier is looking
everywhere except in the mirror
in his search of someone to
blame for the devastating
political damage he has .
wrought through the apparent
abuse of his office to unload
his principal private financial
burden,

It has derailed an election .
which Social Credit might have
had some hope of turning into
a contest, despite the internal
backbiting of the past two or
three years.

Now, few old-party Socreds
honestly believe that the party
would be lucky to garner 25 of
the 75 seats (and even that’s
being generous).

Mr. (and Mrs.) Vander
Zalm’s belief that unloading
Fantasyland in the manner they
did would solve their problems,
personally and politically, has
angered his caucus members,
party workers, and even strong
supporters, jet alone the
general public:

And there is every indication
that the whole story has not yet
emerged about the sale, or ,
about the Taiwanese buyers, or
about the very lenient financial’

— Continued on page A7

in TEETH SREY PEA TE