Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 17, 1999 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 Too bad, eh PREMIER GLEN Clark was ’ but out of con- trol last fall, trying to shape public opinion in - making grand pronouncement after grand pro- nouncement about how it was way past time to settle land claims and in particular, the Nisga’a a " treaty. The document just had to be rushed into the provincial legislature for debate and to make it a done deal to correct historical wrongs and to set a proper relationship with native peoples, said. the premier. And now? It’s fairly obvious the impetus to ratify the Nisga’a treaty lasted as long as it took for something else to capture the premier’s atten- tion — the fast ferry financial fiasco. Mr. Clark, it appeared, needed a way to avoid’ the constant questioning in the legislature regard- ing the ferry scandal, He did so by enticing Gor- don Wilson, who had been one of the fiercest critics of the ferry program, to join the NDP and become the minister responsible for ferries. At the same time, Mr. Wilson was named aboriginal. affairs minister. Under the guise of saying Mr. Wilson needed time to absorb Nisga’a treaty details in order to: lead the legislative debate, Mr. Clark had the legislature adjourned. But it also meant an end to the unrelenting public questioning over the ferry dea] from the opposition Liberals. . But there was no urgency to name Mr. Wilson’ as aboriginal affairs minister. And Mr. Wilson certainly didn’t need a Nisga’a treaty refresher for he has already shown a fairly decent grasp of what’s involved, What was the grand moral imperative on the part of the NDP to pass the Nisga’a treaty has’ been dashed against the hulls of three aluminum ferries. Mr. Clark’s strategy’ is a thing of genius, “Too” bad-if the Nisga’a fall victim along the way, -That’s just the way it works in h politics. Peas ina pod ‘THE UNIVERSAL ‘condemnation of the finan- cial mess regarding the NDP fast ferry program has been missing one essential observation. The NDP didn’t just pour the money into the ocean as fast as it haul it dockside. It paid out the money in contracts to shipbuilding enterprises. The reality is that as the legion of critics takes aim at the cost overruns as evidence the NDP can’t be trusted to manage the public purse, it should also extend that criticism to those private enterprises, If we are to follow the line of reasoning that the NDP can’t run a fiscally sound government, the same should be said of those companies. But did they turn down those cost-plus ferry contracts - guaranteeing a profit margin? Did they then stand up and say this is a bad use of tax monies? Nope. ‘And that’s While the business sector in genera] heaps scorn upon the NDP, a specific portion of this business. sector profits from this very same government. 1998 WINNER CCNA BETTER _ NEWSPAPERS PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS Jeff Nagel NEWS/SPORTS: Christiana Wiens NEWS/COMMUNITY: Alex Hamilton OFFICE MANAGER: Sheila Sandover-Sly CIRCULATION MANAGER: Karen Brunette ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Bedford, Bunnie Cote TELEMARKETER: Patricia Schubrink AD ASSISTANT: Kelly Jean COMPOSING: Susan Credgeur AD ASSISTANT/TYPESETTING: Julie Davidson SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $56.18 per year; Seniors $49.76; Out of Province $63.13 : Outside of Canada (6 months) $155.15 * . (ALL PRICES INCLUDE GST) MEMBER OF B.C, AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION. CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION AND @ CNA =. B.C, PRESS COUNCIL COMPETITION Serving the Terrace and Thormhill ara, Published on Wednesday of each wack at 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace, Gritish Columbia, V8G 5A2, Stories, photographs, llhuatrations, designe end typestyies In the Terrace Standard are tha property of the paral hollers, including Cariaca Press (1969) Ltd., Its ilustration ropra services and advertising Pocuctonhh whole In part, without wiliten permission, fa spectically prohibied. Pegeocint vie or pat via a io pryrto pslag in cash, Special thanks to afl our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents — . TT SAYS HERE CHRETIEN AT ©5 IS LEARNING To SNOWBOARD, .-. “Ns ae , HOW COULD THEY MANAGE. TO EIX ACHAIK ON THAT OD THING Ff, the sad irony of this whole affair. Warning: VICTORIA - A BC, Supreme Court judge is nationally reviled after strik- ing down a section of the law against child pornography for being unconstitutional. Another judge, also of the B.C. Supreme Court, is being hailed for handing down a sentence that has the prosecutor weeping with relief. And the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada warns that judges may shy away from making unpopular decisions because of social repercussions to themselves and their fami- lies. Put it all together and it doesn’t take a rocket scien- , ; _tist to realize ‘that Canada’s ’ “justice’system is in peril. ~ Slowly but inexorably, the public has been losing respect for the judiciary. Judges and their pro- nouncements are, more and ‘more, being viewed in polit- ical rather than judicial terms. Public which has held politicians in contempt for years, is threat- ening to regard judges in a similar fashion. When 5B.C. Supreme Court Justice Duncan Shaw Tuled that possession of child pornography wasn’t a crime, FROM THE CAPITAL. HUBERT BEYER cynicism, © all hell broke lose. I’ve been called some pretty unflatter- ing names by ticked-off readers, but the wrath that . Spewed forth from. the public, .. . against Shaw" made me ” cringe. | - Nobody stopped to think that they were shooting the messenger. The culprit, if any, is the constitution which | Shaw and any other judge has no choice but to uphold. If, in his opinion, something is unconstitutional, he must rule accordingly. ' Anything less would be a travesty. And it's up te the politicians to fix what is obviously a flaw in the con- _ Stitution. Justice Allan Stewart, on the other hand, fared better And.she didn’t WITHOUT STEPPING out of the house I’ve experi- enced my winter getaway, a 15- day bus tour from Saskatchewan to Arizona. My sister Louise and her husband ‘returned January 31. Listen- ing to her account is travel enough for me. They boarded a Frontier coach in North Battleford; others came dboard at stops on the way to the U.S. border, - 47 sun-seeking souls, along with a tour guide who had to stand much of the trip because the tour was overbooked. At times she ducked out of sight of state troopers taking a head count. They spent five noisy nights in Mesa, two quieter nights in Yuma. All were happy to leave the dry air-of - Arizona which gave them sore throats and made them cough. They visited the Grand Canyon, and Hoover Dam, and drove through Yellow- S THROUGH BIFOCALS. CLAUDETTE SANDECKI ‘Too SHORT for BAS KETBALL.... stone Park where the trees were so laden with snow Louise marvelled they didn't split and crash. Salt Lake City took an hour just to drive through. They neted a lot of construction underway for the Olympics, ; Highways were excellent -throughout except near Den- ver. The area had had a heavy snowfall the night before. State troopers ordered chains “TOO LIGHT FoR HOCKEY AND Joo WIREY FoR WEIGHTS! “Too IMPATIENT FoR than his colleague. He was widely praised when he- sentenced John Gibson to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 20 years, twice the mini- mum, Gibson last year stabbed and killed Courtney Walls on a downtown Victoria street in broad daylight. Wall’s wife was expecting a baby at the time. He never got to know his little girl. When Stewart — pro- nounced the sentence, call- ing Gibson a “blackguard” whose “sorry is hollow,” many in the courtroom cried, including prosecutor Jon Ratel. a this .was,.the, greatest piece of justice I've ever * seen,” Ratel ‘said later out- side the courtroom. I agree. And so does everybody I have spoken to. But what gets lost in the pub- . -lic’s satisfaction over this particular sentence is that we cannot pick and chose judi- cial principles based in law. We cannot publicly cru- cify judges every time we - disagree with their interpre- tation and application of the law and hail them when it suits our purposes, Justice isn’t some sort of popularity game played by have To for higher elevations. That’s when the driver discovered his coach wasn’t carrying any. He bought a full set of chains from a garage, drove up the mountain, and when he pulled over to chain up, found only one chain in the carton, They drove back down to the garage, only to learn the ‘owner was out, towing vehi- cles, For three. hours they strolled a Wal-mart until the parage owner returned to give them the missing chains. Though they had arrived in Denver about 10 am., they left — for the second time - about 3:00, finally reached their motel at 11:30 p.m. | But no one became impa- tient. Or took sick at any time during the trip. ' Pipping into New Mexico, they got to see and hear street vendors shouting out. their wares, coaxing visitors to buy, pressuring. One mother sat on the curb holding her baby, andle with care judges. Hey, Ill make them love and respect me, I'll . throw the book at every cul- prit who comes before me, and the Jaw be damned. * Chief Justice Lamer of the Supreme Court of Canada _ put it very succinctly: “It is in cases like these (the child pomography case) - I am concerned that as a= result of virulent or harsh comments by the press or the public, the most popular thing to do might be the out- come.” Lame also said it’s hypo- critical for those accusing the courts of being soft on crime to decry, at the same time, the increasing number of wrongful convictions being unearthed across the” country. We are governed by the tule of iaw. That is what makes us different from the countries ruled by despots. The judicial system, how- ever, is very fragile. It isn’t backed by armed might, just by a consensus that we want to subject our- selves to the rule of law. If that consensus wavers, we are in trouble. Beyer can be reached at: Tek: (250) 920-9300; Fax: (250) 356-9597; E-mail: hubert@coolcom.com leave hawking pewgaws. “It was pathetic.” Their driver was from North Battleford. The morn- ing after they returned, he was to chauffeur a busload of teenagers to a sports meet in BC. Louise’s one complaint. - was the two days steady dri- ving to and from Arizona. Wisely, she had stocked up on painkillers for her. arthritis. Carl, a diabetic, had to impro- vise to stick to his diet; many of their meal stops were at fast food diners. But their motels all provided comfortable _ beds, Our phone call lasted maybe 30 minutes. I imagined her discomfort sitting for long stretches, unlimbering stiff hips at rest stops, playing - -binga to while away the - . Miles, laying out toiletries on. a different sink each night... Home looks even more welcoming. CURLING h. : x. q oc) e) wie Bur Just RIGHT ~ FoR THE BUSA!!)| if: