Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October 27, 1999
ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988
ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2
TELEPHONE: (251) 638-7283 » FAX: (250) 638-8432

“TERRACE
PUBLISHER: ROD LINK
EMAIL: standard@kermcde.net

Gordon’s plan

IT WAS no coincidence provincial Liberal leader
Gordon Campbell chose health care as the
focus of his visit. Despite health care spending
amounting to nearly $8 billion this year, which
is more than a third of the provincial budget,
the popular conception is that health care is a
mess. .
Consider that on some days Mills Memorial
Hospital limits admissions in its main ward to
15 people. Try it in Celsius, Fahrenheit, metric
or Imperial — 15 beds into $8 billion just doesn’t
compute.

Mr. Campbell’s message seems to be that the
system doesn’t need more money, it needs to
be managed differently. He calls local health
councils a charade where the impression is that
they make decisions. They don’t because the
ultimate authority remains in Victoria, says Mr.
Campbell, so let’s stop this playing around and
get to the chase.

What Mr. Campbell wants is the establish-
ment of a common set of health care standards
for all regions of the province. The idea is that
while the health ministry would remain in
charge, there would be strong lines of authority
Streaming out of Victoria to local officials to
implement these standards and also make ad-
justments for local conditions.

This may not say much for the ultimate ideal
of local control by local people but that hasn’t
existed anyway for a long time in health care

@and in other public sector areas,

AND WHEN WAS
THE FIRST TIME
OU DECIDED TORUN

FORTHE NDP, LEADERSHIP f..

ABOUT FIFTEEN
MINUTES AGO...

Distasteful

VICTORIA — “Liber” is the La-
tin word for book. It is also the
word for free, —

That these two words share
not only the same root but are
identical is no accident. The Ro-
man concept of freedom was
very much rooted in’ the ex-
change of ideas ¢xpressed in
books.

Two thousand years later, we
fittingly call our depositories of
thought and knowledge librarics.
It is here where the sum total of
mankind's never-ceasing thirst
for knowledge has its home. Li-
braries and liberty are one and
the same.

By every definition of the
word library, this ought to be
the one place where even the
most unacceptably different
opinions can be aired without

-FROM-THE CAPITAL:
HUBERT BEYER

Yes,

As a result, every time Chris-
tie and his motley crew gather at

a library branch for a meeting,

they are greeted (jeered, shouted
at, insulted, pushed) by a bunch

library is a fecteral institution,”
said one of the protesters.

Visions come to mind of
Prime Minister Jean Chretien's
army of spinmeisters, directing
their public brain-washing activ-
ities from these federal institu-
tions.

Thank you but [ think F'Il
cling to my own ideas of libra-
ries as sanctuaries from the dic-
tates of state, pressure groups
and holier-than-thou apostles of
impending doom at the hands of
a few people whose views run
counter to prevailing altitudes,

Why would I defend Christie?
you may ask. Gaod question. i
have known Christie for some
25 years. A long time ago, we
used to have coffee in the morn-
ing. He was a nice guy, but
even then a bit odd.

but necessary

Canadians.

The majority of Germans eith-
er cheered or remained passive
when the treasures of literature
ended up on the pyres of hatred |
because the authors were either
Jewish or. not representative of
what the Hitler state decreed to
be “true literature.”

The suppression of free ex-
pression in written or spoken
form cannot be defended on any
grounds. A society that would
accept the forced silencing of a
neo-Nazi today can be persuaded
lo silence any voice in the fu-
ture. ; :
The Romans knew that libra-,
ties constitute one of the pillars
of freedom and thus gave the
same linguistic designation to
the words boak and free. Deny.
someone access to a library and.

of self-appointed guardians of

In the northwest, what Mr. Campbell is talk-

ing about is regionalization, Instead of having
foe Via ted aki Pas SEA tees i
local héalth' ediiricils “doing all. but counting _.

fear of reprisal. Wish it were so. : "ott In the meantime, his spirited yeu assault liberty. :
Doug Christie and members iad believe to be human defence of every neo-Nazi who And these who would deny
of his Western Canada Concept Last week, Christie and about happens along, is more than just, Christie his. right to use our Li- | a
-~~Party.like..to. hold meetings at... erases showed ip forge Conviction. that every; agcused.,,, braries for, his meetings, upheld
:¢o¥arious branches: of-the: Greater r - : deserves a- defence. He identifies. in a recent ruling of the Human -

bandages *to-‘niakeSure"the"other guys doti’t™

Victoria Public Library. There-

'- iheeting at the Juan de Fuca_li-

‘have more than they do, the concept would be

to have a regional authority establish a strong
core of medical specialities in places where
they make the most sense. Tied to that would
be a feeder system of referrals under the con-
cept that specialties are a regional service and

not be viewed as a local,

ego-driven entity.

If that sounds familiar, it is. The northwest is

one of the few regions in B.C. not to have a re-
gional health authority. And we’ve suffered be-
cause of it with local jealousies and lack of a
steel-fisted plan for the provision of regional
specialties.

But now the community health councils have
at least agreed to work on a regional plan. And
key decisions for regional pediatric and ortho-
pedic services are going ahead even without
having a regional plan in place and, it seems,
without the full knowledge of some of the local
community health councils,

So, is Mr. Campbell’s plan original and bril- —
liant? Perhaps not. He may just be advocating
something which is common sense. And common,
sense is something the current government has
had trouble incorporating.

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‘her brothers

are small meeting rooms for
just such purposes.

Now, many folks can't stand
Christie. His party, comprising
probably nao more than ‘a
hundred people, is too neo-fas-
cist for their taste. Christie's
penchant for defending neo-Na-
zis and Holocaust deniers such

* as Ernst Zundel doesn't make

him any more popular.

brary brarich just outisde of Vic-
toria. Waiting for them were
some 80 noisy protesters and 10
Mounties who wanted to make
sure things didn't get ‘out of
hand. Following a fot of shout-
ing, Christie's crowd entered the
library.

Some of the comments were
interesling. “No institution
should promote hatred and the

with his client's views which
include a lot of anti-Semitism.

My own condemnations of
neo-Nazis and other anti-Semites
have earned me a presence on
Zundel's web sile with an invi-
tation to every Nazi thug to
bombard me with hate mail.

All of which is no excuse to
scuttle the free expression of
opinion, no matler how repugn-
ant il may be to the majority of

Rights Commission, ought.to
ask themselves whether they re-
ally believe that the fabric of Ca-
nadian society is.so weak that it
cannot withstand the radical and
in Christie's case often ridiculous.
opinions of a few. oo
Beyer can be reached at -
Tel: (250) 381-6900; e-mail;
hubert@coolcom.com; Fax:
(978) 477-5656 web:
Attp: lf www. hubertbeyer.com/

Being a

WE’VE BECOME so aloof
from our neighbours they
could be dead for days -
years - before we'd miss
them. Dialling 911 doesn’t
replace the neighbourly
concern that safeguarded
homesteaders’ lives,

In England about a year
ago an elderly man was
found dead in his
home...after four years.

In February, the corpse of
a Spanish woman was found
in her bathtub where she
had lain for three years.,
Even her relatives never
noted her absence. An-
noyed when she failed to
attend the funerals of two of
- both of
whom died after she did -
family stopped visiting her.
The body. of the 71-year-
old retired nurse was found

‘only after neighbours final-

ly persuaded a family
member to check up on
her.

Three weeks ago an el-
derly Smithers couple were
confined to their window-

THROUGH BIFOCALS
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

less bathroom from Mon-
day 9 a.m. to Friday sup-
pertime when the doorknob
suddenly refused to open
the bathroom door.

In their case, friends no-
ticed the wife’s absence
from Thursday night prayer
mecting. still they reasoned
the 84-year-old retired
schoolteacher was resting
after a day long fishing trip
the Friday before.

Neighbours in the ten-
house cul-de-sac went back
and forth to work daily ob-
livious to the van and boat
stationary in the driveway,

Perhaps neighbours rea-
soned that, during the day,
the couple had gone to the
grocery store, a doctor's
appointment, to the library
«. Odd, though, no one
wondered why the house
was dark night after night.

By the fifth day friends
alerted the police who in-
vesligated and found no ev-
idence of break-in or foul
play. But a friend peeked
into the bedroom to find the
bed unmade. “That’s not
like Lillian,” she said. A
front window was removed,
and the two octogenarians
were found in the bathroom
dehydrated, hungry, and
craving sleep on something
softer than a scattermat.

The Smithers couple col-
lect their mail from the post
box, otherwise you'd ask
why posties don’t wonder
when mail, flyers, and. oc-

one can be deadly

cupant advertising floods the
front porch.

And what of pets? Un--
lended animals tend to howl
or make their misery known
in other raucous ways. The
Smithets couple have a ma-
caw, but it had ample food
and water throughout the
ordeal. It did, however, learn
to say “Help!”,
“Ambulance!” and “Fire!”
Too bad the one person who
knocked on the door didn’t
hear the bird practising its
new vocabulary.

Wouldn’t utility bills come
due after months, and even
minimum monthly charges
left unpaid, alert a utility
representative to visit the
home before cutting off the
gas or electricity?

To make sure their bunga-
low never holds them hos-
lage again the couple has
signed on for Home Support
Services and Medi-Alert, and
installed a window in their
nartow bathroom. — .

A cell phone in a hip hol-
ster might prove handy, too.

$57.30 per year; Seniors $50.75; Out of Province $64.39 wee YOU WASHING DERNITELY bu! THESE ARE MARTEN’s WEARING THES
' Outside of Canada (6 months) $158.25 ee én? Fwd SIZES et EATS! FoR HUNTING. PANTS ae Fe oud
mace — “ OF JEANS FISHING TRAPPING LOGGING! RESTAURANTS AND BaRs !!
B.C. AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION. a , BUT LATELY HE'S BEEN...

CANADIAN COMMUNITY HEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION
D
B.C, PRESS COUNCIL

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