A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 17, 1995

TERRACE

STANDARD

ADDRESS: 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C. * V8G 188
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Salmon posse

RELOAD YOUR GUNS, turn west, and take
aim at them dang Americans.

That’s the challenge to federal fisheries minis-
ter Brian Tobin, our newly appointed high seas
sheriff and defender of things scaly and finned.

Now that the turbot war is over on the east
coast and the west coast’s salmon war is just
starting to heat up again, the call is out from
B.C.’s NDP government for the Tobin posse to
ride west and put the Americans in their place.

Although it’s fun for B.C. to goad the feds, the
two situations are vastly different.

It’s much easier to stand up to internationally
discredited Spaniards in our own backyard than
it is to face our most important trading partner.

The Americans are far from a united adversary,
making negotiations seem like arm-wrestling an
octopus. Involved on the American side are
Alaskans, Washington State and their federal
government —- a truly messy arrangement for all
have wildly divergent interests.

Most B.C. salmon taken by Americans are
caught by the Alaskan fleet as the fish swim
through Alaskan waters on their way to the
Skeena and Nass rivers. B.C,’s response is not to
go'after the Alaskans but to aggressively catch
Washington State-bound salmon as they pass by
Vancouver Island.

Last year Tobin put pressure on for a deal by
briefly levying a $1,000-a-boat transit fee on
U.S. vessels passing through B.C. waters.

Ouch. That’s less than an hour of work for a
U.S. fishing boat scooping up Skeena-bound
sockeye inside Alaskan waters.

In some ways we have an even better argument
-for.intervention.on.the. west coast:than.we did on
“the Grand Banks of Newfoundland: "1
Unlike turbot, salmon and steelhead “actually

swim upriver to spawn and the strength of the
stocks depend greatly on the health of the river
systems.

Although far from perfect, B.C. has a much bet-
ter record of preserving and investing in fish than
have Americans south of the 49th parallel.

If the province wants to tear a page from
Tobin’s notebook and do some feel-good Amer-
ican bashing just in time for an election
campaign, voters will see that for what it is.

If they want to earn the respect of north-
westerners, they should come up with some crea-
tive and productive ideas of their own.

Humourless?

IT’S NOT considered right to tell jokes or make
comments about a person’s country or region of
origin or their ethnic or linguistic background.

But now a B.C, Council of Human Rights
ruling has expanded that position. It has backed a
complaint that a boss made unseemly comments
about an employee’s birthplace — Canada. The
boss termed Canadians as ‘‘stupid, backward and
humourless.”’

Perhaps we are stupid sometimes and a bit
backward on occasion. But humourless? No sir.
What other group of people has to face both long
winters and the GST? There’s no way we could
if we didn’t have a sense of humour.

rid
Gon'5} PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link
ADVERTISING MANAGER: Mike L. Hamm

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Speclal thanks to all our contributors and correspondents
for thelr (Ime and talents

To Canada, a thank you

VICTORIA -— With VE Day
celebralions behind us, it's safe
for me to come out of hiding.
Just kidding.

I've followed the media
coverage leading up to the 50th
anniversary of the end of

hostilities in Europe with as

much emotion as any Canadian
veteran, Like those who fought
to restore freedom in Europe, I
have my memories of the ter-
tible war that laid waste to
early an entire coutinent and
claimed more than 50 million
lives,

For us, the war was over
about. a month before
Germany’s unconditional sur-
tender. By us, [ mean mother
rand me. T had just turned 10.
Father*was slationéd in Noi-
way, aid my brother had been
drafted at age 15 and sent to
the Russian front,

Mother and lived in a small
town in Franconia, about 100
kilometres south of Frankfurt.
We had been evacuated to this
little town about two years car-
lier, when our home town Dus-
seldorf had become the target
of frequent air raids.

For days we had heard the
rumbie of artillery fire in the
distance, Rumors were that the
American were encountering
fierce resistance in their drive
up the Main valley from

FROM THE CAPITAL
HUBERT BEYER

Frankfurt, and that they were
levelling town after town,

There were no solders in our
little hamlet, which had a pop-
ulation“of about 800. The'retn-
nants of German army units,
fighting in the area, had come
through our town in full
relreat,

A few SS officers had come
through about a week earlier,
urging the civilian population,
consisting of old men, women
and children, to fight the ad-
vancing enemy. Failure to
comply, they said, would bring
retribution,

The, one morning, a woman
came running into the village,
saying the American were ap-
proaching the outskirts of
town. Within minutes, white

bed sheets were hanging from
the windows of nearly every
house,

Most people stayed indoors,
but curiosity got the better of
me and I remained in the
street. Suddeniy, [ heard the
distinctive sound of tanks rum-
bling over the cobble-stone
Street. Then, I saw the first of
what tumed out to be a column
of at least a dozen tanks round-
ing the corner.

When the tank column, fol-
lowed by infantry troops,
Stopped right in front of our
house, I thought this is it, An
American solder approached
me and said something that
sounded like water. My uncle
had spent a few years in Amer-

taught me a few English
wards.

I rushed into the house and
came back with a glass of
water which, by the time [
gave it to the soldier, was half
empty because ] was shaking
so badly.

To my surprise, he roared
with laughter, After much talk-
ing and sign language, I found
out that they needed quite a bit
of water for the tanks which
had run hot during their relent-
less and quick advance.

The encounter ended with a
number of American soldiers

‘ici in the ‘late 208 and had -

giving me chocolate bars and
chewing gum, both of which I
proudly presented to my
Inother.

Next day, a small contingent
of U.S. Army troops were sta-
tioned in our town. For some
reason, they took a real shine
to me, and I had no problem
getting chocolate, gum, and
other goodies from them. For
the first time in years, mother
got to laste real coffee.

Twelve years later, ] would
emigrate to Canada, the coun-
try that acquilted itself so gal-

landy in the liberation of Hol- -

land which led to the final
defeat what Prime Minister
Mackenzie King called “the

Nazi beast in its native lair.”
And I would like to take’this *

opportunity
gratitude to my. adopted coun-
iry for welcoming me without
reservation.

to express “ my*

The wounds of the war were -

still relatively fresh in -1957,
Many Canadian families had
lost loved ones in that war.
And yet, not once did I en-
counter even the slightest
resentment. :

The 50th anniversary of VE
Day was an event worth com-
memorating. I wish that no

other such occasions will arise

forever more.

All things considered

VICTORIA — “He glimpsed
the bear out of the corner of his
cye as he was driving along the
road. He stopped, jumped out
of his truck, loaded his rifle,
aud aller he saw a grizzly-like
hump on its” shoulder, be
fired.” ;

Sounds to me like the actions
of a typical hunter. Not a rea-
sonable hunter, but a typical,
roadside hunter. No wonder
fellows In Wyoming, Montana
and Alaska were willing to
write letters of reference for
him for the court. Thanks 10
ESP, they were sure he didn’t
kill a protected species. Re-
member he had a grizzly tap.

What greater locker room
prize than to take down a
Kermodei, described by a
senior wildlife biologist as ‘an
international ireasure,’””

There’s little point in shooting
an ordinary black bear unless
you intend to trade its organs.
Black bears engender little
bragging rights,

HENS! iro
WHAT'LL || ME!

THROUGH BIFOCALS

» CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

() Hurry! TaKeé of¢

But imagine the audacity of
the bear! Instead of standing
still along the road where the
inuepid hunter could draw a
bead on him without even tum-
ing off his truck's ignition —
or standing pat where he'd
scen it 10 days carlier. Hadn’t
this bear heard of running
chess? —- the bear moved
deeper into the bush, forcing
the hunter ta load quickly and

Quite THIS PLANET
HAS HUGE METAL
BEASTS THAT
EAT EVERYTHING.

N fo) 2. aug T

fire. How could the hunter take
time to identify his quarry? By
then the target would be gone.

And so what if it might have
been a sow accompanied by
cubs? Better animal young do
the crying.

You can’t blame an 18-year-
old for shooting first, identify-
ing later, With a Remington
Model 700 7mm. magnum rifle
nearby, he did the only manly
thing, The well-known
Kermodei probably died before
the reverberations ceased. It
isn’t as if the Kermodei suf-
fered.

Sure, locals howled with out-
rage, wrote irate Ictters to
editors.

Sappy animal huggers, If
they had their way wild
animals would dic of old age.

One bullet rescued this
Kermodel from toothache,
starvation, traffic dents. Count
his blessings.
We've also lost sight of the
hunter's superb aim. Two
THERE GOES ONE
Now! See! wiTl
TWo Victims IN

IT'S BELy !!

shots, that’s all he needed.
Proves the benefits of experi-
ence and trophy hunting prac-
tice. :
We're also ignoring that the
hunter was considerate enough

to trophy hunt in three Amer-
ican states, too, He could have -.

done it all here, depleting
B.C.’s_ prized wildlife. He
didn’t. He spared no expense
travelling so more of our big
game would survive,

As for distinguishing be-
tween a black bear, a
Kermodei, and a grizzly, |
couldn’t either, even staring
into arear view mitror,

All things considered, the

judge was right. Jail time ,

wasn’t necessary to meet the
requirements of deterrence and
public denunciation. Nor
Should the rifle have been con-
fiscated. It belonged to the
hunter’s father; the kid used it,
unsupervised. To penalize the
father for his child’s actions
would be overkill,

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