poe”

A4- The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 2, 1998

TERRACE

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

PUBLISHER: ROD LINK
‘ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2
TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432
EMAIL: standard@kermode.net

Understanding

THE KILLING of a Sikh moderate newspaper
publisher in Surrey must not be ghettoized as
some anomaly of the ethnic fringe.

To do so would send entirely the wrong mes-
sage to the overwhelming majority of B.C. Sikhs
who, regardless of theological differences, op-
pose violence. They desperately need to know
that this type of incident is taken just as seriously
as an attack on one of Canada’s most mainstream
journalists. ;

To do otherwise would greatly undermine free-
dom of the press in an increasingly multicultural
British Columbia. And it sends a message that
the few fanatics out there may not be curbed.

Indo-Canadians have made great strides in B.C.
In Terrace, the moderates in charge of the local
temple this year began moving forward with a
strategy to become more active in the local com-
munity. They’ve given significant donations for
hospital equipment, to the Terrace Churches
Food Bank and to the library.

Temple leaders say they want to fully partici-
pate in Canadian society — sharing in not just
the freedoms and privileges, but the problems
and challenges as well.

Their actions are to be commended in the
strongest terms. Our Sikh neighbours need un-_
derstanding and support from their fellow
citizens at times like these.

The new guy

THERE WAS a tiny political flurry last week
with the appointment of Miles Richardson as the
chief commissioner of the B.C, Treaty Commis-
cess’’. of: the machiriery: ‘set up to negotiate the
50-odd “land claims in B.C. As ‘such it is the
referee, the neutral party overseeing how things
are going between the province, the federal
government and native groups.

Mr. Richardson is a Haida from the Queen
Charlotte Islands and in the late 1980s achieved
prominence when the Haida embarked upon a
series of :ogging and fishing blockades. An ac-
complished speaker, Mr. Richardson at one point
renounced his Canadian citizenship although he
did continue to enjoy the benefits of the country
he denied.

And that’s raised questions about what Mr.
Richardson thinks today. Critics point out Mr.
Richardson might not be regarded as a complete-
ly neutral party. Supporters say that wasn’t
brought up regarding the previous two non-
native chief commissioners.

As for Mr. Richardson, here’s what he had to
say at a ceremony when he was named chief
commissioner: ‘‘Am I a Canadian? I think Cana-
da would say so.”’ Mr. Richardson qualified this
by saying the job is to bring natives into
citizenship with their full and informed consent.

We can perhaps permit Mr. Richardson the oc-
casional rhetorical flourish. But he should re-
member his new position requires a delicate dip-
lomatic touch.

PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link
ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur

NEWS Jeff Nagel «NEWS/SPORTS: Christiana Wiens

1068 WINNER NEWS/COMMUNITY: Alex Hamilton
NEWSPAPERS OFFIGE MANAGER: Sheila Sandover-Sly
COMPETITION CIRCULATION MANAGER: Karen Brunette

ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Bedford, Bunnie Cote

TELEMARKETER: Patricia Schubrink
* AD ASSISTANT: Kelly Jean COMPOSING: Susan Credgeur
AD ASSISTANT/TYPESETTING: Julic 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. ae
CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION ‘
AND CNA. conser tensenrms
B.C. PRESS COUNCIL, Gc A Aheonnenee

Sorving the Terrace and Thombil area. Published on Wednesday of each week at 3210 Cilnton Steet,
Terrace, British Columbia, V8G 5R2,

Storles, photographs, ilustrations, designa ard typasiyles in the Terrace Standard ate the property of tha
“exe bees, induding Carboo Presa (1969) Ld., hn Mustsion ropro sordces end adverising

Feeney, ts specifically prohibited.
mal penclng the Post Oca Department, fx payment of poslaye in cash,
special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents
for thelr time and talants

. Conservation, Coalition says in‘a let
ter ‘last week to federal fisheries

o> UKIND OF MISSED
TO BE LAUGHED AT...
 ONEEREDAT,. |
“HE RIDICUES....
» THE INSULTS...
THE INUENDOS..
“WE

laa

Could herring be next to go?

VICTORIA — If you think
salmon is the only west coast fish
whose stocks are in peril, think
again.

A coalition of 15 nature and
environmental groups, including the
Canadian Parks and Wildemess
Society, the Hornby Island
Conservancy, the Denman Island
Conservancy, the Fish For Life
Foundation, warns that the lowly
herring is another west coast species
whose stocks are declining
dramatically.

“We remain concerned that no
steps have been taken to curtail the
“food and bait’ fishery now in pro-
gress, and that “charity’ sales for a
portion of this herring are still
planned for the Lower Mainland in
late November,” the Pacific Herring

minister David Anderson.

“We consider it particularly
inappropriate that the federal gov-
erment should allow the sale of
what are in all probability endan-
gered resident herring stocks for this
purpose, The resident stocks have
not been subjected to even a cursory
stock assessment process,” the letter
says.

David Ellis, head of the Fish
For Life Foundation and spokesman

FROM THE CAPITAL
HUBERT BEYER

for the coalition, says the resident
herring stocks have special impor-
tance as forage fish for whales, coho
salmon, eagles, and many other
Species.

_ “We Urge the minister to close

. ‘all herring” fishing. ja the’ Strait ‘of

Georgia for a four-year period. This
would allow the herring biomass,
and particularly the resident herring
stocks, to rebuild and would reverse
the continuing decline of many
birds, mammals, and fishes which
depend on herring,” says Ellis,

The letter goes on to say there
has been a cumulative effect of past
over-fishing of the resident stocks
taken in the food and bait fishery.

“The lengthy expected duration

of the 1998 food-and-bait fishery is
in itself an indication of depletion of
the resident stocks. Please note that
the Department of Fisheries and
Oceans’ fishing plan for this fishery
states “if stack concerns are identi-
fied, some areas or sub-areas may
Close on shart notice.”

“Fisheries scientists noted in a
1990 paper a number of locations
where the non-migratory or resident
stocks spawn in close proximity to
the areas now open to the food-and-
bail fishery currently in progress,”
the letter says.

The letter to Anderson also

takes exception to an earlier letter

written by the minister to Jack and
Alice Dice of Powell River, who
had expressed concern over existing
__ Renting. stocks.

That lelier. stated, that the
springtime Toe herring fishery has.

no impact on the minor stocks
because these stocks spawa in the
mainland inlets, “There is an urgent

-need for DFO standardization of ter-

minology used to describe the her-
ting stocks. The terms local, resi-
dent and non-migratory and migra-
lory herring were used in a key 1990
DFO position paper.

“But the DFO letter to Mr. And
Mis. Dice confused the issue by
using only the terms major and

minor stocks, and appears to com-

pletely ignore the biological issue of

the resident versus the migratory

stocks,” says the coalition’s letter to .
the minister.

“The use of completely differ-
ent terms at different times for the
same subjects confounds the sci-
ence, confuses the layman, and is
not the road to effective public edu-
cation in regard to Canada’s fish
stocks.

“Before you dismiss the coali-
tion’s concerns as the exaggerated
claims of special-interest environ-
mentalists, consider that the Fish
For Life Foundation had warned
about the dangerous depletion of -
salmon stocks long before Oltawa
rang the alarm bells. '

“Only recently, with the arrival ©
of David Anderson i as minister, has.

the Department of Fisheries and”
Oceans placed the survival and -
recovery of our fish stocks before :
the interests of the industry.”

Given the DFO’s track record «
of ignoring warnings until it’s too ©
late, Anderson would do well to °
give his immediate attention to the .
problems outlined by the coalition.

Beyer can be reached at: Tel: ;
(250) 920-9300; Fax: (250) 356-
9597; E-mail: hubert@coolcom.cam: :

Loose |

SEVEN WEEKS of hound-
ing by the opposition drove Andy
Scott to resign as solicitor gen-
eral. The fuss was over his chat
to a fellow passenger on an Air
Canada flight to Fredericton.

But what really forced his
resignation was Fred Toole’s
swift contradiction when Scott
filed an affidavit swearing he
hadn’t said anything untoward
on the plane regarding APEC.

Toale, a friend for 11 years,
was the fellow flyer Scott had
blabbed to. Clearly Scott
expected Toole to back up his
affidavit. Though a lawyer and a
Liberal, Toole proved to have
higher ideals than Scott banked
on.

So promptly ] suspect Toole
had his affidavit typed up await-
ing a date, as soon as media
announced Scott's affidavit
Toole filed a counter affidavit,

THROUGH BIFOCALS
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

Seconds later Hugh Stewart, the
RCMP sergeant Scott had report-
edly claimed would “take the
fall” for the APEC pepper spray-
ing, broke his silence and spilled
some internal beans.

Stewart told CBC on a visit
to RCMP headquarters in Oltawa
Dec. 1 and 2, 1997, his superior
officer said Andy Scott had
ordered that no Mounties were to

oKAy! 30%
RECYCLABLES NOT
RECYCLED! 42%

COMPOSTED, /0 °fe
TOXICS NOT SENT
To PRoPER Disposad !

"1S REALLY ToucH !!
COMPOS TIBLES NOT ~

say a word about APEC.

Declared 51-year-old
Stewart, eyes snapping, “From
today forward I intend to speak
my mind.”

Scott’s career as solicitor
general ran downhill from there.

Far off in Indonesia,
Chretien defended Scott and
blamed Dick Proctor, the NDP
backbencher who sat within ear-
Shot of Scott and Toole on that
New Brunswick flight, for being
a Soop.

Snoop, to me and to
Webster, is someone who pries
especially in a sneaking or med-
dlesome manner. I fail to see how
Proctor was snooping as a pas-
senger on a public flight, riding
in an assigned seat.

Proctor didn’t switch seats to
get closer to Scott. Neither did he
use any sneaky recording
devices. He merely perked up his

Hts RESEARCH

YEAH! BUT
SOMEBODY S
GOT 70 Po

AND I Ber THEY
THIS cRuD If!

ps sink Andy Scott

ears and penned notes on paper, a '
skill he developed as a journalist. °
Tf Proctor was snooping, ,
then so is every customer in a.
Safeway checkout _ lineup, «
queued at the post office, or '
standing next to folks watching |
the Riverboat Days parade -if..
they listen to conversations .
around them.
1 expect both Scott and *
Chretien were stunned to meet a”
lawyer unwilling to go along ,
with their coverup. They must be .
even more boggled that a senior -
Mountie would risk his stripes *
and his pension defying a supe-*
tior’s order to shield a politician,
Which politician? That’s for the
APEC inquiry to find out,
Proctor’s accurate notes -
dumped Scott, Scott should have -
heeded pact Ogden Nash who.
wrote, “Don’t try to rewrite what :
the moving finger has writ.”

THINK WE Bar

Fie eee

Ste eee

a rs