PAGE A4, THE HERALD, Monday, May 9, 1977
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aft

Future choices
for the north

Mr. Justice Thomas Berger’s long
awaited report on the proposed
MacKenzie Valley Pipeline is
scheduled to be released today.

The report‘ will have far-reaching
implications on the future development .
of this country’s gas reserves and its
impact on the environment, native
land claims, and the social in-
frastructure of Canada’s northern
communities. ;

Although Berger has stated that he
will not recommend whether or not the
government should allow a pipeline to
be built, it is.expected that he will pull
no punches in laying out the im-
pications of each alternative for the
transmission of gas from Alaska and
the Beaufort Sea.

Already, Berger has stated that the
choices taken by the government will
“tell us something about what kind of
country Canada is, what kind of people
we are.”

But the Berger Commission may not
only set directions for the future of
Canada’s development, it may also

a i « ‘Serbeadsa precedent for futurefederal“' «°*
4 e ai Mipuiries. pe reed stlgsybrnig terete te nee
In the past, the federal government

Playing with genes: horror ors

It’s been Years since a line of
scientific research has
provoked such “an uproar. But
then the implications of gene-
splitting —recompinant ONA —
seem unprecedented. The
controversy has spilled far
beyond the sedate realm of
sclence, as this tale of two cities
graphically demonstrates.

. By CHARLES R. EISEN.

DRATH ;

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) - If
all goes weil, in laboratories
being prepared here for some of
the most controversial sclen-
tific experiments since the A-
bomb, history will smile on this
quiet college town.

But if something goes wrong,
Cambridge, Mass., may he
jivdged mere kindly.

The reason is that Ann Arbor
allowed the University of
Michigan to decide for Itself
whether “gene splicing’ can be
done on campus without undue
risk to the surrounding com-
munity. while Cambridge
fought Harvard all the° way.

from city hall fo Harvard Yard,

The issue involves balancing
freedom of scientific inquiry
agains! the responsibility of
local governments to protect
their citizens. Some critics of
gene splicing judge It as
potentially hazardous as a
“biological A-bomb."’.

The stakes are enormous.

Universities hard-presscd by
Inflatlon and recession could
use the large amount of,
government research funds
earmarked for studies of
recombinant DNA — for
deoxyribonucleic acid, the key
genetic compound. They also
stand to gain prestige far ad-
ditlonal discoveries.

For sclentists, there’ Is the
broad understanding that
"DNA contains the secret of flfe
—and also of winning the Nabel
prize.” .

The biggest benefits — or
hardest blows — might go to
ordinary Americans, however,
beginning with those Ilving near
Harvard dnd Michigan and the

Behind the news

other universities preparing
themselves for gene splicing.
LEARN RESULTS

These peopie may be first te
learn of progress made possible
by the elegant new technology:

controls fer genetically.
defermined diseases Ike
hemophilia; crops = that

generate their own fertilizer or
vastly Increased understanding
of the way plants and animals
pass their characteristics from
one generation to the next.

Like these envisaged gains,
the hazards are as yet only
imagined, since nothing like
this has ever been done before.
Possible short-term dangers
include escape of uncontrailable
and potentially harmful micro-
organisms from laboratories.
More speculatively, some fear
that “genetic engineering’
might some day enable die-
faters %o control human
development.

The risks have prompted
researchers to impose .con-

. Straints without precedent in

modern selence. Meeting” at
Asilomar, Calif., two years ago,
140 eminent biologists from 16
countries imposed a voluntary
ban on further experiments
until safety guidelines can be
established, ;

One year later, the National
‘Institutes of Health had such a
code ready. By that time,
however, the University of

Michigan had dealt with the-

issue of community safety in a

‘relatively quiet manner that

was to become ihe envy of
embattled Harvard. Now It
seems likely that the federal
government ultimately will step
in with legislation.

In Ann Arbar, the DNA debate
remained an academic affair
despite efforts of those who
feared it 4o rally townspeople to
thelr side. Professors David
Jackson and Robert Helling,
whe wanted to conduct gene-
splicing ‘experiments on
campus had most of the welght
on their side from the start.

Jackson had pioneered the

has often used royal commissions and

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“FARMERS FEAR DUST BO

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—D FALLWEeL

the like to hide issues from the public
while giving the semblance htat it was.
‘doing something about them. Witness
the Le Dain Commission, the Carter
Tax Commission, and the Gray Report.

More often than not, the recom-
mendations of these commissions have
been decided not by those most con-
cerned ~ the public- but by three-piece
suited ‘experts” and grey-flannelled
bureaucrats.

The Berger Commission has been a
refreshing and significant exception to
this norm. Due largely to the personal ‘
stamina and dynamism of the B.C.
Supreme Court Justice, the com-
mission has taken the issues to the
public.

Berger has not used his mandate to
conceal the controversy from the
people, but rather as a platform from
which to inform all concerned
Canadians of the issues involved.
Through hundreds of community
meetings in the north, he has talked
with and listened to those most af-
fected by the pipeline proposal.

As a result, Berger has not only
succeeded in making Canadians aware
of the controversy, but by doing so, he
has made it impossible for- the federal
government to ignore his recom-
mendations,

Whatever it is that Justice Berger
has to say today, we can be sure that
Ottawa, from the Prime Minister’s
office down, will be listening.

And given the long, ardous hours that

Berger has put in, the efforts he has
“ madeé to speak to all groups concerned,
‘ and his solid reputation for

thoroughness and fairness, we suspect .
4 that his recommendations will be
worth considering.

ee

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* “WE'RE LIVING OFF FRED'S RETIREMENT INCOME.
VM WORKING.” .

Spanish fa

cade in Osoyoos

splitting Okanagan community

OSOYOOS, B.C. (CP) —
When the people of this sun-
baked Okanagan Valley
town of 2,000 began con-
verting their businesses to a
tourism-boosting Spanish
decor, they didn’t count on
an inquisition and a near
civil war as well.

Converting some of the
town’s more conservative
citizens to the scheme took
time, says Fred Parker, the
#4-year-old insurance agent
who launched the program,
and for a while, the op-
position forces ‘“‘split the
town with controversy.”

That’s all in the past now,
he says, and the tran-
sformation of once-drab
Osoyoos into the Spanish
Capital of Canada is well
under way.

Contractors have taken
Main Street, known to
travellers as Highway 3, and
covered business fronts with
a skin-deep Spanish facade
of stucco, whitewash, red
brick and tile.

Supporters of the program
hope it will attract off-
season tourist revenue and

'. keep local shoppers, now

driving south to the United
States or north to Penticton,
in the Osoyoos area,

Alderman Frank Van-
Duzee, who dreamed up the
Spanish Osoyoos theme
during a visit to a “Danish”
village in the United States,
thinks the program is
already showing results.

“Some buildings on Main
Street were pretty shacky
looking,” he said in an in-
terview, ‘but thanks to the
remodelling, they're
presentable,”

Parker, head of the
Osoyoos Spanish
Development Society,
decided last year to mark
the. beginning of the con-

- version by bedecking Main

Street with banners in the

colors of Spain's flag as
decorations for the tra-
ditional Cherry Festival.

“We thought they added a
nice touch,” said Parker,
“but they split the town with
controversy. We got all
kinds of complaints about
flying Spanish flags,
complaints that they were
placed above Canadian
flags and so on. ;

“The legion was furious.

“Well, we just took them
all down. You can’t divide a
town over a silly thing like

_that.”’

So far more than 110
motels and businesses,
about 30 per cent, “have
converted to some form of
Spanish decor, worth
$600,000 in building permits.

The Spanish
Development Society is self-
supporting and all con-
versions to the program
have been voluntary, but
Parker said opposition has
been steady.

“Some businesses have
put themselves into hock to
convert and some have been

No deals with

TORONTO (CP) — The
Sun says South Korea’s four
top negotiators in the
purchase of a Canadian
nuclear reactor have denied
dealing with agent Shaul
Eisenberg of Tel Aviv, who
was paid $18.5 million by
Atomie Energy of Canada
Ltd. (AECL) for his part in
the sale.

In a copyright story from
Seoul, Sun columnist Lubor
Zink says he. taped in-
terviews with Dr. Young Ku
Yoon, president of the
Korean Atomic Energy
Research Institute and,
chairman of the Korea
Atomic Energy Com-
mission; Hae Lee, vice-

president of the institute in

charge of power reactor
generating; Nack Chun
Sung, executive vice-
president of the Korea
Electric Co.; and Koh Joong
Myung, vice-president of the
Korea Electric Co, _

’ The story quotes Sung as
saying: “We didn’t have any
contact with an agent.”
Sung also denied having,
been notified by AECL’
about the appointment of an
agent. He said the

negotiators followed the Ko-
rean government's §in-
structions to deal directly
with AECL.

. The Sun says the denials
“raise the question of
whether someone at the
Canadian end of the deai

FED aR.*t PROGRAM

behind us 100 per cent,” he
said, ‘Some are against the
conversion and others can't
afford to remodel.

‘Some businesses feel
that they're under the gun to
convert and resentment has
crept in.” .

Alderman Sebastian Sch-
midt, a vocal opponent of
the conversion, says his
eriticisms are directed
against the implementatior
of the scheme, not the idea
itself.

Israeli

pétketed some or all of the
agent's fees.” —
Eisenberg of United
Development Inc. of Tel
Aviv billed AECL for $20
million in agent's fees for
the Kerean purchase. The
fes acs later reduced to
$24.8 miloon. _

new fechniques and, wlth
Helling, represented
Michigan's best hope tor.
leadership ina major new field.
He also believes firmly that
DNA | experiments, while
potentially dangerous, are no
more so than others already In

‘standard use.

Those who wanted to slow or

‘prevent. DNA research at

Michigan were out-gunned.
When a university committee
came out In faver of gene
splicing, there was ane
dissenter. Shaw Livermore, 4
senior professor af history,
objected to the technique’s
“capability to alter life in a
fundamental way.”

‘| just do not believe we will
be able to manage oursetvas,””
he told the faculty senate.

Pollte sparring in Ann Arbor
was followed by a brawl in
Cambridge that attracted a
natlonal following.

Thistime the sides were more
evenly matched. Harvard, like
Michigan, wanted to get on with

alvation

DNA research and for many af
the same reasons.

Cambridge Mayor Alfred
Vellucel tack to NBC-TV's
Today show to charge gene
splicers with “‘lunging into
something in a woeful state of
ignorance.” He also mentioned
the possibility of escaping
organisms causing “mysterious
rew diseases” fike last year’s
outbreak of Ceglonnaire’s
Disease In Philadelphia.

He summoned Harvard
sclentisis to a televised public
meeting, saying that most of the
people present were lay people,
“so spell It oul for us.’

. But when Harvard biologist
Mark Ptashne tried to do just
that, denying that gene splicing
had ever produced a ‘‘known,
dangeravs organism’ . a
councillor asked: “Just what
the hell do you think you're
going to do, if you do produce
one?’*

Voice of the roaders

Some advise
from a reader

Dlear Sir:

1 wish you every success with _

your Datly Heraid. | cannot see
it surviving Its trial run unless
dramatic changes are made.
Is not a rag, It's a newspaper,
therefore the print has to be

. upgraded to this end. Throw

away coples misprinted or
blotched with Ink where Ink Is
not supposed to be. Strive for
quality.

| must say it has a very
depressing format. | feel more
depressed after reading the
couple of free copies that | have
had so why should | pay for this
when | am getting It for free?

I think you should change the
format to: This is what should
be done. Instesd of sadly
reflecting on all the pitfalls and
errors of what has been done.
You have a tough row to hoe.
But you hava the press and the
Ink but lack imagination and a
policy. You seem frightened. you
are going to tread on
somebody‘s toes and they are
not going to support your paper.

Well, without a policy | can‘t
see you lasting. Stand up and
fake a stand. Forget about
Watergate, soft pedal the all
thing: we have more important
things. Get our attention, you
have the ink and = the
imagination. You are our
mouthpiece.

What about getting a bus
service for Terrace residents?
What about a clean-up,
especially for the tourist. The
Co-op dirty tollets. We have lots
out of work todo these jobs. The
dirty Esso tollet on Lakelse. The
broken glass and crummy
Safeway parking lot.

Enlarge the faclilties at the
tralning college. Let’s get more
people trained, especially the

"younger generation.

Here's a good one, though you
might lase a few prospactive
readers: we have all kinds’ of
‘Moonlighters.’ What‘s your
stand? Let's gat It to these
people how wrong they are,
there Is such a long bread IIne.
What's your stand on both Ma
and Pa working with all these

- unemployed we have?

What suggestions do you have
to fell old people; how and
where to qualify for panslons
especially widows? ... In plain
language. free of ‘gob-
bledegook.’ You have the
POWER, the press and the ink.
You could have the PEOPLE
too; It’s up to you. If we have all
this unemployed we don't have
to look {ike a depressed area,
Let’s employ, fet’s paint our

storefronts. Let's brighten up”

French family in Toronto
feels at home with English

TORONTO (CP) — A
Frenchspeaking family
taking part in the federal
government’s bicultural
development program says
it has found no evidence of
racism in Toronto since
moving here last July.

The Dube family is one of
five French-speaking
families living in houses
bought by the government in
1966 to accommodate
Quebec families taking part
in the exchange program.

Under the program,
several senior English-
speaking public servants
and their families spend a

year in Quebec City while a
smaller number of French-
speaking public servants
move to Toronto.

Normand Dube, 49, his
wife, Micheline, 42, and
their four children will:
return to Montreal this
spring.

“At first we were a little
afraid of how people would
behave toward us,” Dube
said, “We thought thers
might be racism,”

But “everyone we have
met has been kind to us,
especially our neighbors,”

Dube, an information

officer with Central Mor-

tgage and Housing Corp.,
said Canadians sulfer from
lack of communication,

In Montreal, he said,
people talk about “les
maudits Anglais’’—those
damned English,

“‘Meeting people here,
we've found that conception
of English-speaking
Canadians is false.”

- The couple's 21-year-old
son, Benoit, a first-year
business student at York
University, considers
himself ‘a Canadian and a

- Quebecois.” °

our town. Let's at least set an
example of being the best-
dressed deprassed area in
Canada. Let's go after the
government to do something:
that's a real ‘toughie'.

if no news then make some.
Pave the highway. Poltution at
the lake? but unemployment Is
very real. Is It here fo stay?
What can we doabout it? But I'd
sooner read your letter and
follaw upon this to Mr. X
minister than wasting Ink and
paper on the tall end racket of
American Watergate.

Don't we have anything that
requires greater priority than

this right here In our own area.

1 don't mind getting your
paper for free, but don’t expect
me to buy it when the time
comes. Ithas to be NEW. That's
why other papers have folded;
they had nothing NEW. We are
new; we live here. Tell us what

“heeds (putting right, then add
the S and this will make it
NEWS. ill buy It then.

Get out and away from
Watergate, the pipeline, the
Thornhill Fire Department,
making toys, the pitiful ways we
are trying to get out of the rut
we are in. You have to get more
bold print and get poilties
working for us; that’s what we
need. Who ’bumbled’, who
‘fumbled’ In your opinion? Did
lona? Let's stop buttering these
people up, get ihe news and the
facts and print It. Tall us. At the
moment the Dally Herald ls so
inoffensive It resembles a
parish magazine with its format
of not trying to offend anybody,
without dolng anything for us.
What a marvellous opportunity
you have. Publishing a paper
without competition. No Mirror
or Sun or Express or Daily
Worker to compate with - all we

have todo is win over the people

In our community.

How to make a good meal out
of soup bones and such recipes
Is always good literary filler.

Charles Connolly.

DOCTORS
OUT OF
TOUCH

VICTORIA (CP) —~—
Doctors are out of touch
with labor matters, Dr.
Scott Wallace,- British

Columbia Progressive Con-.

servative party leader, said
Saturday.

In a speech to the Medical
Office Assistants

- Association, Wallace, 4

medical doctor, said that
more than any other group
doctors become insulated
from the social, economic
and political changes taking
place around them.

He said the B.C. Medical
Assoctation acted in shock
and panic in launching a
fight against unionization of
medical office assistants in
Nelson, B.C.

He pointed out that
medical office assistants
often lack fringe benefits

and said their rate of pay is
modest,

Average pay for
assistants in general

practitioner's offices is $4.67
an hour and $5.19 in spe-
cialist’s ‘offices. Minimum
Yates are $3.57 and $3.34
respectively,