4 Terrace Review — Wednesday, Nirie 24; 1987 a

OPIN IONS _

QUITE F RAN KLY

COMMENTARY -

by Frank Howard

The Attorney-General
of B.C., Brian Smith, is
not a dumb person. He is
considered by many law-
yers to be a very effective
Barrister; to know his way
through any of the laby-
rinthine procedures of our
‘courts.

In my.-view he is. very
competent and politically
_ shrewd. To identify. the
manner in which he deals
with subjects in the Legis-
lature is not difficult. He
is cautious, careful, quick,
and knows all the angles.

Why then did he seem
to act in such a ques-
tionable fashion by pro-
ceeding with the applica-
tion in the Supreme Court
of B.C. to prevent a repet-
ition of the June 1 so-
called general strike? —

I am one of those who.

think that Mr. Smith did
not blunder. He was ac-
ting on behalf of the Gov-
ernment and with the ap-

proval of the Premier. He

knew exactly what his ob-
jective was and how to
reach the objective.

It is my opinion that.

the Government’s action,
with respect. to that. writ
for an injunction, was

Letters to the editor will be
considered for publication
only when signed. Please
Include your phone.
number. -The editor
reserves the right to
condense and adit latters. .
Opinions expressed are
not necessarily those of

the Terrace Review.

Terrace
Review

Established May 1, 1985.

The Terrace Review Is published
each Wednesday by Close-Up
Business Services Lid.

Publisher:
Mark Twyford

. Editor:
- Maureen Barbour

_ Staff Reporter:
Michael Kelly

Advertising Sales: .
_ 635-7860 ©

-. Production:

~~ Jim Hall

Office:
Garrle Olson

-. Accounting:
_ Mar] Twyford

_ Second-class mall
registration No. 6896. .

Reproduction of this paper or any
portlon thereof ia prohibited without
permission of the publisher.

Errore and omissions. Advertiaing is
sccepted on the condition that in the
event of typographical error, that por-
tion of the advertising apace oc-
cupted by the erroneous Item wiil not
be charged for, but the balance of the
advertisement will be pald for at the
applicable rate.

Advertiaera must assume respon-
sibility for errota.in any classified ad
which Is supplied to the Terrace
Review In handwritten form.

in compliance with the 8.C. Human
Rights Act, no advertisement wiil be

published which discriminates.

against @ person due to age, race,
rellgion, color, sex, nationality;
ancestry of place of origin,

4535 Greig Avenue,
Terrace, B.C.
VBG 1M7

Phone: 635-7840

carefully planned, The
writ was issued as a
stategic move for a politi-
cal purpose. The Govern-
ment’s strategy was pro-
bably to tar-brush_ the

labor movement and make -
some officers thereof ap-.

pear as villians.

The Government’s tac...

tics have included denoun-
cing opponents of Bills 19

_and 20. The writ issued by.
- the Attorney-General was _
apparently part of that .ac-

tivity: The writ had the ef-

’ fect of.categorizing certain
union officers. It tended =

to label them as conspir-
ators, intimidators, and’
advocators of force to ac-

complish a governmental

change in B.C. The writ, :
by implication, accused
the. people named therein
of supposedly having
committed criminal acts.
Everyone knows _ that
there were no criminal acts
committed and that none

was contemplated. Every-

one knows that even the

idea .about criminal acts —

was ludicrous. There was
no criminality involved.

. By issuing that writ the
Government was appar-

ently able to insinuate that
criminal acts had- taken
place but it didn’t have to
back up the insinuation. ©
' Isubmit, therefore, that
it didn’t matter to the
Government what hap-
pened to the writ. The

Government didn’t partic- _

ulary want‘an injunction.
It wanted an effect. -
Premier Vander Zalm is:
not going to ask for Attor-
ney-General Smith’s resig-

nation for the simple rea- .

son that Smith succeeded.
He produced the effect. ,

WRONG SUBJECT

What amazes me. is that

the NDP caucus in Vic-

toria seems to be clamour-
ing for Smith’s resignation
because of a. supposedly
serious misjudgement. I
maintain there was no
misjudgement. There was

_apparently a manoeuver
‘calculated to manipulate

public opinion, to in-
fluence the response of the
media, and to get the NDP

to debate: the wrong sub-

ject

By demanding Smith’s
resignation for an alleged

- blunder the NDP itself

would seem to have blun-
dered. It cannot suggest
that the manoeuver was a
serious misjudgement by
Smith and at the same
time suggest that Smith

was deliberately abusing

our judicial system to .at-
tain a political objective.
Quite frankly the gov-
ernment has succeeded,
once again, in getting the
NDP to debate the wrong
subject. It is wisdom when
one learns from mistakes.
What we have here is lack

. of wisdom, yes, but most-

ly pulliblity.. a

| NiNe_BGTE

BGT E

SUBTECT

os ong Or ome

~conprainnne

TERDERSHP cae |

oGlF Mees _

“Wag

CASS.

‘new province,

. ate,

~ Labor bill causes: rift

Hubert |
Beyer _

Terrace Review m
Victoria Correspondent y

-There’s a rift in the
ranks of the Social Credit
caucus. It’s nothing that
can’t be repaired but it’s
making Premier Vander
Zalm’s smile appear a bit

frozen these days.

‘The obvious reason for
the dissension is the nasty
mood that has’ gripped
British: Columbia in the

‘wake of Premier Vander

Zalm’s marching orders
for the creation of a brave
free of
wealthy and powerful
trade union leaders.

When the 48 Socred

MLAs were swept into the

legislature on the shirt

tails of a man who promis-
ed peace, love and sereni-

ty, many of them were:

looking forward to a fresh
start. What they got, in-
stead, was confrontation
on a scale, rare even for

British Columbia. And.
that makes the moderates ©

feel uneasy.

The disenchantment |

goes depper than that,
however. Many of the
Socred MLAs are moder-
middle-of-the-road
free enterprisers who
prefer
confrontation. They
didn’t run on a radical,

right-wing platform, but .

that’s where they find

- themselves now.

The Socred — election
campaign was based on
reason. It appealed to the
centre of the political
spectrum. But no sooner
was the election over, the

right wing took power.

And it’s showing no signs

compromise to.

of letting go.

It’s the backbenchers i in
particular who are quietly
expressing doubts about
Vander Zalm’s union-
bashing and sabre-rat-
tling. They have difficulty
reconciling Bill 19, the
Labour Relations Reform
Act, and the government
injunction with which all
further opposition to the
legislation was .to be
crushed with their leader’s

‘election promise of gov-

ernment by consultation.
Life ‘as a backbencher
isn’t easy atthe best of

time. It’s harder when the
‘government takes a course

of action for which it real-
ly didn’t get a mandate.
And it gets really tough

when the calibre. of some”

cabinet ministers leaves a

_

; lot to be desired.

There: are at. least a

‘|. dozen. .Socred backben-

chers who could. do as

‘good a job or better than ©

some of the cabinet miinis-

‘|: ters, but while the former

are in the limelight and
command higher salaries,
the latter ‘are condemned

to a. life of rubber-

stamping cabinet deci-
sions,
Of the 47 Social Credit

MLAs only 18 are cabinet

ministers. They shape
policy. They make the de-
cisions. They determine
the political direction of
the province until the next

-election comes around.

The rest are foot soldiers

whose only job is to vote -

for government initiatives.
Publicly, they would

‘disagree with that assess-

ment. They would point
out that they represent
their constituents in Vic-
toria, . straightening out
problems on the home

front. They would draw -

your attention to the more
or less firy speeches they
hold in the legislature.

_ Letter

- Comments, suggestions.
were appreciated

I would like to take this
opportunity to thank you
and your staff for your re-
cent- participation in the
disaster drill and exercise
held June 10 at the Ter-

race Airport. °
[hope this exercise has’ Airpo
been useful to yourselves
and that it may assist you ©

in formulating any future
disaster planning. We sin-
cerely wish that this plan-
ning will never be put to

use; -

I appreciate the com-
ments and suggestions
made during our debrief-
ing session, The time spent

-by Terrace Review staff

member Daniele Berquist
is well appreciated. On
June 27 at 4:45 p.m, the

will. be putting on a
demonstration of. their

equipment.
a G. Wright
Fire Chief
Crash-Fire Rescue Service
Terrace, B.C.

tt Fire Department.

The premier’. ae eo
stress that all’. Socred. _
MLAs have’ a hand in

shaping government poli-

cy through discussions in.

caucus meetings. He

might point out that back-

benchers have added res-
ponsibilities as parliamen-
tary secretaries to the
various cabinet ministers.

All of which is nonsense. . .

BACKBENCHERS

Backbenchers have no
influence on government
policies. More often than
not, caucus is the last to be

informed. of important —
- cabinet decisions. As for

being allowed to play par-

liamentary secretary to as.

cabinet minister, it

amounts to little. more.
than . taking opposition
- questions on notice for the
minister during question
period. Backbenchers, in

my opinion, always have
been and always will be
drones.

DISAPPOINTMENT —
“Loyalty will not let

‘them go public, but some .

of them are privately ad-

mitting to their disap-
' pointment,

- particularly
when they see a cabinet
minister who is clearly not
up to his task.

Every premier with a
large majority has had to

- wrestle with the problem |
of an under-utilized back
bench, but Vander Zalmis —

making it worse by con-

sulting them even less than
his predecessors did.
Perhaps the rift will

close once Bill 19 is law.

Then again, if labor boy- —

cots the legislation, as it
has promised, labor re-
lations in British Colum-

bia could plunge into an
even deeper abyss, tearing’
the Socreds apart-as never —

before. -