Commentary/Letters

By FRED WEIR

MOSCOW —No one anywhere seems
exempt from the effects of crisis and
wrenching change these days. The atmos-
phere of foreboding, anger and apprehen-
sion on the streets of Moscow coincides
eerily with that in Toronto. Few people in
either place are in any mood to reflect
warmly upon the momentous geopolitical
shift of the past few years, or find in their
hearts the gratitude that should come with
knowing that the world is a much safer
place than it used to be.

The Nobel Prize committee did remem-

when it bestowed its most prestigious
award on the person who has done more

threaten to overwhelm 20th century civ-
ilization: Mikhail Gorbachev.

ber last week, and surely spoke for all of us

than any other to break the logjams that

Celebrating a voice for peace amid crisis

Commentary

Only five years ago the world was divi-
ded into two hostile blocs, an almost im-
penetrable wall — both literal and figura-
tive —separated people from each other.
An escalating race to accumulate the
means of extinction seemed an unalterable
feature of our age; the “balance of terror”
we called it. Remember?

Gorbachev’s arrival on the world stage
astonished everyone. He gave voice to a
tradition in Soviet foreign policy little seen
in recent years: the tradition of Lenin, Lit-
vinov, Khrushchev, all of whom sought a
peaceful world order based upon common
security and constructive competition.

Gorbachev brought a vision into the
nuclear age. He called for a world free of
nuclear weapons by the year 2000, to be
replaced by a co-operative global assault
on hunger, poverty, pollution, disease and
debt. He was bold enough to move swiftly
and unilaterally, as when he imposed a
16-month moratorium on Soviet nuclear
testing, to show that it could be done.

He also had the courage to let go of
ossified levers of power, and abandon
threats and force as a means of political
persuasion both at home and abroad. In the
finest spirit of socialism, the school of
thought into which Gorbachev was

educated, he understood that there can be
no peace, no security without freedom,
self-determination and popular demo-
cracy.

No one need pretend that he always
knows what he was doing. Indeed, these
days Gorbachev seems overshadowed by
his own achievements, trapped in the wave
of contradictions that burst into the open
once he pulled off the lid. Few people in
Moscow were celebrating his Nobel peace
prize last week; most are too absorbed in
their problems.

However, these are the contradictions
of peace. Thanks in some large measure to
Gorbachev, our children may inherit a liv-
ing planet. Yes, it’s a planet in deep crisis,
one that needs to be entirely re-made. But
that, after all, isn’t a job for a Gorbachev,
but for all of us.

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‘No’ vote urged on city Zoo expansion project

When voters decide on the Stanley Park
zoo expansion plebiscite Nov. 17, they
would be well advised to stand back and
look at the whole picture.

_ The entire zoo question cannot be iso-
lated from NPA policies in general. The NPA
is asking voters to spend $500,000 to
develop the Stanley Park zoo. They do not
inform the voters that this is only the first
stage of a $40 million scheme.

In the middle of acity housing shortage, ~

during a time of critically inadequate child
care facilities, rising education costs, and
just at the moment when other levels of
government wam of cutbacks to all pro-
grams, the NPA wants to spend $40 million
to imprison animals.

People who are really concerned about
Vancouver may well question this priority.
Instead of building cages for animals innate-
ly endowed with the ability to house them-
selves in natural environments, the city
should be building homes for the scores of
people currently forced to live in Stanley
Park.

The zoo expansion will enslave animals
and destroy more of our natural parkland. It
will certainly deplete the park of more trees
and exacerbate existing traffic congestion
and pollution problems. What are the ben-
efits?

Proponents argue that zoos provide edu-
cational experience for children.

‘Ou children listen to Raffi singing “Free

‘the animals from their cages, no matter
how new or modem” (from Raffi’s Baby
Beluga album). Children’s authors use the
theme of animal captivity to illustrate issues
of individual rights and fairness. It is a glar-
posit of the anachronisms of NPA

policies to think that this generation of child-
ren can leam anything relevant through a
patently outdated approach to the study of
animal behaviour. For decades, biologists
and anthropologists have argued that reach-
ing conclusions about animals by studying
them in captivity is as scientifically accurate
as studying a prison population to reach
coqeision about all of human society.

We cannot possibly teach children to ac-
quire knowledge and respect of animal life
by removing wild animals from their habitat
and destroying their social formations.

etters

Ha

Advances in technology have enabled
scientists to study animals in their natural
environment and the media can make this
readily available to all. If taxpayers want to
make the study of wildlife physically acces-
sible to children, they could join community
and labour groups which frequently provide
outdoor experiences to inner city children.
We could create conservation parks that
would provide natural homes for B.C. wild-
life. Projects like these reflect our respect for
all life and demonstrate our understanding
of the inherent order in nature.

The NPA’s zoo expansion project reveals
regressive, narrow minds desperately grab-
bing at tourist dollars at the cost of our
environment. And even this mercenary
motivation is questionable. The San Diego
z00, considered by zoologists to be progres-
sive, loses $25 million a year.

NPA priorities show that George Wain-
born’s 32 years of loyal service and Allan
Bennett’s 10 years on the parks board count
for nothing if they don’t toe the party line.
These elected representatives opposed the
zoo expansion and were promptly dropped
from the NPA slate.

” When we go to the polls Nov. 17, let’s
know the whole picture. The resulting vote

:

STANLEY PARK OTTERS ... caging animals of questionable educational value.

will determine our future and our conscious-
ness. Vote No on the zoo referendum. And
for our children’s sake, let’s elect a more
enlightened parks board, school board and

city council. Support COPE and the Civic
New Democrats.

Jim Green,

COPE mayoral candidate

Parks branch should protect Strathcona

The following letter was sent to Ivan
Messmer, Minister of Parks, with copies to
the Tribune and local media.

The Friends of Strathcona Park urgently
request that the Parks Branch of British Col-
umbia live up to its mandate as the official
guardian of parks and stop further erosion
and expansion by Westmin Resources Ltd.

The proposal put forward by Westmin to
supply increased power for its operation
contradicts the Parks Branch stated policy of
no further expansion by Westmin and con-

‘travenes the recommendations of the Larkin

Report.

Westmin’s full-page ad in the Campbell
River papers, containing a questionnaire, is
a flawed process. One city in the province
will have a say in what Westmin deems

public opinion? The lack of detail and the
fact that the Parks Branch was not consulted
on a project which falls within its jurisdic-
tion is quite unacceptable.

Westmin has had a tremendous impact on
the surrounding park: the noise from the
power house and extraction fans, under-
ground explosions, the damming of five
lakes, the heavy ore trucks, the pollution of
Campbell River’s drinking water and the
mountain of tailings that will be left for
future generations to clean up. All this for
the princely sum of $120 for a parks use
permit.

The Friends of Strathcona Park are not
against Westmin Resources continuing its
operation within the Myra Valley, staying
within the boundaries of its claim and the

limits of the electricity available. It may
mean the company will have to tailor its
needs to suit the available power, curtailing
production which will increase the longevity
of the mine.

There is no such thing in mining circles
as sustained development. One day, West-

praes euponmnces

00 A AORN IIR RAEI eA iy I

min’s mine in Strathcona Park will shut }

down for lack of ore. When that day comes,
the people of B.C. should not be left with a
desecrated park and a clean-up bill of enor-
mous proportions.

It is time the Parks Branch retained its
integrity and stopped facilitating the des-
truction of Strathcona Park.

Thomas Black, director
Friends of Strathcona Park

Pacific Tribune, October 29, 1990 + 5