' Page A4 — Terrace Standard, Wednesday, aluly 25; 1990 ERRACE STANDAR | D a * EBTABUSHED APRa. a7, 1988 © 7 _ AAETIMION tepre services and advertising agencies. Rogiatralion No, 7820 4847 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C., veG 188 (604) 20-7283 | Serving the Terrace area, Pullabad on Wochesdey of each week hy Canto Pres (1960) Lat 4847 Larebe Ave., Trace, Bettsh Cabmibia - Stories, photograghs. Bustratons. designs and typestytes In the Terrace Standard are the property of the copyright holder, ne ink. Papredecton in whois ot in part, without writen permission, it specifically rocibited: _ Authoroed ua second-class mall porcing the Pout Otte Department lor payment of portage in cash. Gon ° * special thanks to aH ‘aur contributors and : ‘correspondents for for Heil time and a “which occupy our ‘lawmakers at play with the , technological toys we buy for “them. ~ EDITORIAL — “The blockades _ The one thing native blockades have _ done is to finally make us all aware of | natives and native issues in. Canada, Natives make up our very own, homegrown Third World. We've ig- nored them, preferring instead to let “ governments spend billions of dollars on . them with no demands of an accounting and: no understanding of just exactly what was going on. “We are vaguely aware of land claims. | ‘The natives say they own the land. Our governments either say they don’t or they might and that’s where we've let things rest. We've allowed land claims to become a nice, tidy and lucrative industry for those involved. As with any group, the ‘people making money from the land Claims business developed their own language, one that is impossible for us to understand. It made things easy for those on the inside, Leaders never like to tell people what is really going on. It more. going on, simply complicates matters. © But now there are the blockades, violence and death. What was the Cana- dian way of dealing with things — royal commissions, conferences and always | talking, talking and talking — is no While we try to grapple with all that is we’re also uncomfortable about what seems to be a double stan- dard. It’s the feeling that natives can do things that wouldn’t be tolerated by our governments should they be done by - others. Would our governments allow anybody else in this country to assemble armed groups carrying and -using risk. ’ automatic weapons? We must take some blame in this hor- rible mess for we’ve let governments to whatever they have wanted. And we must insist that the blockades be aban- doned. By placing us as the meat in the sandwich between themselves and our governments, natives are taking an awful Depleted woods | The decision by the provincial cabinet in 1988 to give cutting rights to wood north of Hazelton to Prince George- based companies instead of to mills in Hazelton and Smithers is a glimpse of ' “the future. There’s no question the cabinet was - technically wrong. The decision was not cabinet’s to make given legislative authority in effect at that time. A ma- - jority of recommendations made by the “forest service pointed to Hazelton and Mills there would pay the government more for the timber than “would the Prince George-based com- . - panies. ‘Yet .cabinet had no other choice. ~Skeena MLA Dave Parker, who was _ forests minister at the time and so had Smithers. direct involvement in the decision, won’t say exactly why the decision was made. He simply says cabinet looked at overall social and economic reasons. It’s Mr. Parker's polite way of in- dicating those Prince George mills would: be in danger of closing if they didn’t get the cutting licences, That’s because there are too many mills in Prince George and they’ve already cut everything within: easy reach. To cabinet, the cost of Prince George mills closing outweighed by far. any other consideration. And so a wrong decision was made to salvage wrong decisions made in the past. That’s the brutal reality of life to- day in the forest industry as mills, com- munities and governments wrestle over who gets what’s left in the woods, ~. The Bud Smith telephone ‘tapes: reveal some interesting things about B.C.’s govern- -ment. _ For. one thing, we see how very small are many matters top . In one tape, Smith chats with his wife as ke drives to the legislature, When he reaches the parking lot, he hangs up with a promise to phone her the minute he walks into his office. Most of us spend some time each day catching up our mates on the tidbit happenings of our day, But>we usually do it at . home, After supper. During TV commercials. We don’t put at - ‘ tisk the lives of pedestrians and other motorists by steering one- handed, with an Autotel ~ receiver,clamped to an ear. The Smith tapes also . demonstrate: the Social Credit “government's commitment to .,in-depth research. Boldly, “decisively, without the encum- “prance, of any knowlege. what- . sever about by whom; how, or ° why. the phone calls had been - “wecorded,’ Vander Zalm, Bud ° Smith,” ‘and other cabinet: a ‘ministers immmediately accused. oy the. opposition: of illegal wire- + jtapping. “Is this't thé sort ‘of “research” they depend i iipon: when they” re "weighing: the pro's and con’s of” - flooding: valley, of turning. - wetlands ito‘a golf course? Or building.a port in Kitimat? Hiti is, Saints preserve us, and 4 oes cemmaehtae Seem Ae Le PS Bite terirnee as _ a Very puzzling Through Bifocals by Claudette Sandeckl ¢ pass the ballots, Disclosure of the tapes rattled government members like a cyclone tangled in a windchime, MLAs flung themselves madly off in all directions, spouting absurbities, desperate to divert public attention from Bud Smith's intemperate remarks about his colleagues. And intemperate Smith's remarks were, to label them kindly, Especially since Smith suspected his Autotel calls were being monitored. Not to men- tion the prospect of an lection _ being called soon. Smith accused Vander Zalm -of not caring whether or not the Social Credit Party won the next election. He said Howard ‘ Dirks is so hopeless he ‘'can’t chew gum and walk at the same time’, And he called finance minister... Mel Couvelier “an: asshole’’, wo I. didn’t need. Smith | to validate my. opiaion of him and. ' his fellow MLAs. Still, it*s com- ° forting to know my "judgement : “was sound. ; : _ >. Most of ail, ‘though, the tapes Showed me what upsets cabinet ministers,; 2% Expressing “how. “hey felt about the unauthorized recor- ding of Smith's’ cellular ‘telephone: ;calls; “and: . public disclosute ‘of the” tapes? con- ‘ Fe eb oma Dae Srv sme Tac paisa tents, Smith himself said, “There are some things that. leave you feeling empty. And violated.’? ; Vander Zalm stated, ‘‘It’s the worst thing that’s ever happen- ed in the legislature’, ' Couvelier was ‘sickened by the whole thing.” So much violent reaction to recording of a phone call that's as freely accessible to the public as any radio broadcast! But cabinet ministers have stronger stomachs when it comes to the shortage of affor-. dable housing; line-ups at food- banks; our climbing crime rate; families torn apart by alcohol and drugs; hospital wards clos- ed for lack of nurses; or patients waiting for open heart surgery. Puzzling. convulsions. ‘furiously interviewing each per is - hotainlt HMETYDOMPTY SAT OE WAL. HUMPTY DUMP HADE A WRONG CAL... 1 Enough of this VICTORIA _ Members of the . media in general and those of — the legislative press gallery in particular have been spreading a lot of sanctimonious manure these past few days. In the wake of thé] Bud Smith scandal, the unthinkable had happened. The media’s sense of ethics had come under scrutiny, and to make sure the scrutiniz- ing didn’t go any further than it already had, the media worked overtime. The press gallery went into Reporters were other to nail down the boun- daries of ethical behavior. A lot of politicians can only dream of the amount of ink and air time we got. ; Fellow columnist Jim Hume put it very well when he said the _Mmeédia were hyperventilating and in danger of flying up their own rear end. _ Following this intense navel- gazing manoeuvre, the media self-righteously proclaimed that, by and large, their virgini- ty was intact. The attempt to create that image, however, fed largely on the misery of a col- league — Margot Sinclair, the CKVU reporter who became the - ’ ceremonial sacrifice for the rest of us. Sounding more political than a politician, the Province’s Brian Kieran said in a. Van- . couver Sun interview that ‘‘a lot of us are feeling saddened by the events.’ Come on, Brian, you old cynic, you've never felt saddened in your life. John Pifer said on the Rafe- Mair show it was important to note that, if required, the media go after one-of their own with: the same gusto they normally‘ reserve for politicians, even if it hurts. I don’t think, John, you. were hurting all that badly. Next day, he told listeners of | the Bill Good show that he had some serious concerns over the role Debi Pelletier played in the transfer of the tapes to the From the Caplial . . by Hubert Beyer TAKING VALion J NDP’s Moe Sihota. The tapes, containing surrep- titiously recorded telephone conversations between former attorney general Bud Smith and Sinclair, came into Pelletier’s possession a few months ago, When her employer, Broad- cast News, an arm of Canadian Press, refused to go with the ’ story on. the advice of lawyers, Pelletier must have. been somewhat upset. I know J would have been, . ‘ It is the way she accom- modated the transfer of the ‘tapes to Sihota that appears to ' have raised the ire of some of her colleagues. She didn't give the tapes to Sihota, but inform- ‘ed him that somedne had left a package for him in her office. Gallery ‘vice-president Kim Emerson went even further than Pifer. He wanted an ethics com- mittee struck to investigate the role played by gallery members . in the scandal. When his fellow executive members voted: him down, he resigned. Give mea break, gentlemen: Your professed concern for the ethics of your colleagues ‘is nauseatingly sanctimonious. Moreover, it's really none of -your business, And spare me the tale of having to protect the im- age of the press gallery. © The press galiery is not a legal entity., responsibility toward it. We are individuals doing a job out of the same premises. — Each one of us answers to his or . her. employer. -It is. ‘the employer: and no-one-else who should. decide whether a reporter ( or a columnist) has ~eommitted an ethical blunder. GIMME BREAK PIRGRIMS! ! ‘Members have no . , the Socreds wonder how: they cannibalistic mode. ou TEL: BUSH tae ay _ In Pelletier’s ‘case, her employer has reviewed the mat- ter and concluded that she didn’t act‘in an improper man- ner. That should be good _ enough to qualify her for con- tinued membership in the press gallery, even if some of her. col- leagues don’t like it. - In retrospect it’s easy to say - Pelletier should have done-this or that. Some say she should have given the tapes to the police. Really? And have the at- torney general decide. not: to prosecite, as he did in the Bill Reid case? Others suggest Pelletier might have turned the material over "to a colleague. If she's only half; as competitive as some of” her feltow gallery mémbers, that’s not easy. You hate to. give a competitor what promises ta be one of the biggest. scandals: of the decade. What ever the objections, I cannot, for the life of me,: see where Pelletier might have acted ‘improperly, and. I'd feel a lot better if the self-proclaimed - . purists in the press. gallery ‘put an-end to what is beginning. to look like a witch hunt. Sinclair has already thrown in the towel. She has resigned from CKVU,.but not without serving notice to her former col- leagues that she is’ considering legal action ° for invasion ° ‘of privacy. : 7 ‘Last but ‘not least, it should be noted that the ¢ more attention . the media focuses ‘ on itself, the more it draws it away From: the real story ~— the former. ‘at- torney. general's. ‘alleged obstuc- tion of justice.- Needless t say caa keep the media in its current Dau oRe! gra SULONEROM ACH FORANY HoRN!!