A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 31, 2001 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 Bed sores FIRST, A tip of the hat to the provincial govern-. ment for the planned spring $2.3 million con- struction start of 22 beds of supportive housing beside Terraceview Lodge. It?s been more than a decade since the idea first arose and after several valiant but unsuccessful local efforts, the project is finally going ahead. Having said that, Skeena NDP MLA Helmut Giesbrecht is justifiably angry and upset over the lack of action concerning another long-awaited - proposal — $400,000 to create an eight-bed alter- nate care ward at Mills Memorial Hospital. Here’s the situation. Mills, as is the case with many other hospitals in the province, has as pa- tients elderly people who don’t really need to be in a hospital. What they need is to be in an exten- ded care facility such as Terraceview Lodge. But because there is no where else for them to g0 until a space can be found in an extended care facility, these people end up in the hospital in acute care beds really meant for people who do need medical care. This restricts the ability of the hospital to do what it is there to do and uses up nurses, Mills wants the alternate care ward to free up acute care beds and because these people can be taken care of by care aides, it helps ease the criti- cal shortage of nurses. Back in December Mr. Giesbrecht thought he had found an answer. The health action plan an- nounced that month pledged to create 2000 multi level care beds across the province over the next three years. Seventeen of these beds are to be lo- cated in the northwest:: ghana UP die stiee cy: foes os ‘What Mr.:Giesbrecht-wants to do is‘use some: of the money for those beds to provide immedi- ate relief to Mills. The Terrace and Area Health Council, which runs Mills, says it has the space and facilities already in hand for a relatively low cost, quick and reasonable solution. All it needs is the money. . | The problem is that Mr. Giesbrecht cannot get the government bureaucracy to budge on this issue. What’s worse is that health minister Corky Evans cannot seem to do it either. Instead, the stage has apparently been set for some kind of long and elaborate planning process to decide the fate of these 17 beds. The money will remain frozen until this happens. Health care planners will no doubt have their reasons why all of this has to take so long. They will point out that the concept of multi level care beds does not extend to a hospital Setting. That may be fine from their perspective, but. when a proposal such as the ward for Mills is on the table every effort must be made to be innova- tive. It’s time for Mr. Evans to slam his fist on the table and do a little hollering. 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Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents ‘OF COURSE I'M FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE: $700,000 OF LEGAL SERVICES AND A 850, 000 IRIE OF | she calls them as she sees them VICTORIA - It’s a sad day when a governor-general of Canada is accused of med- dling in politics because she speaks out against the poverty and hopelessness of aboriginal people. But that’s what happened during Governor General Adri- enne Clarkson’s recent tour of northern Labrador’s Innu com- munities. Overwhelmed by the abject poverty in what we sing of as the true North, strong and free, . Clarkson said Canadians must wake up to the reality that na- tive people across the country are living in Third-World con- ditions. And she doesn’t think that her non-political office as head of state should prevent ‘her: from. bringing that tothe ~: .. Country's attention; ‘although. some: politicians have said they think otherwise, “I think Canadians have to be made aware of it,” she told a reporter. “I don’t think I,m constrained by it.I have to be able ta make this real to all Canadians so they understand it” Bang on, Madam Clarkson. This Canadian, for one, . ap- plauds your determination not to wave the white flag to cow- ardly and self-serving politi- Aamitting am JANUARY 18 | tuned in near the sign off of Larry King Live as King asked his guest, a po- litical type, what he thought of Reverend Jesse Jackson’s re- velation. Or words to that ef- fect. It became clear in sends Rev. Jackson had admitted to an extramarital affair. Next night Jay Leno told a Jesse Jackson one liner, Still no explanation of his misdeed. Finally, Monday’s Province laid out the story. Jackson fathered a child, now 20 months old, by a woman wha worked for him. Did Jackson deny the affair? Disowa the child? Look through his wife and TV ca- meras and deny everything? Not Rev. Jackson. He imme- diately admitted the affair and apologized for it. Sunday he attended church in Chicago as usual where he told the con- gregation, “Life is not a FROM. THE CAPLTAL HUBERT BEYER cians who would have you be seen but not heard. Clarkson visited Davis Inlet and Sheshatshui. Both com- munities received national at- tention last fall when images of teenagers sniffing gasoline were shown on national televi- - sion. Some of those ‘kids are’ “now in “detox cénters ‘in’ the” soulh The governor-general’s visit was at the invitation of Innu leaders who wanted her to see for herself what poverty, alco- holism, teen solvent abuse and the absence of any hope for the future do to their commu- nities. ; Part of Clarkson’s chutzpah in her present job as ‘the Queen’s representative and Canada’s head of ‘state stems from her earlier career ‘as a. THROUGH BIFOGALS | CLAUDETTE SANDECKI Straight line. There are curves in the road.” Contrast Jackson’s honesty and integrity with former pre- sident Bill Clinton’s lack of both. Clinton, denied, even under oath, ever having any- thing to do with that woman, Monica Lewinsky. For months meee TMA SPRUCE SEED Reed DRIFTING DOWN A ae NALLEY'! TET LAND pee ON THE MOIST SHADY wees NORTH FACING SLOPE ie LE! But No! ON THE DRY SouTH FACINGSIOFE AND bmegeg ee IT MA GONWA LAND 7) CBC television journalist. In that life, she also came in contact with the problems that still plague the country’s abor- iginal population. And I know exactly how she feels. [ have travelled in her shoes. As a reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press some 35 years aga, I, toa, saw first- hand the deplorable conditions of native people in northern Maniioba. Clarkson wants to do more than just speak out for aborigi- nal communities. She wants to establish a fund that would pay for com- munity and recreation centers | in northern communities. One of the Innu leaders was looking forward to the reloca- tion of his community to a place. that, had. running .watér,. Wrap your mind arougd: that. °. one for a moment. Most of us couldn't conceive of living with no running water. In some of northern Labra- dor’s communities, kids have been taken off gas sniffing by getting them involved in ska- ting. Not the elaborate affairs of posh southern skating rinks but water carted to make-shift tinks by truck. . And it works. The kids have taken to their new activity with a vengeance and many istake is he bluffed his way through in- terviews, legal hearings and swom testimony. While Clinton denied, his family suffered. Legal bulls mounted, robbing the Ameri- cans of money that would have been better spent on health care or the homeless. In the end, the day before George Bush took over as president, in exchange preventing for further legal proceedings against him afier he left office, Clinton agreed to give up his right to practise law in the State of Arkansas for five years. The withdrawal of his li- cens¢ was punishment for hav- ing lied under cath. Jackson confessed inomedia- tely, protecting the dignity and good name of Karin Stanford, taking responsibility for father- ing her child, and Sparing his wife and family untold agony. If only Clinton had been as have forsaken solvent abuse, You really have to wonder what is wrong when a country as rich as Canada allows some of its people to live in condi- tions that are comparable to those in Third-World countries, How can the Canadian Al- liance talk of tax relief while aboriginal communities are without running water and can- not escape the cruel grip of poverty? How did we get be a country in which a government must pay close to $900,000, most of it to lawyers, because a politi- cian wrote an stupid letter to the editor and didn’t have the decency to apologize? Bad enough that Canada has teduced its foreign aid to em- barrassingly low levels. But it zis -to her lasting shame_.that it... doesn’t even look after its awn.’ destitute, meee I hope the governor-general . will use the remaining time in office to continue to speak out on behalf of Canada’s underpri- vileged. Canadians can take pride in having as a head of state a woman of compassion and courage. Beyer can be reached at: E-mail: hubert@coolcom.com; | Tel (250) 381-6900; Web hitp:/iwww.hubertbeyer.com best considerate of Lewinsky’s feel- ings and his family’s dignity. If more people had Jackson’s backbone and moral standards lawyers and comedians might suffer,but no one else. Had the officials in Water- ton, Ontario been honest, proud of their work, seven lives would have been spared and more wouldn’t have suffered possible permanent health impairment because of pollution in the community's drinking water. - that 2000 citizens Watching the Waterton hear- - ings is sickening and madden- ing. Staff responsible for safe water blithely admit they didn’t know their jobs, and when tests revealed - contamination. they ‘kept mum, even doctored lab reports. : Jesse Jackson missed a tura in the road, but his quick ad- mission left no one time to print a tees shirt.