A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 11, 1997 TERRACE STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 A Divislon of Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd. ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 ¢ FAX: (250) 638-8432 EMAIL: standard@kermode.net A fresh start FOR MIKE SCOTT, last week’s re-election win was a vindication of his vigilant and embattled criticism of the native land claim process. It’s fair to say the Reform MP has a mandate from the voters to continue on that front. The critics who were loudly predicting his un- ceremonious demise were proved wrong. But this is also an opportunity for Scott to read- just his focus and to be seen as building bridges. Native leaders in Skeena have for three years said they don’t have an MP, clearly indicating they don’t feel represented by Scott. Scott countered by saying he does represent some native people — those who he says are at odds with their tribal leaders and in danger of being dealt out of land claim settlements. Reform leader Preston Manning went so far as to de- scribe these natives as ‘‘small ‘R’ Reformers.” If more than a handful of such people exist, they were not out in force at the polls. Native vil- lages voted overwhelmingly NDP, with only the tiniest number of ballots cast for the Reformer. Scott clearly overplayed that claim to deflect criticism. Now he should take steps to avoid the need to take such measures in the future. He shouldn’t muzzle himself on land claims. But he should ensure he’s visible in native vil- lages, so he’s available to constituents there to work on many other pressing issues. More action and less division would be simply good politics on his part, depriving opponents of ammunition to use against him. As the Reform platform says, it’s time for a fresh start. High stakes 1r’?S.A GOOD THING Glen Clark, doesn’t ac- tually’ have tanks and guns at ‘his. disposal or we'd have a shootin’ war. Our premier’s behaviour in the recent blow-up of the Pacific Salmon Treaty is the latest exam- ple of a pattern of worrisome behaviour. Clark moved quickly to cancel a seabed lease with Ottawa that allows American torpedoes to be tested in a Vancouver Island bay. That done, he looked for more ways to irritate the U.S. and continue to bathe in the media limelight. Clark loves a good fight, which by his defini- tion involves him being able to play David versus the Goliath-of-the-week, with plenty of TV cameras rolling. The enemy — be it Alcan, the Americans or multinational forest companies — is vanquished in the glare of the lights, and Clark captures the headlines he craves. This isn’t about good government. It’s about a premier’s addiction to the politician’s drug of choice — media coverage. Clark is now staking much on securing a Jobs and Timber Accord between the government, the forest industry, and unions, Nothing could be more important for B.C. right now than resolving the issues that trouble the forest industry. But if those talks show signs of collapse, expect the master of brinkmanship to reappear, wielding a big stick and making plenty of threats. Please, Mr. Premier, don’t gamble with the jobs of northerners. a a PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Rick Passmore PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS Jeff Nagel * NEWS SPORTS: Dave Taylor COMMUNITY: Cris Leykauf OFFICE MANAGER: Kathleen Quigley ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Collier, Janet Viveiros, Tracy Cowan TELEMARKETER: Tracey Tomas ADVERTISING ASSISTANT: Emma Law, Kelly Jean TYPESETTING: Sylvana Broman DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur . 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Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents Gy ne ordered m6 Oca from Went on strike... - B XN eget TTT VICTORIA — A couple of weeks back, I wrote a piece on the Multilateral Agreement on Inveshnent, and how it could be that Canada, along with 28 other nations, has been negoti- ating, in total secrecy, what could well spell an end to Ca- nadian sovereignty as we know it. A threat to our sover Sterling Newspapers, which . runs my column in a dozen or so of its papers, posted the piece on the Internet, and an extraordinary thing happened: within days, my electronic mailbox was jammed with responses to my column, not just from British Columbians, but from people around the work], Day after day, there I received between 15 and 20 messages from readers in Brit. . ish Columbia, the rest of Cana-., ... - da and the U.S., and as far away, as Norway, Italy, Germany and Great Britain. The central theme of all these responses was great unease, not just about the proposed agreement, but the fact that the negotiations have been con- ducted in utter secrecy, without any public consultation. And considering the scope of the proposed agreement, that’s cause for Worry. In a nutshell, the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, or MAI for short, is to facilitate the free flow of investment ‘\; a Plekey 7A Roster % . a e = “Js By == o~ ; \\ A jy = " 1 fk = Q : \ ous FROM THE CAPITAL HUBERT BEYER among member nations. One of he more alarming aspects of the agreement is a clause that wouid forbid any government to attach conditions to invest- _ ments. ‘In practical terms, that would mean no government, federal or provincial, could tell poten- tial investors that they have to create jobs. Premier Glen Clark’s Jobs and Timber Ac- cord, which will compel the forest industry to create jobs in retum for receiving tree- cutting rights, would not be permissible, once the agrec- ‘ment is in effect. I’m not the only one who is worried. From the Boston Cambridge Alliance for Demo- cracy came this message: ‘‘At a time when mote responsibili- ty is being shifted to state and local government to deal with social needs, new laws are being drafted at the interna- tional level which will restrict the power of state and [focal government to affect economic development, environmental or labor standards, and the reten- tion of domestic industries.”’ George Monbiot, one of the UK’s leading environ- mentalists, lambasted the Brit- ish media for having so vocally defended the cause of demo- cracy during the recent elec- tions, while completely ignor- ing a serious threat to national sovercignty. “The real future of Britain is being discussed not here, but elsewhere, and in the utmost secrecy. The columnists who have so shrilly defended the sovereigaty of Parliament from the technocrats in Brussels (headquarters of the European Union), have so far failed to devote a single column inch to the shady deliberations of the EU’s bigger brother.”’ The UK media aren’t the only ones who have virtually ignored the MAI. One of the few Canadian newspapers that did touch on the issue was the Telegraph-Joumal in New Brunswick. ‘Looking for an election is- sue to raise when federal can- didates come knocking during this election campaign? Try eignty the MAI on for size. Never heard of it? Join the club,’’ the TJ said in its April 30 editorial. **The premise of the MAI is that global investors ‘ant legal protection of their money when they choose to invest in a foreign country. Against what must it be protected? Any obli- gations a host country may wish to impose on that foreign investment. “The MAI would prohibit any level of government from imposing job creation require- ments, local hiring quotas or procurement rules, require- ments to reinvest profiis into research and development, or special taxation rules to cap- ture a portion of exported prof- its — in short, anything that would restrict profit-making or laking on foreign companies investing in;say, Canada.”’ Well, the MAI didn’t become an election issue. The Liberals avoided it like the plague, the Tories and Reform presumably like the agreement, and Alexa McDonough didn’t have a clue when it was first raised. In my books, the Multilateral Agreement on Investment is a ‘Charter of Rights’’ for multi- national corporations, and if we're nor careful, it will make minced meat out of our own Charter of Rights. Beyer can be reached at Tel: 920-9300; Fax: 385-6783; E- Mail: hubert@coolcom.com Gaffes, mark vote We expect politicians to in- dulge in overblown rhetoric during an election campaign. Then, just when we think it’s safe to put away our shovel and Wellingtons, along comes a reporter asking for a view of the election result. Burbled Hedy Fry, re-elected Liberal MP from the Van- couver area, ‘‘We’re the only national party with members from every province.’’ She overlooked Nova Scotia where the Liberals were shut out. Skeena’s re-elected MP, Mike Scott, says his Reform party ‘hopes in the next three of four years io be able to build bridges to Quebec.’’ These will be some bridges! By com- parison, Cape Breton’s Con- federation bridge will be a midget. Before any foundation can be built on a bridge to reach Quebec at least key Reformers will have to make a token ef- fort to learn to speak French. Along with a barber, Man- THROUGH BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI iting should have found bim- self a French tutor. A minimal ability to converse in French might have won him more seats. Even Gilles Duceppe speaks English. “'There’s a finc line between insulting a political party and insulting the people who voted for it,’ wrote Mark Leiren- Young in a May 29 opinion piece published in The West- 1% ae "excusable. erm Producer. Critics of all stripes should keep that in mind when they're analyzing election —resulis. Charest especially should bear that in mind when he’s dis- missing Manning. News stories of polling sta- tion foulups are disconcerting. One woman claims her daughter was unable to vote because the polling station had run out of registration forms; the daughter was unable ta reg- ister, unable to vote. If that story is true, it’s in- Elections Canada had only one job to do and mouths to prepare. Even a corner grocery, faced with a sudden shortage of vanilla ice cream on a sunny holiday weekend, will scoot around to the nearest market and stock up to continue serving its clientele, Couldn’t the polling station have brought in extra supplies when it saw the stack dwindling? Elections Canada's job is ee ae about as narrow as a job can get. Each voter is entitled to only one ballot. No family packs. Untike running shoes or cars, the ballot comes in only one size and one color. And it’s free, There’s no calculating either PST or GST, no making change no offering refunds or exchanges, no extending credit, and neo test drives. If news reports are true, all did not go smoothly on elec- tion day. Besides the half- awake staff and groggy voters — thanks to Anna Terrace’s notion we should all vote at the same time regardless of our time zone — in some cases, signs weren't in place; voters couldn’t tcll where to go. Then there was Sas- katchewan, still voting after CBC had announced election results, Why? Because Elec- tions Canada skimped on its homework. Otherwise it would have realized Saskatchewan hasn’t sprung forward or back for decades. , Now ‘You'VvE TE § II | DONE Th if: