Aa - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, July 26, 1995 -

7 TERRACE. —__—
ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 sO

ADDRESS: 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C. * V8G 188
TELEPHONE: (604) 638-7283 » FAX: (604) 638-8432
"+. MODEM: (604) 638-7247

The right stuff ||.

“IF NOT now, when? Because we will never
give up.”” .

That’s a line from one of the new Nisga’a
Tribal Council public service messages you'll be
seeing a lot of on television. It’s a telling state-
ment for its sense of the Nisga’a frustration and
determination surrounding their land claim.

There’s a similar sense of frustration among
other people. It’s growing because of the newest
pothole in the Nisga’a land claim highway — the
dispute between the federal and provincial
governments over who pays for what.

This need not be the case for lost among the ac-
cusations and counter accusations about the
money end of the deal is the news that the three
parties all but had an agreement in principle
sewn up. It fell apart not because of what was in
the deal but over the money angle. In other
words there are two separate things happening
here — the guts of the treaty deal and the dispute
over money. ©

With that being the case, we argue that the three
parties should release to the public the details of
the agreement in principle.

The impacts, benefits and ramifications of the
agreement in principle are of extreme importance
to everybody who lives up here. The agreement
in principle sets out the new terms by which the
Nisga’a will relate to the rest of the northwest
and how we will relate to the Nisga’a. In tum,
the agreement in principle sets out the broad
form of the eventual treaty.

We have a right to know what’s in the agree-

ment in principle. The dispute between the feder- |
a] and provincial governments should not take»

away from that right. The reasoning is very

simple. Taxpayers will end up paying for treaty

costs regardless of how the governments divide
the costs. |

We also argue for release of the agreement in
principle because it will represent the first offi-
cial acknowledgement of the outline of an
eventual treaty.

Up until now, the three parties have been claim-
ing secrecy prevents them from talking openly.
the details that have surfaced came from
Strategic leaks by all three parties designed to
further their own cause or to compromise the
positions of others.

A release of the details can only restore a sense
of dignity to the talks and start building a trust
relationship that'll be crucial to a treaty’s final
outcome. re

Happy holiday

IF YOU'RE thinking of buying a house, better
hope that Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau is
having a good vacation. Speculation is that his
post-vacation mood is going to have a big impact
on the Quebec government’s plans for a fall
separation referendum.

The more touchy the referendum is the greater
the potential there is for a shaky Canadian dollar
and that’ll affect interest and mortgage rates.
Only in Canada could this happen.

ci} PUBLISHER/ EDITOR: Rod Link
wonals ADVERTISING MANAGER: Mike L, Hamm
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur
NEWS Jeff Nagel * NEWS SPORTS: Maicolm Baxter
COMMUNITY: Cris Leykaut
OFFICE MANAGER: Rose Fisher, Terry Miller
ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS:
Sam Collier, Janet Viveiros, Tracey Tomas
' COMMUNITY SERVICE/TELEMARKETER: Monique Belanger
ADVERTISING ASSISTANT: Helen Haselmeyer
DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur COMPOSITOR: Shannon Cooper

CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Karen Brunetle
‘ MEMBER OF B.C. PRESS COUNCIL Donk,

Serving tha Tertace and Thornhill area, Published on Wediesday of each week by Cariboo Pross (1969)
Ud. at 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, British Columbia. . re
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Special thanks to aff our contributors and correspondents
for thelr time and talents

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VICTORIA — ‘“‘Kathy
Szoboticsanic looks more like
a Kitsilano roller-blading babe
than a prostitute,’’ says the
lead of a story written by
Roberta Staley for the Van-
couver Province newspaper
recently. ;

Just what the hell does she
‘think prostitutes look like?
Hags? Demons? Most of the
ones I see patrolling Govermn-
ment Street in Victoria Look
pretty, just like some of the
young female cops trying to
put an end to a millenia-old
profession in Vancouver these
days. ;

Szobolicsanic has been
posing a8 a prostitute in Van-
couver’s Mount Pleasant dis-
trict. Every day, she and seven
male colleagues go trolling for.
Johns.. Szoboticsanic negotia-'
tes the sex act and price with
the customer and then signals
to her nearby colleagues that
the arrangements are com-
pleted. Shortly after, the John
is arzested by police officers
who arrive at the scene in an
unmarked car.

The four-month, $16,000
city-funded program started
June 1. Its aim is to drive the
sex trade out of the com-
munities of Mount Pleasant
and Kingsway. So far, more
than 150 men have been ar-
rested,

WHEN I voted ‘Yes’ in the ti-
brary expansion referendum, I
did so to gain air conditioning.
I didn’t expect a library built
for the twenty-first century to

be as uncomfortable as the old ©

one,

When I visit the Terrace li-.
brary now on a humid day I’m
prepared to be greeted by staff
wearing hula skirts, waving
palm fronds, and swaying
languid to Don Ho's
Hawaiian rhythms,

Library expansion costs may
have come in close to budget
on the construction phase...
but too bad it was achieved
only by hacking various extras
off the project earlier on. Ex-
tras such as a basement meet-
ing room, book security sys-
tem, and air conditioning,

Because original expansion
plans called for air condition-
ing, the windows were built
scaled shut. Staff cannot regu-
late temperature or humidity.
The only way to admit fresh
air is by propping open an out-

“FROMTHE CAPITAL
HUBERT BEYER

The courts, however, don’t
scem to share the city’s
urgency. Aside from the con-
siderable cmbarrassment that
comes with being arrested and
appearing in court for having

tried to buy sex, the men were —

given either unconditional dis-
charges or fined $100.
And even if police succeed in
driving the prostitutes out of
the communities, they'll show
up elsewhere, and the Johns
will follow. The answer is not
to fight prostitution, but to
contro] it. And the only way to
do that is to decriminalize it,
What has people upset is that
prostitutes openly solicit busi-
ness on the streets of residen-
tial neighborhoods. What with

' the traffic that generates, and

the sometimes blue language,

No airconditioning?

THROUGH BIFOCALS
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

ANOTHER FLAT
AND MY SPARE'S. ,
BACK AT MARTEN'S..

er door When this was
resorted to during a recent
Scorcher, a CD player was
stolen from an office. That’s
what used to happen in the old
building, too.

Nonetheless the library board
chair says “only cosmetic fea-
tures were axed. Nothing was
chopped that really had an ef-
fect on the operational side of
building.”*

Oh?!

In my book, being over-

BuT YOU DON'T
EVEN KNow ME!

folks living in the neighbor-
hood aren’t exactly thrilled.

Add to that discarded con-
doms and needles used by
drug- addicted prostitutes, and
you can understand people’s
frustration and anger. The
solution is relatively easy:
move the women off the
streets. And you do that by
making the whole business
legal and allowing the estab-
lishment of permanent
brothels.

It’s not an especially new
idea. Most European countries
have gone that route. Brothels
range in size from accom-
modating a dozen to several
hundred — prostitutes. The
women are licensed, must un-
dergo regular medical checks,
carty an AIDS-free certificate::.

The women pay rent to the,

owner of the building who is,
in turn, licensed by the govern-
ment. Rents are regulated by
the government, which rules
out exploitation of the women

by the landtord,

Opponents of decriminaliz-
ing and regulating prostitution
claim that it wouldn’! get ali
prostitutes off the streets. I beg
to differ. If men seeking the
company of a prostitute had a
choice of going to a brothel
without running the risk of
being hauled into court, they

wouldn’t be foolish enough to

heated and sweaty very much
affects the operational side of a
building,

Having worked as a young
stenographer through several
hot 1950 summers in Sas-
katoon City Hospital’s original
building with its heal-
absorbing brick walls and solar
pancl skylight, I strongly
empathize with library staff.

There’s no efficiency or
comfort working with damp
shirts clinging to their ribs like
Saran wrap, peeling their
sticky arms off metal desks, or
tugging cotton clothing loose
from moist skin before they
move, It wouldn’t help to sell
tour tickets, either,

As a patron, I can skip visit-
ing the library on a hot day or
curtail my visit. But staff must
stay and suffer,

Besides energy-sapping heat J]

and humidity, ‘building dis-
case’? could be a real risk.

‘Communicable diseases, too,

may flourish in the enclosed
atmosphere, causing staff to

TAKE My
TRUCK Hl

Crazy

seek gratification in the streets,
The only problem that
wouldn't go away is child
prostitution. Since under-age
girls wouldn’t be licenced by
the government, young girls’ .
being forced into the sex trade
by circumstances, ranging
from having been sexual as- | ~
sault victims, to coming from
wrecked homes, to being ad-. —
dicted to drugs, would con-'
tinue trying to make money on
the streets. O48
But the horrific problem of , -
child . prostitution won't be
solved by police methods ei- ‘
ther. It’s a social problem that ..
needs different solutions which
have to do with love and com-. :
passion, not arrest. 7
Most prostitutes are adults,
and not all of them have a drug | .:

problem, They are the ones a

who would’ benefit from the

legalization of prostitution. -
And so would society as: a: |
whole, because people in. -
residential neighbouhoods .,-
would no be subjected to the ©
seedy aspects that accompanies .. .
unregulated street prostitution,

As for the location of :
brothels, I’m sure we can find,
the proper places, away from. ©
residential neighborhoods. And ©
the sooner government takes”?

the necessary steps, the better,

lake extra sick leave.

Still, lack of air conditioning
has advantages.

Power bills will be less. The':.
library will be quieter without |
the hum. Air currents won't
flutter papers ta the floor, And
sealed windows mean traffic .
noises are reduced as are risks. ©
of breakins. _

Heat waves will discourage
patrons or shorten their visits,
reducing wear-and tear on car-
pel and books; staff will have
more time for behind-the-.:

Time to legalize sex sale |

Scenes duties. Computers will.” i

be freed up; students may.
choose to stay home and use a. ©
ballpoint. '
And a Glenn Gould like me_
who must wear a greatcoat ©
while shopping in a super-
market can browse the stacks ..
without shivering — so long as
can conquer my~
claustrophobia. .
Somehow, a new library
without air conditioning is lke -.
a birthday cake without ’

candles. No shine,