Opinion Volume 80 Issue No. 3 TheReview New community cenire Time To get started Less than two weeks from now there will be a tuming point in the life of a local organization. It could mean the continuation of an outdated facility. Or it could be the beginning of a new era in facilities. People will make the difference. The annual general meeting and election of a board of directors for the Sidney and North Saanich Community Hall Association, or SANSCHA, is scheduled for Jan. 28 at 7:30 p.m. at Sanscha Hall. Sanscha is a fledgling organization which has seen its membership decline in recent years. However, there might be a new role for a rejuvenated association to play in the community, one that would see it spearhead one of the most important community undertakings that will be contemplated over the next year or so. Many within the Memorial Park Society (MPS) are looking to Sanscha to get the ball rolling — whip up support and raise the money needed to build a new hall on MPS lands, near where Sanscha Hall now stands. At its most basic level, the relationship between the MPS and Sanscha is simple. The MPS holds society lands at Sanscha Park and Blue Heron Park in trust for the public. The trustees have the authority to lease to an operator, but they cannot operate a hall, nor can they seize the initiative for replacing Sanscha Hall. The venerable old hall has been leased to Sanscha, whose five-year lease expired at the end of 1991. One o0tion now is for a new Sanscha to grab hold of the community centre project. At a public meeting called by the MPS in November on planning a new facility, some members felt the society should sell some of its land, using the proceeds for a new hall. The same group wants the MPS to use its bank account to partially finance construction of a new hall. However, many MPS directors are against this proposal. It would mean breaking the trust under which they operate. A trust that, depending on legal interpretations, could be changed if approved by a public referendum. The only way the society can dispose of land is through expropriation, the source of the bank account. The original concept of the trust was to administer lands donated as a war memorial. The lands became an athletic park dedicated to the memory of those killed in the First World War. Many believe the trust is a sacred document that should not be changed. Now the situation is in limbo. Someone has to get on with the job of planning for a new community centre. There is a demonstrated need on the Peninsula for such a centre, especially if it incorporates facilities for youth-oriented activities. If concemed citizens aren’t willing to get involved the project will falter. The Peninsula needs the focus a community centre provides, a place where groups can hold their meetings, youths can take part in activities, shows can be held. MPS members say the best place for such a facility is nght where Sanscha Hall is now. But to make it happen will require dedicated individuals, able to face the necessary tough decisions and get on with the job at hand. The time has come for a building that is more versatile, designed with imagination and able to accommodate organi- zations from all areas in comfort. No..ITS NOTA TU COMMERCIAL FOR FEDELAL EXPRESS. TIM JUST STAYING HERE A WHILE To Wednesday, January 15,1992 — A6 GET USED TO LIVING IN A $300- A-MONTH APARTMENT. TOLUCA ™° Review Serving the Saanich Peninsula ; Since 1912 9726 - First St. P-O. Box 2070 Sidney, B.C. V8L3C9 Sidney, B.C. V8L3S5 656-1151 Publisher: Rory McGrath Editor: Glenn Werkman — Reporters: Valorie Lennox Advertising: Brian Wyatt — Girard Hengen Corrie Morozoff Production Manager: Tamie Sargeant Office Manager: Lori Fitzpatrick Circulation Manager: Wendy Denison AN ISLAND PUBLISHERS NEWSPAPER Im BCYGNA BScrn™ MUN] SS BRITISH COLUNEIA ys AND YUKON Ve, ae COMMUNITY 8, i Bas fea NEWSPAPERS prs tens 2 5 ASSOCIATION PAPERS COMN CONTROLLED Hampers helped wiih generousity Editor: In this message from the Sidney Lions-Review Christmas Hamper Fund and Sidney and Peninsula Kiwanis Toy Drive we want to wish all residents of our commun- ity a very happy and healthy new year. Only through your efforts were we able to give a merrier Christ- mas to a lot of our residents. Through all your generous dona- tions of money and food we man- aged to service 1,345 people with 452 hampers. Your monetary donations broke all past records. This year over $31,000 and approximately $15,000 worth of food products was collected. Toys donated to the Kiwanis were far and above expectations and I believe every child received more than one toy. In these turned-down times everyone came through and for this the Sidney Lions and Kiwanis can only say thank you. To the non-Lions who volun- teered their time to man the office — do come back again next year as we could not have done it without you. You are great and | thank you. We do ail live in the best part of Vancouver Island — God bless the people of the Peninsula and Sid- ney by the Sea and may we all be better citizens for our accomplish- ments. g Andy Andrew Project Chairman Sidney Lions Club Anglers delighted with boat ramp Editor: I am writing to you on behalf of a small group of North Saanich fisherman who are pleased and delighted at the decision of the North Saanich council to support a boat launching ramp next to fed- eral department of Fisheries and Oceans’ property and the sea plane base on Pat Bay. A ramp on the northwest side of the Peninsula is long overdue and opens a whole new world of fishing opportunities within rea- sonable travelling time that have been just out of reach for the average angler launching at the Tulista Park ramp. I hope this letter stimulates other letters of support. On behalf of some enthusiastic Deep Cove anglers; Brooke Tomlin North Saanich Stiffer sentences good for youths Editor: In Maclean’s magazine dated Dec. 9 it was stated that Minister of Justice Kim Campbell has said that changes will be made to the Young Offenders Act. She said the maximum penalties for murder by youths will be increased to five years from three years and make it more likely that judges will transfer young offen- ders age 12 to 17 to adult court for trial. This decision should please all Canadians, but I do think the names of young offenders should also be published. The law should also be changed when murder and rape by adults is so prevalent these days. Stiffer sentences should also be handed out for these crimes with no possi- bility of parole. The state of juvenile crime is, in my opinion, also due to the lack of discipline in schools and in the homes of parents. Hubert de Burgh Sidney Smoking is also a form of abuse Editor: A British medical survey recently concluded that: “Passive smoking by children results in a wide range of conditions including meningitis, cystic fibrosis and vul- nerability to cancer.” Someone I know, a single parent I'll call Jenny (not her real name) was sexually abused throughout her childhood by first a family friend and then an uncle. The emotional wounds she suf- fered have healed remarkably well and she has never sought any king of legal retribution. Unfortunately, Jenny, like many of her friends, gets through at least a pack of cigarettes per day, thereby subjecting her six-year-old son to a constant, carcinogenic cloud of second-hand smoke. Ironically, even though an other- wise loving, vigilant and protective mother, Jenny is, to me, just as guilty of “child abuse” as were those two adults from her past ... perhaps even more so because she knows. that the damage she is causing her son may ultimately prove fatal. Of course the sexual abuse of children is universally abhorrent! However the fact that millions of Canadian youngsters are forced every day to risk the consequences of their elders’ tobacco addiction is equally as repulsive. In the near future, I suspect, we will read of terminally ill young adults suing their parent(s) for “child abuse” ... and with so much information currently availa- ble warning of the dangers of “passive” smoking ... who in all consciousness will blame them? Peter J. Hedge Sidney Welcome breaking of socialist chains Editor: Last year the- collapse of the Berlin Wall. This year we see the collapse of socialism, after 70 years of socialist tyranny — with millions murdered and millions sent to the cruelest prison labor camps in the world, never to be heard from again. The hammer and sickle was feared by nations around the world. It was a socialist failure of gigantic proportions, and now on Christmas Day, 1991 it disappears with barely a whimper. May Lenin Continued on Page A8 —————