A4- The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, November 18, 1994

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

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

Bare faced

EVERY SO often politicians take a swipe at the |

media for being excessively cynical.

Yet their actions often fuel that attitude.

Take, for example, the press release fired out by the provincial Ministry of Forests on October 23.

In that release, minister Andrew Petter ‘‘announces’’ the province will establish a ‘“credit system to help increase the wood supply available to the value-added manufacturers.’?

After a few judicious quotes touching all the motherhood issue bases, the minister describes the proposal as having been “‘developed’’ by the Forest Sector Strategy Committee’s Industry Structure Working Group.

However, if you read to the very end of the two-page release, you'll find a section titled ‘Consultation with stakeholders’. And if you

look at the questions that stakeholders will be .

asked to answer, it becomes very clear this proposal has in no way been ‘‘developed’’,

It’s just a bright idea the group came up with without knowing how or even if it will work.

There’s nothing wrong with good ideas, but the release attempts to make it more than it is.

Which invites a cynical reaction,

Oh, and if you check the calendar, you’ll find Oct. 23 was a Sunday, not a day anyone is likely to be sitting in an office in Victoria ready to ans- wer reporters’ questions on the release.

The implication of that timing is transparent: the political machine has calculated daily news outlets are unlikely to wait a day to get clarifica- tion and risk being “‘scooped’’. |

So they’ll probably settle for running a version of the release and voila, the government gets out the message it wants in words of its choosing.

The tactic is fair enough according the rules of the game of politics. .

But the players shouldn’t be surprised if some- one points out the Emperor in this case is wear- ing no clothes.

Foolishness

THE DISTURBING pattern of Canadian courts acquitting people who claim they can’t take re- sponsibility for criminal acts because they were too drunk to know what they were doing con- tinues. The latest example is a man in Alberta who was charged with beating his wife but got off by using drunkenness as an excuse.

It’s a heck of way to greet this week as alcohol and drug awareness week. Governments tell us not to abuse alcohol and drugs. Yet when we do and then commit criminal acts, the very same governments permit us an easy out,

By now the federal government, which sets criminal law in this country, must be aware that the rapidly growing list of precedents relating to alcohol as an excuse stands as an affront to all citizens and poses a danger to the safeguarding of society.

Clearly the rights of those charged with crimes as a result of alcohol abuse cannot be allowed to override the rights of other individuals and society to expect protection, justice and common sense.

The sooner the federal government enacts legis- lation to stop this judicial] foolishness, the better.

ig) *CNA

PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ; ADVERTISING MANAGER: Mike L. Hamm PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgcur NEWS COMMUNITY: Jeff Nagel * NEWS SPORTS: Malcolm Baxter OFFICE MANAGER: Rose Fisher

DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Collier, Janct Viveiros, CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Charlene Malthews

Serving the Tetrace area. Published on Wednesday of each week by Caribao Press (1959) Lid, al 484;

Lazella Ave., Teitace, British Columbia. Poets

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Reproduction in whole or in part, without wiitten permission, Is specifically prohibited, :

Authorized ag second-class mail pending the Post Olfice Department, for payment of postaga In cash.

CaN te

Spectal thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for thelr time andtalents

MAYBE YOU SHOULD ” STOP READING ABOUT

THE BRITISH ROYALTY. FORA WHILE...

™~

rs

Dream Team sells us out

VICTORIA — The sorry spectacle of Canada’s political and business leaders wallow- ing up to the Chinese tough is cnough to make me gag. Throw a few billion bucks in trade at us, and we're willing to close our eyes to their alro- cious human rights record. Hell, what’s a few thousand deaths at Tiananmen Square in Peking compared with the sale of a couple of Candu reactors? Get those trade deals rolling, and damn the torpedoes, “Team Canada,”’ the trade mission which includes the prime minister, nine premiers, two territorial leaders, a couple of mayors and a few hundred

aus business leaders, went to

China, asked ever so politely if we can do business, and came away crowing.

Prime Minister Chreticn’s visit, we're told, has been ac- corded a higher status by Chinese leaders than trips by most other foreign dignitaries. He raied a full-Dedged minis- ter as official host. Others get a mere Vicc-premicr.

What did you expect? Cana- da has a good reputation in the international community. When Canada chooses to ig- nore China’s human rights abuses, it means something.

How the political henchmen of China must have gloated

_ trade and _

-FROM THE CAPITAL - HUBERT BEYER

‘when Chretien told students ‘ and teachers at the Bejing Uni-

versity that Canada and China need closer ties to promote international stabilily.

“You will bring an ancient culture into the 21st century in a way that respects your proud history. You will be the ar- chitects of — international engagement for the next century,”’ he said.

What of the students who were massacred at Tiananmen Square, Prime Minister? Didn’t they have dreams of being the architects of their country’s future?

Ah, bul we must let bygones be bygones. We can far better help China achieve a measure of democracy if we tie them

more closely to us. I believe that’s the usual drivel dished up in support of trade at the ex- pense of human rights.

Unless, of course, we're dealing with a small country, whose trade potential we can afford to ignore. Canada didn’t stand to lose too much by im- posing trade sanctions on South Africa, and even then it took same time.

China is a different kettle of fish altogether. Here’s a coun- ty with a population of more than two billion, hungry for technology and consumer goods, So what if they throw their people in jail for wanting a little say over their own lives, Business comes first...

_ Not that the practice is pare ‘ticularly new. History bas re-

corded some fine examples, During the First World War, the German military-industrial giant Krupp provided the Ger- man army with steel for tanks that couldn’t be penctrated by any existing shells.

Soon after, there were shells that penetrated the fank walls. And the very'same Krupp was supplying them to the other side via neutral countries. Hey, business is business.

_Frior to the Second World War, the American company

“AT&T invested heavily in

Germany. And even as the first

Jews were rounded up, AT&T was making handsome. profits from ils German factories.

The kicker came when after the war, AT&T demanded reparations from the U.S. government for having bombed its factorics in Germany. Need we be sur-

prised that in 1994, business is,

once again, winning over hu- man rights and decency?

By the time you read this, Team Canada” will be back, The prime minister will gloat

over the billions of dollars in -

trade he nailed down while Visiling China. And our own Premier Harcourt will ramble on about our favourable position as a Pacific

‘Rim -country. : iy How soon they forget. Not

one self-respecting country should have done business wilh China until its leaders change . their ways. China should have remained an out- cast. If South Africa has taught us one thing it’s that eventual- ly, ade sanctions do work.

But the temptation of doing .

business with China was ir- Tesistible. For a few lousy pieces. of silver, Canada has sold out the people wha would bring: democracy to China, to say nothing of our own self- Tespect.

And here’s one for Archie

INTEGRITY IS a key to sur- vival of any business. I hope for integrity in every company I buy from but I never cx- pected integrity from a door- to-door salesman or his pro- duct.

But two years ago I met it on a golden August afternoon when Archic McKechuie sold me a gallon of Econo-Clean alter demonstrating how well it removed ballpoint from velvet and after I phoned city hall to make sure he was licensed and his company legitimate.

Thank heaven the cleaner works as advertised or I'd never hear the end of my in- vesiment - $90 for a gallon. My sanity was questioned - even by me. Had F paid a ransom for a gallon of what might prove to be nothing more than blue-dyed water?

I worried I might have fallen victim to the old switcherao - demonstrate an effective pro- duct, but sell me a useless sub- stilule, then skecdaddiec out of

WE WERE INTRIGUED

CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

town,

The cleaner is meant to be used diluted « 1:30 for glass, gencral polishing and light dirt, 1:10 for taking tar off fenders and other heavier jobs. So I had bought the equivalent of 30 gallons of cleancr. Nonethe- less I guarded that jug like a penguin with her single chick.

Less than a month after I bought il, an arsonist burned our house down all around it, The gallon sat on a high shelf

} We Love worxsHoPs!

five feet from the partition where firemen stopped the fire. The plastic jug was smoke- blackened, but had fost no cleancr despite a pinhole from a spark a whisker above the liquid line.

‘I salvaged the gallon by transferring it to a plastic milk jug. From the first I was miserly about doling out the cleancr. It’s recommended to be used in dilutions. Archie deplores those who reason, ‘‘If one cap- ful is good, two capfuls will be better.””

A year after my purchase, Archie stopped in to say hello and to see if I wanted to buy more. I still had half a gallon. I told him [’d be ready to buy more in 1994.

Summer 1994 arrived; Ar- chie didn’t, As summer waned, I dreaded Sunday momings, my cleaning time, because. the supply bottle was approaching empty. Each Sunday I'd buoy

my spirits telling myself that,

one day soon Archie will show up at the gate, leather jacket hooked over one shoulder, a spray bottle of cleaner in one jean pocket, a terry cloth in the other.

calendar to October I faced the fact Archie probably wasn’t

coming to Terrace this year.

My supply was Icss than a quarter cup.

-IT had Archie’s yellow busi- ness card in my desk drawer. I

dialled the 1-800- mimber of ~

the Calgary office ... and was amazed,

Calgary instantly knew who I was, connecling my name to a

column I'd wrilten in 1992 —

which Archie carrics in his ring binder sandwiched ‘in plastic next to his business licence, He had Icft instructions to ship C.O.D. if] ordered,

Before the week was out I __

had my shipment of Econo

Clean. BS

That's integrity.

YA CONVERT MY xX U- To

extremely

Finally, when I turned the

BY YOUR INVITATION ES CAPE THE OFFICE ! A PROPANE “To SAVE MONEY # To A WORKSHOF ON FREE TRIPS Goo Food. GREAT | HERE. A AND THE ENVIRONMENT 1, ECONOMIC CO BUILD UP LIEU TIMELY 1g my worKShoP ON

AND EAVIRONMENTA L

PROTECTION | WHERE WE WILL

OP-uRQuUAART