AA - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, July 15, 1998

‘TERRACE

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

Failing grade

DYSFUNCTIONAL. We-they syndrome. Con- fusion reigns. Siege-like mentality.

Words like those are peppered through the report of an education ministry efficiency team on how the Coast Mountains school district runs.

The team’s $2.3 million worth of suggested budget cuts — starting with administration — stand in sharp contrast to the board’s original plan to cut primarily school music programs.

On its own, the apparent failure of our school trustees to identify even a fraction of those cuts on their own and in particular to silence music while preserving a fat administration is a damn- ing indictment.

But the team didn’t just let the numbers speak for themselves:

“‘It is interesting to note there is no reference to making reductions as far as way from direct in- struction to students as possible as the highest priority principle behind budget deliberations.’

How can trustees even stand up and look local voters in the eye after that?

Some trustees say they have little problem put- ting in place most or all of the team’s recom- mendations.

Where were they in April when the original budget was being thrashed out at the expense of music programs? Why did they not speak out publicly at that time? The hundreds of parents who protested the music cuts then can be ex- cused for asking the same questions.

One final thought. Yes, the province should in- sist on efficiency. But if Victoria pushes the board to go ahead with all the planned cuts — tight down to chopping music and P.E. programs — then the NDP can dispense with its bleatings about shielding the system from cuts that would affect the actual quality of a student’s education.

_ The big one

ANY DAY now, we are told, a hefty document called a Nisga’a Treaty will thunk down upon us.

It will be incomprehensible to all but a very

select group of lawyers, consultants and govern- ment officials. Even those individuals will profess working knowledge of just the small sec- tion they were responsible for negotiating.

Yet northwesterners, Nisga’a and British Columbians as a whole will somehow be ex- pected to digest the whole thing, understand its effects for all time, and approve it — either through direct referendum in the case of the Nisga’a or through their elected MLAs and MPs.

That task is monumental, and so is the require-.

ment for governments to embark on a truly serious effort to inform us.

It is a project that cannot be rushed through in the dog days of summer, lest a century-plus of injustice be now replaced with a new eternity of misunderstandings, frustration and anger.

Nisga’a leaders, who have proven themselves skilled communicators as well as negotiators, must also play a key role in laying out their vi- sion for the future if they are to take their seat in the arena of governments and begin this new re- lationship on sound footing.

ys

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THE HELL WITH ANDERSON... LET'S CATCH A SALMON AND MAKE A KUN FOR THE BORDER...

Big Em was a true champion

VICTORIA -- The huge smile on the ivory-black face with the ebony-white teeth on top of a six-foot, six-inch frame said: ‘‘No matter who you are, [love you man.”

One handshake could crush your bones, but despite his im- posing stature, Emery Barnes was always a gentle giant

Sense of humor? In spades.

His real friends could say: “what do you mean, black is beantiful, you fook like a pretty ugly cuss to me {a big, fat lie, I wish I Jooked that good),” and Big Em would put his huge hand on your head and say: “‘careful, white boy, or Fit squash it.’’

The fact that your head was finnly in the grip of Emery’s gigantic fist, capable of turning your gray matter into ham- burger wasn’t lost on you.

_ Now, you’d think that a six- foot-six guy, weighing what seems like a gazillion tonnes, would have been intimidating at the best of times. Well, you

never met Emery. He was one -

of the kindest, gentlest people I ever met.

By now, youll probably have read that Emery is dead. That he is. And more’s the pity, because Big Em’s capac-

- ity for making the odd comer

FROM THE CAPITAL: HUBERT BEYER

of this world a better place was far from exhausted,

A couple of months aga, I wrote a piece, saying the

.- scourge of cancer had invaded - Emery’s

body. I said I wouldn't just yet put my money on the cancer.

If anyone could beat the Big .

C it was the Big Em.

Well, I was wrong. The Big

C won and the Big Em lost. And to preserve his memory, let met tell you about Emery. Emery was a social activist, long before the term became fashionable. He was a member of the British Columbia Legis- lative Assembly. He became its first black Speaker. But all that paled before the humanity

and decency the Emery ex- uded,

legislature, he was never heck- led, because he didn’t make pulitical pronouncements; he spoke from the heart, Through- out his career as an MLA, Emery was a true champion of the less fortunate, his compas- sion for people deeply rooted

in his own experience with «

racism and social injustice in America’s deep south. Born the New Orleans in

_ 1929, Emery’s youth was -

marked by the ugliness of sacism which then was the way of life in the south. His mother later moved the family north, to Oregon, where skin color wasn’t’ such an issue anymore.

Emery got a degree in history at the University of Oregon, He also became a track and football star.

Bmery later was recruited by

the fabled Green Bay Packers, —

but racism, once again reared its ugly head. On the road, he

often wasn’t allowed to eat in -

restaurants with his white team mates and was sent to eat in the kitchen instead.

To escape racism, Emery

eventually ended up in British .

Columbia, where he played for ‘the B.C. Lions, and began ly . Coe

When Emery spoke in the .

‘working on his second univer- sity degree, this one in social work,

tae er

co as

It was former premier Dave ~

Barrett, whom he had met at university, who talked Emery into giving politics a try. He Tan unsuccessfully in 1969, but was elected during the NDP sweep three years later.

In 1986, while the NDP was back in opposition, Emery got the attention of British Colum-

_ bians by living on welfare for a month. He started out with $350, then the welfare rate for a single man. He rented a $200 apartment in east Vancouver,

bought bus pass, which he ;

would have needed to look for work, had he really been on welfare, purchased a second- hand hotplate, and tried to sur- vive on the rest,

After’ 22 days, he had lost 15+ pounds and run out of money. .

He borrowed $20 to make through the remaining eight days. And nobody ' accused Emery of having done the whole thing to make political points.

In fact, his experience forced the Socred government to..in- crease welfare rates.

Such was the stuff Emery

” was made of. I will miss him.

Teen smoke cops coining it

“A responsible _—_position deserves a responsible wage.’’

That’s why Terrace’s health unit pays 15 and 16-year-olds $14.62 an hour to test whether unsuspecting smoke shops will sell them cigarettes.

As smokers, these kids might have bought cigarettes illegally merely for the thrill of break- ing the law.

Ai $14.62 these independent contractors receive the lowest BCGEU rate currently paid to any Terrace health unit em- ployee.

The union has Jower rates, it’s just that no one is paid so little. Other health units pay less.

Their pay comes from a budget of $45,000 set aside by the ministry of health for to- bacco enforcement. From the budget, Terrace health unit has also hired an additional in- spector to assist the tobacco enforcement officer.

No teenager is anticipated to earn more than $1,000.

The teenagers’ job entails testifying in court if a store ap-

OIL PRICES HAVE FEALLY DROPPED are y J!

. $500.

~

] THROUGH BIFOCALS. | CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

‘ peals its ticket, something ex-

pected to happen more often now that the ministry has in- creased the fine for a first of- fence From $500 to $2,500.

So far in this area no tickets

have been appealed although °. one appeal is coming up. In the * lower mainland, about 70% of

tickets were appealed before March 23 when the ministry increased fines from $200 to

The teenagers are expected |

50 How COME

a AT THE Pune?

WELL, THOSE

meiR WAY NokrH

to be available for an hour or two per month, in a brief career that ends with their nineteenth birthday.

Working in pairs, lecnagers are picked up after school — neither the buying of cigarettes nor testifying in court may in- terfere with their school at- tendance — and driven to a neighboring town where they will be unknown to store man-

agement.

They’re paid from the time they’re picked up until they're returned home, perhaps as late as 9 p.m.

_ To avoid any hint of entrap- ment as they test the reliability of storekeepers, the kids are coached with a script. When the teenagers enter a store, the enforcement officer tries to be in the store where he can watch and hear — or Hpread

' — the conversation with the store clerk. This isn’t always.

possible. If a store clerk sells a pack-

‘age of cigarettes to an un-

derage teenager, In a first of-

” fence the management is given

24

Fe UOR Ee

or S REALLY TOO.

To UNDERSTAND!

So 5 O of Celtic origin

a waming and educated as to the applicable Jaw. Subsequent offeaces draw a ticket and a fine, or the store can go to court to dispute the ticket.

With our backlogged court system, I'd bet cach teenager could collect pay for upwards of twelve hours waiting time for every ten minutes he’s on the witucss stand.

Kids are chosen after con- tacts with RCMP and school counsellors. Some are ex- cellent students. Some are ex-

smokers, They may be from all ethnic backgrounds. Ali must be trustworthy, know the dif- ference between telling a lie and the truth, yet not be goody-

two-shoes. They’re asked to

dress in typical garb so they don’t stand out,

Maybe testifying in court deserves $14.62 an hour.

But so long as our critically ill wait six months for lfe- saving surgery, $14.62 an hour for saying ‘Players, please’

‘seems extravagant.

! A word

mearin sturale, ol or

You MEAN LIKE.

extorl money from, oe

WE DONT SEE RATES ARE COMPLICATED FoR HOU) THE CEOOF LOWER RRICES|SENERATED NORTHERNER | EXON Gat ASI

BoWUSTHIS yeae? ”