CASTLEGAR NEWS BURT CAMPBELL Publisher RYON GUEDES, Editor “Here let the press the people's rights maintain, unawed by influence and unbribed by gain” BE Thureday Morning, July 7, IT Reports and Retorts We're i and When in our June 23 editorial “Commit: ment or Rhetoric?" we challenged city council, school board and hospital board members ‘9 explain their decisions and opinions t di facilities. He also reported on meetings of the Union Board st Health, the city ive services of purchasing a new fire truck, as well as a pi curfew bylaw, and derelict buildings in regular, bylined columns, we expected ia reaction to be lukewarm. After all, we had made the original offer—in an attempt to supplement our own routine coverage of public affairs with first-hand back- ground—four months ago. And despite the en- thusiastic replies we received initially from two of the groups we contacted, only one report had been submitted over that period, But the prompt and sincere responses we received from representatives of those groups in the past ine, weeks Suggest at least some have not public it bility from thelr list of priorities. Mayor Audrey Moore's report, which ap- peared in the Castlegar News last week, provided updating on such diverse subjects as the city’s proposed boundary extension, pro- vincial-municipal revenue sharing legislation and the federal the city. Although he maintained in his report that Castlegar News coverage of city council was sufficiently thorough to render regular columns unnecessary, it was obvious from the wide range of meetings his Solum covered how valuable such reports can be. Published in letter-to-the-editor form in last week's Castlegar News were remarks by Anne Jones, a conscientious Schoo! District No. 9 trustee who described the heavy workload she—and probably others—have faced in the last five months as members of the board. She also provided, in response to a previously-published news story, a detailed explanation of the problems’ involved in upgrading the deteriorating’ Kinnaird Ele- mantary School playing field. We hope that in early September Jones fii inds enough time— which she describes as “a precious commodity to l Improvement Program. In addition, her report provided the background for a news story on the federal sbenltentiary services rejection of maxi- mum sat prisons in BC. before 1982. Ald. Albert Calderbank, whose report also appeared last week, provided material for another important news story on the proposed updating of Castlegar Airport's landing and lly-elected. officials*—to submit further re- marks of an equally informative nature. Finally, a letter from Marilyn Cooper, Castlegar and District Hospital board Seerelary, offers a rebuttal at the bottom of this page, to the June 23 editorial and provides a unique interpretation to its intent. But in general, we're confident that ‘the public's “right to know” will be observed more closely in the future. Queens and Commas . There are strange things done in the justice mills these days and the strangest in many moons is the current hassle over where commas or brackets should be placed in the typing of what is called an “information.” This courtroom document contains informa- tion on who is charged, where and for what. But legal beagles have found a loophole and have used it to slow up the course of justice. Recently .in Fernie, Michael Moran, a Castlegar lawyer used the loophole, first ruled upon by a county court judge at Duncan, to have a stay of proceedings entered in the cases of three defendants. Reason for the stays had nothing to do with justice, but simply with commas, brackets and the use of the English language. technicalities. When the wording of an information reads, “J. Doe, peace officer, acting on behalf of Her Majesty, Queen of Sparwood...”™, it may be " challenged on ‘erode that there is no Queen of ‘Sparwood. The accepted wording would appear to be. “John Doe, peace officer of Sparwood, acting on behalf of Her majesty, the Queen The gimmick does great things for lawyers, for the usual procedure is that yet another court appearance is necessary, after the information is retyped. - Justice therefore, and inconvenience to witnesses and all concerned, take a back seat to —The Fernie Free Press Voice of the P Investigate the Facts Editor, Castlegar News: I have been asked by the Castlegar and District Hospital Board of Trustees to respond to your editorial published in the June 23 issue of the Castlegar News, As secretary for the board for the past one-and-a-half years I have, following every monthly meeting, issued a news relusse to both Trail and and and note the frequest hospital board articles. I think an editorial about the lack of community involve- ment by a public that finds it so easy to find fault with decisions made by those who are at least willing to give the. time and effort could be more appro- priate. Marilyn J. Cooper, Secretary Castlegar and District Hospital Board of Trustees oto stations. Our administra- tor, Mr. (Ken) Talarico, and our chairman, Mr. (Chuck) Dinning have also sent out news items of interest when circumstances warranted, Needless to say after see- ing ourselves grouped with “complacency” and “lack of understanding of elected roles” we feel in need of public apology. May we suggest a little more investigation of the facts before a printed public roping and branding especially in such areas as volunteer public ser- vice, where there are already more critics than volunteers and more criticism than ac: claim. May we also suggest that you take the time to read past issues of the Castlegar News (Editor's note: We have appreciated the steady flow of news releases issued monthly from the board. But if you will refer again to your copy of the June 23 editorial you will see we were referring to a request for bylined colamns from in- dividual members of city coun- cil, the school board, and the hospital board, to supplement the information covered routine press released. # We also note that you have offered no comment on the board’s failure to reply to our original Feb. 4 offer of the op- portunity for board members to - express their views in bylined columns. Even if the board had considered its routine press re- leases an adequate link with the public, a reply expressing that view would have been appro- priate. As for your auggestion that we write an editorial about lack of community involvement by an over-critical’ public, we would be happy to do so—once we have had the benefit of the information and background only an indiyidaal board mem- ber can provide.) A Year Ago Headlines from the front page of the Castlegar News of July 8, 1977: * ey Castlegar Ended 1975 With Operating Surplus 8 8 Local Schools Present $500 fo Project Society City Veiga pared Settled; Overall 10 Per Cent Increase ary Cancel Sawmill Marks Its 15th Anniversary . 8 8 Selkirk College Students Hold 10 Year Class Reunion * 8 8 Valley Meetings Tonight To Form Arts Council . Reflections on a Foreign Queen By ALLAN FOTHERINGHAM ttes, —But She’s Not Mine— Roy Peterson, Vancouver Sun ably toward Spain and Yugo- acolumn in Maclean's magazine.) IT REMEMBER IT WELL. Seated on a 1939 curb in Regina (or was it Moose Jaw?) waiting for jiggling hours for a glimpse of King George and his Jubilee—the fleshed- out _mar- i ie slavia in ic ‘terms: the brought to life, every pay boy’s plaster cavalry moved from his pillow to actual color TV, the pastel princesses, all the chinless-wonder relatives. It is stunning—a techni- color i king the queen and those sweating RCMP horses, an ad- dress tag around my neck directing the finder to ship me to Mother should I go astray— or run away to become an ap- prentice footman. Now it is some 40 years later and through the magic of the electronic revolution (CTV's Lloyd Robertson doing the commentary for the CBC) I watched the spectacular Silver Jubilee homages to that man's daughter, Queen Elizabeth who has devoted her life un- stintingly to the mind-numbing chores of keeping the monarchy credible and alive. I have seen the Queen at more, 1 suspect, somewhat sta um ‘the day she made the surprise announcement that her son would henceforth as- sume the title Prince of Wales, and the Welsh, with those ' voices that send-a tingle up an unsentimental Canadian spine, spontaneously broke into the singing of God Bless The Prince Of Wales, some 40,000 voices sending shivers’ across the Rhondda Valley hills. I watched her at close hand at various chores in Australia, all around London, on periodic jaunts to Canada, and viewed the polite disinterest of the Quebecois at last summer's Olympics (the faint, small cheering on’ her careful forays around Montreal came from little anglophone ladies). It is because I have watched her in so many venues that I admire her so much. It is because I have seen her in such perspective that I know that she is not for me: Canadian, card-carnying citizen. THERE ARE TWO AS- pects to all this. The first is essentially none of my busi- ness—nor of yours. It is that Britain, that delightful, ex-*. asperating land, uses the Royals for a definite, escapist roll, I watched the superbly filmed and incomparably or- chestrated fantasy of the Silver legitimate problems of that -tired, «fh pic little is- shrugged realization by the mass that there is little econo- mic or’ social mobility within one’s lifetime save becoming a rockstar or soccer idol. - It is the last civilization where citizens remain trapped, from birth,-by their accents— land. It ‘is pretty, but all so futile. Anyone who has lived in England for some time becomes quickly aware of the soporific value of two institutions that seem to serve as tranquilizers for a resigned working class: the football pools and the Royals. Dreams and spectacle. Bread and circuses. The mon- archy, as Metternich perceived, is a device .used to bar re- volution—the reason, of course, why the British middle class provide such support for it. ‘there is Prince iat “the quintessential British phil- - istine” as;The Néw Shean puts it—with ‘his: prograi witticisms to charwomen and factory workers (the genteel Don Rickles of our time}. As an inducement to tomorrow we al- ready have the. hand-me-down programmed witticisms .of ° Prince Charles—guaranteed front-page boxes in the Fleet , Street penny press, the 20th- century condescensions of the privileged pretending that they find ‘the. unwashed terribly amusing. What is so of their tongue, as a Mr. G. B, Shaw once put it. Moving reluctantly to what is my business, I am offended firstly on mere matters of taste. Has there been anything more puerile than the Canadian newspapers fawning over Prince “Andrew's token six- month appearance at Lakefield College outside Peterborough, a display of sycophantic cloy- ness that makes Rona Barrett's pursuit. of Farrah Fawcett- Majors and The Fonz appear dignified by comparison? THEY ARE, AS THEY know in their hearts, fighting a losing battle. This country, ording to a 1971 census al... “ive out of date, has dipped to: a figure of just 44.6 per cent of the population of British- related stock. That's down from the 47.9 per cent in 1951. Is it not apparent to any reasonable person that the irrational um- bilical cord to a foreign queen remains and will always remain a major irritant in the struggle to keep Quebec within this counrty? That is reason alone to jettison the anachronism. . The Queen, a magnificent about the English unwashed is that they also find it titil- lating—or so their press lords’ pretend. There is, further, the cele- brated low aim of a royal family dedicated resolutely to a med- ian slightly below generation as much as the first, being shop- ped around various universities and emerging with not much. The same muddling middle- class obsession with the horsey set. Was it not Chesterton who said that the Englishman is not. so much disturbed by the in- equality of men as he is by the inequality of horses? AT THE BASE OF IT IS the fact that the Royals provide the social cement for the most destructive force in Britain: class, It is the single most persuasive reason why the sick man of Europe slides inexor- Complete woman, a queen, but she is not mine. In truth she is not, I suspect, of supreme importance to the majority of Canadians. You Save af Bonnett's 10 Pct, OFF for CASH. BONNETT’S iroesccon DON’T WAIT! Connect Your Sewer Now! We Bo tee Merk Bley CONCRETE FLOOR & WALL BREAKING — NO PROBLEM We do All Plumbing Work at reasonable prices. 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Inspected, Ib. + Breakfast Sausage ee Fresh ‘or Frozen; © > Burns + Mac ir Bol logna “sche & Pimento Gov't. Inspected, Ib. Shicken, 4c2- Less PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY MORNING AT “THE CROSSROADS OF THE KOOTENAYS” CASTLEGAR NEWS FOUNDED ON AUGUST 7, 1947, BY L.V. (LES) CAMPBELL Appliance : ae © Residential © Commercial e Industrial Each: seensegeseeneens Crusty Buns. © Custom trusses for specific construction projects Z Doz. .© All trusses are and pkg... © Sarving major contractors and “naivguate ‘seeking +: quality workmanship © Free Quotations! © Ail Major Appliances Gu. RYON GUEDES, EDITOR W.H. JONES, ADVERTISING MGR. Turkey. Frozen,’ ~ C.0.V., Ib... Pink Salmon .. Fresh, Head On — Whole or half, tb. BURT CAMPBELL, PUBLISHER RENE BRODMAN, SHOP FOREMAN {MRS.) LOIS HUGHES, NEWS EDITOR Mall subscription rate to the Castlegar News Is $9 per year. The price by carrier is 22 cente an Tague. Single coples In stores at 25 cents. Second-class mall regletr an pumeer 0019. 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