aw Pe Castlégar News PAGE A4, WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 1991 MEMBER OF THE 8.0. PRESS COUNCIL beg a pttnn i pri hove Msgr thr tfngg g 1980 78-AUGUST 27, 1980 LV. CAMPBELL ~ PUBLISHER, AUGUST 7, 1947-FEBRUARY 1) BURT CAMPBELL, PUBLISHER EMERITUS ~ PUBLISHER, IR, FEBRUARY 16, NOroMAY 1, 1801 EDITORIAL New vision in ole wrong hands As we Canadians gathered for our nation’s 124th birthday party Monday, we had plenty to celebrate and a plateful of issues to fret over. Celebrating comes easy to us. We live in an incredibly vast, beautiful land; we enjoy an extraordinarily comfortable we have a h ty of social programs; we benefit from an exciting cross- -section of cultural back- grounds; and we even, on occasions like Monday at Zucker- berg Island, get the odd free slice of cake or cup of juice. So a party was in order, and Monday’s — especially as the West Kootenay baked in the heat of one Si the season’s first really grand summer days — was a But a cloud hung over Canada Day in 1991, The glorious nation whose birthday we celebrated seemed — seems — to be coming apart at the seams. Quebec’s place ... native rights ... environmental concerns ... declining competitiveness in international markets ... rising taxes ... these and other wor- ries threaten the continued existence of the nation we love to celebrate. Not to worry. We'll find a way out of this mess. We always have in past, and we'll do it again ... or will we? Not, Canadians have concluded, if our political leaders have anything to do with it. That’s perhaps the key point Keith Spicer made in his el ition last week. We've lost faith not only i in Paranal hae in the polit- ical process itself, he told us. That should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention during the past two or three years. The Reform Party is feeding on the sentiment as it builds momen- tum toward the next federal election, and will continue to surge if Brian Mulroney, Joe Clark and friends don’t get off their high horses and ag paying attention. Clark has d the many d Canadi- ans, Spicer among them, who are calling for a constituent assembly when the time comes to define a new vision of Canada this fall. The Unity minister seems to believe that elected officials are the only ones capable of making a useful contribution to the debate. Hmm. Perhaps Clark is thinking back to Robert Bourassa’s controversial French-only sign legislation, which effectively illustrated the folly of the notwithstanding clause in the pre- sent constitution and destroyed English Canada’s faith in Quebec’s goodwill. Or maybe Clark recalls Brian Mulroney’s astonishingly inept decision to make Meech Lake an all-or-nothing roll of the dice. Or is it our political leaders’ bungling of native affairs which has persuaded Clark that only an elected official can be trusted with something as important as a new constitution? Whatever he has on is mind, Joe Clark needs to rethink his position. Federal politicians are sadly out of step with the thinking of ordinary Canadians, and simply can’t be trusted to draft a new vision of Canada that reflects the values of the man on the street. Those values were readily apparent and refreshingly hon- est Monday afternoon at Zuckerburg Island. Organizers of the festivities created what amounted to a miniature con- stituent assembly, asking participants to. write down their wish for Canada and tape it up for all to see. The ‘8 were illumi lity ... prosperity .= universal medicare :.. more motorcycles ... those were thé kinds of Shings | that mattered to the Canadians who celebrat- ed Monday in Castl Tol and und with a healthy dose of good humor mixed in for good measure, were readily apparent. Are ing. E: those the values that our political leaders would bring ~~ to the table? The uraging. We do indeed have much to celebrate in this land, and we do have the fortitude to overcome the problems that face us. Joe Clark and his friends could do Canada no greater favor ithan to tap on those strengths when they begin to redefine Canada. To refuse to do so by shutting ordinary citizens out of the process is to continue a steadfast march toward disinte- gration. AUCts poet HOU i? prvoreeeresttttlitld: Wy, ies —_ =——VN alle pettt? ZZ jd July 3, 1991 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Answer proves wrong The victory celebrations are over, the medals bestowed and the order books of the arms merchants filled. Misery settles over the Fertile Crescent. To those who attended the series of Kootenay Forums sponsored by the United Nations Asséciation, the USCC Peace and Disarmament Committee, the Castlegar Peace Group and others, the war ended with few surprises. While Canada and the United “Kingdom celebrated with decorum, the U.S. indulged itself in an orgy of self-congratulation - an appropriate response considering the out- aes give | such minimal coverage to postal While I tidbits such pa a last year’s blockade of Canada Post vehi- éles by irate citizens in Westwold B.C. get Atigmentary notice, in-depth national cover- age on this issue has been negligible. ‘Do we have to wait until 1996 (Canada Post’s target date for total closure of our fed- eral postal system) for a post-mortem analy- sis on the demise of our postal system? I know that both the CBC and CTV have some excellent investigative reporters. With the impending closure of Charlotte- town, the time has come for an expose on Canada Post and such secretive tactics as failing to announce publicly the i ing no commitments that will last any longer than the election. Of course the envi- ronmentalists will get a few wilderness areas — some of the 23 areas with very little or no timber; perhaps a few parks of rock and ice. But if the Socreds can turn this into votes in the coming election, we'll undoubt- edly see that a hurricane of environmental destruction waits beliind the placid mask of the Socreds’ new “Green” image. Tronically, it’s this mask that has so many share groups up in arms to stop it dead. They're being exploited, too — fooled into thinking parks are the reason they are losing their jobs, when the real reasons are and market condi- closure of Charlottetown’s Post Office. come. They had hege- mony over Middle East oil, moved the price more to the liking of Texas oilmen, demon- strated the excellence of their arms manu- facturers and assured George Bush of re- election. Moreover, the had been coerced into supporting war and a test of the success of international sanctions had been avoided. Syria gained ii dra Groepler Robson, B.C. Threats mask issues i d citi: despite its human rights record and now controls Lebanon.. Egypt had a substantial part of its foreign debt forgiven. The media demonstrated its subservience to the requirements of propaganda and Canada just got a few more bills to pay. Estimates vary, but at least several hun- dred thousand Iraqis died in the bombing and the retreat from Kuwait. Large parts of the country lie in ruins. What survived was the repressive state apparatus and the man who rules it, Saddam Hussein. George Bush urged the Kurds and Shi’a Mosk to revolt Many have been encountering the local “share” group position that they are dead set to stop the Forest Service Wilderness Strategy Review right in its tracks. Much ado has been made of the unrea- sonableness of the Wilderness 90 project. It is even said that the areas put forward by the Forest Service as candidates for wilder- ness preservation are going to stop the whole logging industry and put all the log- gers out of work. However, the Vancouver Sun recently d the “ i d by tions. Yet the Socred government can be seen feeding the fears of the share groups, endeavoring to profit as much as possible from the polarization on one hand, while nee environmental concerns with their Wild 90 pro- gram on the other. Deane Jodoin New Denver Divers change nature Apparently, we need more garabage on the ocean floor. A B.C. divers club, with assistance from Parks B.C., is preparing a large ship former- ly used for packing fish on the B.C. coast so it can be sunk where divers can swim around in it. The divers say wrecks attract an incredible diversity of aquatic life and then abandoned them. No match for Hussein’s Republican Guard, they died by the thousands. ” areas the Forestry officials. It determined that of the 59 areas, “23 had low timber values; four had no timber values; five had so few Millions of Kurds fled to the ible trees as to be consid- only to see their perish in camps. The Shi'ites fled to the southern swamps where they succumb to disease or are slaughtered by the army. Vast oil slicks foul the Persian Gulf and the air is polluted by smoke from hundreds of burning oil wells. We shall not see the environment recover in our lifetime. The illegal occupation of Kuwait had to be answered, but did this have to be the answer? “George Richards On behalf of the Castlegar Peace Group Coverage alarming As I write to you on Canada Day, I am deeply alarmed about the lack of news cov, erage on the upcoming closure of the post office in Charlottetown, P.E.I., our seat of Confederation. Within a short time Canada Post Corp. will shut down this federal post office, including both wicket and sorting ser- vices. that at the same time Canada ing money to run their heritage of C: VIEWPOINT Spicer report fails to relay message = By ROBERT RUSSO editing in dian history on both the CBC and CTV. While Canada Post and our current federal government imply their concern for Canadian heritage with this costly public relations effort, they are systematically and quietly ‘t ered of 1 value; and only seven, or 11.8%, fell within tree farm licences.” It is obviously preposterous to believe that this poses any substantial threat to the forest industry. Consider that in selecting candidate areas for the Wilderness 90 process, the Ministry of Forests first weighed the areas’ wildlife values against the dollar value of the standing trees. This estimation process ‘was inaccessible to the public.One area pro- posed by the Fish and Wildlife Branch, the Koeye watershed, contains coastal old growth forest, a river system supporting hundreds of th ds of sp ing salmon and is home _to an estimated 40 grizzly bears. Wildlife-values-were-determined to be at least equal to timber values, but the Min- istry of Forests, operating behind closed doors, turned down the Koeye because it is on a cutting area licenced to MacBlo. It did not appear for study under the Parks 90 program either, and as a result, the trees are already being cut. This is how the Wilderness 90 process secretly serves the of logging and it is why the protests of the share groups are so iron- ie. People who have long experience with Socred political ploys know the Wilderness 90 process is pure Socred election-time win- dow dressing. It is ‘designed to court the vote i ts while giving them the demise of our postal system. substance. As the B.C. Director for Rural Dignity fee edi: meng tov many other ways. In Canada, the non-partisan citizens’ group services i cuts to our postal system, I attended rural dignity’s annual general meeting last month in Ottawa. I happen to know about the impending Charlottetown closure only many instances, what Pane Minister Brian Mulroney and his government have already begun to deliver. The report from the Citizens’ Forum on Canada’s Future, ~ please see SPICER page AS : HULL, Que. (CP) —- What F mene Canadians told Keith Fs they want is not exactly : pooey the Spicer commission 4 5 gave them in its report Thurs- ty. And what was left after co- our P.E.L. director received this bad news on June 16 by @ phone call from an island radio station while we were meeting. Since that time i have looked in vain for a public anhouncement of the closure on jan television, wheye most of our pop- “ ulation gets their news. I am dismayed that both the CBC and the Slocan Valley, village governments and the RDCK called for an end to clearcut log- ging over three years ago. However, the for- est service, growing ever more arrogant, Arad through the local i b they offer 1 breeding and hiding places and a large surface area for life forms to settle down on. Instead of having to range widely over the ocean floor seeking unusual sights, today’s diver can plop himself over the side, sink to the bottom, and observe everything in one spot, before returning to abusing some well-earned drug of choice (Johnny Walker? Players Light? Juan Valez’s finest?) while supporting the War on Drugs at the surface. This type of diver has serious mon- ey. The divers would have us believe that the ocean floor looks prettier with sunken wrecks strewn around here and there. Just 80 no one can say we in the Koote- nays aren’t right up with-all the latest i in tourist traps thought up by the ed types on the coast, why don’t we take the entire old pulp mill that Celgar will other- wise be throwing away or selling for-scrap and dump it in the middle of the Valhalla Park? Think of all the wildlife it would attract. Parks B.C. will give us a grant, and we can all rest easy, satisfied that we have left a legacy that succeeding generations will remember us for, as long as human civiliza- tion endures. David Lewiw Crescent Valley Please address all letters to th ‘ tote 8 to the editor > Letters should be yeeuit double and not pad Sati Gaenccnmain one oo he Tete. Cosel Watecutied Steve Sivere, Ministry of F: the logging until August. You fan be assured it will be postponed again until after the election. It’s the same thing Sats 5 underneath Wilderness 90: pandering to the public con- cern over issues, while mak- disclosed to the editor The Castlegar News reserves the right to edit lett te