OPINION Wy The 63 sti Ger Sun AIS PUBLISHER/ADV, MGR. JON JARRETT ; MARION ANDERSON REPORTERPRODUCTION " DONNA JORY ADVERTISING REP, CATHY ROSS ADVERTISING REP, NICOLE BEETSTRA PRODUCTION CLIFF WOFFENDEN PRODUCTION JOHN SNELGROVE PRODUCTION MANAGER: DENISE GOLOSTONE OFFICE/CIRC, MANAGE! JIM ZEEBEN REPORTER BRENDAN HALPER REPORTER/PHOTO, Diroct Department Phones General OffiCO ..seccsssssvenes 365-5266 Classified Ads Ps Display Advertising . v Fax ... sonesah editorial comment Shop Castlegar for that - personal touch As any of one us who have had the opportunity to shop in the ‘big city’ can attest, there really is no place like home. While Castlegar, and the Kootenays for that matter, can’t offer the wide range of services that are available in the larger centres such as Calgary, ‘Vancouver and k there is hing much more imp that is 5 readily available. Personal and friendly service. How many times have you gone into a local store and been greeted by your first name? How many times have you gone into a local store and received the personal attention of the sales clerk? Those are just two of the many benefits of shopping locally. The fact that your money stays in the community is an added bonus. By spending your shopping dollar at home, you are , helping your neighbors, your community and ultimately ‘yourself, ,. ; Local merchants:are friendly; helpful and knowlédge- " able. They are also more than willing to go out of their way to assist you. Can the same thing be said for ‘big city’ merchants? In most cases, no! It is about time that we place a little more emphasis on service, both prior to and after the sale. Quality means more than just a brand name item, quality also includes the people who stand beind their products. Shop locally, it will be a decision you won’t regret. A little Ek maar wledge POs vy si 1) What is a bodkin, anyway? 2) Which country lies on the east bank of the Oder tiver? 3) If you dial 1-555-1212, what do you reach? 4) Where is the BC government’s nuclear fallout shelter? . 5) What do port, sherry and madeira have in com- mon? 1) A small dagger, Nobody has used the term much since Shak 2) Poland. It used to be Prussia, but.the Pnussians lost title in 1945, 3) Directory enquiries for BC. 4) Nanoose Bay. (It was supposed to be a secret.) 5) They are all fortified wines, that is wines which have a higher concentration of alcohol. CASS CRERILES By Don Addis © 1991 Creators Synaeate, A bold and courageous assertion Ron Jeffels Syndicated Columnist Forget what the historians, the sci- entists and the philosophers say! I make the following assertion boldly and courageously, without concem for my welfare, marginal reputation or slow progress through this world into the next, Man's greatest contribution to civi- lization was not the discovery of fire, the wheel, the laws of physics or - atomic fission, not even terminal taxa- tion, heavy-metal rock, calcium- enriched oatmeal or the nylon zipper. All those are as naught by comparison with that most wondrous of all his cre- ations: The Committee. The committce preceded the inven- tion of the wheel because a remote and hirsute homo erectus — our first parliamentarian — saw the benefits of allowing his mates to meet and mut- ter, huddle and harrumph, carp and complain in oozing cavers lit by smoking reeds and warmed by dying * fires. The wheel came later. Ie still does. And I can’t see that things have changed very much across the long, unfolding centuries, except perhaps for the venue, the mode of dress and the keeping of minutes. But even then I may be wrong. Pre-historic walls in France and Spain still show — ochre, amber and red — the rude, rude record of ancient movers and secon- ders. Or approximations thereof. Committees, all committees, obey identical rites and rituals consecrated by rusting time and ancient usage. And it doesn’t much matter whether the members are met to discuss the GST, sewage disposal or the influence of Neo-Platonism on Serbo-Croat writers of the early Renaissance. Don’t laugh! I once sat on that last one. Or one like it. Here are a few of those ancient rit- uals, Whenever. a committee. meets. gay one that started to treat sewage 10 years ago and still docs — cach mem- ber will restate the territorial impera- tive by taking up his fire the rubblehead, be opines — look- ing straight at me. People bring bizarre attachments dedicated, seat. That seat belongs to him: it's his by law. It will go to his heirs and successors upon his death, I've seen grown men depart in a purple fury because some newly- appointed innocent bad taken up that scepter'd seat. At any committee meeting, two of the members — it’s always two — will allow in a pale, injured voice that they did not receive the notice of meeting, the agenda, the previous minutes and all other and to Call them ‘indispensable ‘extensions of the Solf. I-used to attend a committee dealing with "8 use of the semi-colon. Or something of equal importance. I've forgotten. The dude on my left always brought an elec- tronic calculator and wore a white Inb coat to indicate that he'd come straight from the ‘atom andthe alchemist’s den. He was there to bring the cold, clear light of science to the murky deliberations of fey and fancy But then, they never have, not once, at any time in the past. Never! The chairman will claim simple clerical error, The pale voices will assert that it’s yet one more example of the sec- retary’s legendary inefficiency and ‘terminal stupidity. And why don’t we ‘And then there's always the expert on parliamentary procedure. He © Inows Robert's rules better than a kid knows his catechism, He alone at the table can tell a point of onder from a point of privilege, and he rejoices in the convolusions and sinuosities of the © motion thrice amended — and the: tabled, of course, . Over there, near the door, is th wag who never speaks, He spends hi time drawing gates — four stroke; down, one across - to record the num ber of parameter’s, y’know’'s, mean’s and basically’s used by. mem bers, He announces the results at th end of every meeting. He is universal. ly hated. In any ‘committee, all useful busi- ness is done under Other Business “My learned friend” means “tha: high-octane idiot across from me” And in “With every respect, Mr. Chairman”, : jreapect i is the last thing the speaker bas in min Homo erectus to homo sapiens: not very far, DoW is it? R.R. Jeffels is a Richmond free- lance writer and former principal of The Open Learning Institute, binds ll grows by $65 000% every ingle minute. The federal goverment pays $95 million a day, in interest on its debt. That's almost $4 million an hour. Out of every tax dollar, 40 cents goes to service the debt. The national debt (now $400 bil- lion) has doubled in the last six years. eee Life in the big city: The multicul- tural coalition of Toronto says that it 10 and racial @ Hannaford Syndicate: Columnist The magnitude of the deficit prob- Jem in a nutshell: The federal deficit communities in Metro Toronto with an estimated 1,075,000 people, or about half the municipality’s population. It says about 70 per cent of these I am no fan of the free-spending Keith Spicer and his commission, but I 2 will Say this for I it lias préséated a believable interim report. A ing to Spicer, C demand radical political change as the means of regaining faith in the legiti- macy of their government ... they’re talking referenda, impeachment ... overwhelmingly, participants have told us that they have lost faith in the Political system and its leadership ... Canadians are telling us that their lead- ers must understand and accept their vision of the country - that their lead- ers must be governed by the wishes of the people and not the other way around. To arrive at this conclusion, it would have been sufficient to monitor the letters sections of leading reputable newspapers, rather than to pay for Mr Spicer's electronic circus. Still now that the money is spent, we may yet receive some value from it if our illustrious leaders would conde- scend to take notice of it. T'm not holding my breath though. If change should come, it is more like- ly to do so as a result of a surge of interest in the Reform, Party. Quote of ‘tie rain Everybody knows how you housebreak dogs and cats; you rub their. noses in the mess they made on the floor - anid that’s just what we in Canada will have to do with our politicians. (Richard Need- bam.) oan Thought for the week: As long as Quebec is having a referendum to see whether they want to stay in Canada, maybe the rest of us should be having ane referendum to see whether we want Individuals can make a difference “We talk about leaving, but deep down, what we want is for someone to tell us to stay.” — Quebec journalist Francine Pel- letier The Speech from the Throne talks about the government’s plan for national ine But the actions of individual Canadians can also make a difference. My heart soared when I read .the words my friend Francine Pel- _ letier had written in La Presse, In these ‘difficult times, people OF good will across English-speak- ing Canada have been searching for a sign that a compromise — an compromise — was the Quebec National Assembly decision not to jisplay the Canadian flag. We've eard the booing of O Canada at ‘sporting events, and the: Montreal machine's decision to drop the playing of the anthem. ;: And we've been hoping against hope that somcone in’ Quebec's elite would-signal.a desire to rebuild a united Canada. Francine’s words are to me, such a signal, She was writing about he recent CROP polls which showed that 25 or more English-speaking Quebecers don’t expect to be liv- ing in Quebec five years from now. She wrote that the departure of the anglos would be a loss. “I don’t want Quebec to close up, to become homogeneous; I don't want to lose people (among them many friends) who are among the province’s most dynamic.” It is not easy to speak positive- ly about Quebec's English-speak- ing minority, or about he province staying in Canada when the pre- vailing sentiment among members of Quebec’s intellectual elite is to separate. and yet she had the courage to say: “it’s is not he first time I feel a great shudder over. Quebec's imminent sovereignty.” The English, “‘they’re thinking about leaving (Quebec). “Just like Quebecers, feeling rejected by the rest of Canada. We talk about leaving, but deep down what. we.want is for someone to’ tell us to stay.” _ So; you tell me, you "ve know that all along. “Quebec: wants respect for its ~~ distinct society and a little lovin’... fro TROC — the rest of Canada. Hardly an unreasonable request. But what is the response from some of our more out-spoken fel- low citizens? Not respect, and certainly not a little lovin’. Au contraire! The mail that has reached my desk in the past P ho or so has been the nastiest I've received in more than 25 years in journalism. On a recent Sunday Edition Francine explained why many Quebecers feel a greater alle- giance to their own provincial flag, than to the Canadian Maple Leaf. It wasn’t easy to hear a per- son you respect explain the flag important insight for all of us swho don't live in Quebec, The exchange prompted an avalanche of niail, including one which rates as the nastiest letter T’ve ever received. It came from a Calgary man who, i in language too lurid to print in a family newspaper, argued the sooner Quebec separated, the bet- ter off we'll all be. There were other letters in a similar vein, although none that quite 1 matched his lexicon. It is easy to spew bile, and yell insults. It takes courage to stand up to the bigots - ——in French- and lish ig Canada — and you hold dear, doesn’ it mean the same to them. » One can azgue that Quebecers are wrong to feel that way, but that won't change, the reality of. today’s, Quebec. The exchange was in my view, both eloquent, sad educational. It provided oot at tlding a nation together. Francine Pelletier showed that courage in her column. Unfortu- nately our macho Calgary corre- spondent chickened out, and decide to yell insults from the sidelines, rather than get into the fray and fight for a united Canada. © The Gaatt far Sun _ ; ee 7/1\ ©) 48 POLITICALLY INDEPENDENT AND-A. hg MEMBER OF THE STERLING NEWS SERVICE ; + Second Class Maling Pormit 2 Png rca Wednesday, May 15, 1991 Letters to the: Editor Page 7A Museum re-opening ay aoe Ral "To the Editor:, i On behalf of the: Castteaic and District Heritage Society, I would like to thank ‘The Castlegar Sun for helping to promote the Grand Re-Opening of the'C.P, Rail Muscuin downtown, on May 4th, Special thanks to Brendan Halper for the great pictures Of the event.) c Thanks too, to all our ‘at fi ‘Band (Ray G i and ‘Sherilyn Harasernow) aid to the Old ‘Time Fiddlers who, as always, donated their time and musical talents to help make the day the great suc- Cess that it was; to M.L.A. Chris D'Arcy who made a heroic effort to fly back and be there for us as he has every year; Mrs. Drazdoff and the P-3 class of Valley Vista schoo! and.Mrs. Maloff and the P-3 ‘class of Twin Rivers school for the lovely posters for our. contest; and’ oe members and fiends who belped put it all together. Clarifying a few points on wildlife conservation Letter to the Editor: ‘ [have read the letters to the edi- tor of both local newspapers recent- ly, written by Mr. George V. Clements. I respected that Mr. Clements ‘had a particular point of view on issues dealing with Wildlife. Even though Mr. Clements appeared by his own comments to be somewhat misinformed and con- fused about (what he calls fact) I still thought that he actually put Wildlife on the pi le of his comer store take irreplaceable habi- tat from Wildlife. Each and every human being has a detrimental impact on Wildlife. Do we have the right to manage Wildlife? Not only do we have the right, we have the moral obligation to assure that there is a future for our Wildlife. Any simple mind can criticize, but to criticize and offer no viable i offers no associations objectives, Now after reading his response in the Castlegar Sun's Letter to the Editor in the May 1, 1991 edition it is obvious to me that Mr. Clements is not looking out to conserve, Wildlife, but.to try to discredit any organization that does not follow his association’s unbalanced and narrow point of view. Incidentally Webster's New World Dictionary states that con- servation means “The official care and protection of our natural Resources,” And that is what our organizations stand for! If Mr, Clements wants to put in his own definition I’m sure we would all be at odds of the intent of his comments. I guess we would have to re-write a dictionary to clarify Mr. Clements point of view. The facts are: ¢ Hunters pay 75% of the total dollars put into Wildlife Enhance- ment and protection © Not all members hunt fish or tap : ° We are opposed to the unnec- essary killing of Wildlife, and yes we do support hunting, fishing and trapping for recreation but more importantly as a management tool to maintain healthy Wildlife popu- lations © The Habitat Conservation Fund, a fund that all consumptive users contribute to through a self- imposed surcharge to all licenses since 1981 has provided 14 million dollars directly into fish and wildlife habitat enhancement pro- jects, and 2.8 million alotted for the coming year e The Castlegar and District Wildlife Assoc., one small club in the region in the past five years has committed approximately Twenty thousand dollars of donated money for land acquisitions for Wildlife, .. Wildlife relocation projects: (with no hunting on these animals), projects such as slashing and bum- ing, feeding projects etc., etc., etc. and probably have donated near as many hours in volunteer time as Money committed. ¢- (I noticed in all of Mr. Clements’ letters not once was it stated how ~much money or volunteer time his association spends on the very basic fundamental on the ‘conserva- tion of. Wildlife, HABITAT ENHANCEMENT AND PRO- TECTION. thought to solving conflicts. I would like to make an offer to debate all the issues with you Mr. Clements, and your Association, ‘not in the newspapers but in an open forum with representatives from our organization. Please B.M. forward a copy to appropriate peo- ple. Yours i io Wildlife Steenen! Davis, Presi nt West. otenay rouriee rsmen” President ee and District Wildlife Association The Collector's fair/Flea Market f proughe many people into the station for the first time and we PP and com- pliments received, For those who aren’t aware, a $5.00 annual membership in the C&DHS entitles thee to free admittance to the C.P. Rail station AND Zuckerberg Island Chapel House all year! Memberships are available at the Station or the Chapel House; family meaibecships $10.00. See you theret Sincerely, “Carolee Fitz-Gerald, Secretary, C&DHS “Your Saeed S, 3 Letters Policy © ‘Editor ‘are welcome on any topic of. local or general interest. Letters.should be double-spaced, typewritten, or:legibly i handwritten,’ and no: more: ‘than two pages if possible. Letters will be edited in the interests of bre ty. or taste if necessary. All letters must be signed, ‘with ‘ad ‘and : i SNOW STAR ICE CREAIWE at a. REASONABLE RATES Call for An Estimate From The ENGINE AND TRANSMISSION pO ee REBUILDERS aia ec 4 WHEEL DRIVE CHECK We'll check drive shafts, _ transfer case and hubs and give you ano obligation free estimate. ARTCLIFFE MOTORS 364-1224 \ : 910 Farwell Street, Trail — Umit 1 with | “ Over Ienit, pric 3,68 ea, a Back Attached. Ik Bul $1,.94/kg. Lean Quality. 10 Ib. Bag!b- Limit 1 with family purchase. 4.14/kg KALAWSKY SPECIAL aan | LOW RIDER PICKUP ivi Because of the very existence of | fas on this planet, through land jenation, to support such things as our forestry. and mining industries, suburbs; farms and ranching, an even ‘sch Is and hospitals : and. the Low. R der” “ ‘Suspension California Style See a Kalawsky Sales Professional Today! KALAWSKY Me PONTIAC BUICK GMC (1989) LTD. 365- 21 55 Collect “TRAIL, FRUITVALE, ROSSLAND a CUSTOMERS CALL: 364-0213 WHOLE CANTALOUPE a9 Product of Mexico ea. No. 1 Grade. Fresh. WHITE ISHRPOORS AS _ Bulk. B.C. Grown lb. Saute with onions SLICED BREAD White or s Whole Wheat. 450 g. NEW CROP POTATOES California White Rose No. 1 Grade .97/kg ae, Remember to see our florist for all your floral needs. Advertised Prices In Effect Sunday, May 12 through Saturday, May 18, 1991. Mon. to Wed. & Sat. Thursday & Friday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday 10 am. to 6 p.m. We reserve tho right to limit sales to retail quantities, SAFEWAY | P We bring tt alllogether- +