December 18, 1983 Women’s work is never done OTTAWA (CP) — There is general agreement as the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women passes its 10th birthday that women can claim significant advances toward sexual equality in some areas. But much work remains to be done. And while both | PP: and d of the -g council agree there is a need for an organization to advise the federal government on issues affecting women, there remains disagreement on the -form it should take. Some say the controversial council has produced valuable research since its establishment in 1978 and should be left mostly as it is to draw upon the expertise in meeting the requirements of fast-changing society. Others argue that the present advisory council, often criticized as being too subservient to federal Liberal governments, must be-revamped to make it more attentive to the needs of women from all economic and social back- grounds. Florence Bird, chairman of the royal commission which 16 years ago-began a study of the status of women in Canada, says ever changing modern society demands the continued existence of this council. - Help for battered women, the needs of single parents, and equal pay for work of equal value are issues that have MONTREAL (CP) — Anti-pornography campaigners are making headway even in this city’— once known: across North America for its uninhibited ‘night life. “The blatancy of pornography at/an eyeball level on main strevts has. upset ordinary, decent folk,” says Rev. Michael Poutnéy, an Anglican’ minister.’ -) 2 Poutney, whose church was one of about 100 inthe Anglican diocese of Montreal that passed a resolution this year depl Pp says’ public ‘p . is growing for a crackdown on obscenity: | ~ /)’. BE Last month, city council passed’ a motion calling on owners of topless. bars and erotic ‘movie: houses to voluntarily remove pictures of. naked: w ning the. Cracking down on porn neighborhood were displaying: with -violent scenes'.in’ them children.: * ‘ f eee i R :, | The group campaignéd to have the grocers put the, offending’ material out’ of: sight) and ‘out ‘of reach of children, Virtually, ‘all complied. (3.7/2)? ..° 0° "ys f “A lot of grocery story owners are also, parents and seemed troubled by our: it that porno ch incite violence against women and\children,” says Char: bonneau. - i Meantime, community. pressure in suburban: Pointe 4 Claire has forced councillors to pass.a:bylawrequirin ) on stands accessible. to Seven ‘other municipalities have . passing similar bylaws.. at 4 ‘The Montreal ‘area is not’ the: anti. n ‘stores to keep pornography out Chroot gomtniens expressed interest in and m orn theatres in ty’s ‘student: goes to trial this Wednesday ‘on six charges of public mischief for allegedly breaking’ windows at -a porno theatre famed for its string of erotic movie houses..° In the city’s east end, Micheline Charbonneau and 10, only recently come.to the fore and that th require in-depth study, she adds, ¥ The retired ‘senator‘says the council, creation of which was urged in her 1970 royal commission report, has produced valuable work and must continue to study new issues like the impact of technology on the female labor belong to the Hochelaga-Mi Colléc- tive Against Pornography, a group formed to fombat Pornography in their area. ayoies eats DISPLAYINVIEW |. Charbonneau, who has three children aged five to 10, . says she. was “shocked” .to learn that grocers’ in’ her x > Katherine Lippe}, a Montreal law r, says those who Oppose pornography are most disturbed by the degrad- ing, rather than'the sexually explicit depictions of women in porn flicks'and magazines. She\'cites examples of women in:chains and dog collars and°of women being béaten, , See et setae Ranees .The federal government has drafted an amendment to the Criminal Code that:would introduce the concept of d into the defi of ob - The amend- ment, however, has yet to be tabled into the House of Commons. — Fine ‘ a —_— » Get Dressed... For the Holiday Season ©: Jumpsuits i ©) Silky Pants and Camis jal under the beautiful gifts ot market. PRESSURE GOVERNMENT ‘ And it must inue to publish ns and demand their implementation by government, she says. A 162-page report : ing council tions in its first decade notes — while not claiming direct credit — that women have made progress toward sexual equality in areas such as entrenchment of their rights in the Constitution. It praises revision of rape laws to define three levels of sexual assault, changes in family law to take into account during a divorce settlement contributions by a spouse who works in the home and increased public awareness. of the problem of wife-battering. . But the report also says that as long as women lack freedom such as the right to choose whether to have an abortion, much work remains to be done. ts . As well, it laments. that part-time workers- do not’ receive most of the benefits available to full-time workers and there: is no way to ensure people do not default on court-ordered divorce settlements. “We have walked a long distance along the road to. sexual equality in Canada,” council president Lucie Pepin says. “And I only hope that a rapid transit system is soon in Place: to speed us along the rest of the way.” She says she is “fairly content” with the p. women have made during the last decade but adds it is that “be more “ i to their © demands. In ‘the nieantime, women must become more active * politically — both as voters and as candidates for political office at all levels of government — adds Pepin who took over responsibility for the council in 1981. And women must push for more appointments to the executive level of federal boards and commissions, she says. Doris Anderson, a former council president and now head of the National Action Committee on the Status of © Women which represents about three million women, agrees the government-anpointed council fills a need for which no’ other organization has the resources. ‘ But Anderson, who resigned her - council position charging political interference by former women's minister - Lloyd A Ly its ind eee ahd As long as it is required to report to the minister. instead of to Parliament directly through the prime minister, the council's effectiveness willdepend on the commitment and support of the responsible minister, she says. But Pepin said in a recent interview it is important to report toa minister because this gives women a pipeline into cabinet. “I don't know how many ministers and you don't know which one will be going forward for you,” she said; “We want power and I think this is a good way to be:in the power circle.” New D women’ Mitchell says the council, which operates on an annual budget’ of nearly $2 million, should report to a parliamentary com-' mittee including MPs from all parties. The council in its current form is “not very useful” and should be restructured to allow broader participation by women, says Mitchell, MP for Vancouver East. The council now middle-class, profe women and does not Pp large of the population such as natives, low-income earners and people from other political parties, she says. Pepin defends the council, saying people from all parties have been appointed either to its three executive posts or as. its 27 regional representatives, ‘CASTLEGAR ~ 2.Speed ~ 4: 14°X14" table Miterin : Fegular $649 - id - Regular $679 4v2" MODEL CSV-125 ICLOSED ~ 6" thigkness capacity = Cuts wood or metal s- ‘Complete with stand AST STEEL VICES ‘69 THE KOOTENAY'S ONLY DISCOUNT BUILDING SUPPLY STORE I ~ WOODWORKING FELDEN VERTICLE 14”’ _. BAND SAW MODEL WBS 350 ‘~ Motorized % h. Black & Decker Pr. - YOU SAVE ‘200° 6’ JOINTER MODEL WJT-150 Motorized % h.p. Complete with stand ¥e"'x6"' cast iron table SALE PRICE *449 YOU SAVE '230 Regular *659 2 $539 YOU SAVE '120 10°’- 5 speed bench : rie OPEN SEVEN DAYS A PRICES EFFECTIVE ‘TIL DEC. 24,1983 OR WHILE STOCKS LA: INCREDIBLE — ‘MODEL;B1005 Ye" chuck YM h:p. motor Regular $249 MODEL BDS-9648 » Motorized » Tilttable wo Tut belt ~ 9" disc o Bell 6"'x48"° » Complete with stand Regular $499 YOU SAVE $180 BONUS! BUYS! Table Saw “.* Rockwell8” Motorized 3 ‘Regular *241% ~ && $188 John Charters .’.. ‘Reflections “Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and ” — Lewis Carroll Regularly at about this time of the year this column, pointedly ignoring all demands on space and commit- ment, turns aside from the busy round to consider such other matters as “shoes and ships and cabbages and kings” and if there is any connection between the onset of the first hard frost, certain birds and the flight past of the space shuttle, The bald eagles for example, are back in the eagle tree on the island. The larger’one (probably the female), is occupying a branch near the top: while the other is perched a couple of branches lower. Both are preening vigorously — their white tail feathers ‘gleaming and flashing in the cold sunshine, their brown bodies merging with the brown hillsides. TRY i The birds are a strange race. Three years ago the evening grosbeak (they are the. robin-sized olive-green irds with the white’ wing-patches, heavy beak and pectacles”) were coming in flocks of over a hundred to the feeder for their morning “fix” of sunflower seeds and a drink of water and they were not above complaining in loud, squeeky-trilly . voices if their breakfast .was later than first-light and their water dish not filled with fresh water for a drink and the occasional cold bath. Some are obviously health faddists. 7 For the past two years, with the exception of the | 5 = 5 = : =| 2 z E MUM Mh _|Police nab Grasshopper Gang LONDON, ONT. (CP) — It was a plot even Soldier of Fortune magazine wouldn't buy: two unemployed insurance sella group of on the idea they can train as freedom fighters by mugging homosexuals and robbing variety stores. % ! i The too wacky-for-Hollywood. performance unravelled this year as London's crime of the decade when police busted what quickly became tagged the Grasshopper Gang because of the green paint the youthful commandos used to disguise their faces. % But these teenagers — some affluent, some runaways, all naive — weren't just. good-natured, badly cast commandos. They were ordered to shoot to kill. Criminal lawyer Norman Peel described the gang’s . actions as “coming as close to a CIA operation in Canada as T've seen.” The gang was the brainchild of Robert McFadden,’ Peel's client. Although McFadden was never more than a private in the militia, he insisted the boys call him “captain.” ‘An 1 i turned-hood, McFadden, 22, mesmerized his band of about 15 followers, telling them he was a South American mercenary with SHOES AND SHIPS, CABBAGES AND KINGS ‘The youths couldn't resist the gang's offer of free pizza and beer' connections that stretched from the Mafia to the London police department. At first, police didn’t link a series of variety store holdups in May and June, muggings of homosexuals in a London park and the robberies of clerks making night bank deposits. TIED TOGETHER What tied it all together for Det. Bill Thorp and Const. David Sparks was a four-year-old girl, a computer and a seemingly routine traffic accident. When it clicked, nine adult gang members, including : McFadden, and five juveniles were charged. All pleaded December 18, 1983 ER UNDERWRITTEN BY THE PEOPLE WHO WROTE THE BOOK ON INSURANCE Kootenay Savings Insurance Services Lid. "We Have ¢ Autoplane Homes Life se -° RV's® Business © Bonds it All © Travel ® Boats 1016-4th St., Castlegar Ph: 365-8313 ‘Across From The Post Office” Hm. ccna eget eH) & recollections Jack Charter's birdhouse on his back porch sits covered In snow (right), while ( m) Canada Geese take to pond near Zuckerberg Island for one of the mes freezes over. fore it occasional scout, they have been almost completely absent. This.year they are back in full numbers and engaging in noisy altercation with the cocky, gleaming blue Steller jays, the ever-present sparrows, the juncoes, the finches, the perky blackcapped chickadees and the occasional flicker and they are always a delight to watch. For the past week and more, also, the snow caps which gleamed cold and remote on the furthermost mountains have advances boldly down the near hillsides and gave us a challenging slap of the soft white glove and to warn us of the coming iron-fisted gauntlet of coming winter. The earthen paths on the island have solidified to a hollow drum-note and the nakedl trees can no longer screen the alternate pathways. The pond — in spite of the best efforts of Bloomer Creek to keep the surface clear — has been gradually hemmed in around the margins with an intricate | of crystal triangles, h and polygons which close off and trap tiny panels of still water. ‘ Each morning the ice has captured a little more of the smooth, open water and each day the sun had won a fraction of it back again. Finally, the bufflehead duck who owns the pond gave up the unequal struggle and left for less threatening surroundings, as did the great .blue heron weeks ago, and the mallard family, which had been hatched on the island and spent all summer and fall in the waters around about it. The flcoks of Canada geese who stopped here in such numbers for the past several years were not to be seen; nor were the proud mergansers — unless, perhaps, they called by when I was at the Abbey. There are no more noisy crows shouting harsh; warnings from the skeletal cottonwoods along the shore, nor shiny black ravens with their “bird-of-ill-omen” cry, swaggering and bobbing about the rocks; and the ghost-like sandpipers with their - weeping cry seem to flitted back to whence they came. Only a long white herring gull moves above the confluence of the Kootenay and Columbia in slow dizzy circles while the eagles, their toilette complete, have moved to the very top of the old tree, doubtless to consider the next important move in their busy day. , Inthe meanwhile, the river, a broad spread of small: grey-green ripples flows lazily to the sea. A short while ago its surface was flecked with whitecaps and each morning the river-wraiths spirits of the dead, rose like genies out of the ruffled waters and much babbling was to be erway the island's shore, clearly discernable 1 -tBey iy be PDEA riot baa dene swith. the’. first. hard. frost...the wraiths have vanished, the babbling has ceased and the river has snuggled down into its bed with only a.quiet murmur. The battle in the pond, however, is at an end and the" entire surface held tight in a latticework of ice. And the dipper, his shore pools and baylets all locked in ice, h dis for, his in the ” mini-eataract of the Bloomer Creek outfall. The world — or at least this small corner of it — under the chill sun is a voiceless, silent expectancy, Last night I saw the space shuttle, a twinkling yellow star racing across the cloud-flecked sky. Remote from the earth as the frozen pond, yet as much a part of this tiny world as I or the birds are a part of it. © On the other hand, its very flashing passage across the evening sky is a symbol of its transience in the scheme of things. The birds are a continuum from childhood to forever and to remember such trivial matters is to keep the world in perspective. Never will ONDON’S CRIME OF THE DECADE guilty to a staggering collection of robbery, weapons, theft and fraud charges and were sentenced to terms ranging from probation to six years in prison for McFadden. The saga began early last February when McFadden, with a few months’ militia experience, boasted to other militia members — Billie Simon, 16, and brothers Jim Seymour, 18, and Steven Seymour, 16 — of robberies he wanted to pull and spoke of forming his own army. The ultimate plan was to enlist between 100 and 300 “commandos” who would use explosives to knock out London's electrical system, making the banks easy Picking. But for starters, McFadden planned the mugging of two night depositors. The three teenagers, armed with a knife and bayonet, completed the missions in February and April, stealing a total of $7,300. HOLMES JOINS By early May, Thomas Holmes, 28, a former arm: iy private and an acquaintance of McFadden, Said to": On June 22 the gang, their faces smeared with green paint, hair slicked with motor oil and armed with rifles ands a bayonet, tried to rob a variety store, but when one of the members couldn't find the safe, the gang had to settle for a small amount of cash from the till. FLOATED DOWN The next day, three more recruits came floating down the Thames River on rafts to where the Grasshoppers had evaenagenengvecanvagugacusaceneyccstuaussuuaaueestecsina ‘A four-year-old girl, a computer anda routine traffic accident helped crack the case’ be a $88,000-a-year insurance salesman before he joined the gang, Holmes was on a downhill slide. His company was in trouble, his commission cheques were by ing, his i was and even his lawyer, Fletcher Dawson, concedes Holmes was starting to “crack up a bit.” The gang developed a rank system — Holmes was the colonel, McFadden was the captain and the rest were sergeants, corporals and privates — and engineered variety store holdups. ~ The first one flopped because the Seymours and Simon, armed with bayonets and a crossbow, didn't want to follow their orders to kill the clerk, a judge was later told. The second holdup was no better — the clerk chased them off with a stick. The next attempt, fortified with a new recruit, ended when a female clerk pulled out a knife and sent them packing. Short of manpower, Holmes and McFadden recruited three more teenagers on the city's main street. One of the recruits was already in the business of mugging homo- sexuals in a park and the gang put his skills to use. set up camp just west of London. The youths, one of them running away from his comfortable, middle-class home, couldn't resist the gang’s offer of free pizza and beer. The teenagers were soon marching, saluting and doing pushups on command. In several days, they fired about 200 rounds of ammunition. Once in the group, the boys were told the only way out was to be beaten or killed. The leaders then hatched a plan to rob Bumpers, a trendy night spot. Shortly after midnight on June 25, the Grasshoppers, carrying weapons and dressed in fatigues and green paint, were deployed in the bushes around the bar. But after spotting a security guard in the parking lot, they decided against shooting him and to take a raincheque on the heist. They “borrowed” a motor boat to get away, but couldn't get it started and had to paddle to a previously arranged rendezvous point with two members, who were to have stolen canoes from a nearby park to slip away in. But the police had stopped the two members, forcing the gang to steal “getaway” paddleboats to get back to 4.onesotaeeceseeeadnenavenuceaannanegeneeevacecuesanananannnsagagagneaannusecacadvvgeuausecesuuaseaanataneavagsenuasgayaynsuasesuasusst Uy | the human cargo in that spaceship feel the pangs of hunger and cold (barring some monstrous accident) but the birds will — inexorably, slowly as winter tightens its grip on the land. And this is where, the realities intersect. The astronauts in the limitless cold of space will almost cer- tainly survive. The timeless birds, in the very limited cold of earth's winter will die without the help of friends who will remember their debt with gifts of seed, wild-bird and sunflower, crumbs, fat, suet, crumbs, a few currents or raisins, peanut butter and nuts (all unsalted) and above all a daily dish of fresh water — for they need fresh water as much as the rest of us. I realize that it is a bit of bother, but the bird that you save in the cold days to come will brighten your days and your garden next spring. The eagles have finally made up their minds and with five-foot wings outspread sail with regal casualness down the darkening river. The herring gull, denying even the existence of the small plane with its twinkling, fire-fly warning light, continues his solidarity spirals above the two rivers. Fishing is not up to much today it seems. _... ~ Since. wrote this column several weeks_ago, things have changed slightly. There are for example, a couple o: dozen Canada geese visiting on the pond. The river has risen two or three feet and has become (temporarily) noisy again and there can be no doubt that we are going to have a white Christmas. In any case, I would like to thank my readers for their support, and itici the Castlegar News staff for their warm assistance, to acknowledge the long letters from Brother David of Westminster Abbey and former Seaforth Highlander Jack Bedford of Nelson. I never cease to be amazed, in spite of the constant deluge of disaster, war and rumors of war, at how many kind friends and gentle people there to be found all around one. To them and to everyone — and particularly all Seaforths in the Kootenays — I would like to wish a joyous and fulfilling Christmas. And please, don't forget the birds. = = fie camp. On the way home McFadden and Holmes amused themselves by firing shots at each other. A combination of bullets and rocks in the shallow water sank two of the three paddleboats. Needing cash, the Grasshoppers then attempted to rob a doughnut shop, but the clerk recognized one of the members — Private Mosquito — as a regular customer and refused to take them seriously. BECAME EFFICIENT They moved their headquarters to a motel and planned their last job. The members were getting more efficient — McFaddedn pointed a gun at the variety store clerk and told him they would “blow his head off” if he moved, court was told later. The gang got away with $108 and went back to the motel to celebrate. Meanwhile, the two police officers were snapping the last piece of the puzzle into place. Accompanied by the doughnut shop clerk, they cruised the shop's neighborhood, looking for Private Mosquito. They spotted him and he got away, but as Sparks chased him through one backyard, a four-year-old girl asked the officer who he was and why he was running. She then volunteered Private Mosquito’s real name. The name was fed into the police computer, which spit out two missing persons reports. Using the computer to follow up on these, the police discovered that five members of the gang, including McFadden and Holmes, had given their names to police as witnesses to a minor hit-and-run accident. Police arranged for McFadden to phone them and when he did, they traced the call, arresting him while he was still in the phone booth. McFadden gave police his address‘ at the motel and when they barged into the room they received the most respectful welcome of their careers. The ragtag group jumped to their feet and saluted what they thought were their returning commanders. “They were just a conglomeration of losers,” says Wally Libis, a lawyer for one member. “They all got together and it gave them a purpose. Every one of them was down and out and it gave them something to be involved in.”