Saturday, November 28, 1992 @ : 5 PAGE = = = Op Dave McCullough Publisher Scott David Harrison Editor Bob Proctor Marketing Manager Mickey Read Composing Room Foreman Warren Chernoff Accountant Mary Ann Fullerton Circulation Manager OurViEWS AdrianRAESIDE Good News, bad News ayor Audrey Moore made an interesting comment to a News reporter Monday evening. The long-time mayor of Castlegar wondered aloud what satisfaction The News gets from being such a negative paper. Obviously disturbed by the tenacious style of a dedicated editorial staff, Moore’s comment has little impact on the daily operations of this newspaper. The News is neither negative nor positive — it is merely a newspaper whose mandate is to present the truth each and every day. That mandate began in 1947 and it is alive and well in 1992. Disparaging comments of Castlegar’s establishment will not diminish this newspaper’s commitment to its readers. The community deserves to have its questions answered and The News is privileged to be a vehicle in this pursuit of truth. For far too long citizens have sat back and accepted the bureaucratic word as the gospel. The News won't do this — it refuses to pay lip service to the whims and wishes of a select few. We won’t ignore the fact that a Price Waterhouse report exists, city workers are unhappy and a Selkirk College student is alleged to have been violated in a most heinous manner. These are real stories and real issues — presented in a forthright manner by The News. The News is neither negative nor positive, it is merely a newspaper pursuing today’s truth for tomorrow. rae alt. English language is a changing Have you noticed that the English language is taking an interesting new direction? That’s not surprising. Languages change all the time. (Witness, for instance, the new “teenspeak”. Gone are “awesome” and “totally”. Now we have phrases like “six pack”, referring to the six stomach muscles that stand out on a well-shaped body.) Ron NORMAN Comments from the Crossroads great deal, or everything concerned; comprehensive. 3. inclusive of, including, embracing.” Today, inclusive is commonly used as an adjective for language, as in “inclusive language,” which means language that doesn’t exclude anyone. Primarily it has been used to expunge any sexist language from __ our What is surprising is who vocabulary. Chairman has is leading the _ way: newspapers. Or more precisely, daily newspapers. But I’m not so sure anyone’s following. This new direction in language is an attempt by the major daily newspapers and wire services to be “inclusive.” Even the word “inclusive” has found new meaning today. In my Random House College Dictionary Revised 1975 Edition, inclusive was defined as: “1. including the stated limit or extremes. 2. including a become chairperson, for example. I had no trouble coping with these changes, though for a while when I was working at the newspaper I led a double life. Outside of office hours I referred to the head of the Castlegar School Board as chairperson. But during the day I was obliged to write about the “chairman” — not the “chairperson”. please see NORMAN page 7 StreetTALK Burt Campbell Publisher Emeritus L.V. Campbell ‘Aug. 7, 1947- Feb. 15, 1973 Terry Johnson Castlegar “If they break the law for attention, they'll get more.” Scott Palsson Robson “Depending on the seriousness of the crime.” ud Gord Servais Hope “Yes and sentences should be stricter.” Inez McAllister Castlegar “Yes, if their name is out they may not do it again.” Question: Should the names of young offenders accused of violent crimes be made public? Patsy Makortoff Castlegar “If it lets parents know so they can help their children.” @ Saturday, November 28, 1992 Other VIEWS Please address all letters to: Letters to the Editor Castlegar News P.O. Box 3007 Castlegar, B.C. V1N 3H4 or deliver them to 197 Columbia Ave. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and not longer than 300 words. Letters MUST be signed and include the writer's first and last names, address and a telephone number at which the writer can be reached between 9a.m. and 5 p.m. The writer's name and city or town of residence only will be published. Only in exceptional cases will letters be published anonymously. Even in those cases, the name, address and phone number of the writer MUST be disclosed to the editor. The News reserves the right to edit letters for brevity, clarity, legality, grammar and taste. Letters coWHE EDITOR Collective bargaining is the way to go Neil Rachynski’s article (Socred, MLA Duke it out over Bill 84 — Nov. 21) jumped at me as | lifted my sandwich from The News in the Dilcon shack today. I must say I was impressed by the forthrightness and candor of Mr. Elmer Pellerine, Rossland-Trail Socred President, in discussing his business affairs. If Mr. Pellerine ever makes it into public office, that candor will stand him in good stead. I was touched by his regret, as were several others in the shack, that he couldn’t pay his employees more; or that he couldn’t. set up a $2,500 trust fund for health and pensions. Mr. Pellerine claims to be throwing too much tax money “into that bottomless pit in Victoria” to be able to help his staff. Although he may not agree, collective bargaining with his employees is the answer to his problems; and Mr. Pellerine shouldn’t think money is the only consideration. When people come together to bargain collectively they talk about a great deal more than money. They discuss hours of work, health and safety at work, and maternity and sick leaves. They also create and manage health and welfare plans similar to what Mr. Pellerine would like to provide for his people. That is, if Mr. Conroy’s government weren't bleeding him so. Mr. Pellerine should encourage his workers to begin collective bargaining, and perhaps through shared effort, his and theirs, they could come up with a means of attaining things that many of us in this community take for granted. Hundreds of long-time trade unionists frequent Mr. Pellerine’s establishment, and I’m sure any one of them would gladly answer any questions he might have about the trade union movement or about the relative merits of Bills 19 and 84. Gil Arnold Organizer Carpenters Local 2300 Castlegar Name calling won’t get local school board anywhere I would like to address this to Mr. Mickey Kinakin, trustee of School District No. 9. Mr. Kinakin: Why don’t you put the blame where it belongs, it is not the Education Ministry but the school board who applied for approval of $1.5 million dollars to renovate Twin Rivers school. That is what the board asked for and that is what you received. So know, you are saying that the ministry, should have known that renovation means rebuild. You got what you asked for but now you say, “No, that’s not we wanted.” The board knew that the school was old and was not going to hold the Russian Immersion Program, where students travel from all different areas of the city, as well as Special Needs and all the students who rightfully belong there. Why did the board not apply to rebuild rather than renovate six years? Also to your counterpart, Evelyn Voykin who states that the board has to educate Anita Hagen, I suggest that you educate yourselves by getting a dictionary and look at what the meaning of renovate and rebuild mean. Anita Hagen obviously knows the meaning. It was refreshing to know that Voykin knows that six-plus-six equals'12. As far as being at the back of the bus, you have to know how to move to the front. On closing, I really hope that the school board reconsiders their position on this matter when addressing the ministry. By name calling and criticizing, you will only hamper your approval in the future. If you choose not to then good luck in receiving any funding from the ministry. Jan Neumann Castlegar Common sense needed in war against marijuana I was astonished to read a report in The News which said that the maximum sentence for trafficking in marijuana is life imprisonment. I turned to the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs, also known as the Le Dain Royal Commission, for information. It explains that the law makes no distinction between marijuana and the opiate narcotics (i.e. heroin). The penalties are the same. Le Dain noted that classifying marijuana in this way “is at extreme variance with the facts,” a mistake of such magnitude that it “can undermine not only the credibility of the law, but also the credibility of information about other drugs.” Le Dain, on the properties of marijuana: “Cannabis is one of the least potent of the psychedelic drugs... It would appear that there are normally no adverse physiologic effects of withdrawal symptoms occurring with abstinence from the drug, even in regular users... (and) few crimes committed under the influence of marijuana have been documented, and a casual relationship between the drug use and other illegal behavior has not. been established.” When writing about which drugs it felt were “threatening” to society Le Dain did not mention marijuana. I wonder what the mainstream thinkers and opinion makers in this community believe. Do people think that the recent increased police activity to enforce the marijuana laws in the Kootenays is a reasonable use of scarce police resources? Does this community believe that young marijuana offenders, such as those reported on in The News recehtly, ought to be charged with an offence carrying a penalty of life imprisonment? Where is common sense? David Lewis Crescent Valley Norman continued from page 6 That was because the paper fol- lowed Canadian Press style and CP style dictated the head of a col- lege board, a school board or a li- brary board was called a chairman. It didn’t mater a whit if the board actually called the person a chairperson. Canadian Press didn’t want to know. As far as it was concerned, the head of the board was called “chairman”. Period. My how things have changed. Not that Canadian Press — or The Vancouver Sun for that mat- ter — has switched to “chairper- son.” It’s gone one better. It has re- moved any reference to people be- ing involved at all — man, woman or person. Now everything is inanimate. Take the following excerpt from a story on the Capital Regional District in Victoria: “Regional district chair Frank Leonard makes no attempt to hide his bias...” Did you get that? The head of the regional district is no longer a chairman, chairwoman or chair- person. He’s called simply “chair”. In that sense our nouveau Eng- lish language appears to work. But judge for yourself the fol- lowing example which is excerpt- ed from a recent Canadian Press story in the Vancouver Sun. It con- cerns the bid by Conrad Black’s Hollinger Inc. (which also owns Sterling Newspapers, the owners of the Castlegar Sun, Nelson Dai- ly News and Trail Times) to be- come the single-biggest share- holder of Southam Inc.: “However, Ronald Cliff, the newspaper publisher’s chair, de- nied that the company has hired a broker to find a white knight.” Is it me, or does that sentence imply that the publisher’s chair is an inanimate object named Ronald Cliff? Not only that, it’s a talking inanimate object that is- sues denials? “Chair” isn’t the only example. “Fishers” is another. The Vancouver Sun has been using this word regularly for months now in place of the word fishermen — even though the peo- ple who do the fishing still refer to themselves as “fishermen”. Even the union which repre- sents these people is still called The United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union. No mention of “fishers” anywhere. I understand the reasons for in- clusive language, and in most cas- es I’m supportive. But why elimi- nate any reference to people? Surely, chairperson is better than the inanimate chair and fish- erperson is no more awkward than “fisher.” Who knows, maybe “chair” and “fishers” will be in everyday use in five years. (They sure aren't now. I can’t ever remember hearing those words used by anyone in conversation.) But then it wasn't that long ago that chairperson was considered foreign.