Wednesday, August 5, 1992 @ ithe News Mickey Read Composing Room Foreman Warren Chernoff Accountant Heather Hadiey Circulation Manager Burt Campbell Publisher Emeritus LV. Campbell Aug. 7, 1947- Feb. 15, 1973 OurViEWS AdrianRAESIDE he British Columbia Liberal Party must be struggling to find an issue. oy How else can you explain its sudden interest in proposed changes “to B.C.’s beer and wine stores? The Liberals recently denounced a government plan that would see liquor stores provide greater services to the paying public at the expense of beer and wine stores... boy, aren't they tough. ; ; if shis is the type of inspired leadership British Columbians can look forward to from a party that has spent the past 20 years in the political wilderness, we're in trouble. An opposition government is supposed to provide a vision different than that of our elected leaders. To date, that hasn’t happened. 2 The Liberals have been nothing short of lackluster since stumbling their way back into the political fold. Liberal MLAs have been continually outmaneuvered by the likes of Mike Harcourt, Moe Sihota and Glen AAAHH WEEKS W eon \AN ? Bat Gr te 5 IN y oPNNS AND LAST-DITCH TALKS ! Brace yourselves for a battle An open letter to all those public confidence, they silly enough to run for Castlegar city council: Don't. 3 Come on now, spell it with me: D-O-N--T. I'll even add one of these if you haven’t quite got my point: D-O-N--T-! ; Forgive me for sounding Clark. It’s almost embarrassing watching these rookies initiate any line of questioning. ; Tainted by an ineffective first session, the Liberals are becoming increasingly gun shy. How else can you explain their silence during the crippling pulp industry strike? Even today, the Liberals have yet to take a meaningful stand regarding the long- winded doctors debate. It’s time for the Liberals to get their hands dirty. They can’t allow their own inexperience to dictate their degree of opposition. British Columbia deserves better. Street TALK the alarm bells, but is there something about the boring meetings, lousy pay and constant homework that I don’t understand? s.p.HARRISON Harrison Comparison can’t. : Take the Price- Waterhouse report, for example. . The scrambling council has been doing over the hush-hushed report hasn’t earned it any Brownie points. Why, had Councillor Kirk Duff not come forward to say he favored the release of the $24,000 taxpayer-funded report, it would have been Sure, you may se all those warm an UZzZy thoughts about cleaning up our half-cocked system, but that’s not enough. ; Sorry, but I find a backed up septic tank more attractive than a city council seat. Okay, so you get to be seen on Shaw Cable every couple of weeks, but outside of that, there’s nothing noble about municipal politics. Especially Castlegar’s. Let’s face it, our local politicians have an identity crisis. As hard as they try to install swept under the proverbial carpet. As a prospective candidate, it’s easy to say that the report should be released — and it will, because council can’t afford to have this report become a byelection issue — but that’s just one decision. One tiny decision in a city that has plenty of xplaining to do. aj This byelection. is a lot more important is willing to admit. Se aes see HARRISON page 7 = Question: What do you think of Castlegar’s CK’ Sonja Nevakshonoff Castlegar “] think it’s dumb.” Brad Armstrong Castlegar “] liked it before — I don’t like country music at all.” David Zappavigna Castlegar “It’s okay, but they keep playing the same songs. Leeda Fofonow “I won't listen to it ” QR switching to an all-country music format? Phil Kanigan Tarrys Castlegar “It’s okay I guess.” now. @ Wednesday, August 5, 1992 Other VIEWS i Please address all letters to: Letters to the Editor Castlegar News P.O. Box 3007 Castlegar, B.C. VIN 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 9 a.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 nai 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 ‘oWHE EDITOR I would like to express on behalf of myself and the Castlegar Figure Skating Club our appreciation to gentleman's hockey, the Castlegar Aquanauts, the Castlegar Volunteer Fire Department and the staff at the Castlegar and District Recreation Centre for making it possible for our organization to host the 1992-93 B.C. Winter Games Skate-off and the Kootenay Regional Skate-off which will beheld in November of this year. Unfortunately, when the figure skating club enquired as to the possibility of hosting these skate-offs, other events had been previously booked into the arena. With a tremendous amount of work and re-arrangement of schedules by Richard Stoochnoff and Doug Fellman (as well as many others on the teams involved) the gentleman’s hockey moved their tournament to a different weekend. This was also made possible by Mike Balahura and Gus Young of the Castlegar Aquanauts, agreeing to change their bingo night which would release the recreation centre for the Hockey Tournament. To Ray Hackett and Fred Lalonde who suggested and then verified that the fire department might release their reservation of the hali for this “swap,” thank you. Finally, thanks to the staff at the rec centre for cheerfully putting up with all the “swaps.” Local skaters get huge helping hand Without the co-operation and support of all these organizations we would never have been able to host this event. The B.C. Winter Games Skate-off and the Kootenay Regional Skate-off will bring approximately 100 — both local and regional skaters — to Castlegar. It will allow our community the opportunity to see higher level competitive skaters as well as offering our local skaters a chance to compete in these events on their own home ice. Again, thanks to you all — we couldn't have done it without you. Pam Hackett President Castlegar Figure Skating Club Earlier this year, the CBC aired a TV series T'he Valour and the Horror. Two of the episodes — dealing with Bomber Command and the Normandy Campaign — have been the subject of objections from veterans and many historians. The film was produced by Galafilm of Montreal, a privately-incorporated company affiliated with some high-profile CBC journalists. Perhaps on the assumption that they could not defend their message, the producers began attacking the messenger. The CBC officials mounted a major offensive, labeling a Senate enquiry an “inquisition”. A number of _ senior journalists supported the CBC. On the other hand, evidence condemning the film by some of Canada’s leading war historians never got into the media reports. At stake? The perception of future Canadians regarding what we did during the war. The losers? All Canadians, because they may have been manipulated. The series pretends to be an anti-war message. Television series belittles Canadian war veterans Taxpayers’ money was channeled to a _ private company. According to letters on file, the National Film Board is involved to the tune of nearly $750,000; Telefilm contributed $1 million. ‘These state-funded agencies operate beyond the reach of the public and parliament — and when anyone objects, they raise the bogeyman of censorship, or resort to personal attacks on the detractors.’ Instead, it is an indictment of the Canadians who fought against Hitler’s aggression. In challenging the series, I am using the procedures available to all Canadians; that is, the CBC Ombudsman and the CRTC. The chances are, however, that our submissions will never make it out of the bureaucratic circles. Figures presented at the Senate hearings indicated $2.5 million from the CBC. Could the total cost, including promotion by the broadcaster, be close to $4.5 million? These state-funded agencies operate beyond the reach of the public and parliament — and when anyone objects, they raise the bogeyman of censorship, or resort to personal attacks on the detractors. The whole subject needs to be ventilated with the public. Admittedly, some of the print media have been helpful, but newspaper space is at a premium. There is an alternative. We have prepared comprehensive briefs. They expose at least a dozen major flaws in the film. One focuses on the aerial bombardment of German cities. It is in the interest of all Canadians to see this material. As a war amputee, I have the full support of my own organization but I must accept responsibility for this’ so-called “campaign”. Anyone wishing to comment, please write to me personally. H. Clifford Cadderton, Chairman, National Council of Veterans Associations Ottawa ‘Fore’ a good cause We would like to thank everyone who participated in making the Fifth Annual Jim Young-Red Cross Celebrity Golf Tournament in Castlegar a fantastic success. We raised close to $18,000 which will support Red Cross services here in the Kootenays and around the world. And as a member of the United Way, we will continue to help when help is needed. Stosh Uchida, Carl Henne, Alex Birukow Jim Young-Red Cross Golf Committee Harrison continued from page 6 Let’s not pretend that our expected byelection doesn’t have huge political overtones because it does: The byelection — which will likely be coupled with the RCMP building referendum on Oct. 17 — has the potential to become down-right, nasty. Why you ask? That’s an easy one. See, voters will have something different to consider with this byelection. They can vote for Joe or Jill Candidate as they always have or they can chose to introduce partisan politics into Castlegar by electing a member of the Coalition Unaccepting Rash Bureaucracy. The prospect of that, scares me. I have no problem with a member of CURB seeking public office, provided that member’s affiliation to Castlegar’s hot-headed citizens group is put on the back-burner. As a voter, the last thing I want to hear any candidate say is “CURB has decide that”, or “CURB is committed to.” Hide-behind-the-garty politics is something™ that should be left to the provincial and federal domains. Castlegar doesn’t need it and doesn’t deserve it. I hope our byelection attracts several candidates. I also hope that these candidates are prepared to do a reality check before they take one step into the ring. Despite the boring meetings, lousy pay and _ constant homework, our present council has done a good job. Granted, they haven’t done everything right, but they haven’t done everything wrong either. Best we remember that ee Oct. 17 isn’t that far off.