Saturday, January 9, 1993 PAGE |’ inion S Publisher Scott David Harrison Editor Bob Proctor Marketing Manager Mickey Read Composing Room Foreman Warren Chernoff Accountant Mary Ann Fullerton Circulation Manager OurWiEWS AdrianRAESIDE Three parties, no choices f you’re feeling a little helpless [sent an impending federal election, your not alone. Like no other election, Canadians are stuck with such a limited choice when it comes to a governing party. On one side is Brian Mulroney and his aging and out-of-touch cronies, while on the other is Jean Chretien trying to pretend that he can resurrect his popularity of yesteryear in an effort to occupy 24 Sussex Drive. There-is even an air of disillusion surrounding the New Democrat Party as Audrey McLaughlin tries, but fails to be taken seriously by the Canadian populace. If these are the choices Canadians have in the next election, it will be the first election won according to the eeney-meeney-miney-moe balloting system. Let’s face it, the names are old and tired. What Canadian voters need is an injection of new blood to the federal system. Mulroriey could step down in favor of B.C. MP Kim Campbell, Chretien can leave for Paul Martin Jr. and McLaughlin can hand the reins to Nelson Reis. Only then will Canadians become interested in the federal system once again. And only then can we look beyond the failure of the Charlottetown Agreement, the Free Trade Agreement and our faltering economy. Change is needed. Change is wanted. Canadians want leadership and they’re not getting it from Mulroney, Chretien or McLaughlin. Street TALK i Schools squandering tax dollars What happens when rules and regulations take on a life of their own? one new elementary school boasts a _ decorative concrete bell tower on its We end up with a situation like that at Stanley Humphries Secondary School. I’m talking about the new school sign. The sign that looks like a windsail canopy. The sign that cost upwards of $30,000. (For those who aren’t good at math, that’s just over $967 a letter). Ron NORMAN Comments from the Crossroads Thirty thousand dollars is a lot to pay for a sign — by anyone’s standards. Castlegar isn’t alone in this. It’s The happening all across the province. front lawn (but without a bell — don’t ask me why). The cost? Some $5,000 to $7,000. At the same time, when the school was built last year at a cost of some $3.3 million, there was no money available for playground equipment. Another Surrey elementary school has an extensive miniature rose garden. A third has elaborate skylights. response from parents? Resoundingly negative. A recent Vancouver Sun article pointed out that critics of B.C.’s newly-built schools say money is being squandered on fancy design at the expense of equipment and programs for students. The article notes that in Surrey, where 45 school building projects are underway, They say that landscaping is last on a list of priorities and skylights are a waste of money. One parent said she would rather see a covered area for the children to play under on rainy days and improved programs for students. please see NORMAN page 7 AL Burt Campbell Publisher Emeritus L.V. Campbell Aug. 7, 1947- Feb. 15, 1973 Armando Rego Castlegar “Yes. A person should clean their yard.” Gerry Marsh Pass Creek “It’s a great idea.” Question: Is the Regional District of Central Kootenay’s unsightly premises Bylaw 923 fair? Jc Richard Paulson Castlegar I’m kind of leery about it. It should be more defined.” Wayne Sutton Castlegar “Certainly. It’s unfair to (tidy) people that live next door.” Brian Nielsen Castlegar “No. It pressures people to keep neat for the sake of a law.” @ Saturday, January 9, 1993 AThe News Other VIEWS 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 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 toWHE EDITOR Time to ‘Reform’ criminal justice system The Reform Party of Canada believes that major changes are needed in many areas. One of the more critical changes needed is that of criminal justice reform. Some time ago, a Selkirk College student was accused of breaking into the home of a woman, who also happened to be a Selkirk College student, threatening her with a deadly weapon and sexually assaulting her. The accused, who is now 18, was 17 at the time. He is also a non-resident of Canada. The Crown Prosecutor’s office tried to have the trial raised to adult court but the application was rejected. In adult court, the accused if found guilty, would face the real consequences of his crime. As a juvenile, the maximum sentence is three years. He was accompanied by another person, whose identity is unknown and the accused has not been of any help in identifying the other individual. Hardly the action of one who is showing any remorse for his crime. If this individual is old enough to travel to another country, accept its hospitality and benefits, and attend college, then he is old enough to face the full consequences of his actions. It is time that the criminal justice system started concerning themselves more with the victim’s rights than the criminal’s. There is another policy of the Reform Party worth mentioning here at this point. A resolution was passed by 1,600 Reform Party delegates at the last national conference held in October, 1992. That resolution was that any non-Canadian citizen convicted of a serious crime should be deported. Canada is made up of people from countries around the world. That diversification of cultures is part of the strength of our country. We only want the best of each country, not the worst. Best doesn’t mean the richest or the smartest. It means the people who want to be here, that want to be part of this country and contribute to its greatness — not its problems. Chances are that the accused in this case is here on a student visa and if found guilty, will ultimately be deported. The point here is that if he had landed immigrant status, our society would likely be saddled with this individual forever. If he is guilty, this is not the type of person that we want our should be prepared or forced to accept. Many changes are required in our system. These are but a few. Jim Gouk Kootenay West-Revelstoke Candidate Reform Party of Canada UN, Nato half-heartedly trying to end another genocide How well we remember the end of World War II when the allied Yugoslavia. forces reached Auschwitz and other shocking “death camps” — and revealed the sickening truth of what Hitler and his men had done to six million Jews. Our indescribable feelings of outrage and revulsion were eventually calmed somewhat by assurances that atrocities of this magnitude would never be allowed to happen again — at least not in “civilized” countries. Gradually we came to trust that the United Nations, NATO and the “free world” in general would not allow genocide and other war crimes to be repeated. Alas! Our trust was seemingly in vain. Genocide and ethnocide — must heinous of all human crimes — are now raging in former Yugoslavia, and have been for a good many months. And this nauseating tragedy is happening without any serious effort on the part of our trusted agencies to stop it. In fact, our “father protectors” seem to have spent the best part of a year half-heartedly trying to decide what (if anything) to do Apparently six million Jewish people died in vain — and so did a similar number of innocent Ukrainians, thanks to Mr. Stalin. They say that history repeats itself for those who do not learn by it. It appears this statement is now ringing true in Eastern Europe. Just 50 years after that sickening “holocaust” against the Jews, we apparently have another Hitler in Yugoslavia — and plenty of vacillating “Mr. Chamberlains” (such as Messrs. Major and Bush and Mulroney) trying to placate the new fuhrer. Surely this weakness in Western resolve is a slap in the face for the surviving Jewish people of the world who have continued to jog our fickle memories for more than half a century — so that the holocaust would never be repeated. It is also a slap in the face for thousands of present German people who have been working so hard to ensure that the Hitlerian version of the “phoenix” bird does not rise from the ashes in Europe again. about it. again? against such atrocities? What happened to those glowing assurances (implied, if not written) that Hitlerian genocide would not be allowed to happen Were not NATO and the UN purposely set up to be on guard What a feeling of betrayal we now have — to say nothing of the feelings of those on the receiving end of the war crimes in I’m afraid that history will not forgive us for doing so little to stop this most heinous of human crimes from raging once again. If NATO and the UN have no authority to intervene where war crimes are involved then it is time they changed their mandates accordingly. Otherwise what is the point of their existence? H. F. Killough Castlegar Norman continued from page 6 While I haven’t talked to any Castlegar parents about the new SHSS sign, I bet they feel much the same. Castlegar school board has de- fended its decision to spend $30,000 on a sign, saying that the $2.5 million cost for the SHSS ren- ovations came in under budget. As well, it says that if the mon- ey hadn’t been spent here, it would have been returned to the And rather than give it back (and see it spent on another bell tower, this time with a bell?), the board decided to spend it on anew sign. But what about spending the money on programs here? That’s not allowed, according to the Education Ministry rules. Ministry regulations say that money earmarked for capital pro- jects can’t be funnelled into oper- ating programs. I’m sure there’s a good reason for the rule. But its effect is to encourage $30,000 signs and $5,000 decora- tive bell towers (without bells, so far) because school boards spend all they are given rather than re- turn the money. To make matters worse, while operating budgets have been held in check, capital budgets haven’t been subject to the same con- straints. Thus, we have elaborate signs while programs suffer. My daughter’s school is a good example. Her class has 28 students, but the school’s new computer lab has only 16 stations. When the class visits the lab, 12 kids can’t use the computers. That’s just one example; I’m sure there are many more in every school in the district. The school board says ministry regulations prevent it from spend- ing the money on things like com- puters. I say, so what? Change the regulations. Do we spend the money where it’s needed most or do we simply sit by and let rules that obviously aren’t working strangle us to death with red tape? It’s simple. Someone at the school board needs to get hold of someone in the ministry and ask if they can spend only, say, $5,000 on a sign and the remainder on computers, or books or teachers or whatever is needed for our students. Anyone with any sense at all would see the validity of such a re- quest and grant it outright. If they don’t? Contact Rossland-Trail MLA Ed Conroy and Education Minis- ter Anita Hagen and point out the ridiculous rules that force a school board to spend $30,000 on a sign rather than on things like com- puters. Common sense tells you that if the rules force you to buy a $30,000 sign instead of something worthwhile, you change the rules. So let’s do it. :