TERRAGE AA - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 21, 1999 STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 PUBLISHER: ROD LINK ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G S5R2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432 EMAIL: standard@kermode.net Up, up, away FORGET those guys who keep trying to float around the world in a balloon. Deputy premier Dan Miller has probably done it a couple of times over by now, The North Coast MLA has proven himself adept at either directly or indirectly floating a tri- al balloon to find out if the political winds are blowing in a useful direction. He did it most famously in the Skeena Cel- Julose crisis when he hinted the government might purchase the company if there was public support for the idea. Local mayors dutifully called on the province to buy in, and Mr. Miller picked up the ball and ran with it. Now he’s done it again by saying the unsayable during a speech at the recent Northern Forest Products Association convention in Prince George — that tenure reform up to and including privatization of Crown forests must be consider- ed to save the foresty industry. Nobody else in the NDP government could have said that, but they’ll all now benefit by being able to watch Mr. Miller’s balloon and respond accordingly, Politics is often said to be the art of the pos- sible. Dan Miller’s bold, risky strokes prove he’s a master. What’s even more telling is that Mr. Miller’s musings come at a time when his provincial government seems stalled in its efforts to put forth a cogent plan by which to run the province and prepare it for the next millennium. Just tell us WEST FRASER’S plan to put its loggers back to work by selling what they cut overseas brings:to~ mind-a statement made by Dave Parker when he was the Social Credit MLA here in the Tate 1980s and early 1990s. A forester by profession who also served for a time as forests minister, Mr. Parker knew full well the effects of prolonged unemployment in ' the province’s prime resource industry. Never a person to pussy foot with his words, Mr. Parker was referring to the last time the forest industry was in a depression here in the early 1980s. If it came to following government regulations or to putting people back to work to put food on the table, said Mr. Parker, the regulations would be discarded. While the local economy might not yet be at the stage it was in the early 1980s, the theme of Mr. Parker’s words is as true now as it was then. And although the prospect of sending raw wood overseas is an admission that we haven’t done a very good job of managing and using our resource to provide processing jobs there isn’t much of an alternative. at home, The only unfortunate aspect this time is the complete lack of willing information from all parties involved to provide clear and concise in- formation so the owners of the resource, the people of B.C., understand more of th change in public policy. iS massive 1998 WINNER CCNA BETTER NEWSPAPERS COMPETITION ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Bedford, Bunnie Cote TELEMARKETER: Tabatha Orange PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS Jeff Nagel * NEWS/SPORTS: Christiana Wiens NEWS/COMMUNITY: Alex Hamilion OFFICE MANAGER: Sheila Sandover-Sly CIRCULATION MANAGER: Carol Kirkaldy DARKROOM/COMPOSING: Susan Credgeur AD ASSISTANT: Julic Davidson SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $57.30 per-year;.Seniors $50.75; Out of Province $64.39 Outside of Canada (6 months) $158.25 (ALL PRICES INCLUDE GST) MEMBER OF B.C. AND YUKON COMMUNITY HEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION. CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION AND B.C. PRESS COUNCIL Serving the Terrace and Thornhill area, Published on Wednesday of each week at . Terrace, British Columbia, VaG 5A2, GN ax feo 3210 Clinton Streot, Storles, photographs, iitustrations, designs and typestyles in the Tertaca Standard are the property at the sopyright holders, Including Cariboo Press (1989) Ltd,, its illustration repro services and advertising agarkics. Peprodtion In whole o* in part, without written pornission, is spocifeally prohibited, -. Authorized as second-class mail pending the Post Office Department, for payment of postage In cash. Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for thelr time and talents - 7. AND THAT FROM THE SAME GUY WHO SWORE HE NEVER HAD SEXUAL RELATIONS WITH THAT “WOMAN MISS LEWINSKY. .. VICTORIA — On September 9, 1953, RCMP arrested 148 people at a tent village at Perry Siding, near New Denver. At the same lime, RCMP took charge of 104 children and transported them by bus to New Denver, where they some of them would spend the next few years, against their will, sepa- rated from their parents, at a facility that had once served as a sanitarium for tuberculosis patients. The men and women who had been arrested were mem- bers of the Sans of Freedom Doukhobors. They were arrested for parading nude near a school. They steadfastly refused to send their children to school. Disrobing was their form of civil disobedience. a-» Following their arrest, the “*adults.were put on a train, taken ~ to Vancouver, tried, convicted’ and sentenced (o terms: in Qakalla prison. As a legal premise for apprehending the cildren, the government had used some obscure law, involv- ing habitual truancy. Initially, some mothers were allowed to stay with the chil- dren at the New Denver facility, but because of space problems and the dilapidated state of the building, 53 children were released into the custody of rel- atives, The rest remained, PEOPLE DIVIDE into roughly two groups — thase who move their things fre- quently, and those of us who are happiest keeping our pos-, sessions in one regular spot. A current TV commerical that choked me on my coffee the first time I saw it, shows a tired husband walking into his living room at the end of a tir- ing day, dropping his briefcase on the floor, and falling where he expects his sofa to be. Only it isn’t. Since he left for the office that morning, his wife rearranged the furniture. That’s how risky it was in my Aunt Mil’s house. Though she was scarcely five feet tall and weighed in proportion, and forced her lo walk as bent over aS a crone, when she took a shift any dresser, bookshelf, or sofa with less collateral damage than a team of professional Why they didn’ ‘FROM THE CAPITAL HUBERT BEYER After a lengthy investigation of complaints by a number of person who were held at the New Denver institution as chil- dren, B.C. Ombudsman Dulcie McCallum last week issued a public report on the, historic events. x As a means of “Righting the Wrong,” the title of her report, the Ombudsman recommends that the B.C, government apol- ogize to the complainants, now in the 50s and 60s, and negati- ate with them an “appropriate form of compensation.” I have some reservations about this course of action. There is little doubt that, according to today's standards, the action of the government at that time was reprehensible. Today we would no sooner con- THROUGH BIFOCALS. CLAUDETTE SANDECKI suffered bouts of bad back that. | notion to redecoratt, she could — “JORDAN WILL Come Mm GACK AND RoprlAN! I Xofrié’S INJURIES Ml FREE AGENT! AND BE PAIL'S GONNA GO fT To L.A, OR HOUSTON! {HAT ABooT THE JA2Z27 movers. It was common to stop in at her house after school and won- der if we'd mistakenly walked into her neighbour’s home, What had been bedroom would not be living room; or where — the sofa had stood now. there were two overstuffed chairs and a coffee table. The only thing she couldn't atrange was the oilfed heater. What a dragl HOKK(on AND MALONE STILL HAVE A YEAR So T'D LOOK PR with CHICAGO WEF sure know, } ON THER conTeACTS - ARETURN MATCH 2 NORTHERN REVENGE ! done the apprehension of chil- dren, whose parents refuse to send them to school, than send parents to jail for doing so. In fact, today’s society acknowl- edges the many advantages of home-schooling. The probiem is that were are judging events of nearly half a century ago according to mod- ern standards. The children had no say in the matter, but the par- ents were undoubtedly aware of the ramifications of ‘their actions, and what the conse- quences, based on. the laws, mores and standards of that lime, would be. To be sure, there is no alle- gation of sexual or physical abuse of the children held at New Denver. That these chil- dren experienced a certain wee “amount ‘Off: trauma: as a: result. “off the forceful separation from their parents goes without say- ing. Whether said trauma caused life-long scars is debat- able. Righting wrongs, making amends for past mistakes is a commendable societal urge, but must every such worthwhile endeavor be accompanied by the opening of compensatory financial floodgates? By those standards, people who were children in war-torn Europe in the 1940s would have a legitimate claim for monetary want To Aunt Mil’s moving mania gave her the best opportunily to houseclean. She was able ta scrub ceilings, walis and floors without any impediments. Rearranging furniture always makes me feel bereft. As akid, I could be loney to the degree of true misery, The strangeness, the false starts finding something now in another corner of the roam, made be insecure. Which makes me worry about the Kosovars displaced by Serbs-and war. To be forced out of their country, to leave all their belongins behind, to face an uncertain future now know- ing if they'll starve, step on a land: mine, be separated from family, have their identification and proof of property destroyed The Aunt Mils among the refugees will look forward to a _ clean’ start when they return. When — and if — they return home, they can build a new Your stor igen eae eps BASKETBALL OF BEEN WITHIN 1000 MILES OF AN NBA GAME /! WELL dete! Got P 15 SPORT CHANNELS on THE PIsH | Hi Compensation not needed compensation in recognition of the trauma inflicted by the incessant bombing of cities, carried out by the opposing side. One of the complainants describes his memory of the events vividly in the ombuds- man’s report: *“T distinctly remember them ' (RCMP) clubbing people. I. seen blood on people’s faces. People falling all over as the: police were advancing into the’ tent, Myself, being just eight: years old, it was the most terri- fying experience I have ever. had in my life before or after . that.” . ' One cannot help but sympa- thize with the plight of the chil- : dren at the time, but the afore-‘ mentioned children in Europe ; “of World War Tf or any other war, for that matter, including” the current one in the Balkans, - remember far worse. . The ombudsmen is dead on ~ in her recommendation that the government apologize for the . events so long ago, but mone- + tary compensation, it seems to > me, would actually cheapen the healing of wounds caused * nearly 50 years ago. ' Beyer can be reached at - Tel: (250) 920-9300; e-mail: hubert@coolcom.com; web: | hitp:/Avww.hubertbeyer.com , COmMme house, acquire new furnishings, not have any dust bunnies to chase for at least three weeks, For those who abhor change, the whole refugee experience must be a trial. From waking in Strange surroundings, making do without their usual: posses- sions, having their daily routine disrupted. Besides the physical discomforts of cold, hunger, thirst and fear. They must despair. Then to have NATO talk of flying them to Canada or other safe havens for six months! As Madame — Robillard, ' immigration minister said, “To want lo stay close to your home is normal.’” Absolutely, Guess Canada’s Aunt Mils felt slighted when Kosovar refugees chose to stay as close as possible to their homeland. But the rest of us understood completely why they refused Canada’ 8 invitation. AN ARCTIC SPORTS | BAR EXPERT ON THE SouTtH !