Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 2, 1999
‘TERRACE

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

PUBLISHER: ROD LINK
ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. = V8G 5R2
TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 » FAX: (250) 638-8432
EMAIL; standard@kermode.net

A good move

NOBODY else in the province is going to Say
it, so we in the northwest must.

The provincia] government deserves our thanks
for living up to its end of the bargain to save
Skeena Cellulose by approving a $110 million
modernization.

What’s often forgotten in the political arenas of
the south — where the name Skeena Cellulose is
merely convenient shorthand. for NDP in-
competence rather than an employer of thou-
sands —- is that it was not just the provincial
government that bailed out the company.

More than 450 contractors and suppliers voted |

to take just 10 cents on the dollar for the $83
million they were owed when Repap B.C. col-
lapsed two years ago.

Northwest towns agreed to defer the company’s
property taxes for a number of years.

And hundreds of pulp mill workers agreed to
pay cuts in exchange for the uncertainty of
shares in the restructured company.

All of those sacrifices were predicated on the
province living up to its commitment to spend
the money necessary to modernize the pulp mill.

True incompetence would have been to refuse
to advance money now and wait until markets
have risen and started to fall again before agree-
ing to release funds — likely under a court’s or-
der to do what was promised in the restructuring
agreement. an

Fees are foul

THE BACKCOUNTRY was a great place.
Nowhere were you so free to escape down a
bumpy logging road and camp for a night — that

is until a forests. ministry official asks to see your” |”

plastic campground pass.

Starting this year, the B.C. government will |

charge you to stay at forest service campgrounds,
($27 for an annual permit, or $8 for a night, un-
less you’re staying at a popular campground
where it’s $10 a night or only $5 if you’ve al-
teady bought the annual permit.)

The campgrounds used to be one of the pre-
cious few services that was free. Unofficially,
they’re considered a payback to the public from
companies logging on publicly owned land.

But now the campsites are seen as little more:

than another generator for a little more tax
Tevenue — or a Jot more.

The Ministry of Forests estimates more than

two million people stay at the 12,000 forest ser-
vice campsites each year.
But the camping passes have already sparked

petitions and talk of rebel campers who’ll refuse —

to pay. Others say they’ll boycott stores that sell
the passes.

Still, most people will simply cough up the
money, perhaps thinking they are helping out a
crippled logging industry that can’t afford to pay
for the sites through stumpage fees,

Not so. Your $8 a might ($27 for a season) will
dissappear straight into general tax revenue.
Don’t expect improved service for your money.

1998 WINNER
CCNA BETTER
NEWSPAPERS

COMPETITION

PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link
ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credyeur

NEWS Jeff Naget * NEWS/SPORTS: Christiana Wiens
NEWS/COMMUNITY: Aicx Hamilton
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ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS:
Sam Bedford, Bunnie Cote
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Serving the Terrace and Thombhill area, Published on Wednesday of aach week at 3210 Clinton Street,
Terrace, British Columbia, VBG 572,

Stories, photographs, itustrations, designs and typastytes In ihe Terraca Standard are the property of the
copyright holders, including Cariboo Prass (1969) Lid., its iltustration repro services and advertising
agenciss,

Reproduction ia whole oc in part, without writen permission, Is specifically prohibited,

Authorized a4 second-class mail pending the Post Office Dapartment, for paryment of postage In cash,

Special! thanks to all our contributors and correspondents
for thelr time and talents

AFTER A WEEK OF NOTHING”.
BUT WHALE BLUBBER, WHALE SOUP.
WHALE STEAK WHALE STEW AND

" WHALE PIE I'M DYING FOR A
GOOD OLD-FASHIONED BiG MAC... -

Big Broiher is watching

VICTORIA — In the early
1970s, when | was working
for Victoria’s Daily Colonist
newspaper, a friend of mine at
B.C. Tel discreetly informed
me that my phone was tapped.

It appeared that some of the
opinions I expressed in my
columns were regarded as
borderline subversive by the
RCMP. So they thought it
might be a good idea to keep
tabs on Hubert.

1 had a little fun at Big
Brother’s expense, peppering
my phone conversalions with
temarks like “between you
and me and anyone else who
might be listening,” and soon
enough my friend told me the
tap was off.

.Fast-forward, .. to

high-button shues. For one
thing, they’re illegal, unless
authorized by a judge, .but
they’re also obsulete.

Big Brother has far more
effective ways of snooping
around in people’s communi-
cations,

Meet the UKUSA alliance,
a super-snoop group capable
of eavesdropping on just
about every type of communi-
cation from long-distance
phone calls to Internet e-mail.

The members of this exclu-
sive snoop outfit include
Canada, the U.S., Britain,

FROM THE CAPITAL .
HUBERT BEYER

1999,
‘Phone taps have gone | out with.

Australia and New Zealand.
Canada is represented in the
alliance by the Communica-
tions Security Establishment,

an .ultra-secret wing of the .
Defence -

Department with
head quatters in Ottawa,

News of UKUSA's exis-
lence was revealed last week
in-a report prepared for the
European Parliament by Dun-
can Campbell, an Edinburgh-
based researcher.

The surveillance web, the
reports says, automatically
sifts through the vast bulk of
messages that traverse the
globe daily via satellite,
microwave radio relay, under-
sea cable and the Internet.

“Comprehensive systems
exist to access, intercept and
process every important form

of communications,” says the
Teport.

The UKUSA alliance prew
out of co-operation among the
allies during the Second
World War. For decades after
the war, its prime job was to
monitor the military and
diplomatic communications
of the Soviet Union and its
East Bloc allies.

With the collapse of the
Soviet Union, UKUSA’s jab
shifted to collecting informa-
tion about terrorism, orga-
nized crime and an increasing
flow of data on economic
dealings and scientific devel-
opments, in other words,
industrial espionage.

“There is wide-ranging evi-
dence indicating that govern-
ments are routinely utilizing
communications inieiligence
to provide commercial advan-
tage to companies and trade,”
says Campbell’s report,

What about spying on indi-
viduals? Well, according to a
former member of the CSE,
the agency used to track envi-
ronmental protest actions by
Greenpeace vessels on the
high seas, and probably still
does.

They certainly have the
manpower and money to do
so. The CSE employs 890
people, many of them Armed
Forces Personnel, and has an

potential

annual budget of $110 mil-
lion. Its American counterpart
has a slaff-of 21,000 and a
budget of $3,6 billion. And of

course, members of the club

exchange information.

UKUSA members are not
Supposed to target each
other’s citizens. Why don’t I
find comfort in that claim?

For one thing, because the
agency refuses to discuss alle-
gatious of operations as a mat-
ter of policy, much like. the
US. Navy will “neither con-
firm nor deny” the presence of
nuclear warheads on subs in
Canadian waters. For another,
it is my experience that if
something can be done, it will
be done. ,

You might dismiss the
dange: of Big
Brother monitoring you com-

munications with the old “If |

you have nothing to hide,

what’s the problem?” I’m not .

sure I want to subscribe to that
position.

I no more want strangers
searching my house, even if

they assure me they won’ -

Sleal anything, than have
some secretive government
agency rummaging through

my ¢-mail or phone conversa- _

tions, even though my e-mail
and phone calls are damned
innocuous.

Music cuts shortsighted

WALKING up to the Terrace
Public Library Sunday, I met
my first busker.

This future Don Messer,
maybe as young as twelve,
meticulously fiddled the intri-
cale notes of an old time tune
my Dad ioved to whistle. He
played by himself standing
beside his fiddle case which
lay open on the ground, sun-
light glinting off several
twonies and loonies scattered
on its velvet lining.

He told me he takes private
lessons. Next day his teacher
explained that once her stu-
dents reach a degree of profi-
ciency, they're invited to join
her fiddie group made up of
both adults and younger folk.

Her fiddle group has enter-
jained residents at the Ter-
raceview Lodge - who
begged them to fiddle longer
— and participated in the
Legion’s talent show,

Instead of mowing lawns
or flipping hamburgers, this

WILDERNESS
RECREATION

WHAT ARE YOUR

THROUGH: BIFOCALS
(CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

junior fiddler had chosen to
busk as a way to earn a dollar.
At the same time, he’s enter-
taining himself and gaining
poise as a performer.

The library is an idea! set-
ling for busking: competing
traffic nolses are few, and for
pedestrians who care to stay
and enjoy his spare renditions
of jigs and reels, the library’s

steps offer readymade __pler for them,

WELL,UM..WETOKE HMMW},.. THERE'S NO} 9-53 DOES THAT MEAN
AROUNDIN THE BUS Boxes on THE Wwe’ RE FAILURES?
Alot! PICK SOME — Fagm FoR THAT!

BERRIES CATCH A
Féwl GRAYLING ,
SHOOT GROUSE.

bleacher seating.

Listening to him, I was
reminded that music is that
rarity, a skill that delights oth-
ers, provides endless hours of
personal entertainment, and
can be indulged into old age.
Compare that with history,
science, or any other acade-
mic subject taught as part of
the core curriculum = in
schools.

Yet whenever the school
board has trouble balancing
its budget, the first target they
shoot down is music. No mat-
ter who you elect to the board,
the thinking is always the
same: music is itrelevant. Cut
it.

That’s despite ample scien-
lific evidence that music helps
students process mathematics.
Studies show music students
out-perform others in math,
because somehow music
irains the brain in ways that
make computing math sim-

RESPONDENTS HIKE
FO US PECL EP

LESTINATION'S ON

ONECASS /FED TRANS,
MW UNDES/OWATED
PORTIONS Of
UNPROTECTED
CRON LAMP

Trustees talk a good line
about supporting students, yet
their first choice for saving a
buck is always cutting music,
ofien the one course that
brings a ray of sunshine into a
child’s academic day. As such,
it may spell the difference
between a student staying in
school or dropping out.

The salary of one computer
punching executive approxi-
mates District 82's budget
shortfall. Why not, then, dis-
rupt the life of one adult
employee instead of robbing
dozens of students of a useful
but fun class?

Only last week Thornhill
Junior Secondary School’s
jazz band took silver in a
national competition. A sec-
ond group at the school also
did well. And it’s not the first
time TJSS has brought home a
music trophy.

When will the school board
stop picking on music as its
budget scapegoat?

nore! Jusr
THAT THERE'S
Aid Box for

PIES ELE ERR EEE aD

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