© PENINSULA NEWS REVIEW

. COMMENTARY ___ Wednesday, June 10, 1998

- Editor: Paul Wyke
«Phone: 656-1151 / Fax: 656-5526

A division of Island Publishers Ltd.
9726 First St., Sidney, B.C.
V8L 3C9

Vol. 86/ No. 23 / Circulation: 13,796

ee Publisher: Jean Butterfield
|

EDITORIALS

Of canning) in circles
around the council table

Pe. the sublime to the ridiculous! That was the range of both

debate and recommendations that came from the North Saanich
“council table at Monday’s committee-of-the-whole.
The two-hour-plus discussion, which centred around whether dis-
| trict politicians should support, in principle, the Memorial Park Soci- -
:  ety’s replacement plans for Sanscha Hall, provided a poignant portrait 4
' of why voters must choose carefully when marking their ‘Xs’ for those
_ they put in the halls of power. >
Councillor Ron Townshend is to be commended for successfully
chairing a debate that, in the end, did little to strengthen this council's
resolve to just get on with things.”
.. And newly-elected Coun. Wally Dutemple i is to be congratulated for.
‘articulating his commonsense approach to thei issue of Sanscha Hall -
See Council Confused, Page 3).
Couns. ‘Sheila Irving and Dee Bailin and Mayor Linda Michaluk, =

p Whether or not Bill Vander Zalm: returns, the mere pos- seems directed ata demographic abstraction.
’ sibility of itreminds us of what we've been missing. What really gets Clark's passion up are his imagined en-

- And I don’t mean the wackiness, either. "<s .-. emies: the banks, the Alaskans, the federal government.

~ Nothing the Zalm ever did could top Premier Glen Clark ey . Campbell lacks even Clark’s selective passion. He gets

os “for the sheer delusionary grandeur of threatening Pakistan loud, true, but about free Sue, sot ee manage: oo
-with “an international incident.” Cm mon outfrom com the ment and soon. ~ :

‘Himalayas, I dare eyon : : :

4 “At the ballot box; however, ‘half of those
“I haven't heard anything that tells 1 me we re e going to put o our tax

and alot of people, a positive feedback loop ;

llars into the project,” Bailin told the gallery. « ‘T think it could prove too powerful fo Liberal in the belief that only i in this way sabes
See DEMOCRACY, Dee- — government by al the people, direct 0 or himo or Reformers to resist. * . could they stop the NDP. :
representative. “ Vander Zalm’' s charisma is based on . Would enough stick with the party, if
-““There’s no secret we've had a lot of discussions around the North is the i impression he gives that he cares Vander Zalm led it, to keep the Liberals
“Saanich table,” offered Michaluk:.’ ae about people personally, boty out of office? ate ES . ns
No. Kidding! Fours years to be precise, nearly two by this council He won the 1986 election by effec: ~.” Almost certainly.
alone. ‘tively playing to this public persona by {| ~ Which is why Vander Zalm is already

‘promising to end the pebny pinching.
_and cutbacks of predecessor Bill Ben-
neit, along with the confrontational poli-
tics those policies led to.

. The news media were charmed too. After Bennett's chilly
bunkered-down media style, Vander Zalm’s warmth and ace
_ cess came with the relief ofa Chinook.

It also helped that the NDP Leader, Ray Skelly, was Vir-
tually incapacitated with nervousness by public appear-
ances, This time round no one would call either Premier
Glen Clark or Liberal Leader Gordon Campbell anything but
capable in public. j

» Clark even managed to ‘reach people on an emotional
level during the 1996 election campaign. But he is too much

talking about. reaching some kind of
arrangement with the Liberals to ensure —
a Liberal government with a Reform op: ‘
position and an NDP splinter...
He's dreaming. Buta pre-ballot deal might justresulti ina
Liberal government, an NDP opposition and a Reform splin-
, ter holding the balance of power.
At what price?
The Zalm told me last week Reformers differ from the
Liberals not on economic issues but on “social” ones, which
I take to be a code word for such moral questions as school
curriculums, gay rights,etc,
The question is whether the apparent contradiction be

~ seems they're wanting the municipality to bea Part of that: continued ‘
~Madame Mayor.
Way to go, Sherlock! .
-. After passing a respinmiendation that “North Saanich sriort in
“principle the concept of a multi-purpose community centre on MPS
“lands at Sanscha hall,” Administrator Joan Schill clarified that there is
“actually a centre there already. (Glad we caught that one!) .
Tn the end, it was but a watered down recommendation that got the
“nod — from everyone but Coun. Terri Soley, who though it pointless
and abstained — as this council's one-step-forward-two-steps-back.
~ mentality prevailed. ;
Well, we recommend that North Saanich politicians wear purple
socks, only on the left foot, each Thursday of months beginning with

j
if
a
ie
|
“This community. wants to see something happen at the site and it |
mf
|

- Reformers have held their noses and voted ae

ynrtep mami nm ananmatnbsntade Madar MUR eniveuniueess manent nascse se hennt edi

‘Last week, Thad the pleasure of
previewing the latest tool to be .
added to the arsenal in the battle

» against youth violence.

Cst, Kim Horsman, community

- fiaison officer with the Sidney-
- North Saanich RCMP, was kind
enough to lend me a new video that iy

will soon grace school libraries

around the province,
The video is a powerful,

" “thought provoking piece that sheds,

“intense light on the problem. of.
~youth violence,

”. Hosted by BCTV news anchor
Tony Parsons, the video uses mem -
bere of ne Justice ee 841.

a letter J ‘but just when it's raining. | oo mm BW

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violence is something we can live

~ without, .
‘In the 55-minute video, 841 KOZ a

group members present real-life
situations to a group of Vancouver

-etudents sitting in the audience, ' of
and for me, one scene in particular oe

stood out.

> While asa journalist I know it Is:

a small minority of youth thatre .f
sort to violence, it was the way this .

was Wlustrated to the audience that
really, underlined that fact.

> Teang were asked to guess what:

percentage of youth resorted to vi,
ofence, ‘Their estimates ranged

~ of arationalist to do it more than occasionally,
Moreover, his concern for “working British Columbians”

eremnsenievsavar rear eaera beret Hace Novi Hi aemAtenter et ip reeenen/vananAn ete aeRLEmSeryeNrmes ian Neer raRereSR PI sneer yet etme mrt eee een A REN RR HEL te OREN} RSG RAY Re AeA

i OA spotlight on n youth violence

' KOZ to send the message home = one

froti Wr net cent to 75 per ocean,

Members of 841-KOZ asked for
~ five or six students to come to the,
~ stage and pretend they wanted to

after the election:

eevenmmnnrt te wre Oa

wanted to play soccer, and a shout-

-jng match ensued.

Obviously, the members of the

_ audience, outnumbering those on
stage by a long shot, should have

won,
But they didn't. Instead, they

ie “were instructed to give in to the

small group's wishes. 841-KOZ

i ~ then turned and asked the audi-
mar ence if, ina real-life situation, six
i {> people were likely to get away with

telling 70 people what (o do.
uke answer was a resounding

“nol”.

“Why then,” asked the KOZ.

“dude, “would you let a minority of
“hide in your school get away with
~~ terrorizing the reat of hoor ee

s cemeineshiiedleennen eiatemaatdanietenentonmmeanntoloenmmmmmmemmntetadentemmentenaemaemiasaemteseemmans

_ play basketball, Members of the |
- audience were to pretend they

_ tween Vander Zalm’s personal open-heartedness and his tra-
~- ditional sexual morality would emerge before or, as in 1986,

Point well taken.
As Parsons stated at the begin:
ning of the video, whether or not

_. the problem of youth violence is

exaggerated, it certainly appears to
be a serious social problem,
The video empowers young peo-
ple to take a stand against violence:
and, as Horsman eloquently put it,

“if you witneras violence and do noth- — |
ing, you are part of the problem.

I highly recommend it to stu-:
dents, parents, teachers and com-
munity resource workers, It's en-

~ lightening and informative, .

The video is currently available
from the library of Parkland Sec:
ondary, or, if you would like, Hors-
man is more than willing to take it
{o youth group meetings or invite

_you in for viewing, |