THE PENINSULA’S COMMUNITY I NEWSPAPER Publisher: Jean jean Butterfield Editor: Paul Wyke Phone: 656-4151 / Fax: 656-5526 A division of island Publishers Ltd. ~ 9726-First St., Sidney, B.C. VEL. 3C9 Vol. 86 es) No. 32 / Circulation: A, 796 ae - EprroriaL, Bee ae When the system fails. anadians pride themselves ona standard of living that’s praised around the world. That makes the / Schenkey family’s story of their sons’ illness an bos “important one to share. ; » Because the soil was removed from the scene, the ; i. source of the Schenkey boys’ E. coli infection may never ~-be-confirmed. But the fact the possible source could | have been in their own front yard is unnerving. ia Whatever the ‘source, the family went through fear, - heartbreak and frustration dealing with their sons’ life- + threatening illnesses: 3 This situation. illustrates how the wniformation sharing system between governments, and between depart- . - ments, can break down — if they exist in.the first place. - ao _ According: to the environmental health officer, there par ank ae meen acne aera tn aac axa vonw ammonia geawrptatly MAcnKeAnaens« anay ngun ance we nnn anes rane i Ane oS Oe Peretti o > 5 “ ORE Z xete mbrvrorrsescrn ese rans pcre veraermenrtcors te ery AOE yan aa rE AS PRS esas aes eae ote a i so ynsptbeasin: tases ne ae Rate och vey ane heme mevnonrererrerercierrer eri rattr eearterscrcae ‘this information, That has now: sage Siar butitis a cracy. The onus. is on those at the law. making and enforce-- “ment. levels to ensure that, there are processes in place, © . just as itis on parents to ensure. they know where their ae * children are playing. me The Schenkeys thought by having their: kids laying. md in their own yard they were safe. They learned that just ee ‘isn'ts $0." ° ‘Town staff acted quickly to rectify the problem, but - didn’t do the follow-through by testing the soil it re- moved from the scene, tests that would have proven {| whether the raw sewage was the source of the E.coli bac- | teria; information that could have been passed on to En- _-’ vironmental Health, and through. them; to the public.In - . this case, Lisa Schenkey had to go to the Capital Health ~ Region and work with them to. re-develop an information — sheet on E.coli. That information sheet is still in the sys- — tem, buta call to CH R showed that i it cannot be easily ac- . cessed, - Hopefully, existing protocols can be shared between governments, and where none exist, those can be for- ~~ mulated and shared. The community’ S health could well depend on it. : sebatia tte taesinatitcee Vain bias tsdma ate rio tocesvaviaesas canbe ar oentnds Dba omnc oboe A __f PREMIERS cenlfemece were no protocols in place to deal with the exchange of _ 7 mockery of the Legislature, Parliament, BAT THe anne ft sae A PROMISING SIGN } oat BD Spi: Coun / Pee, Sw 4. curred to him that anycne could be offended. ing style... Be - And you know what? Nobody else was. offended ‘either. Not by the: parody of Christian fundamentalists, at least... “Sure; the Liberals. professed : tobe mightily: outraged: by’ Sihota* making an , Magna Carta, the Full Monty. - e But Parliament can take care of itself oie s:a stuffy, ‘self: important : ‘institution - - which alittle whimsy can only improve. - Besides, Sihota did it in the Legisla- _; ture, in front of all these Liberal MLAs, _ noble defenders of the parliamentary “ tradition every one. — But there weren't any fundamental- ists around... ‘There was nobody to defend them. What Sihota did was begin by paro- dying Billy Graham, just the greatest Protestant eanaeiet of the century, saying with quavering voice, “I feel his spirit in the room,” just 2 as Graham invariably refers to the Holy Spirit. - ~ Only Sihota was talking about Bill Vander Zalm, whom he termed, “the Almighty Vander Zalm.” He continued with an altar call, that spiritual lynchpin for many Christian fundamentalists an evangelical de- nominators. But Sihota wanted the Liberals to “rise > up” out of their offices and their seats in the Legislature and testify for tol- But his actions could be equated to bigotry, says Weatherbe Ere didn’ {mean anyihi ng: by i it. I'm sure. Moe Sk 7 hota is a fairly astute politician outside his own. - personal affairs, so my guess is that it never oc- oe ‘ ‘ -sloppily tying the Liberals to the alleged intolerance of the “Yet there he was. Mr. Multicultural; making aspeech with tolerance as the centerpiece, and yet the entire thing “doneina Parody of a Particular religious gr group’ s preach: 3 “racial bigotry. “Wednesday, August 12, 1998 - a a 7 i Be eqagan mores psrsirrssciet ee eer acarch PE RaTegy BORER AY Soe aren ee ee erance, not Jesus Christ: ae They were debating the bill which would allow, pension é benefits to be transferred to same-sex spouses. Sihota.was former. premier, now. ‘Reform Party president.» oe: ee “And he was papering over the cracks in his logic with ae oo stock theatrical parody of the fundamentalist style... mee | fees It’sa classic shtick of live theatre and Hollywood. We ie | poe piutitto Siko and Tpit you: what caEy : I: would have happened: ifone of the Lib- erals had risen in his seat and replied’ ~.1 _| with another theatrical schtick: the East “| Indian’ parody, with a bunch:of “O my =f : goodness graciouses,” and a few witty ref- "erences to tables and chairs? — Or, since the topic was gay ‘tights, how about some debate delivered in your classic campy stage homosexual . style, with a lisp and limp wrist? © How would that have gone over? » Like'abomb ishow,’ * “. Remember when NDP MLA Jenny Kwan was breaking the rules of the House by speaking in Chinese, and a Liberal dared to heckle her in her own lan- guage? The NDP madea federal case out of it And the me- dia co-operated. Now where has all that sensitivity gone? “ The factis that it’s okay to be intolerant of Christian fun- damentalists because they are perceived by the media-po- litical elite and indeed by many Catholics and mainline « Protestants, to be themselves intolerant and bigoted. In sum, they deserve it: pr ecisely ne ee eweation for to be pulled kicking and scream ing into the electronicage,.- «Not that [have anything against oo. computers -— they save me from getting writer's cramp —- but when it comes to the information highway, I oe can'tseem to find the offramp.. “. However, when banks intro. duced little machines that — with © _) the press of a button or two — did: ~ all your banking for you, Twas hooked. : No more anving wads of cash» (not that I have wads of cash, but: ihe thought is, worth savoring); no” - I im one of those people that had | How I got: run over on the at information highway — more packing around a wallet 10 inches thick with identification Just to write a simple cheque, — Now all I had to carry was one lit > tle card, After ringing in a case of _ Kraft Dinner and two pounds of wieners, the cashier simply took said. card in hand, had me punch in a cou - ple of numbers and Presto! —I was walking out the door without fear of being stopped by a store detective, But, even as J love the ‘908 and — the conveniences now offered, there are afew frustrating things to. be had as well, Like the other day _ 1 was ey chine says it can't process your re ©. knowing smile on her face that said “Ah, hal So, you think this works like a cheque, eh? Well, you're tend you have money in your ac: count, It's called fraud, but, hey, ~ you try, However, this ‘handy-dandy + and you're not going to get away fh With HM a The, worst part was knowing - there was money in my account, . 1 mumbled something about go- dng to. the bank and getting things I promised, Of course, as I left the “cashier threw me a look that told | me she didn't think she'd ever sec’ “me again this side of the Pearly” # Gates, ° Ing to purchase $25 worth of gro. ~ cerles and the cashier turned and - paid “I'm sorry, This innovative ma- : quent jor funds at this Lael with a and tried to use my card there, At wrong! With a cheque, you can pre . little gizmo is up to your little tricks. - gtraightened out. I'd be right back, J went to one of the mall AT Ma ea ste st nomen te seca mame er Me ee — first, it wouldn’t even give me my | ‘account balance. After three tries, it finally spit my money at me. With contempt, I'm sure... I walked. back in the store just as they were about to send my gro- _-ceries back to the shelves from... whence they came, This has hap: pened several times, Too many. times, It's extremely embarrassing, : t especially if you happen to be shop- i - ping in a Salvation Army when — your card is declined. Obviously, there's one or two traffic jams on the information “As for me, you can drop me off right here, I think I'll just hitehhike . back (o my place and curl up on my alee, fluffy, money- filled mattress, ' “hee ee ” r ik ~ highway and the engineer necdsto Hf look at reconfiguring an inters BCC) ‘(ion or two. a a a, ee ne Ee eS i |