Every Second SSttrraaiitt ooff GGeeoorrggiiaa Thursday & Online ‘24/7’ at islandtides.com AA Sooccial Ennterprrise - SServiingg Islaands BBig aannd Smalll Canadian Publications Mail Product Volume 22 Number 16 September 2-September 15, 2010 $2 at Selected Retailers Sales Agreement Nº 40020421 Photo: Henny Schnare, www.henny.ca Determined to partake of a picnic, Steller’s jay attempts to unbuckle pack to get at the goodies. Greens strongly endorse leader Elizabeth Sockeye inquiry proliferating Sara Miles May and talk policy In one year, we seem to have gone from not after Brian Riddell’s July resignation) At the Canadian Green Party national ‘poly-sexual’ relationships received weak enough sockeye to too many. Last year’s recommended the areas of research. It has convention in Toronto on August 21-22, 40% support. runs were critically low, while this year’s been decided that a peer review model ‘will party leader Elizabeth May received a Seniors received significant attention, user groups are frustrated by low quotas best serve the commission’s science ringing endorsement—85% support—from with resolutions proposing a UN when the run is much larger than expected. program going forward,’ said Brian Wallace, party members, voting online from across Convention on the rights of older persons, Will we ever understand how to manage this senior commission counsel. Canada. May is a resident of Sidney, and the supporting a national dementia strategy for fishery? The government is trying to answer The research projects will include studies Green Party candidate for Saanich–Gulf sufferers and caregivers, and urging this question with the Cohen Commission of sockeye habitat, diseases and parasites; Islands in the next federal election. consideration of older persons in emergency of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye the effects of human activities, Members also voted to change the and climate-change planning. Closely Salmon in the Fraser River. The contaminants, salmon farms and predators existing four-year fixed leadership term to a related were resolutions seeking Commission was established by Prime on the fish; the freshwater and marine process that required members to vote in independent trust structures for registered Minister Harper in November 2009 after a ecology, and the status of the fish in these support of the party leader within six pension plans and reform of long term public outcry regarding the collapse of last environments. There will also be a review of months after a federal election. This passed disability insurance legislation. year’s Fraser River sockeye salmon runs. all published evidence for climate-change with a 74% majority, thus avoiding a Greens supported an elected Senate, with The Commission, whose role includes and climate-related effects on the sockeye. leadership contest at the convention. proportional representation, and also a developing recommendations for Other projects will investigate and evaluate But the real work of the convention proportion of senate seats reserved for improving the future sustainability of the the fisheries management, and analyze the concerned a plethora of policy resolutions, aboriginals. sockeye salmon fishery, is finally getting ability of the Department of Fisheries and each of which had to receive 60% to pass. They also supported amendments to the underway with the majority of its Oceans to meet its stated management They covered a full spectrum of serious Divorce Act which would ensure an investigation into the reasons for the decline objectives relative to Fraser sockeye. Canadian issues, and were much debated. automatic assumption of equal rights and of Fraser River sockeye. Public hearings A final research project will synthesize Some of the hot topics proved to be the responsibilities for both parents. only recently started; the evidentiary and analyze all the data in the other 11 treatment of seniors; strengthening A resolution supporting the development hearings have been delayed; and the technical reports. legislation concerning pensions and long of a high speed rail network between major Commission just announced several The researchers, whose names have not term disability benefits; Senate reform; Canadian centres received 90% support; a ambitious research projects. yet been published, are expected to provide rebalancing relations between the federal proposal for ‘Green Bonds’ to finance On August 17, the Commission said they progress reports by mid-November and and provincial governments; new carbon renewable energy facilities received 83.8%. determined a need for 12 external research final reports by January 31, 2011. emissions targets, laws, and taxes; There were many other resolutions. The projects ‘to help the Commissioner Conservative MP John Cummins is implementation of the precautionary Green Party requires member votes to be [Honourable Bruce Cohen] understand the critical of the Commission, saying that the principle; and high speed rail. ratified by the convention, and all those science behind the decline of Fraser River Inquiry’s terms of reference ‘do not call for A resolution, which received much receiving a 60% approval or more were sockeye’. The six-scientist Scientific a detailed scientific research program’. media attention, seeking to decriminalize ratified. 0 Advisory Panel (now a five-scientist panel, COHEN COMISSION, please turn to page 3 is available at these SERIOUS COFFEE locations — look for the ‘Island Tides’ yellow boxes or racks inside! Sidney—Beacon Avenue Mill Bay—Island Highway @ Frayne Rd Parksville—Heritage Centre Mall Nanaimo—Hammond Bay Rd South Duncan—Sun Valley Mall Courtenay—Southgate Centre, Cliffe Ave Nanaimo—South Parkway Plaza Duncan—Cowichan Commons Mall Port Alberni—Shoppers Drugmart Plaza, 10th Ave Nanaimo—V I Conference Centre good reading, great coffee — it’s time to get SERIOUS! Campbell River—Island Highway @ Village Willow Point Page 2, ISLAND TIDES, Sept 2, 2010 Child Of ‘Queue-Jumping’ Betty Fry (1916-2010) IS YOUR Asylum Seekers Reflects On WELL WATER SAFE TO DRINK? Tamil Migrants ~ Seth Klein Contamination can occur If the 492 Tamil asylum-seekers who recently arrived by without changes in colour or boat on BC’s shores are ‘queue-jumpers’, then I guess my taste. Be safe, test annually. parents were too. They came as Vietnam War draft dodgers from the US in 1967. Like a couple of the Tamil women just arrived, my mom 250-656-1334 was pregnant with me. My parents did not seek advance permission from the Canadian government to immigrate. They did not fill out any paperwork before arriving. And they could no more seek permission to leave from their home government than these Tamils could, for what they fax: 250-656-0443 Website: www.mblabs.com were doing was, as far as the US was concerned, illegal and Email: [email protected] would result in my father’s arrest. 2062 Unit 4 Henry Ave. West, Sidney, B.C. V8L 5Y1 Of course that’s the thing about being an asylum-seeker —you don’t get into a queue. When you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go. Hell, my folks didn’t even know that Montreal (where they landed) was a predominantly French-speaking city. Betty Fry (nee Wooster), long-time resident of Mayne AT POINT ATKINSON So they just showed up. The difference, however, was Island and our dear mother, grandmother, great- SEPTEMBER that in those days, they got landed immigrant status in 20 grandmother, great-great grandmother, and mother-in- Day Time Ht./ft. Ht./m. Day Time Ht./ft. Ht./m. minutes at the airport. Over the course of the Vietnam War, law, passed peacefully away August 24 at Sunnybank 0418 4.9 1.5 0530 14.1 4.3 about 100,000 American war resisters came to Canada Centre in Oliver, BC in the care of kind staff and the 1 1211 12.5 3.8 9 1140 4.9 1.5 (many with less formal education than my folks and thus company of devoted family. WE 1617 11.5 3.5 TH 1756 15.4 4.7 2119 13.1 4.0 unlikely to score particularly well under today’s immigration Born in 1916 to a New Westminster pioneer family 0518 4.6 1.4 0024 4.9 1.5 point-system). that settled on the Fraser River in 1858, Betty gave us life 2 1334 13.1 4.0 10 0631 14.1 4.3 But those aren’t the only numeric comparisons I find and showed us how to love it and the islands in the gulf. TH 1751 11.8 3.6 FR 1224 6.2 1.9 2215 12.8 3.9 1828 15.4 4.7 curious. Betty is pictured sketching on Saturna’s Mount Fisher 0624 4.3 1.3 0110 3.9 1.2 Among the common reactions to the arrival of the MV on the Fry property, later donated by her family to the 3 1436 13.5 4.1 11 0734 13.8 4.2 Gulf Islands National Park Reserve. A poem, written by FR 1928 11.8 3.6 SA 1310 7.9 2.4 Sun Sea is the proposition that Canada’s alleged lax 2332 12.8 3.9 1901 15.1 4.6 immigration laws make us a global sucker—a target for Betty years ago from her home overlooking Active Pass, 0731 3.6 1.1 0157 3.3 1.0 many of the world’s migrants. This is an absurd notion. folllows. We shall miss her. 4 1521 13.8 4.2 12 0843 13.8 4.2 On Waking SA 2034 11.2 3.4 SU 1401 9.2 2.8 World conflicts, environmental disasters, and a global 1937 14.8 4.5 economic system that keeps billions impoverished has Good morning world — 0057 13.1 4.0 0246 3.3 1.0 resulted in millions upon millions of refugees and displaced This new day another gift 5 0831 3.3 1.0 13 0958 13.8 4.2 In my brief share of infinite time.