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Letters to the editor

Dock Daze Productions would like to say thank you to all the people that made "The Grow Show" a huge success last week. Thank you to Dale at Buffalo Bill’s for his support of comedy and all the extra’s that he helped us out with.

Dock Daze Productions would like to say thank you to all the people that made "The Grow Show" a huge success last week.

Thank you to Dale at Buffalo Bill’s for his support of comedy and all the extra’s that he helped us out with. Thanks to Dan at Silicon Printing for all his professionalism and assistance with all the technical screw-ups that we encountered. Thank you to Watermelon and her cast and crew including The Wet Spots for a very memorable evening (I think!) and finally thank you to all the locals and visitors alike that came out to support our "Grow Show".

I would also like to encourage all locals to continue to support our live comedy, theatre and other artistic ventures that are plentiful in Whistler. I have enjoyed numerous shows at Millennium Place, but sometimes I am disappointed by the small turn-outs that occur. Lately, the shows at Millennium Place have been enjoyed by almost full attendance, but we as a local community have to support the arts even more due to our relatively small and always shrinking full-time population. All the people that are buying houses in Whistler these days are buying their second, third, or fourth homes, so it is important to have the support of the locals that are still left in Whistler.

Thanks for everyone’s support and we look forward to presenting "Watermelon’s Christmas Grow Show" in December.

Paul Benoit

Producer

Dock Daze Productions

I have lived in Whistler as long as there has been a skate park here. The skateboard facility is world class, except for the damn water fountain. I can’t understand how it could be so neglected, it is covered in a green algae, there is no proper trigger mechanism, it has a hidden valve to turn it on. The reasoning, as it was told to me by a municipal employee, is that the people that use the facilities are all adolescent punks who have no respect, so in turn get none.

This makes my blood boil. Are all people who enjoy the sport of skateboarding to suffer the use of an unsanitary water fountain because of a few broken bottles every year? The people who break the bottles and leave the garbage are not the same people who properly use the park. How dare the township of Whistler let this slide for a decade because of the reputation of youths. Let’s get a grip here and realize that the youth of today are the adults of tomorrow. Treat us like scum and that’s what we become.

Ryan Bowland

Pemberton

The other side of ‘Playing by the rules’

The feature article in last week’s edition about the bars and clubs in Whistler seemed more of a finger pointing exercise than an objective look into what is going on in the bar industry. As an employee of a local club, not mentioned in the article, I was left at the end of the article wondering, "well what was the point of all that; were is the direction?

The headline was "Playing by the rules". I agree that some of the rules and the enforcement of them have leaned towards obscure. However, against what we, the bar industry, might want they aren’t going to change any time soon. Rather than throwing our collective arms up and saying "this is ridiculous" we should all educate people on the rules. Most people don’t know that a second form of ID can be a credit card or debit card so long as it has your name and signature on it. And clubs should be saying "this is the way it is". It’s more consistent to all the clientele of Whistler clubs if we are putting on the same front.

Without doubt there does need to be a higher level of co-operation and tolerance between the RCMP and the bars. I will agree that some, primarily the RCMP brought up from other areas to patrol the village on the weekend, are harsh and, at times, rude in the enforcement of regulations. However, the RCMP are people. They are people doing a job and like any employee there are good ones and bad ones, they have good days and bad days. They are enforcing rules that we, society, wanted. They themselves may or may not agree with the rules they are enforcing but it is their job to do so and to hold the RCMP to a lesser standard is plainly disrespectful.

Violence in the village isn’t something new. It goes on daily and has for years. This year, as far as I can tell, has been quite tame for village violence. There have been some very eye-opening incidents, which happen every year. Let’s be honest, isolated violence in the village doesn’t, in any way, equal clubs being violent. The bars and clubs do a very good job at screening clientele to keep the "trouble" out and in the event of something happening they are very good at containing, controlling and defusing the situation.

Violence in the village isn’t because of bars and clubs, it isn’t because of hotels allowing people to drink in their rooms and pace around the hotel. Violence in the village exists for the same reasons violence exists in every city and town. It’s caused by people who are, excuse me but, too stupid and irresponsible to know better! Simple as that.

It is only a "problem" in Whistler because we are a small community, so incidents are magnified, and we seem to have this belief that realities of life don’t exist in our town.

Our community is changing, growing and evolving, as any will. We don’t need to handcuff the bar industry we need to assist it, the same as we do the retail and tourism industries in times of slow growth. The bar and club industry, in this town, is a race horse that has been put in a stable when all it needs is a leash to walk with.

Todd Cuthbert

Pemberton

It is a testament to subjectivity that two people from the same town can visit the same country, at the same time, and come away with two different impressions. The China that Mayor O'Reilly toured, and the China that I have been seeing for the past seven weeks is a very colourful and fascinating culture.

But, I wonder how "fascinating (it was) to see the construction and changes occurring" when this goes hand in hand with the destruction of Beijing's Hutongs (historical alleyways). Of course the prerogative to destroy a country's culture lies with that particular country, but the mayor is not part of the Politburo (is he?). "Giving top priority to the environment and sustainability" is NOT a concept that leaps to the forefront of life in China, as that country plans for anything. What I've seen is deforestation, water pollution, strip mines, coal dependency, and the damming of one of the world's longest rivers resulting in habitat destruction – human and otherwise.

China's dismal record of human rights, and the destruction and subjugation of non-Han cultures in the country's southern- and western-most provinces is abhorrent. Whether the mayor was a willing pawn of Beijing's information machine, or whether he was duped by alligator smiles and cold handshakes is irrelevant. The mayor's comments would be acceptable if they are those of a private citizen, or if his trip was courtesy of the Chinese government. But, if his visit was financed by public coffers, the reporting of it (which smacks of Chinese half-truth propaganda) does a great disservice to Whistler's population.

The West boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow because of the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan. How should the West's acceptance of Beijing 2008 be in light of China's dubious presence in Tibet?

Alex Nikolic

Lhasa, Tibet

I am a seven year old boy who lives here. On Tuesday, Aug. 26, I was riding the village shuttle. I had my new CD player with me that I had saved for months for. I was very excited because I had waited a long time to get one like my big sisters. I even had special music in it that my mom listened to when she was little. I had it sitting on the seat and someone stole it from me.

My mom and dad said they will help me to buy another one, but this one was special because I bought it with my own money. If you are finished with it, can you please give it to any bus driver and they will phone me.

Michael Overbeck

Whistler

Let’s say there’s a matter of importance to me and my only intent is to make some noise about it. My noise making comes in the form of putting a loaded gun to someone’s head and then pulling the trigger. Later I claim that it wasn’t my intent to kill them, but only to make noise.

My harsh example demonstrates the same logic being used by Keith Lambert. Media reports indicate that it wasn’t Lambert’s intention for health care to lose $1 million. While his intent can’t be challenged, it’s clear he understood the consequences of his actions and proceeded with legal threats against the RMOW regardless and in full knowledge of those consequences.

When the RMOW changed the original re-zoning application to prevent legal action by Lambert, not only did local heath care lose a $1 million donation, but the Whistler Fishery Stewardship Group also lost a $15,000 donation and WORCA $10,000.

The Nita Lake Lodge Development proposal has been before the community for a few years and has been publicly reviewed, discussed and debated with great intensity. The pros and cons of the development have all been said so many times before and there is no need to say more about them here.

Through all the varied positions, bravado, politics, rhetoric and posturing and despite the final outcome of the development, one consequential fact remains. If Keith Lambert had not taken the action he did, teleradiology would have been available at the Whistler Heath Care Centre (WHCC) in the coming year. Now it will not and the leading edge diagnostic technology is not likely to arrive anytime soon.

Teleradiology would have allowed the doctors and nurses at the WHCC to do the amazing job they do, even better. Determining whether or not to put seriously injured patients into helicopters or ambulances for transport down the Sea to Sky corridor will have to be made without the best available technology. As a result, lives are going to be put at greater risk. Hopefully it won’t be your life or that of someone you love or know.

The Lamberts, and other opponents of the development, are now willing to add losing 25 acres of proposed protected wetlands to the cost of pursuing their positions. Their positions should not be invalidated, but acknowledged and treated with respect and I believe they have been. The price to validate their views may ultimately include the cost of people’s lives and the loss of wetlands to future generations. Despite intent, those are the consequences. Whether or not the opponents win the day, get an accepted compromise to the development, or get nothing, in my opinion, the consequential price to the community has already been too high.

If the opponents do win, I can imagine standing in the living room of the Chateau de Lac, being awestruck at the fabulous views of the mountains and Nita Lake and sipping fine Australian, red wine. Hmm… the colour of the liquid in the wineglass looks a lot like blood. Salute!

Mitch Rhodes

Whistler