The Chilliwack Progress from Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada • Page 4

4 THE CHILLIWACK PROGRESS WEEKENDER, Friday, August 11, 1995 THE PROGRESS IEWPOM Published at Chilliwack by The Chilliwack Progress Ltd. for Canwest Publishers Limited. IF 'A. i "'mmmmifiim 1 toif "X- .1 Drugs, guns and Mexican police VILLA UNION, SINALOA, MEXICO You would not want to drink the water in Villa Union and breathing the air doesn't smell of roses either. The town squats in its rags at the junction of the main coastal highway with the one that snakes over the mountains from Durango.

Mexican Federal Police blockade the junction. Most people OttWED BY A LITTLE OLP SHE ONLY Wtf TOOK IT OUT TO THE I lW5fi? xJr- fALKUND 1SLAMPS "ill' iV 1 1 Paul St. Pierre Wry and Ginger James Kwantes Reporter's Notebook The following report contains details that some readers may find disturbing. This is how many newspapers are choosing to warn readers of the horrific revelations coming out of the Bernardo murder trial. What many are finding almost as disturbing as the grisly details of the killings themselves, however, are the revelations of how our criminal justice system can be twisted and manipulated by criminals and their hired guns.

Small wonder that judges slapped a ban on publishing details of Karla Homolka's trial and sentencing when they took place. What was Homolka's penalty for murder? A criminally light 12-year jail sentence. A deal cut with the Crown for immunity on any other crimes Homolka may have participated in or even perpetrated in exchange for testifying against Bernardo. Sadly, deals like these no longer elicit shock from a public that witnessed the police pay Clifford Robert Olson to tell them where he hid the bodies of the children he had killed. But they still provoke feelings of disgust and betrayal from Canadians who have grown used to seeing criminals coddled while victims of crime are ignored.

Now, the prosecution has Homolka on the witness stand spinning a woeful tale of an unwilling accomplice forced by an abusive husband to commit horrible acts on teenage girls. Karla Homolka had the opportunity to save human life and salvage her own. But she chose to assist her husband in the heinous crimes he is accused of committing. I know how popular the cult of victimhood the notion that one's background or surroundings determine behavior is in some circles. But the families of the victims must have cringed at the sight of Karla Homolka portraying herself as a "victim." Those who recently criticized Preston Manning for raising the question of capital punishment for capital crimes are misguided.

There's only one just punishment for the crimes Homolka and Bernardo committed together. And it's not a prison term of 12 years. It's not a prison term of any length. The Progress encourages letters from its readers. Letters submitted will be edited for legality, length, spelling, and punctuation where necessary.

Letter writers are urged to make their point in about one page typewritten double-spaced and comment within the bounds of good taste. Readers are warned that statements in letters to the editor are not necessarily verified by this newspaper and publication of a letter does not constitute endorsement of the view stated The Progress will not publish any letter without the identification of its writer. A phone number for verification of authorship is required. Where's the justice? Editor, The Chilliwack Progress: Assailant known to police and facing charges, alleged to have uttered death threats, beats elderly man on head with baseball bat. Intervenor interrupts attack, assailant dies in struggle.

Official reaction considering criminal charges for intervenor. If this is the justice system we can do without it! The Attorney Generals Department is bending so far backward the law is an ass. what it is to us Christians and others who cannot avoid it because we happen to live here and not in Rosedale, or Sardis. Or, should I address myself to our local Chamber of Commerce which strongly urged the Mayor to reconsider his decision of two years ago, never again to permit the Sonfest at the Chilliwack Exhibition grounds? No I should not expect compassion and understanding where money-making is involved. Nor from the sponsors, around whom I shall make a wide berth in future.

Ever since choosing to retire in warm, friendly Chilliwack nine years ago, and singing its praise to all who want to listen, I do exclusively support our local merchants, purchased three homes and as many cars, together with all the necessary furnishings, etc. And entertain many friends and relatives here on visits from three different continents. Add it all you local merchants: I alone have spent much more here in Chilliwack than any Sonfest can bring you! However, if you keep on harassing me, I shall take my business, and bed, elsewhere. And I shall invited my many friends to do likewise. However, my main disappointment is with you, the local churches who so strongly support this non-stop racket.

Calling myself a devout See Letters 5 File the police report and case closed. Jerry Pirie, Chilliwack Christian slums Sonfest Editor, The Progress: I have now, miraculously, somewhat recovered from the second Sonfest held in Chilliwack the one our Mayor said would never happen again. That is the same Mayor I always believed in and supported. But, that is now in the past, because I never vote for people who do not keep their word. Mind you, why should noise at our exhibition grounds bother him? He is safe, living out there in Rosedale! And, I am sure, he is not a recovering heart attack patient, like myself.

Of course, his motives for permitting once more to have the people living in the vicinity of the exhibition grounds harassed by non-stop, window-rattling cacophony, so he explains, is to bring much needed dollars into our community a worthwhile endeavor, would it not severely infringe upon the lives of the people that are innondated by the three-day racket and that's would say they can live happily without Mexican policemen, too. Some police here encourage confessions with torture. They squirt pop and chili pepper into your lungs. The agony is said to be indescribable. Usually we pass the Villa Union blockade easily.

They ask who you are, where you are going and wave you on. Sometimes, listening to their transistor radios, they just wave. But on this midsummer night when the heat lightning flashes on the clouds to the west and we have just put 1,300 kilometers under the wheels, it's our luck to be searched. A vehicle is driven up a ramp and over a pit. Underneath a policeman raps the gas tank and other parts with a hammer, listening intently to the sound that issues.

Two days ago, they found a big shipment of marijuana this way. In the pit next to ours, two policeman are atomizing somebody's van hood up, trunk open and some kind of a detection device snaking into his gas tank. You don't often see searches like that anywhere. We at least have the ease of mind of those who are doing nothing unusually wrong. A bit of ordinary smuggling, perhaps, but no plastic packets of the Mexican See St.

Pierre 5 Phone 792-1931 The Chilliwack Progress CNA DIVISION Andrew Franklin Paul Bucci Published at 45860 Spadina Avenue. Chilliwack, B.C, Canada. V2P 6H9, phone 792-1931, every Friday by The Chilliwack Progress Lid. lor Canwesl Publishers United. Second Class Mail Registration Number 1191.

Member Canadian Circulations Audit Board, Canadian Community Newspaper. Association, British Columbia and Yukon Community Newspapers Association, and B.C. Press Council. Julian Galbecka Publisher Advertising Manager Taylor Regional Circulation Manager.