Along with telling stories of the Chilcotin country, Paul St. Pierre had some words of wisdom for the people who gathered at the Gibraltar Room to honour him last Friday.
He said the world is going to hell in a handbasket and one reason for it is that we have too many laws.
Maybe it’s old-age grumpiness, but I agree.
And, in my opinion, the City’s alarm monitoring and graffiti bylaws are in the “too many” category.
The City says the intent of the bylaws is to get the public to accept responsibility for triggering false alarms and cleaning up graffiti.
So, the way I see it, it has decreed false alarms are an offence.
Those guilty of having their alarm go off falsely will pay a fee (fine?) of $100 unless they’ve paid a registration (insurance?) fee of $15 which permits two false alarms in a year.
As for graffiti, I got a chuckle recently from someone’s cheeky response to the City’s war on graffiti artists. (I say artists because the graffiti can be more attractive than the paint job covering it).
A wall in the alley between Fourth and Fifth avenues had graffiti artwork covered with an unattractive paint-over.
Someone drew a face with a rude expression over the paint-over. I came on it unexpectedly one night, and it was so cheeky I had to laugh.
Needless to say the face was covered over pdq. The whole wall has been painted since.
I wonder who will win this war.
Another picky.
The fluoridation referendum question asks if we are in favour of “continuing to add fluoride” to our water.
That infers the water is fluoridated now. It isn’t.
The City quit adding fluoride to our water a couple of years ago.
Who knew, but why the spin?
Why not ask if we want to “go back” to fluoridated water?
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and book author.
