ST a

 

 

Are drinking laws not strict enough?

By Matthew Visser

ow convenient is it that the BC
Heres comes out with the

strictest drinking and driving
laws in Canada, which they are willing
to have police act like judges, spending
more time doing road checks than I can
remember to see who has had even one
drink in their system and then drive
home. The police can now give people
tickets and take away peoples licenses
and impound cars for having an alcohol
percentage in their blood stream higher
than 0.05%.

Now I completely condone this
new law because it will make people
think twice about how they are
going to get home before they begin
to pick up that first drink. But I do
not condone when the government
becomes soft with people who drive
under the influence and actually do
hurt themselves or other people and are

essentially given a get out of jail free

card. I am talking about the drunken and has stopped

driving story of Carol Berner. drinking. Well
If you have not heard about the la de da; I can

Carol Berner story than you are going do the same

to love how two years ago she was thing and not

driving under the influence and drove kill a child.

her car off the road and into both four- The fact

year-old Alexa Middlelaer and her aunt
Daphne Johnson. Alexa was killed

and Johnson received severe injuries.
But the real kick in the ass here is that
the provincial government, the same

government that put the strict drinking _ place for drivers —_ =
and driving laws‘in place, gave Carol to think twice on 8 es — eT
Berner bail on November 29, 2010. about drinking car that is driving by you and killing

WHAT! This is the reason why
people use profanity. I cannot believe
this. How can the provincial court
allow a person who killed a child and
severely injured an adult by running
a car into them as they were petting a
horse on the side of the road go out on
bail? Berner says that she will never

again drive a car

of the matter is
that we all know
alcohol and cars
do not mix. The
laws that are in

and driving are not too strict and I
think are at the perfect limit. If you are
thinking at the end of the night how
you are going to get home then it is too
late. I may sound like a broken record
saying this but this all too true. How
would you feel after hitting someone
one the side of the road or hitting a

 

Aon

 

not only the person in the car or on

the road but also your friends in your
car? I know I would feel like garbage
and never be able to live with the guilt
and the knowing that it all could have
been avoided by phoning a cab or not
picking up that drink and taking a night
off from drinking.

 

Are we still not an accepting society?

By Matthew Visser

his is a story for all the people out in
T= world who believe homosexuality

is wrong. Well, I am going to say it
just in case you think otherwise, it’s not. It
is okay being gay and it is our given right as
a free people to be attracted to whoever we
want to be to. Two weeks ago I read a story
in the Province newspaper which made me
angry and disgusted about a man who sucker
punched another man for the fact that he was
gay.

Shawn Woodward has been sentenced
to jail for six years for his gay bashing
assault which has left Ritch Dowrey with a
catastrophic injury to the brain which has
caused him brain damage requiring lifelong
care. But this attack is simply a hate crime
and a hate crime in a country which I thought
was opposed to homophobia. This criminal act
makes me confused to how a man can simply
hit someone for the fact that he is attracted
to the same sex as he is. It is not a crime to
be a homosexual and that fact that Shawn
Woodward feels that his actions are alright and
he feels no.remorse to because Dowrey “is a
faggot”, I can think six years in jail will give
him a good long time to think about his actions
and how his outlook on life is something that
needs to be corrected. Maybe jail is the best
place for him. ;

I can only think about what kind of past

Shawn Woodward has had. What kind of
childhood or upbringing has this man had?
How has he not accepting enough that if he
was being asked a question or if Mr. Dowrey
wanted to start a conversation he could have
not just done this? Instead he said his actions
were provoked my “virulent homophobia”.
Now I looked up what virulent meant, it
means- extremely hostile, very infectious;
violently harmful. Is Mr. Woodward scared
that homophobia is going to get him sick?

Is homophobia something that he needed to
get away from him as soon as it came within
speaking range? I don’t think so, unless Mr.
Woodward has an extreme phobia of gay
people. It is obvious that Shawn Woodward
hates gay people for some reason. But does
Mr. Woodward even know why he hates gay
people?

Maybe Mr. Woodward is afraid of
homosexuals and really needed to get away
from the man he struck. These stories are
something that I shake my head at and can
only say words that I am not able to write in
these articles. If I was studying psychology
or was a psychologist this would be the kind
of guy I would want to study or work upon.
Come on, Mr. Woodward is in serious need of
some sort of help to understand and become
accepting that being gay is not “virulent”.

I hope that the story of Shawn Woodward
and his hate crime actions can be an example
of how society should never act in the future.

 

 

 

 

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THURSDAY
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oe Tommy
‘| a the
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