www.globeandmail.com News Books Careers Mutual Funds Stocks ROB Magazine Technology
Home  |  Business  |  National  |  International  |  Sports  |  Features  |  Forums  |  Subscribe

The Globe and Mail
Wednesday, Sep 22
leaf

Search

Tips & Other Options

Contents
bulletReport on Business
bulletNational
bulletInternational
bulletSports
bulletFeatures
bulletArts & Leisure
bulletCommentary
bulletFocus & Books
bulletAutomotive new
bulletClassifieds
bulletBirths & Deaths
bulletTravel
bulletHealth
bulletScience
bulletTechnology

Yellow.ca

News Index
bulletArts & Leisure
 Art
 Books
 Broadcast Week
 Fashion & Design
 Film
 Music
 Television
 Theatre
 TV Listings

bulletAutomotive new
bulletBirths & Deaths
bulletClassifieds
 Automotive
 Business Marketplace
 National personals
 Online personals
 Place an Ad
 Real estate rentals
 Real estate sales
 Services & Merchandise

bulletCommentary
 Editorials
 Editorial Cartoon
 Letters to the Editor
 Send letter to the Editor

bulletFeatures
 Amazing Facts
 Century of the Millennium
 Essay
 Fifth Column
 Life Story
 Lives Lived
 Millennium 100
 Social Studies
 Wax and Wane

bulletFocus & Books
 Book news
 Book reviews
 Focus Columns

bulletHealth
bulletInternational
 Columns
bulletNational
 Columns
 Issues Forum
 Report

bulletReport on Business
   - Staff Biographies
 Annual Reports
 Managing
 Money & Markets
 ROB Top 1000
 Small Business
 Smart Numbers
 Special Reports
 1999 Federal Budget

bulletScience
bulletSports
   - Staff Biographies
 Basketball
 Baseball
 Football
 Golf
 Hockey
 Other Sports

bulletTechnology
bulletTravel
Magazines
bulletROBmagazine.com
Special Interest
bulletCommunication Solutions new
bulletIT Management
bulletMillennium Series
 
Search Results

Elizabeth Nickson goes to a town meeting in Esquimalt, B.C.

Elizabeth Nickson

Wednesday, September 22, 1999

There were at least as many counsellors, facilitators, mediators, Lions Club members, RCMP, city police, military police, city council members, representatives of MPs, official observers, and press at the Esquimalt Town Meeting on Monday night as there were residents. Were organizers expecting a riot? Certainly the people who live around what residents call the prison concentration camp, temporary home to the Chinese migrants, were fit to be tied. Besides, each official looked guilty enough for the ordinary tax-paying, working-class Joe to wonder if rioting wasn't in order.

But they're Canadians and therefore too wry and ironic. Rather, they insult and tweak and raise the blood pressure of their officials. "STAND UP WHEN YOU SPEAK TO US!" they were shouting from the floor by the end of the night, particularly at their lackadaisical mayor tranced out at the end of the table behind the unctuous blond mediation lawyer he had hired to ease his way through the furies. The fellow from Citizenship and Immigration Canada developed a bright red face. The burly RCMP Inspector looked mad enough to bite, and the base commander from CFB Esquimalt looked spooked. Four of the five officials on the podium were dancing as fast as they could.

Esquimalt is the last neigbourhood in Victoria where real estate is still cheap. It is also a possible future home of hipness, what with the warehouses, modern blight and bungalows that look out on a harbour-and-mountain vista that would cost serious money in other parts of the world.

Many prosperous working-class families live in Esquimalt. So do a couple of hundred people from South China in the gym and on the soccer field where Scouts, Brownies and Beavers used to meet. There are a remarkable number of people whose backyard view resembles scenes from a prison camp. They say they won't be paying their taxes this year.

"We haven't had a night's sleep since they moved in," said one woman tearfully. Another man almost breaks down when he says that his house has been on the market and he'd sell it for $50,000 less than asking right now. But he can't: No one will even come to view it. The house represents his retirement.

Floodlights glare all night into their bedrooms. Helicopters chop overhead all day. Student demonstrators shout encouragement to the migrants from outside the camp at all hours. Dogs bark, air horns sound at 2 a.m. and every single citizen complains that the military police roar up and down the streets all day and night, endangering their children.

The CIC man stands up to make the first mistake of the evening. He says the department of immigration had known for a year that these ships were coming, but had only 12 hours to decide where the camp would be placed, and then build it. This reminds the citizens that their houses were covered in dirt, the camp was built noisily in the middle of the night and where they used to look out at the harbour, now they see yellow walls and toilets.

From the floor comes: A year? You've known about this for a year? The mayor slides down further into his chair.

When question period starts, officials take the mike every second turn with more explanations. The residents mock them.

The camp is supposed to be decommissioned at the end of December. Hollow laughter and suppressed jeers. When is anything the federal government built temporary? National policy discussion is forbidden at this meeting says the blond mediator. How dare you forbid us to discuss national policy, shouts someone from the floor.

Finally one guy stands up. "Why don't you all just go back, open the gates, go home, let 'em go and at least they won't cost us anything." This statement earns the most applause of the evening.

If I were counting on Liberal votes next federal election, it wouldn't be from Esquimalt.

 
Noteworthy
Manitoba election

Discussion:
Did voters send a signal that social spending is more important than tax cuts? Give us your take on why Filmon lost.

Coverage:
The Globe and Mail
Winnipeg Free Press

Riding results:
Elections Manitoba

Student discount
Get home delivery of The Globe and Mail for less than $6 per month.

Around Our Globe contest
Congratulations to our final winners.

Forums
The Eatons Saga, Part 2
The Eatons story continues. Have your say.

East Timor
Canadian troops are supplying air support to East Timor. What do you think?

The Million Dollar Man
Too much money for child support? What's your opinion?

Books
Peter Watts, author of Starfish, hosts a discussion on science fiction as a genre at the end of the twentieth century. To join him click here.

Careers
"I believe that the IT skills shortage is being hyped by private and public training institutions who want to cash in on the demand for training." Do you agree?

Mutual Funds
Do you feel the return from your mutual fund investments parallels or exceeds the return that can be obtained from investing in a similar stock, or sector in the market? Let us know in the globefund.com discussion forums.

Technology
"I don't think many people realize how insecure Web banking is. Would you use ATMs if all you had to do was put in a password and no card was required?" Big Bank Bust, in our forums.

Help & Contact Us
Back to the top of this page
Copyright © 1999 Globe Information Services