The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Local activist Greg East will have to find another way to speak out against Canada's potential involvement in the United States' missile defence program. Two months after posting a handful of signs on his and his family's properties around Flin Flon, the vocal East took them down yesterday after being informed they violate a bylaw. "The city council asked that I take them down," said the ball-capped protester. "At first I thought I wouldn't and would make a larger issue out of it. It had occurred to me that it might be an opportunity to make the issue even larger and get more publicity for an issue I feel strongly about. But I thought it over, and Mr. (Mark) Kolt, the city lawyer, is very persuasive and also a friend." Darren Romo, bylaw enforcement officer, said the legality of the signs came up when one of them was found posted to a tree on municipal property. After the sign was removed, East was told his handiwork did not fit into any of the categories of signs permitted for display in residential areas, such "House for Sale" signs. "We knew that he would cooperate, but he also wants to get his side heard and his cause out there," said Romo. East stressed that he wasn't upset by the City's decision as he unscrewed a sign reading "No Star Wars" Ð a term critics often apply to the missile program Ð from The Orange Toad building on Hapnot St. By then, he had already taken down his other spray-painted signs around the community carrying that message as well as "Peace on Earth." See 'I' P.# Con't from P.# "I think I made my point on the issue," he said. "I would hope that Canadians are going to speak out against missile defense when it comes to the point of making a decision for Mr. (Paul) Martin and the government in the near future." And that, he said, was the whole point of the signs Ð to encourage missile defence opponents to make their voices heard. "Folks need to understand that this issue is about to be decided in parliament in the spring," said East, "and Mr. Martin, if he's going to not sign on, needs to have some input from the public." East, who is "cautiously optimistic" Ottawa won't participate in the controversial program, said he received only one complaint but many compliments on the signs. "I'm not an advocate of people putting signs up everywhere," he said. "Signs can be ugly and some people, I'm sure, thought these signs were ugly." Nevertheless, East isn't closing the door on the possibility of putting up more markers of protest if he feels a certain issue needs to be brought out more into the public arena. "I'm not promising not to put more signs up in the future if issues are important," he said.
