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CANADA WINS GOLD!
Citizen news services
The Canadian junior hockey team captured the gold medal at the world championship today in Moscow, beating Poland 9-1 to go undefeated in the eight-team, round-robin tournament.
Canada beat the Soviet Union 3-2 on Friday to take a one-point lead in the standings, then beat West Germany 8-1 Sunday to set up this morning’s game.
The Soviet Union finished second and Finland, the only team to take a point from Canada, took third place.
The gold medal is the third for Canada in the 12-year history of the championship.
Theoren Fleury scored twice in the first period to give Canada a 2-1 lead, and Adam Graves made it 3-1 after the second. Canada scored six times in the third to put the game out of reach.
Canada last won the world championship in 1985 and the Soviets won in 1986. Last year, Canada had a chance to win another gold but was disqualified along with the Soviets when the two teams engaged in a bench-clearing brawl.
(Details page 11)
The Prince George
Citizen
MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 1988
40 CENTS
Probe set
into mass
jail break
by Canadian Press BURNABY — Nine of 13 prisoners who escaped from Oakalla prison early on New Year’s Day remained at large today as police continued their intensive manhunt for the men who are considered armed and dangerous.
As bickering simmered over who and what was to blame for the escape, a TV station defended its interview with one of the escapers at large and police voiced displeasure with the broadcast.
Meanwhile, the provincial commissioner of corrections, Bernard Robinson, said Sunday night an inquiry ordered by Premier Bill Vander ZaUn was already under way and a report could be expected by mid-month.
Only two junior guards were on duty when the prisoners, armed with a makeshift knife, got out of the segregation unit — a concrete* bunker under a disused cow barn on prison property. The men were
brought there after disturbances Dec. 27 and 28.
A day after the escape, BCTV aired an interview with Terry Hall, 23, at an undisclosed location. Hall said the 13 escaped because they were “pushed to the limit” by guards who turned fire hoses on them in their cells after the disturbances that caused $500,000 damage.
Hall, who said he would surrender after the weekend, said the disturbances began after guards beat up a prisoner.
“You could smell the booze right on them (the guards),” he said. “You can only push people so far and I think this was pushing it right to the limit.”
Robinson said he was aware of no “concrete evidence” that some guards were drunk on duty during the holiday period, but “those allegations have been made and they will be looked into.”
TV interview defended
RCMP Staff Sgt. George Monk said Hall’s being at large after his television appearance is “a sore subject” with police.
Monk said tne interview was “a little surprising,” and would be discussed today by his superiors.
“He (Hall) had better not get involved in any violence before he makes his well-publicized surrender,” said Monk. “Then what? What if this went sour?”
Cameron Bell, news director for BCTV, defended the interview with Hall by saying the issue is not the station’s broadcast of it, but the fact there are a number of escapers at large.
“The issue is why did they break out?” Bell said. “There is a very serious situation in Oakalla, the di-
1,027 rode free buses
Free bus rides on New Year’s Eve attracted 1,027 riders, according to Stu Drinnan of Standard Bus.
The number is down from 1,245 last year.
“We extended the service to 4:30 a.m. and the last couple runs for each bus were heavily used,” Drinnan said.
mensions of which are not known to anyone.”
Bell suggested he had no problems with the ethics of the station airing the interview while the police searched for Hall.
“I don’t see why it needs to be defended. He (Hall) had an allegation.”
Bell said the TV station has a “responsibility to bring to the public information on matters of public importance.”
He said that as far as he knew the TV station was not contacted by police after the interview.
“We’re prepared if they have any questions,” he said.
Another prisoner, interviewed inside the prison Sunday, also blamed guards who beat an inmate for talking in church for sparking the disturbances last week that led to the escape.
Prisoner Ken Jones said everything blew up after the disturbance in the chapel Dec. 27.
“(The prisoner) broke the rules by talking,” said Jones. “Normally the guards just say ‘stop talking.’ But this time they took him out. . .it sparked the whole thing.”
Jones said the 30-year-old prisoner required 13 stitches to close his cuts.
Prison officials confirm the prisoner was injured as a result of the church melee.
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
Angie Smith, left, and Tina Gray ignore the chilly tain to enjoy the winter sun. Hundreds of skiers took Ski break temperature Sunday, putting their skis up while advantage of ideal snow conditions over the week-they relax in the snow near the top of Tabor Moun- end to spend some time on the local slopes.
ELECTION WILL TELL THE TALE
PM's initiatives on the line
"His idea of life in the fast lane is going through the express checkout with a can of prune juice."
An analysis by DANIEL DROLET for Southam News
OTTAWA — In 1987, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney put his mark on Canada. In 1988 he’ll be doing his darndest to make sure that mark is indelible.
ney initiatives & :;1S
that dominated ~rr- ■.#» 1987, aU remain
And the last mulroney word will come
from Canadian voters, who in all likelihood will be going to the polls to ratify or undo all that Mulroney has done.
The federal election will dominate the year, even if it does not come until 1989. From here on, everything the Mulroney government does, or doesn’t do, will be interpreted in the light of the coming vote. • ,
Every financial pronouncement, every political kudo or ministerial blunder, will be examined for hints of a possible election date and the likely outcome.
The Conservative government, elected with a huge mandate on Sept. 4, 1984, has to go to the voters sometime in the next year and a half.
This year, 1988, is the likeliest time for a vote.
The actual election date will hinge on two things: the right context and the right position in the polls.
The Calgary Winter Olympics in February and the summit of the seven industrialized nations in Toronto in the spring are two events that may help create a positive mood in the country.
If the mood is positive enough, the government may try to cash in by calling a vote shortly after either of those two events.
That will be tempered, however, by the knowledge that an election called after mid-July will be fought under new riding boundaries that many say are favorable to the Tories.
Not to be discounted are divisions within the Liberal party: although the Liberals are topping the polls, Leader John Turner does not inspire unbounded confidence. Many people inside his own party disapprove of his support for Meech Lake and his disapproval of free trade.
As for the New Democrats, the party’s biggest asset appears to be Leader Ed Broadbent. Beyond him, the party does not appear to have a solid base.
Election watchers will be looking at the opinion polls as well.
It is increasingly apparent — most recently in the poll released this week by the Globe and Mail and Environics Research Group
sug-
Ltd. — that after a year in the basement, the Tories are slowly moving up in popularity.
The Globe-Environics poll gests that they have moved into second place, ahead of the NDP and just below the Liberals.
It’s a sure bet the Tory backroom people are closely following the progress of the public polls — and doing a few samplings of their own.
And they obviously feel that things are starting to break for them. Quietly, in the pre-Christmas rush, the Conservative party lifted the moratorium it had imposed on riding nomination meetings.
The Conservatives are positioning themselves for a quick call, whenever it may be.
The decision as to the date is entirely up to Mulroney.
It’s likely he’ll go to the people as soon as he thinks he can reasonably win.
And lie’ll campaign on his two most significant achievements of 1987: Meech Lake and free trade.
In the spring of 1987, the Mulroney government finally regained control of the political agenda in Canada.
After years of flopping about from scandal to scandal, with the
resignations of a series of ministers diverting attention and energy from most everything else, the government managed to push through some policies which, like them or not, profoundly change the nature of the country.
The Meech Lake constitutional accord gives more power to the provinces and fulfills a Conservative election promise to allow Quebec to sign the Constitution with honor and enthusiasm.
The free trade deal with the U.S. will alter the nature of the Canadian economy and — if the government’s predictions are right — create the “jobs, jobs, jobs” that were promised in 1984.
Yet each of those centrepieces remains to be finalized in 1988.
Meech Lake still has to be ratified by seven provinces, most of which are planning to bring the deal up in their legislatures in the first half of the year.
New Brunswick, however, is noncommittal and Manitoba is backing off.
As for free trade, although Mulroney was to sign the deal today, it doesn’t mean it’s finalized.
Far from it.
It still has to pass through the U.S. Congress and at least two
provinces — Ontario and Manitoba — are so against the deal they have threatened to take the government to court to stop it.
An election will allow Canadians to judge both the free trade initiative and Meech Lake.
The defeat of the government would almost certainly mean the undoing of both deals — at least in their current form.
But the outcome of the election may hold some surprises.
Perhaps the single most interesting factor in the recent polls is that support for the three parties is almost evenly divided: one third each.
This raises the spectre of a minority government, with one of the three parties holding the lead.
Will John Turner’s Liberals and Ed Broadbent’s New Democrats attempt to form a coalition? Which one would be the boss?
Will Mulroney- try to hang on to power? Which of the two parties would support him?
What will happen to free trade? To Meech Lake?
And since it’s likely that two of the three party leaders will not get to be prime minister, what will happen to those two losers, whoever they may be?
Poll uncovers optimism
TORONTO (CP) — A new Gallup poll indicates 44 per cent of Canadians believe 1988 will be a better year for them, while 27 per cent predict it will be worse.
The results of the annual poll, published in today s Toronto Star, suggests that for the sixth consecutive year Canadians are looking forward to the new year with optimism.
The level of confidence shared by Canadians was exceeded in only nine of the 36 countries polled by
Gallup International Research Institute.
On average, 36 per cent of those questioned in all 36 countries said 1988 will be a better year — one per cent more than in both 1986 and 1987.
South Koreans and white South Africans shared the highest level of confidence in the new year, with 58 per cent of the population expressing optimism.
Feelings of optimism also ran
high in the United States, Bolivia, Portugal, and Brazil, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Hong Kong. Only 14 per cent of Mexicans — at the bottom of the list — expect a good year in 1988.
Canadian results are based on 1,038 personal, in-home interviews with adults, 18 years and over. Results are considered accurate within four percentage points, 19 out of 20 times. Results in other countries are comparable. All surveys were conducted in November.
Blood clinic opens Tuesday
The first blood donor clinic of the new year takes place at the Civic Centre, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Margaret Story, local Canadian Red Cross spokesman, said the clinic will run from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday and from 1:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. the following two days.
Story said the Red Cross is particularly low in blood supplies following the Christmas holidays.
The three main hospitals in Vancouver have cancelled all but emergency surgery because the blood supply is low in the province, she told the Citizen. Red Cross officials are counting on Prince George donors to supply the province with 1,800 units of blood over the three-day clinic.
Stock of the “universal donor” blood type O-nega-tive is always low, Story added.
"It’s not the most common, but it’s always used up because anyone can take it.”
The organization is in search of younger donors, according to Rick O’Brien, director of public relations for the Red Cross’s B.C.-Yukon division.
“Many of our regular donors are approaching retirement age, and their places must be filled by .younger donors if we are to continue our job of supplying blood to all the hospitals in B.C.,” he said.
O’Brien added that blood can now be separated into components, so one donation can benefit as many as five people.
The clinic will accept blood from donors 17 to 65 years of age. People with colds or recent colds will not be accepted.
In addition, the organization stresses that donors should have a meal before going to the clinic.