Meet Hamish
Lorcena Holmgren, a worker at the Aurora Activity Centre, displays three Hamish, funny miniature Scotsmen, which are made at the centre. They are on sale in several city stores as well as at the centre. It is hoped the Hamish will become as popular as Mr. PeeGee.
('tiler n photo by Dave M it nr
DANSON TO BEEF IT UP
Militia a 'Mickey Mouse' outfit
OTTAWA (CP) — Defence Minister Harney Danson today announced creation of a businessman’s group designed to promote the military reserve and help it get to the position of battle readiness needed by all Canadian forces.
Danson said the group, to be called the national employer support committee, will seek among other things to convince employers it is to everybody's advantage to allow workers time off to train.
The minister's announcement was contained in a 30-
page speech to the annual meeting of the Conference of Defence Associations which outlined a need to improve the largely il (trained 35,000-member reserve.
He said the reserves are an essential part of the over-all military of Canada and yet, because of years of neglect, it is not possible to keep recruits long enough to train them.
This was particularly so in the 15,000-member militia, where new people leave after coming to the conclusion that poor training and equipment
add up to a Mickey Mouse outfit.
The employer committee would be headed by Bruce Matthews, vice-president of the Argus Corp., in Toronto, and Dan Spry former head of the Boy Scouts of Canada ann director of the Boy Scouts World Bureau. Both are retired major-generals.
The group is patterned after a similar one in the United States which claims considerable success in selling the idea of reserve support to employers.
MfN/STER FROM QUEBEC
Trudeau enlarges cabinet
OTTAWA I CP) - Gilles Lamontagne, 51, MP for the Quebec riding of Langelier was sworn in today as the 34th minister in Prime Minister Trudeau’s cabinet.
In a Government House ceremony, Lamontagne became minister without portfolio, filling a traditional seat in the cabinet for Quebec City.
He is a former mayor of Quebec City who resigned that office after winning a byelection last May in Jean Marchand’s old riding. Marchand was named to the Senate after he failed to win a seat in the provincial election that put the Parti Quebecois in power.
Lamontagne’s appointment brings the number of Quebec cabinet ministers to 11, compared with 12 in Ontario, seven from the West and four from the Atlantic provinces.
Since Marchand’s resignation as environment minister in 1976, Quebec City has been without cabinet representation. No one left the cabinet today and Trudeau’s ministry, w ith 34 members, is the largest in history.
Trudeau declined to talk to reporters after the swearing-in
The new minister said he was told Wednesday evening that he had been chosen by Trudeau. He had been given no
job by the prime minister but saw his work as promoting national unity.
He said that through the Quebec and national mayors' associations, he knew most of the mayors in Canada and would be talking with them on national unity.
He declined comment on the Quebec independence question but said there is no reason to panic. The rest of Canada must try to understand and be tolerant of the people of Quebec who were divided.
“It is up to us to tell them they would be better off in the new confederation ”
The
15* Copy
Citizen %
Thursday, January 19,1978 Vol. 22; No. 13 Pnnr»«.r.enroo Rritich rv>inmhio
Princo George, British Columbia
LOCAL DOUBLE-MURDER CASE
New trial ordered for two of accused
by AL IRWIN Citizen Stnff Reporter A B.C. Supreme Court murder trial continues here today with only one of three accused on trial.
Justice R.P. Anderson today ordered a severance of Meva Singh Gill, 20, and John Arthur Haw. 19, from the proceedings, and ordered a new trial, with a change of venue (location) for them.
They will be tried in Vancouver at the next B.C. Supreme Court assize there.
The trial continues today for Kehar Gill, 40, Meva’s father. The three are charged with first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, in connection with the deaths June 11 of Piara Singh Thind, 34 and his wife Gurdip.
Justice Anderson's decision came after a three-day hearing to discuss the admissibility of certain evidence. He ruled the evidence admissible in part against Kehar but said it could not be used in evidence against the others.
Defence lawyers Harry Rankin, for Meva Gill; and Mark Cacchioni for Haw, requested the severance after the justice made his ruling. Their position was that it would not be possible for a jury to disregard the evidence in relation to the other accused.
The change of venue was requested because of the publicity the trial has received here, and any jurors chosen for a future trial here would have learned of testimony about the case.
Justice Anderson agreed. The jury was called back today only long enough to be told by Justice Anderson that a severance had been ordered for Meva Gill and Haw. Then the jurors were ushered out again as the lawyers began another argument about admissibility of other evidence.
The trial continues.
Danson said he decided on the committee after receiving overwhelming support for the idea of revitalizing the reserves in responses to 1,200 letters he sent employers last year. Of those who replied, he said, only two opposed the idea.
The letters were sent to cabinet ministers, premiers, educationists, union leaders, municipal heads, cooperatives and associations, and the presidents of Crown and private corporations.
The Conference of Defence Associations is made up people interested in promoting the military, particularly the reserves. For years it has pressed the government to stop neglecting the reserve.
In his speech today, Danson gave his most definitive statement on the reserves since being named minister slightly more than a year ago.
He said the reserves are the forces that bring the regulars— 79,000 of them at present—up to lighting strength in times of crisis.
Of the 35,000 reservists today, one fifth are battle ready and another fifth could be brought up to standard in 30 days, if international events allowed that much time.
The government he said, was doing what it could within its spending restraint program. It was providing new equipment and such things as proper clothing. But Danson gave no indication of greater reserve spending programs.
'Buy back country'
—CUPE
OTTAWA (CP) — Contributions to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) should be increased substantially and the resulting huge pool of capital used to buy back the Canadian economy, says the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
The country’s largest union says the billions of dollars contributed to the plan by Canadian workers should be used along with the funds in oiher government employee pension plans to purchase shares in foreign-owned companies.
It estimates Canadians could buy back these companies within five years.
The CUPE proposals are contained in a 45,000-word brief to the Ontario royal commission on pensions which begins hearings in Toronto next month. The future financing of the CPP is one of the royal commission’s major concerns.
CUPE says in the brief that foreign control of the economy has led to heavy emphasis on development of the resource sector at the expense of the industrial sector.
But buying back control would enable development of an industrial strategy emphasizing a strong manufacturing sector that would create much-needed future jobs.
CUPE also wants a doubling of benefits paid by the CPP and an increase in the old age security pension so that together they would provide a pension equalling 75 per cent of the average industrial wage. They now pay maximum monthly benefits of $194.44 and $153.44 respectively.
This would make private company pension plans a form of supplementary income for those in the upper income brackets.
Gov't told to assume BCR debt
VANCOUVER (CP) - The royal commission into British Columbia Railway affairs was advised today to recommend that the provincial government assume the current $650 million debt of the Crown railway.
The advice, tendered by David Sinclair, the commission’s own financial adviser, recognized that the debt-ridden railway is never likely to pay its own way.
Sinclair said public investment in the railway totals almost $1 billion, including direct investments of $328 million and a $650 million debt.
“The proposal that the current $650 million in debt be assumed... .by the provincial government recognizes the economic reality that the likelihood of repayment from ongoing operations is remote,’’ said Sinclair.
See also page .‘1
BULLETINS
#The Supreme Court of Canada today awarded former Prince George resident (Jury Thornton a settle-ment of §M5i),()<)0 for injuries he suffered in an accident seven years ago at Kelly Hoad •Junior Secondary School.
In a decision announced today in Ottawa, the court over-ruled the B.C. appeal court which had reduced the original SI.5 million award to S(M2,(HM).
Thornton is now a quadriplegic in an Kdmonton hospital.
• Papermakers at Prince George Pulp and Paper Co. in Prince George have voted 73 per cent in favor of accepting a two-year contract.
The (15 papermakers are member** of the Canadian I'aperworkers Union Local 1133.
The contract is the standard pact in the industry calling for a wage increase of $1.15 an hour over the two years on a basic wage of $7.01 an hour. The vote was taken Wednesday.
EMBARRASSED MOM
Early again, eh?
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A mother-to-be didn't quite make it to the delivery room in an Omaha hospital recently, so the birth took place in a hospital elevator.
There were no complications, said a newspaper account but the mother was upset nevertheless.
The mother kept tel line a nurse: ‘‘How embarrassing! How embarrassing!”
Tne nurse soothed: “Nonsense! Don’t be embarrassed. This sort of thing happens all the time. If you think this is something to be embarrassed about, you should have been here about 18 months ago. A woman had a baby right out there on the hospital lawn.”
The mother was not consoled. “I know!” she wailed. “That was me, too!”
Israeli stand: Mideast talks 'up to Egypt'
JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Menahem Begin said today it is up to Egypt to salvage the stalled Middle East peace talks, telling a group of French Jews that he doesn’t believe the United States will put pressure on Israel to bow to Egyptian demands.
Begin also ridiculed Egypt’s contention that President Anwar Sadat had made a major concession to Israel by recognizing its right to exist.
“We have existed, my dear Egyptian friends, without your recognition for 3,700 years,” he said. “ ... Our right to exist was given by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
Meanwhile, U.S. State Secretary Cyrus Vance was trying to get the talks going again. He spoke with Begin by telephone today and the two men scheduled an evening meeting un Vance’s hotel suite. Vance plans a trip to Egypt on Friday to see Sadat.
Vance sounded somewhat optimistic Wednesday, however.
i’ve been through a lot of international negotiations,” he said. "I’ve seen ups and downs in the past. We all have the same objectives. We all want peace and I think, therefore, the talks will continue in the future.”
The Egyptians have said the next move is up to Israel—that Begin must change his position if the negotiations are to resume.
Begin’s speech amounted to a defence of his refusal to permit Palestinian statehood or disband Jewish settlements in the Sinai—two key sticking points that led to the rupture in the talks after only two sessions.
'No land was taken'
"No land was taken from anybody,” Begin said of the Sinai. He said Israel had irrigated the barren sands to “turn a desert almost into a garden.”
He renewed his attack on the Palestine Liberation Organization, calling it a Nazi-like organization. He said he once told Sadat that many PLO members were Soviet agents “and the president corrected me, saying, ‘All of them’’’.
Begin said it was Egypt’s general attitude, rather than the progress in the talks themselves, that led to the breakoff.
Meanwhile, the media in conservative Arab oil states, including Saudi Arabia, welcomed Sadat’s decision to suspend the talks. Newspaper editorials in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates called for a new Arab summit to reunite the pro-and anti-Sadat Arab countries.
President Carter telephoned Sadat to ask whether the talks might continue for a day or two, apparently to allow Vance a chance to patch things up. Sadat replied that the Israelis “want land, not peace” and said the negotiations can resume if Israel changes its position, Information Minister Abdel Moneim el Sawy reported in Cairo.
However, Sawy said Carter persuaded Sadat to cancel an order suspending the parallel negotiations which the Egyptian and Israeli defence ministers began in Cairo last week. Those talks had been scheduled to resume today, but the Egyptians postponed them until Saturday.
The hope in Egypt was that the United States would pressure Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to modify his refusal to give up all Arab territory occupied in the 19ti7 war and grant the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip self-determination. But there was no indication Begin would yield.
An Israeli communique said Egypt was "under the illusion” that it can force Israel into giving up all captured land and establishing a Palestinian state. Such a state, the communique said, would be “a danger to the very existence of the Jewish state.”
TODAY
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FEATURED INSIDE
f>—
'This is a punk rock concert. One more right note and out you go!‘
• The Quesnel Kangaroos will be looking for their third straight win over the Prince George Mohawks here tonight Page 13.
% Two Swedish hockey stars wit hi he Winnipeg Jelshave been offered a fortune to jump to the New York Rangers. Page 13.
9 We’d be "amazed" at the amount of bilingual schooling going on in Canada, according to B.C. Education Minister Pat McGeer. Page 3
c
THE WEATHER
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NOW HEAR THIS)
Kntcrtainment...... ......30-32
Family.................... ......28-29
City, B.C......2, : !, ti, 9. 11, 25
Classified......... ............16-22
7
Crossword....... .................18
Editorial........... ...................-1
A south-westerly flow of moist Pacific air persists o'ver the Central Interior and is expected to bring Prince George cloudy skies with isolated snow flurries today and Friday. Both days are expected to have mild temperatures.
The forecast high today is -5, the low -13. The high Wednesday was -8, the low -8, with a trace of precipitation. On this date last year the high was 1, the low -5.
• When the B.C. committee for the Unity Task Force decided to enlighten the B.C. news media about a forthcoming gathering of the task force in Vancouver, committee chairman Jack Wilson told the committee everything had been handled. The news release was going to the Province and The Sun. Wilson had to be reminded that B.C. doesn’t end at Burnaby. Canada Unity?
• A local man paid $10 for a broken clothes dryer and took it apart to find the problem. Under the drum he found two $10 bills and about $3 in change. Pleased with his windfall, he put the machine back together and it works fine.
• Faced by the problem of picking up mounds of garbage skipped the week before, city garbage collectors were prepared for irate customers but no one expected the likes of one irritated man. “What are you picking up his garbage for?,” he said. “He hasn’t cleared out the snow from his stand. I did I abided by the rules. I’m getting up a petition. It isn’t fair.” Next week, the collector explained, people must have their garbage accessible without climbing through snow, or the garbage gets left.