Tuesday, October 24,1978 Vol. 22; No. 206
The
20c Copy
I Prince George, British Columbia
POSTMASTER-GENERAL TELLS INSIDE WORKERS:
'Report to work or lose your jobs7
ILLEGAL SUITE CHARGE
City ignores legal advice
by TOM NIXON Citizen Stuff Reporter
The city will proceed against a Mackenzie Street homeowner in a case its legal experts say it can’t win.
Bylaw control officer John Hacock and city assistant solicitor Michael Hargreaves say there’s insufficient evidence to prove Vijay Capila has an illegal suite in the basement at 137 Mackenzie St.
In a close 5-4 vote, aldermen, however, decided to charge Capila anyway.
“I support the motion (to proceed in court) because I don’t think we can pre-determine what the court will decide,” said Alderman Jack Sieb.
“You might as well know that we aren’t going to win,” said Alderman Bob Martin.
Hacock said he twice investigated complaints by neighbors, finding the first time tenants whom Capila promised to remove.
The second time, Hacock reported, there was evidence Capila was living in the basement and that a hot plate was available for cooking.
Hargreaves, however, said that Capila legally was likely to be considered a boarder in the home. He rents the house to another person and then, legally rents back the basement room.
There is no bylaw against having up to two boarders.
Hargreaves said he doesn’t think a prosecution will have much chance of success unless more evidence can be found to prove the basement room is a separate dwelling unit.
Mayor Harold Moffat, and aldermen Martin, Art Stauble, and Vic Litnosky voted against proceeding. Aldermen Ed Bodner and Brian Brownridge were absent. Aldermen Sieb, George Gibbins, Elmer Mercier, Don Wagner, and Monica Becott voted in favor.
Jail escapee caught in shack near city
by JAN-UDO WENZEL
Citizen Staff Reporter
Prince George jail escapee Michael James Cross, 22, was captured by RCMP at gunpoint but without a shot being fired, at about 8 p.m. Monday.
‘‘He was holed up in an abandoned shack in the North Kelly Road area,” said RCMP Cpl. Don Henderson.
Cross escaped Thursday after overpowering two prison guards who had taken him to hospital for medical treatment t for what police.bplieved was a ’ self-inflicted wound.
Police said two sawed-off shotguns were found.in the shack.
A supply of food and warm clothing was also found. Police were investigating whether there was outside help.
Cpl. Henderson said the cooperation of the news media and the public was instrumental in Cross’ capture.
“The broadcasting of the description and the publication of his picture in The Citizen along with his description, resulted in people calling in, enabling us to arrest Cross,” Henderson said.
Cross is to appear in provincial court later today.
Cross now faces a charge of escaping lawful custody, two
counts of kidnapping, two counts of armed robbery, possession of a firearm or an imitation of a firearm, possession of a firearm while in flight and possession of a prohibited weapon.
Guards were handcuffed, money was allegedly taken, and the car was found ban-doned.
Cross was held in Prince George Regional Corectional Centre while facing charges of two armed robberies involving
the Nechako Shoppers Market April 15 and May 20.
He also faces firearm charges in connection with those holdups. He also is charged with the holdup of a bank in Vancouver and with possession of stolen property.
He had been arrested in Prince George the day of the Vancouver bank robbery. “We appreciate the co-operation of the public and the news media in this case,” Cpl. Henderson Said.
r ^
Woman arrested in shooting case
Marlene Rose Whitehead, 20, was arrested by Prince George RCMP Monday in connection with a shooting Friday in which five shots were fired into a private home.
Whitehead is facing charges of attempted murder, two counts of breaking, entry and theft and possession of a firearm.
She was to appear in provincial court later today.
Give free concert, rock star ordered
Southam News Services
TORONTO - Rock star Keith Richards has been ordered to play a benefit performance for the blind in Toronto as part of his sentence for possession of heroin.
County Court Judge Lloyd Graburn made the unusual order Tuesday while handing down a one-year, suspended sentence to the Rolling Stones guitarist.
Richards was convicted Monday on a reduced charge of possession of heroin.
Judge Graburn ordered Richards to appear within six months, with a group of musicians of his choice, at the
Toronto Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB).
Terms of Richards’ probation include continuing treatment for heroin addiction at a New York city psychiatric clinic and submitting medical reports on his progress to court officials in Canada.
Graburn, who said he could not incarcerate Richards simply because the rock star had the wealth to develop a high tolerance for heroin, made it clear the benefit performance was a symbol of the debt owed to the community.
In spite of warnings, the courtroom packed with fans erupted in applause when Graburn passed sentence.
An armed person approached a Ross Crescent residence about 10:30 p.m. Thursday asking to use the telephone. When the owner noticed the person was carrying a rifle, he locked the door. Five shots were subsequently fired into the home. The owner narrowly escaped being hit by throwing himself to the floor. His wife and daughter also escaped injury by hugging the floor.
But the bullets caused considerable damage to walls, windows and appliances.
Police discovered a case with canned goods and money dropped on the lawn. A rifle was discovered in the bushes behind the house.
Mail opening 'no secret'
OTTAWA (CP) - Former RCMP commissioner W.L. Higgitt said today he told three former solicitors-general that the RCMP was opening first-class mail, a violation of the Post Office Act.
“There was no secret of the fact we were doing i t and it was not withheld from the ministers,” Higgitt told the McDonald royal commission on RCMP wrongdoing.
See also page 6
Citisca photo bjr Dave Milne
The United Way’s pledge board gets a boost from cam-„ . paign volunteers and the Prince George fire department Keeping who installed the annual barometer. About $75,000 of the score* • • projected target of $185,000 has been raised to date. The United Way continues its campaign drive until the end of _the month._
NEW BRUNSWICK VOTE
Tories win squeaker
FREDERICTON (CP) -Premier Richard Hatfield’s Progressive Conservatives squeaked past the New Brunswick Liberals Monday with a much-reduced majority and what the premier sees as a message to do a better job.
Hatfield’s Tories dropped three seats to the Liberals, leaving them with 30 of 58 with Liberals holding the other 28.
The PCs and Liberals were tied in popular vote, with 44.5 per cent each when ballot counting stopped late Monday. The NDP had six per cent, the Parti Acadien four per cent and one per cent was shared bv six independents.
The narrowness of the victory left Hatfield in much the
HATFIELD
same position as former Liberal premier Alex Campbell of Prince Edward Island after a spring election, the first
of three this year in the Maritimes.
Campbell won 17 of 32 seats in P.E.I. leaving him with a majority of one after a speaker was named.
Campbell has since resigned leaving the Liberal hold on P.E.I. still more tenuous.
The Nova Scotia Liberals fared even worse, losing Sept. 19 to the Progressive Conservatives under John Buchanan.
Hatfield, reported by many to be considering federal politics, said before the election that he would definitely not resign if he won a third term.
Thursday given as the deadline
OTTAWA (CP) — Leaders of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) doggedly advised the 23,000 members today to continue their strike despite the threat of court action and firings. * ‘
* * *
TORONTO (CP) — Postmaster-General Gilles Lamontagne has given striking postal workers an ultimatum to return to their jobs by Thursday or have their jobs taken away.
In a letter to the bargaining unit of Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), the postmaster-general said today that under the Public Service Employment Act, any employee who does not report for usual duties by 12:01 a.m. Thursday “may be declared to have abandoned the position he or she occupied.”
“This could lead to his or her no longer being considered an employee,” the letter said.
The letter was released as part of a speech Lamontagne gave to the Advertising and Sales Club of Toronto.
In the speech, Lamontagne said that if the Canadian post office cannot improve its reliability, service and productivity, “then the first thing the postal workers will discover is that they are without work-union or no union.”
A text of Lamontagne’s speech was released in advance of delivery. He was to speak at a news conference later today.
Meanwhile, officials of the federal justice department were seeking in Ontario Supreme Court today injunctions that would ban picket lines at postal stations in the Toronto area and Ottawa.
'Let him fire
us
“Let him fire us and let somebody else do the dirty work,” striking inside postal workers in Prince George said today.
They were commenting on an ultimatum from Postmaster General Gilles Lamontagne: Go back to work by Thursday or be fired.
"Nobody is sticking around here for a prolonged time anyway, so let them fire us,” a picketer said.
Jim Paris, union spokesman here, was not immediately available for comment.
Post office facilities remain closed in Prince George.
MARINE UNION
The inside workers have ignored a Parliament order to return to work and have also indicated they will defy court injunctions.
Key demands by the 23,000-member union are for the right to negotiate proposed technological changes in advance to eliminate adverse effects on members and for an end to the use of casual, nonunion labor in the post office. Government negotiators so far have rejected both those demands.
The last contract expired June 30, 1977, and the back-to-work bill specified that the new contract will cover the period between July 1, 1977, and Dec. 31, 1979.
They'll obey law
MONTREAL (CP) - Striking marine engineers are being instructed by their union leaders to obey federal back-to-work legislation signed into law early today.
Gil Gauthier, president of the Canadian Marine Officers’ Union, said that workers phoning into the union’s Montreal office were receiving instructions to report to their vessels.
“We’re disappointed that the government has decided to interfere in a private dispute,” Gauthier said. “Negotiations were going on, but now that there is a law, we have no choice but to obey the law, and
CP AIR SERVICE
will order our people to respect the law and go back to work.”
Gauthier indicated that it may take up to a week for normal shipping to resume. Some of the engineers will have to travel a considerable distance to get to ships they left when the strike started nine days ago.
Acting in haste, the Commons and Senate rushed through the second back-to-work order they have handled in a week to end the strike which has tied up most Great Lakes ships at the height of the seasonal rush.
Pilots okay strike
VANCOUVER (CP) -Pilots for CP Air have voted 83 per cent in favor of strike action, a spokesman for the Canadian Airline Pilots Association said today.
Roger Burgess-Webb said the association’s executive will meet here today and Wednesday to further discuss the issues and a strike date could be announced following that.
Ralph Sharp, CP Air sales and service manager in Prince George, said a strike would totally shut down the CP Air operation.
CP Air has 10 flights a day in Prince George. Sharp said most of the pilots on runs affecting Prince George are based in Vancouver, the national headquarters of the pilots’ association.
TODAY
FEATURED INSIDe) ( THE WEATHER ) ( NOW HEAR THIS)
Popular Grit senator dies
Joe Greene, the popular senator who at one time ran for the leadership of the federal Liberal party, is dead. Page 6.
United Way
Target: $185,000 Today's total: $76,530
Index
Business............ Garden column..... ..........15
City, B.C........... ...2, 3, 16,28 Horoscopes.............
Classified.......... International.......... ............5
Rolling Stone.........
Editorial............
Entertainment. ..........31,32 Television...............
The Prince George forecast today calls for sunny skies with cloudy periods and a chance of isolated showers i n the higher elevations. Wednesday should be cloudy with a chance of afternoon rain.
The forecast high today is 7, the low -1. Wednesday’s expected high is 9. The high Monday was 7, the low -1 with 2.8 mm of precipitation. On this date last year the high was 11, the low 4.
% A metermaid’s weakness for cute babies saved someone a parking ticket recently. The mother of a child had left her child in her stroller and gone into the store. The metermaid came by, and was just about to ticket a car at an expired meter when she spotted the baby. After playing briefly with the child, she walked on, forgetting the violator.
• Alderman Jack Sieb has the answer to why the downtown parking commission still has about 500 spaces remaining for monthly parkers in the new First Avenue Parkade. A car left on the street gets a $1 fine (if paid right away), the alderman told council. That’s less than $30 a month for parking compared to $35 a month for the parkade.
• Courage was the quality demonstrated by a Prince George resident, who travelled to Seattle Sunday to cheer on the Oakland Raiders against the Seahawks in football action. He soon discovered that he was the only Oakland fan among 62,500 spectators.