today in brief
25
Wednesday, June 16, 1982
FREEDOM could be tough for a killer whale kept in captivity for 14 years.Page
FUMBLED POLICIES over the Falklands war have made the U.S. appear like, “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.’’Page
11
 STRONG BIDS are still being received for the B.C. Games from communities « — throughout the province.	Page | i)
DISCIPLINE PROBLEMS in Prince George district schools is caused by the least number of students.	Page
36
HERMAN
"Nice shotl That one crossed 12 lanes and wiped out the cigarette machine."
Index
Bridge............................21
Business........................8,9
City, B.C.........................3
Classified...................18-25
Comics...........................10 j
 Community pages........13,14
Crossword......................20
Editorial.........................4
 Entertainment............10,11
Family.......................36,37
Horoscopes.....................34
International...................2
Movies.......................10,11
National..........................5
Sports................15-17,32,33
Television.......................20
 Lake killed page 3
The
Prince George
Citizen
Weather
   The weatherman says we can expect sunshine with cloudy periods and possibly a thundershower this afternoon. Sunny skies are forecast for Thursday.
   Highs should reach 24 today and 25 Thursday. Lows both days should be 7. Tuesday, the high was 23. the low was 7, 0.4 mm of rain fell and we had 15.2 hours of sunshine. On this date last year, the high was 14 and the low was 5.
   The sun sets at 9:45 p.m. today and rises at 4:38 a.m. Thursday.
Serving Central B.C.
Gov't deficit 60 per cent over budget
 Angrry picketers forced cancellation of Crown land auction in Prince George today.
 Yelling picketers halt land auction
Citiien photo by Rio Krnitl
'Shortcut' was fatal
    The driver of a car involved in a fatal accident which resulted in manslaughter charges against the city, testified in county court Tuesday. He said he thought he’d found a shortcut, minutes before his car rolled over into a city-owned gravel pit.
   Dennis Noel Zanette said he’d driven from a party on the outskirts of town twice on the night of Oct. 4.1980, and on the third time took Otway Road because he thought it would be shorter.
   Brent Barrie, 17, died when Zanette’s car plunged over a 9 6-metre (32-foot) gravel-pit cliff just off Otway Road near Tabor Boulevard. The City of Prince George, which owns the gravel pit, was charged with manslaughter because the Crown alleges Otway Road, under construction at the time, was not adequately barricaded.
   The case for the Crown concluded Tuesday after city employee Massey Sakamoto testified that in the month prior to the accident, Otway Road was blocked ofT with a one-metre-high berm of gravel.
   Defence counsel Joe Galati presents his case today with testimony from two city employees.
 Crash kills man
   A 24-year-old Dawson Creek man died early today after a single-vehicle accident on Highway 16, about 23 km west of the city.
   RCMP said Randy William Wiflur apparently struck a dog crossing the highway and lost control of his vehicle. The vehicle rolled several times and Wil-fur was thrown clear He was pronounced dead on arrival at Prince George Regional Hospital.
Sadrack
by BILL McEACHERN Staff Reporter
   Chaos hit today’s farmland auction in Prince George as more than 50 picketers used disruption tactics to upset bids, forcing the Ministry of Lands, Parks and Housing to cancel the auction.
   Yells, screams and jeers kept up a constant banter with prospective buyers looking confused and startled as the picketers paraded around the conference room at the Holiday Inn.
   Bidding reached the point of absurdity as ministry officials tried vainly to keep unregistered bids from buying land. The ministry then announced they would cancel the auction because confusion was too great.
   Officials said the policy would be reviewed because it appeared opposition was growing.
   Disruption was spearheaded by the Prince George Cattlemen’s Association and various regional agricultural groups as farmers fear loggers are buying the land for its timber value with no intention of developing it agriculturally.
   In a spontaneous effort to ward off disruption, the ministry announced bidders had to register with a $1,000 deposit that would be refundable if the bidder didn’t make a purchase.
   ‘‘That’s not even legal,’’ declared association spokesman Peter Baigent.
   “You’re making a mockery and it’s a sham,’’ screamed another.
   Regional director Hank Boas said the deposit was his idea, based on his fears that farmers would try to disrupt the process.
“The word I have from Victoria is to
popular
  Not everybody is in love with vivacious Sunshine Sal.
  The Citizen’s weather girl, who likes to expose as much skin as possible to the elements, is ‘‘a silly lady,” according to one young letter writer who wants the weather moose, Sadrack, back on our page one with the weather capsule.
  Another young writer told us Sadrack was ‘‘neat-o.’’
  What do you think?
  Starting Thursday and for about a week, we’ll run a coupon so you can vote on your choice. You can give the coupon to your paper carrier, mail it or drop it into our office. By the end of the month we’ll have tabulated the vote.
  The result will tell us whether you want Sadrack or Sal.
  And we’ll go with the people’s choice.
 keep the auction going and I have to stand by that,” he said initially.
    But after the first parcel was auctioned he made the decision to cancel when bidding became ridiculous.
    The auction is part of the ministry’s Crown land plan to rezone more than 245,000 hecta res, including 65,000 hectares of farmland by auction in the Prince George area.
   As Boas spoke, eight-year-old Tanya Johnson waved her placard, declaring “Got to stop tht auciion — it’s a giveaway.”
    “It’s my future,” she said.
   Lands, Parks and Housing Minister Jim Chabot was unavailable for comment today.
Fight rages in Lebanon
Associated Press
   Israeli commandos, advancing under covering shellfire from their Lebanese Christian allies, stormed and captured a Palestinian guerrilla stronghold near the paralysed Beirut airport today, the state-run Lebanese radio reported.
    The report said the Israelis took the scienct faculty campus of the Lebanese University, along the main runway of Beirut International Airport.
    It said the action was aimed at eliminating a major Palestinian stronghold controlling access to the airport and some of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s enclaves in Moslem west Beirut.
   There were conflicting reports on which forces were involved in the new outbreak of shelling and fighting today, which shattered a few hours of relative calm in war-devastated Beirut, the Lebanese capital.
    On Tuesday, Israeli and Syrian tanks battled near the airport for four hours. The Syrian regular army, which has 1,000 men stationed in the Beirut area, was not observed intervening in the battle for the science faculty.
   Israeli commanders said their gunners did not take part in the two hours of heavy shelling that preceded the reported assault on the PLO camp on the science campus. Associated Press correspondents said most of the fire seemed to come from Christian artillery entrenched in the hills above the airport.
    Members of the Christian Phalangi.ct militia Kataeb were fighting openly alongside the Israelis against their common Palestinian enemies for the first time since Israel’s army reached the Beirut area in a 11-day thrust northward to wipe out Palestinian guerrillas in Lebanon.
    Correspondents reported seeing Pha-langist liaison officers in olive-drab uniforms with Israeli units positioned all over Beirut's mountainous hinterland.
  Dollar breaks 78-cent level
   MONTREAL (CP) — Two days after falling below 79 cents, Canada's dollar broke through the 78-cent barrier today after just a few hours of trading on foreign exchange markets.
    It dove to 77.94 cents U.S. by noon, a third of a cent below Tuesday’s record low close of 78.25.
   Money traders remained so gloomy about the prospects of a turnaround that they shrugged off an initial strong showing by the battered buck early today, correctly predicting that the slight recovery to 78.42 would be brief.
    For the past month, the dollar has been reeling under the pressure of high American interest rates, a strong U.S. dollar and a lack of good economic news in Canada.
    Analysts say that as long as those factors remain in place, the currency will keep falling. “Why not?” was one trader’s reaction when asked about the possibility of a 75-cent dollar. “They’re nailing it.”
 River rising
    Nearly two weeks after the threat of Fraser River flooding seemed past, the river is on the rise again.
    The river is at 1,858.4 feet above sea level today, matching the year’s peak.
    A rise of four inches overnight on top of a three-foot climb during the weekend has brought the Fraser to within 18 inches of initial flood concern at the South Fort George gauge.
    Jim Brown of the Ministry of Environment says there is more high-level snow than average and high temperatures could still cause problems.
    Temperatures reaching 14 degrees at the 6,000 foot mark east of the city has resulted in sheets of water running down mountains into the Fraser headwaters.
    The last time the Fraser flooded in Prince George was in 1972 when the river reached 1,864 feet above sea level.
By JOHN FERGUSON Southam News
   OTTAWA—The federal government’s projected spending deficit for this year has rocketed to more than $16 billion, up a staggering 60 per cent from the $10.5 billion estimated in last November’s budget, informed sources say.
    The rapid rise in the spending shortfall means the government’s controversial plan to cut its deficit over the next few years is in a shambles.
    And the figures are certain to be used by Finance Minister Allan MacEachen today to convince an impatient Liberal caucus that he has very little room to manoeuvre in getting the slumping economy moving again.
   Major government spending programs to create jobs, as demanded by the opposition, many Liberal MPs and members of cabinet, would push up the deficit further.
    Officials say the new figures underline the massive miscalculation of MacEachen’s November budget when the current recession was not foreseen. MacEachen predicted the economy would grow by 2.2 per cent this year and raised taxes, hoping to trim the deficit.
   But when MacEachen brought down his budget the country was already four months into the recession — although the figures proving it were not then available — and his belt-tightening measures actually made it worse.
    It is now expected that instead of showing modest growth, the economy will actually shrink this year, reducing tax revenue and pushing up the cost of social programs. That means a higher deficit.
    The cost of unemployment insurance, for example, is expected to be sharply higher than the $4 .8 billion originally estimated for this year as tens of thousands collect pogey instead of pay income tax.
     With official jobless figures now at 1.25 million — and socalled “discouraged workers” pushing that figure to more than 1.5 million — there will be higher welfare payments, about half of which are covered by Ottawa.
    The stagnant economy has also cut heavily into profits, meaning corporate income tax revenues will be sharply below projections this year.
    The final blow was the unexpected slump in energy prices which has also cut into federal revenues. Precise figures for this year aren’t available but the government last month revised downward its five-year oil and gas revenue projections to $36 billion from $61 billion.
    Sources say the $16-billion-plus estimated budget deficit will be included in the economic statement MacEachen plans for the end of the month or early in July, along with updated projections on performance of the economy. But it could change depending on what new programs cabinet decides upon over the next two weeks.
-★-
  No changes, says Trudeau
    OTTAWA (CP) — Prime Minister Trudeau and Finance Minister Allan MacEachen made it clear to Liberal MPs today there will be no major retreat from the government’s basic anti-inflation policy.
      But that didn’t stop some MPs at a special caucus meeting on the economy from calling for a complete rewriting of Liberal economic policies to stimulate the economy and fight unemployment.
     Sources said some MFs are also pushing for a national program of wage and price controls, rather than a limited program applying only to federal politicians and public servants.
     Caucus chairman Gilbert Parent said MPs’ suggestions at the morning session of the planned seven-hour meeting ran the whole gamut.
     “We had people saying we should change around all our policies and we had people saying we should hold the line.”
     MacEachen told reporters he has not shifted from his view that inflation must be beaten before the economy will begin to grow again and produce more jobs.
     “What has been holding up the attainment of that goal is, of course, high interest rates and high inflation.”
 Productivity hike sought
  VANCOUVER (CP) - The B.C. Government has demanded a four-per-cent increase in productivity from its 38.000 unionized employees before it will offer them a wage increase.
  The demand was made Tuesday during negotiations between the B C Government Employees Union and the Government Employee Relations Bureau.
  Bureau chairman Mike Davison said the four-per-cent figure is non-negotiable, although there are many different ways of achieving it, such as increased working hours or more flexible shift scheduling.
  “Our position is that there will be no wage increase unless there is an increase in producvitity,” he said “That is my mandate from treasury board ” Negotiations now have adjourned until June 28. The union’s master contract with the government expires July 31.
Anger prevail
  BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) — Police fired dozens of tear gas volleys to disperse an angry crowd of about 7,000 people Tuesday night demonstrating against the military government’s apparent defeat by British forces in the Falkland Islands.
  “Sons of bitches” and “The military dictatorship is going to end,” chanted the enraged crowd a few metres from the presidential palace.
  “Treason, treason!” some in the angry mob shouted. “The boys died, their leaders sold them out!”
  The private Argentine news agency DYN said at least 12 people were arrested.
  The demonstrators urged the government to goon fighting in the Malvinas (Falklands) and to issue information on the reported surrender, shouting “We want to know” and “We want guns” as they clashed with police.
  Earlier, an angry crowd of about 50 forced a three man ABC television crew to retreat to their car and then kicked in windows and door panels, but no one was hurt.
  President Leopoldo Galtieri, who was scheduled to address the crowd never appeared as guards hurriedly closed the palace’s doors while the mob hurled abuse at them.
  Thousands of people fled in all directions as the police
s in Argentina
      charged, wielding rubber nightsticks, in Buenos Aires’ main Plaza de Mayo square.
      A thick pall of tear-gas wafted over the vast square, from which the demonstrators fled. Dozens of people knelt on surrounding streets and wept.
      “What have they done?” one person cried. “Where is their national courage which they spoke of?”
      Since Argentina's capitulation Monday to the British, the government and the press have presented the defeated troops as technological underdogs forced to agree to cease fire in the face of a better-