today in brief
25'
Tuesday, December 7, 1982
LEFTISTS GUERRILLAS kidnap ped 200 men, women and children at a soccer game in El Salvador, witnesses say. Page
CITY FATHERS got their first look at a rather frugal spending plan Monday. Page
THE UNITED AUTOWORKERS have rejected a contract offer from Chrysler, saying the company isn’t even close to meeting demands.
Page
WAYNE GRETZKY might have every National Hockey League scoring record by the time he’s finished. Page
2
3
13
HERMAN
'This is your loan application back from our head office.”
Index
.........19
........8,9
...... 3,12
.....16-20
.........22
......... 18
.......... 4
..... 22,23
Family................ .........24
.........23
.......... 2
.........22
.......... 5
.....13-15
......... 18
Oath of office Page 3
Sadrack says
We can expect cloudy skies and a few sunny periods Wednesday. Light snow fell in the area today.
Highs today and Wednesday should be -10 and -8, respectively. Low tonight should be -15. Chance of precipitation is 10 per cent tonight and zero Wednesday.
Monday, the high was -10, the low was -16 and a trace of snow fell. One year ago, the high was -5 and the low was -11.
The sun sets at 3:50
The
Prince George
Citizen
Serving Central B.C.
'JUSTICE HAS BEEN WELL DONE HERE'
Cana
FLU-TYPE BUG HITS REGION
ian
spy given 10 years
by BERNICE TRICK Staff reporter
A type of sickness resembling influenza is making the rounds in Prince George, says a Northern Interior Health Unit supervisor.
Nursing supervisor Elsie Gerdes said toaay the germ has not yet been identified, but specimens from school students have been sent to Vancouver. Results are expected later this week.
The sickness, with symptons of high fever, sore throat, coughinp comp vomiting and ir.uscuiai l... id ratting all age groups I*, -j i.»r from being an epidemic, said Gerdes.
“We have sporadic increases of absenteeism in schools and work places but absenteeism is not up signifigantly,” she said.
The bug appears to last for approximately five days during which Gerdes advises people to stay home.
If chest infection, sinus congestion, ear aches and ear infection develop, Gerdes advises people to contact their family doctor.
The sickness began two weeks ago in the Pineview and Beaverly areas.
A check with area schools today showed only one closed because of absenteeism.
St.Mary’s Catholic Elementary School closed Friday when 55 students and 10 staff members were absent, said a school spokesman.
Prince George School District does not report any closures.
Austin Hoad Elementary School has experienced up to 22 per cent of 336 students and three to five staff members away during the past week.
Principal Geoff Eacott said the sickness appears to affect more primary students than older ones.
Blackburn Elementary principal Jack Blair said the highest absentee rate hit last Tuesday when 10 to 12 per cent of 320 students plus five staff members were away.
“Some of the absences can be attributed to students missing their bus. We call that the busing disease," said Blair.
Enrolment at Pineview Elementary School is back to normal after 12-per-cent absenteeism two weeks ago.
At College Heights Senior Secondary Scnool, 10 to 12 per cent of the 850 students enroled are absent.
now hear this ...
• Studio 2880 officials are still searching for the winner of their trip to Vancouver — all expenses paid. The lucky button number is 3875 and the winner can call the studio at 562-4526 to claim the prize.
• For those who hate metrication, some bad news. Even the mighty mile started out as a base-10 measurement in the days of Roman soldiers: 1,000 strides of, “left, left, left," measure one mile.
• For some, this is a special date: the 41st anniversary of the Pearl
Two-horse open sleigh
Henri ter Haar drives his Clydesdale team, Baldy and Duke, during sleigh ride party at his Blue Hills Farm in the Buckhorn area. More than 60 adults and children from the Big Brothers and Big Sisters organizations enjoyed an afternoon of sleigh rides followed by hot dogs and warm drinks arranged for them by the ter Haar family. ati»n photo by Brock cable
i speci of th
Harbor attack which brought the U.S. into the war that had been raging in Europe since 1938.
U.S. slayer put to death by injection
HUNTSVILLE. Tex. (AP) — Murderer Charlie Brooks, commending his soul to Allah and urging his girlfriend to be strong, today became the first U.S. prisoner executed by lethal injection.
Seven minutes after the fatal dose of sodium pentothal was administered at 12:09 a.m., Brooks, 40, was pronounced dead.
Brook’s lawyers tried repeatedly Monday to delay his execution for the 1976 murder of a Fort Worth used-car salesman.
He was only the second prisoner to be executed while still pursuing appeals since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed reinstitution of the death penalty in 1974 after a seven-year hiatus.
He was the sixth person to die since the reinstitution, and the first black. The last execution in Texas was in 1964.
Brooks’s final plea to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was turned down at 11:54 p.m., and at 12:01 a.m. prison authorities received permission to proceed.
Brooks was strapped to a medical cart with an intravenous needle in his right arm The tubes snaked behind a curtain where an unseen prison employee was ready to start the flow of the drugs.
Brooks closed his eyes and appeared still, then started gasping and wheezing.
Two prison doctors examined him with stethoscopes, and, after several minutes, Dr. Ralph Gray said: “I pronounce this man dead ”
fc>Ljlleti n
OTTAWA (CP) — The federal deficit, fuelled by high unemployment costs und the government's heavy debt load, climbed to $10.6 billion in the first six months of this fiscal year which began April 1, figures released today show.
September showed a staggering increase of almost 5(H) per cent in the monthly deficit to $1.9 billion from $229 million for the same month last year, figures released by Finance Minister Marc Lalonde show.
Time to get 'rough7 with Clifford Olson
OTTAWA (CP) - It’s time to get “rough and tough" with convicted murderer Clifford Olson, Progressive Conservative MP Allan Lawrence said Monday.
Olson has both federal Solicitor General Robert Kaplan and British Columbia Attorney General Allan Williams "twisted around his little finger," Lawrence said, pointing to the mass murderer’s recent "junket” to B.C. which provided police with no new information.
Lawrence, MP for Durham-North-umberland, recommended Olson be handed a map of southwestern B.C. and southern Vancouver Island in his cell at Kingston maximum-secu-rity prison and given 24 hours to pinpoint locations of further murder victims.
If he lies to police again he should be whisked out of his protective custody cell and tossed into the general prison population, the former solicitor general told reporters.
Olson is segregated for his own safety from the remaining 300 pris-
oners at Kingston Penitentiary.
Olson, a one-time police informer serving concurrent life sentences for murdering 11 young people in southwestern B.C., is at the bottom of the prisoners’ own hierarchy.
“Why should I, as a taxpayer, have to pay thousands every week to keep him (Olson) in protective custody if he’s going to be pulling the tricks that he has pulled?” asked Lawrence, solicitor general in the short-lived Clark government.
Williams said earlier Monday that Olson’s recent trip to the province turned out to be a scam and proved he is a liar.
Olson offered to supply specific details about three unsolved murders and the “nature of the information he said he could provide necessitated his transfer to B.C.,” Williams said.
He said police were concerned Olson was concocting stories but decided to fly him west because they “must use every legitimate means to solve any unsolved crimes.”
Irish disco-bar bomb kills 16
BALLYKELLY, Northern Ireland (AP) — The Irish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility today for the bomb blast that sent a concrete roof crashing onto the dance floor of a disco-bar packed with British soldiers, killing 16 people and wounding 66 others.
The claim was made in a call to a Belfast TV station.
Belfast Police Chief Inspector Herbert Norris listed the dead as 12 men and four women and said 10 of the fatalities were soldiers.
“It’s a horrific scene,” Police Superintendent Bill Wilson said, as rescuers used cranes and pneumatic drills to probe tonnes of rubble which hurtled onto the crowded dance floor Monday night. Police said a gelignite bomb was planted by the side of a main pillar supporting the ballroom.
Police and witnesses said the roof collapsed “like a deck of cards,” creating pandemonium among the estimated 150 people at the dance frequented by soldiers from a nearby British army base.
“It was a massacre without mercy,” said Britain's Northern Ireland secretary, James Prior.
by CHRISTOPHER YOUNG Southam News LONDON — Laval University professor Hugh Hambleton, 60. today was sentenced to 10 years in prison for spying for the Soviets.
Hambleton changed his plea this morning after cross-examination Monday had torn holes in his story that he was a double-agent on behalf of Canada and France.
He pleaded guilty to the first count against him — that he had communicated top secret, secret and confidential matters belonging to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to a Russian agent between 1956 and 1961. Hambleton at the time was employed by NATO in Paris, having been vetted by Canadian security.
British legal authorities decided not to proceed against him on the second count — that between 1956 and 1979 he obtained information useful to an enemy for purposes prejudicial to Britain.
Hambleton is Canadian-born but holds dual citizenship. Since lPt>4 he has worked in Canada, with frequent foreign travel including consulting jobs for Cl DA (Canadian International Development Agency) in Peru and Haiti.
After the conviction, his lawyer argued that the sentence should be mitigated because he was primarily a Canadian and his espionage activities at NATO had not directly affected British interests.
Sir David Croom-Johnson, passing sentence, seemed to take no interest in this aspect of the case. But he did take into account Hamble-ton’s age plus the fact that he had co-operated with the RCMP after he was granted immunity from prosecution by Canada in 1980.
"The offence of which you have been convicted is a very grave offence,” the judge told an impassive Hambleton. “Although these activities were a long time ago, they catch up with you in the end.”
The maximum sentence would have been 14 years for the offence of which he was convicted.
Three RCMP officers sat in the courtroom this morning, waiting to testify if needed. They were not called, but the RCMP’s Director-General of Security, Bernard Giroux, said afterwards: “Justice has been well done here.”
The court opened half an hour late this morning, as the judge was apparently closeted in his chambers with lawyers for the defence.
It had become obvious at Monday’s hearing that Hambleton’s story would not stand up. He was unable to answer basic questions about his alleged employment with French and Canadian security services, or about his alleged controllers — “Jacques Laliberte" alias “Mr. C.” for Canadian security and “Jean Masson” for France.
LUMBER MARKET BRIGHTENS
Sawmill workers called back here
Between 60 and 70 employees at Northwood's Prince George sawmill will return to work Jan. 3 for the first time in four months, a company official says.
Mike Madrlgga. general manager of sawmills, said employees are being called back because "North American lumber markets have experienced a greater degree of activity than we have seen for more than a year.”
"Although offshore markets are currently very depressed, we feel the level of activity on the North American market will allow some additional production to be sold.”
He said employees will be working five days a week. Earlier this year, they had been on a four-day week.
Just one shift with about 90 employees has been working at the sawmill since September. In the past two years, the company has had up to three shifts a day at the mill.
However, Madrigga cautioned employees there is no guarantee market improvements will "be durable enough" for full production to continue through 1983. There hasn't been any change in "basic world economic factors," he said.
Madrigga congratulated employees for great improvements in productivity and costs over the past two months.
He said Northwood’s sawmill at Shelley has been running with a full staff for the past few months, but he indicated he wasn’t sure when employees at Upper Fraser would return to work.
That mill is dependent on British and European markets, which are still weak, he said.
Meanwhile, about 1,100 employees at the Intercontinental and Prince George Pulp mills will be off work when the mills shut down from Dec. 24 to Jan. 3, says Doug Quinn, vice-president of industrial relations for the companies.
Pulp markets remain weak and the companies
want to reduce inventories by about 9,500 tonnes, he said.
About 380 sawmill employees in Isle Pierre and Fort St. James who work for a related company, Takla Forest Products, will be off work in the last week of December, he said. The pulp mills get part of their chip supply from these mills.
Shipments of chips from independent sawmills will be suspended during this period, he said.
Quinn said about 200 employees will return to work Jan. 3 to operate the paper machine and do maintenance.
He said Jan. 7 is the target date to start the pulp mills again, but he indicated this could change.
Employees are being encouraged to take remaining vacations during the shutdown, he said.
The two pulp mills were also closed for four weeks from Oct. 26 to Nov. 20, but many employees worked on maintenance for half that period.
p.m. today and rises at 8:16 a.m. Wednesday.
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