today in brief
30c Wednesday, November 2, 1983
 GRENADA will expel diplomats from Russia, Cuba and Libya. Page
 BRIAN MULRONEY says the reason Canada wasn’t informed of American plans to invade Grenada is that our government isn’t trusted by our allies.	Page
 A FLOP with the Cleveland Indians two seasons ago has won the National League Cy Young award.
Page
 FIRST CHOICE receives preferential treatment from the CRTC, say officials of its pay TV competitor, Superchannel Ontario. Page
Prince George
13
30
HERMAN
“Get back in bed!!!''
Index
Hridue............................19
Business........................8,9
 City, B.C............3,6,7,10,25
 Classified...................16-21
Comics...........................30
Crossword......................IS
Editorial.........................4 '
 Entertainment............30-32
Family...........................26
 Gardening column...........25
Horoscopes.....................19
International...................4
Movies...........................30
National..........................5
 Neighborhoods............23,24
 Rolling Stone..................31
Sports........................13-15
Television.......................18
The
Citizen
Sadrack says
   Continued cloud cover and rain will moderate temperatures over the Prince George region today and Thursday.
   Today’s forecast calls for cloudy skies and showers with a high near 10, clouds and intermittent rain tonight and a low approaching 4. Thursday will be cloudy with rain showers, a chance of wind gusts in valleys and a high near 10.
   Tuesday’s high was 5, the low was -2, there was no precipitation and no sunshine recorded at the weather office. A
 year ago today the high was 2, the low was -7 with no precipitation and 3.2 hours of sunshine.
   Sunset today is at 4:36 p.m. and sunrise Thursday comes at 7:14 a.m.
Serving Central B.C.
DISTRICT BRACES FOR WALKOUT
i
THE STRIKE: DAY 2
GOV'T COULD APPEAL
 Metrics lose in courtroom
  OTTAWA (CPi - A landmark judgment in a Toronto metrication case challenges the right of the government to enforce use of metric measures and to stop use of inaccurate weigh scales in Ontario stores. Consumer and Corporate Affairs Minister Judy Erola said today.
   “My first reaction is that we should appeal,’’ Erola told reporters.
   However, a final decision on an appeal and possible changes to the Weights and Measures Act of 1874 will not be made until after government officials have an opportunity to review the decision made Tuesday in provincial court by Judge William Ross.
  The judge threw out charges against two Toronto businessmen who had sold gasoline by the gallon, instead of the required litre.
  Charges were also dismissed against Jack Halpert and Ray Chris-
 tiansen for breaking seals placed on their pumps by federal officials.
   The judge claimed the men’s constitutional rights to freedom of expression and to pursue a livelihood were breached by the government.
   By sealing the gas pumps, federal officials were presuming the men were guilty before giving them a chance to a trial.
   “This decision questions the right of our inspectors to seal faulty de-
now hear this ...
   ■ Entries submitted to The Citizen’s United Way poster contest will be on display at the Prince George Public Library this week. Entries will be judged during the week, and winners will be notified.
 vices, not simply those devices which are measuring in the metric system, but faulty devices as well,” Erola said.
   Because the case was heard in an Ontario provincial court, the judgment applies only to Ontario, she said.
   Once an appeal is filed, federal inspectors would be able to resume sealing faulty weigh scales, at least until a higher court would decide otherwise.
   In a bluntly worded ruling, Judge Ross also rapped the federal government by ordering it to pay legal costs estimated at $10,000 for the gas station owners.
   Ross said the Weights and Measures Act was excessive for government to achieve its aims and poorly drafted because it failed to specifically prohibit sales in imperial measure.
United Way
 $250,000
 $225,000
 $200,000
 $175,000
 $150,000
 $125,000
 $100,000
 $75,000
 $50,000
 $25,000
Target: $250,000 To date: $54,457
Teachers face two-edged sword
by ARNOLD OLSON Staff reporter
  Prince George School District teachers face possible disciplinary action no matter what they decide to do if members of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation stage a walkout next week.
  If teachers don’t show up for classes, district staff has been told to note their absence on their employment records. If teachers cross picket lines to enter schools, they face possible disciplinary action by the federation.
   Teachers throughout B.C. voted 59 per cent in favor of supporting Operation Solidarity by withdrawing services Tuesday.
   Prince George district schools will be open — but whether classes will be held or provisional staff, aided by some teachers, will be available is uncertain.
  Today, district administration staff planned ways to keep schools open Tuesday with provisional staff and any teachers who do cross picket lines. Principals and tochers were to be not'r,«'r’ ^ day, with a puouc announcement of those plans to be made Thursday.
   If only skeleton staff is available (because several unions representing district workers might go on strike), schools would have to be shut to the public, and bookings, such as for Vanier Hall, will be cancelled until normal work resumes.
   Administrative staff also sought legal opinions concerning possible disciplinary action and whether the teachers’ actions would be a legal political protest or an unlawful strike.
  Joan McLatchy, Prince George District Teachers Association said today if a walkout is staged Tuesday. a hard line will be taken, unlike the Sept. 21 action when teachers stayed in classrooms until 2 p.m. ensuring elementary school pupils were cared for.
   The federation’s stand is, except for principals who will be allowed to enter schools to provide safety to students and building security, no teachers will be allowed into schools.
  Those who ignore the province-wide teachers' action may face B.C. Teachers’ Federation charges and (unspecified) discipline.
   “We do this kina of thing with regret,’’ she said.
   “If you’re withdrawing service, you have to withdraw it.”
   At a school board meeting Tuesday night, Trustee Austen Howard-Gibbon’s statement wrapped up the board’s consensus: “I don’t think the board can condone any work stoppage. . .even if we wanted to.”
   Trustee. Victor Rouse said at 59-per-cent support, the teachers’ decision to walk off the job Nov. 8 indicates many teachers might stay in classrooms.
  “I believe schools should stay open.”
   Trustee Roy Stewart said, “Their professionsal responsibilities transcend (withdrawing services from classrooms). They should practice what they preach (concerns for adverse effects upon education standards).”
   Discussions included concern for the board’s duty to demand contracts for services be honored and to enforce any Schools Act punishment provisions.
   Trustees Lois Boone and Margaret Sherring spoke for the teachers’ side.
   Sherring said teachers have ineffectually voiced protests over economic restraint measures which they see as threatening the quality of education, both in Prince George and throughout B.C.
   “They believe education is being totally restructured.”
   She said, “If every B.C. teacher goes out. it would mean all teachers will have a note on their files.”
  Boone called for the board to make alternate meeting site arrangements in case pickets are put up around the district offices.
  At her statement: “This board member will not cross a picket line to come here,” applause broke out from an audience of about 40 people.
    Picketing continued today at several provincial government offices in Prince George as the province-wide strike by the 35,000-member B.C. Government Employees Union entered its second day.
    But the effects of the strike are being felt in the already-depressed community of Fraser Lake, where striking BCGEU weigh-scale operators who check logging trucks set up picket lines Tuesday and shut down Fraser Lakes Sawmill. About 300 sawmill workers and 250 loggers were still off the job this morning, said mill manager Gary Townsend.
   About 30 per cent of the Fraser Lake work force was left jobless after the local Endako Mines shut down in 1982 and laid off 550 workers. The community has 1,500 residents.
   The company was scheduled to apply to the B.C. Labor Relations Board in Vancouver this morning for an injunction against the picketing, Townsend added.
    About 1,200 sawmill employees are off the job in northern B.C. because of secondary BCGEU picketing, said Dave Gunderson, executive director of the North Cariboo Forest Labor Relations Association. The Takama sawmill in Fort Nelson is also closed while Canadian Forest Products sawmills in Chetwynd and Fort St. John have reopened after the BCGEU agreed to limit picketing to the weigh scale buildings, he added.
   The strike is also affecting between 100 and 200 Prince George welfare recipients, said Maureen Pfliger of the Prince George Crises Centre. The recipients cannot pick ;up their cheques from the Ministry •of Human Resources offices, she explained.
    “I’m appealing to landlords not to •kick out these people if they can’t .’pay their rent,” she said Tuesday.
 ; Negotiations are under way with union and mir try officals to find a solution, she added.
   Most welfare cheques are mailed to the recipients, but some people pick up the cheques from the government offices.
 ! The strike began soon after midnight Monday and by mid-morning, 3,000 government offices in the province were behind picket lines, idling nearly 35,000 union members.
   The strike, the second in two years, was the first in a series of walkouts that threatens to culminate in a general public sector strike by Nov. 18, when 220.000 workers could be off the job.
    Talks at the B.C. Labor Relations Board continue.
    The recently-passed Public Sector Restraint Act, which gives the government broad powers to dismiss its employees, remains central to the dispute. Sixteen hundred workers were scheduled to be chopped Monday. but their future remains uncertain.
Background, page 7
Canada cuts immigration
   OTTAWA (CP) — Citing a “Cana-dians-first” policy made necessary by high unemployment, the government announced Tuesday it is slashing by 10 per cent the number of immigrants allowed in to the country in 1984.
 ; Immigration Minister John Roberts, announcing revised immigration totals for the next three years, said the reduced level in 1984 is essential "to protect jobs for Canadians" and to give citizens and permanent residents first crack at job opportunities.
 area Tuesday. Brent Few (few) of B.C. Rail checked was one of the first railway workers to inspect coal shipments in Prince George. (Story, page 3.)
                Citizen photos by Brock Gable and Dave Milne
 B.C. Industry Minister Don Phillips (right) drives in the last spike on the British Columbia Railway’s new Tumbler Ridge branch line moments before the first train from the North-East Coal Development passed through the
Coal trains rolling
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