today in brief
MILITANT Sikhs called on members of their sect to “accept the challenge” of a judge’s order that three Sikh “heroes” be executed for roles in the 1984 Gandhi assassination.	Page
PIERRE HARVEY is on the brink of breaking the record for most medals won at Canadian national cross-country skiing championships, co-held by former Prince George resident Doug Gudwer.	Page
LOTTERY NUMBERS - PAGE I
Index
Ann Landers............26
                              
                  .....24,25  
City. B.C........ ...3,6,7,25 
                  .....14-18  
                  ........22  
                  ........16  
                  .........4  
Entertainment ..  .....22,23  
                  ........26  
                  ........18  
                  .........2  
                  ........22  
                  .........5  
                  .....11-13  
                  ........16  
 Swan song page 23
Sadrack says
Today is expected to be mainly cloudy with winds to 30 km-h and periods of snow. Tonight and Friday will be cloudy with clear periods with an overnight low near -10.
Friday, the forecast calls for a high near 2 with scattered snowshow-
ers.
The probability of precipitation today is 80 per cent, dropping to 30 per cent tonight and Friday.
Wednesday’s high was 2, the low was -6, there was 0.4 cm of snow and no sunshine recorded.
Last year on this date the high was zero, the low was -2, there was a trace of snow and no sunshine.
Sunset today is at 4:34 p.m. and sunrise Friday is at 8:10 a.m.
The
Prince George
Citizen
40c
Thursday, January 23, 1986
Tough 'conflict7 rules pledged
       by PAUL LOONG Canadian Press
   VICTORIA — Premier Bill Bennett defended the integrity of his government on Wednesday but said it should have acted sooner to forestall conflict-of-interest problems that forced one cabinet minister to resign and embroiled another in similar allegations.
   A comprehensive overhaul of guidelines and legislation will be introduced in the spring to fill in the near-absence of conflict-of-interest policy in British Columbia, Bennett said.
   Tom Waterland resigned as forests minister last Friday over his $20,000 investment in the Western Pulp Limited Partnership.
   Bennett said Energy Minister Stephen Rogers can stay on because his $100,000 in the same tax shelter is not a direct conflict with the energy portfolio.
   Bennett said events in the past week have been regrettable, but denied that they have tarnished the credibility of his government.
   He said he does not believe any member of his government or the legislature has ever voted on policies to enrich themselves: “Nobody runs to get rich, and I don’t believe anyone has voted to improve their own or some special interest’s financial worth.”
   But the insufficient controls must be tightened and improved ‘‘because it is important that the public have full confidence in tnose who hold positions of trust,” he said.
   British Columbia currently relies almost exclusively on the Financial Disclosure Act passed by the former New Democratic government in 1974. It requires elected officials to disclose their assets twice a year, but has some loopholes.
   Rogers, for example, did not mention his investment in the pulp partnership in his disclosure statement. He listed the company which holds the units and lets him make decisions on their disposal.
   There is a maximum $10,000 fine for failure to obey the Financial Disclosure Act.
   Bennett said Ted Hughes, the deputy attorney general ‘‘would automatically have responsibility to investigate that matter.” Hughes met with Bennett and Rogers, but refused comment.
   Other ministers have listed holding companies without elaborating on what investments are held on their behalf.
   ‘‘Neither the previous government nor our government ever enacted clear conflict-of-interest guidelines,” Bennett said.
   He said he now has asked all cabinet ministers to immediately place their assets in trust.
 bu 11 eti n
  OTTAWA (CP) — Former RCMP officer James Morrison surprised an Ottawa courtroom today when he abruptly halted his jury trial and admitted he sold secrets to Soviet agents 30 years ago in violation of the Official Secrets Act.
   Morrison, now a 69-year-old construction safety supervisor in Prince Rupert, ended more than two years of legal fighting when he told the Ontario Supreme Court, through his lawyer, that he wanted to plead guilty to one of three charges against him.
   The jury, selected Monday in preparation for what was expected to be a two-week trial, accepted the change in plea and the Crown’s decision to drop the other two charges against Morrison.
   Mr. Justice Coulter Osborne said he would pass sentence on May. 26.
   Morrison, once a free-spending corporal with the RCMP’s then fledgling security unit, had pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges that he fingered a prized double agent in the 1950s for $3,500 — roughly a year’s wages at that time.
   He proposed a ‘‘two-track procedure” to curtail conflict of interest.
    Elected officials, senior civil servants and heads of Crown corporations can choose to submit to full disclosure under new, stringent guidelines.
   The deputy attorney general was asked to draft amendments to ensure disclosure of any active involvement in organizations that would benefit from government action.
   These officials would have a second option: putting all their assets in a blind trust that would prevent them from even knowing about transactions carried out by the trustees, Bennett said.
   The provincial auditor general will be empowered to examine disclosures from the trustees to make sure no conflict arises, he said.
   Opposition Leader Bob Skelly criticized the premier’s handling of the matter, saying Bennett ‘‘shows absolutely no respect for the traditions and precedents of the parliamentary system.”
Oil price plunging
  NEW YORK (AP) - Oil prices went into a tailspin today after Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani was reported as warning that prices could fall below $15 U.S. a barrel, bringing dire economic consequences to the world.
   Brent North Sea crude, which was selling on the cash market late Wednesday afternoon for $20.05 a barrel, sold for $18.90 for delivery in February and hit levels as low as $18.35 for delivery in March.
   West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark U.S. crude, opened at $18.75 a barrel for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange, where it had closed at $20.39 Wednesday. In later trading, the price hovered around $19.
   A barrel is the equivalent of 159 litres.
   In an interview, Yamani stressed that Britain and other producers outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries must reach an accord with OPEC to restrain production.
   Otherwise, “there will be no limitation to the downward price spiral which may bring crude prices to less than $15 a barrel, with adverse and dangerous consequences for the whole world economy,” he was quoted as telling OPECNA, the cartel’s official news agency.
   The development came after the market had shown signs of settling at levels near $20 a barrel on Wednesday, following a week-long trading frenzy that had left prices for crude at their lowest levels in six years.
   Prices have been driven downward since November as producing countries, determined to hang on to their share of the market, have pumped more oil than the world has needed.
   In late November, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate cost $31.70 a barrel. Eight days ago, before the latest price drop began, it cost $25.15. The spot price closed Wednesday at $20.90, up 80 cents from Tuesday. That is a drop of 34 per cent from November and 17 per cent in barely more than a week.
bonk rate
 OTTAWA (CP) — The Bank of Canada rate declined to 10.33 per cent today from 10.38 last week, ending five consecutive weeks of increases.
  Rut economists and money market players said it’s not clear whether the recent currency crisis which has driven up interest rates is over, or whether this is just the “calm between storms.”
File photo shows Kim Vlchek talking to Prince George students last year.
ICBC NO-FAULT BENEFITS
Kim awarded pension
by MALCOLM CURTIS Staff reporter
    A Vancouver court ruled Wednesday that the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia’s no-fault benefits apply to a Prince George girl injured while riding an all-terrain vehicle.
    B.C. Supreme Court Judge Wallace Oppal ruled that ICBC’s benefits apply to people like Kim Vlchek, who lost the use of her lower body after being thrown from an off-road vehicle 18 months ago.
     The court awarded the 20-year-old girl a lifetime pension of $115 a week, up to $100,000 for rehabilitation expenses and a grant for a vehicle and home modification costs.
    Kim graduated from Prince George Senior Secondary school two weeks before her life changed forever.
     At 18, the world lay before her like an oyster.
    It was a sunny July day in 1984 when she and friend decided to drive around her father's acreage, south of the city, on a three-wheeled ATV.
     Her friend was driving while Kim sat in the rear as they travelled up the bank of a ditch on the edge of the property, near Highway 97.
    Suddenly, the vehicle flipped over. Kim was thrown and landed on her head, while the driver landed without injury.
    The accident left Kim paralyzed from the chest down, unable to feel or move her legs.
     "She only fell about two feet,” recalled her father, Steve Vlchek, a local drilling contractor.
    The freak accident put Kim in a wheelchair for life.
     “I'm very happy,” she said this morning, reached from her apartment in East Vancouver where she now lives.
     “Ever since my accident we’ve been trying to get this out of them. It’s really nice — it kind of ends everything. but I’m sure they’re going to appeal it.”
     in fact. ICBC, concerned that the decision may set a precedent, has indicated it wants to appeal the case.
    The Crown-owned insurance corporation argued at the trial that regulations do not extend no-fault protection to an insured motorist who gets hurt while
driving or riding as a passenger on an unlicensed, off-highway recreation vehicle.
  In this case, both riders had driver’s licences but the off-road vehicle was unlicensed.
  Lawyer Joe Murphy said he sued ICBC for benefits clearly set out in the Insurance (Motor Vehicle) Act and regulations.
  “Kim has a driver’s licence which covers her for the benefits,” said Murphy, adding that there are already many precedents.
  Kim’s father said this morning he was unaware of the court decision. After hearing the news, Vlchek said while he was pleased with the award, he didn’t think it was really enough to look after his daughter.
  “It’s costing me a $1,000 a month at least right now.”
  After spending 15 months in hospital and a therapy centre, Kim is now living in an apartment. In the morning she goes to the G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre for therapy and in the afternoon she’s taking courses in English and communications at Langara Community College.
   “I’m just taking it step-by-step.” she said.
  Kim has limited use of her hands and is able to wheel herself around. She still has difficulty writing, but she can do some typing.
  She and her father will go looking for a vehicle that she is able to drive soon, she said. Ultimately she will have to decide whether to stay in Vancouver or return to Prince George, which she misses.
  In the meantime, Kim has been taking notes for a book she hopes to write some day.
  She credits PGSS teacher Margaret Cameron for helping with her writing.
  “She’s-given me a lot of inspiration . .basically, I’d like to write about the changes that happened to me inside. I’ve read things by quadraplegics and they don’t seem to talk about that.”
  Kim has some strong views about all-terrain vehicles.
  “In my opinion they’re very dangerous.”
  Kim's father had bought the motorized tricycle just two weeks before the mishap.
   “Now it’s just sitting outside, it’s not getting very much use. It brings back bad memories.''
Crash cancels cruise test
        by Canadian Press OTTAWA — It pays to be a man, and it pays even more to also have a university education, have a fulltime job and live in British Columbia.
   Those are some conclusions of a survey released by Statistics Canada on Wednesday.
  Canadian workers earned an average of $10.67 an hour, according to the December, 1984, survey of the country’s more than nine million paid workers.
  But men earned on average $11.93 an hour while women earned only $8.82, less than three-quarters of the hourly earnings of men, the agency said.
   And widowed women aged 25 or over — more than half were 55 or over — earned on average only $8.43 an hour, an amount less than that earnec* by single or married women in the same age group.
   While the figures show a gap still existed at the end of 1984 in the earnings of men and women, neither Statistics Canada nor Labor Department officials were able to provide current information which would reveal whether that gap is widening, narrowing or remaining the same.
   However. Walter McLean, the federal minister responsible for the status of women, said in a speech on the weekend that the gap has narrowed only slightly over the past 20 years or so.
  McLean told members of the Tory caucus that women working full-time earn only 64 cents for every dollar earned by men, and that that was only up slightly from 59 cents in 1961.
   What the Statistics Canada survey does show, however, is that education not only boosts the earnings of both men and women, it also narrows the gap between what the two sexes earn.
   “At $6.54 an hour, women with a maximum of eight years of primary education earned 36 per cent less than men with the same educational background, who earned $10.29 an hour.
   “At the other extreme, women with a university degree earned 19 per cent less than their male counterparts — $12.84 an hour compared to $15.78.”
   The survey also revealed that average hourly earnings were highest in British Columbia at $11.79 and lowest in the Atlantic provinces at under $10.
  Workers in Prince Edward Island were at the bottom of the earnings list, averaging only $8.23 an hour, 30 per cent less than B.C. workers.
Canada faces asbestos ban
WASHINGTON (CP) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed today banning imports of asbestos from Canada as part of a package to eliminate the mining and use of asbestos in the United States over a 10-year period.
Lee Thomas, head of the agency, told a news conference he believes there is no safe level of exposure to asbestos, long linked to lung cancer and other serious respiratory ailments.
The proposal, revised slightly from one made a year ago and set aside pending further study, calls for cutting imports from Canada by 10 per cent a year for 10 years.
 Canada, the sole foreign supplier of asbestos to the U.S. market, exported $56 million worth of raw asbestos fibre to the United States in 1984, or about one-sixth of the total value exported that year.
  COLD LAKE. Alta. (CP) -Attempts to recover a cruise missile that crashed short of its designated target in northeastern Alberta during a test flight Wednesday have aborted plans for a similar test on Friday.
  Capt. Ross Hicks, a Canadian Forces spokesman, said today United States Air Force personnel had decided recovery operations
 would be too extensive to permit a Friday test flight.
   Wednesday’s four-hour. 10-minute flight, which began over the Beaufort Sea Wednesday morning, ended in thick woods at the edge of an air weapons range about 290 kilometres northeast of Edmonton after “some type of malfunction developed." said Maj. Luigi Ros-setto. a Canadian Forces information officer.
  Although they would not call it a crash, officials admitted a parachute that was supposed to ease the missile down to the frozen surface of a lake after its 2,500-kilometre flight apparently did not open.
  The flight was the fifth over northwestern Canada under a five-year agreement signed with the U.S. in 1983.