today ir» brief
HERMAN
JOE CLARK is asking Canadians to leave Libya as soon as possible. Page
CANADIANS did well Monday in the Boston Marathon, where the two major prizes were won by an Australian and a Norwegian. Page
A MACHINE OIL has made a curious jump from the work-
lump troi shop to the medicine chest.
Page
13
24
“I told him to meet me under the town clock."
Index
Ann Landers.............8
Bridge..................19
Business................11
City, B.C...............3,9
Classified............16-21
Comics .................22
Crossword..............18
Editorial.................4
Entertainment.......22,23
Family ..................8
Horoscopes.............19
International.............2
Movies..................22
National.................5
Sports................13-15
Television ..............18
Tumbler Ridge Page 9
Sadrack says
The weather forecast calls for cloudy skies with some clear periods and isolated showers overnight and Wednesday. The temperature should drop to near -1 overnight and rise to near 8 Wednesday.
Monday’s high was 10, the overnight low was -1, there was a trace of precipitation and 4.4 hours of sunshine recorded at the airport weather office.
A year ago today the high was 6, the overnight low was -3, there was 1.4
Details page 9
cm snow and 5.8 hours of sunshine.
Sunset today is at 7:24 p.m. and sunrise Wednesday is at 6:06 a.m.
The
Prince George
Citi
'Freer trade' vote down to the wire
DAMSEL NOT SO FAIR
A good Samaritan who misunderstood the situation when a store security employee tried to arrest a shoplifter received a six-month conditional discharge when he appeared in Prince George provincial court Monday on a charge of assault.
Court heard that Mark Hall, 21, of Prince George tried to stop a man who he thought was bothering a woman. After asking the man for some identification Hall said he thought it was phoney.
Court was told the female shoplifter got away and the security employee followed her out of a local mall and grabbed her arm, telling her to come back into the store.
The security officer told the court Hall then grabbed his arm.
Judge George Stewart said Hall was playing the white knight coming to rescue a fair damsel.
But in this case, the fair damsel was a thief, Stewart said.
Herbicide decision problem for counci
Prince George city council is in a quandary about what to do with encroaching weeds within the city, following a report at Monday’s council meeting.
Council is faced with what some members referred to as a twopronged time-bomb — protecting parks and city areas which are being ruined by weeds — especially broad leaf weeds — and the potential harmful effects from the use of herbicides like 2,4-D.
The herbicide 2,4-D was banned here last June by council until evidence supporting its safe use is documented. Parents complained about its use for weed control on school property and at Fort George Park.
City engineer Ernie Obst says no new information has been received to indicate other chemicals or processes are available to carry out weed control on a reasonable per-
formance and cost-effective basis.
He said the 1986 program for dandelion control on city property will consist of mowing on regular schedules.
The one area to be sprayed for weeds is the Prince George cemetery.
Obst says during the two-day process, flagging tape will be placed across all entrances to the area.
Meanwhile, council members are hoping a study being conducted by the Vancouver Parks Board will help them out of their dilemma. The board is studying alternate weed control methods and the report will be available to council upon completion of the study.
To date, no municipality has reported effective mechanical weed control nor does there appear to be a chemical replacement as safe or as effective as 2,4-D.
B.C. NURSES' UNION
Strike vote planned
Citizen news services VANCOUVER - British Columbia’s 16,000 nurses are ready to take off the surgical gloves and masks and go head-to-head with 160 of the province’s hospitals and health care facilities in a battle for a new contract.
Negotiations between the British Columbia Nurses' Union and the Health Labor Relations Association, bargining agent for the hospitals. appear to have broken off with the nurses announcing Monday a strike vote will be taken May 21.
There are 422 nurses in Prince George, including 231 full-time, 61 regular part-time and 130 casual BCNU president Colleen Bonner, who works at the Prince George hospital, said the nurses have their own essential services plan to provide care during a strike.
The 23.000-member Hospital Employees Union already has served strike notice on one Vancouver hospital. But the association representing the hospitals said it would make another offer.
The nurses, however, say they would rather fight than make concessions on a new contract.
“We have to take the gloves off.” union negotiator Pat Fraser said. ‘‘We have been well-mannered during the past year’s negotiations and gotten nowhere. If they want a fight they’ll have one.”
That view is not shared by association president Peter McAllister, who called on union negotiators to take his organization's last offer of a three-per-cent wage increase
over three years to the membership.
“It’s regrettable, the nurses have resorted to sabre-rattling instead of returning to the bargining table,’’ McAllister said. “In light of today’s economic climate I’m sure the majority of nurses would accept our offer.”
The starting rate for British Columbia's registered nurses is $12.85 an hour. Ontario pays its registered nurses $14.32 while in Alberta they make $13.65.
Firefighters submit offer
OTTAWA (CP) - The threat of illegal strike action by 1,500 airport firefighters across Canada was put on hold Monday as their union submitted a new proposal to federal government negotiators.
Last-ditch talks in Ottawa to agree on a new contract for the firefighters adjourned shortly before midnight, the strike deadline. A union spokesman said negotiations are expected to resume today after the government has an opportunity to study the proposal.
There are nine firefighters at the Prince George airport. Should they walk out. management personnel would take over, said airport manager Wayne Harley.
Details of the proposal from the Public Service Alliance of Canada weren’t released. v
by Canadian Press WASHINGTON - A U.S. Senate finance committee vote on Canada-U.S. freer trade was suddenly postponed today when committee leaders realized they were one vote short of a victory for President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
The vote is expected to take place Wednesday.
The committee hearing at which the senators were to vote was temporarily adjourned, leaving the fate of the Mulroney government’s proposal to open freer-trade talks with the United States hanging in limbo on the eve of the 20-member committee’s deadline for a veto.
In debate leading up to the voting stage, nine senators signalled they would favor the launch of fre-er-trade talks, leaving Reagan one vote short of the 10 votes he needs for a go-ahead from the committee.
Senate aides said they would “lobby like crazy” for the next 24 hours to get a 10th vote to ensure there is no veto of the freer-trade talks.
The aides said they thought they had a 10th vote — Senator William Armstrong (R-Colo.) — but he dug in his heels at the last minute. They said Armstrong is upset over U.S. imports of Soviet goods he says are made with forced labor and is refusing to grant freer-trade approval unless the Reagan administration does something about it.
Armstrong didn’t speak during the committee debate but made his views known privately to committee chairman Bob Packwood who opened the session with an appeal for support of Reagan’s request for “fast-track” negotiations with Canada.
“It would be my fervent desire that the committee vote to support the administration,’’ Packwood said, showing he had changed his mind since last week.
“If there is any country in this world that we ought to be able to conclude a fair agreement with, it’s Canada.”
Based on the speeches by senators in the 20-member committee, nine planned to support the freer-trade request, seven were against it, one was leaning against it and three — including Armstrong — didn’t speak up.
Before the adjournment, senators got bogged down in a wrangle over just what it is they want to vote on — a flat veto of the talks, a 30-day extension of the veto period or a resolution spelling out what Congress wants in a freer-trade pact.
The cliffhanging atmosphere over the freer-trade proposal was underlined by a tie vote on whether the senators should reassemble later in the day or Wednesday to conduct the vote.
A top committee aide said later the vote would likely be held Wednesday because time was needed to get the vital 10th vote.
Packwood had intended to call a vote on a resolution to veto Reagan’s request for “fast-track” negotiations that would allow Congress to accept or reject, but not to amend, a final freer-trade pact. The resolution was thrown into question when two alternate resolutions were proposed.
Senator Jack Danforth (R-Mo. i proposed that Reagan resubmit his proposal and allow the committee 30 more days to decide whether to go along with it.
Senator Bob Dole (R-Kan.l, attempting to dra*” support away from Danforth, offered an alternative that would allow the talks to proceed but set conditions for a final freer-trade agreement
40c
Tuesday, April 22, 1986
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Graffiti referring to the U.S.-Libyan conflict lines the walls leading to the underground garage at the
Phoenix Medical Centre in Prince George. Citizen photo by Dave Milne
MYSTERY EXPLOSION
Who made the bomb?
Graffiti on walls leading to the underground garage at the Phoenix Medical Centre on 10th Avenue concerns the American-Libyan conflict, but it is unknown if the writing relates to an explosion at the centre Monday morning.
Prince George RCMP are continuing to investigate the explosion and downplayed any connection between the graffiti and the blast.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Jim Swanson said an explosive device placed near an Inland Natural Gas regula-
tor, adjacent to a cement pillar at the corner of the building, caused the blast.
When asked if the device was some type of pipe-bomb or homemade device, Swanson said no further information would be released on the type of explosive used.
Early indications are the device was left on the regulator immediately prior to the explosion at 6:55 a.m., said Swanson.
“We’re interested in any activity in the area which could be related to the incident,” he added.
An RCMP explosives expert from Vancouver has examined the scene and an investigation has been initiated by the local detachment.
Members of the Provincial Emergency Program under the direction of Prince George RCMP searched the grounds of the centre Monday for any further debris from the explosion.
Damage to property was minimal and no fire resulted from the blast.
Grits on winning streak
Southam News
CHARLOTTETOWN - The anti-Conservative trend in provincial elections continued in Prince Edward Island Monday, ending seven years of Tory rule and possibly the political career of Premier Jim Lee.
Lee. who had the biggest personal majority in the province in the last election, went down to a humiliating defeat in his own riding. 5th Queens.
Joe Ghiz’s Liberals took 21 seats, compared to 11 for the Tories. At dissolution, the Conservatives held 18 seats and the Liberals 14.
The Liberals were the choice of 50 per cent of voters. compared with 46 per cent for the Tories and four per cent for the NI)P, who have never won a seat on the Island.
“I’m surprised,” a shaken Lee said at his campaign headquarters. “I thought myself and Wilfred MacDonald (his running mate in 5th Queens) gave good representation to the district, but the voters don’t seem to agree.”
Lee said he would need time before deciding whether he will step down as party leader.
Besides Lee, two high-powered ministers — Finance Minister Gordon Lank and Energy Minister Fred Driscoll — also fell victim to the Liberal sweep.
For Ghiz, the victory was doubly sweet because many, including some in his party, openly questioned his ability to win in this primarily rural island of British and Scottish ancestry.
Ghiz, 41, a slick, Harvard-trained lawyer from Lebanese parents who is fond of quoting Shakespeare and Dickens seemed an unlikely man to lead his party in a province where 26 of 32 seats are considered rural.
But since winning the leadership in 1981, Ghiz has gone out of his way to get acquainted with the concerns of farmers and fishermen in the outports and during this campaign, spent most of his time away from his Charlottetown base.
See also pages 3, 5
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