CUtycK ScuOuLck
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Low tonight: 10 High Friday: 23
The Prince George
Citizen
THURSDAY, JULY 24,1986
40 CENTS
Platinum Blonde here 2
Hassan, Peres huddle 7
International events 11
Entertainment..... ■"W** Lotteries.....................3
......22,23 Television..................17
OTTAWA (CP) — The Conservative government falsely alarmed the public about early release of dangerous prisoners so it could recall Parliament and patch up its battered public image, opposition MPs charged today.
Liberal Leader John Turner said the government hopes to focus attention on its amendments to parole law and draw public attention away from judicial proceedings against two Tory MPs.
He said he would not play into the government’s hand with prolonged debate over the bill to amend the controversial early release program known as mandatory supervision.
‘‘It’s a diversionary tactic,” Turner told about 100 MPs who had interrupted their summer vacation to pass the bill and give the National Parole Board power to deny prisoners release on mandatory supervision based on their predictions of danger.
. . .and in tomorrow's Citizen. . .
Friday’s coverage includes a recap of the first of a two-day assembly near Vanderhoof of Carrier-Se-kani bands, with reports of their progress on land claims and other issues related to self-government.
Also planned:
■ A profile of Ontario rock singer Kim Mitchell, who performs in Prince George next month.
■ Coverage of tonight’s international volleyball match in Prince George.
IWA
by DIANE BAILEY and KEN BERNSOHN Staff reporters »
One-third of the members of the International Woodworkers of America in B.C. remain off work, on strike for the second day.
This morning in Vancouver both union and management groups were holding meetings, with each side saying they were not sure what would happen next.
It is certain the strike by 11,000 of the 31,000-member union will last into next week. Negotiations are set to resume next Tuesday after the IWA has a consulted with its members.
Management negotiators were surprised when the union appeared to harden its stand against the contracting out of jobs now performed by union members.
Canadians dissatisfied with Tories
MONTREAL (CP) - More than twice as many Canadians disapprove of the federal Conservative government’s record as approve, a Gallup poll suggests.
The survey, taken at the beginning of July, indicates that 60 per cent of respondents disapproved of the Tories’ record, while 25 per cent approved.
A year ago, 41 per cent approved and 38 per cent disapproved.
The latest poll suggests regional approval of the government’s record was slightly higher in the Prairies at 29 per cent and in Ontario at 28 per cent, while it was lowest in the Atlantic provinces at 17 per cent and in Quebec at 22 per cent.
Fifteen per cent of respondents said they didn’t know, compared with 21 per cent a year ago.
Results were based on 1,025 personal, in-home interviews conducted between July 3 and 5. Gallup says a sample of this size is accurate to within four percentage points either way, 19 times in 20.
The question asked was:
‘‘Do you approve or disapprove of the record of the Progressive Conservative government in Ottawa since the election in September 1984?”
Sri Lanka bus bomb kills 28
COLOMBO (AP) — A bomb exploded aboard a bus in north-central Sri Lanka today, killing 28 passengers and wounding 40, a military spokesman said.
The spokesman said the bomb went off when the bus was travelling from Vavuniya to the sacred Buddhist city of Anuradhapura, a distance of 54 kilometres.
The blast took place two days after at least 29 people were killed in another bus explosion in Vavuniya, 250 kilometres north of Colombo.
It was not immediately known if the victims in the latest explosion were members of Sri Lanka’s Buddhist Sinhalese majority community or Tamil Hindu minority. But the spokesman for Sri Lanka’s Joint Operations Military Command blamed Tamil separatists for the blast.
Tamil rebels also were blamed for the Tuesday bombing authorities said was staged by insurgents who set off buried explosives by remote control on a remote Vavuniya highway.
"Is this the 54-year- old limbo dancer?"
taking hard line at talks
The forest companies had proposed contract language adopted in
1983 at Balfour Forest Industries in Prince George and modified in a tentative agreement reached with the IWA Wednesday.
“It guarantees not to contract out work that is performed by bargaining unit employees,” said David Sheard, industrial relations manager for Balfour, the seventh largest lumber producer in the province.
The problem is one of perception, say those close to the issue.
Management expected the union to take the same stand on contracting out that it took on technological change, which was to protect individual workers but not job positions.
The union, however, sees the issue as different from changes
imposed by the market or technology.
It views contracting out as having the same job done, without change, by someone willing to bid a lower price to do it.
The union’s willingness to settle with Balfour, but not with the industry as a whole is seen as a demonstration of trust in Balfour’s willingness to follow the intent of the contract, rather than quibble over wording.
In the north, about 2,500 employees at all 28 mills represented by the Council On Northern Interior Forest Employment Relations are on strike.
However, Northwood Pulp and Timber, Canfor, Carrier Lumber, West Fraser Mills and Westar are all negotiating independently and continue to operate.
Industry analyst Jaak Puusepp of Pemberton Houston Willoughby in Vancouver said the strike should be over within a week.
‘‘I don’t understand this posturing. Nobody does. They have an offer on the table and it is a very attractive offer.”
Puusepp said the IWA is fighting the inevitable in attempting to protect union logging jobs from being contracted out to independent companies.
“The industry did not go for the wage reduction like our counterparts in the U.S. They want to have the flexibility to allocate jobs in order to remain competitive.” Puusepp said contracting out is an issue on the Coast, where a large number of loggers are still unionized and working for lumber companies.
“If the union does not allow contracting out and the industry capitulates to their demands, I can see a number of mills on the Coast forced to shut down because they can’t be competitive.”
But he said in the northern Interior almost all logging is already contracted out to independent firms.
“I don’t understand what they are striking about,” said Puusepp.
Hans Suhr, national representative for the Canadian Paperwork-ers Union, said while the contracting out of logging may not be an issue in the north, there are jobs within mills that could be jeopardized.
The maintenance of equipment is one example.
“It is not just logging they are talking about. Contracting out
takes many forms.”
Although the Chicago futures market rose in reaction to the strike, Puusepp said he doubts the strike last long enough to have a major effect on the price of lumber.
“In a week to two weeks you could see inventories in the United States run down and you could see some impact on price.”
Meanwhile, workers at Cariboo Pulp and Paper in Quesnel were being called back to work Wednesday afternoon after the company went to the British Columbia Labor Board to force the IWA to stop its secondary picketing of the mill.
Martin Eastman, president of Canadian Paperworkers Union Local 1115, said about 200 day shift workers refused to cross the IWA line.
$5 million approved for centre
by MALCOLM CURTIS Staff reporter
The B.C. government has approved a $5-million grant for Prince George’s proposed cultural-convention centre, The Prince George Citizen has learned.
The Expo Legacy Fund committee of cabinet approved the amount Tuesday, Prince George-South MLA Bruce Strachan confirmed this morning.
“We’re extremely pleased that we’ve secured this funding,” said Strachan. “As we’ve said all along we were going to do, we’ve got $5 million approved for the cultural centre.”
A formal announcement is scheduled to be made by Jack Heinrich, Prince George-North MLA and Forests Minister at a press conference in front of city hall Friday at 10 a.m.
Mayor Elmer Mercier, who said he personally applied for $5 million from the province’s Expo Legacy
Fund on Monday, said the announcement is “good news for Prince George.”
The mayor said he was asked by Victoria last weekend to submit an application for a legacy fund grant.
Mercier said he could not comment further except to say he thought the rush to award the legacy rnnd grant was connected to next week s Socred leadership convention at Whistler.
Strachan said the quick decision was made because it was thought best to secure the funding because “there’s always potential for change” after the convention.
“We thought it best to do it this way.”
Members of the city’s cultural-convention centre building committee and representatives of the arts community have been asked to attend Friday morning’s press conference, said Nan Selkirk, Heinrich’s assistant in Victoria.
Parliament recall hit by opposition
Turner was referring to a judicial inquiry in Toronto to examine conflict-of-interest charges against former cabinet minister Sinclair Stevens and court proceedings against Tory backbencher Michel Gravel, facing 50 charges of bribery, fraud and influence peddling.
Both Turner and New Democrat MP Lynn McDonald denied the country faces an emergency because mandatory supervision provides for the release of all prisoners, except those serving life and indeterminate sentences, after they have completed two-thirds of their sentence.
Solicitor General Jim Kelleher defended the recall of Parliament, saying that any further delay in passing the bill will jeopardize the safety of law-abiding citizens.
“This is not, in other words, a shotgun bill,” Kelleher argued. “It is well thought out, and it balances the interests and concerns of the many divergent groups that will be affected by it.”
Kelleher, warning 40 dangerous offenders will be released on mandatory supervision within the next three months unless the bill is passed, accused the Liberal-dominated Senate of delaying the measures by amending the bill earlier this month.
The amendment would give prisoners denied early release on mandatory supervision the right to appeal to the courts.
Liberal and New Democrat MPs say they support the amendment because it is in keeping with guarantees of fundamental justice in the Charter of Rights. New Democrats oppose the bill completely because they say mandatory supervision helps prisoners adjust to a life outside prison.
, Sonny, a toy poodle from Chipman, Alta., gets some extra attention Top dogs vye from Doreen Robinson of Prince George during Northern Interior Ken-for prizes nel Club’s regional show here. Top dogs will be competing for honors _until Sunday in Kin I at Exhibition Park. citizen phuio by Brock Gable
Stevens
by JIM COYLE TORONTO (CP) — A former top aide to Sinclair Stevens admitted Wednesday she lied when she
aide admits lying
claimed not to have conducted business for her boss while on the government payroll.
Shirley Walker admitted she signed hundreds of cheques worth millions of dollars over the past two years for firms Stevens controlled.
She said she often acted on her own initiative, regularly shuffling money back and forth between the companies, and sometimes deciding when to sell massive amounts of bonds.
She was testifying before a judicial inquiry investigating conflict-of-interest allegations that prompted Stevens to resign in May as federal minister of regional industrial expansion.
She denied Stevens told her what action to take on behalf of his firms and said he never expressed much concern about his ailing business interests.
Walker told Mr. Justice William Parker last week that she severed ties with the firms after joining Stevens in his new cabinet portfolio in the fall of 1984.
However, she admitted on Wednesday she visited the offices of York Centre Corp. after business hours at least 35 times since last November to conduct business.
Her activities included depositing more than $145,000 in dividends on holdings that were in Stevens’s blind trust to his personal account while he was in cabinet.
Walker insisted that Stevens knew nothing about the transaction
— a shuffling of paper in which the money was returned within days to Gill Construction Ltd., a company Stevens controlled.
Walker said she signed and deposited cheques worth $10,361 and $134,715 in Stevens’s Bank of Montreal accounts on Dec. 31, 1985.