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The Prince George
Citizen
FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 1986
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50 CENTS
foreign7 names checked 6 Jays draw ever closer 13 High Arctic had forests 36
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Fresh start designed to revive Tories
An analysis By PETER COWAN Southam News OTTAWA — The Mulroney government’s decision to prorogue the current parliamentary session is part of an attempt to forget its sliding fortunes by having a political new beginning.
Parliament, instead of resuming Sept. 8, as planned, will start afresh Oct. 1 with a speech from the throne outlining new policy and legislative initiatives.
As Prime Minister Brian Mulroney heads into the second half of his mandate, he wants to start a new session with a clean slate which he hopes will help lead him to a clean sweep in the next federal election.
The Oct. 1 start will come just two days after key byelections in the Quebec riding of Saint-Maurice, formerly held by Liberal political star Jean Chretien, and the Alberta riding of Pembina which was held by Peter Elzinga, a former president of the Conservative
Party of Canada who is now agriculture minister in Alberta Premier Don Getty’s cabinet.
It’s only two years ago that the Tories won 211 of the 282 Commons seats. Since that landslide, it has been all downhill.
There have been repeated disasters, a regime dogged by ministerial resignations and the famous tuna scandal.
The latest Gallup poll shows the Tories trailing the Liberals by six percentage points.
There are trouble signs even in Pembina where some observers say the Tories are in danger of losing their first seat in Alberta since the 1968 general election.
All during the summer, Mulroney has been pondering ways to reverse the Tory slide.
A recent move was the hiring of astute advertising man Dalton Camp as a special adviser to the cabinet. Another move was the appointment of Norm Atkins to
the Senate. Atkins, who now runs Camp’s old Toronto-based advertising firm, directed the successful 1984 Tory election campaign.
In a recent interview, Mulroney complained the media have ignored his government's accomplishments and pursued trivial issues.
He repeated his claim that the Tories “do the big things well and the small things poorly.
“I think we have to correct that because, first of all, it shouldn’t take place. But, secondly, it gives rise to needless criticism. And I hope we’ll be able to correct that.”
To correct that criticism, say government insiders, Mulroney hopes to push ahead with his policy agenda that includes: U.S.-Canada free trade, bringing Quebec into the constitutional agreement between Ottawa and the other provinces and promoting the idea that his government is determined to end regional econom-
ic disparities, an old political hobbyhorse borrowed from the Liberals.
Prorogation, a practice dating back to the 15th century, allows the executive to halt parliamentary sittings and start anew on a date of its choosing.
This fresh start will be easy since most of the legislation introduced during the first session has been, passed.
There remain about six major bills on the Commons order paper and the opposition say's it will allow the government to keep two alive — both of them energy bills.
One of them implements the Atlantic Accord on oil prices and revenue.
The other provides new rules affecting exploration for frontier oil.
Other bills before the House, such as a controversial anti-pornography bill, may be allowed to die, and be brought back in amended form.
Snoopy in town?
The Red Baron and his goggled pooch took to the streets Thursday in this Harley Davidson motorcycle and sidecar. It didn’t take long for teacher Fred
Citizen photo by Lisa Murdoch
Howard, or his Chesapeake retriever Grizz, to learn how to pilot the machine. Once they got going, cruising through Fort George Park was a breeze.
B.C LUMBER SALES
Strike boosting prices
VANCOUVER (CP) - British Columbia’s main lumber retailers and wholesalers report only minor supply problems but higher prices due to the province’s forest industry strike, which began July 23.
Those problems have been overcome by using pre-strike stockpiles and drawing on supplies from the mills still operating in the province.
Truckers, however, say they are feeling the pinch of reduced production on both the coast and the Interior.
The major lumber yards report that because most Interior mills and some coastal operators — in defiance of their bargaining agent — are working there is still enough wood to go around.
However, prices have been driven upward by the spate of buying that went on just before and immediately after the strike began, and because smaller supplies now are available.
About 20,000 members of the International Woodworkers of America are currently on strike, mainly at Coastal operations.
Lumber broker, Karnel Singh, manager of B.C. Wholesale Lumber Co. in Richmond, said the strike has boosted the average price of two-by-fours $20-$30 per
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thousand board feet to around $280.
West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd., which has 20 retail and wholesale stores in the province is having no problem getting lumber.
“We can still get all the lumber we really need,” said Carl Grittn-er, vice-president of building supplies, noting his stores buy only 10 per cent of their lumber from the parent company’s mills.
“There are enough mills operating, it’s just that the prices have gone up,” he said. “I don’t think anyone’s having any real troubles.”
The biggest retailer of lumber in the province said he doesn't care if the strike lasts until Christmas.
“We sort of ‘guesstimated’ there would be a strike so we stockpiled a lot of lumber,” says Pat Dele-salle, part-owner of Lumberland Building Materials Ltd., which has 13 stores in the Vancouver area.
“We don’t anticipate any problems for three or four months."
Delesalle said he normally keeps a 30-day supply on hand, but decided to add to it, as he believes most sellers did, because “everybody was aware there would be a confrontation of some sort” between the union and the companies.
"Four blocks north. If it's not there, eight blocks south."
He also said prices rose just before and after the strike began because of insurance-buying, not due to any supply shortage.
Lumberland sells about one million board feet of lumber a month.
Terry Keenan, lumber coordinator and distribution manager for Beaver Lumber Co. Ltd., said the strike is making lumber “a little scarce, there’s no two ways about it.”
But he said there are enough mills working to ensure a steady supply into the near future. The strike has created pockets of shortages in certain wood species, such as fir on Vancouver Island and spruce in the Interior, becausfe mills which produce them are closed.
Singh, however, said the market is getting tight.
“The supply of lumber is getting short . . . During the first two weeks it was okay, but now we’re having to bring in some stuff from the (United) States,” he said.
Singh said prior to the strike his company, which deals in about 100,000 board feet of lumber every two days, would buy only five per cent of its supply from the U.S. northwest. Now, he is getting at least half of it from there.
Soweto killings will be probed
JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- South Africa’s government promised to hold a public investigation into the deaths of 20 blacks shot by police ' in Soweto, but said police had acted in self defence after being ambushed.
Deputy Information Minister Louis Nel did not set a date for the inquiry, but told a news conference Thursday “it will not be delayed.”
Soweto, a black township near Johannesburg, was reported quiet Thursday after the bloody riots Tuesday night and Wednesday.
U.S. told 'no deal' on border
TORONTO (CP) - Canada has rejected a U.S. proposal to negotiate a redrawn Alaska boundary south of the famous 54:40 line into Canadian waters, the Toronto Globe and Mail says.
The decision reaffirms — ai least temporarily — the longstanding Canadian assertion that the line between Canada and the state of Alaska is fixed at 54 degrees, 40 minutes latitude in the northwest, the site of the two countries’ longest unresolved border dispute.
The newspaper says the decision is contained in a letter sent 10 days ago by External Affairs Minister Joe Clark to U.S. State Secretary George Shultz.
The letter does not rule out negotiations permanently but says now is not an opportune time to confront the sensitive issue.
Jhe United States says a stretch of the international boundary offshore is up to 20 kilometres south of where Canada says it is, including almost 518 square kilometres of rich Canadian fishing grounds and potential seabed mineral deposits.
The Canadian position “has been and remains a firm one,” Barry Mawhinney, chief legal counsellor for External Affairs, said in an interview Thursday in which he confirmed the letter’s existence.
The newspaper says Clark’s letter will ease mounting suspicions among B.C’fishing-fleet operators that Ottawa was involved in a back-room deal to realign the border and cut them off from the richest salmon-fishing grounds on the West Coast in exchange for U.S. concessions in other areas.
Spain seizes suspect ship
LAS PALMAS, Canary Islands (CP) — Spanish authorities seized a ship in the Canary Islands that is believed to have been used to carry 155 Sri Lankan refugees on a clandestine voyage from West Germany to waters off the coast of Newfoundland, the Spanish Foreign Ministry said.
Ministry spokesman Anunciada Fernandez de Cordova said the move to seize the Aurigae came at the request of Honduran Ambassador Humberto Lopez Villamil. The cargo ship is registered in Honduras, although it is West German-owned.
Lopez told The Associated Press: “We have the evidence to show the Aurigae took part in this crime against humanity (the smuggling) and we’re not going to permit any ship sailing under our Hag to break international law.”
Lopez said he believed the captain, Wolfgang Bindel, was aboard ship.
West German police say they want to question Bindel in connection with the refugees, who were found drifting in two lifeboats off the coast of Newfoundland Aug. 11.
Bindel has denied involvement in the affair, telling the Spanish state news agency EFE on Tuesday that he did not have anything to do with it.
The Aurigae docked in the Canary Islands — a Spanish holding
off the coast of western Africa — last week and was due to leave Aug. 22. The crew told port authorities it remained in port because of engine trouble.
Police in West Germany allege Bindel was paid the equivalent of $500,000 Cdn to smuggle the refugees from West Germany to Canadian waters. Police say Bindel’s ship left the Bremen area July 28 with the refugees on board.
Lopez said today that enough evidence exists to prove the Aurigae took part in smuggling the Sri Lankan refugees out of West Germany and later setting them adrift.
He said he asked that the craft be seized so Spanish and Honduran officials could investigate its alleged involvement in the smuggling.
A coast guard patrol boat and guardsmen stood guard over the Aurigae.
The refugees are part of the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka.
Tamils, most of whom are Hindu, make up 18 per cent of the 16 million people in Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, an island country off India’s southern tip. Tamil extremists are fighting a guerrilla war for an independent homeland in northern Sri Lanka. They say they are discriminated against by the majority Buddhist Sinhalese.
Major spy sentenced to 365 years in jail
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuter) -Jerry Whitworth, a former U.S. navy radioman described as “one of the most spectacular spies of this century” by the judge who sentenced him, will die in prison if an appeals court does not overrule his penalty.
Whitworth, 47, was sentenced Thursday to 365 years in prison for stealing navy communications secrets for self-confessed spymaster Jchn Walker, who sold them to the Soviet Union.
In his sentencing, U.S. District Judge John Vukasin ruled Whitworth would not be eligible for parole for 60 years, at which time he would be 107 years old.
“Few crimes are as heinous as the crimes for which Jerry Whitworth is convicted,” Vukasin said. “He furnished the Soviets with the very blueprint of our most coveted and guarded communications.”
Before his sentence was pronounced, Whitworth was asked whether he wanted to make a statement. He rose in the crowded but silent courtroom and said: “Just to say that I’m very, very sorry.”
Prosecutors had asked for 150-year prison terms for the spy charges on which Whitworth was convicted last July. But Vukasin swept aside both the defence lawyers’ pleas for leniency and the government’s recommendation.
Vukasin also ordered Whitmore serve terms of three to five years on tax evasion charges and ordered him to pay a fine of $410,000 US. The tax charges resulted from Whitworth’s failure to pay taxes on some $332,000 the government said he was paid by Soviet agents.
Defence lawyer James Larson said he would appeal the long prison sentences.
“For Mr. Walker to see the light of day before Jerry Whitworth would be a tragedy,” he said.
Under a plea arrangement in which he pleaded guilty, Walker is to be sentenced in October to life in prison. Such a sentence would make him eligible for parole in 10 years.
In an impassioned presentence statement, assistant U.S. Attorney William Farmer said Vitaly Yurchenko, a Soviet Foreign Ministry counsellor who defected to the West in late 1985 but later returned to Moscow, had said the Walker spy ring had made it possible for the Soviets to read 100 million U.S. military messages.
Walker, who testified at the trial, said he sold classified information to the Soviet Union for 17 years and collected about $1 million for his work.
. . .and in tomorrow's Citizen.. .
A mother is startled to discover children who believe they’ve been punished too severely can now charge their parents with physical abuse. The Citizen’s Saturday Forum examines the topic of child abuse.
Also planned:
■ An Emmy-award winning CBC director fears the country may have seen the last of awards of his kind.
■ Rugged forward Tim Hunter is thrilled and so are the Calgary Flames. It is because of Hunter’s unexpected development into one of the hockey team’s most valuable performers.