Low tonight: -3 High Friday: 3 L TOceUAeX detail*, jutqe 2 >
The Prince George
Citizen
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12,1987 40 CENTS
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B ig loss ahead for Tories 5
Adapting to Moscow life 25
IS IHL stars edge Soviets 13
Ann Landers.
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City, B.C......
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......13-15
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MIDDLE-AGED SCHOOL TEACHERS
Sisters acquitted of drug charge
by Canadian Press
ROME — Micheline and Laurence Levesque, two middle-aged Quebec sisters charged with heroin trafficking, were acquitted today because of insufficient evidence.
When the three-judge panel announced the verdict through an interpreter, the sisters appeared uncertain about what he meant.
Micheline rushed over to the interpreter and asked: “Really? Both of us are free?”
The interpreter replied the decision was unanimous.
Both sisters broke into broad smiles and hugged each other.
The verdict was announced at the end of a one-day trial for the sisters, who were arrested 13 months ago at Leonardo da Vinci airport near Rome. They were returning to Montreal from a vacation in India.
Micheline, 53, a school teacher, and her sister Laurence, 56, have been in custody — first in jail and later under house arrest —
since police found $5 million worth of heroin in their luggage during the Jan. 7, 1986, airport stopover.
Only hours earlier, the state prosecutor, Luciano Infelisi, had asked the court to hand a six-year prison term and a $6,000 fine to Micheline but said there was not enough evidence to convict Laurence, a retired school administrator.
The sisters from Jonquiere, 200 kilometres north of Quebec City, contend their luggage was tampered with and they did not know the heroin had been put in the suitcases.
The amount of the drug seized was first given as 6.5 kilograms. Laboratory tests found 4.98 kilograms of the narcotic was pure heroin and the remainder was a harmless addition used to increase the quantity.
“I’m very happy,” said Micheline afterwards. “I’ve always told the truth and that’s the right way.”
In Jonquiere, the acquittal was
Micheline Levesque, left, and sister Laurence talk with lawyer before trial in Rome today.
announced over the public-ad-dress system of the school where Micheline had worked, bringing cheers in many of the classrooms.
“Micheline always organized the parties in this school,” said English teacher Walter Saulnier. “Now’s our chance to organize one for her.”
The sisters were arrested when a police dog at the airport led customs agents to secret compartments in Micheline’s two suitcases. The sisters’ trip to India was a gift from Micheline’s daughter, Syvlie Roy, a student.
The sisters contend the luggage was tampered with by strangers and they were duped.
The three judges spent about three hours hearing testimony by three airport employees and the arguments of Infelisi and defence counsel Francesco Saraca. They also pored over about 2,000 pages of evidence gathered by investigating magistrate Francesco Mis-iani. One report made public at the trial described as a “phan-
tom” a man named Sylvain Roy, no relation to Sylvie, whom the sisters say hid the drugs.
The report by Giuseppe De Nardo, a public prosecutor, is dated Nov. 10 and said that the mystery man was invented by the sisters.
“This was a tale of two sisters. But the international inquiry, which included the RCMP, destroyed the fragile castle built by the two women to defend themselves,” De Nardo’s report said.
“In particular, it can be stated that this phantom Sylvain Roy is a character born from the fantasy of the two sisters and in fact he never existed.” The report points instead to Sylvie Roy.
In Montreal, Sylvie Roy said through her lawyer that she would have no comment until the sisters are back in Canada. It was not immediately clear when they could return because their passports have been seized and the prosecution has not yet decided whether to appeal the acquittal.
Christina Watson, 9, in preparation for Bowl For Millions on Saturday. The event is held annually to raise money for the organization. Story, page 3.
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
Enthusiasm abounds as Big Brothers and Sisters Bowling honorary chairman Tom Steadman practises his for bucks bowling technique with honorary Little Brother Chris Strickland, 10, and honorary Little Sister
INDIAN COURT ACTION
Olympics threat revealed
OTTAWA (CP) - An Alberta Indian band may try to stop the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics with a court injunction, band lawyer James O’Reilly said Wednesday.
The band, which is trying to win reserve land promised by the federal government more than 40 years ago, is examining legal recourses to block the Olympics, said
O’Reilly, one of Canada’s foremost native rights lawyers.
“I think it may well be possible, on the basis that the Lubicon people have had their way of life destroyed and have had what we think is cultural genocide inflicted upon them,” he told a parliamentary committee.
“That should give grounds for
allowing a court to consider that Games, which are supposed to promote peace and friendship, perhaps should not be held. The two values are totally inconsistent.”
An injunction application, which would be filed in the Federal Court of Canada, is not a step the band wants to take, O’Reilly said. And he acknowledged court action might cost the band public support.
Chief Bernard Ominayak told the committee the band is also trying to persuade American and European museums not to make donations to a native cultural exhibit planned by Calgary’s Glenbow Museum as part of the Olympics.
Oil companies are among corporate sponsors of the Glenbow exhibit, and band members say their traditional way of life has been destroyed by the oil and gas companies that have exploration leases on their land from the Alberta government.
The band says it never relinquished aboriginal title to the land because it didn't sign Treaty 8 with the federal government in 1899.
Although Ominayak and band advisers have travelled to Europe to persuade sports organizations and athletes not to attend the 1988 Olympics, O’Reilly’s statement was the first time the band mentioned possible plans to block the Games.
t
.. .and in tomorrow's Citizen. ..
Temperatures have been well above average and there has been little precipitation across much of the West Canada this winter. It makes for a pleasant winter for many, but there could be costs. Read Friday’s Citizen for details.
Also planned:
■ The much-hyped mini-series Amerika is riding a wave of notoriety to the top of the Nielsen ratings.
Pedestrians
harassed
Assaults on Prince George students and other people walking on the city streets Wednesday morning resulted in RCMP arresting four city men.
RCMP said the three 19-year-olds and one 18-year-old were driving around in a car and stopping randomly to harass people.
The men harassed four Duchess Park secondary school students on their way to school and a number of other people at three separate locations in the city, said police.
Alcohol was involved in the incident, according to RCMP, who are continuing an investigation.
The men were released from police custody and charges against them are pending.
UNION'S POSITION
Liquor profit backed
VANCOUVER (CP) — Funding for social programs may have to be cut unless the provincial government maintains or even increases revenue from liquor sales, the B.C. Government Employees’ Union said Wednesday.
The union said in a news release it had submitted a brief to a government committee which is reviewing liquor pricing policy.
It said net revenue from the sale of Liquor Distribution Branch products in the year ended March 31, 1987, is expected to exceed $420 million.
The union said the government should continue to have the branch regulate the sale and price of alcohol in B.C.
“Net revenue from the sales of LDB products must steadily grow if the government wants to maintain the current level of social programs. The government also needs revenues to meet its commitment to programs to counter alcohol abuse and other alcohol-related programs.”
About 3,000 union members work at the branch’s 215 liquor stores in B.C.
City facing tough battle for new mill
by MALCOLM CURTIS Staff reporter
Prince George could be in danger of losing a proposed pulp mill to the Peace River region because of more favorable federal incentives in that region, says Mayor John Backhouse.
Fibreco Export Inc., a consortium of Interior sawmill companies, has announced it plans to build a $170-million mill in the Interior and is expected to announce its location in two weeks.
Through the Prince George Region Development Corp., the city has been lobbying to lure Fibreco here.
“I think we’re still in there, we’re very close,” Backhouse told the Prince George Kiwanis club Wednesday in a luncheon speech.
“There’s one item that disturbs me and it’s. . .a shame in the political process which gives the Peace region both in Alberta and B.C. an advantage over our region — a major tax concession, seven per cent in Prince George area and 40 per cent in the Peace.”
The mayor was referring to a federal investment tax credit program that allows companies building new manufacturing and processing plants to use a percentage of their investment as a tax credit against future profits.
The program was initiated in 1980 as a way to get companies to invest in economically disadvantaged regions, including the Peace region, which up until last year offered a tax credit worth 50. per cent of plant investment.
This was reduced to 40 per cent this year, but a measure in effect for the last three years allows a company to claim a further cash grant equal to 20 per cent of its tax credit.
You need a calculator and a tax accountant to accurately figure out the benefits. Bob McFarlane, local accountant and development corporation board member, said the program means a company could save
up to $10 million by locating in the Peace country.
“It puts us at a major disadvantage, said Backhouse. “I hope that we are able to convince companies that long-term benefits of the Prince George area far outweigh those region tax benefits.”
Fibreco’s planned plant, a bleached chemi-thermo mechanical pulp (BCTMP) mill, will employ 84 people.
In other economic development news, Backhouse said he had been actively involved in a “major” project for northern B.C. involving a West German industrialist.
Premier Bill Vander Zalm talked with investors in Germany Wednesday as part of his European tour and he promised a future announcement.
Backhouse said he couldn’t name the project specifically but “I can assure you that I’m aware of the project and I’ve been actively involved in (it) for some five or six weeks now.
“It’s probably the most exciting project to hit northern B.C.”
Backhouse said all signs suggest the city is poised for an economic rebound and just one major project could return Prince George to buoyant times.
Dale McMann, development corporation manager, confirmed the project but said he could not yet identify who the prospective investor is.
In a “status report” of his first nine weeks in office, Backhouse defended the citv’s provisional budget that calls for a 3.5-per-cent tax increase this year.
External influences increased the city’s costs and “our reading was that the community didn’t want us to cut back (city services).”
Chopping services would have affected the positive attitude that is needed in the city, he said.
Backhouse told Kiwanians the city’s “biggest civic project,” the proposed cultural-convention centre, could be a “tremendous stimulation” to the local economy.
"We'd love to have you over for dinner, but we only have nine chairs."