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The Prince George
Citizen
 THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1988	40 CENTS
We're living healthier   5  
Peace hopes for Afghans  9  
Clark wearing pinstripes 13 
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TELEPHONE: 562-2441
 JUST CALL US THE HAPPY GANG
  OTTAWA (CP) — By and large, Canadians are a happy people and getting happier all the time, says a survey by Statistics Canada.
   Of the 11,200 people who were asked, 48 per cent described themselves as very happy and only four per cent as unhappy. The rest were in between.
   The results, from 1985, are markedly brighter than those from the 1978 Canada Health Survey. That poll showed only 21 per cent very happy and nine per cent unhappy.
   Statistics Canada said the figures seem to indicate a real increase in happiness in recent years.
   “The magnitude of these changes would suggest a real change has occurred and that the results are not simply the consequence of slight differences in question wording.”
   The latest survey said the people who described themselves as unhappy were apt to be elderly, divorced or separated, unemployed or in poor health.
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"I've got good news and bad news. We found you a donor, but the guy was 104 years old."
                        It’s lights out for the Christmas tree that stood atop the Inn of the North this holiday season as the top section is lowered to the Lights out ground by Inder Madhok and David Fleck, under the guidance of fellow Lion Mike Wilson. The “Tree of Lights” was lit one bulb at a time for every $5 donation to the Salvation Army Harbour Light Centre, raising $3,140.50.	Citizen photo by Dave Milne
RECORD LOW TEMPERATURES
 U.S. cities in deep-freeze
by REUTERS Air from the Arctic Circle smashed U.S. cold weather records from Nebraska to New York City on Wednesday.
  The wind-driven cold forced thousands of homeless people from city sidewalks into the warmth of emergency shelters in the East and Midwest.
In Chicago, Tuesday’s high temperature was -19. The body of a homeless woman was found in an
  VICTORIA (CP) - More than 1,700 people have tested positive for the AIDS antibody in 25 months of testing, says the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
   A total of 36,551 tests were done. Of those testing positive, 1,453 were homosexual or bisexual, 51 had been exposed through heterosexual contact, 31 were hemophiliacs, 30 were recipients of multiple blood transfusions, 11 were intravenous drug users and two were prostitutes. The remaining 184 did not specify their risk categories.
  Health Minister Peter Dueck said Wednesday those testing positive should not be confused with those who have acquired immune
 alley near police headquarters where she froze to death.
   In Detroit, the body of a 25-year-old man was found behind a church rectory in the poverty-stricken east side. “He was frozen solid,” said an investigator. “I mean like an icicle.”
   A Salvation Army official in Detroit said shelters operating at capacity were getting people who “normally stay in abandoned buildings, in cars, in dumpsters covered
 deficiency syndrome.
   Since the first case was reported in January 1983, there have been 304 AIDS cases in British Columbia, including 281 who were homosexual or bisexual males.
  Although the number of cases diagnosed in British Columbia increased last year, the rate of new cases was slower than projected. As a result, said Dueck, the estimate of infected people in the province has been reduced to between 8,000 and 10,000.
  “This is obviously good news since last year it was estimated that B.C. had 10,000 to 20,000 carriers,” the minister said in a news release.
 with trash, in doorways covered with newspapers. But it’s just too cold for them to handle it out there.”
   A New York City police spokesman said 15 people were taken off the streets and put in city shelters. The city’s heat “hotline” handled more than 4,500 calls Tuesday from people reporting a lack of heat or hot water and had fielded another 2,000 calls by noon Wednesday.
   Icebox honors for the day went to Huron, S.D. where a -40 reading broke a century-old record for the day.
   Records were broken or tied in a dozen cities, including Valentine, Neb., -33, and New York City, -11.
   As usual, motorists were hit hard by the freeze. The Automobile Club of New York estimated it handled as many as 6,000 emergency calls from drivers Wednesday — 98 per cent of which were for flat batteries. Normally, it handles about 1,200 calls a day.
   In Pelican Rapids, Minn., volunteers worked in sub-zero weather filling sandbags to hold back flood-waters triggered by ice pileups on the Pelican River. The water flooded several downtown businesses earlier in the week.
   And in Dallas, a thin coating of ice has almost closed the city.
AIDS estimate lowered
Forced retirement rejected by court
  VANCOUVER (CP) - British Columbia’s highest court put its full weight behind the province’s older citizens Wednesday, declaring the mandatory retirement policies of two institutions to be unconstitutional.
   In separate judgments, the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled that retirement regulations imposed by Vancouver General Hospital and the University of B.C. cannot be justified.
   In the hospital case, in which 16 doctors lost their admitting privileges at age 65, the court dismissed an appeal in which the hospital sought to overturn a lower court decision striking down its mandatory retirement regulation.
   The three appeal judges said the regulation could not “logically be justified merely because it will prevent the possibility of an incompetent physician being associated with the hospital.”
   “To justify such a position, a correlation must be shown between the age of 65 and incompetence or other detriment to the operation of the hospital. In the absence of such a correlation, we cannot say that the distinction entailed in requiring retirement at age 65 is reasonable and fair.”
   The court acknowledged that the hospital’s retirement policy has a reasonable goal and found in favor of the doctors in a strictly constitutional sense.
   The court said: “Placing the objective of (the regulation) at its highest — to maintain the highest possible standards of medical care at the hospital — we conclude the goal is of sufficient importance to warrant overriding a constitutionally protected right and freedom.
   “However, it has not been established that the means chosen to attain that end are demonstrably justified on the guidelines set out (by the Supreme Court of Canada.)”
   Since the Charter applies only to government matters, the court
Bulletins
  OTTAWA (CP) — Striking Prince Rupert, B.C., grainhandl-ers and their employer have been summoned to Ottawa to resume contract talks with the assistance of Bill Kelly, the veteran Labor Department troubleshooter.
   Labor Minister Pierre Cadieux told reporters today he hopes the grainhandlers and Prince Rupert Grain Ltd. will meet their responsibilities to keep grain exports moving.
   He would not say whether the government is prepared to order an end to the strike if Kelly is
 held that the hospital’s retirement regulation flows directly from a ministerial decision.
   In the UBC case, the court decided the university’s employment contracts with its employees are private matters beyond the purview of the Charter.
  However, in favoring two members of the staff who challenged the mandatory retirement rule, the court looked at the B.C. Human Rights Act, and found that one of its provisions contravenes the Charter.
   The court noted the university claimed the two retirees could not
 seek protection under the Human Rights Act because its employment provisions exclude persons over the age of 65.
   “The university cannot rely on the restricted protection granted by the Human Rights Act as a justification for infringing (the teachers’) Charter right.”
   NDP justice critic Moe Sihota said the decisions uphold an important Charter principle, while telling employers “that you have to have retirement provisions that fit clearly within the law (such as not being able to do the jobs) and provisions that are not contrary to the Charter.”
Year-old document
cites jail problems
by Canadian Press
  BURNABY — More than a year before the mass breakout at the Oakalla provincial jail, an Corrections Branch discussion paper said British Columbia’s corrections and probation officers were overworked and underpaid.
   The eight-page document, sent anonymously to The Canadian Press, said budget restraints, scarce resources and increased demands for service were straining the system’s staff. Some were cutting corners to deal with the higher workload.
   Many of the province’s jails also fall short when it comes to security and programs, the paper said.
   It recommended that the Corrections Branch should not introduce any new programs such as electronic monitoring of prisoners and day parole without reducing the existing workload.
  But Bernard Robinson, B.C. Commissioner of Corrections, said the paper’s conclusions were the personal opinions of the author, E. W. Harrison, then regional director of corrections for the Vancouver
 unable to help the parties reach a negotiated settlement.
  OTTAWA (CP) — The Bank of Canada rate edged up to 8.7 per cent today from 8.66 set last week.
   The modest increase in the bellwether rate, though not expected to affect other rates, occurred despite the continuing climb of the Canadian dollar against its U.S. counterpart.
   The dollar was trading at 77.68 cents US late Thursday morning, its highest level in more than 3'/2 years and up from 77.51 cents US at the close of trading Wednesday.
 area, which includes Oakalla.
   Soon after presenting his views to a branch management committee in October 1986, Harrison, who had been director for 10 years, took a voluntary demotion to a post in Victoria, said Robinson. He now is acting regional director for Vancouver Island.
   “It was a provocatively written personal reflection,” Robinson said in a telephone interview from Victoria, but added, “I would suspect there are others (in corrections) who share those feelings.”
   Thirteen prisoners at the Lower Mainland Regional Correctional Centre in this Vancouver suburb escaped New Year’s Day after being segregated in the wake of a riot at the 76-year-old jail.
   One of the prisoners, since recaptured, went on television last weekend to complain about inhumane conditions at the jail, including filthy surroundings, abusive guards and a lack of programs for prisoners.
   Ian Drost, a Vancouver county court judge, was appointed Tuesday by Attorney General Brian Smith to hold an independent inquiry into this and earlier escapes from Oakalla.
   Four prisoners remained on the loose after RCMP captured Gary Hicik in a house only a few kilometres from the prison. Police surrounded the house and talked Hicik, 20, into coming out.
   Police are concentrating their search for the remaining escapers in the Vancouver area.
   “I still think they’re around the Lower Mainland,” said RCMP Staff Sgt. Mike Eastham. “We’re foot-slogging, looking at old haunts, talking to their friends, relatives and enemies, anyone who might know where they’ve been.”
   The discussion paper — entitled Corrections in British Columbia; Toward the 1990s — was presented to a branch management committee Oct. 22, 1986.
   It warned that managers in the Corrections Branch must prepare for the future by acknowledging the “harsh reality” of today. Years of staff reductions and reorganization did not diminish the workload for staff members, Harrison wrote.
  “Many line workers now feel overworked,” he said, noting this has led to backlogs and “corner cutting.”
  Probation staff sometimes avoided complying fully with branch standards by cutting back contacts with offenders and reducing or eliminating counselling, “in effect. . .pushing the elastic perimeters or safety further and further.
   “Institutional staff face overcrowded jails, limited program opportunities, inadequate psychological services and reduced expenditures on inmate activity,” Harrison wrote.
   “Many of the facilities. . .are inadequate in terms of design, program space and-or security,” he wrote.