The Prince George
Citizen
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1989
50 CENTS
Low tonight: -2 High Wednesday: 3
Ann Landers____ ......8
Bridge.......... .....26
Business....... ..12,13
City, B.C.......
Classified...... . .23-26
Comics.........
Crossword...... .....24
Editorial........ ......4
Entertainment.. .....18
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Horoscope ...... .....26
International ... .....10
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Movies ......... .....18
National........ ......6
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Television...... .....25
The deep sleep Gandhi left out
Montana magic
Sunny side up
TELEPHONE: 562-2441
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Blast from the past 18
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YOUTH INITIATIVE FIRST IN BX.
Young peopled needs outlined
by BERNICE TRICK Staff reporter
When it comes to caring about its youth, Prince George is leading the way in B.C., city council was told Monday night.
Council discovered this during a report by the Mayor’s Committee on Youth, which identified problems and needs of young people aged 12 to 17 in the Prince George area.
Scott Bonner, chairman of the Mayor’s Committee on Youth, told council that efforts to examine youth reports in other municipalities were unsuccessful because none exist.
“Instead, others showed interest in what we’re doing here and asked to be informed,” said Bonner, who works with the Intersect program involving youth in trouble with the law.
The seven-member committee was appointed by Mayor John Backhouse in February, 1988 to explore community issues affecting the well-being of youth.
Its mission has been to identify available services, needs and concerns and to develop a plan to coordinate and promote opportunities for youth.
Following months of surveys, meetings and discussions with youth workers, parents and young people, the seven-member committee identified key issues in the community:
Youth feel they have no voice in the community; recreational, social and cultural activities are insufficient; alternatives to shopping malls are needed for social gathering; transportation is a problem in reaching activities; alcohol and drugs are major problems affecting them; support agencies in the community are not utilized by youth; too few volunteers are willing to work with them; too few opportunities exist for youth to help develop its own programs and take responsibility for them.
After identifying key issues, the committee listed 26 recommendations under eight different sections in an attempt to solve some of the problems.
Youth Services System: The No. 1 recommendation is to develop a coordinated system which would allow youth to participate in civic matters — especially issues affecting youth — leading to programs and services administered through a youth voice or services committee, community teams and centres
and paid staff including a youth services co-ordinator, recreation youth workers and full-time counsellors.
The committee recommends these community teams and centres be located in eight different areas of the city to meet demands for easy accessibility and delivery of youth services at a neighborhood level.
Drug and Alcohol Issues: Recommendations include the establishment of a task force, sponsored by city council, to develop a substance abuse prevention program throughout the community; strengthen police programs; limit retail liquor outlets; support drug-free graduations; and city council to act as a role model by developing policies with respect to use and availability of alcohol at civic and public events.
Safe environment: Council is requested to work with the committee and the province to provide troubled youth with temporary and safe housing, establish a “safe place” program involving retail businesses and the transit system, and promote special days with free or reduced fees for youth and child activities.
Transportation: Improve the transportation system to accommodate the needs of youth.
Surveys indicated 30.5 per cent of young people use family vehicles for transportation, while 26.5 per cent use bicycles or walk, and six per cent use the bus.
The biggest concerns lie with hitchhiking or driving with others who have been drinking.
Communication: It’s recommended the future youth services committee co-ordinate an annual Youth Matters Conference to address current issues, local organizations be encouraged to recruit youth to boards, and committees and a youth newspaper be developed.
Counselling and Health: Establish a resource to provide counselling and education services to families See YOUTH, page 2
Czech coalition eyed
PRAGUE (AP) — Czechoslovakia’s premier is seeking a coalition government and an end to the Communists’ 40-year monopoly on power, a federal minister said today.
Premier Ladislav Adamec made the comment during a meeting with members of the Civic Forum opposition group, the minister said.
The meeting was held a day after a millions of people throughout the country went on a two-hour general strike and gathered in city centres to demonstrate against the government.
Today, after 11 straight days of huge pro-democracy rallies, cities were quiet as Civic Forum said it was time to take the fight off the streets and to the negotiating table.
Marian Calfa, a federal government minister who was at the meeting, told reporters Adamec agreed to ask President Gustav Husak to appoint a new government. It would include “non-party representatives, representatives of
other political parties and Communists.”
Calfa said the new cabinet would be made up largely of “experts and professionals” and did not say if opposition leaders would have a place in it.
He also said the government would suggest parliament make constitutional changes that would eliminate provisions guaranteeing the Communist party a leading role.
Requirements that education must be on Marxist-Leninist lines should also be dropped, Calfa said. The government will also ask that provisions binding allied political parties to the Communists be dropped from the constitution.
Until now, these parties have been allies of the Communists. In recent weeks, however, they have played a much more independent role, with the Socialist party playing the most prominent part.
Prague city authorities will be told to provide Civic Forum with offices, Calfa said.
WIDER
BRIDGES
'VITAL'
__________________
Prince George city council is making a bid to have two city bridges expanded to four lanes in the interest of safety.
Council members supported Aid. Noel O’Beirne’s notice of motion Monday requesting the B.C. Ministry of Highways expand the John Hart Bridge on Highway 97 North and the Simon Fraser Bridge on Highway 97 South to four lanes to accommodate the four lanes of traffic running into them.
“The one on t^ie Hart Highway is very dangerous and has been closed for accidents at least twice in the past month," O’Beirne said.
“This town is growing and it’s vitally important both (bridges) be made into four lanes.”
Aid. Colin Kinsley agreed, saying, “It’s ludicrous to have two-lane bridges. I think we can make our case — especially on the Hart where (traffic) comes down off a hill and onto a curve (just before reaching the bridge).”
Judge's
removal
called for
Eva Marie Prince gets in a little undisturbed Christmas shopping - ... . as son Justin, 2, sacks out in the shopping cart with his feet in the
Exciting time air. This would probably be a good time to buy lots and lots of
toys, mom. . . . Citizen photo by Dave Milne
PROTESTS INTERRUPT PM
compromise urged
Abortion
by JOAN BRYDEN Southam News
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was shouted down by pro-choice protesters in the Commons today as he pleaded with MPs to support the government’s proposed new abortion law.
Mulroney, speaking just hours before the law was to be put to a second reading vote, was interrupted twice by protesters in the public gallery shouting, “No new abortion law. We’re never going back.”
Speaker John Fraser cleared the gallery of about 30 protesters and Mulroney resumed his speech. But he was interrupted again by another dozen protesters who chanted “No new law” and dumped a pail full of pro-choice brochures onto the floor of the Commons below.
The gallery was cleared once more.
Mulroney, making his first speech on the issue, worked the
Bulletin
SAN FRANCISCO (AP-Reut-ers) — At least six people were killed Tuesday when a crane toppled from a high-rise building under construction in San Francisco’s financial district and hit other buildings, a taxi and a bus, police said.
protest into his remarks, urging MPs to avoid taking “extreme” positions on abortion and accept a compromise law that balances competing views.
“Ours is a society that values tolerance because it is the key to our integrity as a nation. Tolerance requires sensitivity to diverse interests and beliefs. Tolerance accepts that a balance must be struck in our national life.”
Without stating his own personal view on abortion, Mulroney insisted the proposed law “represents our best effort” to achieve a balance on abortion.
The law would prohibit abortions at all stages of pregnancy except when a doctor concludes the mother’s life or physical or mental health is likely to be threatened.
“The bill before us is philosophically sound, it is constitutionally valid, it is workable, it achieves balance,” Mulroney said. “It is, therefore, fair. It is credible and just and will, therefore, be respected.
"My colleagues and I are also convinced that this bill comes closer than any practical alternative to reflecting the position of the clear majority of Canadians, who reject extremes and favor a moderate, practicable and balanced solution.” MPs will be asked this afternoon to give approval in principle to the bill. If it passes second reading, it will be referred to a committee of
MPs for study and then returned to the Commons for third and final reading.
Mulroney has ordered his 37 cabinet ministers to support the bill but Tory backbenchers and Liberal MPs will be allowed a free vote. The New Democratic Party’s 43 MPs plan to vote as a block against the bill.
A representative of Northwood Pulp and Timber is meeting with the chief of the Fort George Indian Band Chief today to discuss the band’s decision to lay charges against three area pulp mills.
Chief Peter Quaw said today his meeting this morning with Bill Matson, a vice-president for Northwood, was arranged Monday after Quaw announced the band had decided to bring a representative action against the pulp mills, charging them with discharging toxins into the Fraser River.
A representative action is a Canadian legal term used to describe a legal action filed on behalf of a group of people instead of an individual.
VANCOUVER (CP) - About 250 demonstrators called Monday for the removal of a judge who said a three-year-old girl was sexually aggressive towards the man who assaulted her.
Protesters crowded in front of the law building carrying signs that denounced county court Judge Peter van der Hoop for granting a suspended sentence to Delbert Lee-son last week.
In his reasons for judgment, van der Hoop said Leeson’s victim had been sexually aggressive towards the 33-year-old man.
He also found that Leeson, convicted of touching the girl for sexual purposes, to have been under the influence of alcohol and tired at the time of the offence — circumstances which also mitigated the sentence.
“Off the bench, off the bench,” the largely female crowd chanted.
Women, a number of them weeping and some shaking with emotion, gave the crowd impromptu testimonies of being sexually abused as children.
“Something similar happened to me,” said one young woman, tears streaming down her face.
“I was only three and was abused by a babysitter. There were no charges laid because he was 17 and he’d been drinking too, and I guess they thought that was OK.
“I managed to forget until I was nine or 10 and then it came out and it was too late to explain to me why no one cared, why no one did anything.”
Matson was not available today to comment on the charges.
Kirke MacMillan, vice-president of environment for Canfor — which operates two pulp mills in the Prince George area — said in an interview from Vancouver he was unable to comment on Quaw’s statement until the band actually charges the mills with something specific.
“Until we receive a writ it’s not prudent to speculate on what might happen,” MacMillan said.
Quaw said Monday the band is taking the action because it believes members of the band have been exposed to high levels of dioxins and other toxins being discharged into the river and the atmor;/ . mills.
TOXIN DISCHARGE
Mill charge talks on