The Prince George
Citizen
Included nside
TV
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Mass starvation looms
Canucks stun Kings
13
FRIDAY, APRIL 5,1991
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Roles don’t come easy
20
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FLIGHT FROM NORTHERN B.C. MINING CAMP
Six die as plane crashes on lake
by Canadian Press SMITHERS — The lone survivor of a plane crash north of Smithers that killed six people was in Vancouver General Hospital today for treatment of multiple fractures.
District Hospital in Smithers before being transferred to Vancouver by air ambulance. His injuries include two broken legs.
The plane crashed on Thutadc Lake, about 250 kilometres north of Smithers.
John Norton, president of the Tunnel and Rock Workers Union, Local 168, was aboard a Central Mountain Air DC-3 that crashed on a frozen l ake shortly after leaving an isolated gold mine late Thursday afternoon.
He was taken to Bulkley Valley
Killed were the two pilots, two female flight attendants and a senior official of Cheni Gold Mines Inc., which owns the mine.
Hugh McConnel, a negotiator for the B.C. local of the International Operating Engineers Union, was also killed.
City man ‘guilty’ of murder here
A Supreme Court jury here has found Robert Scott Terry, 19, guilty of the second-degree murder of a 33-year-old city man.
The jury brought in its verdict at 10:35 p.m. Thursday, almost 12 hours after i t began deliberations.
The remains of James Patrick Meehan, who died as the result of multiple stab wounds, were reported to Prince George RCMP Aug. 6, 1990.
Terry was arrested later that same month at a Santa Rosa, Calif., home.
Terry’s sc ntencing by Supreme Court judge Richard Low is set for today in Supreme Court.
Teens optimistic, new poll shows
by Canadian Press
TORCH' fTO — Teenagers are not the irresponsible, angry and narcissistic youths of popular myth, a major nationwide survey of Canadians between the ages of 12 and 19 suggests.
In fact, i hey are knowledgeable, goal-oriented and optimistic about their caree rs and personal futures.
Decima surveyed 1,500 teenagers across the country for the poll, which wa*i sponsored by YTV and Pepsi-Cola Canada and was released Thursday. With a sample of this size, poll findings arc expected to I >e accurate to within 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
Though he professed to be surprised at his own company’s findings, Decii na president Allan Gregg said teenagers are solid citizens.
Despite the green hair, today’s teens are small “c” conservatives, he said in an interview. “They all want good grades. They all want to get ahead. They all believe they’re going to get ahead.”
Gregg s aid that while there is a perception this generation is less
well behaved than those that preceded it, “the thing that’s stunning
is that it ic n’t different from a long time ago.”
But today’s teenagers are unique in some respects.
They ar e very aware of sex and are sexually active. And they aren’t hung up about sex.
“These kids — not only are they really savvy about sex — but they’re saying there’s no problem with their parents. The channels of communication are open,” Gregg said.
Another major difference is that today’s teenagers are comfortable with grow ing up in a world where friends are drawn from a variety of races ai id religions.
And tee ns appear to be able to withstand peer pressure, although they do like to belong.
Teens a re assertive — 64 per cent disagreed with the idea that it’s easier to {jet ahead by going with the flow than by standing up for your belie fs. And while many of them drink, 67 per cent of them said it wai; acceptable to refuse a drink.
Most of them — four out of five — are optimistic about their futures. Nea rly three-quarters believe they will end up married with children, lialf of them think they’ll earn more than their parents and 44 per cer it believe their chances of getting a job are better than previous generations.
But they aren’t without their problems.
Take a look at what the poll showed about running away from home.
“The numbers there are remarkable,” Gregg said. “Sixty-five per cent of girls 15 to 16 say they’ve thought about running away — holy mack erel.”
Ann Landers .... 17 11 /I
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Comic...................20
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'If this is 2 percent milk, how much am I paying for the other 98 percent?"
The identities of the other victims have not been released.
Norton was found in the wreck about 6 p.m. by helicopter pilot Barry Holmes, who was involved in the search for the plane after the airline reported it overdue at Smithers airport.
Holmes found everyone dead except Norton.
He carried the injured man to his Bell Jet-Ranger helicopter and flew him to the hospital at Smithers.
base manager at Northern Mountain Helicopters in Smithers.
A spokesman for the airline, Peter Byrnes, said the weather was good when the plane went down and the reasons for the crash arc unknown.
“He was suffering exposure and he had broken legs,” said Holmes,
Fred Randall, Operating engineers union manager, said the DC-3 had flown to the mining camp earlier in the day carrying the four crew and some mining equipment. The two flight attendants were supposed to remain at the mining camp overnight, but
they decided to return to Smithers, he said.
McConnel, who had gone to the isolated mine for contract negotiations with the company, was married, had four daughters and was to become a grandfather next month.
The Canadian Aviation Safety Board and the Mackenzie RCMP detachment are investigating the crash.
Central Mountain Air flies two older-model DC-3s out of Smithers. Under previous owners, the company lost the biggest law-
suit for a fatal accident in Canadian history.
In May, 1990, the airline was ordered to pay $5.6 million to the family of U.S. millionaire George R. Cogar, who was aboard a Central Mountain flight in 1983 that vanished while flying from Campbell River to Smithers.
The nine-passenger plane has never been found. The suit followed a B.C. Supreme Court jury’s ruling that the pilot was negligent for flying in weather he wasn’t equipped to handle.
NATIONAL TREND
Area jobless rate rises
Citizen news services
The unemployment rate in the Central Interior, from Williams Lake north, jumped to 16.2 per cent from 13.6 last month, Statistics Canada reported today.
This area now has the second highest unemployment rate of any region of the province, beaten only by the Central Kootenay, Columbia and Shuswap regional districts, where the unemployment rate is 16.7 per cent.
The Lower Mainland has the lowest unemployment rate in the province, 9.4 per cent.
For the province as a whole the seasonally adjusted rate is 10.2 per cent
“This is why they’re calling it a recession,” said Margaret Meers, labor market analyst at the Canada Employment Centre in Prince George. “The forest industry has cut back the number of days a lot of people are working, and now that’s being felt by retailers.”
As usual, the numbers are based on a small sample and must be viewed with caution, according to Employment Canada.
Nationally, unemployment
climbed to a six-year high of 10.5 per cent in March from 10.2 per cent in February as another 43,000 workers joined the growing line of unemployed, Statistics Canada stid today.
The unemployment rate has not been higher since April, 1985 when it was 10.8 per cent. But it’s probably going even higher, some analysts warn.
There were 1.44 million people unable to find work last month.
Ontario was again hit hardest as the number of unemployed in the country’s industrial heartland climbed another 24,000, pushing the jobless rate to an eight-year high of 9.9 per cent Unemployment also rose by 13,000 in Quebec, 5,000 in B.C. and 3,000 in New Brunswick. There was little change in the other provinces.
All figures are seasonally adjusted unless otherwise stated.
But the unadjusted numbers show that in the first year of the recession, which began last April, unemployment climbed by 488,000, a 44-per-cent increase.
The number of people with jobs fell by 2.6 per cent to 11.9 million.
The increase in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the first 12 months of this recession is “similar” to that in the 1981-82 recession, Statistics Canada said, although fewer jobs — 305,000 compared with 450,000 — have disappeared.
“Whereas the last recession was more broadly based, affecting all parts of the country and most industries, employment declines in the current recession were concentrated in Ontario and in the following industries: manufacturing, construction and (retail and wholesale) trade.”
Last month the unemployment rate rose by 1.1 to 12.6 per cent in New Brunswick, by 0.4 to 12.5 in Quebec, to 9.9 in Ontario, and to 8.9 in Manitoba, by 0.3 and to 17.4 in Prince Edward Island, by 0.1 to 18.3 in Newfoundland, 11.4 in Nova Scotia and 7.7 in Alberta.
The rate fell by 0.4 to 7.2 in Saskatchewan.
The jobless rate for men was 11 per cent, up 0.2 and 9.9 per cent for women, up 0.4.
Iraq offers
partial
amnesty
NICOSIA, Cyprus (CP) — Iraq, under increasing international condemnation for its treatment of its Kurdish minority, offered a partial amnesty to Kurdish rebels today.
A statement issued by the ruling Revolutionary Command Council following a meeting chaired by President Saddam Hussein, offered amnesty to Kurdish rebels “except those who committed murder, rape and looting during acts of riots and treason.”
The offer, as detailed by the Iraqi News Agency, specifically mentioned Kurdish deserters from the police and armed forces who joined the rebellion.
Reports from Turkey and Iran say about two million of Iraq’s 3.5 million Kurds are fleeing to those two countries, fearing reprisals by Iraqi troops following the collapse of their month-old uprising.
Humanitarian aid was on its way today to the Kurds as the world community assailed the Baghdad government for alleged atrocities in putting down the rebellion.
MESSAGE FROM NEW PREMIER
Vander Zalm urged to apologize
VICTORIA (CP) — Former premier Bill Vander Zalm should apologize to British Columbians, Premier Rita Johnston said Thursday.
Johnston took office Tuesday, only hours after Vander Zalm quit after a scathing report by conflict-of-interest commissioner Ted Hughes on the $16 million sale of Vander Zalm’s Fantasy Gardens to a Taiwanese billionaire.
Hughes found Vander Zalm played a dominant role in the sale and was in conflict with the guidelines he himself had written for elected members.
“I don’t think it would hurt if he expressed some type of regret over the events of the past while,” said Johnston, the first female premier in Canadian history.
Johnston said Wednesday she had no intention of distancing her-
self from Vander Zalm’s government because it did a good job.
Today, however, she seemed to be trying to do that.
“I think there is some confusion between party responsibility and Bill Vander Zalm’s responsibility,” she said. “I believe any apology should come from Bill Vander Zalm.”
She said she did not want to talk further about the conflict report.
“I want to tell you this is the last comment I’m going to make on that report,” Johnston said. “I was disappointed in the premier as I read the report but I can’t do anything about that.
“I think we should now look at what the government’s going to do and remember that Bill Vander
Zalm paid the price, a very high for his actions and why can’t
price
we just accept it’
Citizen photo by Brent Braaten
The early golfer gets the birdie. At least, that’s what these hardy and dedicated souls must be hoping Forel as they refuse to let chilly temperatures and a few lingering patches of snow interfere with their game.
The golfers were getting in shape for the coming golf season at the Pine Valley driving range.
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