The Prince George
Citizen
THURSDAY, JUNE 10,1993
51 CENTS
(Plus GST)
Low tonight: 7 High tomorrow: 16
Ancient DNA recovered
11
Knives, guns in schools	12
Miserly aid criticized___________13
Bulls steal NBA opener	15
Phone:562-2441 Classified: 562-6666 Circulation: 562-3301
J15 ARRESTS, 168 INJURIES IN MONTREAL
by SARAH BINDER
MONTREAL (CP) — Vandals headed downtown Wednesday night with the specific intention of looting stores under the cover of celebrations surrounding the Canadiens’ Stanley Cup win, Montreal’s police chief said today.
“Youth came to Ste-Catherine Street with the clear intention to vandalize, pillage and set fire,” Alain St. Germain told a news conference. “Others then did not hesitate to imitate them.”
It was the first official statement by the police who have been
MORE COVERAGE, PAGES 15, 28
blamed by merchants and observers for standing by or acting ineffectually as the riot got out of control.
St-Germain defended his officers saying “there was no delay in action.”
He gave the following tally of the night’s damage: 115 people were arrested; 168 people injured including 49 police officers, none of them seriously; 15 buses and 31 subway cars damaged, 47 police cars trashed including eight which were completely destroyed.
At the height of the riot, there were 980 police officers in the downtown core, he said.
“Police were ready for demonstrations and even an overflow of emotion but are we at the point lhat we have to take exceptional precautions for every event that is supposed to be a celebration?” he said.
In Quebec City, Public Security Minister Claude Ryan defended the actions of the police.
Ryan said it was “very obvious” that organized gangs, whom he called “despicable hood-
Vandals mar Stanley Cup euphoria
A man pounds on a van as partiers watch after rowdy fans went on a rampage following Montreal Canadiens’ Stanley Cup victory.
lums,” were ready to strike as soon as the game ended.
“Rarely have the police officers seen groups or individuals so disrespectful of life and property,” St. Germain said.
Just the day before Game 5 of the Stanley Cup, police were saying they were alert and ready to prevent any repetition of the last riot — the one that erupted after the Canadiens won the cup in 1986.
St. Germain said police learned from that experience and the appropriate measures were taken.
“I shudder to think what would have happenend if we had not taken the measures we did.”
St. Germain suggested there may not be a victory parade Friday.
“It remains to be confirmed,” he said.
Estimates of damages are being put in the millions of dollars.
Carline Rancourt, on her 10th cup of coffee, counted up her losses this morning like scores of other bewildered shopkeepers on Ste-Catherine Street.
The rampage left a trail of broken glass on the sidewalk and jagged-edged remains of storefront panes along a 30-block stretch from the Forum in the centre-west end to past Berri Street in the cast.
Hours after it began petering out at around 2 a.m., city crews scrambled to shovel the shards of broken glass into trucks and window companies moved from one devastated store to another.
Rancourt said she didn’t believe it was true Habs fans that pillaged the street.
“I think it was gangs that did this, that look advantage of the occasion,” said Rancourt, alerted by police at 3 a.m.
CAMPBELL BACKERS TAGGED JONESTOWN DISCIPLES
fory mudslinging gets nastier
OTTAWA (CP) — Kim Campbell said today that attacks on her gender or suitability for the job of prime minister suggests some Conservatives are uncomfortable with change.
“This campaign I’m involved in represents change — it represents reaching out and broadening the base of the party and maybe some people are uncomfortable with that,” Campbell said on CTV’s Canada AM.
“Prime Minister (Brian) Mulroney worked very hard to expand the role of women in the party and the government. To undermine that narrows the base of the party.”
Campbell supporters were livid Wednesday over what they say is a continuing war of gender politics waged by backers of Jean Charest. Some have suggested the twice-divorced and childless Campbell is unsteady under pressure and can’t properly represent families.
Charest tried to mend some fences today, downplaying remarks by his partisans and pledging loyalty to the Conservative party after remarking Wednesday that he wasn’t certain he’d serve in a Campbell cabinet.
“I will always be a member of this party, I will always support the person who is the leader of our party, regardless of my personal choice or my personal career,” he said.
But Charest refrained from criticizing comments by Energy Minister Bill McKnight,
who compared Campbell supporters to followers of the Rev. Jim Jones, whose 900-member cult committed mass suicide in 1978 by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.
“I can’t believe that the delegates are at Jonestown,” McKnight told the Regina Lcader-PosL “I guess they are but I can’t believe they are about to drink Campbell Kool-Aid.”
The final days of a leadership race produce a heated, partisan atmosphere, said Charest, when those kind of “colorful” remarks aren’t unusual.
In another development, Charest picked up support from Ontario cabinet minister John McDermid, the junior finance minister. The backing is important for Charest’s effort to portray a growing momentum for his campaign in the final days.
The Conservative leadership race has turned increasingly nasty as an expected 3,400 delegates prepare to pick the winner this weekend.
A Tory official estimated the convention will cost between $2.5 and $2.6 million, although the party will recoup the money through fees.
Candidate Jim Edwards, who has been lagging far behind the two front-runners in terms of delegate support, said he’s surprised at some of the recent comments about Campbell.
“If people are saying reckless things, then maybe that’s a sign of anxiety,” said Edwards, who also appeared on Canada AM today.
“If it comes to my attention that one of my people have done that, I’ll be not only outraged, I’ll take some action.”
Candidate Patrick Boyer has complained about the tough tactics some camps use when phoning delegates. “I think that some of these calls of desperation and the pressure tactics are unbecoming to the process and are short-sighted,” he said Wednesday.
But Ontario MP Garth Turner predicted the acrimony will vanish once the party has a new leader.
“Some people will say some silly things... I think they’ll be forgotten.”
Charest got a boost in a poll published Wednesday that suggests he is a more popular choice for leader than Campbell among Canadians in general and among people who define themselves as Tory supporters.
But the results do not mean Charest would do better than Campbell against the Liberals in an election, says the poll conducted June 1-8 by ComQuest Research Group.
The survey suggested Charest and Campbell would essentially draw the same amount of support nationally, about 29 or 30 per cent, compared with 31 per cent for the Liberals under Jean Chretien.
Wells fights to keep RCMP detachment
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen Staff
The community of Wells is fighting to retain its RCMP detachment.
SupL Randy Epp has recommended to B.C. Attorney General Colin Gabelmann that the RCMP detachment there be closed. If the recommendation is approved, the community would lose its local police force and be served out of Quesnel, 80 kilometres away.
“It’s a very high-profile tourist destination,” Cariboo Regional District director Bill Magnowski said today from Barlow Creek. “We hope they (attorney general ministry) will assess the future of the community before making the decision.”
Wells has a population of about 300, said Magnowski, who represents Wells, Barkerville and Bar-low Creek.
But, since Wells is so close to the historic town of Barkerville and Bowron Lakes Provincial Park, it and the immediate area have a big population of summertime tourist visitors, he explained. Between 150,000 and 200,000 come to the area every summer, said Peter Burgis, a concerned resident.
The small RCMP detachment ordinarily has two officers and one half-time secretary assigned to it, but now there is only one constable patrolling the area, Epp said. The other two positions have been left vacant until the attorney general decides on Epp’s recommendation.
“We’re still waiting for advice from the province,” Epp said today in Prince George.
“We thought it unwise to fill these (other \Vi) positions with warm bodies and then incur the additional expense of moving them out in three months (if Gabelmann approves the recommendation),” Epp said last week.
Epp said he understands why the community is concerned about the recommendation.
“What is proposed is a takeaway,” he said. “I can see why people wouldn’t agree to it. It’s like closing a hospital.
“But as a manager I have the responsibility to identify areas where resources are underutilized. Over the past number of years the workload has declined, and the population has declined, to the point where we question whether resources are being effectively used.”
INDEX
Ann Landers..............6
Bridge..................22
Business........18,19
City, B.C............2,3,8
Classified ....	21-25
Comics..................26
Commentary...............5
Crossword...............22
Editorial................4
Entertainment	.	26,27
Family...................6
Horoscope...............22
International .... 13
Lotteries	10	^
Movies..................27
National................12
Sports ....	15-17,28
58307“00100
Farcus
We work for ourselves starting Friday
OTTAWA (CP) — The average Canadian family will pay 44 cents in taxes out of every dollar it cams in 1993, the Fraser Institute calculates in its annual attack on taxes.
Based on those numbers, Canadians will stop “working for the government” and begin earning take-home pay on Friday, June 11, the Vancouver-based institute calculates.
That date, dubbed “tax freedom day” by the right-wing economic think-tank, is a day earlier than the June 12 tax freedom date it estimated in 1992.
That’s despite the fact that the average family will be paying $611 more in taxes to federal, pro-
vincial and municipal governments during 1993 than it did last year.
Filip Palda, an institute economist, said incomes are beginning to rebound from the recession and are actually rising slightly faster than the tax bite.
Tax freedom day was May 3 in 1961 and has advanced steadily since then.
The institute said that the tax burden is heaviest in Saskatchewan, where tax freedom arrives July 8. The Prince Edward Island date is the earliest at May 8.
Bill Blaikie, the burly NDP tax critic, interrupted a news conference to say lhat tax freedom comes a lot earlier for a lot of
high-income people who can use loopholes to avoid taxation.
“They have hidden the fact that there are families and there are persons and there are corporations who don’t pay their fair share of taxes,” Blaikie said.
Blaikie said it’s “intellectually dishonest” to suggest that people are working for the government when they pay taxes.
“I am paying for the roads that I drive on, I am paying for the schools my kids go to, I am paying for the health-care system that my family and my community use,” he said.
Palda chastised Blaikie for jumping in on the news conference without asking.
“I’ve been living out West, maybe manners are a little bit different there.”
Palda said the institute doesn’t support loopholes.
“The institute is not in favor of any sort of tax giveaways or tax holidays for corporations — or handouts and subsdies for business," he said.
But he said it is important to paint an accurate picture of the tax burden on families.
He said the annual study is based on a Statistics Canada survey of 44,000 families.
The average family has a cash income of $59,797 and will pay total taxes of $22,946.
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