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Citizen staff
Striking CN Rail workers spread their picket lines downtown today when they set up outside a building housing CN offices in Prince George.
About seven members from three unions set up an information picket line outside the Canada Trust building at 299 Victoria St. as people went to work.
The picketers, representing about 150 striking CN employees here, were not blocking anyone from going into the building, said Steven Crawford of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, Local 202.
“We’re here for information purpose's,” Crawford said today. “We’ve been in a strike position for the last 15, 16 months.”
Across Prince George about 400 CN workers have been directly affected by the crippling rail strike that started with CP Rail and spread to CN a week ago.
Picket lines remain at the company’s buildings at 855 River Rd. and 1300 First Ave.
Company representatives in Prince George declined to comment but a CN employee in Edmonton said she expects the strike to end through federal legislation Sunday.
Rail and transport links across Canada have been snarled as about 22,000 locked-out and striking workers have frozen most of the country’s rail traffic.
Estimates of the cost of the strike have reached $5 billion.
More on strike, page 11
Snow Thursday kept highway and sanding crews working on stretches like Highway 16 on Peden Hill.
We’ve had snow in July, you know
Citizen staff
Don’t put away those snow tires yet.
A dusting of more than a centimetre of overnight snow shouldn’t be a surprise for drivers and commuters. Even though it’s the first week of spring Prince George is nowhere near its expected accumulation of March snow, said Teresa Gaims of Environment Canada.
“We’re not finished by a longshot,” Gaims said today.
“We’ve had snow in July — this is nothing.”
Even with last night’s 1.2 centimetres of snow the monthly total is still less than 16 cm, just over half of the 25 cm the city should expect this month, said Gaims from the Prince George weather office.
“We can expect to see a few flurries but nothing in the way of major accumulations,” she added. “With the unstable conditions we can expect to see a occasional flurries or possible showers and both accounts we’ll have accumulations.”
Afternoon highs of 7 or higher will melt any fresh snow today. Warm daytime highs should continue through the weekend.
The snow will linger longer on highways leading up out of the Bowl, and may last much of the day at higher elevations.
However, the RCMP said there was only one weather-related fend-er-bender reported this morning.
Low tonight: -7 High tomorrow: 5
Details page 2
FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 1995
85 CENTS
World
When the noise stopped, death drew near for Londoners. Page 43
Youth
First time tax return? It's not as bad as it looks. Page 20
Sports
Colts hoping for a trip north to meet the Kings. Page 13
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rjiy-times
Accused killer termed defiant
by TERESA MALLAM Special to The Citizen
QUESNEL — Brian Peter Arp matches the profile of “a killer who defies people to find him guilty” said a Crown counsel in his closing arguments to a B.C. Supreme Court jury Thursday.
The Prince George man is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Mamie Blanchard in 1989, and Therese Umphrey in 1993, both Prince George women.
Crown counsel Oleh Kuzma said the killer placed “both bodies where they can be easily found,” thereby challenging police. And during the Umphrey investigation Arp presented a “facade of calm, cool and collected” in taped interviews, Kuzma said, despite the fact he had spent four months in jail “for a murder (Blanchard’s) he said he didn’t commit.”
Arp was originally charged with Blanchard’s murder but was released when a judge ruled at a preliminary hearing there wasn’t enough evidence to warrant a trial.
Kuzma conceded the Crown’s case was largely circumstantial, but he pointed to strong evidence like a five-probe DNA match found by expert Barbara Fraser who compared samples of semen found in Umphrey’s body and clothing with hair sampler, believed taken from Arp.
“DNA evidence does not lie,” he said. As well, purple fibres found in Arp’s car matched those of a sweater worn by Blanchard.
Kuzma said there was similar fact evidence in both murders suggesting the same killer was responsible. Both victims had been drinking and needed a ride home (Arp often cruised the streets, Kuzma noted); a sharp instrument was used to cut the victims’ clothing (Kuzma noted there was a knife found in Arp’s truck); both victims’ clothing was cut and tom, suggesting a sexual assault; both bodies were found in isolated, but accessible, areas; clothes were strewn nearby in both cases.
Kuzma said Arp was familiar with the areas where both bodies were found. He worked at a sawmill near the location of Umphrey’s body off the Pelican Road, and he know the skidoo area near the power line off Foothills Boulevard where Blanchard’s body was found.
Kuzma summed up: “The only rational conclusion is that Brian Arp is guilty of first-degree murder of both Therese Umphrey and Mamie Blanchard.”
However, defence lawyer Don Kennedy pointed to problems with credibility of some key Crown witnesses.
In the Blanchard case, he noted four witnesses said Arp told them he picked up a girl, and his spouse found jewelry in his pocket. But a date for the alleged conversation, Nov. 23, 1989 the day after Blanchard’s disappearance, came to light only at trial, not during the preliminary hearing nor in police interviews. #
“Memories don’t improve with time” he said.
Kennedy suggested the woman seen getting into a grey pickup truck outside the Rock Pit Cabaret Nov. 22 was not Blanchard. Refuting the description offered by a cab driver, Kennedy said: “Her skirt is not pants, her hair is not brownish, nor was she dressed all in black (she wore a purple sweater).”
Furthermore, tracks in the snow near Blanchard’s remains did not match Arp’s vehicle, Kennedy said.
Other testimony showed Blanchard was heard arguing with four men Nov. 22. Kennedy noted: “Many suspects arise out of the Blanchard case and Mr. Arp is only one of those.”
In the Umphrey case, Kennedy suggested Arp had no time on Feb. 14, 1993, given his alibi and witness reports, to have killed and disposed of Umphrey’s body. Arp was home at 5 or 6 a.m., he noted, and Arp’s mother testified that at 8 a.m. Arp was asleep on the couch. Arp’s common-law wife left with the truck, “So where did Mr. Arp get (transportation)?” he asked. “Mr. Arp was in no position to be running around stashing bodies between 7:30 and 9 a.m.”
Kennedy concluded by telling the jury: “ It is difficult, because the natural wish is to have the matter concluded. But can it be concluded on this evidence?
“I suggest when you look at the evidence you can’t, and you’ll have to find him (Arp) not guilty.”
Ann Landers..............32
Bridge...................37
Business..............22,23
City, B.C............2.3,19
Classified............35-42
Comics ..................28
Coming events ... .33,34
Commentary ...............5
Crossword ...............38
Entertainment ... .28-31
Horoscope................37
Lifestyles............32-34
Movies...................29
Nation ................8,11
Sports ...............13-18
Television ..............41
World..................9,10
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Farcus
Air B.C. strike averted
Citizen news services
VANCOUVER — A last-minute tentative agreement averted H a strike today at Air B.C. operations in B.C. and Alberta.
Members of the Canadian Autoworkers Union threatened to walk off the job at midnight Thursday night if talks failed.
But company spokesman Hal Cameron said a tentative agreement was reached shortly after midnight.
All three regular daily flights from Prince George to Vancouver and Air BC flights from here to Dawson Creek as well as other destinations were not expected to be interrupted today.
He said no details would be released until union members hold a ratification vote in a week.
TORONTO (CP) — Consumers tired of scrounging for correct change for the bus or breaking a $20 bill for a $1 chocolate bar may soon have a new high-tech card designed for small purchases.
The “stored value card,” announced Thursday by Visa, will look like any other bank or charge card — except it will have a tiny microprocessor.
Here’s how it works: a consumer goes to her bank, withdraws $50 from her bank machine and “loads” that amount onto the microchip on her card.
When she wants to use it, the card is swiped through a small computer. The cost is withdrawn
from the card and the balance is displayed, said Sian Owen, marketing manager for Visa Canada.
The card is intended for transactions of $10 or less — like paying for a newspaper, a ride on the bus, renting a video, the parking meter or a cup of coffee.
“There are all sorts of uses where there’s no opportunity for you to get the appropriate change,” said Owen. “And as we move in Canada to include a $2 coin, we see this challenge for consumers continuing to grow.”
Visa estimates purchases of $10 or less added up to $75 billion in Canada last year.
Unlike a debit card when money
is withdrawn from the bank at the time of purchase, the new card is paid for in advance. Debit cards are also usually used for larger purchases, like groceries.
Owen said a pilot project for the cards is expected within 18 to 24 months in Canada.
However, the concept itself is not new. Telephone companies and some transit services already use the stored value idea. But Visa officials say those cards can only be used for a single purpose or within a certain area.
The new stored value cards will allow consumers to carry just one card instead of several, retail consultants agreed.
Grits promise spending cuts
VICTORIA (CP) — The Opposition Liberals waded in Thursday where government New Democrats feared to tread, promising to cut government spending, debt and taxes.
Leader Gordon Campbell said a Liberal government would bring in balanced budget legislation, cut ministries and sell some Crown corporations to pay down the debt.
He said lavish spending NDP policies have hit working families harder than anyone else. The NDP has attacked, rather than attracted, small businesses, he said.
“Today, across this province, people are angry and frustrated and disappointed with the NDP,” he said. “They feel that, overall, government is making their lives poorer instead of better.”
Campbell said the government is misguided for not embarking on a debt-reduction strategy and it’s hiding too much of its debt in Crown corporations.
The Liberals would enact balanced budget legislation, scrap the NDP’s fair wage legislation, a requirement to pay union-equivalent wages on government contracts, and cut the number of ministries to 12 from 18, he said.
The Grits would also return 75 per cent of all traffic fines to local communities to pay for policing and crime prevention. , -
It would eliminate school taxes on property, shrink the Education Ministry and cut the number of school boards, he said.
SIMILAR EVIDENCE IN TWO . TOLD
“OK, on
yell ‘bool’..."
PRINCE GEORGE
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