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Skateboard fun
Citizen photo by Chuck Nisbett
Jamie Wilson, 18, doubles his exposure with a mirrored leap in front of the skating rink at the Civic Centre courtyard. Spring officially arrived last week, but Sunday might be marked as the day spring really arrived. The official airport high was 10.3 degrees, but backyard thermometers in the Bowl topped 14. The record for M^rch 26 was set last year at 12.8 degrees.
Thousands of Hutus flee Burundi to avoid violence. Page 9
Business
Having a roadmap can help in your financial planning. Page 17
Opinion
Reader concerned medical services going down hill. Page 5
Sports
Withrow leaves sport on winning note at Purden. Page 13
MONDAY, MARCH 27, 1995
PRINCE GEORGE
Citizen
Ann Landers...
Bridge........
Business ......
City, B.C...... ....2,3
Classified.....
Comics....... .....18
Coming events . .....10
Commentary ..
Entertainment .
Horoscope.....
Lotteries......
Lifestyles ...... .....10
Movies........
Nation ....... ... .7,8
Sports ........ ..13-16
World ......... ......9
0010C
UAIiblAtS/ceOCTHA&T
Farcus
College gets cash for safety measures
7 DID NOT DO THIS’
City man guilty
of two murders
by TERESA MALLAM Special to The Citizen
QUESNEL — Moments after being found guilty Saturday of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Mamie Blanchard and Therese Umphrey, a pale and shaken Brian Peter Arp of Prince George told B.C. Supreme Court Mr. Justice Glen Parrett, “I did not do this.”
His words came when Parrett iasked Arp, 34, if there was anything he wished to say before sentence was passed. As the convicted man finished speaking, a sarcastic “Yeah, right. . erupted from the packed gallery. The outburst was one of many emotional displays
which has marked the trial since it began Feb. 27.
Moments before, at 8:45 p.m., the seven-woman, four-man jury (one juror was released for health reasons) had delivered its verdict after five and one-half hours deliberation.
And when the long-awaited decision came, it released emotions kept under wraps by family and friends of the murder victims during the month-long trial. Blanchard’s mother Joyce and sister Christina, along with Umphrey’s older sister Angelique Levac and her husband, wept aloud and clasped their hands in approval. Other supporters hugged
Photo by Teresa Mallam
Brian Arp is escorted prior to hearing guilty verdict.
one another.
• But while the victims’ family members welcomed the verdict, Arp’s mother, Yvonne Green, who attended court daily in support of her son, was openly distraught. As the foreman pronounced Arp guilty of the first count, then the second, Green cried out “Oh, no!”
Shortly before the 11 jurors returned their verdict, three uniformed RCMP officers stood guard on both sides of the courtroom — an extra security precaution taken reportedly because of intense reactions displayed on both sides at earlier stages of the trial and preliminary hearing.
When Parrett asked counsel if they wished to proceed with sentencing, defence lawyer Don Kennedy replied: “We may as well proceed with sentencing today because there is only one sentence (for a conviction of first-degree murder).” When asked to stand for his sentencing, Arp appeared dazed and confused.
Standing close to the prisoner’s docket where his client sat seemingly in shock, Kennedy explained V to Mr. Justice Pah-ett: “He (Arp) is having difficulty standing, Your Lordship.”
Arp, shaking and obviously stunned by the outcome, stared straight ahead and remained seated as Parrett told him: “I see no need at this stage to go into details (of the circumstances of the crimes). .
Pausing momentarily, Parrett continued, “I sentence you, Mr. Arp, to serve life imprisonment without eligibility for parole for 25 years, the sentences to be served concurrently.”
Outside the courtroom, Joyce Blanchard, tears of relief running down her face, murmured, “The five-and-a-half-year wait (since Mamie was killed) was worth it.” In the hallway, a short distance away, two of Umphrey’s sisters embraced and smiled, obviously pleased with the jury’s decision.
After the courthouse was emptied of spectators, Arp was led by sheriffs to a waiting car which had been backed up to within inches of a side exit. He entered the vehicle without incident.
Blanchard, 18, was last seen on Nov. 22, 1989. Her skeletal remains were found three weeks later near Foothills Boulevard about eight kilometres northwest of downtown Prince George.
Umphrey, 38, went missing Feb. 14,1993. Her partially frozen body was located on a logging road about 55 kilometres southwest of Prince George. Both women were from Prince George.
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen Staff
Victoria has authorized the first $30,000 to be spent making the College of New Caledonia campus safer for women.
The province is expected to provide another $25,000 for this purpose during the next fiscal year, which starts with the beginning of next month, Jim Blake, CNC vice president of administration, said today.
Proposals CNC has submitted to the province under the B.C. Skills Now Safer Campuses Initiative include hiring a safety co-ordinator
on a contract basis, developing safety kiosks, providing safety training to employees and expanding the college’s SafeWalk program.
“Before they give us the next $25,000, we have to show what we have done with the $30,000," Sharon Warkentin, chair of CNC’s Safer Campuses Committee, told the CNC board of directors.
The 11-member Safer Campuses Committee estimated the annual salary for the co-ordina-tor would be $45,000. Money from the Safer Campuses Initiative would pay $22,500 for six months’
salary, and CNC has agreed to pay an equal amount for the second six months’ pay for the one-year appointment.
Further safety surveys at the Prince George campus and safety audits at regional campuses will cost $4,000. These will be conducted by volunteers representing students, faculty, staff and community users of college facilities.
Safety training includes training college employees on safety awareness in the workplace as well as training CNC personnel to conduct safety seminars to students and new staff each year. Estimated cost
is $4,500.
There will be three or four safety kiosks strategically placed around the Prince George campus and one or two at each of the regional colleges, at a cost of $5,000. Educational materials will be distributed from them, and emergency phone numbers posted.
SafeWalk will be started at regional campuses, and the Prince George program will be expanded to serve more students, faculty and staff. Recruiting more students for SafeWalk, a service to escort people to parking lots, will allow more frequent departure times.
by Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Canada’s week-old national rail strike was ended by legislation Sunday, but it will take more than an act of Parliament to get all the trains rolling again.
Full freight schedules for CP and CN likely won’t be restored until Tuesday or later.
Some Via Rail passenger trains are set to roll beginning at noon today but others will remain sidetracked until Wednesday.
And Toronto’s GO trains, which carry about 50,000 commuters from the suburbs to downtown and back each day on CN and CP tracks are also not expected to be running again until Tuesday morning.
Bottlenecks affecting everything from grain to car parts are likely to continue another day. It could be up to a month before grain is moving at peak capacity, the Canadian Wheat Board says.
That kind of transportation backlog has cost the Canadian economy an estimated $3 billion to $5 billion in lost production and sales, and layoffs due to shutdowns , at auto plants and other factories.
Union officials told members to take down their picket lines by 5:30 a.m. this morning and prepare to be called back to work.
Via said its Quebec City-Windsor train would resume at noon but some eastern and western transcontinental routes will not resume until Wednesday.
The delays in getting the freight and passenger trains running are due largely to track inspections and rust removal, which were expected to take eight to 12 hours.
In Vancouver, meanwhile, a dispute over startup threatened to halt service before it began. When CN attempted to run a train between Vancouver and Kamloops, B.C., on Sunday night, pickets walked on the tracks and halted it.
CN spokeswoman Christine Skjerven described the train as a “rust buster” sent as a safety check on the line. But union officials said it was a coal train and accused CN of breaking a pledge “at the 23rd hour” not to move any trains until the strike was over.
The train stopped by the union had about 10 locomotives and 100 empty coal cars. Skjerven could not explain why so many engines and cars were needed for a safety inspection.
Parliament sat on the weekend to send about 30,000 railway employees back to their jobs. The back-to-work bill orders employees back 12 hours after becoming law — at 5:30 a.m. today.
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