PRINCE GEORGE
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Citizen
Serving the Central Interior since 1916
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11,1997
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Dylan’s parents face a tough decision
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MOVIES
■ Actress Sandra Bullock displays a refreshing lack of ego when talking about her new movie Speed 2: Cruise Control. She admits the original Speed and
its sequel are not actors’ films, but thanks director Jan De Bont for casting her, which opened many doors, career-wise. /17
CANADA
■ Jean Chretien is poised to move Sheila Copps out of the deputy prime minister’s job, reassign other key ministers and spruce up his cabinet with some new faces from the backbenches in a shuffle today. /5
SPORTS
■ Three Prince George Cougars, two NHLers and a variety of other pro athletes will be on hand this weekend for the annual Firefighters’ Burn Fund golf tournament and sports auction. It is hoped $35,000 will be raised. /9
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City liquor policy on line
Task force
by DON SCHAFFER Citizen staff
Claude Pitre is looking forward to tonight.
Pitre, the commissioner of Prince George’s municipal alcohol management policy task force, will be on the hot seat at 7 p.m. for a public meeting to discuss the draft document his committee presented to council last week.
“I hope we have a really big turnout,” said Pitre, who sits on the city’s leisure services commission. “I’d like people to come there with rational arguments, and to not be overly irate about this.
“It’s a process, and nothing is set in stone. Even after the final step, it’s not set in stone — we’re not dealing with a bylaw here.”
Pitre and 15 other individuals spent months working out the 15-page policy document, which was based on public input — 57 user groups and 42 individuals provided letters — as well as a public survey done by Dr. John Shultis of UNBC.
Tonight’s meeting gives people a chance to react to the study, undertaken to help city administration decide how to balance alcohol’s capacity for harm with society’s right to access.
“Our No. 1 goal in doing this was to clean up the entire issue” of access to alcohol at city-run facilities, Pitre said. “There’s a fair amount of status quo that will continue with this, and yes, there will probably be opportunities in here that in the past have been available that will not be available.
“But there will be a lot of new opportunities coming out of this.”
He said keeping youth out of the alcohol equations is important, as is seeing that safety measures are enacted wherever liquor is consumed.
“Making sure that the taxpayer, the voter in the city, is served well by it” is another priority. “It’s a bit of a stewardship issue. We’ve taken a look at the facilities the city does have and it has a responsibility to the taxpayers to take good care of the facilities.”
Pitre said he was a bit frustrated that most of the attention the draft document got after its release centred on the issue of drinking at Cougars’ games at the Multiplex, but that wasn’t unexpected.
“We were prepared for it,” he said. “To be fair, it is the predominant issue, we can’t deny that.
“But it is not the only issue.”
He encourages anyone interested in the issue of alcohol consumption at civic facilities to pick up a copy of the draft document at city hall, or to read it on the Prince George Online World Wide Web site (www.pgonline.com), where it can be accessed right off the home page.
Tonight’s meeting takes place in the council chambers on the second floor at city hall.
Sentencing circle’ sought at Gustafsen trial
SURREY, B.C. (CP) — An aboriginal-based sentencing circle would be one way to help heal the rifts caused by the armed standoff at Gustafsen Lake, a defence lawyer argued Hiesday.
It would also recognize aboriginals have something to contribute to the justice system, said Manuel Azevedo.
“This would be one way of the court recognizing that there are
some principles in the aboriginal community that have not been wiped away by the genocidal policy of governments,” he told Justice Bruce Josephson in B.C. Supreme Court.
At least nine of the 15 people convicted in the 1995 confrontation over a remote piece of private ranchland claimed by some aboriginals are interested in a sentencing circle.
Not all are aboriginal, but Azevedo said nothing in this relative-
ly new approach to sentencing limits it to First Nations people.
Sentencing circles, first used by Saskatchewan courts in 1992, put criminals before a group of community representatives who discuss what happened and come up with appropriate penalties that can range from community service or banishment up to prison.
A judge from the mainstream court system has the final say.
Education level linked to quitting smoking
Southam Newspapers
OTTAWA — Smokers are more likely to kick the habit if they’ve got a university degree, according to a Statistics Canada study.
But don’t assume that means they’re smarter about the health risks. It could be they are white-collar workers who can’t smoke in their offices or because their family is nagging them at home.
These are the central conclusions of a major survey conducted by the federal agency and reported in the recent issue of its magazine, Canadian Social Trends.
The findings are based on a survey of more than 12,000 smokers, aged 20 and over, between June 1994 and June 1995.
“Generally, people with lower lev-
Better educated butt out
Percentage of smokers who have quit by level of education, 1994-95.
II Men ---------------------------- — 64% 66%
Elementary Some or completed Some Post-secondary University or less high school post-secondary certificate or degree
Source: Statistics Canada diploma
PAUL PERREAULT/Southam News Graphics
els of schooling are more likely to be smokers,” writes Wayne Millar, a senior Statistics Canada analyst.
“High smoking rates among people with the lowest levels of education may be associated with their milieu — at home, at work, or with friends — in which smoking is either not discouraged or (not) prohibited. Similarly, low smoking rates among individuals with high levels of education may be related to the restrictions they encounter.”
The study reports that smoking rates among adults have steadily declined since the mid-1970s. The percentage of men who smoke has dropped to 33 per cent from 46 per cent, while 29 per cent of women now smoke, compared to 35 per cent in 1977.
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INDEX
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Ann Landers..... ........6
Around Town---- .......12
Bridge.......... .......22
Business ........ ....18,19
City, B.C.........
Classified ....... ... .20-23
Comics .........
Crossword ...... .......16
Entertainment ... .......17
Horoscope ...... .......22
Lifestyles........ .....6,12
Movies.......... .......17
Nation..........
Sports .......... .....9-12
Television....... .......17
World .......... ........6
Cornered by Baldwin Z,
“We cater to city folk.'
commissioner in the hot seat tonight
Citizen staff photo
Allison Parker, 12, Amber Hallercott, 12, Andrea Bolinskl, 13, and Nicky Therrien, 12, were upset after seeing a black bear shot in Fort George Park.
Girls get ‘a harsh education’ when bear shot in city park
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen Staff
Four elementary school students were moved to tears after seeing a black bear shot in Fort George Park on Monday afternoon, but the conservation office said the bear had to be killed to protect the public.
South Fort George Elementary School students Andrea Bolinski, 13, Nicky Therrien, 12, Amber Hallercott, 12, and Allison Parker, 12, watched the dead, twitching bear dragged to a conservation office truck after going to the park to play frisbee.
“It was just really fast, they kind of chased him up the tree and got rid of him,” said Parker.
The girls believed the bear to be a cub and wondered why it wasn’t tranquilized and re-located.
Bolinski and Hallercott went back to the park later, and discovered a “large pile of blood” on the grass under the tree.
“He was just a baby,” added Parker. “It’s just how much we care
about animals.”
Conservation officer Tony Boschman who shot the bear said it’s “a harsh education” but sometimes the conservation office has to shoot bears for public safety.
In this case, Boschman went to the park after someone called his office to complain a bear was loose in the park and people wouldn’t leave it alone.
After Boschman got to the park, the bear ran from the slough on the south end to the middle of the park.
Boschman said the bear was at a “fast gallop” and people were screaming and running out of its pathway.
Following in his truck, Boschman honked his horn, treed the bear and shot it.
The three-year-old black bear was typical of those found within city limits, he said.
The bears, forced out by the mother bear, do not hold a very high social status among the bear population and are forced onto
marginal territory, he explained.
He could have tranquilized the bear, but in his 11 years of experience, he’s found relocation does not work, said Boschman, adding there is a healthy bear population in the area.
“I believe it was the most humane, effective way in dealing with the bear,” emphasized the conservation officer.
“And it’s not going to make everybody happy. It doesn’t make me happy to do that. It’s a decision that has to be made, and it’s made rather difficultly.” .
Boschman pointed out that the conservation office’s aggressive policy of dealing with bears within city limits has meant that in the past 35 years — since they’ve kept records — no bear has hurt a human. Between 30 and 70 bears a year are killed within city limits, he said.
“We deem them to be a public safety consideration, and we destroy the majority of them.”
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