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PRINCE GEORGE
Citizen
Serving the Central Interior since 1916
MONDAY, DECEMBER 22,1997
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INDEX
Charities are still in need of help
by DON SCHAFFER Citizen staff
It’s almost Christmas, but volunteers and staff at the city’s charitable organizations are still working hard to make sure special events happen as scheduled.
And they’re getting lots of help from the community.
Jack Goold of the St. Vincent de Paul Society said support for his organization’s food hamper and Christmas dinner drives has been overwhelming.
“We’ve really had a fantastic response from the community,” Goold said Saturday. “We haven’t done a lot of asking in the papers, but we’ve gotten a tremendous amount of help.”
Volunteers worked over the weekend preparing food hampers for today’s distribution, but Goold said donations will continue to be welcome.
“Much of the need will be after Christmas,” he said. “It’s a long time between the cheque people just got and the one in January, and I know we’ll get numerous requests for ham-
pers in January.”
The society is also holding a Christmas Day dinner for needy people from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Sacred Heart Auditorium on Ingledew.
The Salvation Army, meanwhile, is also packing its hampers later today. A spokeswoman for the organization said food donations are still welcome, since demand on the food bank is expected to continue.
The Sally Ann stages a pre-Christmas
dinner today at 2 p.m. at the addiction treatment centre at 835 Third Avenue.
Its Tree of Lights campaign, run in conjunction with the Coast Inn of the North, continues until Christmas Day. A donation of $5 illuminates one of the lights on the tree, which is set up on the roof of the Coast.
■ The SPCA is also accepting donations of food and other pet supplies today and Tliesday. The facility is closed Christmas Eve.
Brewer boosters have no time to lose!
There’s still time to send your best wishes to Eric Brewer!
The Prince George Cougars defenceman is part of the 22-man Team Canada roster competing at the World Junior Hockey Championships starting Christmas Day (8:30 a.m., Canada vs Finland, TSN) in Helsinki, Finland.
You can send your congratulations and holiday wishes to Eric by signing a sheet at The Citizen (150 Brunswick Street), by fax at 562-7453 or e-mail Citizen@pgonline.com
You have until 5 p.m. today to add your name to the list, which already has hundreds of names. We’ll send the list by telegram to Eric in Europe.
PAGE 13
Cellist makes professional debut here
PAGE 13
City leaders share Christmas wishes
SPORTS
■ David Labrecque and his new team the Powell River Kings beat a lifeless Prince George Spruce Kings club 5-3 at the Multiplex Saturday night. Labrecque wasn’t seriously tested in his first game against Prince George since being traded about a month ago. /12
SHOWBIZ
■ Nathan Lane and Lee Evans play a pair of bumbling occupants of a century old house. Once they take over the house, the pair discover it’s also inhabited by a mouse. The rest of movie is spent trying to get rid of the pesky rodent. /19
PROVINCE
■ A pair of B.C. teenage girls appear to be victims twice over. They say they were kidnapped and sexually assaulted by two Bellingham, Washington men. The girls are now being held in a U.S. jail because authorities are afraid they won’t come back to testify if they are released. /6
WORLD
■ A Ukrainian airliner that crashed near Mount Olympus in Greece was finally found on the weekend. Officials said the crash site was littered with body parts and toys and that there were no survivors. /14
E-Mail address:
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Our web site:
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Local group questions poll commissioned by Citizen
A spokesman for pro-Recall forces takes issue with results of a poll in Saturday’s Citizen that indicated MLA Paul Ramsey would likely survive a recall attempt.
Recall organizer Pertti Harkonen also questions the possibility of inaccuracy and misrepresentation in the poll. “The pollster, Dr. Alex Michalos, was an NDP candidate in the last federal election and the key NDP organizer for Mr. Ramsey’s campaign in the last provincial election,” Harkonen said Sunday.
“We find it incredible that The Citi-
zen commissioned Mr. Ramsey’s campaign organizer, a man who ran as an NDP candidate in the last federal election, to do this supposedly neutral poll.”
The poll conducted Dec. 15-18 said 32% of 709 people surveyed said they had or would sign the petition to recall Ramsey, while 64% said they would not sign.
“I’m sure the results are skewed,” Harkonen said.
“Our results, based on the signatures we’re getting, indicate we’ve probably reached 10 times the number they
(UNBC pollsters) sampled,” he said.
“The public must know who is doing the polling and if they have political aspirations or connections with a political party,” Harkonen said. “To be valid, a poll must be done by an independent group.
“The only result that counts is the signatures going to Victoria.”
Michalos said Sunday “They’re whistling in the dark. We had a very good polling sample, and it covered the whole riding.
“Maybe they (recall group) will make it, but I’d be very surprised if
they did,” Michalos said. “These polls are accurate 19 times out of 20.
The poll was commissioned by The Citizen newspaper. Michalos and Bruno Zumbo head up the UNBC research centre, which conducts surveys, research and polls for numerous city and regional organizations and agencies.
Citizen editor Peter Godfrey said “the poll, conducted through the UNBC research centre, was both viable and independent.”
For more comment, see Page 4.
City man dead after stabbing
Local soldier spending season of peace in war zone
TODAY
COMMUNITY
POOCH POWER —
Chester Hewkin gets a ride back up Carney Hill the easy way behind his dog Grunt, leaving his friends to get their sleds to the top the old-fashioned way. Saturday was the first day there was enough snow on area hills for decent sledding.
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
A 48-year-old Prince George man is dead after a stabbing at a city home early Sunday.
A 26-year-old man arrested in Quesnel hours after the stabbing is in custody in RCMP cells and is awaiting his first appearance in Prince George provincial court some time today.
At 3:10 a.m. Sunday, Prince George RCMP went to a home in the 2100 block of Upland Street. Their initial investigation indicated that a man and two women had been stabbed by the same suspect.
While police were at the scene, there was another call about a suspect of a similar description having robbed a city resident of his 1995 Dodge truck at knifepoint.
Police located the suspect and truck at 6 a.m. in Quesnel.
All the victims stabbed at the Upland Street residence were taken to Prince George Regional Hospital. The 48-year-old city resident died later of his injuries. A 31-year-old woman from Fort St. James was still in PGRH Sunday night. The third victim, a 38-year-old Prince George woman, was released from hospital during the day Sunday.
Names are being withheld pending notification of next-of-kin, said S/Sgt. John Lloyd.
The truck owner, a 29-year-old man, was treated and released from hospital Sunday morning.
All these people, with the exception of the truck owner, were known to each other.
Police said they would release further information later today when charges are approved and relatives of victims have been notified.
by KEN BERNSOHN Citizen Staff
Prince George’s Tom Hughes is spending the Christmas season with five Cougars in Bosnia.
Unlike the Cougars that take to the ice here, the five in Bosnia are Canadian armored cars.
Hughes, 23, is a lieutenant with the Canadian Forces, in charge of the five Cougars, patrolling part of the area about the size of Prince Edward Island.
Hughes, and Master Cpl. Lome Mann of Fraser Lake are two of the 1,240 members of the Canadian Forces serving as peacekeepers in the former Yugoslavia.
Hughes has a three-fold job. His first responsibility is to keep things peaceful, under the rules worked out in the Dayton Accord. He gets involved
LIEUT. HUGHES
in police work as well, since some areas don’t have a lot of law. And he does humanitarian work, bringing firewood and food to remote communities.
Hughes said he’ll spend Christmas Day on guard duty.
The officers and senior non-commissioned officers will take over guard duty so the enlisted men can have a nicer Christmas.
“Christmas is one occa-
sion among many in the year when the officers serve the men (dinner). It’s the least we can do, considering the situation here.”
One of the major challenges for the Canadians, who have been in Bosnia since 1992, is working with people with a different value system from a very different culture, Hughes said.
“It will be them (the people living in the area) who will decide what their country will be eventually. The world will shift its attention from the former Yugoslavia,” Hughes said.
Hughes was born and raised in Prince George. He went to Royal Roads — then a military college — near Victoria after graduating high school here.
He said he’ll complete his six-month tour of duty in January. Then he’ll return to the Canadian Forces Base Edmonton.
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