PRINCE GEORGE
High today: 1 Low tonight: -5 Details page 22
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1998
Serving the Centrol Interior since 1916
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TODAY
COMMUNITY
PAGE 13
Pineview Snow Frolics a huge success
SPORTS
■ The 5 Seasons Sports Cougars swept all eight of its games to capture The Citizen Peewee Tournament of Champions during the weekend. They capped the tournament with an 8-3 victory over Grande Prairie in the final. /12
HEALTH
■ Traci Healy says she is living proof that anorexia can be conquered.
She spent 10 years battling eating disorders so devastating she once ended up on a respirator, developed nerve damage and had to walk with a cane. /24
CANADA
■ The U.S. has formally asked Canada for support for a possible military attack against Iraq. President Clinton asked Prime Minister Chretien for non-combat military support, such as transport and search and rescue resources. /6
Cornered
by Baldwin
“The name of this tree begins with an S. Or ends with an S, if there are two.”
E-Mail address:
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INDEX
Ann Landers....... ......24
Around Town...... ......23
Bridge............ ......21
Business.......... ......18
City, B.C.......... . .3,5,13
Classified ........ .. .19-22
Comics .......... .....16
Crossword ....... .....16
Entertainment---- .....17
Horoscope ....... .....21
Lotteries......... .....15
Lifestyles......... .....24
Movies........... .....17
Nation........... .......6
Sports ........... ... .7-12
Television......... ......17
World............ .. .14,15
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Health dispute spreads
Houston doctors join; mayors ask MacPhail to meet MDs
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff
As the job action by northern rural doctors continues into its 10th day, mayors of many northwestern B.C. communities are calling for Health Minister Joy MacPhail and representatives of the B.C. Medical Association to meet with them here this week to help resolve the dispute.
Meanwhile, three Houston physicians appear ready to join the Northern Rural Doctors’ Group later this week in refusing to be on call after hours except in case of life-threatening emergencies, mayor Tom Euverman said Sunday.
The 22 members of the Northern Rural Doctors’ Group in Burns Lake, Fraser Lake, Vanderhoof, Fort St. James and Mackenzie have refused to
perform services in hospitals in those communities since noon January 31. They contend they work gruelling long hours in emergency departments with inadequate compensation for the few patients they see in rural areas under the current fee-for-service system.
Directors of the Bulkley-Nechako Regional District and mayors of Fraser Lake, Burns Lake, Vanderhoof and Fort
CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY
— Sydney Smith searches for just the right Lego piece for her project Sunday during the second day of the Fraser-Fort George Regional Museum’s Great Lego Building Weekend event. That day was reserved for students 9 to 12 years old. In inset, below, Michael Sordi, 7, demonstrates the space ship he made during Saturday’s portion of the contest for children five to eight. Sordi was the Grand Prize Winner for the age 5-8 category. In the age 9-12 category Brandon Marrow won that title. Winners were also selected for each individual age group. They were Robert Creegan, 5; Kelley Jones, 6; Kylie Pawluk, 7; Jordan Bach, 8; Kyum Shogren, 9; Daniel McGrath, 10; Tim Tereshuk, 11; and Justin Burton, 12.
Citizen photos by Dave Milne
St. James met in Fraser Lake Saturday to draw up a letter to MacPhail calling on her to bring BCMA officials to Prince George to meet with them later this week. The meeting was conducted by Harold Kerr, vice-chairman of the regional district board, and Lorraine Grant, chair of the Northern Interior Regional Health Board, attended for information, said Fraser Lake mayor Tony Thompson.
The letter is to be faxed to Victoria today.
“We hope to meet with both parties at the same time,” Fraser Lake Mayor Tony Thompson said Sunday. “We definitely want to involve the BCMA in this meeting, and see what they’re prepared to do in that they are the negotiating body for the doctors.
“We want both the health minister and the BCMA to come up with both short-term and long-term solutions to this problem, and try to get the physicians back to work.”
Euverman said Sunday he received a copy of a letter that the town’s two resident doctors sent Friday to the administration of the Houston Health Centre. In the unsigned letter they said that beginning Wednesday they would withdraw from providing services at the health centre except to the extent necessary to stabilize patients with life-threatening conditions who are to be transported to the nearest major hospital.
:
Northwood decision put off two months
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff
Judge R.B. Macfarlane has reserved for two months his decision in the trial of Northwood Pulp and Timber on pollution charges.
The company says it exercised due diligence in guarding against release of toxic effluents into the Fraser River in September 1995.
Under the provincial Waste Management Act, Northwood faces one count
of breaching its permit for discharge of effluent by exceeding toxicity standards around that date. In addition, the company faces one count of introducing a business waste into the Fraser.
Northwood also faces one count under the federal Fisheries Act of depositing a harmful substance into water frequented by fish.
“On September 15, 1995, the liquid effluent did not meet the toxicity requirements of its permit,” defence
counsel D. Ross Clarke said in closing arguments. Northwood does not dispute the environment ministry’s evidence of what happened, but does rely on the defence of due diligence in trying to prevent such occurrences, Clarke said.
“Reasonable care and due diligence do not mean superhuman efforts,” he said. “They mean a high standard of awareness and decisive, prompt and continuing action.”
Gov’t looks at scooping kids off streets
VANCOUVER (CP) — Youngsters running loose on the streets could soon find themselves locked up.
Children and Families Minister Penny Priddy has launched an independent panel of parents and professionals to look into new secure-care options for kids.
Currently there are no laws in B.C. that allow police or ministry officials to keep youths against their will if they are not in danger or breaking the law.
The new rules would allow the children to be scooped up and place in locked facilities if the officials believe it is necessary.
Such facilities exist in Alberta and Quebec for assessments and treatment of services like drug and alcohol detox.
“This subject should spark considerable controversy among professionals, caregivers and human-rights advocates,” Priddy said.
“I hope that by engaging in this debate we can work for the best interests of the young person while minimizing any serious long-term restrictions on their normal rights and freedoms.”
Being shot at part of day's work for Red Cross
by KEN BERNSOHN Citizen staff
Terry Jones considers being shot at while working to save liyes in a hospital simply one of the things he has to put up with while doing his job.
Jones has been to Iraq, the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan since he became an International Committee of the Red Cross delegate in 1991.
Over the weekend he was in Prince George for the Reel World Film Festival at UNBC, sponsored by the Red Cross here.
“You have to learn to shut off your emotions when dealing with constant human misery. You have to take action, not (emotionally) react,” he said.
“You have to give yourself time to deal with emotions after the need to act is over and you need people around you for support.”
There’s a difference between being
You can survive a war zone
International Committee of the Red Cross Delegate Terry Jones has tips on how to survive in a war zone.
■ “Have some reasonable idea of the culture you’re going into, so you don’t make a mistake which could get you in trouble.”
■ “Don’t wander off the beaten track. It may be a mine field.”
■ “Wear a cheap watch and don’t wear fancy jewelry. It’s an invitation to trouble (to wear expensive accessories).”
■ “Don’t take photographs. It’s often very dangerous.”
■ “Always carry some money for bribes.”
■ “Bang your shoes together before putting them on to avoid problems with scorpions and other critters.”
TERRY JONES ■ “Don’t drink the water.”
■ “Always park with your car facing out for a
quick getaway.”
able to keep going when the world around you is out of control and becoming numb, he said.
“It’s the scale of the suffering and especially the children that get to you,” he said.
With all the suffering in the world, people may feel little can be done. Jones says that’s wrong.
“I think over all the Red Cross makes a significant difference,” he said. “Fewer people die. Fewer people are starving. There’s a great effect on people in prisons and camps because we’re often their only contact with the outside world. The biggest cause of deaths in the world today isn’t war. It’s impure water and the Red Cross works on that.”
He will stay in Canada for a while, but expects to soon be going back to Afghanistan, where there are 14 warring factions which have been fighting for more than 400 years.
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