War hero memorial sought /6
Peterson sent to death row /14

Lord of the Rings set for stage /17
Blake not guilty of killing wife /15

CITIZEN
Serving the Central Interior since 1916
by TED CLARKE Citizen staff There's no room at the inn for the Salmon Arm Silverbacks. Not only do they have to have to play the first two games of their best-of-seven B.C. Hockey League Interior Conference semifinal in the unfriendly confines of a packed Prince George Coliseum, but once Friday's game is over, they'll be spending the night in Quesnel. A busy slate of events in the city at the start of spring break for school children has most hotels booked through the weekend so the Silverbacks decided to sleep 115 kilometres down the road while awaiting Saturday's Game 2. "I phoned for rooms and they couldn't give us enough at the Sandman and the lady said, with it being spring break, it was a real busy weekend in the city, so we decided to stay at the Sandman in Quesnel," said Garry Davidson, the Silverbacks head coach and general manager. "It's only an hour and 10 minutes away on the bus."

PRINCE GEORGE

THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2005

80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 57 CENTS A DAY)

Booked hotels hamper Kings playoff opponent
Among the activities in the city this weekend are the Kamloops Blazers-Prince George Cougars WHL games Friday and Saturday at the Multiplex, the female senior-A hockey provincial championship at the Kin Centre, the Jehovah's Witnesses convention at the Civic Centre, and the Prince George Dance Festival at Vanier Hall. The two games at the Coliseum, the first of the playoffs for the Spruce Kings, are shaping up to be sellouts, with more than 2,000 tickets already sold. "It's been crazy," said Spruce Kings marketing coordinator Bill Ollinger. "Since Friday, we've had phone orders galore from all over northern B.C., and they want $200 or $300 worth of tickets. Everybody's anticipating a sellout for Friday's and Saturday's games, regardless of what the Cougars are doing. Optimism is high, and people feel we have a shot at going to the final. New sales in season's passes are triple the last two years combined and the excitement is starting to build. It's been nuts." -- See related story on page 8

Not guilty
Air India verdict stuns victims' families
Canadian Press/Citizen staff Victims' families relived the deaths of their children, husbands and wives as two men accused of Canada's worst mass murder walked free into the rain on Wednesday. Hope that there will one day be justice for the 329 souls lost in the attack on Air India Flight 182 was trampled as lawmakers said there may never be justice in the bombing. For nearly two decades, police and prosecutors have tried to cobble together murder and conspiracy cases against Ripudaman Singh Malik, a Vancouver businessman, and Ajaib Singh Bagri, a Kamloops sawmill worker. They developed a theory that the two men, described in court as Sikh extremists, were involved in a plot to bring down two jets operated by Air India, a symbol of the Indian government, in an act of religious revenge. But the plan went wrong June 23, 1985, when only Air India Flight 182 fell from the sky off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 people aboard. A second bomb meant for another Air India jet went off prematurely on the same day, killing two baggage handlers at Tokyo's Narita airport. During their investigation, the police hit one dead end after another in this city's Sikh community. They blamed mistrust of the force and a lack of cultural understanding for their failures. The evidence they eventually brought to trial cost the RCMP more than $100 million to gather and took lawyers more than a year to present. Over gulping sobs by men and women in the galler y, Justice Ian Josephson of the B.C. Supreme Court said despite its best efforts, the prosecution failed to prove any of the charges -- including two counts of first-degree murder -- faced by Malik and Bagri. He was especially critical of witnesses who testified against the two men, notably a woman who claimed to be in love with Malik and testified he had confessed to her that he was involved in the bombings.
Citizen photo by Brent Braaten

Prince George's own leprechaun, Mike Bundock, teaches his six-year-old grandson, Zachary, about the wearin' of the green and magic pots of gold.

CP photo

Leprechaun spreads Irish cheer
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff Today is St. Patrick's Day, when people celebrate the luck of the Irish by wearing green. Every March 17 in Prince George, an Irish leprechaun shows up to take his pot of gold to seniors' residences, hospitals, preschools and businesses where he hands out yellow and green candy. "The thing is, gold is yellow, but if you hoard it, it turns green, so it's best to give it away," said the leprechaun, also known as Mike Bundock. He says leprechauns come and go by magic. "Ye never know when or where they'll appear, especially around St. Paddy's Day," he said. "Our job is to spread joy, and if I can put a smile on a face, I've done me' job," the leprechaun said. He said it's always a thrill to see a child's face light up when "I ask them to dip into me' pot of candy." The person who was to become St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was born in Wales about AD 385. His given name was Maewyn, and he almost didn't get the job of bishop of Ireland because he lacked the required scholarship. Much Irish folklore surrounds St. Patrick's Day. Not much of it is actually substantiated -- like the belief that Patrick raised people from the dead, or that he gave a sermon that drove all the snakes from Ireland, even though no snakes were ever native to Ireland. One tradition of the day is the shamrock. And this stems from an Irish tale about how Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity. He used it in his sermons to represent how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could all exist as separate elements of the same entity. His followers adopted the custom of wearing a shamrock on his feast day.

Ripudaman Singh Malik, centre, leaves B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver with his supporters after he was found not guilty in the bombing of an Air India flight in 1985.
The distraught families of the victims who had flown in from all over the world to hear a guilty verdict called for a public inquiry. Some are now grown men and women who lost parents while young children. Others are adults who lost husbands, wives and children. "Today we have lost our families all over again, this time to the Canadian justice system," said Sanja Lazar, of Mumbai, whose entire family died in the crash. "I'm totally hollow, feeling anger and sorrow like so many other families. I travelled halfway across the earth to witness the Canadian justice system, only to find shattered hopes." Members of Prince George's Sikh community may have to resign themselves to accepting the verdict on the Air India case but the questions still remain, says a spokesperson at the Guru Gobind Singh Temple. "People want an answer, it's still not clear who did that," said the spokesperson, who declined to give his name. "But we have to accept what the judge said, whether we like it or not." -- See related coverage on page 5

High : 7 Low : -8 page 2

Police drop financial probe against MP
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff RCMP have decided against pursuing criminal charges against CaribooPrince George MP Dick Harris. "The allegations of financial irregularities were reviewed and it has been concluded that there is insufficient information on which to base further criminal investigation," RCMP said Wednesday. Harris, who had been under a cloud s i n c e t h e i nve s t i g a t i o n wa s a n nounced six months ago, said he is pleased with the outcome. "The wait for them to wrap up whatever they were doing, and I realized that whenever someone makes a complaint someone has to look into it, was kind of tough," he said. "But I knew what the outcome was going to be, HARRIS so it's nice but it's kind of anticlimactic I guess." RCMP took the unusual step in September 2004 of issuing a statement saying they were looking into the matter because the accusations received public exposure in Prince George. The investigation was launched in response to a request from members of Harris's old riding executive after former employee and campaign manager Josh Bredo raised allegations of an alleged scheme to procure federal government money for bogus service contracts. Bredo also sent a letter to the chief investigator at Elections Canada, raising concerns about the way money to pay for new memberships was handled, and Harris said he's confident nothing will come of those allegations, either. "It's the same sort of thing and I know what the outcome is going to be, so I'm not going to sweat it," he said. Elections Canada says its policy is not to confirm if an investigation is being carried out, only to announce convictions if they occur. Asked what happens next, Harris reiterated a statement he made in January -- that those responsible for the controversy will be held accountable. He declined to elaborate.

INDEX
Business . . . . . . . . . . . .22-24 City, B.C. . . . . . . . . . .3,5,6,13 Classified . . . . . . . . . . .18-21 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6,7 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8-11

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58307

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Phoenix Physiotherapy Clinic
located in the Phoenix Medical Centre � Suite 401 - 2155 10th Avenue
March 17th, 1976

Registered Physiotherapists
St. Patrick's Day
Terry Fedorkiw PT
CPMA, CAFCI

� � � �

Services Orthopaedic and sport physical therapy Acupuncture and Qi-Gong Treatment of back/neck pain Ergonomic concerns

Available � Pre-employment physical screening tests � Muscle strains � Uro-gynocology/continence training � Vertigo/Dizziness
Clinic Hours Monday to Friday 7:30 am - 6:00 pm No physician referral required Back Row; Assistants: Laura, Amber, Sharon (manager) Front Row; Physio Therapists: Vickie, Terry, Wendy

Vickie Laverdure PT
B.Sc.R., CPMA

Wendy Boomhower PT
466913
B.Sc. (Hons.), CPMA

*Physiotherapists for the Cougars Call during clinic hours to arrange an appointment � Walk-in appointments available

Phone 562-8248 | Fax 564-9075
CLASSIFIED: 562-6666

SWITCHBOARD: 562-2441

READER SALES: 562-3301