Publisher defends release of new O.J. Simpson book /24
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2006

Students to stage play /13

TomKat wedding held /17

Oprah helps out with book sales /18

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Police arrest suspect for 1990 murder
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff Cindy Agnus Burk was a 21-year-old aboriginal girl who went missing while hitchhiking 16 years ago on a northern B.C. highway. Her murdered body was found July 24, 1990 on the highway between Dawson Creek and Fort St. John not far from Kiskatinaw Provincial Park. On Friday, RCMP announced that not only has the investigation continued all these years, but they have now arrested a suspect. Paul Russell Deleno Felker, 60, has been charged with second-degree homicide in connection to the death of Burk. "The file has been the subject of routine follow-ups and periodic reviews and has remained active over the past 16 years," said provincial RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Pierre Lemaitre of E-Division headquarters. "Those reviews and follow-ups ultimately lead to the identification of a possible suspect and investigators... acted upon that information quickly and thoroughly." The case resemblance to the missing and murdered women of the Highway 16 vicinity is unmistakable. Lemaitre said in a Vancouver Sun report on the weekend that "this case is not connected with Highway of Tears. It's been reviewed and there is no connection." RCMP Superintendent Leon Van De Walle, the officer in charge of the E-Division Major Crime Section and the lead investigator in the Highway of Tears disappearances and murders, said the breakthrough offers hope that one day charges will be laid for the Highway 16 deaths. "This case is an example of how the RCMP remain committed to the families of victims and the communities we police to thoroughly investigate each unsolved case, actively follow-up any and all leads, and use any an all investigative methods to find out what happened and bring anyone who may be responsible before the courts," said Van De Walle. -- See MULTIPLE on page 3
CP photo

Teenager ready for journey to poles
Citizen staff A former Prince George youth is preparing to make history by travelling from the North Pole to the South Pole. "If I'm chosen to go all the way, I'll be the youngest person on the planet ever to do it," said Eric WelscherBilodeau, 17, who now lives near Gibsons but still has many local connections to family and friends. "No one has ever done this route before from Pole to Pole through Europe and Africa." Welscher-Bilodeau is one of three Canadians taking part in this, the second expedition of the Pole to Pole Leadership Institute, an international youth development program with a global all-star board of directors and advisory team. He is slated to leave the top of the world in April on the 10-month leg that concludes at Mount Kilimanjaro. Some from first stint will be selected to join the second eight-month leg on to the bottom of the globe. Welscher-Bilodeau was in South America on an exchange scholarship and was exploring world travel opportunities to inspire youth when he learned of the PPLI. He applied and was accepted. He urges other youth to look at the program's website as applications are still being accepted for this coming trip. -- See TRAVELLER on page 3

Jubilant players with the B.C. Lions crowd around the broken Grey Cup after winning the Canadian Football League championship trophy Sunday in Winnipeg.

Lion kings
Devoted fans on hand for B.C. win
WINNIPEG (CP) -- Football fans capped their week-long party with a Grey Cup game that seemed as much an annual reunion of friends as a sporting event. Fans who travelled from across the country, in what is for some an annual pilgrimage, started gathering several hours before the gates at Canada Inn Stadium were open and when the Canadian Football League's championship game was all over the B.C. Lions had defeated the Montreal Alouettes 25-14 in front of a sellout crowd of 44,786 Sunday. B.C. Lions fan Kyle Dunn paced the front gates for hours before the 3 p.m. kickoff trying to get a front row ticket from some of the few scalpers discretely working the crowd. "I've already turned down a lot of decent tickets but I've got to have front row. I've got to be in the action," said Dunn, 24. The milk plant worker from Surrey, described himself as "Super Fan." His uniform consisted of black tights, orange shorts, face paint and a hat with pipecleaner goalposts and a painted figurine of backup quarterback Buck Pierce. -- See related stories on page 12

Wind storm hits city Sunday
Citizen staff Stormy weather made a distinct impression on local infrastructure on Sunday afternoon. Police, fire and BC Hydro crews were kept busy with downed power lines, road closures and fallen utility lines. There have been other storm systems this fall but this time, instead of mere power outages, there was real damage to property, all on Sunday afternoon. A home on the corner of Manson Crescent and 15th Avenue was struck by a pair of large beetle-killed pines sharing the same root system that gave way to high winds, although damage to the house appeared minor. One person was home at the time of the incident but was uninjured. The roof of an industrial strip mall on Opie Crescent was also severely damaged when the wind peeled roofing back and sending debris flying to the ground. Moments later, Prince George Fire Rescue Service was called to Clapperton Street for downed lines. Prince George police closed one lane of Highway 97 near the Simon Fraser Bridge as a precaution while crews serviced the hydro lines. Just before dark, McBride Crescent was blocked by a large tree that tipped over the roadway. "If it isn't going to kill anyone or start a fire, tape it off and move on to the next call," came the message over the first responder dispatch system about 3 p.m. as emergency response teams methodically scrambled to keep up. "We are only attending to the ones that pose danger to life or structural hazard," PGFRS Deputy Chief John Lane told the Citizen Sunday evening. "We have had all four halls out, plus some extra staff we've called in. It's all chasing after downed wires." Lane said no injuries of any kind had been reported throughout the weekend, but people were warned to watch children closely after any windstorm and stay well back of any downed line because "it is impossible to tell if it is energized or not." BC Hydro had outages to deal with from Port Simpson to Williams Lake over the weekend, all to do with the same storm front. It was so busy that the usual B.C. Hydro hotline was putting people on hold for lengths of time well in excess of 15 minutes before answering. In Prince George, downtown businesses were without electricity and Pine Centre Mall went dark in the middle of the shopping day. -- See THOUSANDS on page 3
Citizen photo by Brent Braaten

RCMP shut down one southbound lane of Highway 97 after a tree collapsed onto a hydro line.

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Booster seats for school buses pondered
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff It might costs schools some unexpected money, but it could soon be a districtwide policy that all children of a certain height and weight be seated in an approved booster seat when they go on school trips. Children are not required by law to sit in a booster seat after they pass 18 kilograms, but School District 57 is nonetheless considering a booster seat policy for children up to 36 kilograms and up to four-feet, nine-inches tall and under eight years old. "Our policy and governance committee is looking at that issue," said superintendent Brian Pepper. "We received a legal opinion from the B.C. School Trustees' Association around booster seats. We feel it is an important issue. We want to ensure the safety of children travelling for school functions." If adopted as policy, schools would have to acquire enough booster seats to handle all the kids who fit the criteria. Pepper said that doesn't necessarily mean a huge financial hit. It generally only applies to kids up to Grade 3, many of them have their own booster seats from home, and in many cases the trip might be better made in a bus where booster seats are not used. Expanding the booster seat limits to 36 kilograms is not an arbitrary number the district chose. A private member's bill has been prepared for the legislature by MLA Iain Black that would make it law. "Right now if your neighbour drives your child to the swimming pool, they are not required to ensure your child is properly secured in a booster seat," said Black, a father of three young children. "The changes I'm proposing would protect all children, no matter whose vehicle they were travelling in." At least one vehicle advocacy group ag rees wit h t he c hanges. David Dunne, Director for the BCAA traffic safety program said, "Booster seats are effective in saving lives and preventing injures � but here in B.C. only 18 per cent of kids who should be in booster seat are � we need to change that � and this proposed legislation will be an important step in that direction." According to the provincial government, more than 850 children between four and eight years of age are injured in motor vehicle incidents every year in B.C. Since 2001, there have been 14 fatalities in this age group. "You see, standard vehicle seatbelts are designed for children taller than four-feet, nine-inches and more than 36 kilograms -- about the size of an average eight-year-old," Black said. "This means that the existing belts in cars do not properly cross a younger child's shoulders, hips and chest, leaving a child unsafe and vulnerable." He also pointed out that other provinces in Canada have established laws based on research that set the 36 kilogram and eight year limits. Pepper said the district's committee has set the end of November as the loose deadline for bringing the exploratory discussions forward. School buses are designed especially for the safety of children who are not wearing seatbelts and, in fact, seatbelts would increase the likelihood of serious injury if they were used, according to School District 57's transportation manager Gerry Sheanh. "Testing has been carried out by Transport Canada in this country and the National Transportation Safety Board in the U.S. Both groups have done extensive and rigid crash tests of buses," said Sheanh. "What they found was, when the compartment is comprised of high-backed, cushioned, closely spaced bench seats, the crash results are better than when lap belts are worn. It is actually incredible what the damage is when a child is belted in at the waist, but still thrown forward. There is some evidence that lap-andshoulder belts could be as or more effective than the compartment features, but no evidence has conclusively shown this, and there is the significant issue of whether children would put themselves in harm's way by not properly using a shoulder belt." Sheanh said no jurisdiction in Canada uses seatbelt-equipped buses. He said that the crash test studies revealed children travelling unbelted on a school bus "are actually 16 times safer in a collision than if they were properly belted in the family car and had a collision." This district buses about 5,000 students over about 12,000 kilometres of road every day. fpeebles@princegeorgecitizen.com

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INDEX
Annie's Mailbox . . . . . . . . . 27 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 City, B.C. . . . . . . 3,5,13,24,26 Classifi ed . . . . . . . . . . . 19-22 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . 17 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6,7 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-12 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14,15

Why no seatbelts?

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