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Half a century

street-crossing

Council ponders a move against _

jaywalkers\NEWS A8

Mills Memorial's auxiliary
celebrates a worthy
anniversary\COMMUNITY Bt

Roaring good time

Tiger Williams and his friends put
on a hockey display to the delight
of all\SPORTS B7

WEDNESDAY
DECEMBER 2, 1998

TANDARD :

Group targets forestry costs

COSTS, RED tape and taxes
need to be cut immediately to save
the province's forest industry, says a
major industry association.

In a submission to Premier Glen
Clark Monday, the Council of Forest
Industries (COFI) wants sales taxes
an machinery and equipment and the
Corporate Capital Tax eliminated.

It also wants the way in which
the province sets stumpage, the fee
for cutting wood, tied more to market
prices.

And it wants government regula-
tions streamlined to reduce adminis-
trative expenses.

“Industry has recommended a
plan to cut more red tape, avoid new
costs and cut out some general taxes
not faced by our competitors,” said
COFI president Ron MacDonald,

“This can be accomplished without
changing environmental standards in
our forests or putting significant new
pressure on the provincial budget,” he
said.

Also part of the cost savings plan is

a legislative change to reduce B.C. -

Hydro power rates to forest companies.

The submission followed a meet-
ing held by COFI with Clark in October
When it toll him the forest industry
faces financial ruin which would have a

massive impact on the provincial
economy,

Monday’s submission falls under
what's called a “30-day list” of immedi-
ate measures COF! says are needed.

It's now working on another list
intended as a long-term objective to

Strengthen and improve ihe compeli-

liveness of the industry.

That Will involve ‘the North
American Softwood Lumber
Agreement which caps the amount of
lumber that can be: exparted: without

” penalty to the United States. °

COFT has the support of the Union
of B.C. Municipalities, the B.C,
Chamber of ‘Commerce and other forest

industry associations in its submission
to the premier,

Steve Thorlakson, mayer of Fort
St. John and first vice president of the
Union of B.C. Municipalities said it
shares COFI’s perspective on the situa-
tion as more than 120 communities
belonging to his organization rely on
the Forest industry. -

“The resource-dependent commu-
nities we represent want to build and
diversify. They cannot do this if their
foresiry foundations are sinking in
regulatory and bureaucratic quicksand
ina period of unprecedented global
market pressure,” said Al McNair, chair
of the B.C, Chamber of Commerce.

Families wait
for new leads
in old cases

By ALEX HAMILTON
and CHRISTIANA
WIENS oo.
THE LIST of missing or murdered people in the
northwest is growing.

Murdered are: Alberta Williams, Ramona. Wilson;
Roxanne Thiara, Alisha Germaine, Monica Ignas and
Phillip Innes Fraser.

Missing are: Lana Derrick, Delphine Nikal, Larry
Vu and Eric Coss.

Six on this list of 10 people are young native women
who went missing from Hwy16 in the last 10 years. Four
were found dead in Prince George, Burns Lake, Smithers
and Prince Rupert. The remaining two women who have
disappeared come from Terrace Terrace and Smithers,

For all of their families, life has become a continuous
Search for new clues or any little bit of information to help
solve their child’s investigation. Parents and siblings live
day to day without knowing where their missing children
are, They want to know that their murdered child’s killer
has been caught and brought to justice.

Matilda Wilson’s daughter Ramona was 16 when she
disappeared June 11, 1994 from Smithers,

She was last seen walking to Highway 16, apparently to
hitchhike to Moricetown to see her boyfriend.

Her decomposed body was found a year later in a
wooded area in Smithers. Police have not said how she
was killed.

Wilson said she’d like to put her daughter’s murder be-
hind her, but she can’t.

“Not while this person is at large,”? she said. ‘He could
be preying on someone right now.”’

Wilson said Constable Scot! Whyte, the RCMP officer in
charge of Ramona's case, has told ber that he’s closer to
charging the person responsible for the crime.

But Wilson said she’s gotten her hopes up before and
nothing has ever materialized.

She said Whyte is trying to get more officers from Prince
George to help him on the case.

“He can’t follow up everything on his own,"’ Wilson
said, ‘He needs help,”’

Many of the victim’s families say money and racism is
keeping the RCMP from adequately investigating their
cases. RCMP officers say they are doing ihe best they can
to look into cach one of them.

Karen Williams’ 24-year-old sister Alberta’s body was
found by hikers Sept. 25, 1989 on a trail 35km east of
Prince Rupert, a month after she disappeared.

Williams wants ta know why, if RCMP officers are
doing the best they can, there been any new leads in her
sister’s case after nine years,

She said she hasn’t been kept up to date on her sister's
file. ‘‘They haven't been returning my calls,’ said Wil-
liams. ‘‘I want to know what’s been done with my sister's
case since 1989.”

She said RCMP officers aren’t treating her sisters case
seriously because she is native,

‘‘Native women are neglected in the courts, in the media
and on TV,”’ she said. It angers her that white teenagers or
young women who go missing in the Lower Mainland, like
Melanie Carpenter, get provincial TV and newspaper
coverage when her sister got nothing.

Williams said the RCMP do nothing until victims’
families come forward and push them.

To help solve her sister’s murder mystery, she’s moving
back to Prince Rupert from Terrace to keep pressuring
RCMP there.

“They say anything you want them to say to get you off
the phone and off their back,"’ she said.

Sgt. Howard Goodridge, head of the North District
Serious Crime Unit in Prince George, was shocked when
asked whether racism was a factor in these cases.

He explained that race never comes into consideration
when working on a murder investigation.

He said RCMP forces aren’t just made up of white of-
ficers. People from various cthnic backgrounds work. on
these cases, so racism can’t be an issue,

Williams says lack of
manpower and resources to
devote to the case of his
sister and others also
hampers investigations.
Some RCMP officers agree
with ber.

“T guess it’s uo secret,
most units don’t have the
money or resources to pay
attention to older cases,"’
said Supt, Gary Bass who
heads up the RCMP’s major

crimes division in Van-
couver. ‘“‘There’s no dif
ference for homicides.’'

Two years ago, in recogni-
tion of this, a special unit
was established — the Un-
solved Homicides Unit, a
20-member team of officers
travelling the province se-
lecting murders two years
old or older and focusing on
them.

Set up with money granted
by the Attorney General’s
office, the unit uses DNA
testing in a third of its cases,
said Bass, He estimates it
has a 90 to 95 per cent suc-
cess rate because of the time
and attention spent on each
case.

“Most of these cases can
be solved if you can stay at
them long enough,’’ he said.

Bass usually has two to
four officers in the north

and plans to cut travel ex-
penscs by — eventually
moving two officcr to
Prince George.

Due to security reasons,
Bass couldn't say whether
the unit was working any
northwest cases. Cpl.
Anders Udsen, from the
general investigation section
of ithe Terrace RCMP
detachment, says the unit
has considered picking up a
local case, but wouldn't say
which one,

‘They prioritize them,”
he said. ‘It’s not in. their
first rush of investigations.’’

Udsen said the idea of a
‘Highway of Tears’ — the
name victims’ families have
altached to the string of
cases on the highway -— is
overblown.

“That name came from
media and people involved
in the issues,’’ he said ad-
ding there was no proof any
of the cases are related,

He said — northwestern
detachments periodically get
together to exchange in-
formation on developing
cases, Officers look for con-
nections — which may be
as simple as tracing a
suspect’s gas card — to link
cases, Udsen added.

Watida Good, cousin of
missing. person Lana Der-

tick said if there may be
‘more to fear if there isn’t a
link between the various
missing northwest native
women,

Derrick, 19, went missing
from Terrace on Oct. 9,

1995. She had been partying °

with friends and was last
seen at the Capperside
Foods in Thornhill getting
into a blue vehicle that
drove north.

“Tf it isn’t a serial killer
(hen that’s even more
frightening because that
means there’s many killers
out there,” said Good.

She says RCMP officers
have tried their best to find
her cousin, despite police
budget cuts. “They say they
don’t have the resources to
fully investigate,” she said.

Goodridge strongly dis-
agrees with that statement,
saying the inability to close
cases to date has more to do
with not getting any good
breaks rather than budget

‘ cuts,

“No, funding isn't an is-
suc at all,”’ he said. “These
files are handled by an num-
ber of units.’’

' Goodridge said RCMP
across the northwest can
draw on (he resources of a
number of different units

Cont'd Page A7

93¢ PLUS 7¢ GST
VoL, ii NO. 34 -

Army looking
for donations

WITH MORE families expecting to need help this
year, the Salvation Army is asking for contributions to
its 1998 Christmas hamper campaign.

Although it is difficult to gauge need, the Army
anticipates it will field requests for more than 500
hampers, substantially more than in past years,

The hampers contain a voucher for a turkey, enough
food for a Christmas dinner and toys for children.

Donations can be made at any of the Salvation
Amy’ s Christmas cheer kettles around town or by fill-
ing out and clipping the form on Page A3 of today’s
The Terrace Standard and mailing it with a donation
to Christmas Hampers, 4626 Soucie, Terrace, B.C.
V8G 2E7. A receipt will be issued for income tax pur-
poses,

Scott wins
one round
of lawsuit

A SUPREME COURT judge has given Skeena Reform
MP Mike Scott a victory during one phase of a defamation
suit filed against farmer NDP MP Jim Fulton,

Scott says Fulton called him a racist and that he was unfit’
for public, office. during a°4996 televised debate on “the.
Nisga’a agreement in principle.

The debate on CBC-TV’s Newsworld channel was
carried across the country.

Fulton, in a statement of defence, has admitted the state-
iments Were defamatory, but says they were tre, or were
fair comment on a matter of public interest.

Fulton’s defence is relying on bis position that the views
of Scott and the Reform party pertaining to land claims are
well known,

Thus, argued Fulton, any statements made by him during
the televised debate would be balanced against a viewer’s
existing knowledge of Scott’s positions. And so the
defence of fair comment would then apply,

Bul Scott, in a pre-trial motion submitted in October,
asked Mr. Justice R.D. Wilson of the B.C. supreme court
to strike that defence.

He argued that his own views were not well-known to
watchers of the national broadcast and so the defence of
fair comment could not apply, ;

Scott had conducted for him a survey of media outlets
across the country to determine if he was well known, The
results were that he was not,

The judge accepted Scott’s argument on that point, call-
ing him “‘an obscure office holder, from a constituency in
central British Columbia.’’

The judge found against Fulton’s position that there ex-
isted a ‘‘sub-stratum of fact’? upon which the comments
made during the broadcast could be considered fair com-
ment.

He said none of Fulton’s facts listed by him in a state-
ment of defence were contained in the broadcast, were
common knowledge or were readily accessible by broad-
cast watchers.

Fulton had argued his case was similar to thal of Bill
Vander Zalm who, as the Social Credit cabinet minister
responsible for welfare in the 1970s, sued Victoria
cartoonist Bob Bierman for a depiction of him pulling the
wings offa fly.

Vander Zalm lost that case after it was determined his
vicws on welfare recipients and work ethics were well
known and were common knowledge.

In essence, Mr. Justice Wilson’s ruling means Fulton
failed to distinguish what was comment and what was fact
during the broadcast and now must prove that what he said

_was fact and nol comment.

The ruling was released Nov. 20 and there is a 30-day
appeal period, Only after that will there be any moves to
schedule a trial date for the suit,

Attacker wrecked
home, got away

TERRACE RCMP are looking tor the owner of a blue
1986 four-by-four pick up aller its driver assaulted two
people at a home in Terrace on Sunday.

Just after 11:00 p.m. on Sunday, RCMP believe the
driver forced his way into a home in the 4700 block of
Straume and assaulted his ex-spouse and her new
boyfriend.

When the driver, a 37-year-old New Remo resident,
left the home he rammed the back of the’ boyfriend's
truck so hard it broke through the front of:the hotise and
landed partially in the tiving room of the Straume Ave,
home, RCMP said. -

The woman and her boyfriend received minor injuries
from the assault.

The attacker:fled the scene in a GMC truck: with the
licence plate number Y53 8CY, He is believed to be in
the Terrace or Prince Rupert area,