Night march targets fear

UNITED TOGETHER and
chanting and marching
through downtown last Fri-
day night, dozens of women
took back the night.

Approximately 50 women
gathered Sept. 18 at the
Coast Inn of the West to
reclaim the night, take back
the streets and regain their
loss of freedom.

Being attacked, sexually
assaulted or murdered is a
fear many women live with
everyday.

Sa for the past 20 years,
women from across the
country have joined together
one night a year in protest of
women being victimized.
_'The Take Back the Night

march lets society know that

women have the right to live
without fear, said Sarah de

Leeuw, coordinator of the

Terrace Women’s Centre.

“This isn’t just about
women being afraid to walk
home alone at night,’’? de

Leeuw said. ‘Taking to the

streets is symbolic of

women demanding the right
to be safe wherever they are

— at home, at work or on

the street.’’

de Leeuw said it was im-
portant to Ict citizens in Ter-
race know that violence
against women is a problem
here, next door and around
the warld.

. According to local RCMP
statistics. there were 69
spousal and sexual assaults
reported in Terrace from
January to June,

Almost 22,000 cases of
spousal assaults were re-
corded by Canadian police
departments in 1996. It is
estimated the problem in
B.C. alone costs society
$385 -billion to $1 billion
manually,

“Tam totally appalled that
here at the end of the 20th

SCI has

ABOUT 50 women took to the streets for the Take Back The Night march last Fri-
day night. The annual eventis a strike back at victimization of women.

Century that we still have to
do things like this,’’ said lo-
cal feminist Rita Scott, a
founding member of one of
the first Rape Relief Centres
in Victoria. “I wish we
could say that we’ve made it
and that one sex doesn’t
have power or control over
another.”’

Scott urged women to sup-
port each other,

“Speak up for women
being abused. Show them
you're there to care, sup-
port, understand and
listen.”?

The first Take Back the
Night demonstration began
in the late 70’s in England
and Germany. The idea was
supported in Vancouver in
1978, and women there
have marched down streets
demanding an end to
violence against women
ever since,

seven

years to spend

THERE’S NO way Skeena
Cellulose can be legally
forced to end its delays and
start a-$170 million modern-
ization of its pulp mill, says
a local logging contractor.
‘Lloyd Hull of Don Hull
and Sons Contracting says
his lawyer has advised him
the company can take up to
seven. years to complete its
commitments’ under the
restructuring plan approved

_ carly this year,

“They're within — their
legal ‘rights,’ Hull said. “I
don’t know about their
moral rights, though,”

He said the company gave
the impression last winter
that it would quickly em-
bark on its spending plan to
make the pulp mill more ef-
ficient and ultimately make
the company more
profitable.

‘There was no mention
they would spend that
money over seven years
back at the time of the
creditors’ vote,’’ Hull said.

“HO

Suppliers and contractors

agreed to a settlement of 10.

cents on the dollar for mil-
{Ons “oF “doilais’ ini” unpaid
bills after Repap B.C. col-
lapsed.

They did that, Hull says,
with understanding that the
company’s owners — the
provincial government and
Torento Dominion Bank —
would put in the necessary
money to carry out the capl-
tal expenditure plan.

“They said they would
spend this money to fix it
up,”’ he said. ‘‘The message
was ‘Here’s what we're
doing, here’s what the
union’s doing and here’s
what you've got ta do.’ ””

Political pressure from the
region is likely the only
thing that could now prompt
Skeena Cellulose’s owners
to change course, he said.

City officials have also
called for the spending pro-
gram to begin, so costs cam
be cut and profitability im-
proved,

Rip-off artists use
net to target area

GET-RICH-QUICK _ ploys
could be trouble for focal
consumers, said a northwest
commercial crimes officer.

"T1’s a lesser kind of fraud
or rigged gambling,’’ said
Cpl. A.R. Goodyear in
Prince Rupert.

Billed as ‘multi-level
marketing strategies’? the
schemes act like a pyramid

‘where the company only

profits when new investors
join in. And, said Goodyear,
there's no praduct sold.

Pyramid schemes are il-
legal to run and participate
in, and the maximum penal-
ty is two years in jail.

But with the increasing

ease of the Internet, many |

‘organizers can just sit at
home and create a web site,
said Goodyear.

‘The Internet is so easy {0
put stuff on and send it
out,” says Goodyear. ‘‘The
organizers could be one or a
group of people.’’

RCMP issued B.C.-wide
watnings about two Internet
companies operating in the
tiorthwest: _Kamloops-based

Pentagano and a Modena, »

Htaly company called Future
Strategies 5.L.R. Limited.

But tracking down opera-
tors can be tricky.

“Is a new type of
crime,’? said local RCMP
officer Cpl. Anders Udsen.
“We have no training for
this.” =

Last February, Udsen was
involved in the arrest of
Chad [an Miller who was
charged with‘ ‘fraud and
diversion for allegedly oper-
ating a Internet scheme
where people. bid on and
sent money here for non-
existent computer equip-
ment.

Miller, says Udsen, has
since fled the province and
is wanted on a warrant for
ten charges including breach
of probation.

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