Sweet skiing Local teens take on the best of the province during K2 alpine cham- pionships\SPORTS B4 No dice Close vote at city council ends push to bring a casino to Terrace Music makers Performers from across the region converge in Terrace next \NEWS A14 week\COMMUNITY B21 $1.00 Fius 7¢ GST {$1.10 plus 8¢ GST - outsicle of the Terrace area) Weilhesday, April 3; 2002 Officer By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN A TERRACE RCMP officer was given a conditional discharge and one year probation after he pleaded guilty to at- tempied obstruction of justice in a courtroom here March 28. Constable Jason Alexander McDo- nald, 30, was charged after he tipped off a local garage to an impending re- cords search by an employment insur- ance {E.1) investigator in 1999, That investigator, Vince Heslen- feld, arrived to the garage June 10, 1999 and found it closed. He later learned of a phone call MacDonald had placed to the garage prior to the altempted search. Hesselenteld then went to detach- ment commander Inspector Doug Wheler saying he felt his investigation had been compromised. Tears flow at schools to be shut MAUREEN CLENT was just seven years old when as a Grade 1 student she cut the ribbon offici- ally opening Parkside Elementary School in 1970. _ Now a kindergarten teacher there, she spent last week com- forting students and trying to keep gets conditional discharge MacDonald had pleaded not guilty to the charge of attempted obstruction of justice. But Judge Ken Page deemed ad- missable a wire-tapped conversation of MacDonald admitting to making the phone call. The officer then changed his plea to guilty. The maximum sentence MacDo- nald could face was six months in jail, a $2,000 fine or both. A dozen of MacDonald’s supporters - mostly locat RCMP members — sat for more than three hours while recom- mendations for sentencing were made by crown counsel and MacDonald’s lawyer. Crown counsel Ron Toews recom- mended MacDonald be given a fine - which would also carry a criminal re- cord. Toews said the offence was one which had severe societal implica- tions. “It's a very serious one because it strikes at the very heart of the justice system,” Toews said. “Mr. MacDonald has abused the trust that another public officer — Mr. Heslenfeld — had put into the RCMP.” He argued the police suffered from the offence and the reputation of the justice system is at risk, But G. Jack Harris, MacDonald’s lawyer, recommended a conditional discharge which means MacDonald would not have a criminal record. Harris said prior to the sentencing that though an attempt to obstruct jus- tice may have been made, ultimately there was no interference with E.I. in- vestigation. “When they finally got to their fult investigation, they got it done,” Harris said. “Nothing was lost, nothing came out of it.” The E,] investigation began after Heslenfeld saw mechanic Bill Bobyck working on a vehicle al a local garage. Heslenfeld knew that Bobyck was then collecting E.l. Nothing ever came from Heslenteld’s subsequent inquiries. “That's why I say it should still fall in the category of no criminal record,” Harris said. Previous court decisions, letters of recommendation for MacDonald and the effects of the charge on his perso- nal life were considered in sentencing, Judge Page said. He said he took MacDonald's “glowing recommendations” from some members of the RCMP and from people in the community into consid- eration. “It appears to me what he did on this day from his home was in fact an act which was out of character for him,” Judge Page said of the call MacDonald made to the garage. ‘He added he was obligated to con- sider ihe requirements for a condition- al discharge. That criminal code section states if a discharge is in the interest of the ac- cused and not contrary to the public interest, it may be granted. Judge Page then granted MacDo- nald a conditional discharge. MacDonald will be on probation for one year, must perform 100 hours of communily service within the next Cont'd Page A2 |Closures: outrage parents | Shutting schools draws fire her own composure after learning the 32-year-old school will be shut down due to save money. “I've always taught at this school,” she said in disbelief, adding her own children are. Park- side students. Staff and parents alike were broadsided by news Parkside will close, along with four others in the district - including Copper eens Mountain in Thornhill. The nearly-com- pleted Moun- tainview Ele- mentary on the bench won't even be Opened, at least for the coming Tracy school year. Felhauer “People are in shock,” principal Christine Foster said Thursday. “It’s a sad place today.” The closure news was a double shock for Foster. Not only is she the principal of a school to be closed, she had recently been ap- pointed principal of Mountain- view, a school that. won’t open, And March 27, the day after the closure was announced, was supposed to be a day of celebra- tion for Foster. A luncheon was planned to honour her work at Parkside and to celebrate her new appointment. Parents are vowing not to give up without a fight at the prospect Mammogram van is delayed again — PARKSIDE Elementary school teacher Maureen Client keeps a poster of memories of her years at the school, She cut the ribbon when the school was officially opened on April 29, 1970. of having their students transferred to other schools in the horseshoe. But Parents Advisory Council chair Tracy Felhauer said trustees told them late last week there will be no reconsideration. “The board told us it was set in stone,” Felhaver said. “It was quite emotional,” “There was lots of tears, lots of frustration, lots of reality setting in,” she said. “What's going to happen in September when the kids are shoved, basically like sardines, into the school?” More inside M School closure de- tails, A11 @ Two trustees couldn't vote on closures, A11 H Alternate school to relocate to Parkside, A2 Felhauer said many parents want the trustees to either resign or to table a deficit budget that meets the district's needs. That runs the risk that Victoria might fire the board and appoint a bureaucrat to make the cuts with virtually no understanding or sym- pathy of local wishes, Felhauer said. . Some parents want to pressure the district by pulling their child- ren out of the public system and putting them in private schools, depriving the board of the money that flows with each student. But Felhauer says that likely won’t work because some local private schools are at capacity, Continued Pg. A11 By JENNIFER LANG COPPER MOUNTAIN Elementary parents are de- termined to keep their school open. Parent advisory council president Lynn Smith said parents plan to pack to- night’s schaol board meet- ing in Kitimat in un at- tempt to get the board to reconsider. A petition is circulating and parents have launched a letter writing campaign targeting the school board, the education ministry, and Skeena MLA Roger Harris. “We're not going to quit fighting until they ac- tually board the windows up on Copper Mountain,” Smith said. “It's that im- portant to us.” She said parents felt like they didn’t pet a fair vote last week. When the school board : voted to close Copper ‘Mountain, Thornhill trustee Gary Turner de- clared a conflict of inter- est. “We feel we have no representation in Thornhill,” Smith said, They haven’t had a lot of warning, either. As with Parkside, Cop- per Mountain appeared in a district inventory of pos- sible school closures re- leased during spring break. That prompted about 40 parents and staff from Copper Mountain to pack the school district’s town hall meeting on March 24 — just two days before the board made its decision. Copper Mountain tea- cher Richard Eckert urged trustees to follow their conscience and send a de- ficit budget to Victoria ra- ther than close schools, “They have been elec- ted to uphold the system — not destroy it,” he said. Kitselas chief councillor Glenn Bennett told trustees Copper Mountain is the school of choice for residents in the Gitans subdivision east of Thorn- hill on Hwy16. Closing the school be- cause of falling enrolment now would be short-sigh- ted, he said. “First Nations people - we stay here, This is where we're bom. This is where we’re froni.” The Kitselas band plans to build 125 new housing units in Gitaus, starting with eight next year. Bennett said he's aware of at least 50 families are thinking of moving there. “My community is going to be growing, and they would like to send their children to Copper Mountain,” he said, A LENGTHY DELAY in process- _ing the paperwork for a new mam- ‘mography machine here means it will have to go to tender all over again, And the reasoning behind wan- ting the machine originally ten- dered is being re-thought, says the man in charge of health care for Terrace, Kitimat and points north. “The money's been approved. That’s not a problem. But the offer we had has expired, so we need new quotes,” said Cholly Boland last week, “With the new authority, we are ow going to look at it through a re- .gional perspective,” he added. Boland is confident neither the re- tendering or re-thinking will take too tong. | This newest delay pushes back a re- placement program first approved four months ago. The old mammo- graphy machine at Mills had its plug pulled last fall after it failed to measure up to a technician’s i Boland spection. Women heeding mammography screening from Dease Lake and Ste- in- wart sauth to Terrace have had to tra- vel elsewhere for the service. ; A new machine was approved by late last year and those involved in the project hailed it as a win-win. Instead of a fixed-location just for Mills Memorial, the decision was to buy a mobile device and a customized van to go with it so it could be taken on the road. That way, women from the Nass Valley, Dease Lake and Stewart, for exatnple, would no longer have to tra- vel to Tertace. Up to $240,000 was approved for the unit and accessories and van with 60 per cent of the cost coming from the province and 40 per cent from the Northwest Hospital District which helps finance health care purchases. Purchase approval was organized through the now-defunct Terrace and Area Health Council. A supplier was also chosen from the bids that were submitted. But the disappearance of the old health council in favour of the new Northern Health Authority in Decem- ber put the actual buying of the unit on hold while the new governing body sorted itself out. That delay bas gone on so long the period of time in which the purchase price was guaranteed by the successful — bidder has elapsed, meaning it has to be re-tendered. “It is frustrating,” Boland conceded. He said the number of potential suppliers isn’t long, 2 “It may go up, it may not,” said Boland of the new price. He does think the new authority may get a good price simply because it has the purchasing power of a Jarger body, . Suppliers may give the authority a- cost break in hopes of attracting more business, Botand added. «© The re-thinking of the kind of mam- mography unit wanted simply reflects the new authority, he said. “It’s no longer just Terrace. We're - going to look at it from a regional per- spective,” Boland said.