Parkside 2.0.
A school that closed
down last year has new
students and a new
lease on life\NEWS A5

Triumph over adversity
Two survivors share

their unique and
inspiring life _
stories\COMMUNITY B1

Great gals . -
Terrace ringette
players selected to.
northern all-star
team\SPORTS B4 |

$1.00 pLus-7¢-GST--
{$1.10 plus 8¢ GST
outside of the Terrace area)

@ Lucky dog

SASSY is back home with her family after a harrowing two-month fight for survival. The
dog went missing from her Kenney St. home on Halloween and was somehow stranded
on an island in the middle of the Skeena. She eluded rescuers for weeks before she
was finally retrieved. See page B1 for Sassy's story. JEFF NAGEL PHOTO

detail, ~ 22.0.0 eu.

By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN
POLICE ARE looking for what they
describe as a uneducated, mentally
unstable individual who may have a
sexual dysfunction who is sending do-
zens of harassing letters to members of
Terrace's Punjabi community.

The individual may even have help
and is familiar enough with technology
to be listening in on celi phone and
cordless phone conversations, says
Terrace RCMP Staff Sergeant Tom
Forster.

More than 40 handwritten letters
have been sent starting last fall to two

extended family members and neigh-
bours. ;

The letters are each handwritten in-
dividually in Punjabi script while the
plain white envelopes are addressed in
English in what appears to be different
hand writing.

Forster says that leads him to be-
lieve more than one person may be in-
volved in sending the letters.

The first letters contain allegations
of personal activities of the victims
mentioned.

“The contents of the letters indicate
being overly concerned about some-
thing they have no business being con-
cerned about,” Forster said.

The letters appear to be intended to .

drive a wedge between the people in
two specific and not blood-related fa-
ilies, he adds.

Letter writer

Harassment uses high, low-tech tactics

’ tening devices.

different families as well as friends, -

The letters contain no threats or de-
mands of any sort and seem to be re-
gularly appearing on the same day of
the week.

“It doesn’t compel them to do
something or not do something. It’s
dispersal of information intended to
make people feel uneasy,” said For- |
ster. : if

The letters state the writer has en-
tered the victims’ homes to plant lis-

While he would not say if any lis-
tening devices were found in the
homes, Forster did say subsequent let-
ters contained details of private con-
versations of some of the victims.

How that information may have
been obtained is unknown but Forster
did say eavesdropping on conversa-
tions using analogue cell phones is re-
latively easily done. In addition, it’s
easy to listen in on conversations on

By JENNIFER LANG
IT NOW appears the school district may have to
chop as much as $5.3 million from its operating
budget in order to balance its books next year.

Coast Mountains School District secretary-
treasurer Marcel Georges delivered the bad news
to school trustees last week.

The board had already been told to brace for a
deficit of between $4 and 5 million for the com-
ing school year.

Georges said he had hoped earlier estimates
would shrink as more data became available.

But recent news that the school district now
faces a 2.5 percent wage increase for Canadian

Union of Public Employees staff. while other -

sources of revenue are shrinking means the. dis-.

trict’s anticipated budget gap continues to grow,

Meanwhile, just 50 people — mostly parents —
showed up to the first of a series of working
meetings taking place in Terrace this month to
explore possible budget cuts.

The public is being asked to provide meaning-
ful input on a list of cuts, cost-saving ideas and
money-generating suggestions being explored.

“People came to listen, to learn and to contri-
bute,” assistant superintendent Rob. Greenwood
said. “People want to be informed.”

As planned, participants broke -off into separ-
ate classrooms to discuss various suggestions in

pat ta a a Ta lala ead etna,

The largest group Jooked at the pros and cons

of moving to a four-day school week and year- |

round schooling — two controversial suggestions
that give some indication of the hard decisions
that lie ahead for school trustees.
“Our budget is about $50 million. Somewhere
between 85 and 90 per cent of that is spent on
personnel,” Greenwood said. “That gives you an

idea of the situation. It isn’t a question of where
you can sell a bunch of trucks and deal with it.”

_ Other ideas include charging parents for noon-
hour supervision and selling value-added pro-
ducts made by students to help increase revenue.

Findings will be- compiled into a report that
will be submitted to school trustees Feb. 5.

Community meetings are being held in Ste-
wart, Kitwanga, and Hazelton this week.

Tomorrow night is the second of four working —

meetings taking place at Thornhill Junior Sec-
ondary that are open to the public.

A list of room locations according to topic
will be posted in the school’s foyer. - ,

Greenwood said anyone wha would like to
write down comments are welcome to drop by
even if they don’t want to participate in the work
groups. ,

Declining enrolment is one of the main rea-
sons for the budget crunch. He said the school
district’s latest enrolment figures suggest the
decline in students appears to have slowed
somewhat.

Greenwood said the district has fost one half
of a percentage point fewer students this year
compared to. the same time last year.

“It’s pretty indicative that things are a little
bit better, The trend is slowing.”

In all, 162 students have left the district since

-September..Of. that,-57-have.moved,, 17.have.en-

rolled in correspondence school, and 88 have
withdrawn. an . =
Greenwood said many ‘are students with atten-
dance problems who simply stopped coming to
schooi.: 7
The net loss since September to School Dis-

trict 82 is actually just 111 because some stu-

dents have moved into the district.

Northwest unemployment rate rises —

UNEMPLOYMENT in the northwest shot up by
nearly a full point in December to 11.6 per cent.

That’s up more than two full points from 9.5
per cent in October. ;

The jobless rate for the region had dipped
down below 10 per cent briefly at the end of the
summer — believed due to a surge in seasonal
summer jobs and market logging — but has now
risen again.

Labour force survey stats have also shown a

‘ i

STAFF SERGEANT Tom Forster displays a stack of harassing letters targetting members of the local Indo-Ca-
nadian community. He says the behaviour is persistent and brazen. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO

steady rise in part-time jobs in recent months
while the number of full-time positions has fall-
en.

That's generally a signal that employers are

‘reducing hours of their employees in response to
’ the poor economy.

Hopes for improvement rest on a restart of
Skeena Cellulose, scheduled for late spring, and

a possible end to the softwood lumber dispute

with the U.S.

old-style cordless phones.

Up until just a few weeks ago, cell
phone service in Terrace was analo-
gue. The new digital service makes it
more difficult to listen in on conversa-
tions. .

The letter writer and any helpers
also used a felt marker to deface a ve-
hicle, a home and a commercial
building frequented by one of the vic-
tims with excerpts of the letters.

In some of thosé. cases, the perpe-
trator had a very ‘narrow window of
time ~ roughly 10 minutes, said For-

. ters that

ster. “In plain daylight we’ve had
someone writing on windows and vehi-
cles,” he said. “So, it’s very brazen.”

Forster is hesitant to give details of
the investigation but admits it-has in-
cluded video surveillance of some of
the victimis’ homes and places of busi-
ness targeted by the letter writer.

“I've never scen something like this
before,” he says. "

He says it’s unusual for someone to

spend so much time hand writing let-
are so widely distributed. |

or rn

Despite police efforts to deter the
letter writer, the envelopes continue to
arrive. “It appears ihe intent of the fet-
ters is to create disharmony and dis-
trust within the families,” Forster says.

The letters are being translated by
several Punjabi-speaking individuals
who have received the letters, Forster
said, They have not yet been transla-
ted by an independent source.

- The preliminary character analysis
was done by Forster himself, but he is
now forwarding the letters to a special

police profiling unit in Vancouver.

Forster says the delay in bringing
the harassment to the public’s atlen-
tion was out of respect for the victims’
privacy.

Initially, one of the victims was
worried about the information spread-
ing throughout the Indo-Canadian
community, Forster says.

But given the persistency of the let-

’ ter writer, he says the public’s help is
y

needed to help identify the perpetrator
and stop the continued harassment.

look worsens |