Flaming June

Crews are mopping up what they |
hope were the worst fires of the.
season. /NEWS A3 a

Pride

Six students celebrated
completion of a Tsimshian native
art course. /COMMUNITY B1

Decision stands

Men's Soccer League players will
continue to use Christy Park
fields. /SPORTS B4

WEDNESDAY
JULY 6.1994

By DANA HUBLER
A SUPREME COURT jury con-
victed a 23-year-old Terrace
man last Thursday in the brutal
rape of a local woman one year
ago.

Patrick. Joseph Rinsma was
found guilty of sexual assault
causing bodily harm and unlawful
confinement in the April 16, 1993
incident.

Rinsma raped, ‘sodomized and
brutally beat the 41-year-old
woman with a dog leash while
she was trapped in his motel
cabin.

The jury rejected defence law-
yer Jeff Arndt’s argument that
Rinsma was not guilty because of

Salmonella
poisoning
hits here

FOURTEEN PEOPLE were
reported sick from salmonella
poisoning two weeks ago after
cating al a local restaurant.

Health inspectors suggested the
restaurant shut down to clean up,
said Ron Craig, manager of
health inspection at, the. Terrace
Health Unil.

Because the restaurant closed
voluntarily, Craig declined ta
name the restaurant,

The restaurant closed for two
days and then was allowed to re-
open by the health inspectors.

Reporls started coming from
physicians and the hospilal, said
Craig, and the health inspectors
began making the connection to
the restaurant.

Those affected complained of
cramps, diarrhea, nausea and
weakness, he said, -while only
nine of the cases were confirmed
by lab tests.

‘Because if usually takes be-
tween three and five days before
the symptoms of salmonella show
up, people don’t associate how
they are feeling with what they
ale five days ago,” he said.

Most.of the problems at the
restaurant were in the handling of
chicken, although some handling
of beef was also questionable,
said Craig.

Food was being held at room
temperature during preparation in
the kitchen, he said, and cutting
boards and knives were nol being
cleaned after cutting meat.

*‘ About half of the poultry fram
supermarkets we've tested has
salmonella,’ said Craig. ‘‘This
kind of food-poisoning can hap-
pen in the home just as casily.’’

He added that salmonella is
killed at 140 degrees F.

By JEFF NAGEL
A GROUP of Gitksan natives are
demanding a public inquiry into
how their leaders are spending
millions of dollars on an inland
commercial fishery on the upper
Skeena.

They accuse: the leadership of
spending $2.4 million in the last
two years without © providing
financial stalements -or any ac-
counting of how the morey has
been spent.

“Our people are blindfolded
and it makes me sick,” said
Gitwangak band member Norman

Johnson, the spokesman for the

dissident group,

The money is all under the:con-
tral of the Gitksan Wel’suwet’en

Watershed Authority.

It spent $900,000 in oe I
government grants from the’ Des: “ resources. from the i agreement

a stale **non-insane
automatism’ icading to amnesia.

Amdt -argued that Rinsma
couldn’t remember the incident
and was acting in a ‘involuntary,
automatic state”’. after suffering a
blow to the head in a fight earlier
that night.

That fight took place . in
George’s .Pub™ at the INorthern
Motor Inn, where Rinsma and the

‘woman had been drinking with

Rinsma’s- mother, and mutual
friends, court was told.

When ‘the. bar closed, Rinsma
and the woman were dropped off
at the cabin he rented at the Reel
Inn Motel on Hwyi6 West.

The woman ‘testified that she

. Oth airs
‘ll Flower power

KIDS AND GROWN-UPS took time out.on Tuesday, June 21 to paricipate in a community art
project on the arena hill to mark the Summer Solstice. They planted more than 4,300 tissue
paper flowers on the hillside, said focal artist and project organizer Joanne Thomson. The pro-
ject also raised just over $200 for the Kermadei Choristers. The youth choir travels to Prince
George Aug. 17 to sing for the Queen at the official opening of the University of Northern B.C.

wanted to continue drinking at
Rinsma’s cabin and talk with him
before going home.

‘*] wanted to comfort Patrick
because he was upset about the
fight,” she said. *‘I’m that kind
of pexson — I don’t like to see
people hurt.”

She sat down in the cabin while
Rinsma made a phone call to one,

- of his cousins.

When he got off the phone she
testificd that she told Rinsma that
she wanted to ‘‘drink some beer
and bulishit.’’

He then pulled her out of the
chair by the hair and forced her
into the bedroom, she said.

She said she told him to stop

but he threw her onto the bed [ace
down, stuffed her head into a pil-

low and started to beat her on the _

buttocks with a dog Icash,

During this first beating, she
testified, he repeatedly told her to
**tell Daddy you love him,”

Rinsma then took off her clo-
thing from ths waist down while
continuing io hold her face down,
court was told.

She said he raped her “for a -

while’ and then told her: '‘Now
I’m going to f-—— you up the
ass, 2?

Despite her protests, she said,
Rinsma sodomized her.

She said he then told her to per-
form oral sex on him and held her

partment of Fisheries and Oceans
(DFO) in the first year of opera-
tions, says Johnson, and $1.5 mil-
lion Jast year.

DFO officials say the watershed
authority has signed a multi-year
agreement to spend $1.5 million
on the inland Fishery in each year
from how to 1999, .

“We want. an inquiry,”” said
Johnson. ‘'We want-to know
where this moncy is golng,’’

"Nobody knows what the hell’s
going on,’’ added... Gitseguecla
hereditary chief Vernon’ Milton.
“They're not’ accountable to any:

ve body."

" He said “Feonle: believe. ‘sorne

communilies ‘and house: groups _
"are being discriminated. against in.

the allocation of, the “Money. and

“We don’t know where the
monsy’s coming, where it’s
going or how il’s being spent,’
Milton said. ‘“We're trying to
kick the door down and see where
the flow is. Wherever it is, it’s
not coming here,’”:.. -

Millon said Gitksan officials in

charge of the watershed authority
are acting without the authority of

the. hereditary chicfs.on whose.

behalf they signed agreements
with tHe federal government.

Gitksan. Wet’suwet'en

Watershed. Authority officials -
: could. not: be reached : for-¢ com-
ment last. week.”

oe know these prople ate very. _
frustrated,”’-said DFO Spokesman _
Kell B Bolton. “But we. feel ibal

tion.”

‘SIF they’re noi getting accoun-
tability from the people they have
put in place as their representa-
tives, then they should be ap-

proaching these people and as--

king fora meeting.”’ =...

‘DFO aboriginal fisheries diree-
tor Paul Kariya said the kind of
“political fragmentation and fall-
out?’ taking place in the -Gitksan
territories has 16 be dealt with by

people there inthe same way that.

political differences are sorted out

- in the rest of socicty.

Any time there is political strife
and one side gains power, he sald,

-“theré are those who sec. them-

solves as winners and losers." ee
“Bolton sald: the: Gitksan
“Wet'suvet’en

* Watershed o

ilty verdict in brutal rape |

by the back of the head while he
forced his penis into her mouth.

When he wouldn’t allow her to
leave the bedroom io go to the
bathroom, the woman urinated on
the bed.

Rinsma got angry, she said, and
told her to put on a pink
nightdress and ‘lay in the bed
and look pretty for Daddy,’”

When the woman told him she
couldn’t ‘‘look pretty’’ for him,
he made her stand in the corner of
the room and listen to him.

When ‘she turned. her head out

_ of the corner to speak to Rinsma,

she testified, he threw her back

- onto the bed and beat her again

for “not obeying him and not
Answers

THE RESIDENTS OF North Ter-
race and Brauns Island want fire
projection and reduced fire insur-
ance rates, says Paul Gipps,
spokesman for the residents,

And while both the city and
regional district are prepared to
meet the request, everything's on
hold until. local insurance - agen-

cies decide which residents will

.

receive reduced rates.

“My biggest concern is that a
fire will start as we're walting for
the insurance companies lo let us
know what they’re prepared to
do,’’ he said. -

As it-is now, the residents of
North Terrace and Brauns Island
may get a response from the
Thornhill Fire Department but
there is no guarantee, said Gipps.

The regional district, fire de-

partment and insurance brokers

will meet this week to prepare. the
final proposal for the residents.

‘Depending on the outcome of

these discussions, we'll make
some decisions but we need fo
know the concerns of the insur-
ance agencies,’ said regional clis-
trict administrator Bob Marcellin.

The boundary of what the insur-
ance companies can guarantee
must be defined, he emphasized.

Ail residents within a five-mile
radius of the Terrace Fire Depart-
ment would pay reduced. rates,
according to Gipps,

Bul residents who live outside
this five-mile limit would still
pay full Insurance rales even
though they would also be paying
additional taxes. for fire Pro-
tection. -

“Tt would be unfair if a person
living on one side of the. street
paid $700 in insurance and
people paid- $1,400 across the
strecl,’’ Gipps pointed out.

Natives say finances smell

people, placed river guardians in
the field, bought equipment and
conducted the fishery.

**We are satisfied wilh Ihe work
that was done,’” he said.

Asked If DFO is satisfied with

_ the “condition of the financial
“statements
- sald:

submitted, - Kariya
“We've had some difficulties.
We haven’t yet received a final
financial reporl for 1993-94,"? -

-* Johnson sald he and others have :
asked Skeena. MP Mike Scott to

Took into the situatton.
Scott says he-is writing letters

_ to key. fisheries officials demand-
ing answers 200°: 2
*"He's also calling on the govem- .
“ment to: , Suspend all licences and

“freeze all: fu

75¢ PLUS 5¢ GST
VOL. 7 NO. 420

being good.”

She told the court Rinsma beat
her bare buttocks with the dog
leash and told her, '*] still don’t
know what I’m going to do with
your body.”’ :

“The last words he said to me
were scary and that’s why I
prayed,” said the woman. ‘I
serlously thought he meant it and
I was never going to see my chil-
dren and grandchildren again.’”

Finally, the woman lestified,
Rinsma passed out and she went
to the cabin door but found it
jammed shut with three table
knives, -

She pulled. out the knives and

Cont’d page A2

awaited

on fire insurance

He would like to see fire pto-
tection and reduced rates for all
residents of Brauns Island and
north to the Deep Creek bridge.

While the insurance agencies
want to see fire protection for the
residents, Doug McLeod of
Wightman and Smith Insurance

. Said drawing the line is notoasy, ..

‘We can’t “guarantee . these
people will get coverage under

‘the five-mile limit rate, but they
‘ may get it,’” he said,

“It would be unfair if a
person living on. one
side of the street paid
$700 in insurance and
people paid $1,400
across the streot. ”

However, companies would
probably compete for the busi-
ness Of the North Terrace resi-
dents and extend the five-mile
limit for customers, McLead sug-

‘gested.

‘We know that everyone is not
going to be satisfied,’ he con-
ceded. “I think the {insurance
companies are just going to have

» tosay they have some restrictions
on what they can offer people.”

On a January 5,'1994. petition,
more than 75 per cent of North
Terrace residents and most
Brauns Islanders signed. asking
for a fire protection. ,

The residenta'‘would pay an ad-
ditional $180-$200 in taxes to the
regional district and city in ex-
change for response from the Ter-
racé Fire Department and backup
water supplies from the Thornhilt
tanker.

ishy

“It would be nice to get some -
answers prior’
fishery going ahead this year,’ he
added. -

The government tas to be ex-

tremely ‘careful. when: entering
into agreements with . Indian

‘bands that ‘they are actually get-
‘ting true representation,” Scott

said,

They also have to make sure
people understand the agreements
and agree with them, he said. .

Scoit said some natives have at-.
tacked hls recent statements about
self-government, accusing him of |
trying 10 divide riative groups.

“Pim: not!.trying to ‘drive. a
wedge anywhere,’” he sald. “Pm 7
trying to show - that the process

» tight now Ls flawed and hag to be

ni, Changed In omer for, successful .

aroinends to coiled" Moe

to the inland — -