LEGISLATIVE LISRARY; COMP: 77/78 PARLIAMENT UILDINGS;

VECTOREA, H.C. ; #61

} i

\

VOLUME 71 NO, 153

\

BM act tol alll

20¢

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1977

- Pictured here are only two of the wonderful faces you will see when you attend the all new production of “Three Little Pie |

tot vt

Falconbridge cut-back bad for indus’

TORONTO (CP) — A spokesman for Falcon- bridge Nickel Mines Ltd. has refused to confirm or deny a statement by MP John Rodriguez that the company will announce today it is shutting down

its Sudbury, Ont., operations. - Herbert Hickey said

that although he knows what Falconbridge of- ficials plan to announce following a special meeting later taday in Sudbury, ‘the company has taken the firm position that it will convey its production plans for 1976 to its employees first,” then make the information public,

Rodriguez said Wed-

nesday in Ottawa the announcement will come at the end of the sched- uled meeting between company officers, representatives of the United Steelworkers Union and provincial. government officials. The NDP member for the Sudbury-area riding of Nickel Beit did not give the source of his in- formation. He said the

shutdown would affect all 4,000 Falconbridg employees in the Sudbury basin.

Falconbridge President Marsh Cooper met for almost an hour earlier Wednesday with Premier William Davis at Queen’s Park amid

rumors that. the company.

planned ‘more “layoffs than the 350 announced in August. . - The company has said the 350 jobs will be eliminated, maini: through attrition, by the end of 1977. Falconbridge reported last month it had a loss of $14.6 million for the third quarter of this year. ~ Government — spokesmen would only say Wednesday. that. the

company’s operations. Cooper would not comment.

The company said the job eliminations will not become elfective untii the end of March, 1978. All workers affected will be given a minimum of 16 weeks notice as required by the Ontario Em- ployment Standards Act.

Strangler gets 10 years for muraer of 2 women

MONTREAL (CP) — Shouts of protest foliowed a ruling by a Quebec Superior Court judge Wednesday granting the strangler of two women the right to apply for parole in 10 years.

Pierre Paquette, 27, was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum of 10 years to serve before parole, after pleading guilty to the second-degree murders of Lise Coutu, 21 and Rolande Martel, 33.

“I find this revolting,” shouted a man who was identified as a brother of one of Paquette’s vic- tims.

Another young man and a female companion threatened Paquette that he ‘‘better not come out in 10 years.” All three were

later ejected from the courtroom by security

guards.

Paquette, told the court he had been under the influenceof hallucinogenic drugs when he strangled the two women in a nine-day period in July.

In handing down his ruling Wednesday, Mr. Justice Maurice Ar- chambault said he was iraposing the minimum 10-year term because Paquette was a psychiatric case whose eligibility to move back into society could be re- assessed by a parole board.

Those second-degree murder must serve between .10 and 25 years before being eligible to apply for pa- role.

P.Q. seeking own currency

_ OTTAWA (CP) — Finance Minister Jean Chretien brushed aside Wednesday the idea of a mew currency for an independent Quebec. Answering questions in the Commons, he said urchasers of Quebec

onds insist on being repaid in Canadian dollars.

Quebec Finance ; Minister Jacques / Parizeau said in Europe this week an independent Quebec would develop its own currency if Canada refused to join a monetary union.

Chretien was asked about the matter by Leonel Beaudoin (SC— Richmond).

convicted of ,

AG. Slade, vice- president. of the com- pany’s Canadian nickel division, said the com- pany regards the current situation as a temporary condition and the length of the curtailed produc- lion will depend on world market. conditions. ©

“Nickel” ptaducer “Inco Lid,,, ihe other major employer in the Sudbury area, also has reported financial difficulties. -.

Inco said eurhier this fall it will eliminate 2,800 jobs from its Sudbury operations—-2,260 through layoffs and 606 through attrition. [t also plans to eliminate 650 jobs at its Thompson, Man.,

o . operations. discussion concerned the «. P

Sudbury.

Falconbridge president Marsh Cooper met

Wednesday with Premier

Willi'm Davis at Queen’s Park. There was a meeting Tuesday with, Cooper, Falconbridge officials, Labor Minister Bette Stephenson and Frank Miller, minister of natural resources.

Dr. SLephenson said she was told that the present

> squtlook ‘for the nickel’

industry is poor.

WILL. CAUSE HARD- SHIP ¢.

Residents of the Sud- bury area,. with a population of about 100,00), have said the Inco jayoffs would cause severe financial hardship to local businesses and stores.

Inco and Falconbridge

- have biamed government

policy and the depressed international price of nickel for their financial problems.

' Saveral said

Union offers b&b the companics ani | policies of st

massive amas # nickel. On, Tuesday, - fi

explosions ai fsci's p . hoa caused the company tv suspend most Gperations

« abaits-.copper- safniempzin-

the Copper Clif? aia of Skdbury.

_ Inco officials said there was. no doubt 9 that sabotage was quiviire.. they Siis- pected the explosions were a protest against dhe planned layoffs.

The incident oceuiis! nine days aiter two bombs exploded at un Ontario Hydro trans- former in Sudbury, cutting off power for two hours to about 10,000 homes and businesses.

$250,000 for Surrey zoo

VANCOUVER (CP) — Retired businessman Jim Graham Wednesday pledged at least $250,000 to the proposed Tynchead Zoological Park in an ef- fort to encourage other contributions. ,

Graham, a Canadian governor of the World Wildlife Fund, said he has given the Tynehead Zoological Society a carefullyarranged series of financial com- mittments, all of them

pending - other con- tributions and the sociely’s success in

signing members.

He said he would donate $10,-000 on Dec. 17, if the society has signed up 1,200 members and if other grants totalling $66,000 are made. The society presently has aver 1,000 signed memhers..

Graham said he would five a further $40,000 on

Dec. 15, 1978, $50,00 on Dec, 15, 1979, a fkrther $150,000 on Dec. 15, f008 and a final donation in 1981.

All the = offers subject to a variety of other conditions Muiryr met.

The society plans a zen on a 640-agere site in Surrey, southeast af here, Its initial financial ya | for the $30-million project is $10 million.

Impaired driver charges up 28%

in first 5 months

VANCOUVER (CP) — ihe number of roadside

handed motorists for Ss uspected driving was up by nearly 28 per cent during the first five months of the British Columbia government’s Drinking- Driving Counterattack. Programndirector Ron Boyle of the attorney general’s department said Wednesday that

from early June, when

the program began with the introduction of year- round roadblocks, to the end of October, 9,552 24-

hour roadside suspen- ]

sions were given.

That was an increuse of 2,084, or 27,9 per cent, ovey the total for the corresponding period in 1976, he said.

“This suggests to us that the police are out

imps

there more intensively and they. are’ getting to people quicker-—they are getling the drinking drivers before they are fully sloshed,’ Boyle said.

Boyle said the year- round roadblocks are planned by local police forces as their manpower and scheduling permits, usually on an irregular spot basis.

PLAN ROADBLOCKS

The Vancouver police department plans Christmas-period roadblocks on a daily basis in: unannounced oca tions, st Tuesday and continuing to dan. 12 or later if thought necessary,

During the five months of the campaign, there were 9,559 charges. of impaired driving, down about 400 from last year,

an indication that motorists, aware of Up campaign, are being cautious abuut mixing drinking with driving, Boyle said.

The number of chases

for failure to tnke a breath test is up lo 935 from 438 last year.

Cost for the first 10 months-- from iist June to next March-- will be about $750,000, Boyle sau, compajd with original es- timates of about $59,000, with costs being shared with the Insurance Corporation of BC., which stands to benefit.

Costs of the program to date have included about $200,000 for (he vans, provided to police at Provincial government

and ICBC expense: and about $260.-G0u for ad- vertising and prometion.

Vav-IX4 -

Safe Driving In Terrace

. In Terrace sage Driving Week (Dec. 1-7) ended Wed- nesday in Terrace wilh no fatalities, one personal injury and 19 cases of property damage: 14 of the latter occurred in one very busy 4-hour period Saturday. There were 52 charges laid in Terrace during the week, under the Motor Vehicle Act, 2 charges of impaired driving and 4 twenty-four driving licence suspensions.

According to Terrace Detachment RCMP Sgt. Cumming, had it not been for the hectic. 4-hour

period that racked up the 14 accidents, Terrace would have had a drastically. improved Safety Week compared to 1976. Cummings feels: there was no real need for’ the Saturday afternoon

“bash-in” —- most of the .

accidents being the result of cadivicssness and disregard.

Some Terrace frivers, the RXMP © Sergeant added, are not. wearing their seat belts and this resulted in Gor 3 charges last week. Others, he said, jump into their cars without letting them warm up, and drive off

with just a small space cleared on the windshield to see through. — Qb- structed vision, resulting from” this practice, brought charges against

two such impatient (or —

lazy) Terrace drivers this week... .. woo

Because windowws and un-belted driving are against the law in B.C., and- also because such driving is dangerous, the local detachment will ‘be keeping a continued walch for such cases and charges will be laid, Cummings coneluded.

UVic To Step In

VICTORIA (CP) — A special committee of the Universities Council of British Columbia rec- ommended Wednesday that the University of Victoria be asked to offer university-level | courses in the Interior to replace those formerly provided by Notre Dame University in Nelson.

Limited walkout

TORONTO (CP) — Ed Roworth, acting director of public affairs for the post office, said only 200 of 800 workers reported for work on the day shift today at a ietter processing plant which has been. the target of walkouts and sit-ins since Monday.

Roworth said he does not expect a disruption in mail service today, as most workers were on the job during the overnight shift.

-. Late Wednesday night, the Canadian Union. of

Postal .Workets sanc-_ tioned ‘a walkout by all

2,500 employees of the plant. ~

Union officials say they will meet Saturday to discuss the possibility of extending the strike to other post offices across Metropolitan Toronto.

Toronto handles about 5D per cent of Canada’s mall ;

The stoppages began Monday night when about 140 workers.took part ina sit-in in the cafeteria to protest the use of part- time Christmas workers for sorting mail through

automated «equipment. -

The employees held another sit-in Tuesday night, and Roworth said union and management agreed late Tuesday night that Christmas help would not work with the automated equipment.

Roworth said the post office suspended nine employees pending an investigation of the sitins and workers walked off the job Wednesday to protest the suspensions.

Gary Whitehouse, secretary of the union local, said in an interview the union realizes the situation does not warrant a strike, but management has given them no alternative.

B.C. BRIEFS

HOUSING AP- PROVED

VICTORIA (CP) — The

provincial government

has approved in principle construction of 50 self- contained senior citizen ‘housing units proposed for Salmon Arm by the Shuswap Housing Society, Housing Minisler Hugh Curtis said Wed- nesday. Curtis said in a news release the project will. include 40 single: occupancy units, eight double-occupancy units and two units for the handicapped.

JORDON ELECTED

PORT ALBERNI (CP) — Loran K. Jordon was elected Wednesday as chairman of the Port Alberni Harbor Commis: sion, Jordon, who was mayor of the Vancouver Island city for 14 years -and who has served on eily's harbor commission for the last 10 years, replaces J. Bryce Blake who died Nav. 27.

George Pedersen, UVic vicepresident and a member of the com- mittee, said his group

recommended to the council that a co- operativeprogram

between UVic and Selkirk

College in Castlegar be set up with the university offering third and fourth- year courses to permit students to complete their degree

requirements in the

Nelson area. .

He said Education Minister Pat McGeer had asked the council to look into ways of providin services formerly offere by NDU.

The committee also recommended that ag special school of resource management be estab- lished in the Okanagan under the direction of Simon Fraser University, Pedersen said.

Kitimat grievances settled

VANCOUVER (CP) — The last of the out- standing grievances arising from the bitter wildcat strike at the Alcan aluminum smelter in Kitimat in June, 1976 has been resolved by the British Columbia Labor Relations Board.

The grievance involved Alcan employee Alistair Nerman, who at the time of the strike was still in the probationary ‘period of his employment.

Norman was fired by the company after he had completed the probationary period. The firing was appedted on

‘the*grourids * ‘the*cont=

pany'’s — action was ‘iccriminatory because

‘other workers who had taken part in the strike were only suspended.

In upholding Alcan’s right to fire Norman, Don Munro, board — vice- chairman, ruled the worker was stilk on probation under the terms of the collective agreement.

The Canadian Association of Smelter and. Allied Workers set- tled out of court to pay Alean $135,000 in damuges following the 18- aay walkout over a pay dispute. At. one point in the dispute, 200° riote

“equipped: RCMP~cleared

illegal pickets off a road leading to the smelter.

12.5 per cent ave native -

OTTAWA (CP) — Native people have little say in the criminal justice system although they make up the larges! single minority in prisons, a special native commission reported today. :

Roughly 12.5 per cent of the federal prison population is native, said the report of the Metis and Non-Status Indian Crime and — Justice Commission. In some provincial prisons, es- pecially in the West and women’s institutions, the percentage is as high as $0 per cent, it added.

The commission was ereated by the Native Council of Canada in 1975 and spent iwo years studying the number of natives in jails and why they were put there.

It found that a major contributing factor to the “disproportionate” number of natives in jails is - “the lack of a meamingful economic base in the majority of communities that the prisoners came from.”

The report said the large number of native people in jails is a reflection of their position in soviety—-a people with low education, high unemployment, poverty, poor housing, welfare dependency and lack of opportunity.

The commission also reported the following

findings after in- terviewing 316 native prisoners: —Fifty-

seven per cent were unemployed when they committed their offences, and almost 33 per cent still were in prison after their parole eligibility date,

—Forty-nine per cent were 25 or under and 50 per cent had Grade 3 education or less, and 90

r cent of their offences involved alcohol or drugs.

-—More than 80 per cent had been in jail before, 50

recent had relatives in jall while they were growing up and more than 66 per cent had frfens who had gone lo all.

SUGGESTS CHANGES The report makes 90 recommendations, most aimed at getting more native representation at all levels of the criminal justice system, It adds that numerous studies have been done in the last 10 years but little prog- ress has been made.

More than one-half of.

the natives interviewed were status Indians, natives registered by the department of Indian affairs and who have certain rights under the Indian Act. The report said having so many of them in jails indicates the department has failed to deal with needs of treaty Indians.

“{ find it deplorable that the disproportionate number of status Indians incarcerated in the penitentiaries indicates that the department of. Indian affairs, with its m u lti- million budget, thousands of civil servants, multitudes of programs, has not been able to deal effectively with the wants and needs ofour treaty brothers and sisters," said Harry Daniels, head of the commission.

Daniels also is president of the Native Council of Canada.

“Unless we as native people are accepted as a distinct cultura! vibrant society we will always be relegated to

being second-cla citizens.” HALE ARE NATIVES

At a news conference, the commission said 50 Fer cent of all persons in various types of jails across the country are native people.

Also, 50 per cent of in- carcerated juvelines are natives.

Daniels told reporters that keeping natives. in jail has beeome an in- dustry,

“No one wants to deal with our realities.”

He said that to get a job, natives have to commit a crime and go to court, where court workers are able to find wark for offenders.

obsuured .