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Ar new v kind of prisoner will soon be bunking at the correctional

Friends of the Rossiters organize a benefit auction and | dance\COMMUNITY B1

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 31, 1996

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Here's S a way to cut t down on ‘the cost of post secondary | education\SPORTS B9

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75¢ PLUS 5G GST . VOL. 8 NO. 42.

| Victim’s faith gave her strength

WARNING. This story contains des- criptive passages that may not be suitable for all members of the family.

By KATHLEEN BRANDSMA TAMMY FEE cried out to Jesus for help while her ex-boyfriend brutally attacked and sexually assauited ber in her own home.

“Faith is what gives me strength. It’s only by the grace of God that I’m alive,” Fee, 31, told a packed courtroom here last week.

‘I's by the grace of God that I’m here, That’s what saved me.”

Fee was attacked by Ric White, 44, at her Jackpine Flats home last June 22.

White, a reallor at the time of the at- lack, was sentenced to two years in

prison after pleading guilty to breaking |

into Fee’s home and altacking her.

He’s also to serve three years probation upon his release.

Four other charges of harassment, as-

sault, unlawful confinement and threatening to cause bodily harm were slayed.

Fee spoke about the attack in court during White’s sentencing Jan. 23 and

again the next day at a session held at the Terrace Women’s Resource Centre.

Fee says she’s a survivor and she’s trying her best to get on with her life.

Fee met White in the summer of 1994 when her previous marriage was break- ing up.

She says White presented himself as the kind of man she’d want to marry. He was a respected member of the com- munity and very involved in Promise Keepers, an internationally known Chris- tian men’s group.

“He came into my life as a Christian wanting to help another Christian,’ Fee said.‘‘And sure I needed help, I was a single mom.’

He gave her Bowers and presents and recited poetry. Fee thought he was a good role model for her kids,

“It was almost too good to be true, like an overkill of kindness.”’

But a few months into the relationship, Fee says White started to show signs of , jealousy and he became very possessive to the extent that he told her what he wanted her to wear.

“His personality was changing,’’ Fee

said. “‘He was sulfocating me, ] wanted to spend more time with my kids and my horses. It was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

She said she talked to him on the phone. a number of times, and asked him to give her space, but he wouldn't listen.

On June 22, 10 days before the attack, Fee asked the RCMP for a peace bond to legally restrain While from contacting her.

But she says the RCMP only warned White verbally and that nothing formal was ever written up.

Fee then stayed at a friend’s place fora few days because she was afraid White would show up at her house,

But she then returned home and on June 22, White broke into her house.

Sitting quietly in the witness box in cour2t, the slim, dark-haired, survivor told her story in a clear, but shaky voice.

Fee said she'd fallen asleep while watching a video that night and got up when she heard a noise downstairs, but she didn’t notice White was upstairs un- til she turned around.

“He had handcuffs over his arm, and a

knife in his teeth. He looked crazy. His first words to me were ‘you're dead’,”’ Fee said.

“He punched me in the mouth so hard T flung around. Every cell in my body cried oul, what was he doing in my home? When he cuffed me, something inside of me cried out — Jesus help! I was so alone. He grabbed the knife and pushed me hard against the wall.”

Fee said she then started telling him She still loved him and was very happy to see him, because she said wanted to talk him out of hurting ber,

In her victim impact statement she said, “I saw the look change in his eyes, and the old Rick was there for a minute, 1 told him to remember what we'd talked about in the past, and said ] wanted those things with him.’*

But she says he still accused her of lying and made ber go into the bedroom with him.

He told her he couldn’t cat or sleep or function properly without her and he demanded lo know why she’d said ear- lier she hadn't wanted to see him.

She told him she was messed up and

Don bed

patients.”

didn’t mean that.

Fee said she eventually persuaded White to take the one handcuff off her leg because it hurt,

“He had a knife and made me lie down on the bed, and I hugged him and said ] loved him. He took my nightgown off.”*

She says she then had sex with him be- cause she was afraid if she didn’t he'd handcuff her to bed.

Afterwards, when he fell asleep, she slipped out of bed and escaped to a neighbour's house and called the RCMP. White was arrested and has been in custody ever since.

Fee later leamed he’d broken into her house by stacking crates up to her bedroom window and cutting the screen.

He'd also cut her phoue lines before he broke in.

“What Ric White has done to me has affected me financially, emotionally and physically,’’ Fee said,

She tried to retum to work at Caledonia Senior Secondary last fall but found she wasn’t up to it.

Cont'd Page Ai4

't let the

bugs bite

DON’T CUT any more beds.

That was the short message delivered by Mayor Jack Taistra last week as Terrace city council waded into the middle of the hospital budget debate.

Talstra called a press couference to put more pressure on both Victoria and Mills Memorial Hospital's governing _ society to not allow further service cuts in their quest to

hack another $500,000 out of the hospital budget in 1996.

“To reduce beds would make a desperate situation even more desperale,’” Talstra said. “‘Cuts in budget can be made, but let’s not make them at the expense of services to

If beds are cut, Talstra said, specialists here would leave,

im _ and locals would be forced to fly lo Vancouver more often

for treatment.

@ Volcano alert

THE CALEDONIA school gym is in danger of being buried in lava Amber Knezacek's class. Britnee's classmates all submitted from a number of experimental volcanoes this Saturday. That's be- cause the gym Is the site of the annual Terrace Science Festival. Above is Britnee Thomson, a grade three student at Parkside in

enties to the science festival, She chose to make a volcano be- cause she liked one she saw at another science festival.

payments.

“This will be the start of a two-licr medical system,” he . said. “The rich will fly to Vancouver or wherever for much needed treatment. The poor will stay here and pos- sibly without treatment,””

City council — which successfully trimmed $500,000 out of ils smaller budget in 1995 without cuts lo services — suspects not enough is being done to find creative ways of cutting costs at Mills without affecting the patients.

“Tf they do everything possible but cut beds, we'll be the first ones to knock on doors in Victoria for them, cillor David Hull said, ‘‘But they can’t count on us to knock on doors if they're going to cut beds. That quite frankly is bullshit. [t’s the lazy, lazy way out and they should know better.””

But Skeena NDP MLA Helmut Giesbrecht says the de- gree to which the hospital is used by people here --- and the resulting cost — is hard to justify in the light of num- bers at hospitals elsewhere and in culs to federal transfer

’” coun-

Cont’d Page Ai2

Nisga’a deal details undecided

By JEFF NAGEL

A DEAL to settle the Nisga’a land claim probably won’t come as quickly as rumours suggest, says Skeena NDP MLA Helmut Giesbrecht,

Although a Nisga’a treaty agreement- in-principle could come as carly as Feb- ruarty, he says there are still two oul- standing issues that the province isn’t prepared to concede.

The first, says Glesbrecht, is last- minute wrangling over the share of the Nass fishery the Nisga’a will get.

Victoria docsn’t want the Nisga’a com- mercial fishery enshrined in the treaty,

The second is the provincial position .

that the Nisga’a agree over time to give up their on-reserve income and sales tax exemplions,

Both face opposition from the feds who see the province meddling in their jurisdiction, Glesbrecht said,

But the NDP sees both items as vital to making the deal palatable to B.C. voters.

‘That's the general mood of the popu-

lation,”’ Giesbrecht said.

Speculation last week of an imminent deal was fueled by the idea that negotia- tors wanted it to coincide with Prime Minister Jean Chreticn’s visit to B.C, this week.

“The deal will be final when it’s a good deal for the province,’’ Giesbrecht said. "‘] think a more reasonable predic- tion is sometime in Feburary because there is more work to be done,’

Once concluded, the deal is expected to include more than $100 million and nearly 2,000 square kilometres of land in the lower Nass River valley,

But the agreement in principle is still subject to ratification and there’s no clear direction from the provincial and {cderal governments of how that will take place.

The land in question takes in the four Nass villages of New Aijyansh, Gitwinksilkw, Greenville and Kin- colith, But the total is to be a small frac- tion — about eight per cent — of the

original 25,000 square kilometre land claim.

The sticky question of the overlap be- tween the Nisga’a and neighbouring tribal groups isn’t an emergency, Gies- brecht added.

The agreement in principle may make reference to Jand in the overlap area, be sald, but the treaty itself won’t be signed uatil overlap issucs are resolved.

That will allow time for neighbouring native groups to work oul deals.

“Hopefully there won't be that much land in the overap area,”’ he said.

Giesbrecht said the First Nations Sum- mit has been asked to assist the B.C. Treaty Commission in resolving overlaps between native groups.

“The government does not wish to take a position on overlap claims one way or another,’’ he said.

“Anything we could do could be per- ceived as taking a side.”’

Giesbrecht says he believes treaty pro- visions on access to Crown latid won’!

cause vocal objections.

“T think it will be relatively well- received,”’

When the deal is dane, Gicsbrecht predicts it will be tremendously benefi- cial for the northwest.

“It will be nothing but positive,’ be said, ‘‘Ask anyone in the business com- munity.”’

‘*T would expect that ouce the treaty is implemented, we will see some fairly visible signs of it in Terrace, the sur- rounding communities and in the Nass fairly quickly.”

Persuading people here to support the claim settlement will depend on quickly releasing the details of the agreement-in- principle, Giesbrecht added.

*T’'m telling them that as soon as the announcement is made there has to be a way of getting the information out to the doorsteps real fast so people can read it for themselves.”’

The greater the delay in releasing the informailon, he said, the more rumours will fly, and the more treaty opponents

will have a chance to put their own spin on what’s going on.

And that won't work with everyone.

“7’m certain a percentage of people have been opposed from the very begin- ning, will be opposed when the agree- ment is announced, and would be op- posed no matter what the agreement is."”

Giesbrecht said he’s sometimes had to bite his tongue over the actions of his government.

But he has never felt that way about the NDP’s stance on land claims.

“'The issuc has festered away for 100 years. I’ve never had the feeling that it wasn’t the right morally correct thing to do.”

‘The sun will rise and set the day after and life will go on as we know it,” be said.

Glesbrechi said the other advantage of a Nisga’a treaty settlement giving the Nisga’a just eight per cent of their tradi- tional territory will ‘‘finally put to rest that silly notion that First Nations are as- king for 110 per cent of the province.”’