The Prince George Citizen WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 1989 50 CENTS Low tonight: 6 High Thursday: 20 Ann Landers.. ......13 Bridge........ .......23 Business...... ......8,9 City, B.C...... .2,3,10,11 Classified..... ... .20-26 Comics....... .......28 Crossword____ .......22 Editorial...... ........4 Entertainment ....28,29 Family....... .......13 Horoscope --- .......23 International . ........7 Lifestyles..... .......13 Movies ....... .......28 National...... ........5 Sports........ ....17-19 Television --- .......22 Prepare for tax bite 5 Bush scores high____________7 Expos come back 17 This fall's TV lineup 29 TLC for your hair 32 TELEPHONE: 562-2441 CHARGES RELATING TO BUDGET LEAK Intimidation7 tactics claimed Ron Brent elementary students leaped, dodged and hopped their way Sports through a variety of novelty events at their sports day Tuesday. Kevin day Lake, 9, keeps a firm grip on the ball as he hops, Danielle Denluck, 10, gives everything she’s got to a girls’ tug-of-war against the boys and Jeannine Hornby, 11, scuttles swiftly across the grass in a summer snow- shoe race. District schools are taking advantage of this week’s warm weather to hold their sports days. Citizen photos by Lisa Murdoch i? i-v CT Outlook '89 Included in today’s issue of The Citizen is a 32-page special edition focusing on progress in Prince George. In it we take a look at how primary and secondary industries, the retail and service sector, and governments weathered the recession of the early 1980s and how they hope to profit from the experience. Overall, business, industry and government leaders are confident that Prince George has embarked on an era of prosperity and growth as the 1990s approach. FATAL COLLISION Ferry Corp. loses case VANCOUVER (CP) - The B.C. Ferry Corp. must pay a man almost $500,000 in damages for a boating accident that killed his wife and two of his three children, the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled Tuesday. The court upheld a lower court ruling that the ferry Queen of Cow-ichan was two-thirds at fault for the collision near Vancouver four years ago that killed three members of George Kwok’s family. ‘‘1 conclude that he (the trial judge) did not err in his finding that the Cowichan was two-thirds at fault and the Kimberly (Kwok’s boat) was one-third at fault,” Mr. Justice Ernest Hinkson said in writing the unanimous decision for the three-member appeal court panel. “For these reasons I would dismiss the appeal and cross-appeal.” The cross-appeal was launched by Kwok, a 51-year-old mechanic, who had asked the appeal court to reject the lower court ruling that he was partly at fault for the collision. Kwok is reluctant to discuss the mishap or court proceedings with reporters and is “still trying to put his life back together,” said his lawyer, John Laxton. The decision is unlikely to be ap- pealed to the Supreme Court of Canada because the B.C. appeal court decision was unanimous, said Laxton. Kwok, who has not remarried, should get his award “fairly quickly” provided the ferry corporation does not appeal, said Laxton. The ferry corporation, which appealed the B.C. Supreme Court decision two years ago that awarded Kwok $465,000, had no immediate comment on the decision. Also named as defendants were the ferry’s master Capt. Wayne Holmes and second officer William Chem-ko. Kwok’s boat was struck on the port quarter by the Cowichan in August 1985 near the Horseshoe Bay terminal in West Vancouver. Its wooden hull was churned under by the propellers and spewed out behind the huge ferry which was en route to Horseshoe Bay from Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. Kwok’s wife Kim, 46, and sons Martin, 12, and Michael, 2lA, were killed. Mr. Justice George Cumming, in his decision two years ago, assessed a total award of damages for the loss of Kwok’s wife at $507,450. It was reduced by one-third because of the judge’s liability finding, and apportioned at $256,466.68 to Kwok and $81,833.36 to be paid into court for the surviving son Nelson Kwok. In addition, Kwok was awarded $89,000 for his physical and psychological injuries and $102,271 for the loss of his boat and other special damages. They were also reduced by one-third. Laxton had asked the Supreme Court to award damages of $1,275 million. Dubin blasts Ben's lawyer TORONTO (CP) — Ben Johnson’s lawyer falsely suggested his client had severe liver problems as a result of long-term steroid use, says the head of the federal inquiry examining the scandal that cost the sprinter an Olympic gold medal. Mr. Justice Charles Dubin began today’s session of the inquiry by telling lawyer Edward Futerman: “You indicated it was a serious liver ailment and that’s not true. . .1 can see from the report that that’s not true.” Commission counsel Robert Armstrong, pointing to the report on Johnson’s liver tests, said: “I would like to underscore and emphasize the conclusion of the report: ‘At present there is no evidence that Ben has obvious liver disease. However, possible changes in liver function should be monitored in view of Ben’s mildly increased (liver enzyme count).’ “ See also page 15 by Canadian Press OTTAWA — The government is trying to intimidate the media by having Global TV reporter Doug Small charged with possession of stolen property, opposition MPs charged Tuesday. “The laying of a charge against a member of the press gallery for doing his job as he saw fit has serious implications for freedom of the press,” Liberal MP John Harvard, a former broadcaster from Winnipeg, said in the Commons “Does the government realize that by intimidating the press, it is attacking the right of all Canadians to know? “Is Big Brother going to lock up journalists for doing their jobs? “ Deputy Prime Minister Don Mazankowski dodged those bullets then ran into a salvo from Stan Keyes, another Liberal MP and a former television news reporter in Hamilton. “Must the news media now seek an official government stamp of approval before they can report the news?” Keyes asked. Small and four other men were charged Monday with possession of the stolen Budget-in-Brief pamphlet; two were also charged with theft. Small forced Finance Minister Michael Wilson to release his budget a day early last month when he appeared on television holding the document. Mazankowski said the charges were laid by the RCMP on the advice of the Ontario Attorney General’s Department, and it is up to the courts to deal with them. “I have no intention of interfering,” he said. NDP member Ian Waddell and other MPs suggested charges have been laid to get the government off the hook in the Commons. Meanwhile, media lawyer Richard Dearden of Ottawa, who has represented Southam newspapers in constitutional attacks on laws that block publication of news, said the case has tremendous ramifications. It is the first time a reporter has been charged with possession of stolen property, he said. If Small is convicted, a reporter would have to think twice every time a brown envelope comes into his hands. "He would have to ask himself whether it is stolen and whether he is prepared to serve two years for using it,” Dearden said. “Journalists get a lot of information in plain envelopes.” The issue, he said, is the right to gather information. “That is all that Doug Small was doing.” But Klaus Pohle, a media law professor in the Carleton University School of Journalism, said lawyers will probably try to turn the possession charge into a freedom of expression issue. “If you say a reporter should not be charged with this because he is a journalist and this infringes freedom of the press, you’re saying in effect that journalists are above the law,” Pohle said. Lyme disease: A local case? by BEV CHRISTENSEN Staff reporter Ron Gerhardi of Fort Fraser is searching for other people suffering from the bewildering symptoms of what he believes is Lyme Disease. HERMAN ACTUAL SIZE Nymph M (juvenile stage) 58 0 00100 tl n He gets those sudden migraines." Gerhardi has been unable to work for three years after he believes he contracted the tick-born disease while working at Germanson Landing. Because no other cases of the disease have been confirmed in B.C. and Ger-hardi’s blood tests did not reveal clear evidence he has the disease, Prince George medical health officer Dr. Brian Emerson cannot confirm Gerhardi has Lyme Disease. But it is spreading rapidly in the United States and Eastern Canada. A recent map of the incidence of Adult female, engorged with blood the disease shows it having spread right up to the Washington-B.C. border. Because the progressive symptoms of the disease are so debilitating, Gerhardi is anxious to contact other people suffering from similar symptoms in an effort to convince public health officials to begin advising people how to protect themselves. The arthritic and neurological symptoms which have beset Gerhardi during the later stages of his illness are so disabling he is now receiving a disability pension from the Canada Pension Plan. Early identification and treatment of the disease is the only method for preventing the onset of the debilitating neurological and arthritic symptoms which develop two or three years after being bitten by a tick infected with borrelia burgdorferi. Lyme Disease is a tick-borne disease first identified 13 years ago in Lyme, Conn., after an unusually-large number of children were found to be suffering from arthritis. Dr. Brian Thair, an entomology instructor at the College of New Caledonia, says that although ticks are common in this region, no research has been done to determine whether ticks bearing the organism causing Lyme Disease are present here. “All you have to do to collect them is, when you shoot something, hang it up over a funnel into a bottle and, when their lunch goes cold, they drop off,” he said. They can be found on most warm-blooded animals, including moose and deer, he said. Therefore, they are most common along game trails where they’re attracted by the scent of animal urine. “They crawl up on the grass and underbrush and sit there with their forelegs extended and people who take the path of least resistance when walking through the bush are prime targets,” he said. Before the ticks can cause the disease, they must have ingested the organisms from a host, he said. Gerhardi says ticks bearing the organisms which cause Lyme Disease are also known to attach themselves to birds, so they could have been carried into this area from California and Oregon, where the disease has been identified. “Over the past three years my symptoms have followed all the symptoms of Lyme Disease too closely to be put down as coincidence and I have nothing else to believe in,” said Gerhardi, who has collected a large file of information about the disease. The first symptom he noticed was extreme weakness. “The fatigue was overpowering. I would have to stop halfway to my vehicle and rest, abdominal pains lasted about three months ... 1 had a stiff neck, flushed-feeling face, sore back, all my joints hurt, uncomfortable underarm glands,” he said. He remembers receiving an un-See LYME, page 3 mmi* 058307001008