6 - The Prince George Citizen - Tuesday, March 13,1990
National
Nun slain at church in Miramichi
   BADE STE. ANNE, N.B. (CP) — An elderly Roman Catholic nun has been shot to death in a local church — the eighth murder victim in the Miramichi region since last May, RCMP said today.
    Tlie body of Florine Brun, 59, was found inside the church vestry Monday night, police said in a brief news release.
    The release did not provide any other details about the shooting or whether any arrests had been made. An autopsy was scheduled for Wednesday.
    Baie Ste. Anne is a small francophone village on the southern edge of Miramichi Bay, about 60 kil6metres from Chatham Head, home town of notorious killer Allan Legere.
    And Chatham Head is the site of the brutal murder of Father James Smith, an elderly Catholic priest, last Nov. 16. Legere, who was then an escaped prisoner, is the prime suspect in the priest’s murder.
   Legere was recaptured Nov. 24 and is being held under tight security at the Atlantic Institute, a super-max imum-security penitentiary in Renous, N.B.
   The nun’s body was apparently found near the vestry door leading outside a short time after choir practice at about 8:30 pjn.
   An RCMP officer who emerged from the church at about 11:30 pjn. told the crowd to go home and that a murder had been committed, said Gervais Martin, who lives near the church and convent.
    Bertrand Durelle, an area resident, said officers were apparently searching every nook and cranny, including the bell tower.
   The Miramichi region has been in the news over the last year, as murder after murder occurs.
   Only last month, Gerald MacDonald, 42, of Laketon, N.B., was charged with second-degree murder in the death of his 74-year-old father, John Gordon Ross, of Black River Bridge.
    The Chatham-Newcastle area was terrorized for seven months last year until Legere was arrested following a massive manhunt. He is the prime suspect in the brutal beating deaths of four people.
   A 17-year-old youth has been charged with two counts of sec-ond-degree murder in the deaths of a mother and a daughter Dec. 10 in Newcastle.
    Additionally, Allard Joseph Vien-neau, 30, of Newcastle, faces eight charges in relation to three brutal attacks on Newcastle residents last fall. Police believe Legere may have been involved in two of those crimes.
Satanic cult investigated in suicides
   LETHBRIDGE, Alta. (CP) — As the third of three youths who committed suicide in the last three months was buried under police guard Monday, a psychiatrist said eight teenagers were taken into protective custody amid growing fears about reports of a suicide pact.
   The eight have been placed in hospital or taken to other "safe” places for counselling and to prevent them from harming themselves, psychiatric consulant Dr. David Davies told a news conference Monday.
    Some kids have been told their names are on the list and are frightened for their lives, he said.
    Davies is part of a committee of representatives from police, mental health and social services, school districts and clergy formed to provide information and counselling in the wake of the three suicides and reports of Satanism and a death pact.
   Davies said he is aware of a number of suicide pacts, each with six to 10 names on them. For the most part, Davies said the lists are identical.
   He said his information leads him to believe about 12 people make up the core and 50 or 60 more are on the periphery.
   “There are two groups who are at risk; those who are close to the boys who committed suicide and others who are peripheral to the group, are frightened about the stories they have heard and fear they are at risk from others,’’ Davies said.
   Davies denied the teens under treatment	are	being
  “deprogrammed” of satanic or occult beliefs. The teens, all friends of the three dead youths, will be released in a month, he added.
   “The people who are hospitalized are relieved to be there,” he said.
   Ashley Merrick hanged himself last week, the day after the funeral of his friend, Wayne Townsend who hanged himself a week earlier. In December, Chilton Thur also committed suicide.
CLARK SEEKS SOVIET DIALOGUE
Canada urging Lithuanian freedom
  OTTAWA (CP) — Canada will encourage Moscow to negotiate Lithuania’s newly reclaimed independence from the Soviet Union, External Affairs Minister Joe Clark said Monday.
   The Commons gave unanimous approval to a resolution prepared by the Liberal opposition which recognized the right of the Lithuanian people to declare the independence of their republic, “which has been illegally occupied by the Soviet Union since 1940.”
   On Sunday, the Lithuanian parliament declared the republic sovereign and independent from Moscow. The newly elected legislature, now dominated by the nationalist Sajudis movement, voted 124-0 with/six abstentions to secede from- the Soviet Union.
   Clark said Canada favors calm, fruitful talks between Lithuania and the Soviet Union leading to inde-
 rence for the Baltic republic, would not speculate on how long the process might take.
   “It’s not a process we intend to rush,” Clark said outside the Commons. “But it’s important all parties understand where Canada stands — and Canada stands in support of the political and actual independence of Lithuania.”
   Canada has never recognized the Soviet Union’s annexation of the Baltic republics — Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — on the eve of the Second World War. But Ottawa has been forced to acknowledge the Soviet Union’s control over the republics.
   While offering strong support for
  Protesters In Toronto showed ther displeasure with the government’s proposed goods and ser-Tax rally vices tax by lampooning Prime Minister Brian Mulroney outside an awards dinner Mulroney was attending Monday night.
Mulroney honored despite cutbacks
  TORONTO (CP) — Within hours after his government was attacked in the Commons for reported plans to carve up the National Research Council, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney received an award Monday night for his contributions to science.
   Speaking to about 600 people at a black-tie dinner in the Grand Ballroon of the Sheraton Centre in downtown Toronto, Mulroney lauded his government’s contributions to science and technology.
   “The objectives of Canada’s science policy are principled and practical ... to put science and technology at the service of economic, social and regional development in Canada,” Mulroney said after accepting the award from Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science.
   While noting his government’s economic problems, he took a bow for investing “over $2.5 billion in new funds in science and technology” since the Conservatives gained power in 1984.
   Mulroney wasn’t in the Commons earlier in the day when an angry debate was sparked by a letter that said the NRC plans to reduce basic research, cut permanent staff and transfer some facilities to the private sector.
   The next five-year plan for the council “will propose a clear policy statement and a strategy on privatization and divestiture, says the Jan. 5 letter from NRC president Pierre Perron to Geraldine Kenney-Wallace, chairman of the Science Council of Canada.
   Science Minister William Wine-gard told the Commons the government is not planning to privatize the council and said the NRC
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 Lithuanian independence, Clark was careful to make clear Canada’s continuing support for Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms.
   Clark said there are “legitimate and prudent” concerns that the Baltic independence movements might trigger similar, rapid action by other Soviet republics. Some analysts believe that unless the change is managed, it will play into the hands of Soviet hard-liners who would then use the rapid disintegration of the Soviet Union to undermine Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and his reforms.
   Last Friday, the parliament of the republic of Georgia demanded talks with Moscow on restoration of its independence.
   Clark noted what he called the
 Claric supports Independence.
 “quite distinct history of the Baltic states within the Soviet empire,” saying that will be on the minds of Soviet leaders as they respond to the situation.
   “It’s important to recognize that the inclusion in the Soviet Union of Lithuania and its immediate neighbors was very unusual — and that actions taken with regard to Lithuania would not necessarily constitute a precedent in other cases.”
   The Soviet Union absorbed the Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — all independent between the world wars — under a secret agreement with Nazi Germany on the eve of Germany’s attack on Poland that started the Second World War.
Alberta premier supports alternate plan for accord
 EDMONTON (CP) — A “parallel” or “political” accord may be the only way to save the Meech Lake constitutional pact, Premier Don Getty suggested Monday.
   The Alberta premier, a staunch supporter of the Meech Lake accord, said he has been talking with other premiers to explore changes in an attempt to save the agreement, which would bring Quebec into the Constitution.
   Some premiers have suggested a separate accord along with Meech Lake that would address other concerns, while others have suggested a political accord that would not have to be ratified by the legislatures or the House of Commons, Getty said.
    “First ministers should definitely get together to see what other options should be considered,” he said.
   Getty said he fears for the future of Canada if the Meech Lake accord isn’t ratified by its deadline in late June. He said first ministers will come under tremendous pressure in coming months to ensure there is constitutional change.
   “This country will only be great and will only reach its potential if we deal within our country on a unified basis, if we concentrate on unity and concentrate on working together in a Canadian way that is marked by generosity of spirit,
 compassion for other parts of this country,” he said.
    For the past several months, the Alberta premier has refused to speculate on what would happen if the accord isn’t ratified by the June 23 deadline.
   The Manitoba and New Brunswick legislatures have not yet ratified the accord and Newfoundland’s legislature will debate a motion to withdraw its support.
   Getty has faced mounting pressure from members of his Conservative party to withdraw his support for the accord. The party will debate a resolution at its annual convention next month to reject the accord if Prime Minister Brian Mulroney hasn’t appointed the province’s elected Senate nominee by then.
    Albertans voted last fall for Reform party member Stan Waters to fill a vacancy in the upper house but Mulroney has not appointed him. Getty said he received a response from Mulroney last week and will table it in the legislature, possibly later this week. He wouldn’t reveal the letter’s contents.
 ■ Premier Frank McKenna says he’ll deal with the troubled Meech Lake accord after the New Brunswick legislature opens today, but he’s not yet ready to put all his cards on the table.
   While his Liberal government
  will introduce a resolution on the constitutional plan during the new spring session, McKenna revealed few details Monday.
  “In my view, it is not the precise time at which we want to reveal the details of our approach. 1116 situation is very dynamic. It's fluid. It’s changing.”
  McKenna said the province will not change its stance that the rights of women, aboriginals and linguistic minorities should be protected in a parallel accord before the deal is passed.
 “There has not been, from day one, a change in our position,” said the premier of Canada’s only officially bilingual province.
 McKenna gave no indication whether he would go so far as to release a draft of all the changes he wants made.
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 should recognize “universities now exist and are the main thrust for basic scientific work in this country.”
   But New Democrat MP Howard McCurdy said university research has suffered due to federal funding restrictions.
   “Where are you going to transfer it (the research)?” asked McCurdy.
   Mulroney would not comment on NRC cuts, said his spokesman at the Toronto hotel where the prime minister picked up the award from the institute founded by Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first president. It honored Mulroney for “encouragement of scientific research and initiative in the advancement of global quality of life.”
   Before dining on smoked pink trout and chicken breast in sherry and raspberry sauce, Mulroney whetted the crowd’s appetite with a medley of self-deprecating remarks about his popularity.
   He joked about his low standing in the polls — 19 per cent to the Liberals’ 47 in the last Gallup — and said he was tired from all his recent travels because “there’s only so much adulation a guy can take.”
Gold price
 TORONTO (CP) — Gold was quoted at $467 bid Cdn ($396 US) and $468 asked Cdn ($397 US) in mid-morning trading today by Deak International, a major gold and foreign exchange dealer.
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