6 -The Prince George Citizen - Monday, August 21, 1995 Nation Toronto subway branch reopens TORONTO (CP) — Subway trains began running again Sunday along part of a line left closed since three passengers were killed and dozens injured in a rush-hour crash. The first train through stopped briefly at the spot where a subway slammed into the back of another. The crew sounded the horn in memory of the three dead women. A portion of the Spadina-University line had been closed since the Aug. 11 collision. The line reopens with special precautions in place to protect against breakdowns in safety devices designed to prevent collisions. Additional supervisors at stations and at transit control — the nerve centre of subway operations — are among the extra measures. Gas scare ends HALIFAX (CP) Evacuated residents were allowed back into their homes in downtown Halifax late Sunday morning, more than a day after an ammonia leak in an ice factory forced them to evacuate. The evacuation ended after firefighters, looking like blue spacemen in their rubber chemical-isolation outfits and breathing tanks, finally found the source of the leak — a sheared-off valve on the high-pressure side of a pump. The only casualty appeared to be a cat run over by a car after it was left behind, but fire chief Tom Power said there was a potential for serious harm because of the massive amount of ammonia involved. The Nova Scotia Ice. Co. plant is a cavernous place, holding four tonnes of ammonia in its refrigeration system. The smelly gas can irritate skin in small doses and can be lethal in large concentrations. On-line justice WINNIPEG (CP) — The federal Justice Department is laying down the law in cyberspace. The department has set up a site on the Internet’s World Wide Web to provide information, including all federal laws, to the public. Justice Minister Allan Rock, attending the Canadian Bar Association’s annual meeting, also announced plans Sunday to release CD-ROMs containing federal statutes and regulations. Just say no OTTAWA (CP) — Federal inmates are doing less popping, snorting and smoking of illegal drugs since they’ve had to undergo urine tests. Government figures obtained by Ottawa’s Sunday Sun reveal random drug tests are cutting down on illegal drug use in federal prisons. So far this year, Corrections Canada has tested over 1,000 of the approximately 3,800 convicts in federal penitentiaries across the country. Urine samples in the first three months found 21.6 per cent of inmates consumed illegal drugs and in the second quarter the figure had jumped to 30.6 per cent. But by the third quarter, the percentage of inmates caught using drugs had dropped to 14 per cent. The biggest decline was in Ontario’s pens, where the rate fell from 35.6 per cent to 14.5 per cent. Slippery when wet HALIFAX (CP) - Three brand-new modified Aurora surveillance planes purchased by the Canadian Forces in 1993 were rendered virtually useless for nearly a year because they couldn’t get wet. If they did, a static charge would build up around them, putting their radios on the fritz. The condition is described in military reports and a July 1994 letter to the federal Public Works Department from Lockheed Corp., the lead contractor on the Arctic and Maritime Surveillance Aircraft project. Ottawa paid a total of $206 million for the four-engine planes. Cop on trial OTTAWA (CP) — The trial of an undercover drug cop charged with the hit-and-run death of a 16-year-old cyclist raises a number of nagging questions about how police investigate their fellow officers. OPP Det. Const. Serge Loranger has been on trial for the last week charged with failing to remain at the scene of an accident that killed Shayne Norris a year ago. Loranger has pleaded not guilty, saying he thought he had hit a deer on his way home from an evening of drinking beer with a handful of his drug squad buddies. In fact, Loranger’s unmarked police cruiser struck Norris so violently the young victim’s body was mangled and hurled nearly 60 metres down the highway. Norris’s hi-tech touring bike landed another 10 metres farther on. Norris was killed instantly. The impact smashed a headlight and the windshield on the police cruiser and left a front fender damaged. Youths meet OTTAWA (CP) — They spent the weekend debating the future of the country and their place in it. On Tuesday they’ll present their recommendations to the Governor General and the federal cabinet. Next month, most will go back to high school. They’ are the approximately 200 delegates to the fifth annual Students Commission meeting in Kemptville, Ont., just south of Ottawa, and they’re tired of politics “clouding the real issues.” The weekend sessions tackled some of the toughest issues facing Canada and its youth — from depression, sexual pressures and suicide to Canada’s responsibilities abroad. Victim hides WINDSOR, Ont. (CP) — Rosemary Eaton went into hiding last month after the man who tried to kill her escaped from prison. She temporarily resurfaced over the weekend to fight for tougher prison sentences. Eaton, 47, is circulating a petition calling on the federal government to eliminate mandatory parole and let police alert residents when sex offenders are released. She fears for her safety after a man convicted of stabbing her seven times in 1988 escaped from a minimum-security prison near Kingston, Ont. Frank Denkers, 32, of Leamington, Ont., had been serving a 15-year sentence for attempted murder. Quake hits Montreal OTTAWA (CP) — A mild earthquake startled residents of the St. Lawrence River’s south shore near Montreal Sunday afternoon. The Geological Survey of Canada said the quake, which registered 3.3 on the Richter scale, was felt by many area residents and heard by many more, prompting a number of calls to local radio stations. The Survey’s Bob Wetmiller said the tremor, which occurred at 12:15 p.m. EDT and was centred about 30 km southeast of Montreal, was probably not large enough to cause damage or injuries. “Tremors of magnitude three or so occur from time to time in southern Quebec and it’s not that unusual to have one near Montreal,” Wetmiller said. Peacekeeping runs up a big bill OTTAWA (CP) — The numbers have been crunched and the price tag is hefty: Canada spent $710 million on its peacekeeping mission in the former Yugoslavia during the last three years. That has prompted one Reform MP to question whether it was worth it, but defence analysts suggest price is a petty consideration when stacked up against lives saved. “From a mandate standpoint, we didn’t deliver a heck of a lot,” says Reformer Bob Mills. “I think we got no value for that money.” Reform has repeatedly demanded Canada pull its 2,000 peacekeepers out of the strife-torn region, saying there is no peace to keep and no ben- efit in their being there. Canadian peacekeepers are about to pull out of Croatia. But David Rudd, of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, says the mission has been a success, at least in Bosnia. Canada’s mandate in Bosnia wasn’t to stop the conflict, or even to help along negotiations. The mission was simply to bring aid to the starving and displaced, and Canadian soldiers did that effectively, says Rudd. “If your first concern is the fiscal concern of the country, then one would conclude that no, it probably wasn’t a success because it was money that flowed out of the country and it did not directly benefit Canadians,” he says. “(But) I think there are a lot of folk alive today that wouldn’t have been had Canadians not been there.” In 1991, 130,000 people were killed in the area. In 1992 after peacekeepers arrived, the death toll dropped to 3,000, says an official at the Foreign Affairs Department. But Mills suggests it’s possible the peacekeepers may have prolonged the war, costing more lives than if they hadn’t been there. “How do you know for sure?” Martin Shadwick, a defence analyst and professor at Toronto’s York University, says the concern over dollars is dis- tasteful. “If you think you can do something good, you’re better to look at the balance sheet later. Counting the pennies and then weighing them against the number of lives saved, I just find very uncomfortable.” Of the $710 million, $543 million was spent to have the troops there, says Capt. Conrad Bellehumeur, of the Defence Department. That figure is over and above what would be spent on normal day-to-day operations, such as salaries and equipment use. And even if Canada hadn’t sent troops, it would have had to contribute $180 million to the mission. Bernardo trial a case of he said, she said by GLORIA GALLOWAY TORONTO (CP) — Some of the testimony in Paul Bernardo’s murder trial can be verified on horrific videotapes by lawyers in court. But Bernardo has disagreed with his ex-wife, Karla Homolka, on many issues raised in cross-examination about the deaths of Leslie Mahaffy, 14, and Kristen French, 15. “Some of what she’s saying is truthful and some of it isn’t,” Bernardo said scornfully when Crown attorney Ray Houlahan drew his attention to disparities between the two testimonies. The two disagree about who killed the captive teens and how they died. Homolka, who is serving a 12-year manslaughter sentence for her part in the crimes, has testified Bernardo strangled both girls by wrapping a black electrical cord about their throats and pulling the cord tight. But Bernardo, who testifies again this week, told the jury he wasn’t in the room when Mahaffy died in June 1991 and French met her end 10 months later. The girls perished, apparently accidentally, while alone with Homolka in the master bedroom of the home the couple shared in St. Catharines, Ont., said Bernardo, who admitted kidnapping, confining and raping them. In Mahaffy’s, case he was downstairs making preparations to take her home, he said, and when he returned to the room he found the girl face down in a pillow. French, he testified, was killed when he left the house to get take-out food on the third day of her captivity in April 1992. The girl had been tied securely at the hands, feet and neck and Homolka, he said, was standing guard with a rubber mallet. The terrible tale revolves around the entire five-year relationship between the camera-ready couple. Bernardo told court the two were equally involved in an “out-of-control” sex life, one that was highly experimental and gave them mutual pleasure. Homolka said their sexual experimentation was for his benefit alone, and that she did not enjoy sex with the young women. She said she was a battered wife. He said she was an equal partner in brutality. Bernardo agreed during cross-examination that Homolka didn’t take part in the capture of Mahaffy on June 15, 1991. Super Wellness Centre in Size Opening in September. Check it out! The'T... to Serve You Better. YOUR FAMILY ‘Y’l 2020 Massey Drive, PO Box 1808 Prince George, B.C. V2L 4V7 Phone: 562-9341 CHRETIEN ENTERS SOVEREIGNTY FRAY New constitutional talks pledged by NORMAN DELISLE SHERBROOKE (CP) — Quebec federalists can’t promise constitutional reform because the rest of the country won’t let them, Lucien Bouchard said Sunday. The Bloc Quebecois leader made the remark in an interview as his MPs held a special two-day caucus to prepare for the re-opening of Parliament next month. “English Canada will never allow the federal government to promise constitutional change of any kind and (Prime Minister Jean) Chretien is going to cement himself into the sclerosis of the regime,” Bouchard predicted. Bouchard said he’s puzzled about how federalists will remain satisfied with defending the status quo for the next three months when they’re faced with the sovereignty option, “a realistic project that promises change.” Bouchard said he earlier thought that Quebec Liberal Leader Daniel Johnson, leader of the No forces for the fall referendum, might offer some fresh ideas for change. “But he did it so timidly and Ottawa’s reaction was so arrogant that he folded,” Bouchard said. Johnson recently said he supports the notion of Quebec as a distinct society and a Quebec veto over future constitutional change, key elements of the failed Meech Lake accord. Bouchard scoffs at Chretien’s promises by BOB COX CAP-AUX-MEULES, Que. (CP) — Jean Chretien’s promise of future constitutional talks was dismissed by Quebec separatists as an impossible dream on Sunday, but received a boost from Newfoundland Premier Clyde Wells. During a weekend swing in eastern Quebec, the prime minister said the Constitution obliges him to meet premiers to talk about constitutional change in 1997 and he will listen to what they have to say. “It’s in the Constitution of Canada so I have no choice,” Chretien said on a quick trip to the Magdalen Islands. “We may talk about everything and nothing. We don’t know what their agenda will be.” The comments position Chretien and Quebec Liberal Leader Daniel Johnson to hold out the possibility of future constitutional changes as they urge Quebecers to vote No in the independence referendum expected this fall. Prime Minister Jean Chretien, left, shares a laugh with Quebec Opposition Leader Daniel Johnson while visiting an old shipyard Saturday in the Gaspe peninsula. Lucien Bouchard, leader of the separatist Bloc Quebecois, immediately jumped on the comments, saying Quebec federalists can’t promise constitutional reform because the rest of the country won’t let them. “English Canada will never allow the federal government to promise constitutional change of any kind,” Bouchard said in Sherbrooke, Que. But it appeared some premiers could be willing to soften the basic federalist position that Quebecers will vote yes or no to separation from Canada. Wells, who hosts the annual meeting of premiers this week in St. John’s, said groups such as Atlantic Canadians and natives also want constitutional change. “It’s not just Quebec, and I’ve no doubt that over the next decade the people of Canada are going to be discussing constitutional change or revision or perhaps an entire new Constitution for all I know,” Wells told Sunday Edition, on the Baton Broadcasting System. i 1 1