CITY DESK: Dave Paulson 562-2441, Local 382 FAX: 562-7453 E-MAIL: pgcnews@prg.southam.ca The Prince George Citizen - Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 3 Second Front MORE LOCAL NEWS ON PAGE 5,6 There is limited evidence against one of accused pimps, judge says Armed robbery A 21-year-old parolee is expected to appear in court today in connection with an armed robbery at Glad Rags on Third Avenue Wednesday afternoon. RCMP said a male suspect entered the business at 4:08 p.m., wielding a knife. Staff provided police with a description of the suspect and RCMP searched the downtown area. ; Witnesses pointed police to a knife Iwhich had been tossed into an alley tiear Second Avenue and Dominion, police said. Less than 45 minutes later, police arrested a man who matched the suspect’s description at his residence. The suspect was on federal parole at the time, police said. \ No one was injured during the robbery, RCMP said. jFire being investigated • RCMP are investigating a fire that grazed a mobile home in the Harmony Heights Park on Giscome Road early ^Wednesday morning. > The mobile home was unoccupied at ■the time, police said. RCMP said the cause of the blaze remains under investigation, but two males were re-rted running from the scene shortly efore the home was engulfed in flames, at about 2:15 a.m. The males Idrove away from the scene in an older, light-coloured car of a domestic make, with a rough-running V8 engine and a loud muffler, police said. ! Anyone with information about this fire or the people seen leaving the area is asked to call RCMP at 561-3300 or Crime Stoppers at 564-8477. COURT DOCKET V by KAREN KWAN Citizen staff Even as the trial for two men accused of pimping child prostitutes continued, the judge indicated Wednesday he would not convict one of the accused on certain charges. Ryan Arnold Schnepf, 21, and Robert Allan Dow, 20, are alleged to have operated a prostitution ring involving four teenage girls — aged 13,15,15 and 16 — from a Spruce Street home in December 1999. They each face four counts of living off the avails of someone under the age of 18 and four counts of attempted extortion. Schnepf also faces 15 additional charges, including sexual assault, assault, and uttering threats, while Dow faces an additional charge of uttering threats. Child-prostitution trial ‘Tm not going to convict Mr. Dow of (those charges) even if I convict Mr. Schnepf,” Justice Allan Thackray said during closing arguments by Dow’s lawyer, Russ Cornett. Thackray was referring to the charges of living off the avails of someone under the age of 18 using threats, violence or intimidation — an aggravated offence which carries a minimum of five years in jail. “There’s limited evidence against Mr. Dow,” Thackray said of the case in general. He also agreed with Cornett that evidence given by some witnesses was unreliable. Referring to testimony from a 15-year-old alleged victim, he added, “I’m going to have to be extremely cautious.” Citizen photo by Brent Braaten GALLERY FUN — Nina Bell Peters, 4, works on her dot painting during the Family Sunday at the Two Rivers Gallery. Dot painting is an Australian Aboriginal art form. There is a different activity at the gallery for families every Sunday. Fireworks crash case A 19-year-old man was handed an eight-month conditional sentence for a collision that injured a boy during the Canada Day fireworks display. Bradley Norbert Turgeon pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing bodily harm. He was also fined $1,000 and prohibited from driving for two years. On July 1, a father and son were standing on the sidewalk on Queensway, watching the fireworks, when a northbound pickup truck lost control, jumped the curb and struck the pair, police said. Both victims were taken to hospital with injuries. Liquidation World to use old Kresge’s A crew of workers is unloading boxes and setting up displays in the old Kresge’s building at Third Avenue and Brunswick Street where Liquidation Worid will open its doors Friday morning. Liquidation World will continue its operations on the top floor of the nearby Brick store on Third Avenue, but wanted to expand its floor area on a temporary basis, said Harry Backlin of Coldwell Banker Boardwalk Properties, who is acting as agent for the Kresge’s building. Wilson talks B. C. forestry in Japan by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff Forests Minister Gordon Wilson is telling Japanese buyers that B.C.’s forest practices are the toughest in the world. Wilson is responding to assaults by environmentalists like Greenpeace who are in Japan calling for an end to the use of old-growth forests. “The message is we are doing more than virtually any other jurisdiction in the world, and we will continue to do what is necessary to maintain a sustainable forest base,” Wilson said in a conference call Wednesday during a five-day trade mission to B.C.’s second-largest lumber market. “If the campaign is successful in shutting old growth entry into the market, then B.C. is in some serious trouble because we do not have a huge amount of second-growth forest. And we’re not likely to for 80 to 100 years.” Greenpeace has launched a campaign in Japan similar to one in the United States in which it tries to get companies that use forest products to stop buying from forest companies that log old growth. Wilson said two companies being singled out in Japan are West Fraser and Interfor. West Fraser Timber has extensive operations in northern B.C., including sawmills in Quesnel, Fraser Lake, Burns Lake, Houston, Smithers and Chetwynd. It also has part ownership in a pulp mill in Quesnel. Wilson was also in Japan to investigate market conditions for B.C. products, which have faced increasingly stiff competition from other producers including those in Europe. Demand has also been down because the Japanese economy is weak. Once consumer confidence grows, Wilson said he believes there are excellent opportunities for Interior lumber producers as the acceptance of western platform framing increases. “I heard nothing but good commentary for all of the companies as far as the product quality and the price we’re able to deliver the product on,” said Wilson, referring to the Japanese-grade, kiln-dried lumber produced in die Interior. Fourth trustee glad DRC issue is being reopened by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff Trustee Greg Zimmerman said Wednesday he is glad that the School District 57 board is likely to reconsider its 4-3 vote in April to restructure the District Resource Centre. The board should first receive the report of the DRC Advisory Working Group before making any decision to reconsider, Zimmerman said. “They should receive the report for information, correlate its findings with the comments provided through letters and the public meetings and formulate a decision on that,” he said. “They should follow process.” , The other three trustees who voted in favour of decentralizing the DRC — Shirley Bond, Doug Walls and Bill Christie — all said they would like to see that decision reconsidered. The DRC provides teaching resources — special books, videos, models and resource kits — that teachers can request. The board did ZIMMERMAN n?1 do ,a Pod J?b of explaining its original decision, and the public got the idea that the whole DRC was to be shut, Zimmerman said. “There was a lot of miscommunication,” he said. “At no time was the entire DRC to be closed,” he said. “Only part of the DRC was being cut. Part of the DRC was to be left open, doing business in a different way.” But trustees are glad to get information from staff about what aspects of the restructuring would work and what wouldn’t work, he said. The board’s original plan last spring was to reduce the DRC’s budget to $300,000 from $600,000 and to provide alternative means of delivering its services, such as by locating some materials in individual schools. The board set up the advisory working group to look at how the DRC’s former services could be delivered under a decentralized system. The working group held hearings in Valemount, McBride, Prince George and Mackenzie. At each meeting, opinion among those in attendance was heavily against decentralization of the DRC. No word on new Brookwood Plaza tenant A facelift and renovations continue at Brookwood Plaza as do negotiations to find a third major tenant for the former Fred Walls car dealership located at Highway 16 and Vance Road. ‘ No final decision has been made on !who this tenant will be, said Brook-Wood Plaza developer Don Vaale. It’s been a slow process but things are processing, he added. . Winners, a national chain of fashion Stores with 100 outlets across Canada, was the first tenant to locate in Brookwood Plaza. The company opened its doors in early September in a 25,547 square-foot addition. Last month, Brookwood said it had an agreement in-principle with JYSK Linen ‘n’ Furniture, an Iceland-based retailer with 600 stores worldwide. JYSK is expected to open next spring in a 15,000-square-foot section at the southwest corner of the building. Vaale said some demolition and re- in his closing submission, Cornett told the judge the case was one of reasonable doubt. “There’s a large number of credibility problems and reliability problems,” he said. His client was merely on the periphery of any events that may have occurred at the Spruce Street residence, he argued. In fact, he said, evidence that Dow actually lived at the residence was “ambiguous,” noting his client had lived at other addresses and had his own source of income. Any sexual activity involving Dow and the four complainants was “entirely voluntary and consensual,” Cornett said. He said there’s limited evidence to support the Crown’s claim that Dow received money from the girls, suggesting that, at the most, Dow was an “agent” who collected money for Schnepf. The Crown, meanwhile, portrayed the two accused as “parasitic” men who preyed on vulnerable children in an organized fashion. “This is an enterprise, a planned, deliberate act of pimping prostitutes,” Crown counsel Neil Lauder said. Not only were the girls sexually exploited, but they were also financially exploited, he told the judge. The seriousness of the victimization is magnified, he said, because the girls were “vulnerable children” from troubled homes who were placed in government care. “They confused love and relationships with sex,” Lauder said, adding that some of the girls didn’t appear to fully understand their exploitation. Closing arguments are expected to continue today. Veterans to remember 50th anniversary of rail disaster by BOB MILLER Citizen staff About 40 members of the Second Battalion Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, stationed in Camp Petawawa, Ont., are expected to join Korean War vets and townsfolk of Valemount Tliesday for a 50th anniversary memorial service commemorating the Canoe River rail disaster. The head-on collision of an east-bound CN passenger train and a westbound troop train on Nov. 21, 1950 killed 17 troopers and four CN employees — the engineer and fireman on each train, said Bill Armstrong, president of the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 266 in Valemount, which is organizing the ceremony. Apart from the head-end crew, none of the passengers on the eastbound train were seriously injured, but there were 54 injuries among the soldiers, who were travelling in wooden rail cars. Many injuries were caused by flying splinters of wood, Armstrong said. The soldiers had trained in Camp Shiloh, Man., and were on their way to Camp Lewis, Wash., where they were to embark for service in Korea. Armstrong said he believes it was the worst rail disaster in Western Canada in modem times. As a result of the disaster, a CN telegrapher, 22-year-old Alfred John Atherton, working at Red Pass, was charged with manslaughter. Atherton was blamed for confusion surrounding telegraph messages sent to the two trains, Armstrong said. The passenger train thought the two trains would meet at Cedarside, a few kilometres south of Valemount, while the troop train thought the trains would meet at Canoe River, a few kilometres south of Cedarside. One of the trains was to pull onto a siding to let the other pass. Instead they met head-on somewhere in between. Armstrong said Atherton went on trial in Prince George in May of 1951 and was defended by John Diefenbaker, a noted defence lawyer from Prince Albert, Sask., the province where Atherton was born. Diefenbaker, who was first elected a Tory MP in 1940, would go on to become Conservative party leader in 1956 and Canada’s 13th prime minister in 1957. Many felt the case was pivotal to his later political career, Armstrong said. Diefenbaker argued the accident was caused by faulty telegraph equipment, rather than human error, a point not lost on the jury, which acquitted Atherton after 40 minutes of deliberation, said a news account of the trial in the Prinoe George Citizen. Korean veterans from the battalion have been invited to take part in the memorial service and the Legion hopes veterans from other parts of B.C. will attend too. If the weather co-operates, part of the service will be held at the site of the disaster south of town, Armstrong said, and if not, then the service will take place at the Legion hall. the CORRECTION NOTICE In our 10-3C The Perfect Gift flyer, Velour bubbled top on page 2 the quantities are limited. Arrow America Sports shirts on page 5 should have read “Reg. $50-$55. Sale $37.50 -$41.25.” v Sorry for any inconvenience this £ may have caused. 3 CORRECTION NOTICE DaimlerChrysler Canada apologizes for the misleading information published in the free standing insert called “ Chrysler Wheels”. Please note that the advertised price for 2001 Sebring Sedan is NOT $24,488, but in fact is $24,988. DaimlerChrysler Canada apologizes for any inconvenience. 382226 building was necessary at the front corner of the building and work is under way at the main entrance. Some structural changes are necessary and internal walls have to be removed to accommodate JYSK and the third tenant. Future development of the site calls for construction of a family restaurant on a section near the intersection of Vance Road and Walls Avenue, and a motel on the site of the dealership’s former body shop. of fun, with atl the choice and value you’d expect.. ONLY from BCAA Travel. 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