The record, 8 juin 1990, vendredi 8 juin 1990

Weekend In Townships Week a look at North Hatley's Piggery Theatre as it celebrates its 25th anniversary.People are the power behind the summer theatre's success.Find out more inside.Births, deaths.13 Classified .9-10-11 Comics .12 Editorial .4 Farm & Business .7 Living.6 Sports .14-15 Townships .3 Inside North Hatley's mayoral candidate Brent Pauley ducks a candidates' debate.See paste 3.After six years in opposition federal Liberals reflect soberly as they head into their leadership convention.Turn to page 5.In Sports: Editor Bruce Mac-tarlane picks out some summer sports •briefs'.See page 15.Rémillard : Wells finally understands By Robert Russo OTTAWA (CP) — With nationalists nipping at his heels at home.I rem ter Robert Bourassa may have staved off attempts to dilute the distinct society clause of the Meech Lake accord and killed the idea of a Canada clause for now.Newfoundland's dogged opposition to the section of the constitutional accord recognizing Quebec as a distinct society may havebeen curbed, Quebec's inter-governmental affairs minister said Thursday.A smiling Gil Rémillard emer-ged from the first ministers' meeting to say the day had produced great progress.Asked what had changed, Rémillard said: "Mr.Wells' understanding of the relationship between the Charter and the distinct society.” Quebec's decision came after it appeared the province had staved off attempts to dilute the distinct society clause and killed the idea of a Canada clause for now.Newfoundland’s dogged opposition to the section of the constitutional accord recognizing Quebec as a distinct society may have been curbed, said Gil Rémillard.Quebec's intergovernmental affairs minister.Midway through the day, Rémillard emerged from the first ministers’ meeting to say the day had produced great progress.Newfoundland Premier Clyde Wells had complained that the section of the Meech Lake accord recognizing Quebec as a distinct society might impinge upon the Charter of Rights.Foes of the clause argued that Quebec could use it to pass legislation that would limit or restrict minority rights.Quebec had refused to support any written clarification of the clause.Members of the Quebec delcga tion met with Weils for hours Thur sday to argue their point that no clarification was necessary.Constitutional experts were brought in during discussions between the first ministers to bolster Quebec’s position.“I'll say that the degree of comprehension has changed and it’s changed greatly,” said Rémil- lard.Bourassa appeared to have won another battle by convincing his fellow first ministers that Quebec can't accept a Canada clause be-iore the Meech Lake accord is passed.Officials from a provincial delegation.speaking on condition they weren’t identified, said the premiers had achieved a broad but f ragile consensus that the Canada clause should wait until a future round of constitutional talks.The Quebec media and the Parti Québécois have been badgering Bourassa about the proposal, warning him that the clause would dilute the distinct society section of Meech Lake.Premier Bourassa’s refusal to yield on the motherhood clause — seen as a key demand by Manitoba — is only temporary, said Rémillard.‘‘We will not see a Canada clause for this conference but we will see probably a commitment concerning discussions for a Canada clause in a second round of negotiations," he said.The clause would recognize aboriginal peoples and multicultural Canadians as fundamental to Canada.Equality of the sexes would also be spelled out.Meech Lake recognizes Canada’s fundamental characteristics as “the existence of French-speaking Canadians, centred in Quebec, but also present elsewhere in Canada, and English-speaking Canadians, concentrated outside Quebec but also present in Quebec.” Opponents of the accord say such a narrow definition would slight natives and Canadians of origins other than French or English.Inspector says PCBs found in St-Basile beef MONTREAL (CP) — There seems to be a scientific dispute over whether meat from the area around St-Basile-le-Grand — where a massive fire broke out at a warehouse containing PCBs — is contaminated.Since the disaster in 1988, about one-third of the meat from cattle in the area has been found to contain unacceptable levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, Quebec’s senior meat inspector said Thursday.Charles Lalonde, director of meat inspection at the provincial Agriculture Department, said that 224 of the 004 cattle slaughtered in the immediate area around St-Basile since the fire have been confiscated.In addition, he said there are about 100 cattle still alive whose meat might also be contaminated.Tests on the confiscated meat showed it contained more than the Quebec norm of 0.2 parts per million of PCBs which is 50 to 100 per cent more PCBs than is legally allowed in Quebec.Lalonde said his department took samples solely from the fat- ty portion of the slaughtered cattle where PCBs concentrate.He said concentrations in the muscle of the beef were probably much lower.However, Pierre Lamothe a veterinarian from the University of Montreal said a study he’s been doing on PCB residues in local animals suggests cattle near St-Basile have been able to eliminate PCBs naturally.Lamothe has been monitoring over 300 cows, bulls and calves to see how they deal with PCBs.He said he last came across animals whose PCB levels were high late last year.As well, at the Agriculture Department dairy products inspection branch, director Gaétan Busqué said there’s been no problem with milk from the St-Basile area.He said the branch didn't allow any local milk to be sold immediately after the fire, but that once a strict monitoring program was in place, almost all of the milk in the region was found to have PCB levels which were too low to be detected.Weather, page 2 Sherbrooke Friday.June 8.1990 50 cents Parizeau: Bourassa a weakling By Donald McKenzie QUEBEC (CP> — Premier Robert Bourassa is in danger of losing his backbone and accepting compromises at the Meech Lake talks, Parti Québécois Leader Jacques Parizeau said Thursday."I don't want Mr.Bourassa to come back (from Ottawa) on all fours." Parizeau told reporters."We ve been trying to put some backbone into Mr.Bourassa for some time, and 1 think rather successfully.but in the last few days the backbone has been bending again." Parizeau said.The PQ leader said Wednesday that Bourassa will lose public support if he makes concessions on the Meech Lake agreement, particu lady on the clause recognizing Quebec as a distinct society.Parizeau complained again Thursday that Bourassa is ignoring his telephone calls to find out what exactly is happening at the conference.He just won t call back." Pari zeau lamented."It just doesn't make sense that the Opposition has to rely on the bits and pieces that are coming out of Ottawa.It 's star-tine to become indecent." Why does Parizeau think Bourassa is giving him the cold shoulder?"Probably because he doesn't want to give any impression at the conference that he talks to people who want to achieve the sovereignty ol Quebec.There's probably something symbolic, while he's in Ottawa.in refusing any kind ot contact with me." Parizeau also said Saskatchewan Premier Grant Devine was right to say that he's out to destroy Canada."1 think he described me rather well.'' Parizeau told reporters."That's exactly w hat I'm trying to do." Devine told reporters Wcdnes day that Parizeau is out to "wreck my country." Added Parizeau: For a Cana dian.1 can well understand that he ehooses the sort of words that he ehose but 1 think Mr.Devine well represented my opinion Quebec's deputy premier, Lise Bacon, took a jab at Parizeau in the legislature Thursday saying that the progress made at the Ottawa meeting means "his old presulen tial and republic an dream lor June 24 won't materialize." Bouchard says Quebec mustn’t bend City honors top athletes Kl< ORIMiRANI SIMWIN / he C ity of Sherbrooke paid tribute to athletes wheel- loeul athletes.chair marathoner André Viger and speed skater Syl- For more on the story and a list of the winners see t ie Daigle.page 15.It was all part of the city's annual awards to deserving Inquest: Leslie’s death still a mystery MONTREAL (CP) — The circumstances of Presley Leslie's death remained mired in contradictory testimony Thursday as a coroner's inquest into the police shooting wrapped up after four days.Police stood by their view that they had no choice but to shoot the black man in the downtown Thunder Dome nightclub early April 9 since he had fired gunshots into the crowded bar and was threatening the lives of officers and the club’s patrons.But Joseph Silver, the lawyer for Leslie’s family, suggested at least two of the three officers who fired at the 2()-year-old man were close enough to Leslie to subdue him without killing him.A ballistics report has concluded two of the five bullets that struck Leslie were shot from a range of about eight centimetres.And a black community leader said many Montreal blacks are convinced Leslie was unarmed al the moment when the Montreal police officers gunned him down.Dan Philip, president of the Black Coalition of Quebec, noted that one Thunder Dome patron who claims to have seen Leslie unarmed when he was shot was not permitted to testify at the hearings.DIDN’T TESTIFY That witness was not called to testify, despite a request by Silver, because the lawyer was unable to provide coroner Denis Boudrias with his address 1 hree days into t he hearings.Philip also told reporters a law to create a civilian-dominated police complaints board, adopted in late 1988 but still not proclaimed, should be enacted so citizens can feel “some semblance of justice” when they feel wronged by police."Right now, all we have is police investigating police,” he said.Philip urged that charges be laid against the three officers involved in the shooting “so we can find out all the facts." And he complained that the Quebec provincial police investigation into Leslie’s death was “flawed” because the police force conducted no independent interviews with the three Montreal police officers who fired at Leslie.Silver noted there were contradictions in the officers’ testimony — especially over the number of shots Leslie fired.He also called some of the police officer's recollections "improbable," especially one officer's testimony that he grabbed Leslie’s arm without drawing his weapon even after Leslie Jiad supposedly fired two shots at him.HEARD STATEMENT In Thursday’s hearings, Boudrias heard a statement by Patrick Thompson who identified himself as a former doorman at the Thunder Dome.That statement said one shot fired by Leslie in the club struck Thompson in his left thigh shortly before Leslie was killed.But Boudrias cautioned against according too much weight to the statement, since Thompson is being held at (he Pinel Institute for the Criminally Insane, where a physician deemed him unable to appear at the hearings to be questioned and cross-examined.Coroner Denis Boudrias said il will be "several months" before his report will be ready.By Daniel Sanger POINTE-AU PIC (CP) Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa should say take il or leave it to his fellow premiers and walk out of the first ministers talks in Ottawa, says for mer environment minister Lucien Bouchard.In a speech that had echoes of remarks made by Parti Québécois Leader Jacques Parizeau earlier this week, Bouchard said Thur sday that Bourassa will he a hero il he comes back with an intael and ratified Meech Lake accord.But he said the Quebec premier will also be a hero if he comes back with no deal but having resisted pressure to bend."I want Mr Bourassa to under stand that on the other side of the Ottawa River there is a whole pro vince of us who will applaud if he walks out with his head high not having signed anything,” Bou chard said in an opening speech to the annual convention ot the Que bec Bar Association."Mr.Bourassa, for once in his life, has an occasion to get in the history books as a hero il he comes back from Ottawa with Meech as is.But if he comes back from ottu wa without Meech because people tried to exert pressure on him to change Meech, he will he a hero too." he told reporters later."Mr.Bourassa should say we all spent hours and days and nights on this, we signed an agreement : here ii is.so just ratify it.If you don’t, well, it’s your problem.” Bouchard, given a standing ova tion both before and after addres sing the room of 500 lawyers, also ripped into hold out premiers Gary Filmon of Manitoba and Clyde Wellsof Newfoundland, and ridicu led the Senate during his hour long speech.But he spent most ol his time urging Bourassa not to budge at all on Meech — a document he called “an uncharacteristic gesture of gone rosily from English Canada." "Quebec s honor shouldn't be compromised by a little list of small words,” said Bouchard, get ting more passionate as his speech progressed.Even though he maintained he wants to see Meech passed, Bouchard said Quebec should not seek to please the premiers of Manitoba or Newfoundland."Mr.Bourassa should not sign anything that allows Mr Filmon or Mr.Wells to go home and say ‘Victory.’” he said, adding, “It’s not that I want to defeat them, f just want victory for Quebec.” Bouchard later said : “Mr, Wells and Mr.Filmon represent nothing in this country." The former environment minister.a close friend of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s, resigned last month to work for Quebec sovereignty.In his speech Thursday, Bou chard said Bourassa was re negotiating Meech if he was discussing an elected Senate, a concept he maintained goes against the interests ol Quebec "Quebecers know perfectly well that an elected Senate is a way to dilute the importance of Quebec I say no elected Senate.No Senate at all." DERIDES SENATE He later made fun of the Senate and its members for voting themselves a pay hike Wednesday."They know what’s going on they just voted themselves a pay raise.And they 're not all imbeciles — they made it tax-deductible." Bouchard also ridiculed the idea of a so-called Canada clause, qualifying the contentious distinct so ciety provision for Quebec Pension reform raises RRSP limit OTTAWA (CP) — An amended pension reform bill, now expected to get speedy passage in the Commons, will help Canadians retire without the need for government supplements, Finance Minister Michael Wilson said Thursday.“Canadians will have more freedom.they won t have to rely on governments." Wilson said outside the Commons about the results of the first major pension reform in 14 years."It makes people in their advan ced years more self-reliant and 1 think that's a good thing." The bill will allow many Canadians to contribute more to registered retirement savings plans, which allow people to build tax-shelted nest eggs for their retirement.The maximum annual contribution will be raised to $15,500 by 1990 from the current level of $7,500.It is mainly wealthy, self-employed people who will benefit from this provision as the levels are much lower for average Canadians with company pension plans.For average wage-earners, the main benefit will be a provisions allowing them to defer payment of RRSP contributions from one year to another in case they lack the money fortheirmaximum payment in one particular year.BAD FOR PORTABILITY However, one pension expert said last-minute amendments have turned the legislation into a disaster for younger workers who may change jobs several times during their careers.“The amended legislation is di sastrous for younger, more mobile people in defined benefit pension plans,” said Dan McCavv.president of William M.Mercer Ltd .Canada's largest pension consul ting company.MeCaw said that’s because the bill no longer lets them increase their RRSP contributions to make up for lost pension benefits when they change jobs.Wilson admitted the amendments.worked out between the all-party Commons finance committee and the Finance Department, have sacrified some fairness to make pensions simpler to administer.“That’s always the balance, between simplicity and equity,” said Wilson."We re always looking at that balance in any tax legislation.The amended bill requires third reading in the Commons and approval by the Senate to take effect Jan.1 However, il has some supporters.such as Bill McCrossan.a formel Tory MP and president of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, who acted as consultant to the li-nancc committee. 2—The RECORD—Friday.June K.l!WO The Townships Scconl Unity’s Neil: French language must be strong enough to survive on its own By Sharon McCully COWANSVILLE — The fledgling Unity Party — which got off to a testy start in Brome Missis-quoi — landed squarely on its feet Tuesday evening, selecting Graham Neil, Associate Dean, for the McGill Faculty of Education as a candidate.Neil’s roots are firmly planted in the Townships where he was born and raised.He continues to operate a beef farm in Stanbridge East where he lives with his w ife Sharon and four children.The 49-year-old bilingual educator trained teachers at McGill Uni-versity for twenty years, before becoming associate dean of the Faculty of Education While Neil is a political neophyte at the Provincial level, he served as municipal councillor in Stanbridge East for seven years.The new candidate says he is becoming active in Provincial politics to try to right a wrong.ACTIVE IN REFERENDUM I was very active during the referendum.'’ Neil said in an interview following his nomination by acclamation.“I had very strong feelings then, and they are just as strong now .’’ In a low-key speech to seventy-five party supporters, Neil says he has no illusions about the political chances of the Unity Party.“But the philosophy of a party which recognizes basic human rights, cannot be too hard to sell, he said Neil says he believes Quebecers should be able to "speak the language they choose, and send their children to the school of their choice." Members at the campaign launch elected its first riding association for Brome Missisquoi comprised of : Lawrence Moreau, president; Ross Ladd, Vice-president; Kelly Ladd, secretary; Jean Claude Parenteau and John PCBs: Hydro Quebec qualifies earlier promise By Sharon McCully KNOWLTON — Hydro Quebec has added a clause to its claim that soil and gravel moved from the Hydro sub-station in Knowlton to a site on Knowlton Road is not contaminated."Wedon't believe it’s contaminated with PCB’s but we haven’t tested it yet," commented communications officer Maurice Gaumond in town yesterday to oversee the transfer of 10 cubic metres of PCB contaminated soil from the Knowlton sub-station to St.Catherines, Ontario.Gaumond said 28 truckloads of soil — mostly taken from the ditch and exterior of the fenced transfer mer area were moved to a private property owned by Choiniere next to Knowlbanks on Knowlton Road last week.“W’e are testing the soil moved to the Choiniere property today and will have the results by the middle of next week," Choiniere said.“If it is found to be contaminated, we will transport it to Ste.Catherines along with the other contaminated soil taken from around the transformers.Gaumond said it would be unusual to find PCB’s in soil taken that far from the transformer, but the tests are a safety precaution.‘ Hydro Quebec is taking its res ponsibility,” Gaumond said.Last fall 30 cubic metres of oil contaminated soil was moved from the transformer site.In addition, five cubic metres of PCB contami nated soil was removed from beneath one of the transformers and transported in 25 sealed tanks to a waste disposal site.This w eek’s clean-up will end the decontamination and up-grading of the Knowlton mid-town substation.The cost of the up-grading and clean up is estimated at $2 million.Gaumond points out that the current work being carried out at the Knowlton sub-station is a temporary measure until a new sub-station can be built to serve the area.Cost of the new sub-station is estimated at $20 million.Work is expected to begin in four-five years.Chapman, members at large.Interim party leader James Atkinson warned supporters not to expect a long list of promises from their new candidate.“ The Liberals made promises, but didn't keep them — eighty per cent of nothing is still nothing,” he said.Atkinson said the Unity Party will be a political option for those in the Province who believe in the fundamental right to live and work in this Province in the language of their choice.Asked how he would protect the French culture in Quebec, Atkinson — who refers to himself as “un Québécois, pure laine, a francophone who married an anglophone” — responded.“Nothing is eternal — not the Roman language.not Latin and not French either if it’s not strong enough to survive on its own.“ Canada can learn from Soviet independence — Canadian in Moscow By Scott Verity Stevenson SHERBROOKE — While Canada works on its constitutional crisis, the ethnic republics of the Soviet Union are moving closer an closer to independence.Fred Weir, a Canadian who’s been living in Moscow for the last four years, says that Canada can learn from the Soviet Union and it relationship with its provinces.According to Weir, perestroika is a new Soviet revolution turning the soviet political process upside down.The previous system was "top-down socialism”, says Weir, adding that now “decisions will come from the people.” Married to a Russian woman, Weir si corresponding from Moscow to the Canadian Tribune, a Toronto newspaper which presents the views of the Communist Party of Canada.For Weir, the struggle for independence in the ethnic republics is part of a “struggle for asymétrie federalism”.WILL RE UNITE He describes it as essentially a procedural dispute, saying that he expects the republics will rejoin the Soviet Union after ten or twenty years of independence, if they choose that route at the outset."I don't think they have anywhere to go.” he says, citing the strategy of the Soviet central government to spread industry throughout the country so that each republic is dependent on the whole.He nevertheless forsees a turbulent future in the Soviet Union, saying, “There are so many accumulated pressures that continual explosions must be expected." He says “relations will always be in flux; the constantly need to be calibrated, applying the same to our Canadian crisis.Just as Weir would prefer to see the ethnic republic of the Soviet Union stay as one country, he wants Quebec to stay a part of Canada."I'm a Canadian nationalist and.yes.I'd like Canada to survive, but not at a price,” he says.FIND ONE'S OWN ROUTE "What would be best is for each nation to find its own route to self-determination." said Weir.He said debates in Canada are far behind those in the Soviet Union."Our federalism is obsolete and needs to be redefined along the same lines of the asymetry which is occuring in the Soviet Union." Weir is a Ukranian-Canadian who studied both the Russian language and Soviet history.His uncle, John Weir, worked for the Canadian Tribune from Moscow in 1928.The socialism he advocates is a “pluralistic democratic process by which people remake their society.” Long term future of radical reform of Warsaw Pact questioned MOSCOW (CP) — Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and leaders of the former Communist satellite states in Eastern Europe have agreed to a radical reform of the Warsaw Pact to meet the more peaceful face of Europe today.But conflicting claims were issued immediately after the daylong meeting about the long-term future of the organization, dominated by the Soviet Union since it was established 35 years ago at the height of the Cold W’ar.Yuli Kvitsinsky, Soviet deputy foreign minister, told a news conference the alliance has not openly-split as some people had predicted because of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the emergence of new democratic governments in the last seven months.' There wasn't a single statement made relating to a wish to quit the Warsaw Pact,” Kvitsinsky told a news conference.But Hungarian spokesman Laszlow Balazs immediately rejected that claim.Balazs said in an interview that Hungarian Prime Minister Joszef Antall told the meeting the Warsaw Pact “is not only past its prime but it has really outlived its useful ness.” Balazs quoted Antall as saying: “It would be better not to try to reform it but to phase it out over a period of time.” “EQUAL RIGHTS’ Gorbachev and leaders of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and East Germany issued a declaration after the meeting saying that the Soviet-dominated pact should be transfor- med into an association of ‘‘sovereign states with equal rights formed on a democratic basis.-’ They also agreed to offer “constructive co-operation with the North Atlantic (NATO) alliance,” whose leaders also met Thursday in Scotland.But they stopped far short of accepting western demands that a reunited Germany should be part of NATO, calling instead for reuni-ficationn to proceed in consultation with all European countries and with firm guarantees of existing borders.Kvitsinsky told the news conference the leaders briefly discussed the possibility of a reunited Germany remaining a member of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact.The leaders recognized, however, that the overall situation in Europe has changed dramatically.The Soviet news agency Tass quoted their declaration as saying : “Confrontation elements contained in the (founding) documents of the Warsaw Pact and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are no longer in line with the spirit of the time.” Tass reported the leaders favored “formation of a new all-European security system and creation of a single Europe of peace and co-operation.” Kvitsinsky told the news conference the declaration called for the former Soviet-dominated body to be “the sub ject of in-depth, radical transformation” into an organization that would concentrate on political and security matters.He said its “obsolete (military) structures” will be completely revised as many of the Eastern European states had demanded.No details were released.The leaders appointed a group of their officials to prepare specific proposals on these topics for their consideration at a meeting in November.SEEK COMPROMISE The wording appeared to be designed to satisfy both Moscow, which wants to keep the pact reasonably intact, and the leaders of Czechoslovakia and Hungary in particular who want out of the association.Antall had said before flying from Budapest to Moscow that he wanted to see the pact “abolished in its current form by the end of 1991.” But Kvitsinsky insisted no such proposal was even presented Thursday.let alone discussed.“On the contrary, all those who spoke at the meeting mentioned that the Warsaw Pact plays a valuable role.“(They agreed) it has to be adapted to new circumstances but (they also agreed) that membership in the pact is politically useful and is useful in other respects for member states.” Thursday's meeting had been billed in advance as a decisive meeting on the alliance’s fate in the wake of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the diminished tensions across the once-divided continent.Even the faces were different.At the pact's last summit in Bucharest 11 months ago, Gorbachev was dealing with old-guard leaders as Erich Honnecker of East Germany and dictator Nicolae Ceauseseu of Romania.Women.Quarter million have jobs but still forced to live in poverty Rv \4ir*ha#*1 bout id ue whorp shp parnc mini.hucin fhir»