The record, 11 avril 1989, mardi 11 avril 1989

Tuesday Births, deaths .9 Classified.10 Comics .11 Editorial .4 Farm & Business .5 Living.8 Sports .12 Townships .3 Pi IMi J! SMI 1 K l AROSE ft* \ BlTURStERHM w Weather, page 2 r0 » Sherbrooke Tuesday, April 11,1989 40 cents ‘The future.is in doubt’ — internal party report Quebec Liberals worry over fate of English-speaking ¦" vD1]Ilu ' 11 " I'm sick of hearing what the man in the street thinks ! What about the man in the coffee shops ?" By Sharon McCully KNOWLTON — A special internal committee ot the Quebec Liberal Party has concluded that the province’s English-speaking community may be doomed to extinction.The committee, established last May by the Quebec Liberals to study the English-speaking community of Quebec, concludes that while Quebec anglophones have made great strides in participating fully within the context of a largely 5000 more chronic care beds QUEBEC (CP) — The province’s troubled health care system needs $150 million more annually for the next five years to tackle problems such as overcrowding, long waits for elective surgery and shortage of chronic-care beds, a government policy paper says.The document released Monday also suggests taxing junk food to discourage its consumption and requiring impaired drivers who cause accidents in which they in- Doctors take hunger strike to the limit MONTREAL (CP) — Thirteen foreign-born doctors on the 14th day of a protest fast say they are willing to die for the right to practise medicine in Quebec — and provincial authorities don’t appear eager to intervene.‘‘He's here to watch us die,” Danuta Borowiec said Monday of a doctor who had been sent by Health Minister Therese Lavoie-Roux to examine the 13, three of whom refused his advice earlier this week to enter hospital.Borowiec’s glazed eyes stared from a tired, drawn face as she raised herself, with difficulty, into a sitting position from her mattress on the floor of a downtown hotel room.She and 12 colleagues are nearing the critical 20th day of the fast, after which damage to body organs may be irreversible.“I don’t want my daughter, now 12 and perfectly bilingual, to suffer as I have as an immigrant,” said the middle-aged physician, fighting tears.Trained in Poland, Borowiec received her eligibility certificate to practise here in 1985.She has been waiting since then for an internship position.EXPRESS CONCERN “I’m so worried about Ajanta,” Borowiec said, referring to another hunger striker, Ajanta Roy, who began her fast one week before the others.The protesters, whose homelands range from Viet Nam to Syria and Lebanon, have vowed to persist with the hunger strike until they get the internships that pose the last bureaucratic hurdle to practising here.They’ve been waiting — with eligibility certificates in hand — as long as four years for these positions, and are also contesting the selection last year of other newer arrivals for the limited number of posts.Michael Szczech, a foreign-born doctor who got an internship for the year 1991, said he is backing his wife Christine, who is fasting.‘‘The real problem is not that the people who are here didn’t get a position.” he said.“The problem is they are being stripped of their eligibility .they ’ll have to go through a whole new process.“There is a campaign of misinformation on the part of the health department and the (physicians’) professional corporation,” Szczech said.The report’s author, Jean Rochon, former dean of medicine at Laval University, wrote that the system has failed to keep pace with the needs of a population which has become more diversified because of immigration, more working women and a declining birthrate.Stricter controls should be exercised over the acceptance of foreign doctors who want to immigrate to Quebec and foreign students who want to attend Quebec medical schools, said the paper.It also recommends that more student doctors be admitted to specialist programs and that measures be taken to encourage doctors to practise in outlying regions.Midwives, who may not legally assist at births in Quebec, did not get a break in the policy paper despite continuing pressure from women’s groups.Lavoie-Roux said her department is still discussing the issue with the Quebec Professional Corporation of Physicians.“We could have a law just for midwives but that wouldn’t guarantee support from the medical profession,” she said.Reaction to the policy paper from the health community was largely positive.Szczech said._________largely positive.Ottawa gives extra day to keep tax returns waiting OTTAWA (CP) — Canadians tended to May 1.Returns must! OTTAWA (CP) — Canadians will have an extra day to sweat over their income tax returns this year, Revenue Canada announced Monday.The deadline for filing 1988 in-come tax returns has been ex- tended to May 1.Returns must be received by Revenue Canada or postmarked before midnight to avoid penalties.The change was made because April 30, the normal deadline each year, falls on a Sunday.French-speaking Quebec, the future of a flourishing English-speaking community in the province is in jeopardy.In a preliminary report delivered to the provincial Liberal executive March 30, the ad-hoc com-mittee warns that with the anglophone birth rate below the provincial average and an increase in the number of elderly anglos, “the future of a vibrant, flourishing English-speaking com munity is in doubt.” "This exceedingly low birth rate, combined with the loss of over 150.000 English-speakers from 1977 to 1985, highlight the fragility of the English-speaking community," the report states The Liberals formed the special committee in May 1988 after party members suggested the province s unsettled social climate may stem from a general lack of knowledge about the English-speaking com munity.The report points out that while the largest concentration of anglophones is centered in the greater Montreal area, just under 200,000 English-speakers are scat tered throughout other areas • Outaouais 48,000; • Laurentians 35.000; • South west Quebec 32,000; • Estrie 26.0(H); • Quebec City 20.000; • Gaspésie 13.000.The real distribution of English speaking Quebecers throughout the province debunks the myth Quebec hands health care over to regions that all anglos live in Montreal’s prosperous West Island district, says the report.The committee also examined the historic roots of the institutional network which forms an integral part of the community, and is often hold up as an example of the pro vince's tolerance toward English-speaking Quebecers HOSPITALS According to the committee's See: LIBERALS, Page 3 lV, jure themselves to reimburse the government for their medical care.But the biggest proposed change calls for a major decentralization of the decision-making process in the health-care sector.“Citizens should be at the heart of the strategic decisions being made in their health establishments,” Health Minister Therese Lavoie-Roux told a news conference.Under the proposals, regional health and social service boards, with representatives elected from the community, would be given more administrative clout and greater budgetary control.The Health Department has a budget of $8.1 billion for the 1988-89 fiscal year.OCCUPY BEDS Lavoie-Roux said she wants to create 5000 new chronic care beds by 2001, as many as possible on a subsidized basis in private homes.In Quebec, many senior citizens requiring chronic care occupy hospital beds meant for short-term care.Ten per cent of the population is over 65 and the figure could reach 27 per cent by the year 2031, said the paper.Lavoie-Roux promised improvements would be made to certain emergency rooms to modernize them.The Health Department will also address problems of emergency room overcrowding, especially acute in parts of Montreal where hospital patients have been parked in hospital hallways during busy periods.The paper suggests longer hours for community health care clinics to ease the burden on emergency rooms.The paper followed a report by the Rochon Commission last year which blasted the health care system as over-regulated and too centralized.* 0 *: \ w^\.kl'.( OKI) (IRANI SIMEON RECORD/MYA SURJADINATA It didn’t matter Monday how Eastern Townshippers prepared for the bike, and A las fair Griffin was hoping to do some early power tanning, weather — they ended up wrong.But both were caught by surprise when an afternoon mini-hlizzard struck, living many thin puzzled frowns and a thin new covering of snow in its In Lennoxvule Ken McLean bundled up before taking a spring ride on his wake.‘Tm interested in having the case thrown out’ Judge quits Marotte Bill 101 vandalism case By Daniel Sanger MONTREAL (CP) — The trial of Hans Marotte, facing 80 mischief charges for allegedly defacing English signs, was delayed before it started Monday, but not before one judge disqualified himself from hearing it and not before its colorful nature manifested itself.Quebec Court Judge Gilbert Morier ruled himself unfit to judge the ease because he knew Marot-te’s father 30 years ago and had been the prosecutor in a Front de Liberation du Quebec trial in the early 1970s where Marotte’s lawyer, Robert Lemieux, represented the defence.His replacement.Judge Luc Trudel, put the case off until May in order to give himself time to con- sider defence arguments that all the charges faced by the Montreal student be thrown out.Marotte, 20, rose to celebrity status in Quebec nationalist circles last July when he was arrested on charges of spraypainting “101” — for Quebec’s old language charter, Law 101.— on English commercial signs.His trial has become a rallying point for Quebecers intent on preserving strict provincial language laws.But although the trial shows promise of becoming a platform for militant nationalism, Marotte’s lawyer made a motion to have all 80 charges dropped because of their unspecific phrasing in court documents.“I’m interested in having the case thrown out,” said Lemieux, who read a poem by the nationalist Quebec writer Felix Leclerc as part of his argument “We’re not looking for a platform.” A second lawyer for Marotte, Pierre Cloutier, also asked that Trudel, if he does not quash the charges, consider allowing a trial by jury on the grounds that Marot te could conceivably be sentenced to 40 years in prison if given the full sentence on each charge.Marotte is not automatically eligible for a jury trial because mischief is a misdemeanour.The argument was fiercely rejected by Crown prosecutor Louise Provost who told the judge Cloutier is “asking you to treat Mr Marotte like no one else.” Although his lawyers mired the day’s proceedings in arguments over jurisprudence and teehnicali-ties, Marotte maintained he wanted to get the trial over with “Each time it starts, it gets put off and it takes up time and money,” said the Université de Montreal political science student referring to two previous court appearences — one when he fired his first lawyer when he suggested a plea bargain and the second when Lemieux’s house and office burned down, taking with it his notes on the case The beefy Marotte — dressed in sweatpants, running shoes and a sweater— was accompanied at the court by a smaller gang of supporters than in earlier appearances *The doctor is nowhere to be found9 RCMP forget to get psychiatrist for bus hijacker OTTAWA (CP) - A man appeared briefly in provincial court today in the hijacking of a bus Friday to Parliament Hill, but he’ll remain in custody until at least Wednesday because a court psychiatrist apparently wasn’t told the man would need an examination today before standing trial.Charles Yacoub, 32, of the Montreal suburb of Repentigny, is charged with hostage-taking, forcible confinement, using a firearm to commit an indictable offence and illegal possession of a firearm.He could face life in prison.But a psychiatrist must first determine if Yacoub is fit to stand trial.On Friday, when the Greyhound bus was hijacked from Montreal, Quebec police apparently forgot to tell RCMP and Ontario police ab- out it.The first news of the hijacking for them came after the bus arrived on the Hill.Today, RCMP or the crown attorney 's office apparently forgot to notify the psychiatrist of the need to examine Yacoub.“The doctor is nowhere to be found,” said Gilles Charlebois, Yacoub’s lawyer, who told the court of the problem and agreed to postpone the exam until Wednesday The bearded, stocky, dark- haired Yacoub, wearing a blue nylon windbreaker over a white shirt, stood silently in the prisoner’s box while court proceedings were translated to him.He has en tered no plea.Confusion fills Inuit assembly elections KUUJJUAQ, Que.(CP) - Election foul-ups and the death of a leading Inuit activist overshadowed an important Inuit vote on self-government Monday.Confusion reigned in many of the 14 villages in Nunavik, where residents elected a six-member assembly which will draft the constitution of a future regional government Many voters, some of whom arrived at the polling station on their skidoos, did not realize they had to select two candidates — not one.As a result, many ballots which were cast early in the day had to be spoiled, said Malee Saunders, chief electoral officer in Kuujjuaq, the largest village with nearly 1,000 inhabitants.And in Kangirsuk, located 1,500 kilometres north of Quebec City on Ungava Bay, one of the names on the ballot belonged to a candidate who dropped out of the race weeks ago.As expected, the two best-known candidates, who have different views on Inuit self-determination, were elected to the committee.Senator Charlie Watt strolled to victory in the Ungava Bay region, while Harry Tulugak won easily in the Hudson Bay area.“He (Tulugak) might not share my view but we’ll have to work together and have a good attitude,” a subdued Watt told reporters after the votes had been counted from Kuujjuaq’s only polling booth.Ori gtnz inlet mrying Intensities because the text is printed on greyish or colour background. 2—The RECORI>—Tuesday, April 11, 1989 The Townships fm___gp-i monra ‘Fines for industrial polluters must be much higher" Portrait of a river valley: Study finds St.Francis in pollution trouble By John Tollefsrud SHERBROOKE— A community health centre launched a comprehensive ‘environmental inventory’ Monday, painting a sharp portrait of the state of air, soil and water quality in the St.Francis river basin above Richmond.The general findings gave air a good rating, water was considered poor and soil was deemed vulnerable to a deadly combination of agricultural pesticides and acid rain.The area of study includes a population of 300,000 in 150 municipalities and encompasses 360 lakes and rivers.The Centre Locale des Services Communautaires Sud-Ouest-Centre (CLSC SOC) decided to get involved in the environment portfolio because it is a government organization dedicated to public health.Maurice Compagnat of the health centre said the Inventaire Environnementale was just the beginning of the campaign against pollution in the Sherbrooke area.He also said the document was in- »#* Pierre Morin.Government can be pressured.tended to assess the environment, not to point blame.‘‘We have not wanted to denounce the parties responsible (for pollution),” Compagnat said, “But we have clearly identified sources.Though he would not name names, Compagnat hinted at industry.“Fines for industrial polluters have to be much higher,” he said.The report cites sources of air pollution, including both industries and the general public.From a 1983 Quebec environment ministry report, the Cascades, Kruger and Domtar pulp and paper mills were singled out for their sulphur dioxide emissions.Passenger vehicles were rightly blamed for spewing out carbon monoxide, while other industries like the Béton de 1’Estrie concrete plant, Sherwood-Drolet and Sintra were noted for more specific “substance emissions”.The study acknowledges several of its reports date five or six years back But despite that weakness, the document is exhaustive; it is comprised of of a variety of government and private sources and is three-quarters of an inch thick.Most local notables of the environment scene attended the press conference at the Maison de l'Eau, and three made comments about the report.Pierre Morin of the public health department at Sherbrooke University Hospital said soils are threatened by both natural phenomena like floods and by mankind's folly of using too many chemical fertilizers.Morin said last year’s successful campaign to end the import of American solid wastes to Quebec proved that the government can be pressured to take action on the environment.Robert Dubé, director of CHARMES (a watchdog group over the St.Francis and Magog rivers), said two-thirds of the Sher-brooke-area population is served by tap water, while the rest drink ground water from wells.He quoted the report’s finding that between August 1984 and July 1988, over 100 public warnings were issued to boil drinking water, including six in Beebe alone last year, The report said Lake Memphre-magog is crucial to protect as it is the prime source of drinking water for the area.Dubé added the closing of public beaches last year due to pollution, including both beaches in Sher- brooke and others on Lake Massa-wippi.In all, six subjects were treated in the study, including energy consumption and its dangers, natural threats to the environment and risks posed by industrial pollution.The report was a co-operative effort by many environment groups and results were verified by the CLSC SOC.Because the health centre’s resources are limited, only 2000 copies of the report were printed To examine it, the public is asked to address the CLSC SOC at 2130 King St.W.or call (819) 565-1330.% m 4 ilSp"' ‘A serious question’ Quebec still at risk from garbage?*C SHERBROOKE ( JT) — Although Quebec is no longer a legal dumping ground for solid waste from the United States, the disposal of out-of-province toxic waste is still taking place.Pierre Morency, an Ayers Cliff town councillor who spearheaded a successful campaign to halt U S.garbage dumping in the Eastern Townships, said Monday that the recently reported buyout of a Quebec waste-disposal firm by an American-Japanese consortium threatens to make Quebec the disposal capital of North America.“There’s a serious question whether Quebec is in the process of becoming the site par excellence for destroying toxic waste.” Attending a Sherbrooke press conference to launch an environmental report by a community health centre, Morency said the situation is like free trade in garbage.He expressed anger and frustration that the provincial and federal environment ministries apparently follow different sets of rules.Morency cited a 1986 treaty between Canada and the U S.which allows waste to cross borders for the purpose of disposal.He strongly said regions must be responsible for disposing of their own garbage.“We have to arrive at the policy in Quebec that everyone destroys their own waste,” Morency said.Sherbrooke environmentalists were present Monday to hear bad news about the St.Francis valley.Partners with Quebec: Trials to include Drummond ville cheese plant Montreal firm eyes waste market: SNC will research effluent conversion By Allan Swift MONTREAL (CP) — Increasing pressure on companies and municipalities to treat their wastes could be a boon to the engineering firm SNC Group Inc., which announced Monday it is obtaining Quebec government help to improve processes to treat effluents.The Quebec government and SNC will spend as much as $3 million together to commercialize two patented processes owned by SNC, one to treat industrial waste; the other — based on a Drummondvil-le pilot project — for sludge from municipal sewage treatment plants.Réal L’Archéveque, SNC vice-president for research, said at a signing ceremony with Claude Ryan, science minister, that his company owns a unique process for treating sewage sludge.Developed by the federal Waste Water Technology Centre in Burlington, Ont., the rights were sold jointly to SNC and the Campbell Group of Perth, Australia, to commercialize.L’Archéveque said disposal of sewage sludge is becoming a crucial problem.Some cities, such as Boston, have been dumping it far out to sea but after 1991, regulations will no longer permit it.Toronto and Montreal burn their sludge, but incineration is expensive, running from $350 to $1,000 a tonne because the sludge has a high moisture content.EXTRACT OIL L’Archéveque said some American and Canadian cities have expressed an interest in buying the technology, which involves extracting from the sludge an oil of a consistency comparable to diesel fuel.This could be mixed with diesel and used to run municipal vehicles, he said.In addition, char produced in the process can be recycled to dry the sludge.The only residue is ash, which can be safely used in landfill, L’Archéveque said.The final cost of the process works out to $160 a tonne, at the current price of diesel fuel, he said.The other process SNC is developing is called a bioreactor, to treat waste with a high biomass content from industrial plants.It has successfully operated a pilot plant for the past 18 months treating waste water from a large cheese factory near Drummond-ville.Biomass is organic matter which can be altered and transformed by micro-organisms introduced into it.The bioreactor can be used to treat waste from pulp and paper plants, food processing and breweries — companies coming under increasing pressure to dispose of their effluents in an appropriate manner.News-in-brief RCMP is reviewed after bungled hostage-taking OTTAWA (CP) — Solicitor General Pierre Blais thanked the RCMP Monday for a job well done, while simultaneously announcing a review of police operations in the hijacking of a Greyhound bus from Montreal to Parliament Hill.“I think the RCMP did a tremendous job,” Blais told reporters outside the Commons.But he appeared to back away from the categoric statements previously made by the Mounties, who have been saying nobody in the federal force knew about the hijacking until the bus showed up in front of Parliament last Friday.Quebec provincial police say they put out a warning to all forces within an 80-kilometre radius of Montreal that the bus, which set out for New York City, had been hijacked on the Champlain Bridge in Montreal.The warning should have reached the RCMP and Ontario Provincial Police, but both forces said they never got it — perhaps because the message was wrongly routed on the computer network that links police across the country.—_____ttal MmSBuTOL George MacLaren, Publisher.569-9511 Randy Kinnear, Assistant Publisher.569-9511 Charles Bury, Editor .569-6345 Lloyd G.Schelb, Advertising Manager.569-9525 Richard Lessard, Production Manager.569-9931 Mark Guillette, Press Superintendent .569-9931 Guy Renaud, Graphics.569-4856 Francine Thibault, Composition.569-9931 CIRCULATION DEPT.819-569-9528 KNOWLTON OFF.: 514-243-0088 FAX: (819) 569-3945 Subscriptions by Carrier: weekly: $1.80 Subscriptions by Mall: Canada: 1 year- $74.00 6 months- $44.00 3 months- $30.60 1 month- $15.00 U.S.& Foreign: 1 year- $151.00 6 months- $92.00 3 months- $62.00 1 month- $32.00 Back copies of The Record are available at the following prices: Copies ordered within a month of publications: 60c per copy.Copies ordered more than a month after publication: $1.10 per copy.Established February 9, 1897, incorporating the Sherbrooke Ga-aette (est.1837) and the Sherbrooke Examiner (est.1879).Published Monday to Friday by The Record Division, Groupe Québécor Inc.Offices and plant located at 2850 Delorme Street, Sherbrooke, Quebec, J1K 1A1.Second class registration number 1064.Member of Canadian Press Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation Caboose at end of track MONTREAL (CP) — The last days of the caboose at the back of a freight train drew closer on Monday with an agreement in principle on a three-year-contraet between CP Rail and the United Transportation Union.Management has been trying to phase out cabooses for more than 20 years.And the contract signed Monday, which must be approved by union members, establishes procedures to implement the operation of freight trains without a caboose “for the first time in Canada,” a railway statement said After three years of hearings, the Canadian Transport Commission — now called the National Transportation Agency — gave the railways permission in 1987 to run freight trains without cabooses.Ethics in research overdue OTTAWA (CP) — The research community must consider the potential loss of human dignity as well as potential physical hazards when they assess risks to subjects of medical research, a University of Toronto law professor said Monday.Researchers and the research ethics boards that evaluate their proposals have to consider psychological risks as well.Bernard Dickens told a meeting on ethics in human research Dickens said risk is generally looked at mainly in physical terms, but that’s not enough “because we are using people.” Delegates from Canadian medical schools and affiliated teaching hospitals are gathered for the two-day meeting, organized by the Medical Research Council of Canada and the National Council on Bioethics in Human Research.Over zealous RCMP?TORONTO (CP) — A Canadian being held in a prison in Bangkok says he faces 12 years in prison for drug-related offences because the RCMP set him up.In an interview that appeared in the Toronto Globe and Mail on Monday, Alain Olivier said RCMP Cpl.Derek Flanagan and he were victims of the force’s zeal to make a major drug bust in Asia.Olivier, 29, was arrested Feb.19, six kilometres away from where Flanagan had just fallen off the back of a pickup truck during an undercover drug operation.The 35-year-old police officer’s neck struck a sidewalk abutment, severing his spine.He died a short while later.The RCMP has so far remained silent about the operation except to say Flanagan was acting “in an assistance capacity” under direction of the Thai National Police.Winds stall slick VALDEZ, Alaska (AP) — Rough waves and high winds were breaking up the thick crude oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez on Monday, stalling the massive slick’s movement toward a major fishing port, the U.S.coast guard said.But the stormy weather also hampered cleanup efforts as small craft advisories and gale warnings were posted along the central Alaskan coast, where more than 38 million litres of crude oil oozed across Prince William Sound, threatening fisheries and killing thousands of birds and animals.The wind was out of the northeast, which kept oil from washing ashore in untainted inlets and the Kenai Fjords National Park, Weather Cold weather continues.Tuesday sunny with cloudy periods and a high around 2.Outlook for Wednesday: fair but still cool.Doonesbury THERE,,.ANDY _ THAT SHOULD DON'T ; hblp you you ever GET A GET Atm* ANY VEIN1 UTUE EVEIL, 1 TRY NOT TO, JOANIE.PEOPLE til ITH A POSITIVE ATTITUDE GENERALLY UVE LONGER.PUT EVERY NOW and then, law at night, i'll /) yS) BE WATCHING the / Y' / NEWS, AND REAGAN’S FACE WILL FLASH / BY.n .AND THEN I'LL REMEMBER IT TOON HIM SIX YEARS TO SPEAK PUBLICLY ABOUT AIDS! Six YEARS ANP 21000 PEAPf LjZ.BUT THEN.THE MORPHINE KICKS IN.ANPHE'S \ READY TO CAMPAIGN FOR HIM AGAIN.5HYEE1 FRIEND x I Ships that collide in the night MANFREDONIA, Italy (Reuter) — Two Turkish-registered merchant ships collided in the Adriatic in thick fog Monday and Italian port authorities said at least 14 sailors were missing and feared dead.Italian rescue helicopters plucked three men from the freighter Deval, which collided with the other vessel, the Selin, 10 kilometres south of the Yugoslavian island of Palagruza, the officials said.Uberto Scarpati, commander of the southeastern Italian port of Manfredonia, said another 14 people were on board the Deval.He said there was little hope they survived.‘‘The ship sank very fast and the crew was probably still asleep at that time,” Scarpati said by telephone.He said he had not managed to make radio contact with the Selin and did not know how many people were on board.Rescue efforts were being hampered by fog, he added.Mercy killers investigated VIENNA (AP) — Four Austrian nurses who confessed to 49 “mercy killings” of elderly patients plugged the noses of some victims and forced water into their lungs, police said Monday.Police said they doubt the nurses' claims they killed the patients to relieve their suffering because of the way the victims died.One police investigator said the nurses also admitted to killing patients they considered a nuisance.The first slayings took place in 1983 in a ward of Lainz hospital, but most of them occurred in the last two years, police said.The ward — dubbed The Death Pavilion — was closed Monday, and police were checking hospital records.BY GARRY TRUDEAU 1 ft The Townships The RECORD—Tuesday, April 11, 1989—3 —___ ifccora b Mayor Bruce: Tougher bylaws ready soon Lennoxville: Town can’t freeze Conley but developer Downey says he will By Ann McLaughlin LENNOXVILLE — Lennoxville town council says it has no legal power to stop Robert Downey from building three-story apartments in the neighborhood of Conley Street.But Downey promised Monday he will never do it again In front of 40-odd residents crammed into the Monday night meeting, Downey said it is too late to stop building of three eight-unit apartment buildings."Construction is started and all the contracts have been signed,” Downey said.But he added that if he had known local residents did not want more apartment buiildings in town, he would have thought twice before building them “I will not ask for more building permits in the area,” Downey vowed."I own the white building at 14 Conley Street.But with your pressures.I will be ethical and not demolish it.” CONTROVERSY The Downey apartments have been the centre of controversy on the banks of the St.Francis.Property owners on Conley did not want their antiquated neighborhood commercialized.After hearing about the planned construction, residents gathered 200 signatures on a petition, believing town council could step in and halt construction Residents' hopes lay in the fact that a demolition permit had not been issued for an old factory on the property slated for one of Downey's apartments.Downey demolished the building despite the technicality, leaving residents feeling powerless in the face of developers.At the Monday meeting, residents wanted to know what action the town would take.But as it turned out the demolition bylaw on the books was use less "The bylaw was brought in quickly a few years back to prevent the demolition of a heritage home and it was unworkable for anything else," said Bruce.MANY FAULTS "It has many faults and is unworkable in its present state.We are bringing in ta new demolition bylaw) tonight to make sure no other buildings are torn down in Lennoxville." said Mayor Duncan Bruce.Bruce tried to reassure Conley residents that their neighborhood is not being thrown to developers because of the faulty bylaw and zoning.A local urban planning firm will also be given orders today to study the area and come up with a new zoning bylaw to prevent further development in the Little Forks area "We are giving the mandate to Urbanitek so they can study the area immediately," said Bruce, adding that new zoning rules will be drafted within ten days.Public consultations will follow, he said CAN’T REFUSE He said no other permits have hrw%n iccnorl ?'on