The record, 16 juillet 1998, jeudi 16 juillet 1998

To find out what’s happening in your community Thought of the Day / \ Subscribe to Sherbrooke: 569-9528 Knowlton: 242-1188 The voice of the Eastern Townships since 1897 You can close your eyes to reality, but not to memories.-Theodore Herzl 60 CENTS Thursday, July 16, 1998 RARE LILY *J ¥s CHARLES BURY The rare Canada lily is now endangered by wild gardeners.For more on endangered plants see page 5.Today’s Weather Sunny Complete weather: page 2 Inside Ann Landers .16 Crossword .19 Births and Community Deaths .15 Forum .6 Classified .18 Theme Page: Comics .17 ON THE WILD SIDE .5 Members of the Val St.François citizen’s group opposed to a hydro line being constructed through their land without benefit of environmental assessment or public hearings will hold a press conference this morning in Montreal to highlight their situation and to introduce a growing number of supporters.‘It’s hard to accept that we’re no longer wanted’ Nursing assistants protest layoffs at Geriatric Institute By Sylvia Warden Sherbrooke Nursing assistants at the former Sherbrooke Hospital worked through their lunch hour Wednesday, With placards in tow, a group of 10 marched in front of the Sherbrooke Geriatric University Institute on Portland Avenue to demonstrate disapproval with administrators who reduced the number of nursing assistants at the chronic care facility.“Many were told their jobs are ending,” said Lise Martineau, president of Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 1697, who helped organize the march.In addition, assistants did not perform their regular duties and worked as orderlies to highlight the importance of their profession.Unlike nurses assistants, orderlies are not licensed to give out medication.Maximum salary for orderlies is $13 an hour, as compared to $18 for nursing assistants.In May hospital administrators said they were reorganizing the facility.Of the institute’s 20 nursing assistants, the majority of whom are English speaking, just eight will still be around in the fall.All will be on the night shift, four full time and four part time.The remaining 12 can either take positions as orderlies or retire.In 1995, when the facility was still known as the Sherbrooke Hospital and open for general care, 32 nursing assistants were employed.“At one time we were such an important part of the Sherbrooke Hospital and now it’s very hard to accept that we’re no longer wanted,” said Lauraine PERRY BEATON/CORRESPONDENT Lise Martineau a secretary at the Sherbrooke Geriatric University Institute and union president, helped organize the march.Denis, a nursing assistant with 28 years experience.Denis is one of the lucky few who will have a job as a nursing assistant.After 26 years of combining days and nights, she got on days full time.Come the fall, she’ll be back on the night shift.Gaétan Collerd, director of human resources at the geriatric institute, said the jobs were eliminated because they weren’t necessary.“We were over staffed with nursing assistants.We were keeping more nursing assistants than we needed.” See nursing, page 3 POWER CORPORATION OF CANADA Presents: July 16 - August I Sponsored by Dads in Bondage A Musical by Robert More Emily LeBaron Art Gallery The Posh Pig Restaurant ROYAL BANK FINANCIAL GROUP Summer Theatre 33 rd season QUEBEC'S LONGEST RUNNING ENGLISH THEATRE! • NORTH HATLEY (QUEBEC) • (8 I 9) 8*1-141 page 2 Thursday, July 16, 1998 THE In Kinnear’s Mills, the picnic was the main event Lamenting the not-so-Glorious Twelfth When 1 lived in the Eastern Townships I was introduced, for the first time in my life, to the celebration of the Glorious Twelfth.Every July 12, in a lovely grove near the tiny hamlet of Kinnear’s Mills, you can hear the fifes and drums of the Irish Protestant Orange Lodge making their way through the trees to the site of the annual picnic.Like their brothers in Northern Ireland, the people of Irish Protestant descent in Kinnear’s Mills are remembering William of Orange’s victory at the Battle of the Boyne, when Protestants triumphed over Irish Catholics in 1690.But there, any similarity ends.Indeed, I found out that many in the crowd that day were Roman Catholic.They listened to the ritualistic prayers without batting an eye, heard about the “Tyranny of Rome”, listened as the “evils of Catholicism” were denounced, and nary an eyebrow was raised.For the Catholics, and I dare say, all the Protestants at the Kinnear’s Mills event, the Glorious Twelfth was nothing more than a good excuse to get all dolled up in regalia, get out the drums, practice the fife and have a rollicking good time at the picnic.Meanwhile, in the motherland from which the Kinnear’s Mills people come, three small boys lie in the cold, cold ground, victims of the same Glorious Twelfth.There is tradition, and then there is tradition.I prefer our Canadian tradi- tions, myself.Perhaps our traditions, filtered as they are by the cold North Atlantic lying between us and most of our homelands, are devoid of that certain spark which is the embodiment of anger, prejudice and colonialism.But then they also lack the spark which can light petrol bombs and throw them in the bedrooms of innocent children.At some point, traditions which divide us have to give way to traditions which unite.I don’t know who made the first move at Kinnear’s Mills.Did some turn-of-the-century Orange Lodge member invite a Catholic friend to the picnic one year?Did a Catholic Irishman take up the drum and fife and march proudly beside his Protestant brothers?No matter.The important thing is that, rather than driving a wedge between people, the Glorious Twelfth in Kinnear’s Mills has brought people together.And here, perhaps, is a lesson for the Irish: if the pathetic Protestants are so intent on their damn marches, then turn a deaf ear and a blind eye like the Catholics of Kinnear's Mills, and let them do it.Ignore them, and maybe one day they’ll invite you to the picnic.For sticks and stones and Molotov cocktails may break your bones, but fifes and drums - and even wicked prayers - will never hurt you, unless you let them.Cynthia Dow is editor of SPEC, the Gaspe's English-language weekly.Currency of crooks and pushers Should $1,000 bill be cashed in for good?là 1000 a»» SOUTHAM PHOTOS The currency of crooks?me: 1 WMm By Jim Bronskill Southam News Ottawa It’s got a bad reputation, enjoys favor with crooks and can be found in the company of drug dealers.But should the $1,000 bill be put out of circulation?Critics including the Bloc Québécois and some police forces have called on the federal government to cash in the bill, seen as little more than a tool of the trade for pushers and money launder-ers.Criminals have been known to exchange illicitly acquired stacks of $20 and $50 bills for $1,000 notes, which are easier to carry around and can be something of a status symbol in the underworld.Still, Chris Mathers of KPMG Investigation and Security doubts eliminating the bill would put much of a dent in organized crime.“If you really look at it in the long run, is it going to prevent any crime?No.Is it going to inconvenience a couple of drug dealers?Maybe.” The reddish-purple $1,000 bill features the Queen on the front and a pair of pine grosbeaks on the reverse.Mathers conducted many undercover drug stings during his years with the RCMP, but only occasionally encountered $1,000 notes.“How often do you see them, really?” he asked.“Most of the deals I did were big bags of twenties and fifties, and oc- casionally hundreds.” There were almost three million $1,000 bills in circulation as of May, and the denomination’s popularity has grown since the beginning of the decade.Casinos and auction houses are among the legitimate establishments that regularly use the note.But serious drug traffickers deal in American dollars, says Mathers.“Anybody who’s got any kind of an international aspect to their business, they have to have U.S.(currency).You can’t go to Florida or Colombia and buy drugs with Canadian dollars.” RCMP Cpl.Gilles Moreau said getting rid of the $1,000 bill might make it more difficult for some criminals to transport large hauls of cash.“You’d probably need a few more briefcases.” But he added the Mounties see benefit in the large bill because it can help flag illegal activities.“It's certainly a good indicator of perhaps suspicious things going on.” Even so, phoney $1,000 notes haven’t been a big headache, accounting for just three per cent of the counterfeit currency reported to the RCMP last year.Mathers, an expert in bogus currency, says passing a large fake bill can attract unwanted attention.“I think the problem is, the minute you whip one out, it’s such a unique thing that people are all over it," he said."Why bother spending a lot of time counterfeiting a $1,000 Canadian note when you can counterfeit U.S.hundreds and do better?” The Bank of Canada has no plans to pull the $1,000 bill from circulation.But the central bank has been involved in discussions with the RCMP about the use of the note and other currency in illegal activities.Today’s Weather T, S /' Thltford, Mines A / ?j | ** Richmond / Sherbrooke» i i ¦/v'.'v Cowan sviujf ; ! Stanstead REGIONAL FORECASTS MAX MIN THURSDAY: Variable cloudiness with chance of showers.Low near 17.High near 29.Probability of precipitation 30 percent.Normals for the period.Low 14.High 26.BEN ® by DANIEL SHELTON YEP/1 FEEL IT IN MY KNEE THERE'S RAIN HEAPING OUR WAY/ SEN! THAT'S IMPOS5l0i£.f THERE ISN'T A CLOUP IN THE SKY// / MY KNEES 1 NEVER PEEN WRONG/ SEE, I WAS RIGHT.,.¦H ^n*;vx in TH Ei Thursday, July 16, 1998 page 3 Jobs being eliminated, but construction NURSING: Continued from page 1 Collerd said the role of nursing assistants changed when the Sherbrooke Hospital became the geriatric institute in the spring of 1996.At that time nursing assistants went from working on surgical units, giving medicine and helping with rehabilitation to working on long term care units where residents need help going to the bathroom and taking their medication.“There is only so much nursing care needed (now).We only need one or two people to look after patients on a unit,” said Collerd.Nurses and orderlies can make up the gaps in care at the institute, Collerd added.That’s little comfort to Jacques La-plante, an orderly and vice-president of the union.He was one of a handful of co-workers spending his lunch hour on the picket PERRY BEATON/CORRESPONDENT scfp ISffp dpi **«»*««! n» services q sasass- grxf"s§- Employees spent their lunch hour on the picket line under blistering skies.line as the temperature rose above 30 degrees Celsius."It’s all going to fall back on the nurses.1 don’t think the employer thinks about the consequences.” Laplante has seen the level of care change during his 20 years at the institute.“We don’t have time to talk to patients anymore.(For the patients with Alzheimer’s disease) we change their diapers once a night.” Martineau added the diapers and other supplies are rationed to save money.On the night shift, he added, there is just one nurse and one orderly for 56 or 59 patients.Patients at the centre pay $800 to $1,200 a month.As the sun’s rays reached their peak, a few of the nursing assistants wore black T-shirts and pants.“We’re wearing black because we are grieving.It’s sad to know that nursing assistants are going down the drain,” said Martineau, who has worked at the building for 25 years.Those marching were disappointed in the low turnout on Tuesday.They said they expected 30 or 40 on the line, but the hot weather kept most indoors.going ahead While most union members don’t think today’s protest will change the minds of any administrators, they said they had to do something.“We just think the public should know.” said Martineau.“A building that looks so peaceful is not.” The assistants also said they can’t understand why their jobs are being eliminated when administrators are going ahead with a $7 million remodeling of the building.Collerd, the hospital’s spokesman, said the two budgets are separate.“If we refused the money to improve the building we wouldn’t get that money for care.” Since April the hospital has cut $400,000 from its budget and has to cut another $600,000 in the coming months.When the protest was over veteran nursing assistant Trudy Rand went inside to get a cold drink and reflect on the day.“Nothing will change.The government doesn’t care, our employer doesn’t care.Life goes on.” Town was obliged to defend cops Brome Lake already paid $160,000 in legal fees By Maurice Crossfield Aside from having to pay out $700,000 in connection with the brutal beating of David Gauthier in 1982, taxpayers in the Town of Brome Lake have already had to foot the bill for nearly $160,000 in legal fees.The legal bill stems from the defense of the town’s former police chief and an officer on the force in 1982.In March 1982 David Allen Gauthier was picked up by then Brome Lake Police chief Alyre Thireault and officer Mario Beaumont.Gauthier was then taken back to police headquarters and subjected to a night of torture.Gauthier’s story only came out years later, when he was called to testify before the Quebec Police Commission.Following the police ethics commis- sion hearings in 1985, Thireault and Beaumont were tried and convicted in criminal court.Thireault was sentenced to two years in jail, while Beaumont was sentenced to one year behind bars.The Town of Brome Lake ended up on the hook for nearly $60,000 in legal fees relating to Thireault and Beaumont’s criminal cases.Brome Lake town secretary Catherine Bouchard said the town had no choice but to pick up the tab for the legal fees because of a clause in the collective agreement with police at the time that obliged the municipality to cover the legal fees of its police officers.“1 don’t think that it was for fun that they paid it,” said Bouchard, who did not work for the municipality at the time.Following the criminal convictions in 1988, Gauthier launched a civil suit against the municipality and the two former police officers.Gauthier lost his case in Quebec Superior Court, and lost again in the Quebec Court of Appeals.However he continued fighting, and last week was awarded $300,000 by the Supreme Court of Canada plus interest and court costs.Last week, André Groulx, the councillor responsible for the municipal police, told reporters the cost of fighting the civil suit worked out to be around $100,000.Bouchard said Wednesday it is unlikely the town would ever be handed such a bill again.Under Article 604.7 of the Cities and Towns Act a municipality must pay the legal cost of defending an employee accused of wrongdoing - an eventuality for which Brome Lake now has insurance.However, if the employee is found guilty, the insurance policy does not apply, but the municipality has the right to pursue the employee for the legal and court costs.Bouchard said a similar clause has since been included in the collective agreements with different departments in Brome Lake.The Town of Brome Lake now has to come up with $700,000 within the next three months.A resolution to impose a special tax of ten cents per $100 of evaluation is expected to be passed at the next monthly council meeting on August 3.35.34 •2 36.4» 5» 6.7* 8» g 37.10 11 12 13 .33 .32 *28 29 30.31 «26 *25 •1 27 CM • •45 • • 43.17 44 • 16 18» •23 • 19» 42 •41 38- •22 40 39* • • 15 Want to bet that you still find this amusing?*21 20« 14 page 4 Thursday, July 16, 1998 Create a Townships Centsation Coin Design Contest mm .Calling all creative youth! Develop a design for a series of 25-cent coins for 1999 and you could win one of 10 prizes from the Royal Canadian Mint Contest rules: 1.Contestants must be under 18 years of age.2.Designs must reflect an event, milestone, discovery, invention or achievement that has helped to shape the Eastern Townships.3.You may use a Royal Canadian Mint entry form or draw your design using black ink or black pencil within a 20 centimeter diameter circle drawn on a white 8-1/2” x 11” sheet of paper.A brief explanation of the design, your full name, address and telephone number, and your age must be indicated on the back of your entry.4.Entries must be received at The Record, 2850 Delorme, Sherbrooke, J1K 1A1 or 1188 Lakeside Rd., Knowlton, JOE 1V0, no later than 4 p.m.Friday.July 31.1998.All entries will be forwarded to the national level.Prizes: Grand prize - Royal Canadian Mint collector watch.1st prize, ages 13-17 - 1998 Proof Set, featuring the RCMP proof silver dollar.1st prize, under 13 years - 1998 “Year of the Ocean” 4 coin set.7 runner-up prizes - The Great Canadian Coin Kit.BISHOP’S In conjunction with the Royal Canadian Mint Sponsored by: Centre de recheche des Cantons de l’Est Eastern Townships Research Centre Briefs Brome beach fails cleanliness test The provincial environment ministry handed a failing grade to a beach in Brome after water tests showed pollution levels were too high.The tests, carried out on the river adjacent to Camping Brome on July 9 and 10, showed 200 fecal coliforms per 100 millilitres of water.As a result the swimming area near Valley Road was given a D rating by the Ministère de l’environnement et de la faune.Following the failing grade, the municipality of Brome was ordered to close down the beach.So far this summer the Brome swimming area is the first to have been closed for poor grades in its water tests.This is the first year the beach has taken part in the water quality checks.Spokeswoman Marielle Marchand of the Longueuil office of the MEF said the failing grade is not cause for serious environmental concern.She said heavy rains could have increased the level of runoff from nearby fields, raising the fecal coliform count to above normal levels.However other beaches in Brome-Missisquoi have been given good grades for their water quality so far this year.Downstream in Cowansville the town beach was given an A, or ex-cellent quality rating.Dunham’s beach on Selby Lake also received an A, as did both beaches in Bromont.In the Haute-Yamaska Camping Tropicana’s beach was given a B, or good rating.Yamaska Park’s beach was given a C rating, making it acceptable.Two beaches on Lake Memphrema-gog have been tested, namely Merry Point East and West.Both were given B ratings.If you’re looking for a way to escape the heat and are interested in going to a nice clean beach, the MEF has an information number to call for all the beach ratings.Simply call 1-800-561-1616.Ratings can also be found on the Internet at http://www.mef.gouv.qc.ca.Government program gives home renovation grants A new program has been launched to help low-income property owners fix up their homes.The Reno Village program is designed to help homeowners with low incomes carry out important repairs to the home or apartment that serves as their main residence.To qualify you must meet the following requirements: • Be the occupant and owner of a home for at least a year, the value of which, excluding the land, cannot exceed $35,000.For an apartment the value cannot exceed $20,000.• Your house or apartment needs work of less than $2,000 to correct one or more major defects.• The work must be done by a licensed contractor.• The percentage of financial aid also depends on the income and size of your family.One person must earn less than $25,000 to qualify, while two to three person families must make less than $28,500.Four-or five-person families must earn less than $30,600, while a six-member family must earn less than $33,000.The Reno Village program was launched this week by the Société d’Habitation du Québec, and is administered by the province’s regional municipalities (MRCs).In the case of Brome-Missisquoi, all municipalities are eligible, except for Farnham and Cowansville, which already have their own programs.For more information on the requirements of the program, contact your municipality.Information booklets will also be available at the town hall.Guide to getting grants If you’re thinking of starting your own business, or are looking for some extra cash to get a project off the ground, a new edition of this publication may be of some help.The Annuaire des Subventions du Quebec is a complete guide to government aid programs.The publication contains nearly 900 aid, loan and subsidy programs, as well as toll-free information numbers.The updated edition contains 200 new programs, including those for governments, municipalities, clubs and organizations.For more information, or to obtain a copy, call 1-800-301-8093.Copies sell for $19.95.Beware of peanut residue The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is warning people with peanut allergies to stay away from some kinds of Planters Roasted Sunflower Seeds.The sunflower seeds in question may contain peanut or peanut residue, thereby causing a potentially deadly allergic reaction.The sunflower seeds are salted, and sold in 908 gram bags with the UPC code 0 5871698530 2.The distributor, JVF Canada, has issued a recall on the affected sunflower seeds.If you have purchased such a bag, you may return them to the store where you bought them. Thursday, July 16, 1998 page 5 '