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a __ Casthi@it News 20-1. ents. 196 _ Casthi@iir News _as

Chamber to hear about new policy

By CasNews Staff
Patricia Sloan, senior business development officer with
Commission,

SHAREHOLDERS CONCERNED
Howe blamed for loss

By BRIAN KENNEDY operatioh that would not provide « reasonable return in the

VANCOUVER (CP) — Chairman Bruce Howe's talk near future. :
failed Tuesday to alleviate financial concerns Palsed by B.C. Howe refused to say what operations would be on the

Z i lock. ‘
- ais : be | cs make those announcements when the time
comes,” he told reporters after the meeting.

Shareholder Paul Frizell asked Howe why the
corporation did not sell its British interests a year ago when
oil and gas prices were high.

“Hindsight is great,” responded Howe.

Frizell shot back that ‘directors were appointed for
foresight not hindsight.’

In his annual report, Howe pointed to the corporation's
$330,000 profit during the first quarter of 1986 as a start in
Routtenberg told the meeting.” I became a concerned the right direction. But he cautioned it is only a beginning
shareholder in the last two years and now after reading the and no one can say for sure where commodity prices will be
company’s 1985 annual report, I am an alarmed shareholder at the end of the year.
who fears bankruptcy.” “While we are very much in the resource business, we

Routtenberg was the only shareholder to praise the know we must diversify because our progress in this area
corporation's management. has been slow,” he said.

“Under the economic circumstances I think manage- Few Canadian analysts are willing to speculate that
ment has done an extremely good job,” he said. BCRIC shares have bottomed out and it is time to buy.

With shares hitting a historic low of $1.28 last week, “We view BCRIC as being very speculative,
shareholders blamed Howe and his management team for analyst Tom Bradley of Winnipeg-based Richardson Green-
the company's dismal financial picture shields of Canada Ltd.

“Management over the past year has let us down “It’s still an uphill struggle,” said Vancouver analyst
badly,” Len Friessen said. “I bought my shares last year at Steve Semeniuk of Brink Hudson and Lefever Ltd.
$2.42 and now they are selling for around $1.38. Not a very More bad news for shareholders is analysts feel events
good investment in a company that helped elect a Social such as higher interest rates and still-lower commodity
Credit government for the past three terms.” prices could push the stock even lower.

Howe said he was ‘damn unhappy’ about the share’s B.C. Resources was formed when the Social Credit
selling price, saying they are undervalued but would government put its resource holdings into the company
eventually show their worth when the economic climate In 1979, the provincial government gave away five free

a. shares to all residents of the province.
As well, a large number of shares were Sold at $6 each.
The stock hit a high of $9.25 shortly after it began

‘Thursday.
Sloan will explain the provincial government's public
purchasing policy at a noon meeting at the Fireside

annual meeting.

One shareholder even suggested Howe give up his large
salary and instead accept $1 a year until he turns the
corporation's finances around.

Many of the 400 shareholders at the meeting were not
impressed with Howe asking for continued support to build
the into a pl le and lly stable
organization.

“I started off being an interested shareholder,” Jason

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Pp .
“I am confident when we return to an adequate level of
profitability the shares will move to an adequate level.”

Fonyo visits cancer victim

KETTLE POINT, ONT.
(CP) — A 12-year-old cancer
victim saw the last of three
“last wishes” come true Tues-
day as he met his hero —
cross-Canada marathoner
Steve Fonyo.

And his one-legged hero
told Jason Jackson to keep on
fighting.

Fonyo, 20, who cut short a
California vacation to visit

east of Sarnia, Jason, who
has also lost a leg to cancer,
was sitting in his wheelchair,
clutching a new Steve Fonyo
T-shirt bearing the words:
“We're a fighting team.”

He also proudly held a new
baseball cap marked Steve
and Jason.

“I told him not to give up.”
Fonyo said. “You have to
keep fighting back. I told him
that people told me not to
give up when I was his age.”

Jason, wearing a Fonyo
‘T-shirt he already owned,

hope was visibly moved by all the

lowed into the room at the
Kettle Point Chippewa re-

attention.

Fonyo, who lost a leg to
cancer as a child and became
a national celebrity last year
when he completed a coast-
to-coast run to raise money
for cancer research and pati-
ent. services, said he was
touched by the request’ to
visit Jason, who hadn't been
expected to live past March.

While he has received
other requests for visits, he
described Jason's case as ex-
ceptional.

“As everyone knows, Ja-
son_has cancer and he had
three last wishes,” said Fon-
yo.

Jason's family has already
fulfilled the other two. The
boy’s grandfather, Norman
Jackson, bought the boy a
computer last week and

Jason visited Disneyland
with his three brothers.

Jason has seen more than
his share of grief in the past
few years.

Shortly before his cancer
was diagnosed, his mother
died in a car accident. His leg
was amputated last year and
the family was left homeless
when their house was des-
troyed by fire. Jason and his
brother have been living with
their grandparents.

A person who asked to re-
main anonymous paid to have
Fonyo and Michael McFar-
land of the Canadian Cancer
Society flown from Calgary
to Toronto. An Ontario pro-
vineial police helicopter flew
them from there to Kettle

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SHADE TREES

Howe said the decision to sell the company’s oil and gas
interests in the United Kingdom was only the first step in a
program to restructure and fine tune the firm's assets.

He said the company would continue to sell off any

Sophonow vows to fight

WINNIPEG (CP) —
Thomas Sophonow, who on
Tuesday won a Supreme
Court of Canada decision-up-
holding his acquittal on a
murder charge, says he will
be back in court to fight for
his right to visit his daught-
er.

Sophonow, 32, who spent
four years in jail after being
tried three times and con-
vieted twice of the first-
degree murder of doughnut
shop waitress Barbara Stop-
pel, says he has not seen his
now eight-year-old daughter

since 1981.

Sophonow, a former Van-
couver doorman, who has
relatives in Grand Forks was
in Winnipeg to visit the child
at the same time that the
December 1981 strangulation
murder took place.

Arrested a few months
later; he was acquitted last
December and on Tuesday
the Supreme Court refused
the province of Manitoba
leave to appeal the acquittal.

“But I still haven't seen my
daughter,” Sophonow™ said
from Vancouver. “That's a

Pulp union
accepts offer

CAMPBELL RIVER (CP)
— A large local of the Can
adian Paperworkers Union
has voted to accept a two-
year contract offer from the
Pulp and Paper Industrial
Relations Bureau.

Seven hundred of the 930
members of Local 1123 voted
61 per cent in favor of ac-
cepting the deal, but the
200-member Local 630 voted
70 per cent against it.

The provincial totals for
the union, which represents
7,200 pulp industry workers,
will be released Monday

Last week, the 1,350-member
Local 76 in Powell River
voted 58 per cent to reject
the offer.

‘The contract offer includes
no wage increase in the first
year and a three-per-cent
raise in the second.

industrial relations
bureau conducted the negoti-
ations on behalf of 16 mills
throughout B.C. that employ
13,000 workers, members of
the Canadian Paperworkers
Union and the Pulp, Paper
and Woodworkers of Canada.

Both unions recommended
acceptance of the offer.

trading, but has declined steadily since then.

Late last year, the

company, citing depressed

commodity prices, wrote down the value of its assets by $500
million. Book value of its shares dropped to $3.40 from $7.40.

long time not to have seen
her.

He said he recently re-
ceived a letter from his
ex-wife informing he can see
the girl for four hours, once a
month. As well, he said, she
wants written notice of each
visit two weeks in advance
and wants to supervise the
visit.

HIRED LAWYERS

Sophonow said he wants to
be allowed to see her when.
ever he happens to be in
Winnipeg and without res
trictions.

Both he and his ex-wife
have hited lawyers and plan
to resolve the dispute in. a
courtroom.

Sophonow's ex-wife was
not available for comment.

Meanwhile, Sophonow also
says he is having difficulty
finding a job and is currently
on welfare.

“It's kind of hard to go to
an employer and say
haven't done anything for
four years. -Will_ you_hire
me?”

He said plans to get a book
written about his experi
ences have also gone awry, as
the writer contracted to
write the book told him his
story would sell better if it is
written as a novel, loosely
based on his experiences.

“I don't like that at all and
that’s what I told him.”

Sophonow is seeking an in
quiry into the way police

Bomb linked to Trail?

PRINCE GEORGE (CP) —
A bomb that scattered debris
over a suburban street in this
central British Columbia city
on Monday may have been in
protest against the recent
U.S. attack on Libya.

The bomb blew apart a
natural gas regulator, shat-

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tering a window in anearby
medical building.

A wall nearby was painted
with graffiti “that made ref-
erence to the American-
Libyan conflict,” said RCMP
Staff Sgt. Jim Swanson.

But he said there is no
evidence, other than the lo-
cation of the writing, to link
the graffiti to the blast.

RCMP are still investigat-
ing a bomb which exploded
against a power pole outside
a church in Trail in south
eastern B.C. two weeks ago.
A second bomb, outside a
power pole beside a nearby
post office, malfunctioned
and failed to explode.

Police said there is no evi.
dence to link the Trail blast

0:
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FRIDAY, APRIL 25

10.a.m. 107 p.m

with the Prince George ex
plosion.

In both cases, there were
no injuries.

“The bomb was set off at
seven in the morning, but if
that had taken place later in
the day it is quite likely
people would have been
killed or maimed,” said Ma-
yor Elmer Mercier. “The
(medical) building is quite
active and there's a large
senior citizen's home across
the street.”

Suzanne Coulton, director
of care at the Simon Fraser
Lodge, said staff are trying
to keep details of the bomb
from the elderly patients.

“They heard the explosion
but we told them it was just
something to do with the gas
and not to worry,” she said.

“Several of our employees
were going out at the time,”
Coulton said. “We were very
fortunate no one was hurt.”

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handled his case.

Sophonow's first trial end-
ed in a hung jury. The jury at
his second trial declared him
guilty but that was declared
a mistrial. He was convicted
again at his third trial but
that too was declared a mis-
trial when one of the jurors
was dismissed after claiming
she had psychic powers.

Judges on the Court of
Appeal acquitted him be-
cause they said there was
insufficient evidence brought
forward to convict Sophon-
ow.

Inquest
probes
crash

REVELSTOKE (CP)
The crew of a helicopter that
crashed en route to a forest
fire north of here last June
radioed “engine failure, going
down” just prior to the crash,
an inquest was told Tuesday

William Hilton, a forest of-
ficer in Nakusp, outlined to
the inquest into the deaths of
five people in the crash the
last radio contact made with
the helicopter before it
crashed.

Hilton said the last thing
he heard over the radio was
“get those doors open.” But
he said the request was
coming from inside the chop-
per and was not directed at
him.

Bill Richardson, a helicop-
ter pilot who discovered the
crash scene with Revelstoke
RCMP Cpl. John Fox, said
the doors of the helicopter
could not be opened in
mid-flight unless they were
physically kicked out and
said one reason for doing so
would be an engine fire.

Richardson, who has 12
years of flying experience,
estimated the helicopter hit

the ground at more than 90

kilometres an hour.

Petra Helewa, who was en.
gaged to one of the victim:
firefighter Reino Keski
Salmi, 28, of Salmon Arm,
testified on behalf of wilder-
ness fire management. She
said no alcohol was consumed
by the crew before the flight
took off.

Vernon Helitopters owner
operator Richard Biggs said
the aircraft was in good
working ordet and described
his former employee, Grant
Thorpe, 32, of Vernon, as “a
very competent pilot.”

Killed in the June 29 crash
along with Thorpe and Keski
Salmi were firefighters Ray
Friesen, 27, of Abbotsford,
Russell Gilchrist, 25, of Chr.
istina Lake, and Michael
Sherrod, 22, of New Denver.

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