THE FAR SIDE By GARY LARSON The class abruptly stopped practicing. Here was an opportunity to not only employ their skills, but also to save the entire town. Kootenay continued from front page Canadian electric compa- nies for rate of return. “West Kootenay Power's 17.41 per cent return on equi- ty was the highest for Canadi- an electric companies,” he said. “The national average was 11.88 per cent.” Marsh also pointed to WKP’s gross revenue. “The company’s gross for 1990 was over $82 million, ” he said. WEP reported a net profit for 1990 of $10,458 million. Formed in 1986, the ECA acts as a consumer watchdog over power companies. “We look after the interests of the consumers,” ECA’s Kootenay vice-president Don- ald Scarlett said. Scarlett was less than im- pressed with the proposed rate hikes. “WEP had the highest rate of return of all electric compa- nies in North America,” he said. “We think we're being ripped off.” Scarlett said that the ECA warned B.C. Utilities about WKP’s plans, but got little re- sponse. “We can now stand back and say ‘We told you so.” KOOTENAY SAVINGS CREDIT UNION SOUTH SLOCAN BRANCH NEW SERVICE HOURS Tue. to Thurs. - 9:30 to 5:00 Friday - 9:30 to 6:00 Saturday - 9:00 to 2:30 Sun. & Mon. - Closed Wednesday, December 11, 1991, ~ @ B.C. CounterAttack program gets a little noisier as schools unite against drunk driving Scott David Harrison EDITOR West Kootenay students delivered a message Monday, and a noisy one at that. With car horns sounding, area students joined their B.C. counterparts to kick off the 1991 CounterAttack ‘Sound Off, Send Off’ cam- The campaign, sponsored by school CounterAttack clubs, is designed to height- en awareness of drinking and driving across’ British Columbia. While some 20 Stanley Humphries Secondary School students spent their lunch hour blasting horns, 30 students of W.E. Graham E]- ementary-Secondary School were being blasted. Graham students paraded through Slocan, enlisting the support of drivers through a simple honk. But the ‘Sound Off, Send Off’ campaign doesn’t end their, according to Graham's Nancy Larsen. “Because we don’t have the people visible in the vil- lage, one of the better ways of communicating the prob- lem of drinking and driving is by the kids going home to ‘Sound Off’ ‘News photo by Donna Bertrand The CounterAttack ‘Sound Off, Send Off’ campaign is under way across the province. Here, Stanley Humphries Secondary School's CounterAttack co-ordinator Monte Ferraro (right) and teacher Lorren Culley let the noise begin. their parents and talking about what they did today.” Only Grade 7, 8 and 9 stu- dents from Graham marched through Slocan. And while 30 may not seem like a large number, Larsen said it represented 50 per cent of the students in those -ades. “It was a good turn out,” the co-ordinator of Graham’s CounterAttack club said. “Kids are becoming more aware of the dangers of drinking and driving.” The same holds true of SHSS students, according to its CounterAttack co-ordina- tor Monte Ferraro. “The campaign is about drinking and driving, but it’s also about traffic safety,” he said. “Kids are better edu- cated about the dangers, I know that.” Gift Basket with Specially Scented Soaps and Bath Oil Beads! Perfect Stocking Stuffers = e Earrings ¢ Bracelets ¢ Pins e Broaches ALL IN STOCK MUGS ; 30% OFF Our Unusual Multi-purpose Fabric Lunch Bags! Picture Frames © Assorted Mobiles ¢ Brass Candie Holders & Figurines © OPEN SUNDAYS DECEMBER 8, 15 & 22 © 12:00 Noon ‘til 5:00 p.m. © ‘Free Gift Wrapping EXCELLENT HOUR bal ber 11, 1991 CALL THE SUNDAY SMILE News The City of Castlegar’s Larry Stanbra didn’t spend his Sunday watching football. Not at all. Stanbra joined a few other workers fixing a water main outside the Shell station on Columbia. photo by Scott David Harrison Vigil remembers 14 lost lives Scott David Harrison EDITOR The tragedy of the Montreal Massacre was revisited Friday. Some 30 people gathered out- side Castlegar City Hall to light 14 candles to mourn lives lost at the savage hands of Marc Lepine. The brief vigil marked the second an- niversary of one of Canada’s dark- est days. On Dec. 6 1989, Lepine walked into Ecole Polytechnique and opened fire on women engineering students. By the time the ugly killing spree had ended, 14 women and Lepine lay dead. Pn turned the gun on him- The candle-light vigil, the first of its kind in Castlegar, was just one of many taking place across the nation as Canadians gathered to denounce violence against wom- en. “We felt violence against women was a national issue that needed to be brought to a local level,” said tion’s Bonnie Nilsen, who helped “Castlegar is a very insulated community and people must be- come aware of violence against women and violence in our com- munity,” she said. “A lot of people think that this kind of violence on- ly happens in the big cities, but that’s not the case. It happens here, we know it happens here.” Nilsen said Castlegar RCMP re- port five cases of viol: i which meets Monday at 7 p.m. at the library. Nilsen said a stronger member- ship would help the association achieve its goal of having a wom- Celgar answers charges Mi Local pulp company in court after being accused of illegal discharge Jonathan Green NEWS REPORTER Celgar Pulp Co. and one its con- tractors are in court this week, fac- ing a total of 18 charges from an alleged incident last year. Power Consolidated (China) Pulp Ltd. and CITIC B.C. Inc., Celgar’s owners, are charged with six counts each under the provin- cial Waste Management Act, and one count each under the Federal Fisheries Act. H.A. Simons, a consulting firm working for Celgar at the time of the alleged incident, are charged with three counts under the Waste Management Act and one count under the Federal Fisheries Act. The charges stem from an al- leged unauthorized discharge of effluent into the Columbia River on April 23, 1990. The Conserva- tion Officer Service laid the charges on March 15. The maximum fine under the Waste Management is $1 million on each count. The penalty under the federal Fisheries act is $5,000 on each count. Celgar Manager Jim Browne and Rod Meares of H.A. Simons were unavailable for comment. Road vote saturday NEWS STAFF Castlegar is going to the lls. polls. The long awaited road habilitation referendum will en's centre in Castl “T’ve been in on these things be- fore when I was in Vancouver,” Nilsen said. “It has to start from the grass roots up. The grass roots is where it all happens.” Nilsen called the first annual women each month. Last week, Nilsen called those figures “just the tip of the iceberg.” Nilsen said the people who braved the chilling rain to take part in the vigil proved to her that citizens are prepared to take ac- tion to end violence against wom- en. “People are starting to become aware of the problem, but there is a lot more that has to be done.” She said a first step would be to incorporate the large contingent of women in attendance. into the 1 we 's Asaociati the Castl Women’s 7 * event “a ” adding that the small number of men in atten- dance showed that they, too, are r be decided Saturday. Some 4,500 voters will decide whether to grant the city permission to borrow up to $1.268 million from the Municipal Fi ing Authority to pay for the first two years of the five-year project. The final three years would be fi d through the city’s concerned about viol women. Nilsen added that she hoped Friday’s vigil would mark a new era in relations between men and women. She said men must un- derstand what violence is and women must stop blaming them- selves. “It was a sombre evening, we know,” she said. “We're hoping when the matter is addressed, it doesn’t always have to be that way.” capital budget. On CKQR radio on Tuesday, Ald. Lawrence Chernoff said the work is long overdue. “We're playing catch-up here, that’s all we're doing,” he said during the open-line broadcast. “If the vote isn't approved, then we're looking at spending even more money in the future.” The vote goes from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in council chambers.