By MIKE KALESNIKO
Staif Writer

A Central American refugee is safe in a Castlegar
home this week after slipping ‘across the Canada/U.8.
border near Christina Lake late Friday night.

Mario ila, 28, of El stole
across the border through the woods and was found
Saturday by Jim Lamont, 66, of Christina Lake.

Escamilla was found about seven kilometres east of
Christina Lake on Highway 3, cold, alone and penniless,
clutching a map and carrying few belongings.

Lamont, an independept contractor who resides
temporarily in Castlegar, said he became suspicious when
he saw how Escamilla was dressed.

“I thought this guy looked peculiar,” Lamont said in
an interview Tuesday. ‘

Lamont was returning from a trip for his mail when

he saw Escamilla walking slong Highway 3 and wearing 4
tam on his ‘head. Lamont said he had seen Central
Americans on television wear similar hats.

“T had heard there was a great number of refugees
coming across’ the border,” he admitted. © ”

Lamont pulled over and asked Escamilla if he would
like a lift.

Escamilla accepted, but uneasily. When the Bs

ended in Castlegar, Lamont had heard an ineredible
of fear and hardship that drove a young man, Over a
period of just under 1'/ years, across three countries and
thousands of kilometres to a land he had heard was safe.
Escamilla travelled by foot or by hitching rides, from
El. Salvador to Canada, begging for food, pursued by
authorities, imprisoned and deported, only to slip over
the borders again.
Basing his decision on nothing more than an old

Nationa! Geographic article he found in Spokane, once
Eecamilla entered Caanda he began heading to Nelson,
hecause it seemed nice.”

The slight, 5°6" Escamilla does not fit the image of a
man adventurous enough to creep into foreign countries
at night, e police, but his motives were rooted in
despers

gest in a family of nine,
of warfare on he and his

be.
6 me,” he said..“I would be put in the
army and the guerrillas would kill me.”

According to Escamilla, in El Salvador young single
men are grabbed from their homes, their thumbs tied
behind their backs, and taken to training camps. After,
only a few short days they are sent to battle guerrillas ©

continued on page A2

| BSections (A, B&C)

TESTING TIME . . . Castlegar area volunteer firemen
scramble through the Justice Institute of B.C.'s Fire
Academy ground ladder certification program Sunday

morning at the north firehall. Firemen were evaluated
on use of ground ladders.

CasNews Photo by Rick Graham

~10-cfs.will be ished

Inonoaklin fish
ladder shelved

By RON NORMAN
Editor

‘The: provincial government has decided to shelve
indefinitely a proposed $1 million fish ladder for Inonoaklin
Creek near Edgewood on the Lower Arrow Lake.

In a joint report released this week the ministries of
environment and agriculture propose that instead of a fish
ladder, the Hill Creek hatchery on the Upper Arrow Lake be
immediately expanded.

As well, the Fisheries Branch will stock a number of
tributary streams into the Lower Arrow Lake, including the
Inonoaklin Creek headwaters. a

Other highlights of the report include:

e cancellation of the Fisheries Branch water license on
Inonoaklin Creek. The license assured the Fisheries Branch

minimum flow of 15 cubic; feet -per second *— the
minimum flow required ‘to sustain a fish ladder.

In place of 15 cubic feet per second, a minimum flow of

“by pr ial Ord il to.
support the existing fishery and any fish stocking in the
creek’s headwaters.

e The reduced flow will allow additional water to be
made available to area farmers for new irrigation licenses.

e@ The Ministry of Environment will reactivate an
existing measuring station and construct a new station on
the Inonoaklin to monitor stream flows and irrigation use.

e Groundwater studies and/or upstream storage
assessments will be undertaken if the measures taken do not
provide sufficient surface water to meet future water
demand in the Inonoaklin Valley.

The report was hailed as a victory for Inonoaklin Valley
farmers, who had opposed the Fisheries Branch’s water
license.

The farmers argued that the license would restrict
irrigation needs for valley farmers.

Mayor Audrey Moore, who supported the fish ladder,

said she hadn't heard about the report. When told of the
findings in an interview today, Moore said: “The farmers
won.”
Moore added that if the fish ladder is not going ahead, it
will be up to the Ministry of Environment to ensure that
other methods will be used to enhance fishing on the Lower
Arrow Lake.

The report says the plan for Inonoaklin Creek can
“potentially provide immediate benefits for both fisheries
and agriculture.”

“It maintains some instream flows for fish and provides
additional ‘water for irrigation withdrawals. While eom-
promises on flows for fish have been necessafy in the short
term, the effects can be minimized through the close
cooperation of all concerned parties.”

The report also pointed out that thé decision to abandon
the fish ladder stemmed from concerns about the ladder’s
success.

These concerns are based on:

e a lack of of
required for optimum operation of the fishway;

© difficulty of controlling water withdrawals and
instream requirements during low flow periods;

e strong opposition to the project by local farmers;

e difficulty of managing riparian habitat;

e uncertainty about the availability of annual operating
finding for fish management.

It is estimated the fish ladder would cost $130,000 a
year to operate. The Fisheries Branch had called the ladder
the “key” to restoring sport fishing on the Arrow Lakes.

flows

BIG BUDGET
DOUKHOBOR
FILM REVIVED

B Bbw NORMAN
Editor

AS4 iilionfegpre-length motion picture about the
B.C. Doukhol at was abandoned last year has been
revived, this time with a big-name Canadian director
added to the crew

Los Angeles producer John Stark told the Castlegar
News Tuesday that Ted Kotcheff has agreed to direct
The Spirit Wrestlers. The film covers the period from the
Doukhobors’ emigration to Canada from Russia at the
beginning of this century, to the present.

Kotcheff replaces another internationally-known
director, Emir Kusturica of Yugoslavia. Kusturica’s film,
When Father Was Away on Business, was‘a winner at the
1985 Cannes Film Festival.

Stark, who was born in Rossland, originally intended
to co-produce The Spirit Wrestlers with another
Canadian ex-patriate, Harry Saltzman.

A native of Sherbrooke, Qnt., Saltzman has produced
more than 30 British feature films, including many of the
James Bond movies.

Saltzman, Stark and Kusturica made a low-key visit
to Castlegar in September, 1985 to scout filming
locations. They planned to film part of the picture at the
Doukhobor Village in Ootischenia. But days before the
trio arrived, much of the village was burned to the
ground in an arson fire

The fire forced Stark and Saltzman to scrap their
plans to film in Castlegar. Instead, they planned to film in
Yugoslavia in the summer of 1986. But the film never got
off the ground.

In a telephone interview from Los Angeles, the
49-year-old Stark said Kusturica returned suddenly to
Yugoslavia. Saltzman pulled out of the film shortly after

“He said he lost a lot of money over this thing,” Stark
explained.

JOHN STARK
producer

HARRY SALTZMAN
... pulled out

But Stark also accuses Saltzman and Kusturica of
cutting a deal behind his back

He said when he signed Kusturica to a two-film
contract, the first film was supposed to be The Spirit
Wrestlers and the second Bridge on Drina. But Stark
says Saltzman and Kusturica wanted to shelve the film
about the Doukhobors and get on with Bridge on Drina

“It was a teal setback for me,” Stark said. “I lost the
$4 million financing for the picture.”

But Stark and his film about the Doukhobors was
given a new lease on life when First Choice Superchannel
recently gave him a $6,000 deveiopment grant.

Stark said he and Kotcheff plan to revise the script,
which Stark wrote in 1979. os

As well, Stark hopes to obtain funding from Telefilm
Canada, the federal agency responsible for promoting
Canadian productions.

continued on poge AZ

ON COLUMBIA AVENUE

Truck traffic a concern

By CasNews Staff

Castlegar council is concerned that a
CP Rail proposal to abandon its branch
line between Castlegar and Midway
could increase the number of logging
and chip trucks using Columbia
Avenue.

Ald. Albert Calderbank told council
Tuesday night that several residents
have already expressed concern about
the large number of logging and chip
trucks that pass through the city on the
way to the Celgar pulp mill and Westar
Timber's Southern Wood Products
sawmill.

Calderbank said truck traffic would
become even worse if CP Rail follows
through with its plan to abandon the
Midway branch line.

He said all the jogs and chips
transported to the Castlegar mills by
rail will have to be trucked in “and it's
going to come down Columbia Aven
ue.

Calderbank said the increased truck
traffic will mean more wear and tear on
the city’s major thoroughfare.

“The whole thing is going to grad
ually break up.” he said, adding that
the road is already in poor shape in a
number of areas because of heavy
truck traffic.

Calderbank suggested the city ap-
proach the provincial government for
help maintaining Columbia Avenue.

“We are going to suffer greatly
financially,” he warned

Ald. Len Embree agreed

“I can see a helluva expense and it’s
not the city's responsibility if they're
closing down the railway,” he said

Kootenay West MP Bob Brisco,
Boundary-Similkameen MP Fred King
and Transport Canada officials plan to
meet Thursday morning in Christina
Lake to discuss CP Rail's proposal to
reduce rail service in the region.

Embree said he will try to attend the
meeting.

Meanwhile, city staff were asked to
investigate the number of logging and
chip trucks presently using Columbia
Avenue and to forecast the number of
trucks that will use the road should the
CP Rail line close.

In other council news, Ald. Patti
Richards said the Castlegar Home
Support Service is investigating an

inside

DOWNHILL CHAMP: Brace-
bridge, Ont. native Liisa Savi
jarvi captured the Export A
Canadian women's downhill
title Tuesday at Red Mountain
CasNews sports writer Surj Rat-
tan has all the details of the
race, plus feature interviews
with Rossland’s Kerrin Lee and
World Cup champion Lourie
Graham... 81

emergency response system for senior
citizens living alone.

Richards said the system, called
Respondicare, is strapped to the se-
nior’s wrist like a watch.

“If they are in any distress they only
need to push a button,” she said.

The unit sends a signa! to a centrally
located’ dispatcher who in turn calls
four telephone numbers saying that the

continued on poge A2

BUDGET PROTEST: Castlegar council is upset over a change con-
tained in last week's federal budget A2

BRISCO INTERVIEW: Kootenay West MP Bob Brisco responds to some
of the problems plaguing federal Conservatives .. . A7

HOYT GONE: NEW YORK

Cy Young award-winning pitcher

Lomarr Hoyt, involved in three illegal drug incidents in the past
year, was suspended for the 1987 season by commissioner Peter

Ueberroth today.

“While our first priority if to provide help ta those who need
it, we will impose discipline where appropriate,” Ueberroth said in

a statement

Given these circumstances, | have determined to

make Lamorr-Hoyt ineligible tor the 1987 season.”

Hoyt wos 8-11 in 35 gomes with a 5.15 earned-run average
for San Diego last season but was unconditionally released Jan. 7
atter drawing a 45-day sentence for a drug convinction that could

have jailed him for two years