Ni i! i i ia if it a tle ——— Court convoy arrives to hand out justice Although a compassionate man. be duess’t let it get the better of him. Co-workers say they ve never seen him upset -_ i 1 dil nf it By DAPHNE BRAMHAM sient co? FLOWING CREEK .. . Creek winds its ways through forest covered in fresh fallen snow. Surprise your Family, Friends, Neighbors and Relatives by having a story published in the Castlegar News. All you have to do is enter the... Christmas Short CASSIAR, B.C. — They pull up in a little convoy, dispatched to this stark, mountainous north country to dispense justice. These are the people who work British Columbia's northern court cireuit for four days every two months, zig- zagging across the B.C.-Yukon border. Out of the lead car hops Judge Dennis Overend, wearing a blue fleece jacket over his formal striped pants and white shirt, its collar as crisp as a bread stick. In his briefcase are his formal robes and red shawl, Emerging from the same vehicle are court reporter Holly Tryon and clerk Faye Koenig, both lugging recording equipment and huge briefcases stuffed with files. It’s just after 9 a.m., but they have already travelled for nearly three hours to get here. Joining them are probation officer Rob Watts, native court worker Ben Cardinal, Crown prosecutor Jim Struthers and lawyers Forest Nelson and David Mardiros. MUCH VARIETY. During any given morning, the group may hear cases in provincial, family and juvenile courts. In the afternoon, they may return for a full trial complete with jurors. On days when there's a lot of cases, they may sit into the evening. Other days can be light because defendants working in the bush didn't receive notice their cases were being heard, couldn't get a ride to the makeshift courtroom or simply can't be found. On Sunday night every eight weeks, the travelling road show members ble in Whit — 2,300 ki north of the provincial capital of Victoria — to start the northern court circuit. Overend flies more than 2,500 kilometres north to Whitehorse from Vernon. Koenig and Tryon come 1,500 kilometres from their homes in the Peace River area on the B.C.-Alberta border. The rest drive nearly 1,000 kilometres from Terrace. To get to the four B.C. communities they serve — Atlin, Lower Post, Cassiar and Dease Lake — they travel roads through the bush and treeless, snow-brushed mountains, spending nearly as much time on the Yukon side of the 60th , parallel as they do in British Columbia. ALWAYS TOGETHER In a week, the travelling court can cover 3,000 kilo metres and hear anywhere from five to 15 cases a day. They stay in the same hotels; eat in the same rest- aurants; drink in the same bars. So when the lawyers or the judge uses the courtly appellation of “my learned friend,” there is no sarcasm or irony. - Overend, an athletic-looking 52-year-old, has been doing the circuit for two years. “The chief judge asked me if I'd like to go up north,” he recalls with a laugh. “I said I would like to go in September when the weather is nice.” He's quick to add that he volunteered for the job and has asked to stay on at least until the end of next year. ENJOYS WORK “It's fun,” he says, leaning back in a red, high-backed chair in the temporary courtroom in Cassiar’s recreation centre, the sounds of children in the day-care room next door seeping through the wall. “Especially since you get to work with very congenial people, although some people would suggest they are demented.” “You don't have to be crazy but it helps,” interrupts the irrespressible Tryon. Tryon, a vivacious woman in her mid-30s, brought along two fur coats and several pairs of high heels to complement her various outfits. Teased good-naturedly about her non-stop chatter, Tryon frets aloud about missing a weak of rehearsals for her part as a bimbo in a local production of Neil Simon's play The Last of the Red Hot Lovers. “How’s that for typecasting?” she asks. NEED HUMOR Overend describes the court circuit as an opportunity to improve himself. He says anybody who wants to do it must have a sense of humor. “It's pretty difficult to take yourself too seriously in a place like Lower Post where (during court) I sit between the PacMan machine and barbells” in the Kaska Dena Indian band’s office. But it’s Watts, with more than 10 years experience on the circuit, who holds the crew together. Overend calls him “the meat in the sandwich.” Watts is a city boy. His father, Alf Watts, was a well-known provincial court judge and his;two brothers are Vancouver lawyers. He knows nearly everybody in each of the four wide- spread communities the circuit serves. IMAGE PROBLEM or angry. “I don't believe in burnout.” Watts says while manoeuvring his truck along a biick read. “Although you see the same people (in court) over and ever. you also see the successes.” TELLS TALES Watts, decked out in an outrageously wide, crested tie with blue pants, plaid logger's jacket and work boots, is quite a story-teller. He loves to describe how he managed to convince Mardiros to tag along when Watts visited one of his clients. What Watts didn’t tell Mardiros — until he strapped a shotgun loaded with two slugs on to his back — was that the man lived deep in the northern bush, a 90-minute off-road hike through grizzly country. Mardiros, who earned a master's degree in anthro- pology before becoming a lawyer, produces a hugh bulb of wild garlic that he found along the trail to confirm the story. ALCOHOL A PROBLEM IN NORTH CASSIAR, B.C. (CP) — A look of concern spreads over Judge Dennis Overend’s face as a middle-aged mining supervisor tells him he will be fired if his licence is suspended as a result of an impaired driving conviction. “T have three children and a wife,” says Raymond Moyle, his speech lacking any expected emotion. “I haven't had a drink since the night I got charged.” Moyle's job requires him to drive to sites operated by the Erickson Gold Mine and Overend asks whether the company might give him a driver. Moyle says it wouldn't. In the end, Moyle's record works against him. It's his second conviction on the same charge and Overend has little choice but to suspend Moyle's licence. In the isolated north, Overend says, alcoholism plays a part in almost all the cases he hears. “Things are definitely different up here,” Overend says. “People have no outlet other than alcohol, which is frequently abused and often leads to violence.” MANY FACTORS During a short recess in his makeshift courtroom in the town recreation centre, Overend says that his work “doesn’t help resolve the issues which deal a lot with cultural factors and unemployment.” But Overend, 52, an athletic-looking man with snow-white hair and icy blue eyes, believes that by ordering volunteer work, a message is sent to everyone in the ity that is is not Overend volunteered to do the northern circuit twe years ago. Every eight weeks he heads north from hig Vernon home near the Okanagan Valley orchards. Perhaps the most damaging effect of alcohol abuse in the north is the family violence — wife battering, incest and child abuse. Probation officer Rob Watts, who has worked on the northern court circuit for more than a decade, says that “while there is a need to have changes in the structure of the community, those changes are slow to come.” HAD JOB He points to a recent assault case heard in Lower Post. Although beaten by her drunken husband, a wife was a reluctant witness. She pleaded with Overend not to send her husband to jail because for the first time in a year he had a job. Overend gave the man a nine-month suspended sentence. Watts says the problems in B.C.'s north are com- pounded by a lack of services. The closest provincial jail is a two-day drive from most communities served by the northern circuit court. There are no alcoholism counsellors; no groups like Alcoholics Anonymous. B.C. Attorney General Brian Smith recently spent three days travelling the court circuit and says he would like to come to an agreement with the Yukon government to share things like jails and probation officer. Smith would also like to make it easier for lawyers who are members of the Yukon Bar Association to represent clients in B.C. courts. “This boundary between British Columbia and the Yukon,” he said, “doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense when you talk about bringing services to northern people.” COHOE INSURA Thursday, December 3 through to Wednesday, December 9 Supplement to the Castlegar News ot Wednesday, December 2, 1987 ae Hi iil! ube ie ii al ne Leas frail neat iat ma f i y I i Bu F wt al idl nat sed da ‘ wi ig? iif Hilt ue i REMEMBER We Take Anything in Trade! . Good Credit id Credit — Give Our Counsellors the Opportunity to Serve You! In A Name You Can Trust! 5-2155 Collect Specialty . . or Ba 100% Financing is Our Deal With Confidence BUICK GMC LTD. 3 through to ) INSURANCE EASY” 1127 - Ath Street, Castlegar OHOE INSURANC “WE MAKE BUYING Hla i Fi Hi i p Lint u finden tink i ity si Ht a He e ay # coder ceilings create worm atmosphere. Exceptional price. Low $908. Contuy i. 365-2111 CHARI GALORE ON 10th AVE. re 1451 Columbia Ave. Castlegar GRAMMY LIFETIME “With o home for You’ 365-5228 N\ . MT SENTINEL Home: 365-3250 (Welter) * 447-9479 (Jack) PASS CREEK — CREEK FRONTAGE Sarees ee Pog elag Sanlen heaton fell wet cS EA He pins ef a! ara Hy i i m iid ii ie tH Ht bi 2 4.2 Middl ne en A? ihe ial Hy iti 365-2166 Located in the Fireside Motor Inn r, B.C. 1810-8th Avenue PICK YOUR NUMBERS AND LET OUR OFFICE SHOW YOU! aoe Hen Story Contest Royalslosing dignity? News It's simple to enter: * Include your name, address, age and telephone number Sponsored by the Castlegar Public Library and the Castlegar News * Just write o short story of up to 300 words beginning with the line: “It was Christmas Eve, and os ‘ed out the window it started to snow” and endi: ing with the line: “Who would havi thought Christmas would turn out so well? ° ° * Mail or bring your story into the Costlegar Public Library or to the Castlegar News by 1 p.m. on ry. Dec. 7. * The Christmas Short Story Contest has been divided into 3 age categories * The three stories in each group chosen by the judges as the best in each group will be published in the Castlegor News’ Christmas Greetings Tabloid on Wednesday, December 23. * In addition, book certificates will be awarded as first, second and third prizes in each category LONDON (Reuter) — The Royal Family, already the constant target ‘of rumors in Britain's seandal-loving tab- loid _newspapers, now is being told it is losing its dignity. Some of Britain's most avid royalty watchers say ad- visers to the Queen should try to change the monarchy’s image because it is becoming too much like a soap opera. One former court corres- pondent for the BBC has criticized members of the Royal Family for appearing this year in It's a Knockout, a popular television program in which they dressed up in medieval costume and took part in slapstick games. “I cannot but believe that the Queen and the Queen Mother were not wildly ex cited about their descendants being silly in front of the cameras, although it was to raise money for charities,” Godfrey Talbot says in a television documentary about the Royal Family's changing image. Talbot adds: “I'm not sure that that was sufficient ex- cuse for what went on then, and I'm not sure that a good deal of harm was not done in in the world to the, image of the Royal Family.” The documentary, Royal Pursuits, was shown this week. It comes in a year when the Royal Family has suffered a series of embarrassments. The tabloids lapped up the decision by the Queen's youngest son, Prince Ed- ward, to leave the marines earlier this year and hinted he wasn't tough enough. They have accused the Duchess of York of too much skylarking in public. And rumors have been rife about an alleged rift in the mar- riage of Prince Charles and Diana. Even Buckingham Palace, which usually greets any rumors about royalty with silent disdain, expressed con- cern this month about press persecution of Diana. It ignored reports that Diana burst into tears after a photographer snapped Life Guards Maj. David Water house playfully trying to run her down in his car after they had dined together. But it said bands of free- lance photographers who fol- low Diana through London streets are getting bigger and becoming more of a security problem. Penny Junor, a broad- caster and author of books on the Royal Family, said on the documentary program the royals made a mistake by giving interviews and ap- pearing on television. “They needed a mystique but I think they have blown it,” Junor said. Suzy Menkes, fashion edi tor of the Independent news- paper said Diana should not have tried to look like a film star. “I think she realizes now that it doesn't work when People are looking\at your legs and at the bodice of your dress, and wolf-whistling at you in the street.” A recent poll indicated 30 per cent of Britons think the Royal Family should not be. have like stars or appear on chat shows and quizzes, 58 Per cent think they should, and 12 per cent have no opinion. Castles Home Delivery 365-7266 ead TM j i bi gels apthal fils] rth ‘ii ter Wi idl Lb ig Ml ti it Pn f 4 Hed iit i if lit vil hs oft ea iH a Hi HR if i i ii ian iil HTB oul sit ue aut in Ha WHICH OF THE ABOVE HOMES WOULD YOU LIKE TO LOOK AT?