CASTLEGAR NEWS, December 20, 1981 Construction of local courthouse underway By CasNews Staff Start of construction on the new courthouse at Col- umbia Ave. and 9th Street has Castlegar council pleased. Ald. Len Embree said Tuesday he’s been down to the site to see how work is progressing and was happy with what he saw. Embree assured council the changes made by the B.C. Building Corp. to the original courthouse plans weren't sig-' « nificant and won't subtract from the building. He also pointed out the firm awarded the contract — Fame Construction Ltd. — is from Trail, which will mean local workers will be hired for the job. The $571,388 courthouse will be one-storey covering nearly 6,000 square feet. It will include a single pro- vincial courtroom — meaning no room for a jury — along with a judges’ chamber, pro- bation office, Crown counsel office, witness waiting room, two interview rooms, a bar- rister’s office, a family coun- selling office and washrooms. There will also be offices for a court reporter, sheriff's deputy, court administrator and a public waiting room. The courthouse will face west onto 9th Street, have a cedar siding exterior, and a flat roof. Testing flax with eye on Western farmers EDMONTON (CP) — Farmers in Western Canada, producers of wheat, barley and rapeseed, may some day find themselves in the linen business. A $450,000 study, financed by the three Prairie prov- inces and the federal gov- ernment, is looking into the potential fo growing Euro- pena types of flax in the West and turning the region into a centre for making linen cloth. Bernie Zuk of the Saskat- chewan Research Council, project co-ordinator, said test plots of flax have been raised in . Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba during the last three seasons and testing will continue next year. “We came to the conclusion we can grow this stuff here successful,” he said. “Now we'll look at growing larger quantities and at the poten- tial for developing processing facilities.” Some Canadian-grown flax will be shipped to Europe so linen mills there can test the quality of the product. Zuk said a Belgian mill has been particularly helpful. ““I don’t know how far we would have got without them. They've been very useful in providing market information and contacts.” The next stage will be to investigate the construction of a mill in Western Canada. Supporters of the idea hope to prove the commercial viability of large-scale flax and linen production in the West. Architect's sketch of the front view of the local courthouse now under construction Short people can now be policemen WINNIPEG (CP) — Short people are no longer auto- Inatically barred from joining the Winnipeg police force. The Manitoba Human Rights Commission said this week the city's policy on height and weight has been changed as a result of a series of informal discussions with the police department. The commission had ar- gued the department's arbi- trary height and weight re- quirements could rule out otherwise-qualified people from being considered as ap- plicants. Trudeau not about to step aside OTTAWA (CP) — Prime Minister Trudeau has dropped another hint that he has no plans to step down as liberal leader in the near future. Trudeau told a private luncheon gathering of Liberal MPs and cabinet ministers this week that he will con- tinue as leader and prime minister “for some time.” One who attended said Tru- deau may have used the words “quite some time.” “It was a general remark the way I recall it,” said Thunder Bay-Nipigon MP Jack Masters, who reforms achieved he would quit by next spring. But Trudeau has gone out of his way in recent weeks to make it clear he won't be leaving that soon. Meanwhile, sources say that when Trudeau named Tom Axworthy as his prin- cipal secretary last August he told him he would be around for at least a year. Assuming the prime min- ister stays through next spring, few Liberals expect he would then call for a lead- ership convention in the fall because that would be the it of the legis the lunch Wednesday.. “It indicated that his retirement was not immient.” Another MP, who asked that his name not be used, said Trudeau. “indicated he would be around for some time.” Trudeau, 62, has been leader of the party since 1968. He announcéd in Nov- ember, 1979, that he was quitting but returned to lead the party in the February, 1980, election, saying at the time that election would be his last. There has beer wide- spread speculation that with his long-sought constituional Psychiatric escapee found in Australia COQUITLAM (CP) — Mi- chael John Shilling, who es- caped Nov. 25 froma psy- chiatric i in this season. WAIT FOR 1983 They suggest the earliest a leadership convention might be expected would be the spring of 1983. Trudeau told a news con- ference two weeks ago he might be “roped into” staying around to continue the fight against Quebec Premier Rene Levesque and the Parti Quebecois. Last week, he told the Liberal caucus he might stay around to continue trying to persuade Ontario Premier William Davis to make that province officials bilingual. There were various inter- pretations of just what Tru- deau meant by the Davis remark, but all agreed Trudeau was making it clear to caucus that he will con- tinue in his job for some time. Speculation that Trudeau might be planning to leave soon has been fed by the fact he has begun extensive reno- vations on a Montreal home Vancouver suburb and turned up four days later in Australia, now is back in cus- -PUBLISHER The Castlegar News is poblished by Castle News Ltd. Mail rai tody at the Psy- chiatric Institute. He was flown from Sydney to Vancouver under RCMP escort this week. Shilling, 23, of Victoria, was committed by cabinet order to the institute 13 months ago after being found not guilty by reason of in- sanity in the stabbing death of his mother. After walking away from a work gang at the institute's Colony Farm section, he flew to San Francisco, Honolulu and finally, Sydney, Aus- tralia, on his brother's pass- port. Canadian consular officials in Sydney prepared his ex- tradition after he turned himself in to police. $129,988 paid in compensation VANCOUVER (CP) — 36-year-old Langley man who was attacked and kicked in the face by another motorist after he was involved in a car accident has been awarded $3,613 for loss of wages'and facial injuries by the Work- ers Compensation Board: The award was among 40 totally $129,988 handed out during November under the Criminal Injury C A 26-year-old Nanaimo man who was beaten and stabbed by three men on a street in GAR NEWS is $20 per 28 in communities ly (collected monthly). giwens class mail registration number 19. ERRORS the ve Casilenar News will not for any errors vee ements after one is the respon- sity of the advertiser to is ad when it is first published. tis agreed by the adver- fiaer requesting space that tbe. advertisement is c