“ARTE te

RCMP NEWS

Court was held in Cassiar on September 29, 1983,
and the following cases were heard:

GEORGE DENNIS was charged with wilful dam-
age as a result of damage done to Bob Watson’s
vehicle. He was sentenced to 15 days in jail.

GHYSLAIN ROZON was charged with being in
possession of an unregistered restricted weapon
in the French Creek area. He was fined $200 or

-ten days in jail if defaulted.

He was also charged with buying a firearm with-
out an F.A.C. He was fined $200 or 10 days in
jail on this charge also. The revolver was forfeited.

HARVEY CALLOW charged with illegal poOsses-
sion of liquor. He was fined $150.

TOMMY HAWKINS was charged with assault and
possession of a weapon dangerous to the public
peace. He was sentenced to 18 months.

' VERONICA DENNIS was charged with posses-

sion of a weapon dangerous to the public peace.
She was placed on two years probation.

MARGERY LOVERIN was charged with impair-
ed driving. A trial was held and she was found
not guilty.

TERRY BALL was charged with assault causing

bodily harm. He was fined.$500.or-90 days in jail.

He was also ordered to perform 100° hours of
community work, make restitution to the Cassiar
Community Club for smashing a door and pay

$148 restitution to the assault victim for breaking —

his glasses.

NELSON JOHNNY was charged with breaking

and entering, wilful damage, and assault. He was

- sentenced to 6 months on the assault charge and

acquitted on the other two charges.

STEVEN PORTER was charged with driving with-

out a license and driving without due care and at-
tention. He was sentenced to 40 hours of com-
munity work.

LILLIAN DAVIDSON. was charged for driving

_ without insurance and for driving without a
license. She was fined $300 on the first charge

and $35 on the second charge.

ROY EPP was charged with driving without due

care and attention. He was found not guilty.

WILLIAM PALMER was charged with being in
possession of an unregistered weapon. This occur-
red outside the Cassiar Lounge. He was fined
$400 or 30 days in jail. The weapon — a sawed-
off rifle — was destroyed.

SCOTT DENNIS was charged with wilful damage.
He was put on two months probation and order-
ed to complete 50 hours of community work.

A trial was held in the civil suit where Gilles
Devost was suing Eugene Puritch for $2000
thru small debts court. The judge dismissed the
case.

CHARLIE CHIEF Jr., SARAH McINTOSH and
two juveniles were charged with several break-
ins at Chain Lake. The trial will be held Dec. Ist
1983.

LEO JOHNNY was charged with theft over $200,
in connection with a theft of tools reported by
Ben Brown at Good Hope Lake. The trial will be
held on December Ist.

. Cassiar Courier

the Voice of Cassiar Country

NOVEMBER 1983

10 cents |

Solidarity protests
locally

On Thursday, October 13, “nurses, teachers, school and government employees demonstrated in
Cassiar against the provincial government restraint program. A spokesman for the group stated they
_ were especially protesting on behalf of Human Rights and wished to inform individuals what they
can do if they disagree with the government. They also had a petition for signing oreo was issued

ea B.C. by Solidarity. -

This is Equality?

“There is nothing so unequal as the equal

treatment of unequals.”’

The “on again — off again” taxation of Northern
Benefits is going to be resolved in the near future by the
Minister of Finance, the Honorable Marc Lalonde. Mr.
Lalonde has been quoted as saying that he doesn’t think
the taxation of these benefits will hurt Northerners too
much. This kind of attitude doesn’t endear a minister to
the people in the North.

Many local residents wrote to Mr. Lalonde’s pre-
decessor, Hon. A. J. MacEachen, expressing their con-
cern over the proposed taxation of Northern Benefits.
He did reply to many of these letters. In one reply he
stated “The current relief provided through’ the remis-
sion order results in anomalous treatment of individuals
living in isolated regions. Irregularities ‘arise in the tax
treatment between individuals working for different em-
ployers, temporary and permanent residents and ‘thigh
and low income” individuals. Moreover, I believe that the
federal tax system should apply uniformly to all Can-
adians across the country. In view of these factors, it has
become increasingly difficult to justify this tax exemp-
tion.......”

If it is equities that. the government is concerned
about, it should be pointed out that there are inequities
in the North in more areas than taxation.

For example, take the price of gas. In Ottawa gas
costs 47cents a litre, in Vancouver 49.5 cents a litre
(self-serve) and here in Cassiar we can buy a litre of gas
for the princely sum of 62.2 cents per litre.

Then there is home fuel oil. In Ottawa it costs 34.1
cents per litre, in Vancouver 33.7 cents per litre and here
in Cassiar it costs 48:5 cents per'litre. It should be pointed

out that the average mean temperature in Ottawa is 5.7 C,
in Vancouver it’s 9.8 C and in Cassiar it is —3.14 C. So,
not only are we in the North paying at least 14 cents more
per litre but, obviously, because of our location, we are
consuming far more —~ a double penalty for living in the
North:

Even electricity costs considerably more in the North.
In Ottawa electricity for residential use costs 4.5 cents per :
kilowatt hour for the first 500. Any in excess of
500 kw/h, costs 3.86 cents per kw/h. In Vancouver the
cost is 4.5 cents per kw/h. The nearest public utilities
company to Cassiar is in Watson Lake — The Yukon Elec-
trical Company Ltd. The residential rate is 18 cents per
kw/h for the first 200, 16.4 cents from 200 to 500 kw/h,
and over 500 kw/h costs 14.0 cents per kw/h. As well,
there is a rider charge of :13 cents per kw/h on all electric-
ity used. Electricity for both industrial and residential use
in the Cassiar area has to be produced by the individual
concerned, at a rate even higher than the rates in Watson
Lake.

Fuel costs are only one area where there is gross in-
equality between North and South. Let us look at. air
travel.

CP Air has‘a daily flight from Vancouver to White-
horse and every day except Saturday from Edmonton to
Whitehorse. There is a daily stopover in Fort St. John
and a stop in Prince George on Saturdays. However, CP
flies to Watson Lake (at 100 miles distance the closest air-
port to Cassiar) only on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays
CP Air discontinued their flight fron; VYatson Lake to
Whitehorse two years ago. At that tin: “1e one way price
for that flight was $88. Trans North began servicing that

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