BE G000 AND BUTT-OUT

Smoking is now forbidden in bars and restaurants every-
where in British Columbia. It's also itlegal 10 light-up in sport-
ing arenas. That includes gyninasiums and hockey, figure
Skating and curling rinks. Though they play outdoors where
the ban doesn’t apply, youth soccer players would still appre-
ciate smoking spectators stay well away from the sidelines.

TROT, YOU satGHT LIKE IT

The North Shore Triathton Club's spring training gets underway at
7:30 p.m. Jan. 20 with a meeting at Ron Andrews Recreation Centre.
The 50-member club consists of beginners in swimrning, biking and
Tunning as well as full-fledged fronmen (and tronwomen). Nineteen
of the club's members competed at lronman Canada in Penticton
last summer. Call 926-5918 for info.

Bob Mackin

News Reporter

DREW Neilson got the hat
trick Saturday.

~The North Vancouver snow-
boarder won the first stop on the
Kokance _ Boardercross Grand
‘Nationals’ tour at Mount Seymour
for the third straight year.
Neilson also won the time trials
in 51:942.down the 1,550-foot-
. . long Elevator to Manning slope. _
“The final heat was great, I was
in third place and picked up some .
-speed to make some daring passes,
_and then it was first place all the
way!”. Neilson said.
. The 24-year-old won the
$2,500 first prize under glorious
“blue skies. a
. °°... Andrew. Murphy of Vancouver ~
: and Ben Wainwright cf Whistler
2 were second:and third)
-  Neilson’s’:. roommate: Maelle -
~ Ricker wasn’t. so~ lucky. The
: | defending world champion board-
-ercross ‘racer overshot the final
“major jump: on the downhill
- course. during ‘training Saturday
morning ‘and . reinjured. her: le:
knee oo .
.. She had reconstructive surgery carlier.this year to repair
-ligament damage. She’s out for at least a month and was plan-
“ging to see’a specialist in Kamloops to determine the severity
of the injury...” ; i ;
Boy {Hopefully it’s just cartilage and no ligament damage,” she. .
+, Australian. Marguerite Cossettini won the women’s event
and ‘the: $1,500 : prize.. Alison. Clark of Whistler and Erin
Simmons of West Vancouver were second and third.
"In time trials, Cossettini was edged by Carlee Baker whose
4.562 time was fastest. a .
The three-day event attracted-10 International Snowboard
 Federation-ranked athletes:-There were 133 .men and 58.
~ women from six countries in. the cross-disciptine races.

for Laface win

Bob Mackin
News Reporter

WAYNE Laface of Vernon lost only once en
route to winning his first B.C. senior men’s
curling championship.

Laface finished the meet at the North Shore Winter
Club with a 7-1 record and earned a berth in the nation-
al finals beginning Jan. 22 in Portage La Prairie, Man.

Laface came back from a 6-4 deficit to beat Victoria’s
Al Frame 7-6 on Sunday. He stole the winning point in
the 10th end of Sunday’s playoff.

The skip, who was aided by third Val Schwab, second
Jack Hockey and iead Barry Brown, wor two of the
three events in the modified uiple knockout tourna-
ment.

Laface won the A event Friday by edging New
Westminster's Steve Thorson 6-5. He lost 7-5 to Frame
in the B final, but won the C match 6-4 over Frame.

The two rinks met again Sunday for the champi-
onship, won by Laface.

Laface took a 2-1 lead after the second end, but
Frame tied in the third. Laface. took a brief one-rock
lead, then Frame had another pair in the fifth. The
teams traded rocks in the sixth and seventh, bur Frame
had a single in the eighth. Laface tied in the ninth and -
forced extra ends, eventually becoming the 7-6 victor. ©

Of the 23 games, only three ended in double digit
scores. Thorson’s 9-1 win over Cullen in the C round
was the largest margin of victory. There were only two
games with six-point spreads. . ;

Defending Canadian champion Ken Watson left —
North Vancouver with a 2-3 record. His rink failed to
pur two wins together. , .

Frame made it to two event finals, winning one, and
was 5-3. Jerry Martin of Vancouver, the 1990 champi-
on, was 0-3. Jim Ursel, the national champion. for
Manitoba in 1999 and 1991, was also winless in three
tries. cos =
Fan favourite Fizz McKie of Sparwood was playing in

NEWS photo Julle iverson

NORTH Vancouver’s Drew Neilson won the Kokanee Boardercross Grand
Nationals race for the third straight year at Mount Seymour Saturday.

_ The event will be aired on CTV SportsNet and OLN this
winter. |

The next stop on the tour is Feb, 24-26 at Sunshine Village
in Banff. It wraps up April 19-21 on Blackcomb Mountain for
the North American championships. ‘

High performance snowboarding at Mount Seymour con-
tinues this week with the prestigious second jewel in the Vans
Triple Crown of Snowboarding.

The event is part of the International Snowboardin,
Federation World Pro Tour and features competition in half
pipe, snowboard cross and big air. Among those slated to
compete are Switzerland’s Gian Simmen, Germany’s Nicola
Thost and North Vancouver’s Kevin Sansalone.

They'll be aniong 200 snowboarders competing for a share
of the U.S.$125,000 in prize money. See schedule on page 39.

See Winter next page

“IF the rich. could hire.
‘other people to die for
them; the poor would :
make a wonderful liv- ©
”: : 2 .

The above anonymous ~~

quote illustrates both the: .
apparent need for many peo-

¢ in our culture to worship”

any real empathy |

Along with the new year
me regulations banning
tobacco use in, all places . ~.

“where people are employed.
This was designed as a health
measure to protect all of
B.C.’s employees and you
would like to think business
‘would realize its imporiance
and be interested in the wel-

“fare of the staff members that
‘work on their behalf. Right?

“> My wife Debbie. and I
took a drive along Marine

were feeling a bit peckish and
decided to pull into a local
watering hole for a sandwich
and a drink.

With the new smoking
regulations in place we decid-
ed to go into ‘The Troller
Pub, 2 location we had avoid-
ed for several years just
because of the smoke-filled
air that I remember you
could cut with a knife.

‘After walking inside I
couldn’t help but notice a
sign posted above a large
stack of ashtrays. It basically
stated that effective Jan. 1,
2000 the NDP government
and Workers’ Compensation
Board have passed regula-

_ tions that prohibit smoking

in all public places and that

T asked a staff member
what the sign meant and she
told me they were, in effect,
going to challenge the new
law because it wasn’t the
responsibility of the pub to
tell peopie whether they
could smoke or not.

I told her that the bill
wasn’t designed to protect

- the customers. Rather it was
_ in place to protect her and

her workmates. She replied
that most of the staff smoked
anyway and it wasn’t a big,

deal.

What angered me so
much wasn’t this young
lady’s response, because it
appeared to me that she had
been coached. The real crime
here is she doesn’t seem to
be aware of the damage she is
causing herself. To make mat-
ters worse I noticed all the
servers were carrying a stack
of ashtrays on their individual
serving trays, seemingly to
entice a response from smok-
ers who had not realized the

Shey

protect workers’ health

pub’s total disregard for this
new policy. Add to all this the
fact they prominently display

’ cancer sticks for sale at the

bar and you start getting
some idea how much this
sothing othe care about
an other than making a
buck ~ and to hell with the
health costs! a
First, let’s get a few facts
straightened out. The NDP is
not directly involved with the
new requirements concerning
smoking in the workplace (I
doubt they would have the
gumption to openly pass and
enforce such tough yet
courageous changes under
their own banner). This was
the decision of the WCB and
has nothing to do with fire
safety. It was instituted to
protect the health of every
person that works in this
province. Why aren’t those
with even the vaguest interest
in the well-being of workers,
and that includes all the

- unions in this province, loud-

ly supporting it by exerting

their powerful influence?
Workers need only to look

back in history to see the

necessity for such changes. It
wasn’t that long ago-coal
miners in the north of
England and Wales (as well as
other parts of the world) ©.
were routinely dying from
diseases such as Coal Workers
Pneumoconiosis, Silicosis and
Asbestosis — chronic lung
conditions that result in pro-
ressive deterioration of lung
inction. All this because the
mine owners didn’t give a
rat’s arse about anything
other than making money. -

And what the hell, who really

cares if they lose a few bodies
in the process. The
wouldn't have jobs at all if
the mines didn’t hire them.
Besides, they're going to die
one day anyway. .

If any employee in this
province could offer proof of
having to work around chem-
icaily harmful fuels, the
offending factory could be
shut down immediately along
with the probability of having
to pay a hefty fine. Well
what’s the difference with
being forced (if you want to
keep your job) to breathe the
fumes of a product (ciga-

poor sods.

rettes) that contains over 100°.
known cancer-causing agents? *

Of course one can always ©
ty and look at the bright |
side. : wee

One of the critical con-
cerns of the World Health °
Organization is overpopula-
tion of our planet. Well,. _-

. given the latest statistics con-

cerning the death rate of sec-
ond hand smoke maybe there

‘are indeed some positives to

consider.” .
Ifa pub like The Troller
hires, let's say six servers at.
any one time, that means .
over the years three of them ~
will probably die premature
and painful deaths as a direct
result of working in a smoke-

filled environment.

And if they don’t snuff it. -
there are other delights that © «-
await them. For the woracn
there is the distinct possibility
of increased infertility along
with spontaneous abortion,
premature birth, stillbirth, _
and low birth weight infants.

As for you guys. When -
you go home at night with

_ the plan of making love with

“See Avoid next page