® get this straight e

IF THIS country had more people like Christine Mellin of
Deep Cove, some things might be changed. Which is to say
it might not be so casy for foreign fags to bamboozle im-

migration authorities.

Mrs. Mellin had been reading
about John Lewis, the pervert who
persuaded the Immigration Appeal
Board that he should not be
deported. This even though he is
wanted on sex charges in Califor-
nia and Utah, and has been to jail
here for similar offences.

Mrs. Mellin didn’t mess about.
She phoned the prime minister’s of-
fice. “What the hell’s going on?”
she asked in effect. ‘Why don’t you
throw this man out?”

They wanted to know who she
was. Was she a reporter? No, she
wasn't a reporter. She was just a
mad Mum concerned about an
outrageous case and she wasn’t go-
ing to take it any more.

‘Brian Mulroney didn’t come to
the phone. Pity. He would have got
a bunch of grass roots in his ear.
But Mrs, Mellin wasn’t through.
She spent a lot of money phoning
MPs and immigration officials.

§ And she phoned the papers. Also
¥ the governor of Utah.

Two MPs made bold enough to
echo her questions in the House.

The minister of state for im-

. migration, Gerry Weiner, danced
f around like a cat on hot bricks. He
could not interfere with the decision
of an independent judicial body, he
said. (Of course not. But he could
give landed immigrant status to a
crook who had been convicted 20
i times.)
— Lewis is an immigrant from the
f U.S. He is wanted in San Diego for
« having committed a “lewd and
I lascivious act upon a child”, and in
| Vancouver he got six months after
being convicted on three counts of
{ buggery and three of gross indecen-
cy. His victims here were boys aged
15 and 16, and police seized 7,000
slides and photographs of young
} boys from his apartment. Plus the
| famous “chicken list™. -
i The Los Angeles police say the
list contains the names of a lot of
f‘‘prominent Canadians and
y Americans involved in sex with

juveniles”, and the American detee-
tive who headed the investigation
says that “doctors, lawyers and
some government officials” figure
in it. Two MPs are supposed to be
on it, too,

Utah has asked for our hero to
be extradited to face charges that he
persuaded a 14-year-old boy to pose
nude in a hotel room while
photographs were taken.

When the appewtsboatd ‘first:
heard the case, it did not know
about the Utah prosecution. But it
did know Lewis was wanted in
California, and that he had been
convicted locally. But it refused to
kick him out because he’s a nice §
fellow. If he had been a really bad |
one, said these clever people, he
would have got more than six }
months from the B.C. judge who
tried him. It’s hard to believe but
it’s true.

It also seems to have counted in
Lewis's favor that he had been on
the Vancouver Centennial Ccemmit- j
tee, that he had a lot of support
from friends and colleagues, and
that he had been heavily involved
in community work,

You bet he had been. What else?
All that happened in 1985, But
the issue blew into the news again j
last week when, with one dissenting
vote, the board refused to review the

case.

I thas been stated (anonymous-

_ ly) that when he was in jail, Lewis

boasted he would never be deported }
because he knew too much about §
too many important people. And it
is thought that if he went on trial
in California, the chicken list would |
become public.

Even without all the rumor and |
innuendo, this case stinks.

Mrs. Mellin of Deep Cove is still
fighting, and on Monday night a
number of indignant people attend-
ed a meeting at her house to plan
further strategy. They belong to the |
army of the incensed.

NV group forms
to oust molester

FOURTEEN people attended the first meeting Monday
night of a North Shore group formed to lobby for the
deportation of convicted child molester John Michael Lewis

from Canada.

Criminals and Molesters Out
(CMO) is spearheaded by Deep
Cove residents Ben and Christine
Mellin.

GROUP FOUNDER Christine
Mellia...‘‘this whole thing stinks a

little.”’

The two have been screaming
foul since an immigration appeal
board decision last week ruled
Lewis could stay in Canada.

“When my husband and | read

(about the decision), we were
furious. We decided to do some-
thing,’? Christine Mellin said
Monday. ‘‘This whole thing stinks
a little. You know, we have four
kids, and we don’t want this guy in
Vancouver.’’

In 1983, Lewis, an American cit-
izen who was granted tanded im-
migrant status in 1981 and who
once lived on the North Shore,
pleaded guilty in Vancouver to
several cisarges of buggery and
gross indecency involving boys 15
and 16 years old.

After serving four months of a
six-month jail term, Lewis, 38, was
ordered deported, but won an ap-
peal of that decision in February

1985. ;
Immigration department of-

ficials requested a review of the
appeal after they found Lewis was
wanted in Utah and California on
charges of sexual exploitation of
minors.

Mellin said an appeal of last
week’s immigration appeal board
decision not to review the Lewis
case must be filed within 10 days
of that decision.

9 - Wednesday, December 17, 1986 - North Shore News

ANIMAL RESCUES

‘ROUTINE’

Doug Collins Seagull rescued
by hydro lineman

A B.C. Hydro lineman
climbed 35-feet up a pole to
reach a seagull dangling up-
side down on a North Van-
couver hydro line Thursday.

By KIM PEMBERTON
News Reporter

Dave Delmonico, who has
worked for seven years as a line-
man, said rescuing animals from
hydro lines is routine.

“I'm an animal lover anyway,
so I like to see that sort of thing
done,” he said,

A woinan, who asked not to be
named, said she called B.C. Hydro
shortly before 2 p.m., when the
bird was noticed with its foot
caught between wires.

She said the lineman arrived by
2:15 p.m.

“Twas pleasantly surprised
when (B.C.) Hydro came so quick-
ly. It was heart warming to see this
man help the bird. He did it at
some risk to himself,’’ she said.

Peter Westcott, an inspector

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with North Vancouver SPCA, also
responded to the call.

"The B.C. Hydro guy did a
very, very good job of calming the
bird. He climbed a maze of high-
tension wires to get where the bird
was, and managed to bring it
down.”

Westcott said the bird was
transported to the B.C. Wildlife
Recovery Association, suffering
from a broken leg and lacerated
wings, but unfortunately it had to
be destroyed.

“A seagull with one leg doesn’t
do that well in the wild during
winter. The kindest thing to do
was put it down,"’ he said.

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