oo, fee eae tee: April 16, 1986 News 985-2131 ion Sune is planning to launch a series of civil suits in West Vancouver, Wear nine damages from the District of Wayne Booth, ’ _Yancouver Police Department, and “The-suits will be filed as a result of Beltz's’ arrest. by West Van. couver Police at a March 1 Cypress Mountain ski-in. Classified 986-6222 Circulation 986-1337 68 pages 25¢ PROTESTERS PLAN TO SUE WEST VAN ‘ . SAVE CYPRESS Bowl Committee (SCBC) spokesman “The whole thing (the arrest) was false and improper, there’s no question about Tuesday. it,” Beltz said In the suits, Booth will be seek- ing damages from West Vancouver District and West Vancouver Police for false arrest. An additional suit alleging assault will be filed by Beitz against Cypress Bowl Recreations Lid. (CBRL) general manager WTC tax credit charges refuted ALLEGATIONS in a March 16 North Shore News story of tax credit misuse by a firm building a research project development centre in North Vancouver have been categor- Wayne Booth. Beltz’s lawyer Howard Luke said Tuesday the suits would be filed within the next two weeks. He said he cannot give details of the civil actions until the writs have See No Page 12 ically denied by the company’s legal counsel. Lawyer Kenneth Anderson, spokesman for Western Technologies Corporation, whose business is research into telephone and communications equipment, describes the allegations as defam- _atory, damaging and.based on in- . ‘correct information. The 20-month-old company originally raised $25 million worth of tax credits under the now defunct federal Scientific Research . Tax Credit program, but former employees claimed that a minimal amount of research had actually been carried out. In an interview with the News, Anderson said those claims are completely untrue. ENHANCED VERSION As a specific example, he cited the case of a 4-12 phone system, originally designed in the U.S., which eliminates the need for of- fice switchboards. According to some former employees, the WTC version is an exact copy of 4-12 systems available in the States. But Ander- son declared this to be totally in- correct. cee “The, 4-12 system developed by WTC is NOT a copy, but an enhanced version of the American original,”* he said. “ _. Anderson also stated that an un-. successful court bid by Revenue Canada to obtain $12 million in advance taxes from WTC was por- trayed in the News story as an in- dication that the company’s work had. not justified the tax credits _obtained under the SRTC pro- grain. A counter-writ by WTC claim- By NOEL WRIGHT Editor in Chief ing that Revenue Canada was not empowered to assess the company before the end of the.tax year was upheld .by Federal Court Judge Frank Collier. POLITICAL OUTCRY Anderson said Revenue Canada had undertaken similar action against other SRTC companies, following a political outery over generalized allegations earlier this year that the program was being abused. It was in no sense an’ ac- tion directed solely against WTC, he emphasized. “They (Revenue Canada) were simply out on wholesale fishing expeditions.’”” Meanwhile, in a letter to the News, current WTC employee Robyn Cambrey strongly. defends the company’s policy on research funding with tax credit. dollars, and says former employees quoted in the earlier News story ‘‘are no longer with the company for a reason."” . Referring to one allegation crit- ical of company policy, Cambrey says: ‘‘The. former employee did have funding stopped on his pro- ject after a jot of money was spent with no real marketable idea ap- pearing. Projects are still being funded as long as there is a poten- tial of a return in the future. “Would you expect a company to expend funds on something that was a waste of time ... a waste of taxpayers’ money that you seem to be so worried about?”