Girls frustrated in fight to join N. Shore team FOUR YOUNG soccer players who can’t play for the North Shore team of their choice have taken their fight to the highest body in the province the British Columbia Soccer Association. By lan Noble News Reporter And while the four fight for the right to play on the North Shore Amazons, their potential teammates ure going down to injury while the team goes down to defeat. Amazons’ manager and assistant coach Tom Byrom said the trouble started when the North Shore Youth _ Soccer Association (NSYSA) took over girls’ soccer from the North Shore Girls’ Soccer Club this year. Byrom said two teams from the . North Shore in the under-19 divi- - sion in the Mciro league, the most competitive soccer league in the Lower Mainland for girls, were cre- ated. The Selects became an under-18 team and the Amazons an under-19 team, though both played in the same division. Byrom said that according to the . new arrangement the Amazons can only choose: from players born within a. six-month period, while the Selects can choose from players bom in an 18-month period. The Selects have 17 players reg- istered,-one under the maximum. The Amazons have 14, ‘although two are injured and won't: play again this year, said Byrom. , The four sidelined players — Lindsay Clerkson, Liz Ayre, Maelle Ricker and Kim Surine — qualify for the under-!8 Selects but want to “play for the Amazons. However, the NSYSA won't let them play for the Amazons. : | The girls have. appealed :to. the British.Columbia Youth Soccer Association but it sided with the NSYSA. ©”. ‘ The B.C. association said, “it is within ,the North Shore, Youth i WHILE THE North Shore soccer team they want to play for struggles on the field, Lindsay Clerkscon, Kim Surine, Liz Ayre and Maelle Ricker are being forced to sit on the sidelines. Soccer Association’s jurisdiction to decide on which teams its members (players) can join.” Clerkson has appealed that deci- sion to the B.C. Soccer Association, asking that she be permitted to play for. the Amazons or be release:! to play in another district. NSYSA chairman Joan Herrin would not discuss the girls’ silua- tion while it is being appealed. However, a Nov. 22 letter from Herrin to Lindsay Clerkson said the NSYSA’s appeals committee turned down her request to play for the Amazons because her birth date falls within the under-18 age brack- et. Herrin’s letter added that no players will be eligible to play girls’ metro soccer out of district. Lindsay says she .is frustrated and angry with the NSYSA. She says she qualifies to play with the Amazons “and if J don’t play, | won’i improve and reach my goals in soccer. “[ don’t think they realize soccer is my life and they are messing it ” she said. “If they do realize it, r they are doing it on purpose.” Clerkson, 16, has played on the B.C. team since she was 13. She hopes to play university soc- cer, and her ultimate goal ‘is the national team. Liz Ayre, 16, is in the same boat. She played for the under-17 Selects and doesn’t want to play for the team again, saying it lacks dis- cipline and has a bad attitude and inexperienced couching. She also said her chances of playing university soccer are being ruined. Byrom said the Amazons, who were the 1994 B.C. Provincial A Cup champions, have only {2 play- ers, meaning the Amazons often play without substitutes and some- times with only nine or 10 players. in the competitive metro league, that has resulted in injuries and girls playing tired and hurt, he said. “Very luckily.” none of the injuries © has been serious. He said the girls on the team, which is in the Iezgue’s lower half of the Standings, are becoming frus- trated. ; The addition of the four girls would make a “night and day” dif- ference, he said. The NSYSA has. allowed the Amazons to pick up out-of-district. players, but, Byrom doesn’t want to do that. He added that the Selects will” not fill their remaining roster spot because if they did, that would close the players’ options and the NSYSA would have toe release the players or let them play for the Amazons. Byrom said there are: enough players for both metro teams, “if kids play where they want." Under-!9 teams in the gold and silver divisions are full, so those options ure also ctosed to the play- ers, he said. The Amazons requested i in early November that the NSYSA allow them to drop to the gold division, said Jack Clerkson, Lindsay’s father. That would allow the team to pick up the four players and still challenge for the provincial A cup. ‘ However, that request is “not being put forward in a timely man- ner,” he said. seniors’ debate goes on GREATER VANCOU- VER Regional District (GVRD) or Greater Van- couver Regional Hospital District (GVRHD) duties do not pose a conflict of interest for any member of West Vancouver District Council considering a con- troversial seniors’ care facility proposed for 419 Keith Rd. EE A WEST VANCOUVER DISTRICT COUNCIL By Maureen Curtis The recent. B.C. Supreme Court ruling was announced by West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager at the start of the Nov. 28 public hearing on the proposal. The hearing was delayed a week ago when a group of Cedardale residents, through a lawyer, suggested there might be some bias on the part of council members, most of whom . participate on the GVRD in some way. The applicant for the 150- bed residence for the elderly is the GVRHD, an arm of the GVRD which deals with capi- tal funding of hospital projects throughout the Lower Main- land. The Cedardale group have since reacted by commencing an action suggesting. bias on the part of Coun. Diana - Hutchinson, ceuncil’s repre- sentative on the GVRHD hos- pital committee. ; Hutchinson has responded by filing an affidavit which states that she is approaching the issue “with an open mind.” - Convinced by their legal. See Cedardale page 14 THE FORENSIC psychiatrist of a North Vancouver murderer says her patient was displaying symptoms of serious mental illness more than 20 years before he first saw a psychiatrist. By Anna Marie D'Angelo News Raporier Dr. Elizabeth Zoffmann testified on Monday at a coroner's inquest into the death of North Vancouver doctor Verne Flather on April 22, 1992. Flather, 55, was gunned down in front of his East Keith Road home. David Henderson, 51, was found insane and therefore not criminally responsible for the shooting. He is confined to the maximum security area in the Port Coquitlam Forensic Psychiatric Institute. Zoffmann evaluated Henderson to deter- mine his fitness for court and the disposition of his sentence. He was diagnosed as suffering from. paranoid schizophrenia with a strong persecution complex. The unemployed waterfront worker had been seen by at feast four local general practi- tioners, including the murder victim, waile suffering from serious mental illness. “The onset of his symptoms ‘appeared to occur in the late 1960s. He made exaggerated complaints of injuries long before his injury on the dock,” said Zoffmann. Zoffmann stood by her contention that Henderson likely did not recognize his former doctor at the time of the shooting. “He was acutely psychotic. He had trouble putting two words together,” said Zoffmann. The psychiatrist said Henderson con tently described being assaulted by a 300-Ib. creature with four fingers when he went on his daily walks in the Keith Road area. Henderson may have thought he was shooting the creature. Zoffmanr termed Henderson a frightening individual. who was intelligent, guarded and able to go into terrible rages. She said doctors may have viewed him as “more bad than mad,” but Henderson could not cover up his profound thought disorder. “He was unable to complete whole ideas in a sentence. He would ramble on and pull together things not related.” said Zoffmann, She said Henderson, like the majority of seriously mentally il] people, had “no insight” into the fact that he was mentally ill. “Most individuals (like Henderson), do not and cannot see what they are perceiving is incorrect. They have no ability to stand back EALTHCARE WORKER FEARED FOR HER SAFETY: « and see...” said Zoffmann, Because a mentally ifl person is unable to know he needs help, Zoffmann believes a doc- tor is obligated to have him certified under the Mental Health Act (MHA). Certification means that the person is involuntarily admit- ted for mental treatment. Zoffmann said doctors are reluctant to cer- tity mentally ill people because: @ “ridiculously” narrowed interpretations of the word “protection” in the act to mean someone will, for sure, barm themselves or others; BB the economic climate of healthcare and a lack of hospital beds; @ concerns that a second doctor won't agree with the certification; @ insufficient (raining to recognize serious mental iflness Bl fear of being sued (by the mentally ill per- son). Zolfmann interned al Lions Gate Hospital (LGH) in 1986 before specializing in psychi- atry. “On my emergency rooni rotation, | proba- bly certified more people than anybody else,” she said. Flather was Henderson's doctor from 1980 to 1986. Workers’ Compensation Board, (WCB) back pain program doctor in’ 1982, William Hrudey, testified at the inquest that Flather was told about Henderson's bizarre behavior. Hrudcy said he also expressed concerns about psychotic side effects from the prescription drugs, Halcion and Ativan, which Henderson ; was taking. ; Said Hrudey, “Essentially what he. (Flather) said to me was 1T can’¢ tell him how to practice medicine.” WCB notes and Hrudey’s recollections point to the following behavior displayed by Henderson: Bi comes in late for appointment and “assumes a Richard Nixon stance” with hands up muak- ing peace signs and says “higgiedy- piggledy pop... f while in the hot pool says “DP ve lost my penis in the pool and my anus is introverted.” fA gives a wrapped package to a WCB stalfer consisting of a dead fish. Henderson claims to have found the fish on the shore near Ambleside beach; and @ pives a similarly wrapped package toa physiotherapist consisting of a broken robin’s CgE. “ Henderson’s next doctor was Toivo fi See Threats page 5