¢ get this straight ¢

THIS COMMITTEE of one hereby awards the Province
newspaper the Collins Nobel Prize for Rotten Journalism,
with subsidiary awards to other media for repeating
nonsense and being asleep at the switch.

The subject is that tabloid muck
peddled Sunday under the headline
““Magic Man Has Zalm’s
Number." ft dealt with the
premier’s alleged connection with
numerology, and the idea was that
The Slam consults the occult in
making his political decisions. So
eager was that rag to make its
point, indeed, that it produced a
same-day editorial headed ‘‘Wrong
Number for the Premicr."’

It is also clear that someone
close to Vander Zalm is trying to
set him up. How else would letters
from his office be fed to the press?

It was.obvious that a smear was
afoot. The word ‘‘numerology”
popped up in the story as frequent-
ly as a bad belch, and the accom-
panying ‘‘evidence’’ was worth

as the 1987 stock market crash...’
In the newspaper story, there
were only vague references to the
economic aspects of Cyllorn’s
proposed role. One was in the
lead, which stated: ‘‘A Vancouver
numerologist says he has been of-
fered a $1,500 contract from
Premier Vander Zalm's office to
predict B.C.’s economic fate.”

leadership convention, a man may
consult a witch without being a
witch himself and without giving a
witch a contract to perform wit-
cheraft.

Two possibilities arise: the first
is that whoever leaked the covering
letter to the Province reporter
didn't leak the letter of agreement,
with the result that the whole story
wasn't known; the second is that
the newspaper chose to ignore the
parts of the story that didn’t fit.

The statement that ‘‘the Pro-
vince has learned that a June 30

L make no case for Cyllorn. But in my
conversation with him he made no attempt
to cover up about his past, and that lends
some credence to his denials.’

9 - Friday, July 15, 1988 - North Shore News

because if it could get the covering
letter it probably also had the
agreement itself.

{ make no case for Cyllorn. But
in my conversation with him he
made no attempt to cover up about
his past, and that lends some
credence, at least, to his denials.

Responding to my questions, he
admitted he had been convicted in
1981 of thercabouts for selling
false advertising, and fined $2,500.
(One would think the Province
would have known about that,
too, but appparently it didn’t. So
much for investigative journalism).

The charge was fraud or
selling misleading advertising,

But Cyllorn winced at the use of
the word “fraud"’’ and claimed
the case wasn’t a serious matter.
It involved selling something
called ‘‘The Yellow Directory’’
(a phone directory) and he was
hauled into court by the
Ministry of Consumer Affairs.

He admitted he had a bit of a
wrestle with the sheriff on the way
out of court, and had faced
charges on that account, too. Ac-
cording to him, it was the sheriff
who started it.

He admitted his original name
was Jim Killoran — the name
under which he went to court —
and that he had changed it legally
so that the numbers were right.
“Lots of people do that,’* he said.

He considers himself to be a
“philosopher’’ and a student of
economics, and is bright. But he

zilch,

There was a picture of the cover-
ing letter to the agreement between
the premier’s office and Jud

For information
on how the
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improve your
festyle call:

has no formal qualifications. He
studied criminology at Ann Arbor
University, Michigan, he says, but
didn’t have enough money to

a fe Serr ra

letter of agreement .... from the

Cyliorn, for instance, but it made
no mention of numerology. For all
anyone was to know, the [etter
could have referred to a deai con-
cerning acorns.

The actual Ietter of agreement
provided extensive details of the
work that Cyllorn was to do.
Among other things, he was to
“‘prepare a strategic outline identi-
fying key issues that the province
(of British Columbia) should ad-
dress with respect to its role in
world financial markets (and) the
ramifications of recent events such

So what? If numerology didn’t
enter into it, and both the premier
and Cyllorn deny that it did, the
numerology bit means nothing. It
is also interesting that nowhere in
the story is there any quote from
Cyllorn linking numerology to
Vander Zalm’s work as premier.

I interviewed Cyllorn on Wed-
nesday. He showed me the letter of
2greement, and if the Province had
used what it contained there would
have been no numerology story.
As for Vander Zalm having ‘‘con-
sulted’’ Cyllorn before the 1986

outside on the Market’s South Plaza

July 17th
@ 12 noon
‘*The Dave Roberts
Jazz Band’? |

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123 Carrie Cates Court, North Vancouver

Daily 9:30-6:30 p.m.
Thursday & Friday 9:30—9:00 p.m.

premier's office was sent by fac-
simile transmitter to Cyllorn ...”’
supports the second possibility,

finish,
More on Sunday ®