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news of the weird

Taxing the milk of

NEWS photo Paul ScSrath

Oconpation . . . .cspiring actress
Astrologkal Sign... Aquarius
Phacos Traveled .... . Greece,

Cedifornia, Mexico

ICBC clerk in court

over $20

A former ICBC office
assistant made an initial
appearance in North
Vancouver Provincial
Court June 9 to face
two charges related to
allegations that she
stole $197,500 from
ICBC between March
1997 and December
1998.

Tracy Hall (a.k.a. Tracy
Brache) was charged with one
count of fraud over $5,000
and one count of theft ove.
$5,000. .

Hall, 34, was alleged to
have authorized and/or writ-
ten 99 cheques made out to
her maiden name paid against
a variety of closed claims files
while working at ICBC’s
North. Vancouver — office
Coquitlam claim centre.

The cheques amounted to

~ $197,601.58.

The theft was uncovered by
a supervising adjuster who was

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reviewing files.

_ He was unable to relate a
cheque payment to a particular
claim tile and initiated an
investigation which involved
the centre manager and
ICBC’s Special Investigation
Unit (SIU).

The investigation resulted
in a police investigation and
the laying of criminal charges.

Hall/Brache is no ‘onger
employed by ICBC.

Another woman — named
Tracy Anne Hall, 34, of Delta
but also employed by ICBC -—
is not related to the case.

ICBC’s adjusters, managers
and SIU areas are alert to the
possibility of fraud & proce-
dures are in place to red flag
instances of potential fraud.

— Kevin Gillies

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humans a kindness

EN the course of'a June report
deerving the Canadian econo-
my’s discrimination against
people whe do unpaid work
— mostly housework — the
feminist group Mothers Are
Women called on the govern:
ment to pay wages to women
tor breastieeding to bring that
activity in fine with the pro-
duction of other consumable
milk.

One female economist also
pointed out thar breastteed-
ing income would logically
subject women to breastteed-
ing taxes,

o00
The animal-food company
Ralston Purina introduced
earlier this year, from its sub-
sidiary Turina Philippines,
power chicken teed designed
to build museles in roosters
for the popular “sport” of
cockfighting. According to a
June Wall Street Journal
report, the market for Rouster
Booster chow is huge: the
Philippines has five million

“gaming” roosters.

Goa

Labour activist Dan Craig,
25, accepted 3 plea bargain in
January in Toronto that will
keep him out of jail, despite
his having protested layoffs at
an aerospace plant by sus-
pending himself from a facto-
ry ceiling and playing
“Amazing Grace” on his Fae.
pipes for four solid hours.

And in West Union, Ohio,
last winter, Berry Baker, 54,
protested the school district's
placing Ten Commandments
statues on school lawns by
demanding equal space for
statues promoting his Centre
for Phallic Worship, which he
said copies a refigion practised
in some countries. (In
February, Baker filed a lawsuit
against the district; in Junc,
the US. House of
Representatives passed a bill
authorizing the = Ten
Commandments, but not
stone phalluses, to be dis-
played on public property.)

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On May 10, the diversity-
secking Oregon Senate per-
mitted Wiccan high priestess
Cieda Johnson to provide tke
traditional session-opening
blessing.

And in June, a coalition of
Christian organizations, along
with U.S. Rep. Bob Barr,

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demanded thar Fort Hood
(near Austin, Texas), the
Arnmv’s Jargest installation,
stop its nvo-vear-old sanction-
ing of a Wiccan Open Circle
group, Whose several dozen
memoers dance through the
sight at full moons. (Wiccan
groups have also been sanc-
tioned for U.S. military bases
in Louisiana, Alaska, Florida.
Okinawa and Germany.)

Sua

Sean Barry, 23, was arrest-
ed ia Chandler, Ariz., in May
after summoning police for
help when he coulen’s unlock
the handcuffs he had plsvfully
put on bis wrists.

When officers arrived, they
ran a routine check on Barry
and discovered he had an out-
standing warrant for failure to
appear in court on a traffic
charge. :

They decided to leave the
cuffs oa him until they got
him to the station.

Ong

John Michael Haydt, 34,
was arrested in Mountain
View, Calif., in April and
charged with burgiary after he
called 911 to rescue himself
from the Danish Concepts
furniture store at 2 am.
According to police, Haydt
had broken in through a win-
dow but had cut himscif so
badly that he didn’: think he
could climb back out.

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