NEWS photo Terry Poters

WAS THIS your child’s weapon of choice on Halloween night? West Vancouver Police Const. Harry
McNeil displays an assortment of fireworks and home-made weapons seized from teens Tuesday.

Halloween tirework wars
have local police worried

POLICE had their hands full Tuesday night defusing
fireworks wars fought by youths armed with everything
from home-made Foman candle guns and firecracker
grenades to rockets and rock bombs.

In North Vancouver, RCMP
had ‘‘an exceptionally busy
night’’ according to Insp. Dave
Roseberry. Approximately 70
pounds of assorted illegal
fireworks and firecrackers, in-
cluding several dozen Roman
candle guns, were seized during
Halloween evening. Most were
confiscated from a group of ap-
proximately 200 teens lobbing
‘fireworks at each other near
Seymour Heights Elementary
School.

An officer caught in the
cross-fire described ihe scerie as a
“war zone.** The rear window
of one police cruiser was shat-
tered after taking a direct hit
from a projectile.

RCMP strategy was to seize all
illegal fireworks rather than
make arrests. Police handled 85
fireworks related complaints in
North Vancouver. Ten officers
and 12 auxiliaries were called in
to assist regular police patrols
Tuesday.

The scenario was repeated in

By MICHAEL BECKER
News Reporter

West Vancouver where West
Vancouver Police boosted its
regular patrols and handled more
than 20 calls between 7 p.m. and
10:30 p.m.

The increasingly dangerous
nature of some of the items seiz-
ed has police worried.

Roman candle guns are a rela-
tively new Halloween phenome-
non on West Vancouver streets.
Metal or plastic tubes are sealed
at one end and mounted on toy
guns. Roman candles are inserted
into the tubes, ignited and often
directed at other people.

Several home-made grenades
seized consisted of large
firecrackers wrapped tightly in
several layers of tape and wire.
Police also picked up a bag of
rock bombs — fire crackers en-
cased in plaster. And a can of
Lysol disinfectant that was seized
doubled as a flame thrower.

Said Const. Harry McNeil:

“The main thing was to disarm
ihe kids. Kids under the age of 18
are getting fireworks from
somewhere. Parents have a re-
sponsibility. Only with parents
and police working together can
we make Halloween a safer
event. This year we were lucky
that there were no major inju-
ries.””

But a 14-year-old West Van-
couver youth was unlucky in
other ways. The youth was robb-
ed and assaulted while igniting
fireworks in front of a home in
the 2400-block Ottawa Ave.

A car pulled up to the house at
about 9:15 p.m. Two youths
dressed in blue uniforms stepped
out and demanded the victim's
fireworks. The youth refused.
One suspect grabbed a bag con-
taining the fireworks and return-
ed to the car. The complainant
followed and demanded the
return of his fireworks. The
suspect struck the youth in the
head with a spent Roman candle
and drove off.

Meanwhile, North Shore fire
departments report a number of
bush, tree and dumpster fires
were caused by fireworks Hal-
loween night.

3 - Friday, November 3. 1989 - North Shore News

VERSATILE UNION MAY CHALLENGE
WCB FOR FINE DECISION FLIP-FLOP

Asbestos
lawsuit
considered

A UNION representing workers at North Vancouver’s Ver-
satile Pacific Shipyards Inc. is considering launching a legal
challenge to a Workers’ Compensation Board decision that
reversed an initial WCB recommendation to fine Versatile
$15,000 after shipyard workers were exposed last year to
hazardous airborne asbestos during repair work on a Rus-

sian fishing vessel.

Marine Workers and _ Boiler-
makers Industrial Union _ secre-
tary-treasurer Bill Scott said Tues-
day the WCB decision was ‘‘a
sham” and ‘‘a miscarriage of
justice’? because neither workers
nor their representatives were
allowed to make any written or
oral presentation at the appeal
hearings granted Versatile by the
WCB.

‘It is easy to fashion a defence
when you know you are not going
to be cross-examined,’’ Scott said.

He said the union’s legal
challenge would question the pro-
priety of a hearing held with only
one of the two adversarial parties
involved.

WCB spokesman Harry Car-
ruthers said that following the ini-
tial investigation of the workers’
exposure to the asbestos and the
subsequent penalty recommenda-
tion, Versatile was invited to meet
with the WCB to provide any ad-
ditional information into the inci-
dent before a final decision te im-
pose the fine was made.

Versatile subsequently met with
the WCB March 2 and May 17.

As a result of the information
provided by the company in those
two meetings, Carruthers said the
breaches of safety violations by
Versatile were found to be less
serious than initially thought and a
fine was considered inappropriate
“so the penalty was never ap-
plied.”

He said the union was not in-
vited to the meetings because they
were dealing with the ad-
ministrative imposition of a
monetary penalty, not with the
issues of working conditions, in
which the union and its workers
were involved.

The WCE originally found that
the company had been guilty cof
seven infractions of industrial
health and safety regulations in
connection with the asbestos inci-
dent.

Versatile was ordered to correct
those violations.

But Scott said he had previously
been assured by the WCB that the
union would be allowed to make
presentations at any appeai of the
original recommendation against
Versatile.

“The only people that are not
being heard from here are the in-
jured workers,’’ Scott said. ‘‘They

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By TIMOTHY RENSHAW
News Reporter

are being shuffled under the table.
In the absence of a fine or some
kind of finger-rapping the com-
pany has done nothing to support
the workers for past (asbestos) ex-
posures.’”

While Scott said Versatile, in
conjunction with its workers, had
come up with a program for better
prevention of future asbestos ex-
posures, nothing had been done
for the workers who might have
been exposed in the past.

“In the absence of a
Sine or some kind of
JSinger-rapping the
company has done
nothing to support the
workers for past
(asbestos) exposures.’’
— Union secretary-
treasurer Bill Scott

Versatile management — prior
to the shipyard’s sale in July to
Shieldings Inc. of Toronto — had
promised to initiate a program of
medical monitoring of asbestos
exposure, Scott said.

David Cassidy, the current
vice-president of operations for
Versatile, said because the promise
to set up the program had been
made by the previous management
and only been brought to his at-
tention Wednesday, ‘‘we are
reviewing the situation. We are
trying to be a_ responsible
employer.”’

The recommendation to fine
Versatile was made last December
by the WCB following an in-
vestigation into the exposure of an
estimated 92 shipyard workers to
airborne asbestos while they were
removing a cement-like substance
from a bonded storage room on
the 104-metre Russian fishing
vessel, Irtyshsk.

Asbestos breathed into the lungs
can cause asbestosis, a chronic
lung disease; and mesothelioma, a
very rare but extremely malignant
cancer that affects the chest and
abdorninal lining.

WEATHER

riday, cloudy with periods
of rain. Saturday, cloudy
with rain. Highs near 10°C.

vr