Criminal | ‘ehiatges’ used. asa a small claims court. at ‘motion ‘passed ‘Monday, : - which had been proposed by~ _ Alderman. . Mike’ Lakes, suggested that in” order to” speedup trials. of criminal charges the. council ask the attorney: ‘general to conduct such.an experiment, with the District offering the use of i its | facilities. ‘Lakes said that i in Alberta minor criminal cases - in which” those > charged are. released ‘to appear in court on a specific date - trials are. being held within about six. weeks. Here the time lag may be- as. much as nine _ months. During a lengthy period such as that, Lakes pointed out, important witnesses for either the prosecution or the FROM PAGE A31 She said she noticed the accused was not doing his work and told him, “if you don’t intend to work you had better leave now.” The next time she looked, she said the accused had left the room. Fifteen minutes later she said she noticed smoke coming from under the door. of the room next door, and ran to get a fire extinguisher, after telling one of her students to pull the fire alarm. Slater said the fire ex- tinguisher at the end of the hallway was not there and that the fire extinguiser in the janitor’s room was not any use because it had been let off by students during the week. She said she briefly noticed the accused in the janitor’s room, which is also a designated smoking room, before she went to alert the rest of the school of the fire. The court Friday also heard testimony from two RCMP officers who were on the scene, North Vancouver Fire Chief Bob MacDonald, and the teacher in whose room the fire started. MacDonald testified that the fire began in the corner of the homeroem of Rick Carlin and under questioning from Crown Counsel Neil Robertson and Defense may, eventually be heard in North “ Vancouver District’ ‘council. chambers, which . council . agreed last week could. be- © : defence may ‘have to move to. ‘another city. (or: evento. another country) or may die.” “Justice ‘is ‘seldom ‘done i in . thesé™ circumstances, added Lakes. N _ ‘Lakes told the News later’ ‘that his only question about the proposal was whether ‘there are sufficient judges to. take. ‘advantage - of this Suggestion. = Only last week council ,_ responded to a request from the attorney general’s department by agreeing to_: the use of council chambers . for the hearing of. small claims court cases - and ~ these are subjected to only a 30 week delay. Alderman Lakes hoped ~ ‘that if the attorney general Left oo iu before fire found that .the proposal would work that the District’s proposal . would catch the - imagination of Counsel David Morgan he testified the fire could have started accidentally or could have been deliberately set. Carlin told the court that his room was sometimes used as a smoking room by students and at the time of the fire the door to the room was locked but some of the windows were open. He testified that somebody could have got into the room through the open windows. Carlin also told the court that the accused youth was known to smoke. The trial is scheduled to continue this Friday, at 9:30 a.m. GETTING ‘BOMBED’ IS DYNAMITE! AND DRIVE. ey -. Vancouver Provincial Court to driving while “under suspension. - said if Christian Helwig, ‘aged 20, of Deep Cove, | _ appeared i in court again it is . unlikely he will be dealt with ed kindly. - “ oe : young: “North ‘Van- °° |. couver man was jailed ‘for 4. five” days: Thursday, ‘after 7 tires. Helwig w was charged July 20 after he was stopped for ‘driving: a car. with. ‘studded police discovered that although he had -a’. Alberta’ driving and =: “the: license, his B.C. license had ‘been suspended. And Judge R. Graadison 7 ‘Crown Counsel Mary Tait ‘told the court: that Helwig had accumulated 32 points " on his driving license; ‘mainly -for speeding offenses. Py “You” seem | to. have. the cee vehicle,” “Grandison _ Helwig. 7S *“T wouldn’t expect to see. you here next. year or the year. after,” he added, referring to Helwig’s chances | -of surviving if he kept up his current driving habits. told Page As, September 12, 1979 - North Shore News ee " Grandison was: ‘eritical of Helwig’s attitude in court, especially since. Helwig ‘said he could not: -promise not to speed again inthe future. - “eT -doesn’t > seem -inap- propriate to send you to. jail,” Grandison said, and he “sentenced Helwig to ‘five daysi imprisonment.. @ NO APPOINTMENT NECESSARY @ SERVICE WHILE YOU WAIT @ FREE ESTIMATES TELEPHONE 986-3461 1910 MARINE DRIVE - NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C.