YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SINCE 1969 | Distribution 986-1337 60 NEWS photo Stuart Davis NORTH VANCOUVER businessman Brian Prentice displays the South African exit stamp on his pass- port that he says caused him to be jailed and beaten in a Zambian jail for six days. Prentice claims Ca- nadian government officials refused to help him because he did not have a Canadian passport. Kick into‘ |-| motoring sports || is here PAGE 15 || PAGE 23 Businessman claims Canadian High Commission unhelpful A NORTH VANCOUVER businessman says he was denied assistance from Canadian High Commission officials after he was detained and beaten in an African prison. Managing director of Contimex International Corp. Brian Prentice said Monday he was picked up off the streets of Lusaka, Zambia, by police Feb. 19 during a business trip through Africa. The police, he said, noted his passport’s recent exit stamp from South Africa, took him to jail and threw him in a 18-foot-square cell with 32 other people and beat and tortured him for six days. He said initially no reason was given for his detainment, but dur- ing interrogation police accused him of being a spy for South Africa and attempted to force a confession from him. Eventually the chief of police demanded $1,000 from Prentice for his release, but settled for $600 in traveller’s cheques, a camera and other valuables. Following his release, Prentice fled to Nairobi where he spent 12 days in the intensive care unit of a Nairobi hospital recovering from internal injuries. He said he contacted the Cana- dian High Commission in Nairobi to ask for a $75 loan to help him ‘retrieve his traveller’s cheques, pay for a night's hotel accommodation and arrange transportation from the hospital to the airport. But Canadian officials, after ini- tially agreeing to loan him the money, refused when Prentice produced a British passport. “Tl had just done about $800 million worth of business for Canada (during the trip), and they refused to lend me $75,’’ Prentice said. ‘‘The attitude of the Cana- dian High Commission was disgusting. | was in dire straits and they did not help me.”’ Born in Britain, but a resident of Canada for the past 30 years, the 40-year-old Prentice said he was travelling with a British pass- port because his Canadian pass- port had expired and a new one had not been ready before he left on the business trip Feb. 13. After refusal from Canadian of- ficials, Prentice said he approach- By TIMOTHY RENSHAW and STEPHEN BARRINGTON News Reporters ed the British High Commission in Nairobi. “The difference was like day and night,” he said. “They ar- ranged everything for me, loaned me $80, paid my hospital bills and even arranged for a wheelchair to be waiting for me at the airport in Vancouver.’’ Prentice returned home Satur- day. In a telephone interview from Ottawa, external ‘affairs spokesman Murio Lapointe con- firmed Prentice was not given assistance in Nairobi, ‘tbecause he did not have a Canadian pass- port.” If a person does not have the necessary citizenship documenta- tion, officials will attempt to verify the person’s citizenship status by telex to Ottawa, Lapointe said. Once Canadian citizenship has been confirmed, he said the department’s policy is to contact relatives in Canada and ask them to arrange for transfer of money. “Mr. Prentice didn’t want us to contact his relatives here in Canada,’ said Lapointe. ‘‘When we explained our procedure he didn’t want to abide by it. I think it’s a case of Mr. Prentice not wanting us to help him,"’ he said. But Prentice denies he told of- ficiats he did not want his relatives contacted and accused the depart- ment of external affairs of trying to fog the issue. “They didn't say they would contact my relatives,’’ Prentice said. “That never came up at all. They simply told me [ was travel- ling on a United Kingdom passport and I was the responsibility of the United Kingdom, not of Canada.” Lapointe said Canadian Em- bassy officials would ‘‘never refuse to assist a Canadian in difficulty” if proof of Canadian citizenship could be obtained.