a ‘2 +* a Photo Terry Petors CHILDREN FROM Grand Boulevard Parent Participation Preschool present North Vancouver City firefighter Bob Poole with a donation of toys the tots bought for the North Vancouver Christmas Bureau. Fire department staff cavse to the preschool to pick up the donations from the children. CHRISTMAS BUREAU Food donations down FOOD DONATIONS to the North Vancouver Christmas Bureau are down significantly from last year according to Bureau chairman Pat Orr. “We won't fill our food com- . : . mitments this year,’’ Orr an- (3 nounced the day before the Christmas charity closes on Dec. 22, unless more food donations come in now. Orr emphasized there is. still time to make donations of food to the North Shore News-spon- sored charity until the Dec. 22 noon deadline. Why donations are down this year is unexplainable, Orr said. But unless donations come in at the last minute, not all needy families will be receiving food hampers — some will have to be supplemented with food gift cer- tificates instead. And while record numbers of people turned out to North Van- couver parks to greet the carol ship flotilla two evenings last week, food donations there were also down from last year. At Waterfront Park in the City of North Vancouver, a total of EK ZY pawn wamamag 7, CHRISTMAS G J, SHARING V/ Ml fil tb tit hit Lil Kt bt Le $518 was raised through coffee and cookie sales and about $1,000 worth of non-perishable food was donated. Rete McKay, North Vancouver District and City park event coordinator, said donations at Waterfront were down slightly from last year, but the $518 more than compensated for the decline. ““People were really en- thusiastic,"” said McKay. ‘‘We doubled attendance this year to 3,000 people.”’ But at the two district parks — Cates and Panorama — food donations were down significant- ly from last year. Only $145 was raised between the two parks, and a total of two boxes of food. Interested parties can still drop off donations of non-perishable food to any Christmas Bureau depot marked by the North Shore News banner, listed in today’s newspaper on page 14. Local schools, businesses and individual families will be delivering food hampers to needy families beginning today until Dec. 23. While donations of food are down in North Vancouver, the West Vancouver Santa Claus Fund has had more than enough donations this year. The deadline for food dona- tions to the West Van charity closed this week, but Santa Claus Fund chairman Ruth Stout said monetary donations can still be made by mailing cheques directly to the WVSF at P.O. Box 91114, West Vancouver, V7L 3N3. Donations to the North Van- couver Christmas Bureau may also still be mailed to NVCB, Box 86061, North Vancouver, VTL 435. officials cry foul over mudslide accusation GREATER VANCOUVER Regional District officials called a Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC) release “totally irresponsible’’ for stating that a major mudslide in the Capilano watershed resulting from clear-cut logging threatens the quality of area drinking water. GVRD spokesman Bud Elsie said Monday an_ investigation launched by the district following release of the WCWC siatement “thas found no evidence of any new mudslide there.”’ The WCWC statement, he said, was ‘‘totally irresponsi- ble...misleading and not true.’’ He added that the slide identified oc- curred naturally in 1975. “Why would we permit anything that caused mudslides?’’ Elsie questioned. Logging in the slide area, accor- ding to GVRD watershed ad- ministrator Ed Hamaguchi, did not start until September 1983 when GVRD loggers began clean- ing up debris from the Oct. 17, 1975 Healmon Creek slide. He said rehabilitation programs and seeding of grass and juniper in the area were carried out in 1984, 1986 and 1988. But WCWC staff forester Mark Wareing said the slide, which is located approximately five kilometres above the top end of the Capilano reservoir, was ini- By TIMOTHY RENSHAW News Reporter tially small but has increased at least 10-fold as a result of GVRD logging practices. According to the press release, a WCWC field crew discovered the slide while conducting aerial photography of clear-cut logging inside the GVRD’s Capilano, Seymour and Coquitlam watersh- eds. Wareing said there were numerous slides in the area that are dramatically increasing the amount of turbidity in drinking water taken from the Capilano watershed. Levels, he said, iad risen in ear- ly November to as much as six times Canadian government stan- dards. ‘“*Whenever it rains, water quali- ty standards plummet,’’ Wareing said. The WCWC is advocating the immediate suspension of clear-cut logging in the three watershed areas, institution of a public inqui- ry into the impact on soil erosion and water quality from the GVRD logging practices, and a switch to selective logging in the watersheds. But GVRD assistant engineer Tom Heath said water turbidity extremes cited by the WCWC were the result of heavy rains in early November, and result from the naturai make-up of the Capilano watershed. “There is no evidence to suggest that turbidity is caused by logg- ing,’ he said. ‘‘We are extremely careful about logging activity in the watershed areas.” Hamaguchi said clear-cut Jogg- ing in GVRD watersheds is done in 10-acre patches only. Currently 43 per cent of the total 143,189-acre area of the three watersheds is included in the GVRD’s watershed forest management program, which started in 1960. No logging takes place in the remaining 57 per cent. The annual timber harvest from the active forest management area is 370 acres or .26 per cent of the total. Average annual net profit is approximately $200,000. Hamaguchi said proceeds from timber sales, which range from $8 million to $10 million annually, are invested largely in operational costs for what is a long-term management program to promote healthy forests in the watersheds. 3 - Wednesday, December 21, 1988 - North Shore News STOLEN CAR COSTING LOTS Ombudsman’s help sought for NV A 31-YEAR-OLD NORTH Vancouver engineer will seek help from the provincial ombudsman after losing a B.C. Supreme Court suit launched against the provincial Motor Vehicle Department (MVD) suing it for alleged negligence in issuing him registration papers for a stolen luxury sports car. Stephen Liu, who is now saddled with legal bills and court judg- ments totalling close to $40,000, said he will continue to push for changes in the provincial vehicle registration system ‘‘to make it more foolproof.’’ “And I want the public to be made aware that registered owner- ship is not legal ownership,”’ Liu said. “They (MVD) know people rely on registered ownership as legal ownership, but they are not being up front about it. They try to mislead the public to protect a poor system that hurts innocent peopie.”” B.C. Civil Liberties executive director John Westwood said his office has written to the MVD suggesting it indicate in a pamphlet or on vehicle registration papers that registration does not caon- stitute legal ownership. “‘They have indicated that they have sympathy with the situation,” Westwood said. ‘‘We feel Mr. Liu had a legitimate complaint...and we feel there is a duty on the part of the Motor Vehicie Branch to warn the public.”’ MVD deputy superintendent Grant Tyndall said Wednesday his department is looking at the cur- rent vehicle registration system in light of Liu’s case to see if any changes are needed in either regis- tration forms or procedures. But he said he did not know if and when any changes would be made. In his Dec. 1 reasons for judg- ment, Judge Ian Drost dismissed Liu’s claim against the province on the grounds that the intent of the provincial Insurance (Motor Vehi- cle) Act was to create a registration system to help enforce traffic laws and to ensure vehicles had at least minimum insurance coverage, not “to provide to the general public the protection of a title registration system....”’ Judge Drost said the act does not require the province to ensure a registered owner of a vehicle is its lawful owner, or that the person named in an out-of-province regis- tration certificate or who presents himself as the registered owner of a vehicle is the lawful owner of the vehicle. Contrary to Liu’s claim, the province at no time represented to Liu that he had become the lawful owner of the car, the judge stated. And nowhere in the Act, Judge Drost stated, are certificates of registration said to be proof of legal ownership. Liu launched his suit after the 1977 Porsche Targa he purchased in July 1982 for $13,500 from a Quebec man was found four years later to have been stolen from a Quebec doctor in June 1982. Subsequent to Liu’s purchase, the Porsche was sold twice: first by Liu to Derek Smith in March 1985 for $16,300, then, two months later, by Smith to Geoffrey Sturgeon for $11,000 and a 1972 Porsche valued at 310,006. In each transaction the vehicle’s records were transferred through the MVD. It was not until Sturgeen was pulled over by Vancouver Police in July 1986 and the Porsche checked through police CPIC computer By TIMOTHY RENSHAW News Reporter files that the car was confirmed stolen. Liu purchased the Porsche from a person identifying himself as the car’s registered owner after check- ing its serial number and registra- tion with the Vancouver MVD on West Georgia Street, and after a search fer liens on the car had been run prior to approval of a loan for the car. He assumed the registration check of the car, which had Quebec plates, was a check of legal ownership. NORTH Vancouver resident Stephn Liu ...wants B.C. vehicle registration system ‘‘more foolproof.’’ But MVD personnel .do not routinely check with police to en- sure a car is. not stolen. The department’s responsibility is to ensure that a vehicle is properly registered,not to determine if it has been stolen. Though members of the public can theoretically check with the Vancouver Police Department to see if a car has been stolen, they must provide good reason for that request. In an April 6 News article chronicling Liu’s story, Vancouver Police Const. Jim Szekeres said police do not have the manpower to check all stolen car inquiries from prospective car buyers. North Vancouver RCMP will check a car if you provide them with the licence plate number and the vehicle number. If you suspect the vehicle number has been changed then the car must be brought into the station to be checked by experts. Liu, who followed all the ac- cepted procedures in purchasing the Porsche, must now pay the original $16,300 judgment to Smith, a portion of his legal fees, a portion of Sturgeon’s legal fees, a portion of the legal fees of the car’s original owner and his own legal fees. “Tam still trying to get compen- sation,’’ Liu said after the Dec. 1 B.C. Supreme Court decision. ‘I haven’t done anything wrong and here I am faced with a $38,000 debt.” Liu’s complaint is currently be- ing investigated by the provincial ombudsman.