A NORTH Shore en- vironmentalist attacked the findings of a recent study on watershed logging at Thursday's Greater Van- couver Regional District (GVRD) water. committee meeting.

By Chery! Ziola

Contributing Writer

Paul Hundal, the vice-president of the Society Promoting En- vironmental Conservation (SPEC), charged that if you pay people enough, they'll say what you want to hear.

Hundal questioned the validity of the March 1993 Thurber geo- logical consultants’ report that concluded turbidity was ‘‘un- traceable’’ to watershed logging.

“The water committee is pro- logging. We know the (watershed) staff is pro-logging ... a bunch of foresters and forest technicians,”’ Hundal said.

The report, which was commis- sioned by watershed staff, was compiled by engineering geoscien- tists and other professional engineers.

It assessed turbidity and sedi- ment sources in all three GVRD watersheds.

‘‘Look for evidence that justifies their conclusion,” Hundal told committee members, ‘We couldn't find any.”

Sunday, June 20, 1993 - North Shore News ~ 3

Environmentalists question logemeg study

Group charges that pro-logging ideology apparent in watershed report

pee? Wd ED Lest y NEWS photo Nell Lucynte

THE GVRD took the public on a tour of the Seymour watershed in early May.

He said the report ignored all other studies that linked turbidity to logging because the previous studies weren't done in the water- sheds.

Hundal said that, based en his own experience as a criminal lawyer, any expert can write a report that could be contrary to

another expert's report, .

The Thurber report, he suid, represented only one side of the watershed logging issue.

Hundal pointed out to commit- tee members that watershed staff could easily find and pay a con- sultants’ group that would support a pro-logging stance.

He asked permission for his en- vironmental group to conduct its own study in the watershed,

But his request was angrily denied by irate committee members wlio alsa responded to his ‘‘pro-logging’’ accusation.

Said Pitt Meadows Mayor Bud Tiedeman, “If you challenge the

integrity of our consultants ... what about the integrity of yours?”

Added Surrey councillor and committee member Bill Fomich, “We have some of the finest brains in the world that have fooked at this and that should be adequate.’’

Added Burnaby Coun. Doug Evans, “If the committee is pro- logging ... we sure put a hell of a lot of people (logeers) out of work.”

He was referring to past GVRD decisions that limited timber harvesting in the watersheds.

The decisions resulted in numerous loggers being laid off ard a breach of contract suit be- ing filed by one flogging outfit against the GVRD,

GVRD water manager John Morse told the committee that any data produced from core samples of watershed lake bottoms, as proposed by SPEC, would be dif- ficult, to interpret because sedi- ment samples wouldn't distinguish between turbidity caused by log- ging or natural causes such as rainstorms.

Following the meeting, North Vancouver District Mayor Murray Dykeman said he chose not to support SPEC’s study because other reports to the water com- mittee didn't prove the turbidity and logging link.

“So if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’’ Dykeman told the News.

NV teachers reject latest offer | Husband points to

No school in the fall without agreement, union says

NORTH VANCOUVER public schools will not open in the fall if North Van- couver teachers remain without a new contract.

By Anna Marie D’Angelo News Reporter

North Vancouver Teachers’ Association (NVTA) president Linda Watson made the comment after teachers rejected the latest school board offer on Thursday, June 17.

Watson said the union had recommended rejection of the proposal. A full 91% of North Vancouver teachers supported the Tejection.

Watson said the North Van- couver District 44 School Board (NVSB) called the proposal a final offer.

“We have invited them to make a revised proposal and keep bargaining,’’ said Watson on Fri- day.

But NVSB assistant chairman Pat Heal said the offer was alt the school board could afford without layoffs.

The proposal did not contain an overall salary increase. The pro-

posal maintained class sizes, but allowed for a one-student reduc- tion in class size for the integra- tion of special-needs students.

End-of-year report cards will not be issued this month, but Grade 12 students will be given a record of marks attained. Mark records are required for post- secondary schoo! admissions.

But Heal said a teacher or an administrator would call parents if

for one year.

Meanwhile North Vancouver parent lan Callaway is questioning the rights of property owners who must pay for public school ser- vices that aren't being provided. The services include teaching children and reporting on their progress through report cards.

‘W'm trying to understand what is happening, [| know virtually nothing from the school about

44 We have invited them to make a revised proposal and keep bargaining. 99

— NVTA president Linda Watson

a student has failed a grade. She said parents can also contact teachers to determine if their child has passed a grade.

Watson said NVTA members will not escalate job action during this school year.

The NVTA voted in favor of strike action in April. The teach- ers have been without a contract

what is happening,’’ said Callaway, who has two children attending Larson Elementary.

Callaway, a non-custodial divorced parent, said he has never missed a parent-teacher meeting and relies on report cards to keep him informed of his children’s education.

New style in News Fashion

THE FASHION pages of the North Shore News have additional style.

Layne Christensen’s Style Notes {see page 17) compl:ments Carol Crenna’s Fashion Statements col- umn.

Focusing on beauty and style, Style Notes will report to you on the latest trends in hair, makeup and accessories. With news from the international runways and tips from our own local beauty ex- perts, Christensen covers it all.

Crenna will continue to bring

you expert fashion advice and clothing trends.

A native of the North Shore, Christensen is an award-winning fashion writer who has worked with the fashion and beauty direc- tors of Flare and Canadian Living magazines in Toronto and regular- ly contributes fashion and beauty stories to Vancouver and Images magazines.

A graduate of Toronto’s Ryer- son School of Fashion, she coor- dinates the News’ Fashion pages and writes other fashion articles for the section.

another suspect in WV murder trial

THREE DAYS after his arrest last May, Park Royal Towers resident Gerald O’Grady told the West Van- couver Police of a possible suspect in his wife’s brutal stabbing death. A disgruntled ex-tenant may have killed her, a B.C. Supreme Court jury heard O’Grady suggest in a taped telephone call Thursday.

O'Grady, 69, is on trial for second-degree murder after his wife Beverley, 64, was killed in their apartment on May 18, 1992,

Detective Frank Martin Beatty, a 2l-year veteran of the West Vancouver Police force, told the court he receiv- ed three unexpected phone calls from O'Grady on May 21 and 22 from the Vancouver Pre- Trial Detention Centre. Beatty taped the calls and later transcribed the conversations.

Smartly dressed in a crisp navy blue blazer, white pressed shirt and tie, O’Grady calmly pored over the transcripts in the defendant’s glass-shielded box while crown prosecutors and defence lawyers were given a brief recess by Mr. Justice Bruce Macdonald to locate a cassette tape player in the Van- couver courthouse.

“ve got a possible suspect for you — my son made a suggestion this morning that I'd completely forgotten about,’’ the court heard O’Grady tell Beatty. The man told the detective that a tenant evicted from one of the cou- ple’s two Surrey rental houses in November, 1991 had demanded the return of a set of aircraft headphones.

O’Grady explained that the tenant owed him $750 in rent on a main-floor suite in Sur- rey, so he served eviction notice and had a sheriff seize some of the tenants’ posses- sions.

By Brent Mudry Contributing Writer

O'Grady told Beatty that he heard from another tenant that the tenant was using an alias. “The Langley RCMP was des- perately looking for.this man for a break and enter offence,” the jury heard O’Grady tell the detective. ‘

O’Grady said on. the tape that he was certain the former tenant broke back .into the Surrey house to retrieve his goods.. Without prompting, Q’Grady noted that there were no signs of forced entry into the house.

“I wouldn’t put anything past this man — nothing,” O'Grady exclaimed twice in the phone call. ‘‘He’s crazy — he’s not normal,’’ O’Grady said in a cool, measured tone.

O’Grady told Beatty that his son Patrick overheard his wife dealing with an abusive phone call from the tenants shortly before the eviction.

Crown prosecutor Hank Reiner asked the jury to exam- ine photographs taken of Gerald O'Grady during a post-arrest. physical examina-. tion. Beatty pointed out fresh scratch marks on the man’s right shoulder blade and hand. Earlier evidence had shown Beverly O’Grady had struggled with her attacker,

The trial continues.