The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 13

ryirp r1 Ik 11 1J 13 f.l mil o) O) COTKT) (fx INSIDE Editorials B2 Business B4 HE eech is still a ba deal, Trudeau says Accord should be ditched, ex-PM tells reporters JOAN BRYDEN SOUTHAM NEWS THE to COHSTlTUTIQfiAL ailMDEBATElllllif CALGARY The bid to salvage the Meech Lake accord has done nothing to temper Pierre Trudeau's scathing criticism of the pact. Arriving yesterday at the Liberal leadership convention, the former prime minister said a tentative deal struck by the first ministers June 9 has done nothing to improve the constitutional accord. "I said three years ago that it was a bad deal for Canada and a bad deal for Quebec and it shouldn't be supported and it should be ditched," Trudeau said during a brief but tumultuous encounter with reporters at Calgary's airport. "Nothing in that (first ministers') deal changes that." Asked whether Canada can survive the failure of Meech Lake, Trudeau snapped: "Can it survive the death of a thousand cuts that will follow if Meech Lake had been signed?" Trudeau believes the accord, which recognizes Quebec as a distinct society and expands all provinces' powers, will undermine the Charter of Rights, balkan-ize the country and inevitably lead to sovereignty-association for Quebec. The first ministers' deal leaves Meech intact with non-binding promises of future changes.

The accord still faces serious hurdles in Newfoundland and Manitoba and will expire if it's not ratified in both legislatures by Saturday the same day Liberals choose their new leader. Trudeau said he has "no right" to tell Newfoundland and Manitoba legislators what to do. And he wouldn't comment on leadership front-runner Jean Chretien's refusal to say whether he supports the tentative deal. In March, Trudeau said he'd probably support Chretien because of his opposition to the Meech accord. But he refused yesterday to say whom he supports or comment on any of them now because he wants "to leave delegates free to vote" without his influence.

Trudeau added he sees no role for himself at the convention. "I'm coming as a Liberal and I want to see how the party's going and I hope to find a lot of Liberals who believe in the same kind of Canada we worked for for many years." CP Pierre Trudeau is mobbed by reporters at airport. Never give up on Canada, Turner pleads with Liberals PEGGY CURRAN THE GAZETTE Toronto rejects Sunday shopping TORONTO After six hours of debate councillors in Toronto voted 21-7 Wednesday against a trial plan to allow Sunday shopping between noon and 5 p.m. Only stores in designated tourist areas, as defined by the Retail Business Holidays Act, will be allowed to open Sundays. Critic sees red over green plan OTTAWA The federal discussion paper for the green plan does not provide leadership in planning the environmental future, a commentary published yesterday by the C.

D. Howe Institute says. The federal paper fails to suggest priorities for tackling environmental problems, wrote Bruce Doern, scholar-in-residence at the independent think-tank, and professor of public policy at Carleton University. "It neither informs people sufficiently about a manageable menu of issues nor leads the debate in a sufficiently constructive way," Doern wrote in the commentary. Top cops decry 'media assault' BELLEVILLE, Ont.

The Toronto police force and its chief have been "assailed by the media" over the shooting of blacks by police in Toronto, Ontario's police chiefs say. "It's essential the police community indicate its displeasure with the attack" by the media, says a resolution passed yesterday by the 272 delegates to the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police conference. Since 1988, four black people have been shot two of them fatally by police officers on duty in Toronto and region. One white man has been shot and another died after a struggle with police during the same period. Is Elvis alive and robbing? KITCHENER, Ont.

An Elvis Presley impersonator has been cleared of charges that he held up several banks after the Crown bought an argument that the crimes were committed by another "Elvis." "The pressure's finally gone from my shoulders," said Michael McTaggart, 35. Crown attorney Peter Speyer formally withdrew charges arising from five robberies in Kitchener and Burlington, between 1982 and 1986. McTaggart, a Mississauga resident, makes his living as an Elvis impersonator, but apparently someone is impersonating him a look-alike gunman with a stocky build and baby face who robbed at least 16 trust companies between 1981 and 1989. Town wants cash-for-trash deal TORONTO Ontario's capital has a willing neighbor to take some of its mounting trash, but the town of Petrolia wants to see the city's green first. Petrolia officials say they want $32.75 million up front if the town, 250 kilometres southwest of Toronto, is to take about 2.5 million tonnes of the city's garbage about one year's worth.

Metro Toronto officials agreed to the price Wednesday, but they offered to pay only half in advance. Toronto will face a garbage crisis in 1993 when two of its dumps will be full and has been trying to find a taker for its trash. Drunk man crashed helicopter VICTORIA A 22-year-old man pleaded guilty Wednesday to flying while drunk and causing an estimated $300,000 damage to a helicopter last month at Victoria International Airport. Police said Robert Anderson had more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in his blood when he crawled through an airport fence and got into a Bell Jet Ranger 2 owned by Vancouver Island Helicopters Ltd. He switched on lights and ignition and had the chopper hovering before crashing.

He'll be sentenced Aug. 2. Badge no match for badger EDMONTON A city police officer had his nightstick destroyed by a sharp-toothed badger when he was summoned to a house in south Edmonton to answer a man's complaint about a furry animal nesting on his balcony. When the constable picked up the animal it bit through a pair of gloves and three layers of quilt, but he did manage to put it in a cardboard box and drove the critter to a treed area on the city's outskirts. The badger had ripped the box to shreds and hid in the spare tire.

When the officer tried to coax it out with his nightstick, the animal destroyed it before escaping into the woods. CALGARY An emotional John Turner issued a stirring appeal to Que-becers last night not to read failure of the Meech Lake accord as a rejection or cause to leave the Canadian union. "We must never give up on this country, never, never, never, never," Turner pleaded in an emotional farewell speech to the Liberal leadership convention. Turner told delegates he still supports the constitutional accord and lays the blame for its failure squarely on Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who waited until the last minute before trying to break the constitutional impasse. "Brian Mulroney gambled with the future of this country and we may all be the losers.

"This was our future they were debating and we couldn't even see and hear what was going on. "The whole process was demeaning, degrading and divisive." He said that in the difficult days ahead, Canadians must call on the country's soul and compassionate heart to repair the wounds of the constitutional crisis. "We must somehow rekindle the great spirit that brought this country together 123 years ago. "All Canadians want this country to succeed. Last night's tribute in the Calgary Saddledome began with a musical pageant tracing Canada's development from its aboriginal heritage to its multicultural present.

But there was a strange irony to the optimistic opening song suggesting Canadians are capable of putting aside the differences that divide us. And among those in the audience as Turner was hailed as "a great Liberal and a great Canadian" were his two political rivals former prime minister i 1 CP John and Geills Turner wave to Libera! delegates during tributes to the former leader last night. because I believe in Canada," Turner told the cheering crowd in the Saddle-dome. The second day of the convention began with an outdoor breakfast in Calgary's Stampede Park where the five leadership candidates mingled with the crowd. Some pitched in, dishing out scrambled eggs and sausages as delegates, decked with buttons and white Stetsons, danced to rollicking country music.

Candidates also used the morning hoe-down to try to sway uncommitted delegates or those whose support is considered "soft." 1970s and his humiliating election defeat in September 1984, just three months after he assumed the mantle as Liberal chief and prime minister. And Geills wiped away tears, as Turner weaved through the cheering crowd to make his farewell speech. In a speech that drifted from gooey sentimentality to passionate intensity, Turner called his involvement in the free-trade fight the highlight of his second political career. "Nothing made my return to public life more worthwhile than being in that debate and everything I said I meant Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chretien, the man he defeated to become leader in 1984. Turner sat quietly with his wife Geills and their children in the darkened hockey arena as the lights dimmed for a prerecorded video that traced his entry into politics 28 years years ago as a young lawyer working in Montreal through his determined fight against the free-trade agreement and for the Meech Lake accord.

But the mini-history glossed over the breach with Trudeau that prompted Turner's retreat into private life in the Fund started to help Bouchard MP will use money to promote Quebec nationalism PHILIP AUTHIER GAZETTE QUEBEC BUREAU Quebec will abandon separatism: economist If the Meech Lake accord fails, Quebec may consider separation but will eventually abandon the idea as just too expensive, says the chief economist for one of Canada's largest retail stock brokerage houses. "The costs of Quebec separation are too high for Quebec to contemplate paying," Peter Martin of Midland Walwyn Capital Inc. said in a report to clients. "Therefore, if Meech fails, Quebec will likely go into a type of 'war dance' and then move toward a European-style common market where it tries to maintain today's economic and financial structures but has much more power in culture and political struc: tures." Martin said the costs to Quebec would include: A brain drain as some of Quebec's best and brightest people leave, many for the U.S. Quebec interest rates would be higher than the rest of Canada's, further hurting Quebec business.

If the Canadian dollar were worth 80 cents U.S., a Quebec dollar would likely be worth 70 to 75 cents. 19 It tail ting English Canada's attitude to Quebec and echoing the Parti QueWcois in saying it's time for Quebec to go its own way. The Alma campaign is headed by Laval Bouliane, an Alma accountant and president of the Bouchard support committee. Bouchard, who worked for the Yes side in the 1980 Quebec referendum on sovereignty-association, has said a number of times that he wants to unite Quebec's nationalistic forces. But he has never been specific about his goals.

Gaudreault said the $50,000 will help Bouchard pay for his travel expenses, staff and other unspecified expenses related to his efforts. Gaudreault said fans of Bouchard had already started sending in donations which will wind up in the fund. She said she didn't know how much money had already been sent in. QUEBEC Lucien Bouchard's organizers have launched a fund-raising drive to finance the former federal cabinet minister's attempts to lead a renewed nationalist movement in Quebec. The drive, which was kicked off in Alma yesterday, hopes to raise $50,000 from Bouchard's Lac St.

Jean riding. The drive will then spread to the rest of Quebec, said group spokesman Marjolaine Gaudreault. But no target has been set for the Quebec-wide money-raising campaign. Bouchard, who still draws his MP's salary, quit as environment minister in April in a dispute with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the Conservatives over their handling of the Meech Lake accord. Since then, Bouchard has roamed the province blas elivers eloquent plea for native ri Harper MIKE TRICKEY SOUTHAM NEWS natives' opposition to Meech Lake is not a repudiation of Quebec.

"We support their aspirations, we support the distinct society, we support the right for them to protect their culture, to be self-determining. "Those are the very same goals that we as aboriginal people are trying to achieve." Harper was given a standing ovation from all MLAs as he concluded. He also received support from a public gallery packed with natives as well as from a crowd of 5,000 that gathered on the lawn outside the legislative to listen to native leaders speak of the rebirth of aboriginal pride. greatest contribution to this country. We have given up our land and our resources so that other people could enjoy the benefits in a great and rich country called Canada.

"But what price have we paid? What benefits have wg "received?" he asked the hushed legislature. "We look at the statistics on many of the reserves. Poor housing, high unemployment running as high as 90 per cent. "Students are dropping out of high school. Our conditions are such that we use hospitals and medical services four times more than the national average." Harper emphasized that Manitoba ed in this country for many years, never have participated in the democratic process," he told the legislature on Aboriginal Solidarity Day the natives' self-proclaimed holiday which comes each year on the summer solstice.

"The policies of the government have been of racism, policies of assimilation, policies of integration, policies of genocide. That has been the history of Canada." Eschewing his traditional beaded string tie, Harper wore a suit with a red tie and orchid as he delivered his plea for understanding in a soft but strong voice. "The aboriginal people have made the WINNIPEG Clutching an eagle feather tightly in his right hand, Elijah Harper delivered an eloquent plea for native people yesterday in an emotional denunciation of the Meech Lake accord he has all but killed. Calling Canada's historic treatment of aboriginals a national disgrace, Manitoba's lone native MLA described his efforts to derail the constitutional accord as just and honorable. "It is about time that we aboriginal people stood up for our rightful place in Canadian society.

We have been exclud CANADIAN PHI'. Riding tall Peter Irving of Guelph, rides his unicycle through the low-lying branches of a tree while out for a leisurely ride on his day off yesterday,.