The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 1

MAGAZINE The Strip on St. Laurent the city's boulevard of dreams. CI a WW MONTREAL SINCE 1778 SPORTS FINAL JANUARY 25, 1998 57 1 OUTSIDE METRO AREA 70 SPORTS Carolina wins after Habs blow lead. Bl MM image Super Bowl pilgr i p. Kf y.

v. 1 i'- Roofs cave in under snow Zellers shuts 12 stores for de-ieing Banks' ad blitz aims to soothe rr HOLLIE SHAW Canadian Iress 1 l' TORONTO Canada's other banks yesterday put a positive spin on news that the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank plan to merge into a multibillion-dollar mega-bank, with spokesmen for some of the banks saying they expect to profit from the uncertainty created by the proposed merger. But the mega-bank partners have wasted no time addressing the issue of uncertainty. They have mounted a newspa per ad campaign aimed at calming the nerves of any worried customers. Under a bold headline that reads, THIS IS IMPORTANT, full-page text-only advertisements are running in newspapers across the country, detailing why bank MONIQUE BEAUDIN The Gazette They held up through all that freezing rain, but the 24 centimetres of snow that fell yesterday proved too much for the roofs of five buildings in Montreal North and St.

Leonard. They caved in under the eight. Twenty -two employees were at work in a Zellers store in the Place Bourassa shopping centre at Lacordaire and Henri Bourassa Blvds. when half the roof fell in just before 6 a.m. All escaped injury they were in the basement, conducting an inventory.

Administrators of Place Bourassa closed the whole mall for inspections. Zellers. for its part, announced that it was closing 12 stores for roof de-icing in Montreal, on the South Shore, and inDrummondville and Victoriaville. The second and third roof collapses occurred at about 11 :30 a.m. at adjacent industrial buildings on Albert Hudon Blvd.

There was an employee in one of the buildings, but he was not hurt. bosses believe the union is a good idea. "It's important to Canada's future. It's important to you." the ad says. In the deal announced Friday, the Royal Bank of Canada and the Bank of Montreal said they want to create a dominant bank, which would have more than $-530 billion in assets and rank among the top 1U North American financial companies.

News of the merger unleashed consumer fears and government concerns. But the heart of the task force studying the future of financial services in Canada said the shocking news that the two banks plan to merge in no way changes the group's strategy or schedule. 5 "You just hove the hole in the middle and you can see the sky above that." l. TOM KURTZ, AFP Green Bay Packers fan John O'Neill, dressed as "St Vincent," strolls through San Diego. It's a corporate game, too GREG JOHNSON Los Angeles Times Corporations like Miller Brewing Co.

and Coca-Cola see the Super Bowl as a gigantic annual marketing fest Some spend freely to pamper top people like Fuller and send a message to lag- gards watching.the game at home. Sales SAN DIEGO When Des Fuller flew to Califor nia this weekend, he joined a select club of people in turn will use the rarefied at Super Bowl fans assembled for a jam- packed time of golf outings, sump- mosphere of the Super Bowl to make and hone contacts that "This announcement doesn't add any new questions" to the discussions, said Harold Mac Kay. the chairman of the task force on the future of the Canadian financial-services sector. "For us. it's business as usual." Industry observers have suggested that the two banks made the announcement months before the task force's report is due in an effort to influence federal policy makers, who are studying, among other things, whether to allow mergers and acquisitions.

Currently, Canada's top-tier banks are barred from merging. But MacKay, a Saskatchewan lawyer who spoke to the Ottawa Citizen yesterday from his home in Regina. said the task force will not be "pressured or in any way pre-empted" by the news. The task force is is considering a wide range of issues, including mergers and acquisitions, ownership restrictions, as well as questions of privacy and access. Yesterday, municipal leaders in nine eastern Ontario towns, including Cornwall.

Renfrew, Perth and Smith Falls, urged the federal government to stop the mega-merger. They said the loss of jobs and competitive services resulting from the potential closing of nine branches and the loss of an estimated 120 jobs would hurt their communities much harder than bigger centres. In the meantime, will the mega-bank proposal be good for business? "It may," Bank of Nova Scotia spokesman Shelley Jourard said. "It creates an uncertainty that we may be able to take advantage of." This week, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia shareholders will demand answers as those corporations hold annual general meetings in Ottawa and Calgary. TD Bank officials could not be reached for comment yesterday Please see MERGER, Page A3 The roof of a car-parts warehouse on Industrial Blvd.

fell early yesterday, and at 6:30 p.m., the ice and snow punched a hole 25 feet by 125 feet in the roof of the Matco-Ravary hardware store at Langelier and des Grandes Prairies Blvds. in St. Leonard. The Montreal area is not alone in groaning under the weight of winter. On Friday, the roof of a dairy barn collapsed in Osgoode Township, about 25 kilometres southeast of Ottawa.

Inside Zellers yesterday, ice and snow filled the aisles, wires and lights dangled from the jagged edges of the roof and ceiling, and the ventilation system lay on the ground. "It's just like Olympic Stadium," police spokesman Ian Lafreniere said. "You just have the hole in the middle and you can see the sky above that." Outside, the curious mingled with employees of other mall businesses. Restaurant worker Peter Volis was inside the mall, at his post at the Deli Bourassa. when the Zellers roof collapsed.

Please see CAVE-INS, Page AS tuous ainners. Dia-name con- could pay dividends back home. In fart, there may not be a better place in the US. to do busi certs and chic cocktail parties. Ordinary fans will have to scramble faster than John El-way to catqh a pregame glimpse of National Football League luminaries.

But Fuller and others ness this weekend than San Diego one reason more than 80,000 out-of-towners were expect- who are guests of some of the coun i eu io uescenu on me ciiy tor an 6 0 event at Which only 70,000 spectators try's biggest corporations will will be seated. On the schedule for preferred guests were two dozen events put on by the NFL and hundreds of private affairs where the chosen few could mingle Please see SUPER BOWL, PageA2 schmooze with NFL stars at ticket-only affairs and sit out the traffic jams in a lavish hospitality village in Qualcomm Stadium's parking Sure, a football game will take place here today, but for corporate America the on-the-field action is overshadowed by the chance for glad-handing between business chieftains and their best customers and other elite guests. Art by accident. PageA4 Rival QBs armed and dangerous. PageBl ANALYSIS I IDE Boura MONTREAL- ue case WEATHER- Clinton sends SOS to ex-aides Partly cloudy Today's hieh.

-8 In many eyes, the mayor can do no right Tonight's low, -21 PageB8 Rights groups want deportation blocked Human-rights groups are urging immigration officials to halt the deportation of a Montreal woman they say was raped by soldiers while imprisoned in Ghana. Page A3 JULIAN BELTRAME SouthamNews for weather updates, please call The Gazette Qoickline at 555-1 234 code 6000. Each call costs 50 cents. departoienttodeal with the crisis. Bourque was not going to make the same mistake.

He w'as in Kunming, China, on his first real vacation in three years, when the ice storm hit Jan. 6. He took the first flight home. It took him 36 hours to reach Toronto. MICHELLE LALONDE The Gazette When a panicky city councillor called in the dead of one frigid night at the height of the ice storm, saying he feared for the lives of some of his constituents in Notre Dame de Grace, Mayor Pierre Bourque INDEX- WORLD The weather made it impossible for him to go on to Montreal by commercial aircraft, train, bus or car.

So he had Bombardier Inc. send a jet to Rpick him up. He landed at Dor-val airport at 9 p.m. Thursday, pSe IQuiz Jonas A9 Landers DS Letters A 8 Lotteries A 2 Magazine CI Needletrade D5 Obituaries D6 Puzzle Page C9 Richler Schworcz C6 Scoreboard B4 Sports Bl What's On C8 Wonderword xPress C10 Auf der Maur 4 Auto Plus 1 Baptey A 9 Barry C6 Bbckman Bl Boone C7 Bridge D6 Brownstein A3 Classified D1 Comics D8 Comment A 9 Crosswords C9 Dr. Laura C6 A 9 Hickey B3 Horoscope Free prisoners: pope Pope John Paul calls for "prisoners of be freed from Cuban jails, capping a day of outspoken criticism of Cuba's government by the Catholic Church.

PageA6 Violence in Ulster In what is feared as the latest wave of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, a taxi-driver is slain in West Belfast and a bomb explodes outside a night club in Enniskillen. PageA7 xPRESS did what any good mayor would do. He got out of bed, went to city hall, hastily organized an evacuation team and went to N.D.G. himself to help find shelter for about 200 seniors, immigrants and others who had no safe heating source and didn't realize the danger they faced from staying in jan. a.

WASHINGTON A "despondent" Bill Clinton put out an emergency call yesterday to ttyo former White House strategists to help him save his presidency amid reports Monica Lewinsky will admit publicly she was the presi-dent'slover. With White House officials describ ing the president as wavering from "despondent" and "detached" to "in high spirits," Cljnton recalled two loyal, key strategists former deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes and Trade Representative Mickey Kantcr-toadvisehirrL CNN reported yesterday that several close friends and White House officials now believe that Clinton almost certainly had sex with Lewinsky and that his presidency1 could be in jeopardy. And Lewinsky's lawyer, WillianvGins-burg, said his client wijl cooperate with investigators in exchange for immuhity and will not defend the president Please see QJLNTOH, Page A2 CRISIS When Montreal's two water-purification plants lost power on Friday, Jan. 9 D- QUOTE- Day. as he now calls it r-Bourque was making the rounds at city shelters.

Pleasesee 60URQUE, PageAS -O ra their cold, dark apartments. 7 Former mayor jean Dore is still paying the political price for staying at his Val Morin country home after the flash flooding of July 14, 1987, leaving his executive committee and public-works Our fears always outnumberour dangers. Latin proverb A new generation Make way for Generation there now are more kids age 13 to 19 than North America has seen in two decades, with moreon the way. Page CIO Week 4 in the dark. Page A3 Spin doctors run wild.

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