The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 1

i Telecom Solutions Made Easy Linguistic boards: PQ could use Ottawa's help A13 N-T A SPORTS FINAL ACC tts jW 1 800 561-5981 Dateline SINCE 1778 v. Sports Serious praise for Santangelo Downtown store 'a disaster' consultant says Expos' super-sub F. Santangelo says that despite seven years in the minors, he never doubted his ability He's highly thought of by manager Felipe Alou. PAGED7 til Quebec I assure you that during the reorganization phase, you ill not perceive any changes in our store operations." Raymond Picard, Eaton's general manager, said at a press conference that the restructuring is expected to take four to six months, and that the company has secured a $555-million loan from GE Capital Canada Inc. to finance operations through that phase.

But Picard was unable to say how many stores are likely to shut, how PLEASE SEE EATON'S, PAGE A9 Eaton's 'safe and PAGE Dl FRANCOIS SHALOM THE GAZETTE The fat English ladies are clearing their throats at the T. Eaton Co. Ltd. The department store chain, founded on the "goods satisfactory or money refunded" pledge 128 years ago, yesterday sought and received bankruptcy protection. Canada's second-oldest retailer said it must close some of its 87 stores across Canada to survive and shed a good portion of its 16,000 employees, but refused to divulge how deep the cuts are likely to be.

i. SQ probe stalling out The Surete du Quebec union will be in Superior Court today to seek the dismissal of a commissioner presiding over an inquiry into the SQ, but the inquiry chairman stands by commissioner Louise Viau. PAGE A6 GORDON BECK, GAZETTE In the meantime, he assured Eaton's shoppers in full-page ads taken out in major Canadian newspapers that "we have chosen to reorganize our compa George Eaton, founder Timothy Eaton's scion and president of the family-owned firm, said the Toronto-based chain might be sold outright Business Painting with a purpose a nnnun Wfnyg- rJ- T- Nortel mission accomplished After a five-year stint in Toronto spent resuscitating Nortel, Jean Monty leaves the thriving giant and returns to Montreal to an unspecified senior executive post at BCE Inc. PAGE Dl Montrsal TVgeis dramatic facelift World sr, V- CP: -0f 6 fir Israel offers West Bank deal Israel will hand Palestinians a significant slice of the West Bank, according to reports, if they acquiesce to the construction of a new Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem. PAGE Bl MARY LAMEY THE GAZETTE Preview Gangster sting Al Pacino plays Lefty Ruggiero, an aging, worn-down Mafia foot soldier in gangster film Donnie Brasco, a thoughtful and tragic movie also starring Johnny Depp.

PAGE CI 4 RICHARD ARLESS GAZETTE Hethereena Fleurilien, 10, paints a giant egg being decorated by disabled children at yesterday's launch of the 48th-annual Quebec Easter Seals furidraising campaign at Place Ville Marie. The young artists return today at noon. Federal regulators yesterday handed down decisions that will dramatically alter the broadcasting and cable landscape in Quebec: Groupe Videotron Ltee becomes a cable colossus, the Can-West Global network gains a beachhead and money-losing Television Quatre-Saisons is up for sale. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ruled that Videotron may go ahead with its takeover of CF Cable a move that gives Videotron control of 75 per cent of Quebec's cabled households and makes the company Canada's second largest cable distributor. But the acquisition came at a price.

The commission has told Videotron it must sell two of its TV holdings -Quatre-Saisons and CFCF-12. The CRTC said that allowing Videotron to control most of Quebec's cable network, its own TVA network and struggling TQS raised serious concerns about concentration of ownership. "No benefit could offset the excessive degree of concentration inherent in the common ownership of Tele-Metropole and Quatre-Saisons, the on? ly two private French-language conventional television services in Quebec," the commissioners said. A deal to sell CF-12, reached late in December, awaits CRTC approval. Videotron has until April 29 to find a buyer for TQS.

Cogeco Cable, an original bidder for TQS, has said it would like a chance to bid on the network. Claude Chagnon, Videotron's vice-chairman, expressed some disappointment at the ruling, saying his company is well positioned to ensure the sur- PLEASE SEE CRTC, PAGE A2 Sunny Today's high 0 Public-sector unions are split Mainly sunny skies today with near seasonable temperatures. Clouds increasing this evening and overnight. PAGE D12 For weather updates, lease TV call The Gazette QuickLine tV at 555-1234, code 6000. Each call costs 50 cents.

lv7 The CNTU, which represents CEGEP teachers, thinks they should, while the other unions say no. Those teachers are already nearing retirement and their current retirement packages are better than the existing deals for other public-sector employees, a teachers' union spokesman said last night. Despite their differences, the unions were united in their response to Pre- ways yesterday with the five other unions representing the rest of the public sector. The CNTU and the other public-sector unions issued separate counterproposals to the government's plan to cut 15,000 civil-service jobs through early retirement and buyouts. The unions split over a dispute about whether a group of teachers, including CEGEP teachers, should be eligible for the early-retirement SARAH SCOTT and ELIZABETH THOMPSON THE GAZETTE With only one week to go before the government deadline for a deal with the unions on cutting the size of the provincial civil service, a split has emerged in the public-sector union movement.

The Confederation of National Trade Unions, which represents 135,000 public-sector workers, parted PLEASE SEE BOUCHARD, PAGE A9 Videotron unlikely to alienate new anglo clients Automotive Plus B8 Johnson B3 BirthsDeaths B11 Lamey 03 Bridge B7 Landers C14 Business Df Legal Notices BfO Chambers B3 Needletrade B6 Classilied B4 Probe C14 Comics C15 RSVP C13 Crosswords B9.D10 Schnurmacher G14 Curran A3 Scoreboard D8 Editorials B2 Sports 07 Entertainment C1 Todd 07 Family Doctor C14 TV Listings C5 Fiorilo A2 What's On C11 Hadekel 01 Wonderword B5 Horoscope C15 World Bl sic, Vision TV or the U.S. WTBS-At-lanta, WGN-Chicago and WSBK-Boston. The Sports Network is available to Videotron subscribers, but TSN which is part of the "extended basic" CF Cable package is a pay option. At various times in the past, Videotron subscribers have been deprived of the network and reduced to one CRTC decision which also licensed a Global network entry into the Montreal market -the city is one big cable family. But will the newest Videotron subscribers be happy? Videotron now serves some Montrealers who heretofore have counted themselves lucky to be outside the territory of the primarily east-end cable company.

CF Cable subscribers have enjoyed access English services to aggrieved subscribers in Cote St. Luc, Hampstead, Montreal West, Lachine and the Cote des Neiges area, Videotron has cited a compelling linguistic argument: 85 per cent of its subscribers are French-speaking. The CF Cable acquisition changes that proportion. Videotron's subscriber base remains primarily francophone, but the company will be serving approximately 150,000 English-speaking households. Videotron is unlikely to alienate jts newly acquired subscribers by mess- Montreal cable subscribers living on the west side of Decarie Blvd.

can no longer lord it over their east-side neighbors. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission yesterday approved a transaction that gives Videotron total control of Montreal cable service. In taking over CF Cable, Videotron extends its reach to cover the island -r and ends geographical anomalies such as the cable border that divided Decarie, with Videotron subscribers on the east side of the boulevard and CF Cable serving the west. As a consequence of yesterday's MIKE BOONE SSimmmmmimm'i mmmmmmmmmmo Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing. Ralph Waldo Emerson to some English television channels that are not available on the PBS station (CF Cable has offered two: Vermont ETV-33 and Videotron system.

WCFE-57). Videotron does not offer MuchMu- In attempting to explain the lack of PLEASE SEE BOONE, PAGE A2 0m a j3 Ai i -ifV nth I Kir lil. -ilHTi'M (SSSBBffliTni Technology So AdvancecLYou Can Virtually Print Reality. tMt-K3-1U1 -A.