The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 18

A18 THE OTTAWA CITIZEN WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 1989 Continued from page 1 He noted Calmar did not keep a copy of the bid they submitted so couldn't double-check to see if the page was there. He said Calmar also had no reason to believe there was a civ Transport From page A1 story: Federal Court judge puts Transport deal on hold tical office screens. These screens are one of the most expensive items in the list and the value of those on the missing page is about $2.1 million. Brian Evernden, lawyer for Public Works, said "principle not price" is the issue. He said allowing bids to be corrected only happens when the bid complies with tender's requirements.

And the missing page provided "crucial" financial information needed to evaluate the bids and without it the bid was not "full and complete" as required. But Leamen argued that if these prices were so important, Public Works should have taken more precautions during the tender opening. Evernden said the missing page could have been the victim of a "photocopying error." To prepare the unit price table the bidders simply had to fill in the blanks of a booklet Public Works provided. The Calmar bid was filled in on photocopied pages of the booklet. poor that a student who had no security clearance worked on the documents, inputting data into the computer, on Feb.

3. He said cleaners, mail employees and movers had access to the area where the bids were. Later that day, the documents were locked in a steel cabinet in the boardroom where the project's evaluation team worked. "Here we have $8 million in documents sitting on a desk in a semi-restricted area where 15 people authorized people had access to it you don't leave cash lying around (like that)," he said. "Everyone knew those two bids were the lowest and if you had to get rid of a bid those were the two to go after," he said.

The missing page at the centre of the legal battle is one of 41 pages of "unit price tables," the price list of items needed for the building when construction is completed. The page missing is one of three that listed prices for accous- Public Works Feb. the pages were inadvertently misplaced by Public Works, or someone intentionally removed the pages to disqualify the bid. The Ghermezian bids were by far the lowest of the 21 bids submitted for the project. One undercut all other bids by $30 million and the other by $18 million.

Leamen said Calmar's president, its lawyers and Gary Hanson, director of development for the Ghermezians Triple Five Corp. spent the morning of the tender opening inspecting each bid, item by item, reading them aloud and checking them against Public Works master document. "The very purpose of the examination was to make sure nothing was missing I can't believe all of them would have missed this," he said. He said Calmar took "reasonable care" to ensure the pages were intact and the bid should be reinstated to "maintain the integrity of the bidding process." The bids were sealed in envelopes and delivered to Public Works by the 1 p.m. deadline on Feb.

2. During the tender opening that followed, the first four pages of the Ghermezian bids were read aloud and it was clear their bids were the lowest of the 21 proposals, he said. Leamen said Public Works had the bids for five days before a clerk discovered Feb. 7 that a page was missing. Calmar wasn't told of the missing page until it was notified Feb.

13 that it was disqualifed. Leamen criticized Public Works security measures and said there were several occasions that someone could have gained access to the documents. He said the "best opportunity" was during a 24-hour period after the tender opening when the bids were left in a cardboard box in a "restricted area" of Public Works Hull office. He said safeguards were so ding the contract until he renders his decision. Lawyers expect the decision within a week, but the motion is eating into the time Public Works needs to make a recommendation on the winner for submission to Treasury Board.

The contract must be awarded by June 30 when the bids expire. Paull Leamen, the lawyer for Calmar, said his clients aren't alleging fraud, but simply have no idea what happened to the page. He cited three possible ways the same page went missing in each bid: the pages were missing when the bids were submitted to il servant or competitor who had "an axe to grind" and would take the page. "So the bid arrives at Public Works missing a page, an honest mistake that could happen to anyone," he said. "The spectre of someone lurking around the vicinity of a restricted area waiting for a chance to dash in, rummage through 21 bids, find these two and extract one page doesn't make sense." The Calmar bid was disqualifed during the preliminary screening of the bids so none of its financial and technical proposals have been evaluated by Public Works.

Public Works has said bid that meets all the tender's specifications at the lowest price is the one that will be recommended to Treasury Board for approval. Arms show to proceed this year "Like most men, you want fleece with style and comfort. Plus you want it made-to-last, too. Our Canadian-made tops are this and more!" Fashion Director, Men's Wear 'rJp By Deborah Dowling Citizen staff writer A Controversial weapons show will go ahead at Lansdowne Park next month but two Ottawa aldermen opposed to the military bazaar predicted today that the show will be banned from city-owned property in the future. Riverside Aid.

George Brown and Capital Aid. Lynn Smyth told a news conference today that the city has already signed contracts with the ARMX '89 organizers for the use of Lansdowne Park and could be sued if it tried to back out. "But we'd like to ban this kind of show from city facilities in the future," Brown said. At a city council meeting tonight, Brown and Smyth will move a motion to ban ARMX in the future. Brown predicted it will be a very close vote.

"Originally, we didn't expect we'd get more than four votes," Brown said. "Now we may have seven or eight." There are 16 members on the council, including the mayor. ARMX '89 is to be held at Lansdowne May 23 to 25 featuring the latest products of more than 400 armament corporations from 16 countries. About 13,000 buyers from 60 countries are expected to attend. Many groups have already criticized the use of city property for an arms sale and a coalition of 75 area groups plan to hold a protest march May 22.

NDP MP Ray Skelly appeared at the news conference with the two aldermen and said they have the full support of the federal party and caucus. Smyth told reporters that she will be inviting other Canadian muncipalities to take similar stands with such arms shows. SEARS QUALITY FLEECE TOPS FOR MEN WHO TAKE THEIR LEISURE TIME SERIOUSLY Nothing tops off your favorite pair of pants or jeans like a comfortable fleece top! Choose from Beery neck, hooded crew-neck, Johnny collar or placket front styles in assorted colors and sizes S-XL. Sears reg. $37.

Each 25.88 Levesque memoirs ruled not libellous MONTREAL (CP) Bert Poir-ier was not libelled when the late Quebec premier Rene" Levesque called him a bum in his memoirs, Quebec Court has ruled. I Poirier had filed a libel suit against the estate of the late premier for 114,999.99. Levesque had written that after being tied as a child to the back porch stairs of the family house to keep him out of trouble, his parents entrusted him "more or less" to the care of the neighbor's children. "They were four Poiriers. Four boys, that is.

The girls didn't count," the passage at issue says. "There was Wilson, the oldest, then Bert who was a bum in those days, then my gang, Gerard and Paul." In his lawsuit, Bert Poirier claimed that the word bum had caused him serious social problems. Some people, including his wife's dentist, made unfortunate jokes at his expense because of it, he claimed. The executrix of Lvesque's estate, his widow Corinne Cote-L6-vesque, testified that the late premier often used the word bum in an affectionate way. In his judgment rendered April 13, Justice Rodolphe Bilodeau said the recent furore over The Satanic Verses by British author Salman Rushdie had raised again the problems of freedom of the press, the right of the individual to freedom of expression and the limits of collective and individual rights.

But he said a careful reading of the text in question in LeVesque's book, titled Memoirs, showed Levesque obviously had no malicious intention when he wrote it and in fact the opposite was more likely true. The judge ruled that the passage at issue commemorated only the former premier's tender nostalgia and affection. i Hi-rxuvifHy vJ i 7 OFF MEN'S DELUXE FLEECE PANTS Canadian-made in assorted colors and S-XL. Sears reg. $27 19.99 SHOP IN PERSON i'lj your money's and more Personal shopping only, please.

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