The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 3

"The Ottawa Citizen, Sunday, March 24, 1996 A3 News PERLEY AND RIDEAU VETERANS HEALTH CENTRE BRIEFLY Elderly patients move to roomy new home -ft I I Bf ff awareness of their surroundings. Arbour's not one of them. He spent 45 years with the Ottawa Fire Department. But last summer, he fell and broke his hip and, after 15 years living alone as a widower, he was suddenly in a small room with three other men. Now he's got his own room, a private bathroom, and access to recreation rooms and a family dining room where relatives can celebrate his birthdays.

"It's wonderful, I'm so glad he's out of there," said his granddaughter, Shelley Munro. She was one of 100 volunteer "buddies" Saturday, who helped patients pack up, and move. They will also help patients adjust to their new surroundings over the next month. Other patients had mixed emotions. "I'm sorry to leave the Periey," said Louise Heron, 95.

"It's the association. My mother was here before me." When the Duke of Connaught opened the Periey Hospital in 1915, patients were urged "to cultivate kind and cheerful dispositions, thereby making a happy Christian home." In recent years patients were packed in four or six to a room, with no privacy, no air conditioning, no recreation rooms, and only one elevator. "The building's totally obsolete in every respect," said Lupton. v. The new chronic-care centre has ll elevators, has four times as much floor space and stretches one kilometre from one end to the other.

It cost. $66 million, most of which came from the federal, provincial and regional governments, and will eventually house 450 patients. I NEW DIGS: Rend Arbour, 90, bids Hospital Saturday. He moved to its By Bob Harvey Citizen staff writer Rene Arbour had hardly stepped out of his hospital bed Saturday when somebody took it away from him. But within an hour, the 90-year-old was back in that bed, four kilometres away in the new Periey and Rideau Veterans Health Centre.

Arbour is one of 200 patients being moved out of the old Periey Hospital this weekend in a logistical triumph that's taken two staff members a full year to orchestrate. Moving vans, ambulances, wheelchair buses, staff and volunteers were choreographed to the minute so that Arbour and others could be transported from Aylmer Avenue to Russell Road complete with bed, belongings, and medical files without any interruptions in their meals or medication. "This place is pretty hard to beat," Arbour said of the new digs. One hundred patients were moved in eight hours Saturday The remaining 100 will be moved today In October, 150 patients from the Rideau Veterans Home moved to the new building from their old wooden barracks on Smyth Road. Before that, the last similar move in this region was by the Ottawa General Hospital, which moved to Smyth Road in 1980.

This weekend's move is probably more difficult than the General's was, said the Perley's executiver director, John Lupton, because the patients are older, and more frail. Their average age is 87, and half have lost much of their ability to communicate and their in the months following the narrow federalist victory in the Oct. 30 referendum on sovereignty Less than 10 per cent of francophones surveyed had entertained the same thoughts, the poll stated. Henderson said Saturday that, whatever the exact percentage of people preparing to leave, the poll is a stinging indictment of not only separatists, but the federal government as well. "This is an indictment of the feds because it says people are so nervous that they're thinking of abandoning everything they've built," he said.

Henderson said that while his party continues to push for the alternative of partitioning federalist enclaves in Quebec, the federal government has been less than clear on the issue. As a result, he said, federalist Quebe Anglo-Quebecers' fears should concern all, group says: r'A-t i Wayne Cuddington, Citizen adieu to the cramped old Periey replacement on Russell Road. sentative of what the feelings are in Western Quebec," said Graham Greig, a founding director of Solidarity Ou-taouais Solidarity (SOS). Bob May, with the Outaouais Alliance, said he also did not believe the survey figures would be the same for this region. "I don't know of anyone really who is planning on leaving.

If they're thinking it, they're sure not saying it." The poll was taken March 14-19 and published Saturday by the Globe and Mail. The story does not specify the exact percentage of English-speaking residents who have thought of leaving. Spokesmen for the polling firm could not be reached for comment. The poll said that 16.3 per cent of Quebecers over-all about one in six had thought of leaving the province 5 World Russian troops tighten security in Grozny MOSCOW Russian forces beefed up security around the Chechen capital of Grozny after reports that separatist rebels were positioning themselves for a renewed attack, news agencies said Saturday Military officials told the Interfax news agency that separatist leader Dzhokar Dudayev has ordered his field commanders to "storm the nest" of Moscow-backed Chechen leader Doku Zavgayev by Monday Up to 30,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the 16-month war. Some Serb prisoners freed as deadline nears SARA JEVO The Bosnian government released 109 Serbian prisoners shortly before a Saturday midnight deadline, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported.

The release of the prisoners came after threats that further stalling by the formerly warring parties in Bosnia would be met by sharp international sanctions. "The time for words has passed. We expect deeds," European Representative Carl Bildt said after a group of countries overseeing the peace process met in Moscow on Saturday Officials noted that dozens of prisoners are still being held. Keep your eyes peeled for Hyakutake comet The Hyakutake comet, the brightest comet in 20 years, will reach its closest approach to Earth tonight a mere 15 million kilometres or so. Stargazers with access to a night sky that is clear and dark should be able to glimpse the -newly discovered comet with the naked eye all this week.

It will be between the Big and Little Dippers, near the North Star. Canada St-Pierre prisoners seek return to Newfoundland ST-PIERRE Two Newfoundlanders serving prison time on the French islands of St-Pierre-Miquelon have gone on a hunger strike to protest delays in processing their repatriation to Canada. Jamie Hillier, 25, and Richard Pittman, 22, have served nine months of their six- and four-year sentences for drug trafficking. Hillier says they were told they would be transferred to a Canadian prison three months after their convictions. Hillier admits he's guilty, but says they do not belong on the French islands off Newfoundland's south coast.

Traffic accidents kill nine on southern Ontario roads Nine people were killed in three separate auto accidents in southern Ontario Saturday Police in Burlington said five people in their early 20s died when two cars collided head on at about 1:30 a.m. on Highway 6. The roads were in good condition, said provincial police Sgt. Phil Carter. "I have no idea what caused it.

But (Highway 6) has a long history of being a tragic road." Police said two people were killed Saturday morning on Highway 401 near London after a car going the wrong way smashed into a And police say two people died in a head-on crash near Dundalk, near Orangeville. Local Gatineau mother seeks meeting on blood donors A Gatineau mother who was refused the right to donate her blood for her ba-. by 's surgery last month has asked for a Tineeting with federal Health Minister Dingwall. "Basically I would Vjust like to find out what the govern- iiiciii a aiauu is, otuurvcumyu -Watcham, who wrote a letter to Ding-'wall last week. "I think a lot of parents Vould really like to have the option of Jlonating blood for their families." A court Friday issued a temporary injunction allowing a Montreal couple to give blood for their two-year-old son's heart operation.

Watcham says she thinks many Canadians don't realize they are not allowed to donate blood for other family members. Murder trial jury resumes deliberations today After almost 10 hours of deliberation Saturday an Ottawa jury adjourned for the Hav at Qn withnnt ronphina V. verdict in the murder trial of Steven Gilling. Gilling, who is 27, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the March 1995 slaying of Guy Robert. Gilling and Robert were roommates at the time.

Robert's decomposing body was discovered in his Claremont Drive apartment on March 23. Before adjourning for the night Saturday, the jury asked Justice Charles Doyle if they could re hear a statement from an Ottawa police officer who testified that Gilling said during questioning: "The knife, I still have it." The jury, which has now deliberated for 16 hours, is to resume its deliberations this morning. Citizen staff and news services ma i lM i SKjarPeppler cers are considering a move out he-cause they are no longer sure thatflie federal government is willing to guarantee their right to stay Canadian. i 1 Besides the question of leaving," the poll also determined that support for sovereignty has not grown in Quebec, despite Bouchard's taking over the post cf premier. Some 53.3 per cent of those surveyed said they support the Yes option, down from 54.3 per cent last month, with 46.7 per cent saying they backed the No side.

The pollsters surveyed 1,007 people. The poll has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The Montreal Gazette, with files from Citizen staff IS AND PERTH CAM FT ON PUtCt Southam Newspapers Federalist leaders in Quebec said Saturday that all Canadians should be concerned by a new poll showing roughly half of all English-speaking Quebecers have considered leaving the province since October's referendum. Equality Party Leader Keith Henderson said the Groupe Leger Leger poll is consistent with past surveys and shows a Yes victory would have had disastrous consequences for both the Quebec and Canadian economies. But the poll conclusion that one out of two English-speaking residents has considered moving, does not reflect the situation in Western Quebec, say spokesmen for two groups that represent English Quebecers.

"Those figures are very misrepre- ALEXANDRIA Grassroots group debates Canada's future By Ronald Zajac Citizen correspondent ALEXANDRIA About 100 people engaged in sometimes passionate debate Saturday about the future of Canada in another attempt to build grassroots involvement in national politics. The free-ranging discussion in the local high school was the product of a local citizens' movement, Focus on Canada, which took shape after the October 30 referendum in Quebec. "For politicians to be representative of the average Canadian, the average Canadian has to get involved in politics," Focus committee member Phil Miller said as the seven-hour event wound down. "You can't resolve everything in one day, but you can start." Debates some of them approaching shouting matches ranged from patriating the foreign debt to promoting love for Canada and Canadian politicians. There was, in fact, no love lost for the few politicians who ventured into the fray Don Boudria, Glengarry-Prescott-Russell MP and chief government whip, came under fire for the federal government's supposed inaction during last fall's referendum campaign.

"You waited because you were afraid to offend the Quebecers," Alexandria resident Peter Bellware charged. Keith Henderson, leader of Quebec's anglophone-rights Equality Party, took part in much of the day's discussion, as did Mark Kotler. The latter heads Action Canada, a Montreal lobby group advocating partitioning, splitting away sections of a separate Quebec to keep them in Canada. Kotler drew some criticism for using the gathering as a political platform. Resolutions emerging from the discussions ranged in scope from the creation of an elected constituent assembly of Canadian citizens, to the promotion of youth exchange programs across the country Focus on Canada's organizing committee will decide soon how to keep the grassroots movement going.

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