The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 27

AnnouncementsCelebrations: C5 Shaping up Renee Hooper transformed her life, starting with the loss of 75 pounds. C3 Section Editor: Joe Sornberger, 596-3507 Citythecitizen.southam.ca THE OTTAWA CITIZEN, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1998 Victim CITY knew shooter Police expect to issue warrants today A ll 0 yf ml JltSf i Iwv! iii ii ii iwImmm I II ABC anchor Peter Jennings, left, beams at Mayor Jim Watson yesterday prior to receiving the key to the city. Mr. Jennings is in town to perform as narrator of tonight's benefit concert of The Merry Widow. Hero's welcome for famous native son JULIE OLIVER, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN By Jake Rupert Ottawa-Carleton police have identified two of three suspects wanted in connection with the attempted murder of a young man outside a Rideau Street nightclub.

Officers scoured the city yesterday looking for the suspects, but no arrests were made. "We're making progress, and we're confident we'll get these guys," said Det. Randy Wisker of the major-crime unit. He is conducting the investigation along with Det. Roche Lachance.

"We just have to keep working on it, and we should have them." No motive has been established for the brazen shooting, but police say this is not the first time the victim and his assailants have been involved in an altercation. "There is evidence that they had a run-in before," Det. Wisker said. "Why this happened and why the first run-in happened is still not clear." Police are expected today to ask that Canada-wide warrants for attempted murder be issued for the two identified suspects. The condition of the shooting victim, Apaid Noel, 21, improved somewhat yesterday.

At about 5 p.m., doctors at the Ottawa General Hospital upgraded his condition to fair, and Mr. Noel was transferred to his own room to continue what is expected to by a full recovery. Mr. Noel, a Haitian immigrant who has lived in Ottawa for three years after moving here from Montreal, was shot in the arm and chest with a shotgun in front of the Theatre Night Club and Cigar Lounge at 3 a.m. Thursday.

The shooting came during an argument between Mr. Noel, his 25-year-old brother and three men. The brothers had been passing out flyers on the busy street corner promoting a now-cancelled dance when the argument started. Mr. Noel was rushed to the General after being shot and, following emergency surgery, was in the intensive-care unit.

Family members, who came from Montreal to be with Mr. Noel, would not comment on the shooting. Mr. Noel is putting himself through La Cite Collegiale by working as hairdresser's assistant. See VICTIM on page C2 Peter Jennings's wife, Kayce Freed, left, and his sister, Sarah Jennings, had front-row seats at the National Arts Centre yesterday as he received the key to the city.

comfortable, and has such a sense of community." Mr. Jennings, here with his new wife Kayce Freed, a producer at ABC's 2020, (they were married quietly last November) is to perform as the narrator in tonight's benefit concert of Franz Lehar's The Merry Widow. His sister Sarah is the creator and chair of the Merry Widow project. "Sarah has ordered me to be here," he laughed. Mr.

Jennings began his career as host of a children's radio show when he was nine. Beginning in 1961 he anchored the CJOH newscast as well as a weekly teen dance show and later co-anchored CTV's national news. He joined ABC in 1964. Many of his old friends and colleagues, as well as members of local arts groups, came to the event yesterday but had such a hard time fighting their way through the media scrum, they gave up trying to meet Mr. Jennings and settled for a cup of coffee and a croissant instead.

Alexander Lehar, a Boston resident who is the great-nephew of Franz, was there, as was former Ottawa mayor Jacquelin Holzman, who is now the new chair of the Congress Centre, Senator Joyce Fairbairn, who will soon head to Nagano to represent Canada at the Para Olympics, photographer Malak Karsh and Nepean MPP John Baird. And just a reminder: From now on, Feb. 21 in Ottawa is officially Peter Jennings Day. BYMARGOROSTON Peter Jennings, anchor and senior editor for ABC's World News Tonight and celebrated native son, will no longer have to pay his parking tickets at least in Ottawa. That's what Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson promised yesterday morning when he presented the local boy who made good with the symbolic gold key to the city at an upscale ceremony and reception in the foyer of the National Arts Centre.

City officials might have been welcoming home an Olympic gold medalist. There was a bagpiper from the city's own Highland Cameron regiment, a RCMP officer to sing Canada and speeches by emcee Peter Van Dusen, anchor of CBOT's Newsday, and CJOH news director Max Keeping. "I was told by the mayor that the key actually opens the door to the Perth jail," joked Mr. Jennings on receiving the honour. "I put most of my awards in my bathroom.

But this is one of two things I'll put on the wall of my office. The other is my honorary degree from Carleton University." Mr. Jennings received the degree last spring. Although he lives in New York, "this city is truly my home," he said. "I come back all the time.

There's no other place in which it is so easy to be Peter Jennings, right, shares a moment with an old friend, renowned photographer Malak Karsh. Needed: Century-old white oak Police canine unit looking for new recruit ri mi nil -lr taumi innimj i ii DAVE BROWN BROWN'S BEAT 1 One of the hardest things to find in this neck of the woods is a tree. In this case, it's a white oak, needed to keep a boat restoration project afloat. Before the Bluenose carried Canada into sailing glory and found her way to the back of the Canadian dime, the winningest ship on the East Coast was the sailing yacht Canada, launched in New Brunswick in 1898. She is the oldest registered yacht in the Canadian Shipping Registry.

She currently rests near Kemptville, where volunteers working for Sailing Yacht Canada Restoration Project are giving her a makeover intended to restore her to her original beauty and speed. With a length of only eight metres at the waterline and a sail area of 163 square metres, she could fly. But the engineers and skilled crafts persons working on her have hit a snag. Her keelson has to be replaced. It attaches the ship to the keel.

They have had to go searching for a tree, and so far haven't been able to find it. Anybody spotting the wanted tree is asked to contact Alex Bolechowsky in Kemptville at 258-0226. Don't touch the tree. The experts want to cut it down. Description: It's a white oak about 100 years old and 21 metres high, and has no knots or limbs on the bottom half.

It is so thick, the keelson will be made without using the heart of the tree. When they started the project in 1995, restorers hoped to have her back on the water in time for her 100th birthday. They have the written support of Prime Minister Jean Chretien and verbal support from many other political figures, but no rioney yet. The project will cost an estimated $700,000. Donations are sought, and pheus Society's most successful alumni, among them Mr.

Jennings. What wasn't mentioned was that the society's latest musical, Li'l Abner, opens Feb. 27 and runs to March 7 at Centre-pointe Theatre. Tickets are available at the box office at 727-6650 for $16 and $20. That oversight resulted in a quick fax, signed "Mammy Yokum" (Li'l Ab-ner's mom).

But it looked almost as if Mammy was hitting on me, because there was a Mae West line: "Come up and see me sometime." Not possible. Mammy would never say something like that. She's played by Marylin Day in this latest production, and as expected, there was a denial. She didn't send the fax. But that didn't stop her from demanding Orpheus get a plug in this space.

"Ah has spoken!" Now that's the Mammy I remember! Gymanfa Ganu If you can say gymanfa ganu, you're probably Welsh, and know it means singing festival. And if you're Welsh you probably know about the Welsh Society's big dinner-dance Feb. 28 at the Ottawa Congress Centre, marking St. David's Day (March 1). The patron saint of Wales died in 544 AD and his life achievements included the founding of an order of monks dedicated to living in silence, eating no meat, and working without the aid of horses.

The gymanfa ganu will be at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 470 Roosevelt 3 p.m. March 1. Tickets for the dinner are $35 and available at 592-1222. Dave Brown is the Citizen's senior editor. Read previous columns at http:www.ottawacitizen.com Opening being created by retirement of force's longest serving dog BY DAVID TRIFUNOV The Ottawa-Carleton Regional Police need a new recruit, and Const.

Mark Gatien needs a new partner. They'd place a want-ad in the paper, but the most qualified can't read. The successful candidate must be male, in excellent health, with dominating characteristics and a strong retrieval drive. Applicants must be between the ages of 14 months and two years old, and a German shepherd. The Canine Unit will have an opening this spring when Thor retires after eight years of loyal service.

Thor was the first local municipal police dog when he began active duty with the Nepean force in July 1991. Ottawa police started their canine unit in the fall of 1991 with five dogs. The local police forces merged in 1995. "It's not a sad thing, it's time to move on, and the dog's done a hell of a job in the last seven and a half years," said Const. Gatien.

Nine-year-old Thor was recruited in 1991 from a Waterloo-area farmhouse. He started active duty after completing the Ontario Provincial Police's 16-week training course in Gravenhurst, Ont. with Const. Gatien. Const.

Gatien said his proudest moments with Thor have happened during drug busts. When officers are stumped and can't find the hiding spots, they call in Thor. "Without the dogs in those situations, (officers would) have nothing," tax deductible: Cheques can be made to SY Canada, 2924 Donnelly RR 4, Kemptville, KoG 1J0. The ship has three notable distinctions. She is the oldest registered yacht as long as she remains registered no other yacht can carry the name Canada and she was a winner.

She can be again. If she isn't ready to celebrate her birthday, she can do a millennium tour. You're getting old You may remember who Al Capp (1909-1979) was. He was the creator of the Li'lAbner comic strip that my generation, and one before it, grew up with. Its main contribution to our lives was the annual Sadie Hawkins dance, in which gals asked the guys for dates.

In the strip, Sadie was a guy-crazy beauty, and the rule was if she could catch a guy, she could keep him. Most guys probably would rather have been caught by Appasionate von Climax, or even Moonbeam McSwine, who always needed a bath, but was a major babe. This memory trip through Dog-patch was triggered by a recent item in this column, making light of Peter Jennings' (ABC News) singing ability, and listing names of some of the Or CHRIS MIKULA, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN Const. Mark Gatien with Thor, who became the first local municipal police dog when he joined the Nepean force in 1991. Const.

Gatien said. Thor will live out the rest of his life with Const. Gatien and his family. "He's actually doing very well for his age, it's just that he's getting slow," Const. Gatien said.

"He'll just be more at home. He'll be our alarm system." The police force is also adding a handler and dog to the canine unit, which currently has five handlers and eight dogs five German shepherds for general purpose work and three specialty dogs (two black Labradors and a German pointer) for detection of explosives, guns and ammunition. See CANINE on page C2.