The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 6

A6 THE OTTAWA CITIZEN TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1998 Problems grow 77 1 as rebe I- quits Reform 0 IHart 'I Another member might not seek re-election By Sheldon Alberts The Reform party's caucus controversy deepened yesterday, as rebel MP Jim Hart resigned and two others raised new concerns about the party's political future. Meanwhile, one Reform MP urged Conservative party leadership hopeful Joe Clark to join Reform as a way of uniting the right in Canada. Mr. Hart quit to sit as an independent MP six days after infuriating Reform officials by rejoining the parliamentary pension plan and attacking Preston Manning's leadership. Mr.

Manning has been unavailable for comment since the controversy began, but Reform spokesman Phil von Finckenstein said the party was "disappointed" with Mr. Hart's decision. Reform officials had threatened to kick Mr. Hart and a handful of other MPs out of the party for opting into the MP pension plan against implicit orders from Mr. Manning.

Whilp nrivatelv thpv now hnne the THE OTTAWA CITIZEN Two bake-apple berry pickers were attacked and killed by sled dogs in an Inuit community in Labrador. Sled dogs kill mother, son enter the "gold-plated" pension plan most Reformers opted out of in 1995. Mr. Hart and Vancouver MP Ted White, who's also thinking of taking the pension, stoked the coals by saying they'd lost confidence in Mr. Manning's leadership.

"I am still committed to taking the concerns of the constituents to Ottawa on issues such as lower taxes, making our streets safe again and holding the Liberal government accountable," Mr. Hart said in a statement. A handful of other MPs have said they're reserving judgment on Mr. Manning. None raised concerns publicly during a leadership review in May.

Alberta MP Myron Thompson believes other Reformers who have lost confidence in Mr. Manning should also leave. "I think the honourable thing is, if you strongly feel that way, then get the heck out. "We've got a leader who has got more honesty in his little finger than some of the other leaders I've seen have in their whole body." Despite that endorsement, British Columbia MP Keith Martin muddied the waters surrounding the leadership even further yesterday. In a curious twist, Mr.

Martin endorsed former prime minister Joe Clark for the leadership of the federal Tories, while pointedly refusing to state similar support for Mr. Manning's leadership of Reform. "Personally, I hope Joe Clark wins because I think he's the best person of the people who are running and we need good people in Parliament, regardless of their political stripe," Mr. Martin said. He urged Mr.

Clark to join Reform in the party's united alternative effort to bring small-c conservative voters across the country together. He wouldn't say whom he would pick to lead a united right-wing party. The remarkable level of open debate over Mr. Manning's leadership and the party's future survival has delighted Reform's opponents. "We look forward to working with Keith Martin and any other Reform MPs who want to form a modus operandi with the Tory party," said Roy Norton, Mr.

Clark's campaign secretary. Special to the Citizen when she was mauled by eight huskies. "The husband heard her yell and then heard the sound of the dogs," said Mr. Langille. "By the time he got there, the dogs had swarmed or attacked her.

By the time he managed to get the dogs off her, she was lifeless." The woman's family wanted to build a fire to keep the dogs away from the body. Daniel returned to the boat to get some matches. The father noticed that the dogs had left the area and rushed back to the boat. "When he got there he found the dogs had swarmed the boy," said Mr. Langille.

"He was lifeless on the beach." The common-law husband, 49, and an eight-year-old boy, whose names were not released, managed to fight the dogs off with rocks and sticks and escaped in their boat. Ms. Flowers said that it's a natural practice for the Inuit to put their dogs on nearby islands from July until the end of August. "Nobody is blaming the owner," she said. "What they do during the summer months is keep them on the island so they can get their exercise," said Helen Cleary-Escott, a RCMP spokeswoman.

British Columbia MP's voluntary departure will ease internal tensions, there were signs yesterday the party's problems are worsening. Reform energy critic David Chatters said he might not seek re-election because he's disillusioned with the party's inability to contain its internal squabbling. "I don't want to be part of the nitpicking and backstabbing that's going on. If that's what this party is going to degenerate to, then I'm not sure I will be part of it," said Mr. Chatters, 54.

The Alberta MP, who strongly opposes the pension plan, said he'll wait and see how Reform's leadership handles the issue before deciding his future. He condemned colleagues for considering opting in. "I had never worked with or been part of a more principled group of people and now to see the human failings, the greed among certain individuals, is truly disappointing," he said. The imbroglio began after three MPs Mr. Hart, John Duncan and Bill Gilmour announced they would re Micmac protesters remove barricades Community is totally 'devastated' BY ALISON MACGREGOR A woman and her 10-year-old son have died after they were attacked by a pack of sled dogs while picking berries in Labrador.

"I would say it would rank with some of the worse incidents I've ever had to deal with," said RCMP Const. Richard Langille, one of the investigating officers. The RCMP and the government have brought in counsellors to help local officers and members of the nearby Inuit community of Hopedale, deal with the tragedy. "The community is totally devastated," said Marjorie Flower, head of the local branch of the Labrador Inuit Health Commission in a telephone interview. Betty Gauntlet, 45, and her son Daniel Obed were attacked on Zacharias Island, about seven kilometres off the coast of Hopedale, during a Sunday afternoon family outing.

Ms. Gauntlet was picking bake-apple berries in a spot several hundred yards away from the rest of her family One of the barricades on a Quebec tension, expressed delight. "This finished the way it was supposed to finish," said Herman Ni-quay from a nearby village who had been manning the barricades for a week. "No one wanted any violence." ployees. But the tribunal ruled a year later the government was still violating the Canadian Human Rights Act by creating the separate regime for gay couples instead of adopting a gender-neutral definition of the term "spouse." The federal government appealed that ruling, but Justice MacKay sided with Stanley Moore, a foreign-service officer who first brought the case when he was denied moving and housing benefits for his gay partner in 1991.

"The court has recognized that the government cannot treat gays and lesbians as second-class citizens," Mr. Moore said yesterday. "This is not about special rights or creating different classes of recognition. It is about belonging, about affirming the true meaning of family She said that the dogs are normally well taken care of. "The dog owners take the food out to the dogs they don't just leave them on the island by themselves," said Ms.

Flowers. During the past two years, there has been a revival of sled-dog teams in the remote coastal community of 613. Snowmobiles had long displaced the traditional Inuit form of transportation. "So we really took pride in our community because there was a lot for dog teams coming back," she said. The RCMP has destroyed seven of the dogs and are looking for the eighth on the barren, rocky island.

"The one option we are looking at right now is rabies and the second is that they were hungry. I think that's the obvious thing that the dogs were hungry. And why they were hungry, I don't know," said Ms. Cleary-Escott. The dogs were fed the previous day.

"It sounds like they did revert to the wild and maybe didn't have enough human contact," said Dr. Richard Sec-combe, an Ottawa-based veterinarian. "It's not likely that they'd have rabies. In my opinion, rabid animals go mad and they wouldn't hunt as a pack." THE MONTREAL GAZETTE the two sides reached agreement. nal resident of the reserve, as her Micmac boyfriend, Talbert Morrison, nodded in agreement.

"Now it's ended peacefully and I think that's what everyone wanted." Special to the Citizen Court says tribunal had the authority to order the government to prepare an inventory of all federal laws, regulations and directives that discriminate against same-sex couples in employment-related benefits along with proposals on how to revise them The federal government has estimated extending medical and dental benefits to the gay partners of public servants will cost about $1.8 million a year. The judgment is the latest in a string of court rulings to give same-sex couples the same benefits as opposite-sex spouses. In June, Finance Minister Paul Martin reluctantly announced he would not appeal an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling that allowed employers to provide the same pension benefits to gays and lesbians and receive the same tax benefit By Alexander norris RESTIGOUCHE, Que. Claiming victory in a hard-fought battle, Micmac protesters last night bulldozed barricades they had thrown up across a provincial highway almost two weeks ago to demand expanded aboriginal logging rights. A cheer broke out and children scurried to one of the barricades to begin tearing it down after an emotional meeting of protesters overwhelmingly endorsed a call by their leaders to end their protest.

The breakthrough eases fears of an armed conflict and should allow sawmill workers from a neighbouring town who have been off the job since July 23 to return to work. It came after protest leaders endorsed a deal they said they reached late yesterday with their political rivals on Listuguj Reserve chief Ronald Jacques's elected band council and the Quebec government. Shortly before the barricades came down, protest leader Gary Metallic told about 100 supporters gathered outside two teepees near one of the roadblocks the deal will boost cutting rights for Micmac logging firms, including his own, by some 5,000 cubic metres a year. As well, said Allison Metallic, an opposition band councillor and cousin of Gary Metallic who was closely allied with the protesters, the province and a local mill owner have agreed not to press charges against those manning the barricades. Independent confirmation of the deal could not be obtained last night from the provincial government.

Gary Metallic said the province and non-aboriginal logging firm have agreed that Micmac loggers should have annual cutting rights to a total of roughly 30,000 cubic metres of timber. Half of that would be allocated to Mr. Jacques's band council and half to private Micmac logging firms, including the one he co-owns some of it granted directly by the provincial government and some subcontracted by non-aboriginal firms that have already acquired the cutting rights, he said. Mr. Metallic acknowledged the total are a far cry from the 160,000 he originally demanded.

But the deal represents a good start, He told his supporters, and if Quebec or non-aboriginal logging firms don't keep their end of the deal, "we can always start Round II" and throw up new highway barricades. Onlookers, weary from weeks of that plan was still discriminatory even though the benefits are the same and likened it to the "appalling doctrine" that helped maintain racial segregation in the United States. "It is no more appropriate for the employer in this case to have established a separate definition for persons in same-sex relationships than it would have been for the employer to create separate definitions for relationships of persons based on their race, colour or ethnicity," Justice MacKay wrote in a 47-page judgment released yesterday. Since July 1996, the federal government has extended medical and dental benefits to the live-in partners of gay and lesbian public servants after the human-rights tribunal ruled it was discriminating against homosexual em Gay, lesbian benefits must be integrated, Federal highway is bulldozed last night after Micmacs from the politically divided community who didn't support the barricades agreed. "It was tense, people were losing business and everybody was anxious to know when it was going to end," said Darlene O'Connell, a non-aborigi and ensuring that all Canadians have an equal place around the table." Mr.

Moore was supported by the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers and the Professional Institute of the Public Service. John Fisher, executive director of EGALE (Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere), said the judgment confirms that same-sex relationships must be accorded the same status as opposite-sex couples. "The Federal Court has told the government clearly that it's not enough to extend the benefits, but the way in which they do it also has to be even-handed and to respect the equal dignity of gays and lesbians," said Mr. Fisher. Justice MacKay also ruled that the BY STEPHEN BINDMAN In another legal victory for gays and lesbians, the federal government has been told it cannot create a "separate but equal" benefits plan for homosexual public servants.

Instead, a Federal Court judge has ruled the federal government must integrate gays and lesbians into existing programs by changing the definition of spouse to encompass same-sex couples. In order to comply with a landmark 1996 human-rights tribunal ruling, the federal government had created a new category of "same-sex partner relationship" which required employees to publicly declare they were in a homosexual partnership in order to receive employment benefits. But Justice Andrew MacKay agreed.