Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 3

cttn EDMONTON JOURNAL A3 TUESDAY, JULY 3, 2001 ERA, others ignore bid to surrender guns tip Disarmament plan deadline passes, no weapons handed in BRUCE WALLACE Southam Newt BELFAST Adeterminedly patient John de Chastelain says he is still prepared to give Northern Ireland's paramilitaries some time to begin handing over their weapons, despite releasing a bleak report on Monday that makes it clear none of the biggest sectarian armies are anywhere near ready to do so. good will it do to get a hold of five per cent of the IRA's weapons? "This is about argues. "And both sides are so fearful of the intent of the other that they are both afraid to be seen to 'give' anything." That was a view shared across the sectarian divide by Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams. He declared onMondaythatthe peace agreement is threatened not by the IRA, whose violent logic he translates into political language, but from Loyalist gangs, "who are using bombs and bullets against their Catholic neighbours." Southam Newt at the end of the day, it is not up to us." And those who do hold the power to shape a future of shrapnel-free politics in Northern Ireland are scarcely in the mood to take the brave first steps to get there. It has been a bad time for those who hope.

The deluge of dismal news included the formal acknowledgement onMondayofFirst Minister David Trimble's resignatioa The Ulster Unionist leader quit as head of the province's government over the Irish Republican Army's refusal to begin disarming, leaving Northern Ireland's politics seem ingly paralysed for now. And the annual Orange marches are under way as well, with their attendant tribal tensions and an escalating number of British troops being flown in to try to manage them. To many, the dismal head butting over disarmament is merely a symptom, of the widening gulfbetween the two communities. "Let's cut the crap, this is not about guns," says David Ervine, head of the Popular Unionist Party (PUP) which has links to one of the Protestant community'8 Loyalist paramilitary gangs. "What The retired Canadian general heads the international decommissioning bodythat is supposed to be supervising the dismantling of the province's bristling private arsenals.

Instead, he was forced to acknowledge that the already extended deadline for disarma-mentsetbythel998GoodFriday peace agreement passed on July 1, without the rival Protestant and Roman Catholic paramilitaries offering up so much as a bullet The failure has led to increasing pressure from some of Northern Ireland's political corners for de Chastelain to declare decommissioning a failure and go home. De Chastelain's report made it clear he had heard that message. But he signaled Monday that his well-tested reserves of patience have not yet been exhausted despite three years of stasis on the arms issue though he won't say how low his tank is running. "We understand the issues and why they're important to people here, so getting frustrated doesn't help move this thing along," de Chastelain told Southam News in Belfast. 'We're still hopeful that actions can be taken to go forward.

But V.i tV, Li. Cordy Tymstra points out the Chinchaga River fire area on a map of Alberta. the sky and darkness at noon BIG BLAZES Senators on payroll but not on the job JACK AUBRY Southam Newspapers OTTAWA Four newly appointed Liberal senators will cost taxpayers more than $100,000 in salaries this summer even though they won't be sworn in to their new jobs until September. Only one of the four senators appointed by PrimeMinister Jean Chretien almost three weeks ago appears to have a Parliament Hill office up and running yet The Senate's communications office said it is currently only able to provide a Hill office telephone number for Senator Mobina Jaf-fer of British Columbia. Telephone numbers were not available for the other three and it was not known when they would get around to setting up their offices in Ottawa.

The senators were appointed on the second last day of the spring session but with the Liberals enjoying a solid majority in the upper chamber, it was not deemed necessary to swear them into office until mid-September when Parliament returns to business. The senators need to be sworn in before they are allowed to take their seats in the Red Chamber, but they begin to drawasenator's salary as soon as the Governor General approves the appointment Duncan Fulton, a press officer in Chretien's office, said the appointments were made on June 13, rather than in September, to allow the new senators to set up their offices and learn their jobs during the summer. Assuming they sign up for the Senate salary increase, Jaffer, journalist and author Laurier Lapierre, actor Jean Lapointe and actress Viola Leger will earn about 105,000 a year in their new posts. Jaffer, who at51 is theyoungest of the four, said she almost immediately started setting up her office after the appointment because she was eager to begin work as a senator. A lawyer and activist, she felt it was important to begin immediately since British Columbia has so few Liberal representatives in the federal government with only five MPs and three senators.

The other three appointees could not be reached for comment Ottawa Citizen Chretien warning won slow campaign JACK AUBRY Southam Newspapers OTTAWA The Liberal leadership contenders vying to replace Jean Chretien have no intention of gearingrdown their campaign machines even though some of -the prime minister's confidants say he may stick around for another election. The message sent out by unnamed Chretien associates in a news report on the weekend is seen as "a shot across the bow" of leadership campaigns that are perceived to be mnning faster and harder than the Prime Minister's Office would like. "Given thefactthatheis still the prime minister and still needs to exercise control over the government, one possible interpretation of that article: It's just an attempt by thePMO to putthings backin-to the box a Utile bit," said David Herle, a Martin organizer. Alteymemberofoneoftheotii-er leadership teams agreed that the campaigning would continue, adding that Chretien's toler ance of leadership hopefuls runs, short when the race is seen to dis-, rupt the government's Asked to sum up his reaction to the report that Chretien may "Ashrugof theshoulders. It won't change my behaviour or anybody else's behaviour one iota." Herle said Martin is the clear front-runner in the Liberal leadership race but bis campaign organization does not want to take anything for granted.

He said Martin and his supporters have a responsibility to the Liberal party to be ready for a leadership campaign and national election, likely to occur in a short time frame. "I think Paul Martin is the choice of Canadians and Liberals to lead the party and will be for as far as the eye can see in the foreseeable future. But things change in politics, and I presume if the prime minister stays on long enough, anything is conceivable," said Herle. Other contenders for Chretien's job are Industry Minister Brian Tobin, Health Minister Allan Rock, Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley, Heritage Minister Sheila Copps and Justice Minister Anne McLellan. Ottawa Citizen 435-3612 400 pickups dakotas BRA'S) NEW 2001 1 TON QUAD CAS 4X4 nam BRA'S NEW 34 TO QCuL'S QUAD 4X4 ttnan.

tie CANDACE ELLIOTT, THE JOURNAL n't endangering valuable timber and didn't come within about 10 miles of a railway, highway or house. The limit was cancelled in September 1952. The Chinchaga fire was left to rage without limits because the trees some so big the arms of two men couldn't encircle them hadn't been found by the forest industry, which was concentrating its efforts in the south, Tymstra says. That left Frank LaFoy, a forest ranger at Keg River, an embittered man. In a 1977 interview with a University of Alberta forestry student, LaFoy said he was forbidden to take a fire crew into the flames' path, even though people in the small community of Keg River began smelling smoke early in June and even though it was destroying trapping areas of many Metis.

When LaFoy himself took a packhorse in to survey the fire heading his way, he was abruptly fired and later reassigned to the Department of Fish and Wildlife, Tymstra says. Tymstra and Peter Murphy, the co-author of the book and a professor at of spent years writing letters to residents, archivists and fire researchers. "People say: "We're having a really bad fire season this Tymstra says. "They're not looking at the past Yes, we're having some bad fire years but it was bad in 1949 and 1950, too." Smoke in Chinchaga River fire spread haze as far away as Europe JODIE SINNEMA Journal Staff Writer EDMONTON In September 1950, the sun and the moon turned blue over England and Scotland. Midday, the skies were so dark people had to turn on their headlights, baseball games needed floodlights and chickens went to roost Days earlier, people in Washington, D.C., and Buffalo, N.Y., looked to the skies and thought it was doomsday as the sun was blotted out At around the same time, an airplane had to make an emergency landing in Toronto.

It was covered in abrown, oily substance and the crew reported smelling smoke in the cockpit at 40,000 feet Some thought it was the CIA doing government experiments. Others insisted it was extraterrestrials imprinting the skies with their shadows. They didn't know that a wild fire, sparked in northern B.C and spreading into Alberta, had created a cloud of smoke so immense in parts, 4,500 metres in length that the 160-kmh winds carrying it across the Atlantic Ocean hadn't scattered it during its trip from New York state to the British Isles, France, Portugal and Denmark. Fire Centre. To date, $17 million has been spent fighting the Chisholm fire.

Tymstra says the Chisholm fire was more erratic and more forceful in a shorter period of time than the Chinchaga fire which burned over the entire summer, sometimes lying low, other times burning furiously. Other fires: In 1825, 160 people died in the Miramichi Fire in New Brunswick which consumed about million hectares. In 1919, 15 people died when 8.5 million hectares were consumed between Lac La Bicheand Prince Albert, Sask. No people died in the Chinchaga fire. terest of Cbrcly Tymstra, a Mre science and technology supervisor with Alberta's Provincial Forest Fire Centre in Edmonton, who is writing a book about the fire.

Tymstra says the blaze began when Imperial Oil employees set some fires to save their horses fromswarmingbugs. It raged the entire fire season from June 2 to Oct 31, 1950, eating up 1.4 million hectares of land before the winter snows came. Yet it was virtually ignored by the Alberta forest service, Tymstra says. "It wasn't deemed important" Back then, a fire was unofficial and wouldn't be fought if it was How does the 1950 Chinchaga River fire compare with the 2001 Chisholm fire? The Chinchaga fire burned from June 2 to Oct. 31, 1950 and covered 1.4 million hectares or 20 times the size of Edmonton.

The Chisholm fire began May 23 and was declared under control June 19. By about June 5, after the winds had died down and some rain had fallen, the worst of the fire was over. It spread over 116,000 hectares of land, consuming an area one and a half times the size of Edmonton. In 1950, the government estimated a $1 million loss from Chinchaga, a value that reflects how little officials appreciated the wealth of the land, says Cordy Tymstra, fire specialist with Alberta's Provincial Forest No one in the northeastern United States or in Europe could smell the smoke drifting high in the atmosphere, blocking 60 per cent of the sun's light No radio station had mentioned the small, northern Alberta town of Keg River, whose air was deadened by smoke all summer and whose soil was eventually charred by the flames. The Chinchaga River fire is one of the largest recorded fires in Canadian history.

At 20 times the size of Edmonton, it makes the Chisholm fire look like a camp-fire, yet no firefighters were sent to fight it Chinchaga has flamed the in- 2001 BRAND NEW 2001 SEBKL'JG CARA'iAXSrW C2B 1 NEW CAR CENTRE NEW TRUCK CENTRE SS Toll Free 1 -888-623-8766 over 877 623 3611 BRA'S) KEW BKAKDKEW20G1GR CHEBQKE BRA7aKEW2001CAXOTA QUAD CAB SPORT 4X4 BRAiHD NEW 2001 34 TON QUAD CAB 4X4 BMRDKEW 2001 34 TONassciEsa ttaiM CARAPISE flBBIII ti 11 lllfii (jgglTT gpi gpUM mmm mmi fmmm BRAftXEWZXI BRASXEWZOOIJOPTJ BRAKKEW2301GRAX) BRA.HDKEW12TCN QUAD CAB 4X4 HUB JEW20G1 CARHA NEW 2001 IXAOCABSPORT 12 TON QUAD CA3 LXTJL'JCa Toll Free 1 BRAS) KW 2001 IX SPORT TJ EW20C1ECX 4 on the fissiiiwteiS Ifl rasa ill feSEijfiS 1 calgary trail Sate Hoars Auom 4tromCo corner off argyll rood south.