National Post from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 4

CANADA NATIONAL POST, TCESDAY, JULY 3, 2001 MANITOBA BRITISH COLUMBIA BRITISH COLUMBIA MANITOBA BRITISH COLUMBIA More flooding possible NEEPAWA Flooding has caused damage running into several millions of dollars. More than 125 mm of rain fell in the Neepawa area Wednesday and the region was under a sta te of emergency despite flood waters starting to recede on the weekend. Thirteen families have been forced from their homes. Mayor Ken Waddell said: "The little creeks and rivers are still in flood stage and even another inch of rain could flood them again." Flooding washed out roads and culverts, damaged bridges, dikes and farm fields. Landlords on hook for pot VANCOUVER ThecityofSur-rey has ordered landlords to pay for the policing costs of busting illegal marijuana grow-ops.

Under a new bylaw, landlords face charges up to $7,500 if police find grow-ops at rented premises. Surrey Councillor Bob Bose said landlords who don't pay attention to what their tenants are up to are "inviting this stuff." But Mr. Bose expects the bylaw to be challenged in court. "If the owner was unaware, by virtue of a successful concealment, presumably he can appeal the fine." Protesters' cabin torched KAMLOOPS A log cabin built by native protesters fighting the expansion of a Kamloops-area resort was torched on the weekend amid an escalating land-use battle that threatens to worsen this week. The Saturday fire, which police say was arson, came after a string of confrontations between Neskonlith Indians who say they want to protect their traditional territory, and residents and officials of the Sun Peaks Resort, which is building new ski runs and accommodations.

Police said they have no suspects. Unions outraged by paper VANCOUVER Nurses and other "direct-care providers" should not be allowed to strike, health employers said in a paper submitted to the new provincial government two days after the May 16 election. "We want the government to look at whether or not the strike tool is appropriate in health care," Gary oser, head of the Health Employers Association, said on Sunday. The document has outraged labour union officials who condemned the paper as "extreme, provocative and disruptive." FRED GREESLADE REUTERS Eight hardy souls push off from Winnipeg on Sundayig an attempt to row their way to Hudson's Bay in an 1840s-style York boat. Their experiences will be documented by a camera crew for an upcoming History Television documentary series, Quest for the Bay.

JUDGE'S RIGHT TO LAY BLAME CHALLENGED self?" says one, who describes Ms. Zillinger as the "Mother Teresa" of the ministry's Owen Sound office. "Her best argument is that she did a good job. But Brian Barrie, who is filing a similar motion for another ministry employee, says he un derstands why Ms. Zillinger does not want to wait for Judge Connor report.

"Once the horse is out of the barn, what are you going to do?" said Mr. Barne. Recipients are tarnished forever. 1 1 iimiw I iii Still, several lawyers said they doubt Judge Connor will be in- WALKERTON INQUIRY Bureaucrats upset by notices of alleged misconduct 1 By Colin Perkel walkerton, ONT. Theyear-old judicial inquiry into Canada's worst E.

coli outbreak faces its first legal challenge today amid criticism it is abusing its power. At issue are notices of alleged misconduct that inquiry lawyers have sent to officials caught up in the tragedy. Required under Ontario's public inquiries act, the notices inform recipients that Justice Dennis O'Connor may find fault with the way they did their jobs when he reports at the end of the probe. "Every single decent person who' got one of those notices has suffered ongoing anguish and will continue to suffer ongoing anguish until such time as that report comes out," said Linda McCaffrey, one of three lawyers EDWARD PARSONS NATIONAL POST chned to quash the notices. "If he grants the motion, then Edmonton police officers chase away onlookers as one person lies unconscious during the Canada Day riot.

he's inviting 100 other people to bring the same motion, one lawyer says. One legal definition of miscon duct is morally reprehensible behaviour, or deliberate and negligent breach of established Canada struggles to regulate toxic trash It's a riot. I don't have time to talk' LOOTING Continued from PageAl rules. Both Mr. Barrie and Ms.

McCaffrey, who concedes Judge O'Connor has run the inquiry awfully well, argue nothing that category. They want to hear Kis GOVERNMENT REVIEW definition of misconduct. It's a riot. I don't have time to planning to fight the notices be- Moreover, they say, nothing talk," one police sergeant told a reporter as he pulled on riot gear. fore Judge their clients did could possibly Lax rules, low dollar lure hazardous waste from U.S.

Some officers wore bike hel There were people who went have caused the tainted water tragedy. mets, others donned riot gear including shields, knee pads, flak Mr. Gover said he understands people hate facing criticism for in the day. Her front window was broken and its contents stolen. "I guess I'm not surprised," she said.

"There has been a lot of talk about problems here." Brian Feist, a supervisor with Edmonton's ambulance service, said he watched as things quickly got out of hand. "I've seen nothing like this in Edmonton. This is one of a kind." Rahim Jaffer, the Canadian Alliance MP who represents the Old Strathcona neighbourhood, said he was enjoying a drink at The Urban Lounge, a 'popular nightspot off Whyte Avenue. "We had some young hooligans there who were out to cause damage and fight As they began their antics you slowly had the mob mentality take over," Mr. Jaffer said.

"I was reflecting on the fact that there wasn't this immediate reaction. This would have been deterred if there had been a larger police presence on the avenue earlier in the night." Ian McClelland, a Conservative MLA whose bakery sustained broken windows and damaged tables in the riot, blamed the trouble on a lax justice system that fails to properly discourage violence and vandalism. "The problem is not police, the problem is inappropriate behaviour by bad kids that just seems to vests, helmets with visors and armed themselves with telescopic batons and large canisters of pepper spray. At least two officers carried large guns used to fire what might seem trivial reasons. But he said Judge O'Connor, who is apprised of the issued notices, needs the freedom to comment on how everyone involved in the tragedy, directly or indirectly, conducted themselves.

"This is not a criminal negli tear gas grenades. At one point, two unruly youths launched a metal newspaper box at the advancing police as the It said the intelligence section has a "very limited intelligence infrastructure" which raised concerns about the "reliability" of the information it collected: Kelly Morgan, spokeswoman for David Anderson, the Environment Minister, said in an interview that the government's performance is improving. An additional $40-million over five years is being directed at enforcement activities, enough to nearly double staff during the past three years to 108. "It definitely is contributing to a stronger enforcement program," she said. "Environment Canada is constantly evaluating its programs to make sure it is always meeting enforcement requirements." Because the environment is a shared responsibility between the federal and provincial governments, the enforcement office acts as a nationahco-ordinator between Environment Canada's regional offices arid provincial ministry of the environment officials.

In the United States, hazardous waste must be treated before it is taken to a landfill and the law puts legal liability on the shoulders of the waste producer. Neither is true in Canada, which also By Ian Jack Ottawa A government investigation of Environment Canada's policing of hazardous waste regulations revealed a lack of trained personnel and concerns about the reliability of the limited information bureaucrats were able to collect. Hazardous waste imports into Canada are growing, Environment Canada officials acknowledge, due in part to laxer standards than those in the United States. But the review of the federal government's enforcement abilities suggested it is struggling to police even those rules crowd roared its approval. the police," some chanted while others danced and sang the national anthem.

At 3:45 a.m., police began a rapid push that largely scattered gence causing death trial," he stressed. The 5-2 notices don't necessarily mean Judge O'Connor will include the allegations in his report. the crowd and sent them running ahead of the quickly advancing force. In the confusion, some rioters took the opportunity to smash O'Connor be getting worse, said Mr. Mc windows and loot.

At least one young man was seen running from the front of a music store with a number of guitars in his arms before he was chased down Clelland, a former Alliance MP. "We are being held hostage by a society that has given licence to people to do whatever the hell by officers. they want. As the advance continued, at Some people have proposed even longer opening hours to avoid a sudden early morning flush of drunks on the street es least one man went down, bleeding and apparently unconscious, and a few others ran blindly, their hands pressed to eyes swollen and streaming with tears after being hit with pepper spray. Most of them are good people 'SERIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL AND HUMAN HEALTH RISKS' "We're erring on the side of including potential findings," Mr.

Gover said. Last week Mr. Harris was grilled for six hours at the Walkerton water inquiry. The Premier repeatedly insisted he wasn't warned that cuts to the environment ministry might increase risks to public health and he said he didn't believe government polices led to the deadly water contamination. But Mr.

Harris acknowledged that he would be accountable if the public inquiry finds government policies contributed to last May's deadly E. coli outbreak. Several Walkerton residents who attended the inquiry said Mr. Harris should admit his government's policies played a role in the tragedy and apologize to thetown. Earlier last week Norm Sterling, Ontario's former environment minister, said he would accept political responsibility if in to the inquiry knowing they were in the hot seat.

Then there are the innocents who had no reason to fear," she said. The hearings into one of Canada's worst public-health disasters, which left seven dead and 2,300 ill, have managed to avoid the kind of legal challenges faced by other federal and provincial inquiries, despite hearing from more than 100 witnesses. Almost any one of those witnesses could be in receipt of a misconduct notice, including Premier Mike Harris, the Ontario Premier, who testified The notices, known as 5-2s, are among the inquiry's best kept secrets. The issue is so sensitive that commission counsel won't even reveal how many warnings have been issued. They began going out last November.

However, sources told The Canadian Press the number is aroifrid two dozen, an indication of how widespread the failures that- led to Walkerton are thought to be. Ms. McCaffrey represents Michelle Zillinger, an inspector withthe Ministry of the Environment in Owen Sound, Ont. She found ongoing problems with the JWalkerton waterworks in 1998, but her supervisor rejected her recommendation to take legal action. Among other things, inquiry lawyers allege Ms.

Zillinger did not thoroughly check the water records and had she done so, she might have realized that former manager Stan Koebel had falsified them. Ms McCaffrey calls the allegation "cockamamie." "It 'is an abuse of process, of powfcr, to send out a frivolous notice, said the lawyer, who wants the judge to quash Ms. Zillinger's 5-2 notice. "Brian Gover, an inquiry lawyer, firmly rejects the criticism. "We've adopted the fairest possible procedure," said Mr.

Gover. "The notices are given in order to secure procedural rights." Those rights include cross-examining witnesses and making submissions to Judge O'Connor. Other recipients will be watching closely to see how the Ontario Appeal Court justice rules. Privately, however, several of their lawyers, speaking on condi-tion of anonymity, question Ms. Zillinger's strategy.

"Why draw attention to your- and we just need to get them on their way home "Staff-Sergeant Dan Jones said. "There's only a few bad guys out there but they're being egged on by the crowd." pecially as Edmonton prepares to host the World Championships in Athletics next month. But Bill Smith, the Mayor, was on the radio early yesterday promising to ask the province to tighten opening hours. "We can't take the chance that this will happen again," he said, especially with the big athletics tournament so close. "It's really a black mark on our city.

We're going to have to have more police on the street here. It's obviously a hot spot and perhaps this is a bit of a warning." National Post, with files from The Canadian Press By 4 a.m., more than 30 noters it does have. "The improper disposal of hazardous waste poses serious environmental and human health risks," warned the review of the National Intelligence Section of Environment Canada's Office of Enforcement. "There is concern that non-compliance with the regulations is not being pursued." The probe found the section did not conduct a major investigation during the two-year period before 2000. Neither did it regularly perform routine functions such as sampling of truck shipments of hazardous waste to make sure they complied with regulations.

Environment Canada's enforcement attempts are "seriously impaired by its failure to routinely collect samples," said the review, conducted last year by EnPro Associates, a consulting firm. "The presence of Environment Canada staff, or appropriately trained customs officers, with the ability to sample, would greatly enhance the likelihood of detecting and apprehending violators and provide a general deterrence effect on those similarly inclined." While it did not directly say the staff is untrained in investigations, it urged the government to direct the section to "develop operational skills." There is evidence that some shipments were "occurring en had been arrested. Many were later released but police estimate about 20 have been charged with offences including rioting, taking part in an unlawful assembly, assaulting a peace officer, theft and public drunkenness. By 4:30 a.m., police had dis persed the mob except for a few drunken stragglers still looking mama jpiMmi.u Hi ll fft" JHaV II has the lure of the low dollar to draw waste north. Hazardous waste such as waste oil from factories is routinely trucked on the nation's highways, and tan be legal as long as it is not4tontaminated beyond certain levels by regulated substances.

Environment Canada officials have said in the past they suspect organized crime rings are dumping toxic waste, and the report suggested another way in which regulations get flouted. Some companies underbid on contracts then cannot afford the dumping fees to dispose of the waste legally, participants in an anonymous roundtable held by the consultants said. "These orphan wastes may be held or even undergo an identity change, at least on paper, until they can be brought back into the system and disposed," the report said. The documents were obtained under the Access to Information Act by researcher Ken Rubin. National Post budget reductions carried out during his tenure caused the disaster.

Mr. Sterling, who served in the position from August, 1996, until June, 1999, said: "I was the minister of environment for three years. I consider myself, as the minister, accountable to the public for everything that occurred in the ministry during that period of time." Mr. Sterling's testimony was in sharp contrast to that of Brenda Elliott, his predecessor in the environment portfolio. Ms.

Elliott described budget and policy initiatives as "team decisions" taken jointly by Cabinet, MPPs, ministers and civil servants. The Canadian Press for confrontation after nearly two-and-a-half hours of action. One man dressed in shorts and a red shirt, and with a Canadian flag around his neck was arrested as he refused police orders to leave Whyte Avenue. "I was there but I just stood and watched," the man cried as he was handcuffed. "I was walking away, I was going home." Minutes later, the man's brother was also arrested and charged with public drunkenness.

By 5 a.m., Whyte Avenue was quiet and about 30 police officers surveyed the garbage and glass-littered streets. "It's so disappointing," Wendy Suggitt, co-owner of Plush Skateboard and Snowboards, said later tirely outside the regulations," the report warned, while the lack of intelligence forced the department to rely on unverified data for the issuance of approvals and permits. A second departmental docu ment says "control of transborder ADRIAN WYl.D THE CANADIAN PRESS Ton' Szocik sweeps glass from a window broken during the riot. waste is still problematic.".