National Post from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 8

A8 nationalpost.com CANADA NATIONAL POST, FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 2009 Police save elderly Vancouver man trapped in well for four days Police on Vancouver Island saved an elderly man who SEARCH AND RESCUE two-foot-wide well shaft. "After speak- was trapped for four days northern Vancouver Island they were contacted just resident Barry Christenson, missing friend, Bob Bennett, eral days since he had heard Legault resignation latest blow for PO BY GRAEME HAMILTON MONTREAL The end of June, when the fleur-de-lys is flown from balconies and face-painted on children across Quebec to celebrate the Nationale, is usually a high-spirited time for the Parti But after starting the week with an embarrassing byelection loss on nationalist turf, the separatist party reeled from an even worse blow yesterday when one of its most respected 1 members announced he is quitting politics. Legault, a successful entrepreneur who entered politics in 1998 to serve in the Cabinet of then-premier Lucien Bouchard, said he detects little appetite among Quebecers for an audacious project such as the creation of an independent nation. And he warned that Quebec has entered a troubling slide that has it losing ground against other North American states and provinces. "I leave," he said, "worried for the future of Quebec, worried because I sense that Quebec has begun a tranquille and this, unfortunately, too often in resignation and indifference." His phrase was a play on the tranquille, or Quiet Revolution, Quebec's modernizing push of the 1960s.

Mr. Legault, who was a cofounder and president of Air Transat before taking on the education and health portfolios in PQ governments, offered a rare business voice in the social-democratic party. Having taken out his first PQ membership card in 1973, at the age of 16, he was committed to the cause of independence. Yesterday he complained of the "apathy" he senses in the population, toward not just sovereignty but the serious social and economic challenges facing Quebec. He drew attention to the persistent wealth gap between Quebec and the rest of North America, saying the province needs to invest more in education and adopt a tax regime more favourable to business.

The resignation comes with the PQ already on the defensive, having recently fallen behind Premier Jean Charest's Liberals in the polls and its loss in Monday's byelection in to the Liberals. (The Liberals also won.a second byelection in a Montreal riding that they were heavily favoured to retain.) PQ leader Pauline Marois' latest sovereignty plan which involves reclaiming powers from Ottawa piece by piece, through referendums if necessary -seemed to fall flat with voters. Ms. Marois made no attempt to sugar-coat the seriousness of Mr. Legault's loss to her party.

She had asked him to reconsider his decision to abandon politics, a little more than six months after the last election, but he said he was not prepared to serve another three to four years in opposition. "This decision saddens me because I'm losing a precious member of my team," Ms. Marois said. The PQ leader bristled, however, at the suggestion that the departure was a symptom of a party on the rocks. Mr.

Charest called Mr. Legault a "seasoned parliamentarian" and said the PQ had lost its only spokesman on economic matters. Mr. Legault is expected to return to the business world but not before a lengthy vacation with his wife and two teenaged sons. National Post in a well shaft.

Police in the community of Port Alice said before midnight on Tuesday by who was concerned about his 84, pictured. "It had been sevfrom, or seen Bob," said RCMP Corporal Darren A. Lagan in a news release on Wednesday. "Christenson had gone to Bob's home, and found Bob's dog home alone, and other items left behind, which indicated Bob had not planned to be away for any length of time." Mr. Bennett spent four days trapped in an eight-foot-deep, rovincial Court British Columb Lynn Frey, stepmother of deceased Marnie Frey, was at a as Robert "Willie" Pickton's six murder convictions COMMENT Pickton verdict stands despite mistakes Pickton was eligible for conviction, whether or not jurors believed he had acted alone.

Unfortunately, Judge Williams offered conflicting instruction on this point. He left the jury confused, something he understood after jurors paused in their deliberations to ask him a question: Could they convict Pickton if they determined he had acted "indirectly" in a death? The question set off alarms. Judge Williams realized he'd messed up with his charge. "I considered that there was an obligation on me to correct the error once I realized that it had been made," he told the court in a last-minute ruling, after the problem had crystallized. "Defence counsel was adamantly opposed to my re-instructing the jury.

He submitted that to do so at that late stage would cause irreparable damage to the integrity I considered that there was an obligation on me to correct the error of this trial and tremendous prejudice to Mr. It is true that the re-instruction was less favourable to the accused than the original While unfortunate, it was not unfair." In its 2-1 split decision yesterday, the B.C. Court of Appeal accepted this analysis. The judge's mistake and his re-instruction to jurors were indeed unfortunate, but the result was not unfair. In his reasons, Appeal Court Justice Richard Low noted that the trial judge had an obligation to clarify for jurors the matter of liability.

"It would have been an error for the trial judge to leave only the sole perpetrator theory as a means of establishing criminal liability against the appellant for the murders," he wrote. "The judge acted correctly to provide the jury with an instruction that ing with Mr. Bennett, it appears he was attempting to locate a water source on his property at the time he entered the dry well shaft in which he became trapped," said Cpl. Lagan. Canwest News Service NATIONAL REPORT OTTAWA EXPANDS ENVIRONMENTAL EXEMPTIONS FOR STIMULUS PROJECTS Ottawa The potential number of stimulus projects the federal government is exempting from environmental assessment has risen from 2,000 to as many as 12,000, according to environmental groups that are challenging the government's policy in the courts.

Ecojustice and Sierra Club Canada amended their lawsuit in the Federal Court this week to include new figures they obtained from updated regulations published by the government in May. The government says it is simply cutting red tape on projects that do not pose a risk to the environment, but the environmentalists are worried the government is permanently retreating from environmental oversight. "We think that the recession shouldn't be used as an excuse to create a massive environmental debt," Ecojustice lawyer Justin Duncan said in an interview yesterday. Canwest News Service H1N1 AMONG ABORIGINALS TROUBLING: PM Prime Minister Stephen Harp- called H1N1, has infected more er called the spread swine flu than 6,700 Canadians in every among aboriginal Canadians a province and territory, and has major concern yesterday. "We been linked to 19 deaths in this are very concerned, ob- country.

According to viously, about HIN1 gen- the Assembly of First erally and, in particu- Nations, aboriginal lar, the high incidence people represent a we've seen in aborig- disproportionate inal communities, number of the severe particularly in Mani- cases of swine flu toba," Mr. Harper among the 458 Manisaid in Halifax. tobans who have The swine the virus. Canwest flu, also News Service ARLEN REDEKOP CANWEST NEWS SERVICE Vancouver court yesterday were upheld. embraced the law of co-principal." The evidence presented at trial, he added, "supported the conclusion that the appellant committed each of the killings or that he actively participated in each of them (or one or more of them) in concert with another person." Judge Williams did fail to instruct jurors on the law of aiding and abetting, but this oversight was not enough to nullify the six second-degree murder convictions, the appeal court justice noted.

Appeal Court Justice Lance Finch concurred. In his dissenting report, Appeal Court Justice Ian Donald wrote that the failure to instruct jurors on aiding and abetting "created a miscarriage of justice. I would order a new trial." He also described as "somewhat curious" the jury's verdict; some trial observers, on the other hand, have called Pickton's acquittals on firstdegree murder and his six second-degree murder convictions a reasonable compromise, given certain gaps in the Crown's case. The lack of a co-accused, for example. As things stand, Mr.

Pickton remains in prison and cannot apply for a parole hearing until the year 2032. It would also seem reasonable that, while Pickton remains charged with another 20 murder counts, the Crown does not wish to pursue the matter any further. But it could. The Court of Appeal justices unanimously sided with the Crown in its cross-appeal, agreeing that Judge Williams should not have severed Pickton's 26 murder charges into two separate trials. Although it won the argument, the Crown has indicated it will not proceed to a second trial on the remaining 20 murder counts.

Unless, of course, Pickton chooses to appeal his six convictions before the Supreme Court of Canada and wins a new trial. The Crown would then use yesterday's ruling to have Pickton tried on all 26 murder counts, combined. Some relatives of the deceased won't be satisfied unless that happens. One has to pity the families of the other 20 women whom Pickton stands accused of murdering; he hasn't been held to account for their deaths. No one has.

But pity, too, any judge and jury assigned to a second Pickton mass murder trial. More charges, more evidence, and months perhaps years more time in court. And far more room for error. National Post NEW ALBERTA DRUG LAW LEADS TO IN PROPERTY SEIZURES IN SIX MONTHS Calgary Authorities in Alberta have seized worth of property from suspected gang members in the six months since a new law targeting proceeds of crime took effect. Justice Minister Alison Redford announced the figure yesterday in Calgary.

Ms. Redford hailed legislation as an example of how collaboration has brought success. Police wanted tougher legislation and the government responded, Ms. Redford said. Property seized so far includes vehicles and homes that have been restrained by the court, and may ultimately be forfeited to the Crown.

SolicitorGeneral Fred Lindsay said: is a pretty good hit to those folks who work outside the law." Canwest News Service CZECH ROMA MINORITY DOES NOT FACE STATE-SPONSORED DISCRIMINATION: KENNEY BRIAN HUTCHINSON in Vancouver all the people who held their breath before yesterday's appeal court decision to uphold Robert "Willie" Pickton's six murder convictions, Justice James Williams might now be the most relieved. He is the Supreme Court of British Columbia judge who presided over the lengthy mass murder trial in 2007, and who made a near-disastrous mistake in his jury charge 18 months ago. He is the judge who almost blew the Pickton trial. His gaffe which he flagged himself and then sought to repair, suspending jury deliberations in the process was to give inconsistent instructions about criminal liability. Judge Williams made other errors, too, the appeal court determined yesterday.

But Pickton's request for a retrial was turned down in a split decision. The result still leaves the 60-year-old killer the right to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. Judge Williams' instructions in late 2007 muddled whether jurors could find Pickton guilty of murder if they weren't convinced that the pig farmer was the sole perpetrator. Few trial observers accepted that Pickton acted alone, or without others knowing, when over several years he a) lured downtrodden women to the suburban pig farm that he shared with his brother; b) murdered six women; c) dismembered their bodies; and d) disposed of their remains on his farmland. Suspicions still swirl around some of his associates; however, the Crown has never presented a co-accused.

No matter. According to the law, and in the judge's mind, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, pictured, says a newly released report supports his contention that the Roma minority in the Czech Republic, which has emerged as a major source of refugee claimants in Canada, doesn't face state-sanctioned discrimination. "The report, as I've read it, says there are difficulties for Roma in the Czech Republic, we all know that, but the government is doing its best to improve the legal treatment of, and economic opportunities for, members of that community," Mr. Kenney said yesterday. The Czech Republic, has emerged as one of Canada's top sources of refugees, well ahead of wartorn and ethnically-divided countries such as Sri Lanka and Somalia.

Canwest News Service RCMP ALLEGEDLY HANDCUFFED GIRL, 11 The RCMP are investigating a complaint that an 11-year-old girl was handcuffed and held in a jail cell for two hours in a small community in the Northwest Territories. "Why handcuff her? She was co-operating, she wasn't a threat to them," said her mother, who filed the complaint against the RCMP on Wednesday. Sergeant Brad Kaeding said the police were assisting social services, who believed there was a party in a house while children were present in April in Fort Resolution. When the officers arrived on the scene, they saw two men, known to police, run into the house and lock the door, according to Sgt. Kaeding.

The officers didn't know what they would encounter and entered the house with their guns drawn, he said. "Just because somebody is 11 years old, we're not going to assume she's just playing with Barbie dolls." Sgt. Kaeding said the RCMP uses the amount of force necessary when people being arrested are not co-operative. Canwest News Service MARKHAM STOUFFVILLE HOSPITAL RECEIVES FOR EXPANSION PROJECT Toronto The Ontario government announced yesterday that it will provide to support the expansion of the Markham Stouffville Hospital. The funding will be used for the design and planning of the redevelopment project, which includes both renovations and new construction.

During the construction phase, the project is expected to create hundreds of jobs, the government said. The expanded hospital will include more than 300 beds, allow for more than 100,000 clinic visits and accommodate more than 67,000 emergency room visits per year, the release said. The province estimated construction will begin in late 2010. Canwest News Service.