National Post from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 1

NATOAL VOL.2 NO. 27 A FRIDAY' Ring religion' JJ 4f! Sikh boxer Pardeep Nagra resists official 1 NOVEMBER 26, 1999 500 taxes) f. Unrepentant Jack Ramsay says he won't step down as an MP. Page A3 entreaties that he shave. Pag-e 514 a I Meet Canada's newest spacewoman: a Zellers worker from Windsor Martin refuses to bade PM's Quebec strategy nents, who accuse him of breathing new energy into the separatist camp when its cause is currently unpopular among Quebecers.

Mr. Chretien said federalist leaders such as Joe dark, the leader of the Conservatives, and Reform's Preston Manning, as well as Quebec's political establishment, are absolutely wrong to believe Mr. Bouchard is afraid to hold a third referendum on sovereignty. In denouncing the Chretien initiative to lay down democratic rules for the next referendum, the opposition leaders and Jean Charest, the Quebec Liberal party leader, say Mr. Chretien is reviving separatist fortunes.

See MAR TIN on Page A12 It' era ta I 1 I I 3nr I I civ xj A JASON KRYK THE WINDSOR STAR yesterday upon learning she won a of Windsor, bursts into tears was a prize in a Zellers fundraiser co Influential Desmarais family has ties to Sudan SEPARATISTS 'NOT SLEEPING' Chretien camp angered by apparent lack of backing By Joel-Denis Bellavance in Ottawa and Robert Fife in St. John's Paul Martin, the highest-ranking federal minister from Quebec who is also considered the front-runner in the unofficial Liberal leadership race, refused for a third straight day yesterday to endorse Jean Chretien's plan to set the rules for the next referendum on Quebec secession. Mr. Martin, the Finance Minister, refused to comment when asked by reporters outside the House of Commons on whether or not he supports the prime minister's decision to introduce a tough federal measure to clarify the rules of the next referendum battle. The decision to pointedly avoid publicly supporting the prime minister's position angered senior Liberals in the Chretien camp, some of whom openly interpret Mr.

Martin as being at odds with Mr. Chretien on the unity debate. In St. John's yesterday, Mr. Chretien warned that the separatist Parti Quebecois is trying to lull Canadians into a false sense of security about Quebec's future in Canada as Lucien Bouchard, the Quebec Premier, is quietly plotting the province's secession.

In a counterattack against critics of his plan to set out democratic conditions for the next referen dum, Mr. Chretien scolded oppo- INSIDE Portfolio shuffle Canada's stock exchanges will re organize themselves starting next week. The Toronto exchange, led by Barbara Stymiest, above, gets senior stocks, Montreal gets de rivatives and a Western exchange gets junior stocks. Page Cl Meanwhile the TSE hit a record high yesterday. Page Dl Atlantic progress Inco proposes to build a major plant in Newfoundland.

Page Cl sponsored with the Cystic Fibrosis oil projects. Canada has also been harshly criticized for not putting sanctions on Sudan. The government has appointed a special envoy to investigate the allegations and is awaiting that report before deciding if sanctions are warranted. Calgary's Talisman Energy has a project in Sudan and has faced the brunt of international criticism for continuing to work in the African country. However, two other Canadian-linked companies also have ties to Sudan Lundin Oil and Power Corp.

Paul Desmarais Power chairman, is a director of Paul Wells, Page AI2 HIGHESTCOURT SIDES WITH OTTAWA IN RAPERULING JUDGES TO WEIGH PRIVACY By Luiza Chwialkowska The Supreme Court of Canada yesterday ended five years of disagreement between lawmakers and the judiciary over whether private psychiatric or medical records of victims of sexual assault can be made available to defence lawyers. In a near-unanimous ruling, the court upheld a law that prevents the automatic disclosure of therapeutic records but allows trial judges to give access only after considering the privacy right of the alleged victim. "The right of the accused to make full answer and defence is a core principle of fundamental justice," wrote Beverly McLachlin and Frank Iacobucci for the 7-1 majority. "But it does not automatically entitle the accused to gain access to information contained in the private records of complainants and witnesses." The case was brought before the Supreme Court by a teenage Edmonton girl, referred to in court documents only as L.C. She appealed a ruling of Alberta's Court of Queen's Bench that would have eased the way for Brian Mills, her alleged assailant, to seek records of a psychological therapy session she had undergone at age 13, shortly after the alleged assault on July 12, 1995.

"My client is delighted. She fought very hard for this," Mary Marshall, the girl's lawyer, said yesterday. "The court said that Parliament had struck a balance between the rights of the accused and the rights of the victim." See COURT on Page A2 Extortion ruling, Page A4 draw for a flight into space in 2003. Foundation. Story, Page A10 TotalFina SA, a French oil com' pany with a large play in Sudan.

Power Corp. is also one of To-talFina's biggest shareholders. It will indirectly own 3.3 of the company once TotalFina com pletes a merger with another French oil giant, Elf Aquitame. Mr. Desmarais' involvement in TotalFina is part of a series of deals in Europe with Albert Frere, a Belgian tycoon.

The two men have been business associates since the early 1980s and today Power Corp. and Mr. Frere's company control several European companies through a partnership. Mr. Desmarais' son Andre is married to the daughter of Jean Chretien, the Prime Minister.

Andre and his brother Paul Jr. co-head Power Financial a subsidiary of Power Corp. See SUDAN on Page A8 More coverage, Pages A8, A9 function as the home of CBC radio for the Prairies before CBC Saskatchewan was moved to Regina after 1947. The fallout shelter was built several years later to protect staff should a nuclear attack be launched at Canada. On Jan.

31, two people will be dispatched to the now-unstaffed site to broadcast survival information in case telephone lines and satellite communications from Regina, which is about 200 kilometres southwest from Watrous, break down. See BUNKER on PageA4 Broadcasting live from underneath Zellers employee Karen DeWolfe The three-hour, sub-orbital flight LAWYER BLAMES GROPING BINGE ON BRAIN TUMOUR HE'S ON MEDICAL LEAVE By Anne Kingston and francine dube A partner at a major Canadian law firm, who groped a number of female colleagues during drunken company social event last weekend, is blaming his er ratic behaviour on a possible brain tumour. Thomas Haythe, a presiding partner of Toronto's Tory Haythe law firm, was placed on permanent medical leave after complaints from female staff about his inappropriate remarks and actions during an evening of wining and dining last Friday. Yesterday, Les Viner, the law firm's managing partner, confirmed rumours sweeping the city's legal community that the disgraced attorney has proffered a medical explanation for his crude conduct. "He told me on Saturday that he jas being tested for a brain tumour," Mr.

Viner said. "I didn't know before that." Mr. Haythe, 60, a prominent New York City lawyer, had recently led his firm, Haythe Curley, into a merger with heavyweight Toronto legalists Tory Tory DesLauriers Binnington. The deal, completed on Oct. 4, was widely trumpeted as "the first combination of substantial Canadian and U.S.

law firms." Last weekend's social events in Toronto were part of a "getting to know you" gathering, to introduce the firm's 225 Canadian lawyers, including Bill Davis, former premier of Ontario, to their 75 New York-based colleagues. American staff flew to Toronto at the end of their workday to attend small dinner parties at the homes of senior partners. Later in the evening, a large group of lawyers met up for a bar crawl in the city's downtown club district. See PARTNER on PageA19 Comment, Page A19 TOTALFINA'S OIL INTEREST By Paul Waldie, Claudia Cattaneo and katiiryn leger Canada's involvement in Sudan goes beyond one oil company and includes links to Montreal's powerful and politically connected Desmarais family. Sudan's government has been condemned recently by the United Nations and the United States for sponsoring terrorism and killing its own people to keep money flowing from local Tabersuspect fights for his life after heart surgery By Suzanne Wilton CALGARY The teenager accused of killing one boy and wounding another youth in last April's high-school shooting in Taber, is fighting for his life in an Edmonton hospital after complications from heart surgery.

the lawyer for the 15-year-old boy will ask today for an indefinite postponement of a transfer hearing that is to determine if he will be tried in adult court. The hearing was to begin on Jan. 6. He is unable, both physically and mentally, to attend court and participate in the proceedings," Baltour Der said yesterday, de scribing his client's condition as grave. The teenager suffered complica tions during open-heart surgery a couple of weeks ago, Mr.

Der said. He would not explain why the surgery was needed nor what led to the complications, in order to protect the privacy of the boy's family. He gravely ill, Mr. Der said. It's expected that the situation could remain this way for a period of time." See TABER on PageA2 CBC'S Y2K DISASTER PLAN By Adam Killick watrous, sask.

TheCanadi-an Broadcasting Corporation will be sending an on-air host and technician to an isolated Saskatchewan transmitter site complete with fallout shelter for New Year's Eve in case Y2K problems cause a major breakdown in communications. The site, near Watrous, used to INDEX ARTS LIFE AVENUE CANADA CAM COLE COMICS COMMENT CROSSWORD DRIVER'S EDGE EDITORIALS B1 BIO A4 B14 CW A16 CI9 El A17 FP INVESTING HOROSCOPE LETTERS MARKET WRAP SCOREBOARD SPORTS TORONTO TV LISTINGS WEATHER WORLD Dl C19 AT7 D2 B18 B14 A19 B7 C9 AO FINANCIAL POST Cl Published or the proprietor, The National Post Company, 300-14s0donmills Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B3R6 Now, when you open or transfer an RRSP (or RRIF) CX'V'N w'111 a rninimum value $20,000 with us, you won't I) I mT jJT pay a cent in annual administration fees for the life of wVw wAw the account. Plus, we'll even reimburse you up to $100 i s'Nrf in transfer fee costs per account. Call: 1-888-597-9999 fVTl Web: I I I i jjr'T E-mail: nofeerrspschwabcanada.com CMesjjfji Member -CIPF Canada jc cm "tie wwwviawir.