Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 30, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Punishment in t justified inmates say by Ritchie Gage two prisoners from heading Ley jail have charged that they Are being unjustly punished for their role in a prisoners grievance meeting at the medium Security institution. Brian Amoretti and Brian Morley Are currently serving their sentences in isolation cells at the provincial remand Centre at the Public safety building. The two were moved from Hea Dingley on March 5 and they claim the Transfer stems from their outspoken opinions about jail conditions at a prisoners grievance meeting feb. 27. The meeting in the jail gymnasium followed a four hour work stoppage by about two thirds of heading Ley s 300 prisoners. Legionnaire disease suspected suspicions that a woman who died at Concordia Hospital May have had Legionnaire s disease Are being checked by the provincial laboratories. Medical examiner or. Gilbert Welch said Jessie Sinclair an Elmwood woman in her Early 40 a died suddenly More than a week ago of pneumonia. She was declared dead on arrival at the Hospital in the Early morning hours after visiting her doctor earlier that Day. She had a very Short period of illness and had been Given antibiotics by her doctor that said Welch. Because of the rapid Onset of the pneumonia the Hospital pathologist suspected Legionnaire s disease. Welch said no other persons in the area have been reported ill. A postmortem is usually done when Ever a patient Dies outside a Hospital and the Case becomes the responsibility of the medical examiner. In this Case tissue samples and Cul Tures were sent to the provincial Laboratory and results Are expected in about a week. Legionnaire s disease baffled the medical world in 1976 when 31 Dele Gates to the american legion Conven Tion in Philadelphia died of a strange pneumonia like disease. The illness took its name from the Philadelphia scare and was later found to be contracted by up to people a year. James Reekie assistant director of corrections confirmed the grievance meeting took place but denied the allegations about the Transfer made through the prisoners lawyer Barry Sinder. We got information they Amoretti and Morley were muscling up other inmates for a takeover of the Reekie said. He said the free press was naive and was playing into the hands of the two prisoners who he said were looking for notoriety. I m not surprised they re taking this action they re boxed into a Cor he said. Sinder said Morley and Amoretti asked him to try and determine Why they Are serving time in the provincial remand Centre normally used for suspects awaiting court appearances in Stead of heading Ley. Sinder says he has written Manitoba corrections minister George Minaker for an explanation. My concerns Are that the men claim they Haven t been brought up on any breaches of jail regulations nor Given any explanation of Why they re serving their time in a remand Sinder said from the information he has it appears the men Are being punished for speaking out which is encouraged by the jail s administration. Reekie said the administration encourages grievance meetings and the complaints from the feb. 27 meeting were general and minor. The grievances Sinder said were about general conditions in the jail including medical treatment counsel Ling and conditions in the exercise Yard known As the Bird when first interviewed Reekie said Amoretti and Morley were among four prisoners transferred to the remand Centre As Security risks after some bars were sawn in the common areas of their cell Block. He said there Are 19 prisoners in the cell Block off the common area through a process of the administration decided Amoretti and Morley would gain most from escaping. He said Amoretti faces deportation to the United states when he is released shortly and Morley is being transferred to Ontario to face outstanding charges. Amoretti was sentenced on drug trafficking charges and Morley was jailed on numerous charges including break enter and theft and car theft Reekie said. Long distance Romance at taxpayers expense for almost five months a Young Winnipeg woman carried on a Long Dis Tance love affair with her jamaican boy Friend at the Manitoba taxpayers expense. By the time Manitoba Telephone system finally put an end to the Tele phone Romance the 20-year-old hotel housekeeper had rung up in Calls All charged to third party numbers. The woman pleaded guilty yesterday to theft of Telephone services and was placed on is months supervised Proba Tion and ordered to pay its restitution. Provincial court judge Charles Rubin told the woman a single Parent James free press who earns the minimum wage it is rather difficult to know what to do with he said to order her to repay the would create a Burden far greater than the offence warrants. However it seems unfair the taxpayers of Manitoba Are out of pocket and have to absorb the he added. He told the woman who immigrated to Canada from Jamaica in 1978, she was Lucky to be living in Canada and surely that s not a hospitable Way to act towards a country that has not Only Given you a Home but a Means of making a Winnipeg free press thursday april 30, 1981 3 Reid Boyle on crutches stands outside his part of the building at 519-525 Bannatyne Avenue with a Friend Brian Lohnes. Two move in out same Day several families forced to relocate after health inspectors Check suites by Tom Goldstein a welfare Mother and her son were moved out of a suite which had no Hydro water or toilet facilities Only hours after they had moved in yesterday. Russ Simmonds City welfare Deputy director said the move was made after his department was alerted by the health department which inspected the premises at 519-525 Bannatyne Avenue yesterday afternoon. The health department was called to the scene apparently by a neighbor after the Mother and son moved their be longings into the upstairs suite at 525 Bannatyne. The family and two others in adjoining duplexes were to be moved into hotels temporarily. They must then find their own permanent accommodations Simmonds said. "1 needed a room for my Geraldine Bunn 34, said explaining Why she and bar son 12, moved into 525 Sariha Tyne. I wanted him to have his own Bunn said the conditions of her new suite were about the same As those at 301 Gunnell Street where she had lived since last september. The rent there she said was a month. Both buildings Are owned by lawyer Ben Huckett a resident of Park Bou Levard North in Tuxedo. Bunn said she did t Call the City health department to complain. Officials from the health department were unavailable for comment yesterday. A Man who would Only identify him self As a neighbor telephoned the free press earlier yesterday to say people were being moved into a suite in the building that was t fit for habitation. Health inspection health officials had already been to the building by the time a free press reporter and photographer arrived. Huckett said in a Telephone inter View yesterday he had told Bunn not to move in until he had fixed the place up. I told her there d be no heat or water for a couple of he said. I would t let anyone live in Bunn said she moved in after being told by Huckett that he would make improvements. A tour of three of the units shortly before the welfare department took action revealed a bathroom toilet tank in the two Storey suite at 525 Banna Tyne lying shattered on the floor the Kitchen counter filthy and no Hydro or water. The living room window in the copied downstairs suite was covered with plastic the front and Back doors were wide open the Bottom two Steps to the Back Entrance were missing and the floors were littered with dirt and debris. On one Side the building s stippled Brick exterior was smashed leaving a Large gaping Hole which exposed the insulation. A month the empty adjoining unit at 523 Bannatyne is currently being advertised As eight rooms renting for its downstairs front room was littered with Glass Wood molding and cigarette Butts. The Kitchen floor was covered in dirt cardboard and empty food and Lysol containers As was the main second floor room. The. Large third Storey attic was littered with broken Glass. The bathroom sink faucet had no handles. There was a stench of excrement at the top of the stairway Between the first two storeys. Reid and Shirley Boyle said they have tried to make 521 Bannatyne As Homey As possible since they moved in near the beginning of the month. The couple from Pickle Lake ont., spent the previous month living in the health sciences Centre where their daughter Tracy had been flown for treatment of severe Burns suffered when her Nightgown caught fire. They moved into the Bannatyne Avenue duplex after doctors said the girl would have to spend about a year in Hospital. The two year old child died april 17. The Boyles plan to stay in Winnipeg with their other three Young children. One of the living room window panes in their suite is covered with plastic and wire. The top of the window is covered with plywood. It s cold and mrs. Boyle said. When the family first moved in the floor was like someone pulled up the Road outside and moved it said Boyle whose leg is in a cast. The couple said they have been try ing to leave the duplex but Huckett is demanding one month s notice. Al though welfare was paying for that bathroom of a suite at 525 Bannatyne Avenue. Accommodation the family does not have enough rent another Home. The Boyles said welfare has with held the rent because Huckett has not made certain repairs to the premises. Huckett said yesterday he did not know about the welfare department s decision to move the families until a reporter told him. Huckett blamed the condition of suites at 523-525 Bannatyne on vandals who broke in and stole some of the heating and plumbing. The place was locked up i keep Locking it up. It s the people in the area he said he would not allow anyone to move into 523 Bannatyne until it was cleaned up. Huckett refused to answer other questions saying he did not have to submit to was Ono May now soon but Only for exclusive clientele fare warning William delve a Winnipeg transit employee installs new fare notices on City buses. As of tomorrow adults will pay 60 cents children and senior citizens passes Are a Winnipeg gasohol company expects to Start Selling its product within weeks but Only a select group of 100 will be Able to Purchase the mixture. The gasohol will Only be sold to participants in the Canadian methanol Canadien s Market acceptability test. We re testing customers rather than equipment or Csc chairman Cam Osier said adding government can do scientific testing if it wants but considerable technical literature Al ready is available. Osier said yesterday he expects sales if not next week certainly very shortly the gasohol will be sold at the Domo Gas bar at Madison Street and Ness Avenue for half a cent to one cent a litre less than gasoline. The pumps in which the gasohol will be blended from separate methanol and gasoline tanks Are now being calibrated in preparation for opening Day. Csc advertised for participants for its gasohol test and has received More than 100 applicants whose cars will be identified with a Windshield sticker. If you Don t have the sticker you cannot buy the gasohol. In conjunction with the gasohol 90 per cent gasoline 10-per-cent Metha nol test which will last for a year Csc plans to have 10 or 11 cars running on pure methanol. Half Price Sale methanol is being sold to those participating in the test at 15 cents a litre although Csc is buying it at the world Price of 28 cents a litre. It has to be sold at half the Price of gasoline because it produces Only half the Energy of gasoline Osier said. Mileage variance on gasohol is so Small Ordinary Drivers can t even detect Csc is willing to take the loss on the test methanol because it wants to con Vince the Federal government to regu late methanol below the world Price just As it does Oil natural Gas and propane. A demonstration will help. The company is seeking a rebate from the provincial government of the 4.6-cent-a-litre tax on gasoline. The rebate now applies Only to fuels containing Grain produced ethanol. If Csc wins the its gasohol would be commercially viable because there is Only 2.8 cents Worth of Metha nol in every litre of fuel and the full 4.6-cent tax would be gone. If the tax is rebated the profits from commercially successful gasohol could be used to subsidize More pure methanol cars Osier said. A Carrot Csc is dangling before the province is the Prospect of a methanol Plant near Winnipeg should gasohol be a commercial Success. The Plant would produce a minimum of 22 million litres of methanol a year. Csc is 50-per-cent owned by inter City Gas co. Ltd., with the other 50 per cent held by six holding companies. Osier said Csc has invested More than in its methanol develop ment program to Date ;