Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 17, 2004, Winnipeg, Manitoba Saturday july 17, 2004 the Best of both worlds. B1 acus variable City editor capped mortgage. Steve Pona 697-7292 1-877 958-8588 family notices b8 City & District arson rampage alleged Man 19, charged in 23 fires including Niagara Street inferno Paul Samyn Loose lips threaten to sink museum i Srael Asper was Many things. He was a broadcasting Baron Winnipeg Booster jazz Lover Brilliant tax lawyer big thinker Good Liberal father Grandfather ? the list goes on and on. But when it came to his last dream his vision of a $200-million National human rights museum to be built in his Home City Asper was secretive to the Point of paranoia. I a not sure whether his brain child had a code name but the very Small Circle of those operating on a strictly need to know basis used to liken it to the Manhattan project Dur ing its formative stages. Within ministerial offices the museum proposal was treated with the same level of Security As Cabinet documents. When the free press started writing about Asper a plans Long before he was ready to talk publicly about them he assembled Mani Tobas grit maps and in a fit of rage demanded to know the identity of the rat who was leaking the details. He even went to Federal court in a bid to Block the release of documents about his project which the govern ment had determined should have been made Public under the Access to information act. And one Day Asper called me from his Palm Beach Retreat pleading that i hold off on writing another Story about his museum pitch to Ottawa even going As far As to Promise me an exclusive at some later Date if i granted him his wish. As tempting As Asper a offer was i ver never been much at keeping secrets so the Story ran on our front Page the next morning. Now As eccentric As Asper May have been his obsession with hush hushing his Hope for the Forks was not without foundation. He knew what an Uphill Battle he faced in trying to land a National institution in his Prairie City. He realized there were critics everywhere ready to shoot at it if it Ever landed on the radar screen. And he under stood that other cities primarily Toronto would try to steal the idea if the Asper aspiration became known before a funding Deal was signed and sealed with the Federal government. Enough background. Lets now turn to the Way Asper a play it Safe strategy has been Practised less than a year after his pass ing. Within the past two weeks those tasked with carrying through on his ambition seem to have forgotten what the old Man wanted. Suddenly the sky was falling even though Asper had signed a Deal with Ottawa that gave him until 2009 to raise Money for the project. Played out on the front pages of our paper ? and echoed elsewhere in Media accounts across the City and country ? were big questions about Federal support for the project. The museum we were All told was at a Crossroads with any further delays jeopardizing its momentum. On Cue former heritage minister Sheila Copps jumped into the fray eager to use any Opportunity to slam Paul Martin and Praise Jean Chretien who had initially backed Izzy a project. Continued please see museum b2 by Bruce Owen a 19-year-old Man was charged yesterday with setting 23 fires Over the past week including the one that severely damaged three Homes on Niagara Street in an arson spree that caused $3 million in dam Ages. The suspect was arrested at his Roslyn Road apartment after an intensive probe led investigators with the arson strike Force to him police said yesterday. Christopher Leo Fillion remains in custody charged with 23 counts of arson to property and two counts of arson with disregard for human life. It took a bit of work fire investigator Ken Swan said. Good Fortune and Good police work sometimes Cross police say the suspect is believed to have set almost two dozen fires Between july 9 and july 14 in the worse Ley River Heights and Osborne Village areas. No one was injured in any of the blazes. Const. Bob Johnson said most of the fires were confined to garbage bins with some spreading to garages vehicles and the three Homes on Niagara. Johnson said police believe the suspect Rode his bicycle around the City late at night and set fires almost at will. In a Telephone interview with the free press last night Fillion said he was Liv ing alone in a Roslyn Road apartment on a monitored Independent living pro Gram ? established after he left the care of child and family services ? when he was arrested. Fillion said he spent his youth mov ing from Foster Home to Foster Home after his Mother put him in care due to his out of control behaviour at the age of nine. Continued please see arson rampage b2 Mike Aporius / Winnipeg free press leap Frog Hannah Baziuk 7, Robbie Kuhn 10, and Mike Baziuk Hannah a brother10, catch frogs yesterday afternoon at Kings Park in fort Richmond. Environment Canada reported yesterdays High reached 26.8 c. The Trio would find today a conditions equally As suitable to the study of swamp life with a forecast High of 29 a Light wind and a Low tonight of 18 c. election Church casualties will be Are finding reborn ways to help As condos by Mary Agnes Welch two failed candidates in last months rash of elections Are each hoping to set up inner City agencies to help the poor. Eight units to sell As High As $300k David Northcott former Boss of win Ken Gigliotti / Winnipeg free press Nipes Harvest and the Liberal candidate Haber and his partner have grand plans for the Osborne Village Church. In Winnipeg Centre wants to help people by David Obrien navigate the bureaucracies that govern years. Haber said. The welfare workers compensation he said they Are turning the impose neither Man has any experience in pension and Long term disability sys two men with no experience in real estate development have purchased a ing building into eight condominiums development but Haber said they tems. On two Levels. The units will Range in weren to worried. He said people often fall through the landmark Church on River Avenue in size from 1,350 Square feet to 3,000 this is a great neighbourhood. Its cracks failing to get the benefits they Osborne Village and plan to convert Square feet with prices starting at close to downtown to Corydon need and ending up in emergency Shel it into High end condominiums. Ben Haber owner of Haber Suzuki $175,000 and rising to $300,000 for the Avenue he said. There a obviously a ters or at the food Bank where staff biggest suites. Market ? we were convinced of Don to have the resources to act As one and Steve freed owner of the cloth he said the acquisition was based on one advocates or Case managers. Ing store freed and freed internal partly on a whim one Day last year both he and freed plan to buy con the Agency would also act a bit like a tonal took Possession of first when he spotted the for Sale sign Dos in the Complex once its compleat think tank pushing for improvements Church of Christ scientist 511 River while driving on River. De sometime next year. To the social safety net said Northcott. Ave., last May. Haber would to disclose the Price i thought to myself its a unique building in a great area of town and continued continued except to say it was the most paid for something should be done with it please see condos b2 please see casualties b2 a Church in Winnipeg in the last 10 , i a ? 7?i a a ;