“Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back” 53 days ‘til Relay for Life, May 26th.
WORD ON STREET
SPRING CONCERT
Your thoughts on Earth Hour.
Recorda Borealis finds a spring tune at Logpile Lodge.
ENTERTAINMENT/A14 T
NEWS/A7 S
THE INTERIOR NEWS 105th th Year - Week 14
Smithers,, B.C.
Wednesday, y, April p 4,, 2012
www.interior-news.com
Single g Copy py • $1.34 (($1.20 $1.20 + 14¢ HST))
Final arguments in Leuenberger trial By Andrew Hudson Smithers/Interior News S
OUR TOWN Robbins brings leather to life.
OUR TOWN/A5
INSIDE OUR TOWN A5 LETTERS A7 COMMUNITY A9 SPORTS A11 THREE RIVERS B1 CLASSIFIEDS B4
FEATURES RAYZ BOARDSHOP A5
WEATHER Wednesday HIGH: 8 LOW: -1
Thursday
Dan Mesec/Interior News
Precious Powder Pigs, Debi Smith, Sandi Vestvik and Elaine Hougan strike a pose before getting ready for their run at the 28th Annual Schuss Boomer at Hudson Bay Mountain, Saturday morning.
HIGH: 8 LOW: -1
Friday HIGH: 10 LOW: -2
Saturday HIGH: 10 LOW: -1
Sunday HIGH: 11 LOW: 0
Nearly eight years after p police started investigating a Houston accountant for allegedly defrauding more than $800,000 d ffrom a Moricetown logging ccompany, the resulting trial is ffinally nearing a close. The accountant, Susan Gail Leuenberger, faces criminal charges on three counts: theft over $5,000, ffraud over $5,000, and making a false entry in an accounting jjournal. The offences allegedly occurred between 1999 and 2004, when b Leuenberger’s Pleasant Valley Accounting was handling accounts A ffor Kyah Industries Ltd., a logging ccompany run by the Moricetown band. b “How this case came before us iis very unusual,” said Ian Lawson, tthe lawyer defending Leuenberger iin a Smithers courtroom last Tuesday. What is unusual about the case, Lawson said, is that from 2006 to 2008, Leuenberger defender herself and gave testimony in a civil trial
launched by Kyah Industries without knowing that she was also under a police investigation and would likely face criminal charges. “Had I known that I would be facing a criminal charge as well as a civil lawsuit, I would have handled the civil trial differently,” Leuenberger said in a sworn affidavit, adding she would have kept a lawyer for advice if she had known she faced the possibility of jail. “Now having received that advice from my current counsel, I realize I likely incriminated myself in the civil trial,” she said. That issue was front and centre Tuesday, when Honourable Justice John Milne had to decide whether the Crown counsel could crossexamine Leuenberger on testimony she gave in the civil trial. Citing a recent Supreme Court of Canada case on the same issue, Justice Milne ruled that because Leuenberger gave her testimony voluntarily, she could be questioned about it for the limited purpose of raising any contradictions. See TRIAL on Page A4
Telkwa council hedges bet on Enbridge Percy N. Hébert Smithers/Interior News
The Village of Telkwa council is one of few communities along Highway 16 without a position on the proposed Enbridge pipeline and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Opinions regarding
the proposed pipeline were mixed, but Councillor Rimas Zitkauskas made his position clear at the outset of the discussion. “We weren’t elected to decide on what’s best for Canada, what’s best for the province of British Columbia, or for the
oil industry or for Enbridge and we’re definitely not here to decide what’s best for our foreign trading partners,” Zitkauskas said to begin the discussion. “However we do sit here to decide what’s best for Telkwa. “We need to consider there will be
two pipelines built within 80 kilometres of our village that will cross the headwaters of the Morice which is where we draw our drinking water. “In the best interests of Telkwa and solely in the best interests of Telkwa, I’m not in favour of the Enbridge project,”
Zitkauskas said. In response, Carmen Graf, mayor of the Village of Telkwa, said he felt council didn’t have a responsibility to become involved in the debate surrounding the proposed pipeline. “Just because the rest of the
communities west of us have come out in opposition, there’s no reason we should,” Graf said. “I don’t make decisions on what if or what could happen, we have to make decisions on what’s best for today and for this community.” See RISK on Page A3
Wishing you an Egg-ceptionally Happy Easter!
see page A-16