6 National News

The Cadre

¢ 12 January 1999

By DARREN STEWART

VICTORIA (CUP) - A student at the University of Victoria was still missing last week after more than two weeks in what police are describing as a suspicious case.

Steven McLaughlin was reported missing on Dec. 23 after he failed to show upathis parents’ house for the Christmas holidays.

Police say he was last seen the day before, and hasn’t checked his answer- ing machine, accessed his bank account or used his vehicle since then.

“Everything he has is here,” said officer Paul Morrison, of the Saanich di- vision of the Royal Cana- dian Mounted Police.

“We have to be suspi- cious. Wecan’trule out sui- cide, his just taking a holiday or even foul play.”

Search and rescue teams have combed the uni- versity area and the sur- rounding brush and beaches with helicopters in the hopes of learning something about McLaughlin’s whereabouts. But they’ ve had little luck.

University of Victoria student missing

“This is strange for any case. I mean, where is he? We have nothing attached to this person to lean on,” said Morrison.

A psychology profes- sor who was the last person to see McLaughlin says he was on campus that day look- ing into on-campus employ- ment.

McLaughlin held down several jobs at the university and volunteered periodically for the campus radio sta- tion.

Police say they’re hop- ing that with all the people who knew McLaughlin through his various connec- tions to the university, some- body will be able to give them aclue about what hap- pened.

The university’s own security department would also like to get to the bottom

“of the case.

“Tt’s primarily a police investigation,” said Ken Marrison, assistant director of campussecurity services. “But we’ re offering any sort of assistance or information they need to find this gentle- man.

Legal defence fund for APEC protesters growing

By CARLA TONELLI

TORONTO (CUP) -- Uni- versity faculty across Canada are boosting a nation-wide movement of support for stu- dent protesters at last year’s APEC summit in Vancouver by sending cash to help fund legal costs for the inquiry set to resume in the next few weeks.

By prompting the Ca- nadian Association of Univer- sity Teachers to send the lat- est donation of $500 to the APEC Protesters Legal De- fence Fund, faculty associa- tions from coast-to-coast have contributed $7,000 to the fund collected by the British Co- lumbia Federation of Labour. So far, about $115,000 has been raised from individuals and labour unions.

Jim Turk, executive di- rector of the association, says it’s a disgrace the federal gov- ernment has refused to take responsibility forthe students’ expenses, which have been climbing upward of $240,000 since October when their de- fence lawyers stopped work- ing for free.

“It’s unbalanced for the government to say the stu- dents aren’t entitled to legal defence when all the other parties involved are,” Turk said, pointing to Ottawa’s de- cision to pay most of the legal costs for the RCMP and the federal departments involved

in the hearings.

“The student protesters are every bitas mucha central part of the hearing as all the other participants,” Turk added.

The Canadian Associa- tion of University Teachers, which represents 56 faculty associations and 28,000 pro- fessors and librarians across the country, says it’s deeply troubled by the treatment of the student protesters at the Asia Pacific Economic Co- operation summit last year, as well as at the RCMP Public Complaints commission hear- ings.

“Tt’s not surprisingatall that faculty would support stu- dents,” said Miriam Sobrino, director ofcommunications for the B.C. Federation of La- bour.

“They ’ reat universities and post-secondary institutions, which are supposed to be places to expand knowledge and not be atraid to try outnew ideas.”

What is surprising, Sobrino says, is that so many individuals have lent financial support to the students” legal defence fund even with the risk of landing their names on government surveillance lists.

“If you’re on the record as supporting this, that means you’ re on the record as oppos- ing the federal government,”

Sobrino said.

While the students may not be accused of crimes per se, the aggressive manner in which they’ve been interro- gated by Ottawa’s lawyers justify the public funding of their defence, she added.

But the federal govern- ment maintains that because the students are not accused of anything, regardless of in- terrogation tactics, they’re on their own to fund legal costs.

“They are the ones mak- ing the accusations,” said Athana Mentzelopoulos, spokeswoman for the federal government’s lawyers.

Government regulations require that Ottawa cover the costs of legal defence when- ever a government employee is accused of anything, she added.

“The question has re- mained, why do (students) re- quire legal assistance?” she

said.

The three Canada Jus- tice employees working as fed- eral government lawyers cost around $2,000 a day, Mentzelopoulos said.

Anyone wishing to contribute to the legal defense fund can send cheques to the B.C. Federa- tion of Labour, APEC Pro- testers Legal Support Fund, c/o Ste. 200, 5118 Joyce St., Vancouver, B.C. VSR 4H1.

University suspends prof after marijuana conviction

By DARREN STEWART

VICTORIA (CUP) -- Sociol- ogy students at the University of Victoria were met with a shock last week when they returned to classes to find out the school has suspended one of their teachers.

Followingarecommen- dation from university presi- dent Dr. David Strong, the school suspended Prof. Jean Veevers and relieved her of her duties.

Effective immediately,

the interim suspension follows Veevers’ recent conviction in British Columbia Supreme Court of cultivating marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.

Veevers has been on medical leave since April 1997, when police raided her home and found an elaborate marijauna-growing operation.

She pleaded guilty tothe charge of growing the sub- stance for the purpose of traf- ficking last October. Her Dec. 4 sentence included a $15,000

fine,a one-year conditional sen- tence that she can serve at home and 60 hours of commu- nity service.

In a prepared statement to the public about the deci- sion, Strong said the suspen- sion was based on evidence submitted to the court during Veevers’ trial.

While Veevers declined to speak to the media herself, her legal counsel, Mel Hunt, said she was surprised by the suspension.

“She was quite aston- ished,” he said. “She certainly didn’t expect anything like that.”

Hunt said Veevers plans to fight for her career by in- voking the university’s arbi- tration process to challenge the suspension.

“If the arbitrators de- cide there is no just cause for dismissal then that will be the end of this,” said Hunt. “But if they decide there was just cause the case goes to the

board of governors to decide. One would expect them to fol- lowthe president’s recommen- dation.”

The university adminis- tration agrees the issue is far from resolved.

“The president has made a recommendation and the board makes a final decision,” said Bruce Kilpatrick, director of communications with the University of Victoria. “There is no indication when this will happen as of yet.”