Archive
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Vol. 27, No. 38
10 octobre / October 10
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L’école du Village une école pacifique!
Le lancement du projet pacifique a eu lieu mercredi le 26 septembre à l’immeuble St-Paul. Pour l’occasion, les élèves et les enseignants étaient invités à s’habiller de blanc.
Chacune des classes ont créé un slogan de paix, tel que: Je respecte mes pairs. Je m’engage à être un bon ami. J’accepte et respecte les diffé rences. En situation de conflits, mon ami aussi a quelque chose à dire. De plus, une vingtaine d’élèves ont été désignés médiateurs(es). Les élèves et enseignants(es) ont entamé la chanson de Céline Dion, Une Colombe.
Pour clore l’évènement, trente colombe ont été relâchée dans le ciel, fait inusité, ces colombes retrouvent leur domicile à l’intérieur de 15 minutes. (CH) Photo: Christine Henri
Better ATV access coming
Julie Murray
Much work needs to be done to obtain necessary access rights on regional paths for users of snow-mobiles and all-terrain vehicles, says Councillor Jocelyne Houle, the chair of the Outaouais Regional Table on Off-Road Vehicles, formed after the adoption, in June 2006, of the Off-Road Vehicles Law. “The principal mandate of the Table is to identify interregional paths in West Quebec and reach agreement with property owners for the trails.”
Pointing to northwest Gatineau Park, where snowmobiles will be prohibited in 2009, Ms Houle says one problem is the loss of access rights, plus a lack of rights on interregional paths to Abitibi-Temiscamingue, the Laurentides, and Eastern Ontario.
Glenwood Plaza fire
McGowan trial: Defense claims fire electrical, not arson
Julie Murray
Jean-Luc Paris, the attorney for accused Glenwood Plaza arsonist Christopher McGowan, presented his case for the defense last week. Psychologist Dr France Proulx first testified that Mr McGowan suffers from autism and delayed intellectual capability, which make it difficult to relate to people. “When you speak to him, it is difficult to read the expressions on his face,” she said, “to know if he’s happy, sad, or surprised. He retreats into a solitary world and he is uncomfortable with the outside. He isn’t able to explain when we ask him questions that require a certain amount of reflection.”
Pressed by Crown prosecutor Pierre Desrosiers, Dr Proulx testified that his reduced cognitive development would keep Mr McGowan from lying. “To ask a four-year-old, did you take the cookie from the cookie jar? If the child knows it’s not right, he’ll say, ‘no, no, no.’”
Wiring in ceiling
The cause of the fire was not arson, it was accidental, originating in electrical wiring, testified Alain Harvey, who is a fire reconstruction expert with a Montreal-based company. He said the fire began in the wiring in the ceiling above Marché Frais and when the roof of the store collapsed, the fire spread to the garbage compactor.
Mr Harvey based his findings on a process of elimination after reviewing witness statements and studied photos and video of the fire and photos of the scene after the fire was put out. “I cannot say it’s conclusive because I don’t have the exact electrical wire. … But it’s the most probable because the other hypotheses cannot be supported.”
During cross-examination, Me Desrosiers suggested that the fire began in the compactor and reached such a high temperature that a “flashover” spread the fire to the walls inside the Marché Frais. Mr Harvey replied such a theory was inconsistent with the heat marks on the outside of the metal garbage compactor.
Sarcasm or confession?
Earlier, the prosecution had played a tape of an incoherent conversation recorded when the police bugged the home of Gloria Manna, Mr McGowan’s mother. As she and Mr McGowan were washing dishes, Ms Manna said, “You don’t wish to get caught unless you did it. You said you don’t want to get caught.” Mr McGowan mumbled, “Yeah, yeah, I did it.” “You did it?” his mother asked, and he replied, “Sometimes I got much money, when I left John’s, I made (it) up there in five minutes. … I didn’t know about it, remember.” A few moments later, Mr McGowan asked, “Did Jason do it?” and his mother answered, “I don’t know.” As the last witness for the defense, Ms Manna explained her son’s admission of “yeah, yeah, I did it” as sarcasm. “He was being sarcastic. In his mind, he’s going, ‘How could they even entertain that in their heads, that I could do that in so little time?’ ” She testified that when her son hadn’t returned home by midnight, the night of the fire, “I was worried because he has to take insulin for his diabetes. He finally came in sometime between 1:10 and 1:15. He made something to eat, and then he went to bed. I heard the first explosions around 2:30. I went to see Chris to tell him what was happening, but he was asleep.” The next day her son was surprised when she told him the mall had burned down. “He was like, ‘What?” He was very sad. The first thing he thought about were the animals at the pet shop.”
Witness discredited
Ms Manna’s testimony contradicts that of prosecution witness Kyle Pillow, who said that he saw Mr McGowan watching the mall burn at 8:30 or 9:30 a.m. and that Mr McGowan told him that he had been watching the fire since 1 a.m.
The defense cast doubt on Mr Pillow’s credibility by calling Florida Fitness owner Ken Clement to the stand. Mr Pillow had testified that when he went to the gym to register for membership, he saw Mr McGowan holding a bottle filled with yellow liquid. “I verified our files between July 2003 and July 2005,” testified Mr Clement, “And Kyle Pillow was never one of our members.”
The jury should begin deliberations on October 10.
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