EDITORIAL Free trade ata price Another ignominious page has been added to the Mulroney government record. Bill C-22, one of the most unpopular and tainted bills ever introduced by a Canadian government, is now law. Not only will Canadians, especially senior citizens and people on low and fixed incomes, pay more for the medicines they need; Canada has lost a hefty chunk of its sovereignty and dignity. The fight to stop Bill C-22 went far beyond the constitutional issue of a partisan tug-of-war between a Conservative government and a recalcitrant Liberal-dominated Senate. Bill C-22 shows in microcosm exactly what overall political agenda the Tories have in mind. For the next 10 years, the manufacturers of all new drugs sold on the Canadian market will receive a total monopoly on both the product and the price. There will be no “generic copying” that has saved Canadian consumers about $200 million a year over the past decade. In return, the multinationals have supposedly pledged $1.5-billion in research here in Canada over the next decade. That figure, if ever realized, is extremely misleading. First, it is less than 0.1 per cent of world-wide research and development. Second, most foreign-owned pharmaceuticals do most of their new drug development at home. Their research activity in Canada is mainly confined to non-creative clinical testing. Third, the number of new jobs to be created by this extra $1.5 billion is estimated at about 2,000 — important, but is it worth the coming hardship to be faced by the many who will not be able to afford the new drugs? What the Tory government has done is allow the pharmaceutical multinationals to greedily bloat an already lucrative market. In 1982, drug sales in Canada totalled $1.5 billion. Of this, 84 per cent went to foreign-controlled pharmaceutical companies, most of them U.S.-based. Between 1967 and 1982, their after-tax profit rose by 42 per cent. Bill C-22 is part of the price the Mulroney goverment has paid in advance for a free trade deal. A page — since shredded, deleted and disowned by the Canadian negotia- tors, but never by the American — that was removed at the eleventh hour from the initial free trade agreement made it clear the bill was one of the many concessions demanded (and received) by the United States. : Bill C-22 is cerainly not the only concession to the Reagan administration and American big business that will not show up in the text of the free trade agreement. As ume goes on, Canadians will find out that the Tories sold out much more. Liberal Senate leader Allan MacEachen said the Senate allowed this unpopular bill to pass so that the Tories would be hoisted on their own petard in the next federal election. He may be right, but the cost will be high. Canadians must demand that the ext government make one of its first priorities the repeal of Bill-C’ 22 and the re-introduction of generic copying. Office of the President The White House Washington D.C, U.S.A. Dear Mr. Mulrooney, Please be informed that with this Free Trade agreement the United States Government finds your office redundant and request your resignation forthwith. You are, however, encouraged to run for the upcoming Governorship of the State of Canada. a) Sincerely, Ron (Irish Eyes) Reagan TRIBUNE Published weekly at ~ EDITOR Sea riffi 2681 East Hastings Street n G u Vancouver, B.C. ASSISTANT EDITOR V5K 1Z5 Dan Keeton Phone (604) 251-1186 Subscription Rate: scan ‘ie sia Canada @ $16 one year @ $10 six ike Proniu months @ Foreign ®@ $25 one year GRAPHICS Second class mail _ Angela Kenyon registration. number 1560 jeiosie ,ylaimee f you're of the thousands of Canadians who think that the continued existence of Canadian magazines depends on pre- ferential postal rates, you’d better wrap one leg around behind you and kick your- self in the butt for being an unrepentant nationalist. Because according to US. lobbyist for the Printing Industries of America Inc., you’re “contorting” the pos- tal rates aspect of the free trade debate “into a cultural issue.” As has often been the case with so much of the material on the free trade agree- ment, more is to be gleaned from trade Journals than from the press releases issued by the prime minister’s office. In this instance, the journal is PrintAction, put out by the printing industry. The November issue quotes Benjamin Cooper, senior vice-president for the Print- ing Industries of America, as saying that the U.S. is expecting changes in the postal tates schedule, either to eliminate the two- tiered postal rate that now favours Canadian-published magazines, or to make the same subsidy available to U.S.- published magazines. It now costs Cana- dian magazines approximately five cents to mail a magazine in Canada, compared to 41 cents for U.S. magazines. Now, you'll remember that the Tories have insisted that Canada’s cultural indus- tries are “exempt” from the free trade agreement. And the reason Cooper says that postal rates are being “contorted” into a cultural issue is that the both the Americans and the Canadian negotiators at the free trade table were on the same wavelength in not considering Canadian magazines a “cultural issue.” Moreover, the Americans have obviously been prom- ised, and expect, changes to Canadian postal rates — changes that will enable them to pump U.S. magazines and period- icals into Canada at favourable postal rates. People and Issues According to PrintAction, various options are being considered by the federal government, including elimination of the subsidy for Canadian journals — which would force many of them out of business — or elimination of the subsidy for those “that can afford it.” Either way, Canadian magazines — which are, after all, a vital part of the way we define ourselves as Canadians — will pay the price for a decision made at the bidding of the huge U.S. magazine pub- lishing and printing industry. And Coop- er’s comments indicate that half measures won't be enough to appease the industry. “Tf the changes eliminate all discrimina- tory postal rates, it’s good,” he said. “If it eliminates the rates only for certain publi- cations, it’s still discriminatory.” As with the rest of the trade deal, the more we see, the worse it gets. Se ee mong the Nicaraguans, they are known proudly as “brigadistas” — the people from around the world who have come to that embattled Central American nation to assist in construction and in harvesting the crops that are vital to the economy. The long and crippling con- tra war which has forced the Sandinistas to maintain a large defensive force, has made the need for the international volun- teer workers even more acute. Over the past five years, the Prague- based World Federation of Democratic Youth has organized brigades, drawn from youth organizations around the world, and has sent them annually to Nicaragua as part of its commitment to international solidarity. Again this year, the WIDF is sponsor- ing a group which will include several Canadians, including members of the Alberta Federation of Students, the Young New Democrats and the Young Communist League. Two people from this province, John Rex and Matt Tarasoff, will be with the delegation, which will be leaving Canada Jan. 4 to travel to Nicaragua to help bring in the coffee harvest, which is critically important for the country’s export econ- omy. They'll be staying on a collective farm during their 42-day stay in Nicara- gua. Both Rex and Tarasoff are members of the YCL which has also issued an appeal for assistance in defraying travel costs and in helping them make an additional ges- ae of solidarity to the Nicaraguan peo- ple. Donations are welcome, we’re told, but YCL members are also making them- selves available for household repairs, clean-up and other chores in the Van- couver area. The proceeds will go to the travel fund. ; They’re also looking for donations of sports equipment, particularly baseball equipment and soccer balls, that brigade members can take with them as a gift to the Nicaraguans. 4 If readers can help or if they have work to be done, they should call John Rex at 255-2766 or Reg Walters, 255-2817. Dona- tions can be sent to the YCL, 100 — 1726 E. Hastings St., Vancouver B.C. V5K ISL. een ia € was a man who had quickly won friendship and respect in the indus- tries in which he had worked and the many organizations in which he took a leading place. And the people who came out to Maple Ridge Friday to pay final tribute to Uno Soderholm attested to that fact. Uno, whose name had been on the Tribune’s subscribers’ list virtually from the paper’s inception, passed away Nov. 24 in Maple Ridge Hospital. Born in Sakijarvi, Finland in 1910, he came to this country as an infant with his parents who brought with them their links — with the socialist movement of their native country, then -part of Czarist Russia. Raised by his father following his mother’s death, he continued the progressive tradi- tion of his family, joining the Finnish Organization of Canada while in his 20s and later becoming a regular contributor to the organizations’s newspaper, Vapaus, first launched in 1907. Moving to Vancouver from Finland, Ontario in 1929, he worked where he could, in the logging and fishing industry, and put in a three-year stint with his wife, Bertha, as the caretaker of the FOC’s Clin- ton Hall. It was also during the 1930s that he joined the ranks of the Young Communist League and later the Communist Party, remaining a member of the Maple Ridge Club of the CP until his death. Following a move to the Finnish set- tlement of Websters Corners in 1940, he went back into the fishing industry, work- ing variously as a tallyman and fish collec- tor for a number of fishermen’s co-op- eratives. A long time member of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers, he also served on the union’s general execu- tive board. Although he retired from fishing in 1974, he continued active membership in a number of organizations, including the Websters Corners Peace Group which he had helped found in 1947. 4 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 2, 1987 he