Canada Acton report Say ma rchers It may not have been the largest demon- station to have ever graced the Ontario Legislature, but it was certainly one of the most powerful. Spread across Queen’s Park lawns were the province’s most vulnerable members — the disabled, single mothers, children, Native peoples, the jobless. The Liberal government is about to bring down a new budget and as treasurer Robert Nixon makes threatening noises about the deficit, representatives of Ontario’s one- million poor want to ensure they were not again forgotten. Their plight, they argue, could be alle- viated by government action on “Transi- tions,” the report of the Social Assistance Review Committee. Two years in the mak- y NEWS ANALYSIS ing, and following many postponements, the SARC Report saw the light last fall. Containing 274 recommendations, if imple- mented, it would completely revamp Onta- rio’s social assistance system. The Campaign Against Poverty, a newly founded coalition of anti-poverty, church, labour and social agencies is pushing for the immediate implementation of phase one of the report. That involves a raise in basic welfare benefits to address immediate hard- ships. The remaining sections of the report are still under discussion by the coalition, with many members holding strong reser- vations about some of its proposals. Long-time anti-poverty activist John Clarke is pleased by the backing labour, churches and the other established organi- zations have given the campaign, but the real heroes he says are the poor. “People who have never been convinced before to get out and be active, are now doing it and I think that is the greatest achievement.” On Good Friday, marchers set out from their respective starting points in Ottawa, Windsor and Sudbury to begin their trek Bill and appeal for Peltier set A week of prayer, protest and cele- bration, from April 15 to 21, has begun for Leonard Peltier, a Native activist who has spent 14 years in a U.S. prison. A private member’s motion, expected to be introduced to the House of Commons by Liberal MP Warren Allmand, will call for the return of Peltier to Canada and for the nullification of the 1976 fraudulent extradition from Canada. Legal actions are also being planned, including an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. In Ottawa, the focal point of the events, a 24-foot teepee has been set up on Parliament Hill, in addition to pro- tests that will take place outside Can- adian embassies and offices in nine U.S. cities as well’ as at Canadian embassies in Europe. The protests come at a time when Peltier has been held in solitary con- finement for unspecified charges. He was recently refused permission to attend his father’s burial. According to Anne Fitterer, a representative of the Leonard Peltier Canadian Defence Committee, there is a widening base of support for Peltier’s release and the week-long events should be a big step in that direction. 6 e Pacific Tribune, April 24, 1989 Demonstrators at Queen’s Park April 8. totalling 1,200 kilometres to Queen’s Park. On the way they met with their counterparts at food banks and jobless centres, on Indian reserves and in hostels. They were fed and billeted by activists in the communities along the route. And at every stop they were given the support of mayors, city counci- lors, MPPs, social service directors, labour leaders, the clergy, but most importantly, from the poor themselves. It was an emotional and dramatic time, April 8 when the marchers arrived at their destination. Four thousand people waiting outside Queen’s Park cleared a path as they marched in to cheers and Solidarity Forever, sung in the special style of progres- sive singer-songwriter Arlene Mantle. And if there was a unique tone in Mantle’s voice it was probably because as a single parent, she knows exactly where these people are coming from. Representatives from the three parties in the legislature addressed the rally, as did Toronto mayor Art Eggleton and school board chair Tony Silipo, and a few of them got quite a rough ride from demonstrators who weren’t prepared to listen to platitudes about poverty, but again it was the poor who were the most eloquent. “We as Native people know what pov- erty is like because we have never known anything different,” said Gord Peters, leader of the chiefs of Ontario. “This government has expressed its good intentions but good intentions don’t house us. Good intentions don’t feed our children. ‘It people like you and us who can and will make things happen.” Marcher Bill Major of Sudbury issued his own personal appeal to Premier Peterson: “David, as you sit at your table with your family, remember families who have no table, no food, no roof. “We do not want charity, because charity only helps the giver. Charity changes nothing. We want justice.” And if there is someone responsible for poverty it is not the poor, stressed Gord Wilson, head of the Ontario Federation of Labour. “Tf our current economic system does not provide the opportunity to let us work for a living wage, than it is the responsiblity of government to ensure that all citizens are given a living wage,” he said. “Tf our current economic system will not provide the basic necessities of food, shelter, clothing, and education for all than it surely must be the responsibility of the privileged in our society who have abused our eco- nomic system with acts of personal greed to pay for the suffering and misery that they have caused. “We don’t want welfare cheques, we want decent pay cheques,” Wilson said to cheers. ““We want the dignity of work anda living wage so we too can havea future, and economic and political freedom.” Since he took office, Peterson had refused to move on social assistance reform, citing the need to wait the recommendation of the committee studying the system, but with the SARC report sitting on the table for the past six months the government has run out political excuses. Next for the Campaign Against Poverty, says John Clarke is to get in some serious lobbying before the budget comes down. He also stresses the need to strengthen the campaign after the budget ... to “toughen up our tactics,” he says. UNDE members protest offer HALIFAX — More than 400 federal government workers, members of the Gen- eral Trades and Labour (GTL) and General Services (GS) components of the Union of National Defence Employees (UNDE) — itself a component of the Public Service Alliance of Canada — staged an angry demonstration April 6 in the streets of Halifax to protest the continued wage dis- crimination against east coast workers in the proposed (PSAC) contract with the fed- eral government. The workers are upset that the tentative agreement fails to reduce wage disparities for certain components. For instance, a . GTL worker in the Atlantic provinces is paid $9.18 per hour while his/her counter- part in B.C. earns $11.71. “Atlantic Canada is again on the losing end,” said UNDE vice-president Glenna _ budget. McLean. “The government talks about equal pay for equal work ... how is that equal?” Local UNDE members are also con- cerned about other clauses in the tentative agreement and with the continued loss of civilian jobs in the Department of National Defence, a process expected to gain momentum in the upcoming Wilson Rumours abound about the contracting-out of the jobs of transport drivers expected in 1990 and construction engineers in 1993. The two largest UNDE locals in the Halifax-Dartmouth area, comprising some 5,000 members, have delayed their vote on the contract until after the April 27 budget. Meanwhile, PSAC president Daryl Bean is reported to have threatened trusteeship against east coast locals if they publicly mobilize opposition to the tentative pact. Court stops Rafferty Dam Environmentalists scored a major win April 10 when a federal court judged halted progress on the Rafferty Dam. “This is a real victory for grassroots organizing,” Gerry McKinney spokes- person for Friends of the Valley told the Tribune. The group has battled for sev- eral years against the project. At a Regina court hearing on March 30, lawyers for the Canadian Wildlife Federation presented evidence showing that the Saskatchewan and federal governments agreed to avoid holding an environmental assessment of the project, which would* cause serious ecological damage to the Souris River Valley. By lifting the federal licence for the dam, Judge Cullen may have forced Ottawa. to hold public hearings on this project and others with potentially nega- tive impacts. Cullen ruled that Thomas McMillan, who was environment minis- ter in the Mulroney cabinet at the time, “failed to comply with a statutory duty” and “exceeded his jurisdiction.” The result is a major blow to the Sas- katchewan Tory government, which has been determined to build the dam despite widespread opposition. It also does much to vindicate Elizabeth May, the environmental activist who joined MeMillan’s staff, only to quit last spring, charging that the minister had traded approval for the dam in return for Sas- katchewan agreement to the establish- ment of the grasslands park in the south of the province. Spar fined for Safety violation For the first time, an employer has been successfully prosecuted and fined for reprisals against a worker under Sec- tion 24 of the Ontario Health and Safety Act. Spar Aerospace of Toronto was fined $12,000 and order to pay full com- pensation to Roy McCord who was sus- pended for refusing unsafe work in the fall on 1986. McCord’s union, the Canadian Auto Workers, applauded the decision but said the long delay shows the inadequacy of the legal system. N.S. gays demand protection HALIFAX — 200 members and supporters of the Lesbian/Gay Rights — Nova Scotia demonstrated outside of the provincial legislature April 12 to demand that sexual orientation be included as in the proposed overhaul of the provincial Human Rights Act. “The preamble to the N.S. Human Rights Act expresses a beautiful senti- ment”, said Brenda Richard, a spokes- person for LGRNS. However it is “time now to make the Act fully responsible to all citizens,” she said. After some initial hesitation, the Human Rights Commission has recom-. mended the inclusion of sexual orientz- tion in a new Act, and a legislative sub-committee has also supported the amendment. The LGRNS, supported by the Women’s Action Coalition and other groups, is concerned that right-wing for- ces in Buchanan’s Tory caucus will attempt to scuttle the measure. The LGRNS has been lobbying since November 1987 for the change.