British Columbia: Rev. Tom Anthony joins other speakers at a rall Canada, the aerospace hardware trade show b equipment and armaments are being demonst groups, the Ad Hoc Group for the Advanceme y in Vancouver's Robson Square called to protest the opening of Airshow egun this year as part of the annual Abbotsford Airshow at which military rated. The protest was organized by a newly-organized coalition of peace nt of a Peaceful Economy (AGAPE). The group also plans to maintain a vigil at the airshow site to demonstrate opposition to the militarization of the economy which the trade show represents. Local governments weren't part of premier’s new transit scheme Is Premier Bill Vander Zalm’s surprise announcement about spending $1 billion to improve our rapid transit system in the Lower Mainland for real? Or is it just another election gimmick? Just consider these facts: @ You would expect that any senior government planning to build more free- ways and also more rapid transit through any municipality would in advance consult the municipality concerned. Not so our worthy premier. Not one of the municipali- ties concerned — Vancouver, Richmond, Surrey, Burnaby, Coquitlam, North Van- couver — was consulted. Vander Zalm is saying in effect: “I don’t have to consult you; I'll decide what’s good for you. You'll just have to take it and like it. And you should be grateful that you have such a generous premier.” © The premier didn’t even have the cour- tesy to let municipalities in on his plans before he made them public. Our elected municipal officials were completely bypassed as if they didn’t exist. They learned of Vander Zalm’s latest brain waves through the media. The announcement wasn’t made at a conference of municipal mayors or aldermen. It was made at a carefully planned and well-orchestrated press confer= ence a media event with all the hoopla that goes with it. It had all the earmarks of an election promise made on the campaign trail. Vander Zalm has never liked munici- pal governments and demonstrates his con- tempt for them once more. @ The announcement on more rapid transit came right on the heels of the announcement by a government appointed task force that more freeways will be built to funnel tens of thousands more cars into Vancouver daily. That announcement aroused a storm of protest as Vander Zalm knew it would. People demanded more public transit, not more cars. In comes Vander Zalm to the rescue with a promise of more rapid transit. With this tactic he hopes to get both his plans through — more freeways and cash in the public demand for more public transit. @ Vander Zalm’s hasn’t told us where the $1 billion to finance this new rapid transit scheme will come from. Are provincial taxes (the gasoline tax, the sales tax, the tax on hydro bills and so on) to be increased? So far we only know that Lower Mainland residents will have to fork up $28 million to pay for the new buses he says he will buy and that transit fares will be increased. Furthermore almost every big project this government has ugéertaken from Expo Ve, 2 « Pacific Tribune, August 14, 1989 86 to the Coquihalla Highway. has cost twice as much as the original estimate. We can be certain there will be another big tax grab somewhere down the line to pay for Vander Zalm’s rapid transit extensions. e@ If Vander Zalm goes ahead with his plan to build more freeways into Vancouver that will effectively neutralize the value of more rapid transit. Sure more people will use rapid transit but more people will also bring their cars into Vancouver. So we are back where we started as far as the propor- tion of cars to rapid transit is concerned. Only we'll be much worse off. The city of Vancouver simply can’t handle more cars without creating one hell of a traffic jam from morning to night. @ It’s no secret that Vander Zalm and his government have suffered a well deserved drop in popularity. And it has become laughably obvious in the past few months that he hopes to overcome this by giving his “good guy” routine another play. That’s the one he used so successfully in the last pro- vincial election campaign, with the enthusi- astic help of the corporate media when he became a born-again new kind of politician exuding smiles and good will and promising everything to everybody. Now he’s become a born-again environ- mentalist a born-again advocate of more public transit, and a born-again opponent of clear cut logging a born-again friend of Native people. He hasn’t really done any- thing to deserve these self-imposed labels but he is giving the appearance of being concerned. It’s obvious to me that Vander Zalm is laying the groundwork now for the next provincial election with himself at the helm again. He is trying to convince the detrac- tors in his own party and in the ranks of big business that he can pull it off once more. He’s just waiting for the right moment to spring that election. It could come sooner than we think. As for his promises to build more public transit I would take them for just what they are — election promises. I am reminded that Prime Minister Brian Mulroney made a raft of promises in the 1988 election cam- paign and then with his April 1989 budget broke everyone of them. The deficit was his excuse (although it was there before the election and he never mentioned it then). Vander Zalm’s excuse will be the coming recession being so freely predicted by econ- omists. / From the response so far it is clear that the people of Vancouver don’t want more freeways pouring more cars into the city. Many Vancouver citizens strongly oppose an elevated transit line along Arbutus. Coquitlam wants a rail commuter line nota promise of marine rapid transit line. I think both of Vander Zalm’s schemes — more freeways and more rapid transit — should be put on hold for a few months until all the citizens of all the areas con- cerned have been consulted and their views incorporated. Daigle decision welcomed Continued from page 1 legislation on abortion. We call on the fed- eral and provincial governments to fulfil their health care duties by ensuring full 7 access to safe abortion for all Canadian women,” she said. * The press conference was called by the B.C. Coalition of Abortion Clinics, which represents more than 50 pro-choice groups in B.C., to demonstrate solidarity with Chantal Daigle and to reaffirm the cam- paign to guarantee women’s right to choice. “Chantal, we support you and we stand in solidarity with you ... We are absolutely outraged at the use of injunctions which — interfere with the right of reproductive health,” Coalition spokesperson Linda Ervin told reporters. Ervin said that women’s groups would have to wait for the court’s written reasons to determine the legal basis on which the injunction was overturned but she added that the ruling would probably prevent further injunctions being granted to former husbands or lovers barring women from abortions. For Daigle, however, the Supreme Court decision which overturned the injunction originally granted to her former boyfriend, Jean-Guy Tremblay, came more than 4 month after the Quebec court made its initial ruling, subsequently upheld in two Quebec appeals. It was a month in which — Daigle was subjected to intense scrutiny by the media and forced to endure repeated court delays in her appeals, despite being more than 20 weeks pregnant. The injunction against Daigle was also the third of its kind in the country in as few — weeks, indicating the intensive judicial campaign being carried out by anti-choice forces along with their picketing of clinics. Anti-abortion forces have also been putting pressure on Conservative MPs, pressing for new legislation that would restrict or even outlaw abortion. But pro-choice advocates : declared their intention to step up their _ efforts to convince the government that no new law is needed. Ervin told reporters that the Coalition — would be immediately be launching a post- card campaign “‘to let the prime minister 0 Canada know that the majority of women and men in Canada support every woman’s right to choice, that no new lawis necessary and that the right to safe, accessible abor- tions be guaranteed.” COPE | nnual garden DAV Vee Lu , & of Boundar Sunday, August 27 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Chilean Co-op 3390 School Ave. Tickets: $8/$6 seniors and unemployed, $4 children includes turkey and salmon dinner. Musical entertainment and speakers Special activities for kids Rain won't stop us, we will party under a big top! For more information call the COPE office: 879-1447 Thursday