“Bring interest rates down

| Combatting ‘MacEachen's economics’

— pages 6,7 —

Friday, Nov. 27, 1981

<<"

30° Vol. 43, No. 43

Re : ‘

CLC rally demand resounds

y |

By MIKE PHILLIPS

OTTAWA — In what everyone
is describing as the largest and
broadest protest demonstration

ever to take place in Canada, some

| 120,000 angry Canadians converg-

; ; ed on Parliament Hill to protest the

Liberal government’s economic

mismanagement and demand ac-

tion to lower staggering interest
rates.

They came by jet and transcon-
tinental train; in more than 900
buses and hundreds more private
cars; and five even jogged, to
Canada’s capital, Nov. 21, to give
prime minister Trudeau, and his
government’s finance minister
Alan MacEachen a clear message:
Canadians have reached their limit
in being saddled with crippling in-
terest rates and those rates must be
rolled back.

Although the demonstration,
sponsored: by the two-million-
member Canadian Labor Con-
gress and a broad public coalition,
had as its prime focus a protest
against ruinous interest rates, many
of the banners and placards in the
colorful procession led by two
bands, linked the serious economic
crisis to other issues.

Among these issues: the demand
for drastic cuts in the military
oo : budget with the money to go into

— d i ; ocially constructive projects such
: nter rate: at hundreds of e 2 . 5
Canadian Labor Congress president (lower centre, at podium) looks aa a lab tegen ae eine i s ae we qedutedE ee as affordable housing; for univer-

Out over a vast sea of people and banners in front of the Parliament See page 12: LABERGE
Buildings in Ottawa last sarurday: The turnout was so massive for down. é pag

Peace poll carries
| Alert Bay election)

The upcoast village of Alert Bay is a fishing centre better known

through the media a port of call for cruise ships in the tourist season.
)But, in common with thousands of little communities across the coun- |
i'ty, its people want disarmament and they have said so in the most |
}€mocratic way. They voted on it. fet '
The vote was unofficial to the extent that it was not a referendum.

Popular Mayor Gil Popovich, who won acclamation again, and his

Municipal vote round-up page 3

}COuncil wanted a referendum, which required formal public notice |
/Under the Municipal Act. Municipal affairs minister Bill Vander Zalm |
jTuled that no referendum could be taken because the subject was |
jbeyond the village’s powers, the same ploy used by North Vancouver
District Council recently in refusing to hear a peace delegation. _

| Not'to be thwarted, council decided to ek voters to answer this sim-
}Ple question in a voluntary ‘‘opinion poll”:

| “Do you support Tees of general disarmament and mandate
Your government to negotiate and implement with other governments

j ible achievement of this
[ute balance that would rad tothecartiest pos ' Backed by some 500 supporters, Bob Manuel, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, con-
estion. The result: 126 in favor | | fronts prime minister Trudeau outside the Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver Tuesday to press

Virtually all voters answered the qu : : me
3 : : ia ainst. | Native groups’ demands for full constitutional guarantees in the government constitutional pack-

and — reflection of cold war propaganda in the media — 35 against | | eee tee si fate a pati alg 9 ; pa

‘ ——— ae encanta LL LET sean

FISHERMAN PHOTO—ELIAS STAVRIDES

ROE TR :
& ; ON

y

a af

TRIBUNE PHOTO—JOSHUA BERSON

Wh