UNEMPLOYMENT UP SAVE DEMOCRACY Reject repressive Public Order Act Block turn to right Meeting in Toronto last weekend the Commu- nist Party Central Committee called on Cana- dians from all walks of life to unite to save demo- cracy in Canada and block the attempts of reaction to turn the country to the right. Canada condemned the Trudeau government's War Measures Act and the Public Order Act aim- ed at curbing civil liberties. For a report on this important meet- ing of Canadian Communists see page 5. Representatives from both English and French. ~ B.C., QUEBEC WORST BS NOW BY MAURICE RUSH Faced with rapidly rising unemployment and the prospect of the worst winter in many years, the demand is growing in B.C. and across Canada for immediate emergency action to create tens of thousands of new jobs. The seriousness of the crisis facing Canada was underlined last week with the release of the latest official figures from the Dominion Bureau of Statistics in Ottawa, which are usually far below the actual situation. These figures showed that 419,000 were looking for jobs this October compared with 398,000 in September and 314,000 in October one year ago. In Canada at present the official figure stands at 6.6 per cent of the labor force out of work. The Ottawa figures show that 69,000 workers were unemployed in B.C. in October, which was an increase of 11,000 in the one month over September. B.C.’s unemployment is over 50 percent greater than the national average, and is the same as Quebec’s. Both provinces showed 8.8 per cent of the labor force without work. ‘The DBS statistics admit that the unemployment rate in B.C. would have been even higher if many persons had not simply given up searching for a job because of the grim prospects of finding one. The total unem- ployment picture would be much higher if the official statistics had added employable unem- ployed who are not registered as looking for work. The official figures of nearly — “WORK NOT WELFARE." That was one of the demands delegates to the B.C. Federation of Labor presented to . an official of the Unemployment Insurance Commission during their recent convention. Here they are shown half a million jobless do not tell the heartbreaking story of the mass suffering caused to families across the country. Some economists estimate that if all the seasonal workers and those looking for sporadic work were added the actual number of unemployed would be closer to one million. If one bears in mind that the average worker has about two dependents the number of people directly suffering from present unemployment in Canada approaches the three million mark. Economists have estimated that unemployment in Canada this winter would pass the 9 percent mark, with a much higher percentage in B.C., Quebec and the Atlantic provinces, and that the official figures could rise to 800,000 or more. Looked at in this light the announcement Tuesday from Ottawa that the Trudeau govern- ment would spend $60 million this winter to relieve unem- ployment, with almost half of it going for retraining (for jobs not there), and about $30 million to create jobs is only a drop in the bucket. What is urgently needed is a massive crash program to _ rho create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. This was demanded Tuesday night by the Vancouver Labor Council in a special wire to Prime Minister Trudeau (See full story on page 12.) It was also demanded by the Vancouver-Burrard Presby- tery of the United Church of Canada and the United Com- munity Services of Greater Van- couver which called on the city council to call meetings with the senior government to deal with the jobless crisis. Expressing concern over problems facing jobless youth, the Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Centre in Vancouver adopted a resolution ‘urging city council to take immediate steps to call meetings between city, provin- cial and federal authorities, in consultation with other com- munity groups, to act upon the need for programs urgently required for the ever increasing members of unemployed youth.” Meeting in Toronto last weekend, the Central Com- mittee of the Communist Party adopted an urgent statement expressing grave concern over the jobless situation and demanding an immediate See JOBLESS, pg. 12 — Dave Werlin photo talking to the official outside UIC offices on Robson St. B.C. labor has demanded an emergency crash program to create jobs.