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CP wants inquir

The Social Credit provincial
Cabinet and B-C. Hydro have been
Charged with influence peddling
4nd collusion with land developers
Ver the cabinet decision to remove

“acres of prime farmland ‘in

dergrove from the agricultural
‘and reserve.

The cabinet decision has evoked

| Wide protest, including the resigna-

“on of former B.C. Land Commis-
Sion chairman Gary Runka who
quit the Commission last week over
e issue.
Communist Party provincial

Socred—GVRD transit pact
—bad deal for the buses

See below, page 2

leader Maurice Rush urged premier
Bennett Tuesday to immediately
suspend the decision to unfreeze the
Aldergrove acreage, to declare a
moratorium on any further releases
from the land reserve, and to com-
mission an inquiry into the whole
issue of alienation of agricultural
land to developers.

Ever since the Land Commission
Act was amended in 1977 to allow
cabinet to overrule decisions of the
B.C. Land Commission, thousands
of acres of farm land have been
alienated to big business interests

Judge turns down

Combines demand

ome whe banks of “how Little”
atone alamoat

aC
caucus" Q

The Wood-
Rank and File
aucus has issued its
first bulletin and, as Jack
Phillips comments, the
Policies and program ad-
_ Vanced will determine its
future, page 12.

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gs

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e
REFUGEES: Thousands
Gra, fled the repression |
wg Poverty in Haiti only |
di find jail and
Scrimination in the
*S. — while Carter talks

human rights, pages 6,

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Fan ee Mens ieee

In a landmark decision Tuesday,
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Harry
McKay ruled that the Combines
branch could not force officers of
the United Fishermen and Allied
Workers Union to answer questions
about the union’s activities al-
though he left open the question of
a continued inquiry and possible
further court action.

Justice McKay denied the Com-
bines application for a court order
compelling UFAWU president Jack
Nichol, secretary George Hewison
and past president Homer Stevens
to answer questions in hearings or
face possible fines and jail
sentences.

‘I must decline to grant the cer-
tificate requested,’’ Justice McKay
stated, adding that Restrictive
Trade Practices Commissioner Les
Blond ‘‘was in error’’ when he said
that the word ‘‘workmen’”’ in Sec-
tion 4(1)(a) ‘‘did not cover fisher-
men.”’

The Restrictive Trade Practices
Commission, which had conducted
the hearings under the Combines
Act, had sought to force the three
unionists to answer questions, con-
tending that they were compelled to
do so under Section 17(3) of the
Combines Act.

The UFAWU had argued, in up-
holding the three officers’ refusal to
answer questions, that they were ex-
empted from the provisions of the
Act under Section 4(1)(a) which ex-
cludes ‘‘combinations or activities
of workmen or employees for their
own reasonable protection as such
workmen or employees.” :

In denying the Combines applica-
tion, Justice McKay argued that
fishermen were indeed workmen.
“Fishermen would seem to be
workmen in the sense that the word
is used in ordinary speech,”’ he said
in his 18-page ruling. “‘One would
have some difficulty in convincing a
deckhand on a fishing boat that he
is not a workman.”

UFAWU president Jack Nichol
called Justice McKay’s decision a
“moral victory’ for the union’s

see COURT page 12

y_into ‘misuse of power’

Collusion charged in land release

through secret deals involving
Socred government members, Rush
charged.

“‘The big developers are hungry
for land and have been pouring
millions of dollars into acquiring
them,’’ Rush said. ‘‘They have been
aided and abetted by a government
which favors the developers over
the public’s interests and which puts
profits before people’s needs.”’

An inquiry is needed to
‘establish the extent of misuse of
power and conflict of interest of
members of the government in ac-

STRIKE

ee a

a: -

benefits.

After a one-day moratorium on picketing Thank

quiring these lands for big
developers,’’ he added.

Involved in apparent collusion to
secure the release of the Aldergrove
acreage from the land reserve were
Socred ministers Bob McClelland
and Jim Hewitt, B.C. Hydro of-
ficials Robert Bonner and Hoz
Maeno, and a developer’s group in-
cluding the Chilean consul in Van-
couver, Joaquin Grubner.

Grubner is president of
Gloucester Properties Ltd., the
owner of the land in question. The

spokesman and agent

Ses Se
NO |
TRESPASSING,

Se

for

sgiving Day to allow holiday travellers to return,

Gloucester through the whole affair
was Ainslie Loretto, also Chilean
and an officer ofthe company, and
a campaign worker for Socred
minister Bob McClelland, MLA for
Langley which includes the
Aldergrove site.

McClelland in turn was a member
of the cabinet committee which
released the land from the reserve.

In an unprecedented action,
Gloucester’s appeal to cabinet was
supported by B.C. Hydro in an of-
ficial communication from its land

see CHILEAN page 3

od

and Marine Workers’ Union members resumed their rotating strikes, mounting pickets at the Deas

dock maintenance yard (above) Tuesday. The strikes were to continue at various sites throughout the
week to back demands for a wage increase, a two-year contract and an agreement on casual workers

— Sean Griffin photo

Reject ‘unjust, regressive’
transit formula, CP urges

The proposed agreement on the
future of the public transit system
in Greater Vancouver, worked out
last week between the provincial
government and the Greater Van-
couver Regional District, is a “bad
deal’? which should be rejected, the
Communist Party said this week.

The terms of the agreement woud

have the GVRD accept the Socreds’
financial’ formula, with some
changes, in return for control over
planning service and setting fares in
the region. (See analysis, page 2)
Presented to the GVRD board
last Wednesday, the agreement will
go before municipal councils and
the city of Vancouver this month

Meeting calls on gov't
to curb China's actions

A demand that the Canadian
government “‘use all of its influence
and urge the United States and
other western countries to persuade
China not’ to invade Vietnam
again’’ was voiced by some 200 peo-
ple at a packed meeting called by
the Canadian Aid to Vietnam
Civilians Tuesday. —

The meeting, called to hear Prof.

Jim Foulks report on his recent visit
to Vietnam, also demanded the
Canadian government resume
material aid to Vietnam, with a
special call to the provincial govern-
ment to ‘‘implement the pledge of
$2% million for medical aid to the
children of Vietnam agreed upon by
a hee in the B.C. legislature in
] 2

for discussion, before the GVRD
votes on it, likely October 24.

In a statement Tuesday, the CP
said that it would attend as many
meetings as possible to urge rejec-
tion of the pact.

“It will impose unjust, regressive
taxes on working people in Greater
Vancouver, and it will place the
transit system in a financial
stranglehold which could wreck the
entire system,’’ the CP’s Greater
Vancouver Regional Committee
warned.

“Tt is unjust to force automobile
drivers to pay a large portion of the
transit deficit through a gasoline
tax. This tax will be paid almost
completely by working people who
have no say over transportation
policy. But the oil and gas industry,
or the automobile industry, the
millionaires who grow fat on an
automobile dependent society, they
a pay nothing,’’ the committee