CIVIL LIBERTIES GROUP CHARGES:

‘Bill 33 endangers civil rights’

In a statement issued last
week the British Columbia
Civil Liberties Association
declares sections of Bill 33
will not only ‘‘seriously
jeopardize basic civil rights’’
mn British Columbia, but that

the power given the Cabinet
and the commission is made
absolute by Section 38, which

Prohibits any access to the
‘Courts.”’

The BCCLA statement makes a.

RAW LOGS TO JAPAN DOUBLED

Thousands of jobs exported

-strong case for the preservation of

those civil rights which Bill 33 in its
present form abrogates. The

_statement, over the signature of
‘Civil Liberties President Robert

Rowan, follows:

At least five sections of the
proposed Bill 33 (Sections 18, 19, 21,

“38 and 50) will, if they become law, |

seriously jeopardize basic civil

‘rights.

By Sections 18 and 21, the
Government is empowered to

Probe of forest

industry

overdue

By MAURICE RUSH
While more than 70,000 workers are jobless in B.C. the

FRIDAY, MARCH 29. 1968

prohibit or terminate a strike
whenever. an unresolved dispute
between an employer and an
employee group is deemed contrary
to ‘‘public interest and welfare’, and
to refer the dispute to a mediation
commission. This commission is
‘empowered to write a new collective
agreement between the parties
which will be binding upon them.

These provisions enable the
Government to prohibit or terminate
any strike, since the phrase “‘public
interest and welfare’’ may be

VOL. 29, NO. 13

interpreted very broadly to cover
any or all labor disputes.

Moreover, the power given to the
cabinet and the commission is made
absolute by Section 38 which
prohibits any access to the Courts.

In this way the legality of a cabinet
or commission decision cannot be

challenged, and terms of employ-

ment completely unacceptable to’

employees can be imposed upon
them regardless of their wishes.
Also, under the provisions of Sec-

<="

tion 51, heavy penalties are pro-
vided to punish individual workers
iwho disobey return-to-work edicts.

To place such arbitrary powers in

the hands of the cabinet and the -

commission is a serious curtailment
of the rights of working people to
negotiate freely the terms under
which they will earn their living.

Ultimately, the freedom to
withdraw labor is the only effective
way by which employed persons can
try to improve their condition of life.

See BILL 33, pg. 11

10¢

‘Jobless rate highest since 1964,

Canadian Press

showed the number at work
increased slightly dur

-y. _ month, but not enough to
up 1 offset the continued rapid rise

|
| represented 6.4 p
| labor force,

The Fet
| since March of 18 The. -Febr

in the national labor force.
‘y unemploy-
ment figure v 86,000 higher

| A joint report by the man- than for the me month of

he number of of last year. Two years ago

ned well above

| power department and the last yea Du e year the with 6.1 per cent in January the 6.2 mark set in the pre-
Dominion Bureau of Statistics labor force grew by 213,000 to and 5.4 per cent in February strongest job gain over the vious February.

Provincial government permits the export of hundreds of
Millions of feet of raw logs to Japan, the U.S. and other

countries which, if processed here, could provide thousands of

new jobs.

A government report released last
Week shows that B.C. exported a
total of 203,2 million board feet of
Taw logs in 1967. In 1966 the figure
Was 140.8 million.

The most spectacular increase of
all was the doubling of raw log
€xports to Japan where they are used
to make plywood and other wood
manufactures for export to Canada
and world markets. In 1966 B.C.
€xported 81.8 million board feet to

Japan; in 1967 it jumped to 161.8
Million.

The export of raw logs from B.C.
Was condemned by the late Chief
Justice Gordon Sloan in his famous
Royal Commission Report on
Forestry in 1945. In his report he
Called on the Federal government to
act in the public interest by
exercising control over log exports
from B.C. since foreign trade is a
federal jurisdiction.

Under public pressure the B.C.
80vernment was compelled to
Maintain quotas which fixed a limit
On the number of raw logs which
Could be exported. However, with
the new deals being entered into by
the Socred government with
Japanese monopoly groups, the B.C.

government has thrown overboard
any restrictions on log exports.

In his report on forestry the Chief
Justice placed the case against log
exports and for processing of logs in
B.C. in the following way:

“When producing logs for export in
an unmanufactured state we are
depleting our forests just as fast as if
those same logs were processed into
manufactured form in this province.
When exporting our logs the ratio of
employment to depletion is very low.
That ratio increases in direct
relation to the degree to which our
raw material is manufactured in the

province.

“Tm other words, each log which is
manufactured in the province,
instead of being exported for
manufacture elsewhere, provides an
increase in employment and payrolls
without any corresponding increase

_in the rate of forest depletion.”

Presenting a case against the
export of logs, Chief Justice Sloan
estimated that in 1945 one-man day
of labor produced 1000 board feet of
logs. He said that if this same 1000 bf
was turned into plywood it would
create 54% man-days of work. And if
the logs were processed into bags,

| 300 sailors elect t- 1 -

Canadian Pre--

This Ottawa report shows that unemployment in Canada rose to 482,000 in February. B.C. is among the
highest, with 7.5 percent of our labor force out of work.

cartons, etc., it would provide 10
man-days of work for the same 1000
bf.

With the technological revolution
and the many new products now
made from wood, the value of raw
logs is probably very much greater
in terms of the jobs and value it
would create if processed in B.C. By
exporting over 203 million feet of
raw logs the Socred government is
also exporting many thousands of
jobs and millions of dollars in
revenue.

Last week NDP MLA Bob
Williams made an appeal in the
Legislature for the setting up a new

_royal commission to investigate

B.C.’s forest industry. He charged
that the Socred government is
following a policy which is fostering
fewer and larger forestry
corporations.

He said that as the large
corporations take over more and
more smaller operators are being

Forest industry can
afford IWA demands

SEE SPECIAL FEATURE, PG. 12

taken over and turned into
‘“sharecroppers-in their own
forests.”

In his report on the forest industry,
Chief Justice Sloan advocated that
there should be a royal commission
investigation into the forest industry
every ten years. It is now twelve
years since the-last probe of this
basic industry in 1956.

In the intervening 12 years some of
the biggest giveaways of B.C. forest
lands have taken place. Many of the
problems which Sloan said would
require constant study are still with
us, including the large scale export
of raw logs,. forestry tenure and
policies, and the lack of adequate
revenues to the province from the
industry.

The Pacific Tribune has
repeatedly called for a new royal
commission. The need for this is
further underlined by last week’s
announcement of the large scale
export of logs and jobs.

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