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CANADA.

Poisoning opens new ‘Tunagate’ for Ottawa

OTTAWA — ‘The discovery
of tainted ham originating from
the Gainers meat packing plant in
Edmonton, Alberta earlier this
week further erodes our trust in
the federal Department of Health
and Welfare and the federal meat
inspection system,” said Frank
Benn, co-director of the United
Food and Commercial Workers
Union at a press conference here
Sept. 18.

Benn likened the tainted ham to
the tainted tuna affair of one year
ago. “‘The pattern is so identical,
it’s unbelievable’, he said. ‘‘In
both case it appears that the fed-
eral inspection procedures have
been bent to suit the political
needs of the federal government.
It’s different players this time
around,”’ said Benn, ‘‘but it’s the
same old story. An influential
Tory gets special treatment from
a system which is supposed to
protect the Canadian public.

“It’s an absolute shame that
this government is prepared to
compromise the health and safety
of Canadian workers and Cana-
dian citizens,’’ the union official
said.

Plant Unsafe

“Both us and the union which
represents the federal meat in-
spectors have said since the strike
began in June — that the condi-
tions inside that plant are un-
safe,”’ said Benn. ‘‘Now the proof
is in the package — the political
imperative of keeping that plant
open for Peter Pocklington has
been placed before the health of
Canadian consumers.”’

Since the Gainers strike began
in early June, Pocklington has
used non-union workers to kill
and process its meat. Initially fed-
eral meat inspectors refused to
cross the UFCW picket lines cit-
ing both unsafe conditions in the
plant, due to the unskilled labor
and danger in driving through the
mass pickets. However they were
ordered by their department to go
to work which they have done

since mid-June under police es--

cort.
“Over the last month we’ve
had unconfirmed reports of truck

loads of meat being turned back
at the U.S. border, as well as
horror stories inside the plant,
from strikebreakers who quit
work, said Benn.

“These incidents in Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick where
people have been poisoned from
eating Gainers products, confirm
for us the truth of what we’ve
been told.”

Benn accused the government
of stumbling from *‘Tunagate”’ to
“*Gainergate’’: however, this inci-
dent might well have far more
serious consequences. Quoting a
government spokesperson who
said in Edmonton, Sept. 17, “‘yes

you're going to be sick, but eating
the tainted meat isn’t going to kill
you,” Benn said he was ‘‘not
sure’ the federal inspector was
right when he said it wouldn’t be
fatal.

‘‘Eating tainted pork is a lot
more dangerous than eating
tainted tuna.”’

Benn called upon the federal
government to halt meat produc-
tion at the Gainers plant until the
current dispute is resolved. ‘‘The
Canadian consumer shouldn’t
be dragged into the mess that
Pocklington has created in
Edmonton,” said Benn.

An official with the Professional
Institute of Public Service, the

union representing government
veterinarians, said his office had
warned during the early days of
the strike that  strikebreakers
would not be able to ensure the
same level of quality control as
experienced meat packers.

“Tt is a sure bet that this meat
was processed during the strike
period and that more contami-
nated meat will show up,” the offi-
cial told the Tribune.

“We had warned that with
Pocklington being able to increase
production at whim, something
like this was going to happen,” he
said.

He also accused the Agriculture
Department of being “overly

zealous” in providing Gainers

with the inspections which are
required by law ee meat can
be sold:to the public.

When federal meat inspectors,
members of the Public Servite
Alliance of Canada refused >
cross picket lines, the governme
threatened them with disciplinary
actions and brougiy in veterinar
ians to do their work.

The department couldnt iis
local veterinarians to cfOss ae
lines, so they brought them
from Vancouver, Saskatoon 4m
southern Alberta.

“This will certainly cast don
in the public mind as to whe ‘s
the Department of Agricutlure :
conducting its business in 4 SP¥?
of neutrality,” he said.

eC

Morgentaler
trial begins

WINNIPEG — On the eve of
his Supreme Court trial on abor-
tion-related charges, the Man-
itoba College of Physicians and
Surgeons has rejected Dr. Henry

The trial begins as Newfound-
land became the second Canadian
province (after Prince Edward Is-
land) with no abortion facilities.
Abortions stopped when the only
doctor willing to perform the pro-
cedure went on an extended sick
leave.

Morgentaler’s request to have his -

Winnipeg clinic licensed.

The decision contradicts a 1984
policy recommendation by the
College, stating abortion was a
procedure that could safely be
carried out in a clinic setting.

The Montreal based physi-
cian’s trial, the result of an On-
tario government appeal of a jury

acquittal of Morgentaler and two

of his colleagues in Nov. 1984,
begins Oct. 1 in Toronto.
Pro-choice activists report that
police activity around his Har-
bord Street clinic has increased
during the past weeks and there
are fears that another raid may be
scheduled.

Cherie Macdonald of the On-
tario Coalition for Abortion
clinics says a raid, the fifth since
Morgentaler set up clinics in To-
ronto and Winnipeg, would be
in keeping with recent warnings
by attorney general Ian Scott that
he intends to rearrest doctors
operating in the city’s two abor-
tion clinics.

The OCAC’s MacDonald says
abortions are becoming increas-
ingly difficult to obtain. Only 25
per cent of Canadian hospitals
now have therapeutic abortion
committees.

OCAC has scheduled a rally for
Oct. 2 at 6:30 in front of the court
house at 361 University Avenue.

Auto union launches
Patent Act action

PORT ELGIN — The Mul-
roney government is facing in-
creasing pressure to back down
on legislation to revise the Drug
Patent Act. Due to be introduced
in Parliament during the next
weeks, the Act would give trans-
national drug comanies a 10 year
monopoly on any drug they pro-
duce.

The Canadian Autoworkers
Union is joining anumber of other
organizations already geared up
to fight the proposed changes.

The union has prepared a back-
ground kit which will be sent to all
doctors, pharmacists, nurses,
senior citizens and teachers
associations outlining the back-
ground and implications of the
Acti rns +

It has also begun a card cam-
paign among its membership
which it will expand into the
community. :

‘The union charges that the
Mulroney government is caving
in to pressure from the mainly
U.S.-owned drug companies
operating in Canada. For more
than five years they lobbied Ot-
tawa to prevent ‘‘generic’’ drug
companies from marketing simi-
lar products to the brand names.
Two years ago the Reagan
administration directly entered
the discussions naming the Patent
Act as one of “‘irritants’’ it wanted
resolved before agreeing to a free
trade agreement.

According to a 1985 report by
the federal Commission of In-
quiry on the Pharmaceutical
Industry the changes would in-
crease the cost of prescription
drugs by $250-million annually.
Provincial governments have pro-
tested fearing sharply increased
costs to their health costs.

Action against
wife abuse |
TORONTO — The on
government has allocated $5.
million to crackdown dom .
violence. The money to be Bee
over the next six months will ee :
expand counselling programs 1
men and women, to develop |
grams for children from et
homes and to educate the pu é
and police on detection ané Pre
vention of wife abuse.

The attorney general's office
has said it has directed Crown
attorneys to prosecute ote
charged with assault eve? if t

woman does not want to re

charges.
While the news was well re-

ceived by agencies which provide

shelters for battered women am
their children, there was dis
pointment that the governmen
was not substantially ince
its emergency shelter fun ae
Toronto, shelters are conse ‘
filled and an estimated 30 caller

are turned away every We®™ Pa
Trudy Don, co-ordinator oft
Ontario Association of paint d
and Transition Houses P0™ a
out the need for more lows
housing for women who flee the
homes.
i

A

Cutting numbers aim of farmers ‘retraining’

REGINA — Premier Grant Devine
pretends to be cool towards federal
Agricultural Minister John Wise’s new
retraining program for bankrupt farmers.
But the plan is among the policies the
Tory premier has been recommending
for over a year.

Wise’s plan provides that $46.6-mil-
lion be spent to provide counselling, job
retraining, tuition, travel costs and in-
come support for 4,000-8 ,000 farm fami-
lies forced to leave the industry for
financial reasons. A farmer with one
dependent, for example, would get
$1,600 for living expenses in the first
month, and $168 a week for up to five
months, as well as money for retraining
costs. But the fact that the average total
assistance per family will-amount to less
than $8,000, raises doubts about the
plan’s ability to seriously help farmers.

The first half of 1986 saw 279 farm
bankruptcies across Canada, on course

to pass the 1984 record of 551. Estimates
of the number of farmers in serious

Mee

From Regina

KIMBALL CARIOU

financial difficulty range up to nearly
40,000.

Many in the farm community say the
federal government’s first priority should
be to keep farmers on the land, not to
bribe them to leave: National Farmers
Union president Wayne Easter told the
media that ‘‘this confirms the fact that
the government is more interested in dis-
placing farmers than in dealing with the
basic problem.’’ No federal bureaucrat
has yet explained how thousands of far-
mers will find work in competition with
over one million other jobless Cana-
dians.

Nor did Premier Devine address this
problem when he said the federal prog-
ram ‘‘is there for some who want to go on

and take geology or engineering or be-
come an electrician or whatever, if they
have decided to get out of agriculture.”
The premier, fearing a potential rural
backlash on the issue leading up to a
provincial election, claims that the prog-
ram is a result of ‘Ontario government
lobbying,”’ and further, that ‘“‘my only
fear is that the focus is on moving people
out of agriculture, when the focus should
be on maintaining the farms.”

Yet he and his cabinet have repeatedly
demanded just such a program. For
example, Devine’s ‘‘national agriculture
development strategy’’ put forward at

.the First Ministers’ Conference last year,

included a call for ‘‘financial counselling
and retraining for those farmers who

choose to pursue alternative ocCUP®

tions’. Tory politicians here have Oe
peatedly joined with bankers to yas 4
that farm finance policy should be Sse
“to help those farmers with a reason@ ee
chance of survival and profitability .
defined, of course, by the banks);
quote from the same document. ov

At the time of Wise’s announcems
prairie farmers were still waiting fo"
results of the Sept. 17 First Minis the
Trade meeting in Ottawa. For weeks: al
federal Tories have promised tO Hee
plans for more substantial farm relie :
the meeting, such as a deficiency pay:
ment for grain farmers. a

But the ‘‘retraining’’ prog' ao a
another sign that the long-range igs #
agriculture agenda is based, not 00 ¥© as
ing farmers on the land, but on drasuc y
reducing their numbers. It’s an 48° Pe
that Premier Grant Devine has belpe
write — no matter what he sayS during
election campaign time.

3 wees he Saskatch-
Kimball Cariou is leader of t - Party.

ewan Committee of the Communi

6 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 24, 1986

SES TESKEgZIETE

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