a Sk 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 Kez s ReteKe aC