OUGE TH

SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS University students are shown lined up by Montreal police during recent trouble at
the computer training centre. The Quebec Communist Party said in a statement, ‘The actions of a few ill-

_ advised young people, or perhaps of provocateurs, are being used as the excuse to build up a public hysteria
in support of the reactionary policy of cracking down on all movements for democracy in the university.” The

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1969

~ QCP calls on working people and democrats to resist this campaign and come to the defense of students and
teachers who are courageously and honestly fighting for the democratization of society in general and the

Universities in particular.

Pacific Iribune

VOL, 30, NO. 9

FOREST MONOPOLIES
E PUBLIC

10¢

Price-fixing probe
demanded of Ottawa

By MAURICE RUSH

The Federal government should lose no time in
launching an immediate probe into monopoly price-
fixing in B.C.’s billion dollar forest industry. There is
more than adequate evidence to justify such an
investigation under the Combines Investigation Act.
Failure to do so will leave the public at the mercy of
these profit-gouging monopolies and worsen the already
critical housing situation in Canada,

Section 2 of the Act makes it
illegal for a combine to be
formed to ‘‘fix a common price,”
adopt practises which ‘‘enhance
the price’ of an article and to
form a combination which ‘‘is
likely to operate to the detri-
ment or against the interest of
the public, whether consumers
producers or others.’

OVER COMMONWEALTH AFFAIR

ty

The combined Opposi-
‘tion in the B.C. Legis-
lature Monday called for
the resignation of Premier
WAC Bennett from his dual
“post of Finance Minister
for failing to provide
protection to that segment
of the public which had
invested or deposited their
money in Commonwealth
Trust enterprises, and
_ Who are now in a fair way

to losing everything.

The Opposition also demanded
~ that all government communi-
Cations with the Commonwealth
group be tabled so that MLAs and

the public generally could be
‘fully cognizant of the crisis now
apparent in Commonwealth and
its numerous agencies. Bennett
' Stated that he had ‘‘planned”’ to
table some of this corres-
pondence before asking the legis-
lature to approve of his snap
$3-million interest-free loan by
the province to assist Common-
Wealth get ‘‘back on its feet’’.

NDP provincial leader Robert

Strachan charged that the govern-

ment had been highly negligent
in its responsibility for the
financial affairs of Common-
wealth and in failing to provide
adequate safeguards for the
public depositor

The initial proposition for this
loan to ‘“‘keep the Common-
wealth Trust afloat’’ had
apparently come from A.D.
Peter Stanley, Socred-appointed
Commonwealth manager-
receiver, with Bennett's
approval and forwarded on to
Canada Deposit Insurance
Corporation (CDIC), which back
in 1967 had advised that Common-
wealth Trust enterprises ‘‘would
have to tidy up their business
practices”’ before such insurance
would be forthcoming.

In the House debate the govern-
ment’s ‘‘out’’ was to propose a
“Royal Commission’’ which
would make a full investigation
into all aspects of Common-
wealth Trust affairs. NDP leader
Strachan pointed out that such a
commission could sit for years,
by which time the crisis could be

_ Demand Bennett re

forgotten, along with those
unfortunate depositors who had
put their dollars and their trust in
Commonwealth Trust, and
demanded a full-scale investi-

Not his usual ebullient self in the
House this week, Premier Bennett
is under sharp fire for his govern-
ment’s failure to protect the public
in’ the Commonwealth Trust
fiasco.

gation now

The Opposition also drew
attention to the fact that minister
of finance Bennett's ready
acquiesence for a  $3-million
interest-free loan to bail out
Commonwealth Trust, stands in
sharp contrast to his
characteristic reluctance to
meet educational, hospital, or
other social welfare financial
requirements of the people.

This has added to an already
well-founded suspicion that the
Scored big brass has more than a
passing interest in Common-
wealth transactions, especially
since the finance minister's
bosom and un-electable friend
and financial ‘‘wizard’’, Einar
Gunderson of the chartered
accountant firm of Gunderson,
Stokes and Walton, are the
auditors for Commonwealth
Trust

With such a close relationship
between finance minister
Bennett and Commonwealth
Trust auditor Gunderson, only
the most naive would assume
that our finance minister wasn't

See BENNETT, pg. 12

Last week Federal Forestry
Minister Jack Davis admitted
that high lumber prices were ‘a
gouge” of the public, But instead
of acting ‘to protect the public by
enforcing the anti-Combines
legislation, he limited himself to
an appeal to the profit-hungry
forest monopolies to themselves
examine their price structure
That's like begging them not to
try to make too much profit. The
industry has ignored his plea
Meanwhile prices continue to
rise

Lumber prices on the Lower
Mainland and Greater Victoria
have risen about 20 percent in the
first six weeks of this year. Syd
Thompson, president of the
Vancouver Labor Council, said
last week that lumber companies
are ‘‘gouging the public
unmercifully.’’ He charged that
lumber price increases rose by
$10 to $15 thousand each week
recently.

Housing, which is already far
out of reach for most working
people, is being made even more
expensive by rapidly rising
lumber costs. It is estimated by
Eric Helmer, B.C. regional vice-
president of the National House
Builders’ Association, that
prices have risen 30 percent since
January, 1968 adding another
$1,140 to the cost of a home,
excluding the 11 percent tax on
building materials and 5 percent
provincial sales tax.

In recent weeks the big forest
companies have tried to pin the
blame for rising prices on the log
shortage, which they claim was
due to the severe winter.
However, the fact that prices
have been rising sharply all year
shows that the forest monopolies
are out on a big drive for
maximum profits.

See MONOPOLY, pg. 12