\ in the September military coup.

TRIBUNE extends its warmest welcome and solidarity with
The gaa Allende, here in Vancouver to speak for Chilean
Pe erccy which, with her husband, Salvador Allende, was murdered

*-You have to stop a
| ember again what these people
ae gone through to be able to fly
those flags.”
Dr. Bert Pfeiffer wanted his
dience to remember, too, as he
commented on a slide, taken a few
months before. showing a youth
brigade working beside the
highway near the border of the
Democratic Republic of Vietnam
and the areas liberated by the
Provisional Revolutionary Govern-
ment. Above the brigade the flags
of the two governments rippled in
( the wind. :
{ Pfeiffer spoke Tuesday night on
reconstruction in Vietnam and his
; address was at once a vision of the
: enormity of war crimes committed
} against the people of Vietnam by
the American military and a vision

-of hope embodied in the

reconstruction being carried out in.

the Democratic Republic and in

» the areas controlled by the PRG.
It was Pfeiffer’s fifth visit to In-
dochina over a period of several
years, the latest visit at the invita-

at

| Dr. Pfeiffer portrays
Vietnam rebuilding

tion of the Committee for Solidari-

ty with the American People in

Hanoi.

. His three-week tour was con-
See PFEIFFER pg. 12

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1973

Vol. 34, No. 48

EAST INDIANS APPEAL:

‘Defend our rights
end racist attacks’

By FRED WILSON

Racism is a fact of life difficult to
comprehend for most Canadians,
but for members of Vancouver's
East Indian Community, victims of
an increasing wave of racist
assaults, it is a fact which threatens
their security as citizens.

Over 500 Canadian East Indians,
assembled in a noisy meeting at
David Thompson Secondary School
last Sunday placed their demands
for government and police action
in defense of their rights.

Together with Attorney General
Alex Macdonald. NDP MLA Jack
Radford. and Vancouver alderman
Setty Pendakur, the meeting; call-
ed by the Canadian East Indian
Welfare Society, met to discuss the
harassment of East Indians in
South Vancouver's Killarney dis-
trict.

Aside from verbal abuse and in-

‘cidents of purse snatching directed

at East Indians, a series of more
serious crimes have aroused fear
and anger throughout the com-
munity. On man, Bikar Singh, was
beaten and knifed following a
break and entry into his home.
Four other men were beaten retur-
ning home from a grocery store in
the Killarney area, one of them
struck several times with a
hammer. Egg throwing at East In-
dian's homes and cars, window
smashing and the vandalizing of
three Sikh Temples, with $800
looted from the safe of the Marine

Drive Temple, has formed a
pattern of criminal activity and
abuse towards the East Indian
community which has intensified
in recent months.

Without exception, incidents
have been reported to the police,
but so far, no charges have been
laid. In one instance the president
of the East Indian Welfare Associa-
tion, Mr. Parlat Gil, was assaulted
in a filling station. Police arrived
on the scene and took the name of
the white assailant, but still no ac-
tion was taken. Even after appeals
to the provincial government had
resulted in Kathleen Ruff, B.C.
Human Rights Commissioner, ap-
pointing a committee of herself,
four East Indians, and Sergeant
Beatty of the Vancouver Police to
investigate, and after added police
were assigned to the area, the in-
cidents continued to occur.

It made for an angry setting at
Sunday's meeting, disturbed by
police inaction and press reports in
the Vancouver Sun describing
them as “East Indians” implying
foreigners, with no mention of the
fact they are Canadians. Contrary
to Sun reports, none of the leaders
made any mention of acquiring
guns for self defense. The meeting
demanded police protection, and in
an expression of solidarity within
the community made plans for a
collective fund to be raised for the
victims of attacks, and for court ac-
tion.

The only exception to the serious
mood of the meeting was an
attempted disruption by some 20 to
30 Maoists, members of the CPC
(ML), who carried signs reading
“Down with the NDP” and ac-

See RACIST pg. 11

UIC frauds
unemployed

The Unemployment~ Insurance
Commission's ‘‘Benefit Control
Plan,” better known to most
workers as the ‘‘UIC crackdown”
has resulted in the disentitlement
of more than 120,000 unemployed

_in the first half of this year. In the

first nine weeks alone, of the some
65,000 claimants interviewed 40,000
were cut off benefits.

These startling figures were
released in a Federal government
report on UIC tabled in the Com-

mons by minister Robert Andras
last Tuesday.

While Liberal and Tory house
members were pleased with the
results of real intent of the benefit
control plan — to reduce the
number of beneficiaries, whether
entitled or not, NDP MP John
Rodgriguez termed the report a
“bloody indictment.”’ He called for
the complete overhaul of the
benefit controls and the firing of
control officers ‘“‘who went out
seeking evidence for a conviction.”

Teachers seek more gov't financing |

In an attempt to relieve the
financial burden carried by local
school boards inherited from twen-
ty years of Social Credit. govern-
ment, the B.C. Teachers Federa-
tion last week outlined several
recommendations to the provincial
government aimed at increasing
operating grants to school districts.

The federation’s proposals will,
if implemented, necessitate further
provincial grants totalling some $48
million, but the executive presen-
ting the brief pointed out that the
program is an interim one which
falls short of recorded BCTF policy
that all funds for school operation
should ultimately come from the
general revenue of the province

rather than from local property
tax.

‘The NDP itself is pledged to a
program of phasing out school tax-
es from the homeowner and family
farm over a five year period.

Essentially, the federation’s
program calls for a reduction in the
instructional unit from 20 and 25
pupils to 15, up to a maximum of
six units. Beyond six units, the in-
structional unit would be 20 in
secondary schools and 25 elemen-
tary. : ae
Because the instructional unit is
the basis on which money is
granted by the province, increases

_ in the number of instructional un-

its per school would result in a cor-

responding increase in government
grants. And while more money
would be given to virtually every
school in the province, the
program particularly favors small
schools — whose facilities have
only met bare minimum re-
quirements in the past.

If adopted by the Barrett govern-
ment, the program will enable up-
grading of educational facilities
throughout the province and
facilitate a reduction in the pupil-
teacher ratio — at present one of
the highest in the country, second
only to Newfoundland.

In addition, the federation’s
program would offset the process
initiated by the previous Social

Credit government, of liquidating
small schools, because they were
considered uneconomic, by con-
solidating school districts and
schools within districts. For ob-
vious geographic reasons, the
federation noted, small schools are
a necessity in the outlying areas of
the province.

The federation’s brief also cited
other areas of inadequate financing
in the provincial education for-
mula. Since, at present, the provin-
cial goernment grant for each in-
Structional unit — the “‘instruc-
tional unit value’ — is computed
by dividing the number of instruc-
tional units into the total expen-

See TEACHERS pg. 12

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