Dozens of community
organizations turned out Sunday
to protest government cutbacks
which will slash $1.3 million from
the budget of the Legal Aid Socie-
ty over the next year.

Speakers on stage, and those
who lined up at the microphone
after the speeches at Vancouver’s
Templeton High School
auditorium, pointed out the legal
aid cuts will affect mainly those
on welfare and the working poor.

“The cuts are tantamount to
saying, ‘take last year’s UIC and
welfare budgets, and cut
them.’ We are asked to deliver 33
percent more services this year, so
the cutbacks’ effects are
magnified,”’ said Don Silversides,
vice-president of the society’s
board of directors.

Attorney-General Allan
Williams was booed in absentia
when Silversides noted that
Williams had declined to attend
the meeting.

Astrid Davidson of the B.C.
Federation of Labor said that the
“fundamental right to fair access
to the legal system will be denied,
and that affects my rights, your

TEAM,

While the provincial govern-
ment continues to shovel millions
of dollars in subsidies to big cor-
porations (the export of coal from
Northeast B.C. to Japan, the
stadium on False Creek, B.C.
Place, Expo 86, and an elevated
transit system nobody wants), it
continues to cut services
desperately needed by citizens.
The latest victim is the Legal Ser-
vices Society.

The society provides legal ser-

otherwise afford a lawyer. It is
funded mainly by the provincial
government. This year the grant
from the government will be cut
by $625,000. Next year it will be
cut still further. Total cuts will
amount to $1.3 million. Since the
cost of legal aid, like everything

vices to people who could not-

Groups hit gov't
cuts to legal aid

rights, all rights. Innocent people
will be jailed without proper
representation.”’

The concept of equal justice
has never been a reality — there is
no doubt that the concept of one
law for the rich, one for the poor,
applies in our legal system — but
these cuts will make that situation
worse,”’ said noted lawyer Bryan
Williams, president of the B.C.
branch of the Canadian Bar
Association.

The association, in a resolution
circulated to other groups, has
called on Williams to restore fun-
ding to the Legal Aid Society.

Speakers Debra Lewis of the
Vancouver Status of Women,
and former courtworker Gerry
William noted the effects on poor
women and Natives respectively.
MLA and NDP justice critic Alex
McDonald said the cuts “‘violated
the spirit and letter of the Legal
Services Act.”

Society chairman David Tup-
per said afterwards he plans to
approach Williams in an effort to
restore the society’s original
grant.

else, is going up, the society must
cut its budget both this year and
next. :

For the society it means that 21

Harry

Rankin

people will be laid off immediate-
ly with more to follow next year.
Legal aid programs will be cut
drastically. User fees of $10 and
$30 will be instituted. It has been
estimated that the number of peo-
ple who will now be denied legal
aid will be between 6,600 and
7,600.

This cut in legal aid is one more
example of the policy of this
government of taking from the
poor to giveto therich. It makes a

mockery of the claim that
everyone is equal before the law.
How can there be equality if one
party appearing in court can’t
even afford a lawyer?

These cuts are taking place at a
time when the demand for legal
aid is increasing. It is already up
by at least 20 percent.

Legal Services lawyer Jim Quail heads throng at microphone to
speak out against Socred cuts. .

NPA waffle over legal cuts

The Family Court Committee,
a body appointed by city council,
through its spokesperson,
Carmela Allevato, recommended
to city council that it call on the
provincial government ‘‘to
reinstate the funding for legal ser-
vices in full’’.

City council agreed by majori-
ty vote, but alderman Puil, Divin-
sky and Kennedy, all good Social
Credit supporters, voted not to
protest the cuts. In typical NPA
fashion they support cuts in ser-
vices to people. Alderman May
Brown, in typical TEAM
fashion, (TEAM members
always try to sit on both sides of
the fence) spoke in favor of the
Legal Services Society making
cuts and then voted for the mo-
tion,

‘rect the substantial existing
‘problems.’”’ ‘That prospect

everal months ago, in an account that subsequently appeared in

the Tribune’s May Day issue, former Mine-Mill president Ken
Smith told the story of how the hard rock miners’ union came to
organize the now-famous Peace Arch concerts for Paul Robeson. And
following that interview, we were to sit down with Ken again and tape-
record his recollections of the early years of Mine-Mill organizing in
B.C.

Sadly, it was an interview that was never to take place. Ken Smith
died Oct. 16.

Born in Macleod, Alberta on Sept. 27, 1913, he began his life as a
miner and miners’ leader in Anaconda Copper’s Britannia mine during
the 1930s. During WW II, working together with Harvey Murphy, he
organized the Britannia miners into the International Union of Mine,
Mill and Smelter Workers, establishing the first certification that the
militant union had had in B.C. since before 1915 when it had been the
Western Federation of Miners. -

Smith also led the campaign in 1964 to block Anaconda’s closure of
the Britannia mine, forcing the company to keep the mine operating.
The mine was finally closed, however, in 1974.

In the late 1940’s, he was elected secretary of the western district of
Mine-Mill and, in 1959 went on to become national president of the
30,000-member union. He held that position until 1966 when Mine-
Mill merged with the United Steelworkers.

Assigned to Saskatchewan by the Steelworkers following the
merger, Ken carried on his early role as organizer, bringing the hitherto
unorganized potash miners into the ranks of the Steelworkers. He also
worked with the Saskatchewan NDP government in setting up an oc-
cupational health and safety program, considered to be one of the
foremost in the country. ’

Following his retirement from the union staff, he accepted a position
as associate deputy minister of labor under the NDP government in this

(ce ee a a na eae eC ga eR!
PEOPLE AND ISSUES:
(epeitiinisciseia a ieee ere oom a eae erent

province and continued in that position for a brief period following the
Social Credit election in 1975.

Amemorial service was held in Vancouver Oct. 20 at which Al King,
former regional director for Mine-Mill, and Emil Bjarnason, director
of Trade Union Research Bureau paid tribute.

The Communist Party of Canada’s central executive also paid
tribute in a letter of condolence to Ken’s widow, Kay, noting that
throughout his entire life in the trade union movement, ‘‘Ken Smith
was a staunch internationalist and a champion of unity.”’

* K a

here is only a short time left, but readers with an interest in
art might want to catch the exhibit ‘Contemporary Artists of the
Soviet Union” now on display at Vancouver’s Grosvenor Gallery at
925 West Georgia.
The show officially ends this Saturday, Oct. 30, although some
pieces will still be on view next week. The gallery is open 9:30 to 5:30
week days; 9:30 to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.

* * *

| t is bad enough that South Africa is able to put more of its wines
and spirits on the liquor board shelves — with the tacit support of
the Social Credit government — but now a company from the land of
apartheid is marketing Christmas candy in this province.

Various local offices have had visits from representatives of
Tallulah’s Treats offering samples of the candy and taking orders.
Some representatives have confirmed that the company is indeed
South African.

So if you’re looking for Christmas candy, look elsewhere. Like the
policies of apartheid, you can be sure it will leave a bitter taste.

(LETTERS !

Time for
re-think
on ALRT |

Muriel Martin, secretary,
Save Our Neighborhood
Committee, writes: ALRT is
being imposed on Lower
Mainland citizens against their
wishes and on the Commercial
Drive area despite unanimous
and vigorous opposition at
many public hearings.

Cedar Cottage and other
Kingsway area residents have
been in favor of rapid transit,
the conventional, safe and
proven type. They do not want
an ugly, dark, high structure
some 30 feet in the air, and a
system that is computer con-
trolled.

BART, the computer-
controlled system in the San
Francisco area, on its comple-
tion in 1972 was hailed ‘‘as the
ultimate in urban transit rail.”” |
But on Dec. 14, 1980, the Van-
couver Province wrote: ‘‘At
the moment BART is squat-
ting on the rails like a balky
mule, stranding passengers,
refusing to open its doors, and
in one instance, kidnapping
some of its passengers.”’

At the same time, BART’S
general manager said it would
“require tens of millions of
dollars and many years to cor-

raises the question of whether
instead of commencing such 4
massive effort, it wouldn’t be
more worthwhile to simply
depart from the existing con-
trol system and begin the
development of a fundamen-
tally new control concept, he
said.

Thereis still time to stop any
extension of the expensive and
unproven provincial govern-—
ment’s ‘‘Vander Train’’
ALRT system in Vancouver
and beyond.

Save Our Neighborhood
Committee (SONC) has con-
sistently campaigned against
the elevated alignment for
Commercial. Drive.. Who
could possibly gain from the
imposition of this monstrosi-
ty?

Not the taxpayers who
along with their children will
be saddled with billions re-
quired to amortize the debt
over many years.

It would seem the only ones
to gain would be the friends of
the authorities in a position tO
acquire property adjacent tO
the stations at minimal cost
and resell or develop it for 4 |
profit. ;

The growing support for 4
tunnel indicates it is time to 1
sist the government or its age"
cy, B.C. Transit, considef
seriously that option, which it |
has not done to date.

It is time to get the ‘‘supet
mole”? tunnelling machine of!
the drawing boards and intO
production for use with con-
ventional rapid transit of
Commercial. Drive and any
other place the elevated line 15
not welcome. It will be cheaper
in the long run. 2

““SONC wants it sunk.’’
aa

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— OCTOBER 29, 1982—Page 2