e
Gag-rule casualties
he entire NDP Opposition walked out of the-House in

T disgust. The Liberals remained to record their vote
against a disgraceful act. By a steam-rollered vote of 30 to
five, in the closing hours of the Legislature, the Bennett
government rammed through its shameful bill to dispose of
George Jones, erstwhile chairman of the government pur-
chasing commission.

Sieg Heil! Democracy was duly interred by a Socred-
dominated “Reichstag”. Against the “accused” no charges,
no indictment, no opportunity of defense, no nothing; our
“dynamic” Feuhrer had spoken—Jones must go!

And now from another quarter, more ofthe same; the
mysterious removal, dismissal, firing, or what-have-you of

“Hot Line” radio commentator Pat Burns from a CJOR
program.

In the current behind-the-scenes maneuver on the
Burns issue we note a group of Pentecostal “Holy Willies”,
the same outfit which recently sponsored the notorious
anti-Communist bilge peddler, Dr. Fred Schwartz during
his B.C. safari. This outfit seems hell-bent to get Burns off
the air, alleging that much of his language and political
views are too strong for their “heavenly” nostrils, and
hense should be silenced for good.

@

While we regard much of Pat Burns’ output on “Hot
Line” as being boorish, often in bad taste, and frequently
as phoney as a bent nickel, we insist that his radio audi-
ence have the right to hear their choice of broadcasts, just
as Pat Burns has the right to be heard. In point of fact we
believe that the “Hot Line” idea of radio broadcasting with
its wide exchange on controversial opinion, is a very valu-
able asset in the realm of democratic free speech, and
therefore should be preserved, encouraged and extended,

rather than being gagged by arbitrary censorship or politi-
cal chicanery. ~

There is just much too much of this Socred-Holy Wil-
lie gag-rule beginning to show up in B.C., and the sooner it
is ended by public protest, the longer will the right of free
expression of opinion remain. Political trickery to throttle
a basic freedom—menaces all freedoms.

Tom
_McEWEN

“SAND WE'RE DOING EVERYTHING
THAT WE KNOW 70. TRY 10 BRING
ABOUT FREEDOM FOR SOUTH
VIETNAM AND PEACE 1N\ THAT
© AREA. -—MaRrcH 204

o far the Pearson government has not as yetseen fit-to
protest the U.S. use of poison gas in Vietnam. On the

S

contrary, its “me too” apologies for U.S. aggression in Viet-
nam and other South East Asian countries puts Canada in
accord with U.S. aggression and atrocities in Vietnam.

Now this latest U.S. horror of gas warfare, in violation
of international convention and every norm of civilized be-
haviour. Nor do all the specious “excuses”, “explanations”,
ad naseum from the spokesmen of a war-mad Pentagon,
explain away the horrible reality that chemical warfare
with its related lethal and “non-lethal’’(?) gas, has been,
and is now being used against the Vietnamese people, civil-
ian and military alike.

Just last week the Federation of American Scientists
condemned their government “in the strongest possible
terms” for the use of gas, declaring they “find it morally

repugnant .. .”’

But nary a peep of protest from Ottawa. Perhaps the

poison gas era of graft, scandal and corruption now engulf-
ing the Pearson regime has rendered it insensitive to the
deadly U.S. gas now being rained down upon the neople of
South Vietnam.

If so, the honor, dignity and decency of Canada de-
mands they be resuscitated long enough to express (offici-
ally) the indignation of the Canadian people and to de-
mand not only an end to this new horror of gas warfare —
but an end to all U.S. aggression in Vietnam. Period.

admonished by a specie of “wel-
fare” official to make sure this
vast sum of $16 is “spent wisely”

Not long ago we had a typical
run-of-the-mill Yankee crackpot
campaigning in Canada to have
“Fido” outfitted with trousers,
in order to hide his nakedness
from the more * virtuous” among
us, (This trouser-bound speci-
men from the U,S, “Bible Belt”
forgot to mention that rape statis-
tics in his country not attribut-

It must be truly hell to get old,
~Happily we’re only just past 74
yet, Here we have senior citizens,
Canadian men and women, whose
labor, sweat and toil built this

Worth
Quotin

The AFL-CIO Executive ©
meeting at Miami Beach,
sounded off recently against A
businessmen seeking to develop
world trade — particularly trad
socialist and communist nation
CIO president George Meany
American interests in trade
Soviet Union an ‘‘example of
and profit.”

As they sit around in their m
in Florida, Meany and his e
council don’t seem to have th
realization of what workers hil!
them, or what is happening "7,
labor movement, as they blast &
the very world trade that co Id
jobs for their members.

Perhaps we should consider #t
that Meany obviously only sp
the labor movement of the
States. He sure as hell doesn
for the Canadian labor move!
joying brisk trade with Chin
other Communist nations . . -

—THE DISPATCHER, ILWU
President Harry Brid
March 19, '65.

born and reincarnated in a million
can hearts. His name is whispere 1
some sacred incantation in evel! ™
can home, and his words ring !!
our ears like a multi-million ¢ch®
revolt, roaring from coast fo ©

Africa Lumumba will be reme™ lik
like Garibaldi, like Joan of At | a
Bhagat Singgh, like a whole proc
of other bright and burnished "
in all climes and countries, who” |
given their all to extend the hol”
of human freedom.
ni
—NEW AGE, India, January 714) to
Written at the time of the ™ | b
of the Congolese Premier 9% oe
printed to commemorate the eq
anniversary of his death. Eo mi
* ; ae Ey,
Humility isn’t one of the attrib | Sti
you would attach to Mr. Loffm ch
Socred Minister of Trade, but he tri
have audience appeal because k
“never quite know what he is 9° M
say next and neither doen he. ;
if
—LILLOOET NEWS, Edith Betis)
staff reporter, March 2: %
he
‘Ru
at a spot not always calcul@ C0
to enhance the public deco! a

A recent edition of the a
Free Press dedicates a 16”
poem, heralding the extincti
Fido in that bustling up-!
community, Like the {0
workers of the “Hungry od

here was quite a lot of hur-

rahs in Socred circles when
Premier Bennett, not without a
lot of public pressure, gave our
“means tested” senior citizens
an extra six bucks to balance off
his Hydro transit gouge, As “Ma”
Murray said, this Socred hand-
out to OAP’s was given “with all
the drama of Lincoln freeing the
slaves,”

Now the question is beginning to
be asked, just who got this extra
six bucks, the OAP’s, the Hydro
transit boys, or the landlords?

If all the rumors emanating
from Victoria and around Van-
couver are somewhere near the
truth, a bunch of grasping land-
lords have pocketed a sizeable
chunk of it, by the simple process
of upping their rents by just that
amount, That of course leaves
our senior citizens exactly where
they were before, with nothing to
meet the problem of higher bus
fares—and fewer buses,

For the uninitiated it may be
added that a very high percent-
age of the slum dwellings where
our OAP’s are compelled to live
under exorbitant rentals, would
be considered by the SPCA as
unfit to keep a dog in, let alone
human beings, But, so it would
seem at least, all a part of our
“dynamic” society, Moreover and
just in case anyone should equate
Bennett’s six-buck handout with
the “miracle of the five loaves
and two small fishes” just keep
in mind that there are approxi-
mately 130,000 senior citizens
in B,C, who never got one red
cent of this Socred six-buck
“blessing,”

Still another indignity upon
OAP “welfare” residents came
to our attention last week, It would
seem that such residents are
permitted $10 per month of their
Own money “to spend,” Some OAP
hostel landlords, with the milk
of human kindness in their veins,
have thrown in the extra six,
For such rashness they have been

great and rich country, Yet in
their “evening of life” they are
presumed to be incapable of
spending $16 a month “wisely,”
What an extortionist landlord or
a gouging Hydro transit may
Squeeze out of them is the very
essence of “wisdom”—capitalist
wisdom, that is, but what they
may spend of this vast sum of $16
on or for themselves, is re-
garded by official welfare dictum

as highly suspect,

Perhaps it is time we had a
“Bill of Rights” for Canada’s
senior citizens too, in order to
protect their dignity—and their
few miserable dollars from the
rapacious greed of the “respect-
able” extortionist, :

* ok *

From the amount of space
“Fido” is getting these days in
sections of our “free press” it
would appear that things generally
for “man’s best friend” is going
to the dogs,

ties” Fido is now duly warm
*stay away from Courten 4 My
bear the full penalty of “24
life” as decreed by his alle
“best friends” in a new
ordnance,

able to Fido, topped all world
records),

Then we note an increasing
number of letters-to-the-editor
boys who want something done
about it every time Fido pauses
at his favorite hydrant, or obeys
the more urgent call of Nature

With our old folks and 4
pooches now duly on-the-le?
which segment of our “dy?”
society” comes next?

ery TT
SES CO ll a Sr aT, Ml h
LOTESCUN:
Pu Cel!
Editor — TOM McEWEN -
Associate Editor — MAURICE RUSH
Circulation Manager — JERRY SHACK
Published weekly at
Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings St.
Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone MUtual 5-528
Subscription Rates: ee)
Canada, $4.00 one year. North and South America ye
Commonwealth countries, $5.00 one year. All of! hi ls
countries, $6.00 one year. Authorized as second class ™ |

by the Post Office Department, Ottawa and for payM®
of postage in cash.

TWH 7
cae

ovo vs ars beh noeet

April 2, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—P99